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Rep. Finke Was Right: Age-Gating Isn’t About Kids, It’s About Control

4 months 2 weeks ago
When Rep. Leigh Finke spoke last month before the Minnesota House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee to testify against HF1434, a broad-sweeping proposal to age-gate the internet, she began with something disarming: agreement. “I want to support the basic part of this,” she said, the shared goal of protecting young people online. Because that is not controversial: everyone […]
Rindala Alajaji and Molly Buckley

Amid war, Pentagon quashing of reporter access is blatant censorship

4 months 2 weeks ago

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

A judge today ruled in favor of The New York Times in its challenge to the Trump administration’s unconstitutional policy restricting journalists’ access to the Pentagon unless they agree not to publish information that officials don’t authorize for release.

The following can be attributed to Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF):

“The judge was right to see the Pentagon’s outrageous censorship for what it is, but this wasn’t exactly a close call. If the same issue was presented as a hypothetical question on a first-year law school exam, the professor would be criticized for making the test too easy. It’s shocking that this sweeping prior restraint was the official policy of our federal government and that Department of Justice lawyers had the nerve to argue that journalists asking questions of the government is criminal.

“Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court called prior restraints on the press ‘the most serious and the least tolerable’ of First Amendment violations. At the time, the court was talking about relatively targeted orders restraining specific reporting because of a specific alleged threat — like in the Pentagon Papers case, where the government falsely claimed that the documents about the Vietnam War leaked by Daniel Ellsberg threatened national security. Courts back then could never have anticipated the government broadly restraining all reporting that it doesn’t authorize without any justification beyond hypothetical speculation.

“It’s unfortunate that it took this long for the Pentagon’s ridiculous policy to be thrown in the trash. Especially now that we are spending money and blood on yet another war based on constantly shifting pretexts, journalists should double down on their commitment to finding out what the Pentagon does not want the public to know rather than parroting ‘authorized’ narratives.”

Please contact us if you would like further comment.

Freedom of the Press Foundation

Judge Grants Clerk Andreas' Request For Recount Of Votes For Two Referenda  

4 months 2 weeks ago
EDWARDSVILLE – A judge on Friday granted Madison County Clerk Linda Andreas’ request for a recount of votes cast in two referenda that were on the ballot for the Primary Election. Andreas made the request for the recount after voters alerted her to apparent inaccuracies for the vote totals for two referenda questions involving Long Lake Fire Protection District. In the Unofficial Results on election night, one of the ballot questions received 383 “yes” votes and

'Mass on ice' draws nearly 2,000 as thousands join Illinois Pro-Life March in Springfield

4 months 2 weeks ago
SPRINGFIELD - On Thursday, March 19, 2025, the Illinois Mass for Life in Springfield, Ill., unfolded in a way no one expected — not in a cathedral, church, or event center, but on ice at the Nelson Center Ice Hockey Rink. In a space usually filled with the crack of sticks and the roar of competition, nearly 2,000 people packed the arena to capacity — transforming it into a place of reverence, prayer, and witness for life. The visual contrast was striking. Where hockey players usuall

Missouri legislators brace for busy second half of the 2026 legislative session

4 months 2 weeks ago
On the latest episode of the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, STLPR's Jason Rosenbaum talks with Sen. Tracy McCreery and Rep. George Hruza about what to expect in the second half of the 2026 Missouri General Assembly session. Rosenbaum also discussed the results of the Illinois primary for STLPR's Will Bauer. And he also welcomed back Congressman Eric Burlison to the program to talk about why he supports bringing the talking filibuster to the U.S. Senate.

Fifth Circuit: Actually, Putting The Ten Commandments In Schools Is Probably Fine

4 months 2 weeks ago
Last June, the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court upheld a lower court’s ruling declaring a Louisiana law mandating the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools to be a violation of the Constitution. This decision made immediate sense, given that courts elsewhere in the nation (including the US Supreme Court) had repeatedly ruled that laws […]
Tim Cushing

Update: Suspect Is Now In Custody: O'Fallon Police Seek Public Help Identifying Bank Robbery Suspect

4 months 2 weeks ago
O'FALON - The O’Fallon Police Department is seeking the public’s help to identify a person after officers responded to a robbery reported on Friday, March 20, 2026, at an FCB Bank in O’Fallon, Illinois. The bank robbery suspect is a man shown in the two photos, one above and below. O'Fallon Police provided an update late Friday: "As of 5:15 p.m. Friday, a suspect in the bank robbery is in custody. "Thank you for the numerous calls and tips," the O'Fallon Police