Free Republic

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens has assured black faith leaders in St. Louis that the rights of peaceful protesters will be protected if unrest occurs after a judge rules in a former police officer's murder trial. But after the meeting Monday at an AME church in St. Louis, the Republican governor stressed that any protest veering into violence will not be tolerated.

ST. LOUIS-Video from a police SUV and a business, obtained by the Post-Dispatch, provide the most complete picture yet of a shooting in which a former St. Louis police officer is charged with murder. Included are store surveillance video of the attempt by Officers Jason Stockley and Brian Bianchi to arrest drug suspect Anthony Lamar Smith on Dec. 20, 2011, and a police recording of a pursuit that ends with a crash and Stockley shooting Smith.

ST. LOUIS – The mayor of St. Louis says the city is “on edge” as it awaits a ruling in the first-degree murder trial of former police officer Jason Stockley, in part because of a troubled history of justice in St. Louis and nationwide. Stockley is accused of fatally shooting Anthony Lamar Smith in 2011. The case was heard last month but it’s unclear when Judge Timothy Wilson will rule. Activists have threatened civil disobedience if Stockley, who is white, is acquitted in the death of the black suspect.

On Tuesday night, more than two dozen people gathered near the spot where Michael Brown Jr. was gunned down three years ago on Aug. 9, 2014, to mourn and remember the 18-year-old whose life was taken from him and to reconstruct a makeshift memorial in the spot where he died. “We can never forget this,” activist Meldon Moffitt told a group residents and other community activists as they stood on the site. “This is ground zero.” Mike’s death sparked months of protests and served as the catalyst to the Black Lives Matter movement. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that those...

At the first official "Pride Night" for the St. Louis Cardinals, the ceremonial first pitch will be thrown by transgender entertainer Tassandra Crush, reports multiple LBGTQ media outlets. It is believed to be the first time a transgender individual will throw a first pitch at a Major League Baseball game. The game is on Friday, August 25 at Busch Stadium, and special Pride Night themed Cardinals hats will be the team's promotional giveaway. Crush is Pride St. Louis' reigning Queen of Pride.

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) updated at 1:15 p.m. – A Missouri state senator wrote on social media Thursday morning that she hopes the president is assassinated. Responding to someone’s post on Facebook who said they’d probably get a visit from the secret service, Maria Chappelle-Nadal wrote, “No I will. I hope Trump is assassinated.” The U.S Secret Service in St. Louis told KMOX News it is taking the comment very seriously. Special agent in charge of the Secret Service in St. Louis, Kristina Schmidt, says there is no forum on social media, in letters or in person, that make it O.K....

Fire crews were called to a bizarre scene in St. Louis' Walnut Park West neighborhood on Sunday, where a car became trapped in the roof of a house. The incident happened around 1 p.m. in the 5900 block of Lillian. According to the St. Louis Fire Department, no one was in the house at the time of the accident, but one person was trapped inside of the car. The St. Louis Fire Department said in a Facebook post that one person was rescued from the vehicle and taken to an area hospital in critical condition. Larry Davis witnessed exactly how...

Why down? Although Missouri’s minimum wage is $7.70 per hour statewide, St. Louis already raised its minimum wage in 2015, with another increase to $11 per hour planned for January. After a two-year legal fight with local business groups, a bill was ultimately passed by the state legislature this spring that bars cities and counties from setting their own minimum wages above the state’s minimum. The bill takes effect on Aug. 28.

Street workers were gathered at the parking space, a tipoff that something was amiss. That's when Westerberg, 25, found the vehicle in the gaping hole — about 20 feet (6 meters) deep and 8 to 10 feet (2.5 to 3 meters) across — that took up the entire southbound lane of the street, next to a vacant building expected to feature apartments, office space and retail. No injuries were reported.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is concerned that an ordinance is going to turn St. Louis into an “abortion sanctuary city.” The law, proposed by the city, states that “an employer, labor union, or employment agency may NOT discriminate on the basis of reproductive health decisions or pregnancy status, nor may it advertise a preference.” In other words, in order to protect “reproductive rights,” institutions may be forced to hire abortion activists and rent to pro-abortion groups. Our Lady’s Inn, a Catholic non-profit maternity home, filed a lawsuit against the ordinance, along with the Elementary Schools of the Archdiocese of St....

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A judge has issued an injunction that will temporarily prevent the city of St. Louis from removing a Confederate monument from Forest Park. St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Robert Dierker on Monday issued the injunction and set a July 6 hearing for arguments over whether the city or the Missouri Civil War Museum owns the monument. The museum filed a lawsuit Friday against the city, contending the United Daughters of the Confederacy signed over the ownership rights to the monument last week. The city contends it controls the monument and wants to remove it soon. Dierker's...

Koran Addo, chief of staff for St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, says they will not allow anyone to take total ownership of the monument without allowing the city a say in how it's displayed in future. "We need to make sure that the monument will never be displayed in a way that celebrates the Confederacy." Addo said.

The archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in Missouri is putting his foot down in defiance of a city ordinance that criminalizes “discrimination” against advocates of abortion. Archbishop Carlson said the Archdiocese of St. Louis and its affiliated agencies will not comply with Ordinance 70459. Facebook/Archdiocese of St. Louis The archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in Missouri is putting his foot down in defiance of a city ordinance that criminalizes "discrimination" against advocates of abortion. The Most Reverend Robert J. Carlson stated the church and other entities affiliated with it will not abide by the ordinance. "Let...

In the news last week, if we took a break from the daily Trump melodrama now playing in Washington, we noticed the reignition of an older, but still potent cultural firestorm, namely the push to remove Confederate-themed monuments from public properties. In New Orleans, last Wednesday, workers dismantled a monument to General P.G.T. Beauregard under cover of darkness, although supporters and opponents of the action came out to watch the spectacle anyway. The fault lines separating the opposing sides in these matters have been thoroughly explored and require no further explanation here. Suffice to say that this issue is heating...

A conservative columnist who was suspended by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after she defended the National Rifle Association from comparisons to ISIS fired back with her resignation and a series of targeted tweets. The newspaper on Friday suspended Stacy Washington after a column entitled “Guns and the Media” disputed an anti-NRA article that argued since more Americans die from guns than from ISIS, the Second Amendment advocacy group is the greater danger. “[W]hen has a member of the NRA ever decapitated, set on fire, tossed from a rooftop or otherwise terrorized another American? The linkage is not only rife with...

A conservative columnist who was suspended by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after she defended the National Rifle Association from comparisons to ISIS fired back with her resignation and a series of targeted tweets. The newspaper on Friday suspended Stacy Washington after a column entitled "Guns and the Media" disputed an anti-NRA article that argued since more Americans die from guns than from ISIS, the Second Amendment advocacy group is the greater danger. “[W]hen has a member of the NRA ever decapitated, set on fire, tossed from a rooftop or otherwise terrorized another American? The linkage is not only rife with...

On Tuesday night against the Cubs, Piscotty endured the worst trip around the base paths probably ever. It started with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, when Piscotty was hit on the right elbow by a Jake Arrieta pitch.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A generation after St. Louis elected its first African-American mayor, many in the black community are convinced that unchecked egos cost them the chance to regain leadership of the racially divided city. Lyda Krewson, 64, a white alderwoman, defeated black city Treasurer Tishaura Jones by fewer than 900 votes in Tuesday's all-important Democratic primary. St. Louis is heavily Democratic, and Krewson will be the overwhelming favorite in the April 4 general election.

A disgraced former reporter was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Friday for several bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers, Jewish schools and Jewish museums around the country. Juan Thompson, 31, was arrested in St. Louis by the FBI for making at least eight bomb threats and the cyberstalking of an ex-girlfriend. Thompson was a former reporter for The Intercept, and was fired after it was discovered that he made up sources and stories, including one about Charleston shooter Dylann Roof. The criminal complaint states that threats made to the Jewish establishments across the country by Thompson were under...

Vice President Pence on Wednesday made a surprise visit to a historic Jewish cemetery near St. Louis to condemn the recent vandalism that took place there. “From the heart, there is no place in America for hatred or acts of prejudice or violence or anti-Semitism,” he said. Pence called Missouri’s response to the incident “inspiring" while standing next to Eric Greitens (R), the state’s first Jewish governor.