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Homeland Security and the Clay County Sheriff's office arrested five Missouri men and one from Kansas, after an undercover child sex sting.

The St. Louis Department of Health is looking for people with accounting, nursing, customer service, and animal control experience.

Former President Donald Trump planted the seeds for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by continually promoting theories that he lost the 2020 election through fraud, even though top advisers and officials told him there was no evidence to support the claim, according to testimony a U.S. House committee presented Monday. In its […]

The post Trump spread claims of election fraud debunked by his own legal team, Jan. 6 panel says appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Letter To The Editor: I want to add my name to the ever-growing lists of endorsements for Mike Walters for County Clerk. I served with Mike on the Godfrey Village Board of Trustees and found him to be a conscientious, hardworking public servant. He was fair in his decisions and was vigilant about saving taxpayers’ money. Mike did a great job of being a trustee by being responsive to the needs and viewpoints of all of the residents of Godfrey. Since then he has been on the Madison County Board and continues to serve with distinction. His years of experience make him a highly qualified candidate for the Clerk’s office. I unequivocally recommend Mike Walters for County Clerk. Gary Ayres

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Gov. Mike Parson has signed legislation requiring electrical transmission line developers to pay farmers more for easements on their land. Parson, a Republican, was in Sedalia Saturday for a Missouri Cattlemen’s Association steak fry …

Like other runners living in St. Louis, Tina Muir has some opinions about the city. “Forest Park speaks for itself; that’s definitely my favorite place to go,” she says. “But I do love to get out on the trails.

EDWARDSVILLE - Many people, especially those 65 and older, postponed routine doctor appointments during the pandemic. As older adults are reconnecting with their communities, including addressing those overdue medical check-ups, aging experts are encouraging they add another “probing” exam to their to-do list: the Elderoscopy. Rather than a physical examination, this is a discussion. An Elderoscopy is a critical conversation between older adults and their loved ones, examining wants and needs, and setting intentions for topics such as end-of-life plans, finances, relationships and more. Unfortunately, for some, making these tough decisions and documenting wishes can be just as uncomfortable as a medical procedure. Research from Home Instead, Inc. and The Marist College Poll shows that 1 in 6 Americans would rather have a colonoscopy than simply talk to their loved ones about end-of-life plans. When factoring in age, nearly one-third of Americans over the age of 70 (29%)

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EAST ALTON – The National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRRECsm) staff and land management partners visited the Palisades Nature Preserve near Grafton recently to gain a better understanding of how the Nov. 19, 2021, wildfire affected the preserves’ rare hill prairies. “Fire is a natural and necessary step in restoring and keeping a prairie healthy,” said Habitat Senior Project Assistant Phil Rathz. “Fire, when utilized by professionals, has many benefits including killing off invasive plant species, recycling nutrients faster, removing excess thatch that suppresses plant growth, and stopping trees from growing and taking over the prairie area.” Hill prairies develop on south-facing steep slopes where summer sun, dry winds and periodic fires keep forest species from growing. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) states there are approximately 90 sites with good-quality hill prairies statewide. The Palisade Preserve

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SPRINGFIELD – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today released the following statement after a bipartisan group of Senators announced a common sense new proposal to help keep America’s children and communities safe from the gun violence epidemic: “We have been elected to the United States Senate to respond to American crises. Each of the elements in this bipartisan gun safety package has the potential to save lives. I continue to believe military-style assault weapons that can shred the bodies of their victims have no place in civilian use—but we cannot let the perfect Congressional response be the enemy of the good. Though this agreement falls short in this and other respects, it can and will make our nation safer.” In addition to making improvements to the background check system, supporting red flag laws, enhancing school safety, and closing domestic violence loopholes, the bipartisan framework

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St. Louis Central Library was recently named one of the nation's most beautiful libraries by Fodor's Travel.

EAST ST. LOUIS - SIHF Healthcare is hosting a stay healthy Juneteenth celebration event on Friday, June 17, 2022, from 12 pm – 4:30 pm at SIHF Healthcare, 100 North 8th Street, East St. Louis, Illinois. Available services provided at the event will include school physicals, blood pressure checks, COVID testing, COVID vaccines/boosters, HBA1c testing, free insurance enrollment, and assistance scheduling healthy women appointments. “We want to help our community celebrate Juneteenth with a healthy twist,” said Hyacinth Burrage, health center manager. “We will also have some giveaways for the children, including Gateway Grizzlies tickets and a boy's and a girl's bicycle with helmets. “Come out and celebrate with us! Appointments are not required for services at this event,” she added. Free hot dogs, water, juice, and chips will be provided to attendees. In addition, there will be fun activities for the kids.

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WASHINGTON — The White House and Democratic leaders expressed support Monday for a framework on gun control legislation that 10 Senate Democrats and 10 Senate Republicans, including U.S. Roy Blunt of Missouri, agreed to over the weekend.  The second-deadliest school shooting in a decade in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were murdered […]

The post Bipartisan U.S. Senate deal on gun control met with praise from Biden, Democrats appeared first on Missouri Independent.

A father and son from Florida and their labor contracting company pleaded guilty in federal court last week to bringing more than 100 unauthorized migrant workers to Missouri in 2018.

Today on TAP: In the Trump White House, truth-tellers were shown the door—through which Rudy and his ilk gained entry.

by Vianna Davila and Ren Larson

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This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues.

Police in a Texas border town used stay-at-home orders in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to unlawfully stop and arrest a high school senior driving to his mother’s house, according to a civil rights lawsuit that has its first hearing this week.

Socrates Shawn, then 18, was commuting between his divorced parents’ homes when he was pulled over in April 2020 by a police officer in Progreso, a town of about 4,800 residents in the Rio Grande Valley.

Attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights Project, who are representing Shawn, allege that the police officer had no reasonable suspicion to stop him and lacked probable cause to arrest him under the Fourth and 14th amendments.

Shawn was featured in a December 2020 investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune that found Progreso and other cities and counties in the Rio Grande Valley were among the most aggressive in the state for ticketing and arresting residents who violated orders that required them to stay home during the pandemic. Officials adopted curfews and banned nonessential travel.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court this April, cites the news organizations’ investigation, which included a finding that San Antonio and Austin issued only a combined 10 citations in April 2020. Progreso filed more than 60 citations during the same period, according to the news organizations’ findings. As a result, the border town doled out penalties 2,000 times more frequently, on a per-capita basis, than two of Texas’ largest cities, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, Shawn had a lawful reason to be driving because he had a court order that gave his parents joint custody of him. The custody order was in effect until he graduated from high school. His attorneys argue that the legal document fell within the numerous exceptions the city allowed under its stay-at-home rules, such as buying groceries, driving to and from work, and travel required by a court order.

They also contend that the county’s curfew was not set to start until two hours after Shawn was stopped. While the officer who arrested him said he violated the city’s curfew, they have found no evidence that a city curfew existed.

Attorneys representing Progreso did not respond to requests for comment. The lawyers have argued in court documents that the complaint does not establish a violation of the 14th Amendment. They also dispute the Fourth Amendment claim, arguing that officers can temporarily detain people for investigative purposes and for concerns about their own safety.

The first hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in McAllen.

Ricky Garza, an attorney with TCRP, said that while the lawsuit is focused on Progreso, aggressive law enforcement is a problem across the Rio Grande Valley. The region is a four-county area where law enforcement is omnipresent, the result of a patchwork of local police and sheriff’s departments and a large number of state and federal agencies that enforce immigration and border security laws.

One of the lawsuit’s goals is to ensure that law enforcement agencies in the region don’t continue to use emergencies, such as COVID-19, as a pretext to overpolice residents, Garza said.

“This was not something that began with the pandemic,” Garza said. “It predated it, and it is going to continue if we don’t do anything to hold cities like Progreso accountable.”

Aside from the city, the lawsuit names as defendants Officer Ernesto Lozano, who stopped Shawn, and Progreso police Chief Cesar Solis, who TCRP argues is the city’s law enforcement policymaker.

Solis did not respond to a request for comment.

Lozano now works for the Police Department in Edcouch, a city less than 15 miles north of Progreso. Reached by phone last week, he declined to speak and referred questions to the city of Progreso, which also did not respond.

After arresting Shawn, Lozano took him to the city’s jail, where TCRP said he was exposed to officers and city employees for hours, before COVID-19 vaccines were available and in violation of the public health order police purported to enforce. The lawsuit contends these actions put Shawn’s health and safety at risk.

Shawn said an officer told him he would have to pay $1,000, the maximum fine allowed for violating the order. He told the news organizations in 2020 that officers allowed him to leave without paying the fine immediately.

Eventually, he got his citation dismissed — but only after spending months trying to fight off a private collection agency working with the city. He is now seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages in the lawsuit.

Shawn’s lawyers said he was not immediately available for an interview but instead provided a statement from him in which he said his experience continues to weigh on him.

“It was jarring to be pulled over and arrested for simply driving through Progreso,” he said in the statement. “I’m more worried about my safety when I drive now and I had to spend two years of my life waiting for Progreso to drop the illegal charges against me. I hope that through this lawsuit, we’re able to keep this from happening to others in the future.”

Missouri’s largest and most influential anti-abortion organization is backing primary challengers to several incumbent GOP state senators, citing votes against stripping funding from Planned Parenthood through state law. In letters sent last week to candidates, the Missouri Right to Life Political Action Committee informed some they were selected “as the only candidate in your race […]

The post Missouri Right to Life backs primary challengers to some incumbent GOP state senators appeared first on Missouri Independent.

Charles Daniels gets his due in a new book, "The Watermen," by Michael Loynd, a sports attorney and chairman of the St. Louis Olympic Legacy Committee.