social issues

Hey guess what 2010, you’re not really all that advanced and progressive as Twitter would have you believe. Black guys are still getting pulled over at an alarmingly higher rate. The first report, issued in 2001, said black motorists in Missouri were 30 percent more likely than whites to be pulled over, when considering total populations of driving-age residents by race. For 2009, the year that Koster reported upon today, blacks were 62 percent more likely than whites to be stopped. [Read More]

We all know East St. Louis sucks. Really sucks. Like, “Why can’t you just call yourself ‘West Chicago’?” sucks. But do you know why? Not just the shootings and the hookers, but why there are shootings and hooker? …and why most eastern parts of other towns suck the same way, albeit, much less? Take it away science! The reason for this is that in much of the northern hemisphere, the prevailing winds are westerlies – blowing from west to east. [Read More]

May 16th marked the beginning of “Milk Week” and in St. Louis, it began with a “Kiss-In” at the downtown City Garden. How did this event slip by us? You would have thought with all the media coverage it got there’s no way we could have possibly…oh that’s right the media didn’t cover this at all. The other day we swear one of the new stations thought they were covering a protest on the steps of City Hall, but it turns out to be 3 homeless guys sleeping and one taking a crap in the corner. [Read More]

According to KMOX State Representative Jamillah Nasheed and Alderman Antonio French talked to gang members and got them to help in an O’Fallon Park cleanup project. French met with some gang members recently and helped them come up with “Operation Unity” — a weekly community clean-up effort, “They care about our community, too. They live here and grew up here. Many have kids of their own living here. They want to bring up the quality of life in their neighborhood. [Read More]

So Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is whining about Craiglist again. Koster met with representatives from craigslist exactly a year ago, demanding the company take action to eliminate advertisements for prostitution and other illegal activities on its site. Nine days after the meeting, craigslist announced major changes to its site, including eliminating the “erotic services” section and manually screening for nude photos and illegal activities such as prostitution. Despite all this, Koster and other state attorneys general have found that prostitutions [sic] ads are still found on craigslist. [Read More]

The free ride might be over for St. Louis city residents who have been living the good life with “free” trash pick up. On Wednesday, city leaders released a proposed budget that includes a provision for homeowners to pay $8 a month for trash services. The city said the move would raise $10 million in the next budget. City leaders claim that many county residents currently pay for trash service. In some communities, trash collection costs homeowners up to $20 a month. [Read More]

City officials met with Larry Rice and his army of homeless guys Tuesday about the downtown Hopeville Tunnel. The tunnel is an old railroad tunnel under Tucker Boulevard that has become a makeshift homeless shelter for those both downtown and downtrodden for some time now, and Reverend Larry Rice is even known to direct people it’s direction. However, the city says the conditions are “inhumane” and the tunnel needs to be destroyed. [Read More]

We won! The Federal government took one look at our schools and kids and said, “Holy crap. Give them some money. Its like those Sally Struthers commercials but the kids have less flies on their faces.” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Monday that Missouri will receive $54 million in federal funding to turn around its lowest-achieving schools, particularly 50 struggling schools in St. Louis and Kansas City. These funds are part of the $3. [Read More]

This according to a survey done by some fancy something or other. Missouri ranked 37th among the 50 states for the perceived fairness of its litigation environment. This is down from its 2008 ranking of 31 as well as from its rank of 34 in 2007. Illinois came in at No. 45 for the perceived fairness of its litigation environment. It ranked 46th in both 2007 and 2008. So according to this survey of lawyers Missouri and Illinois judges rank low in “perceived fairness” which is baffling to us as we were pretty sure the way to always be fair was just to cut everything in half. [Read More]

Hey kids of Timberland High School, you remember this: You mess with the bull, you get the horns. The staff of the school newspaper and free speech honks that live for things like this filed in to a Wentzville School Board meeting Thursday night to hear a discussion of whether the level of censorship being displayed by the Timberland High School principal was within “acceptable” levels. Apparently the kids have been feeling a bit censored for some time now. [Read More]