Roland Klose

Some campaign signs displayed at BJ’s Bar and Restaurant in Florissant.

More campaign signs displayed on the ceiling at BJ’s Bar and Restaurant in Florissant.

BJ’s Bar and Restaurant in Florissant features a vintage neon Stag sign out front.

The ceiling at BJ’s Bar and Restaurant in Florissant, the one with the magnificent Stag sign out front, tilts old school Democrat. (BTW, the Busch on the school board wasn’t Gussie.) #stlouis #politics

From Industry to E.P.A.: Lobbyist Now Oversees Pesticide Rules

Until recently, Kyle Kunkler was the top lobbyist for America’s soybean industry. In that job he once boasted of helping to keep a controversial weedkiller called dicamba in use. Now he is the top official in charge of pesticide policy at the EPA. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/c...

10 effective things citizens can do to make change in addition to attending a protest Once a democracy starts to erode, it can be difficult to reverse the trend. What does it take for democracies to bounce back from periods of autocratic rule?

“The end of American democracy is not a foregone conclusion, despite the unprecedented rate of its decline. It will depend, in part, on the choices made by every American.” theconversation.com/10-effective... by Shelley Inglis via @us.theconversation.com

The old Four Courts building in St. Louis with inset portraits of John Fahey and John C. Klein, reporters for two now-defunct morning newspapers.

Police had trouble separating the two men, because Fay was “deeply engaged in masticating Klein’s finger and holding onto it like a vise.” rwklose.com/2025/10/20/b... #stlouis #journalism

Kehoe casts doubt on Missouri bailout of food assistance program The state does not have a backup plan to help hundreds of thousands of low-income Missourians if a federal food program runs out of money in 10 days.

This guy is fine with cutting Missouri’s corporate income tax rate and offering incentives to billionaire-owned sports teams, but says, “We as a state don’t have extra money laying around anywhere.” www.stltoday.com/news/local/g... #Missouri #Republicans

Screengrab of an Eric Schmitt thread on another social media platform, arguing that the #NoKings protests on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, were funded by billionaires in concert with groups like the Communist Party USA.

NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING WORKS!

Just ask Eric Schmitt, Missouri’s junior US senator. #newspapers #missouri #nokings

Trump calls Colombia's Petro an ‘illegal drug leader’ and announces an end to US aid to the country It's a war of words between President Donald Trump and Colombian leader Gustavo Petro over illegal drugs, with hundreds of millions of dollars in American aid hanging in the balance.

“The United States has invaded our national territory, fired a missile to kill a humble fisherman, and destroyed his family, his children. This is Bolívar’s homeland, and they are murdering his children with bombs.” apnews.com/article/trum... #colombia

Renewed fighting tests Gaza ceasefire and Israel briefly halts aid An Israeli security official says the transfer of aid into the territory is halted “until further notice” after a Hamas ceasefire violation.

“Where is peace?” apnews.com/article/isra... #gaza #palestine

Donald Trump’s Deep-State Wrecking Ball Russell Vought is using the White House budget office to lay waste to the federal bureaucracy—firing workers, decimating agencies, and testing the rule of law.

“On one briefing call, (Russell Vought) praised Cori Bush, a progressive Democrat from Missouri…. Vought called her politics ‘very, very bad,’ but he admired her methods: ‘We need this from Republicans.’” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

More than 200 showed up for the #NoKings protest in Alton, Illinois, on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

More than 200 showed up for the #NoKings protest in Alton, Illinois, on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

More than 200 showed up for the #NoKings protest in Alton, Illinois, on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

More than 200 showed up for the #NoKings protest in Alton, Illinois, on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.

Confirming US House Speaker Mike Johnson’s worst fears, more than 200 “Marxists,” “socialists,” “Antifa advocates” and “pro-Hamas” protesters gathered in Alton, Illinois for Saturday’s #NoKings protest.

Clock face reflection, seen in a store window on Cherokee street, in 2016.

“Many people are already stretched for time between work, parenting, and daily chores. Each new imposition of another shopping chore demands more time that they don’t have and brings them closer and closer to the breaking point.” pdowns.substack.com/p/shopping-o...

Screengrab from KMOV report on pedestrian safety of jaywalker with “groceries” crossing Gravois.

South City vibe. #traffic

Millicent Borishade is out as St. Louis Public Schools superintendent Millicent Borishade has been fired after a rocky 15-month tenure.

Millicent Borishade was fired as superintendent of St. Louis Public Schools on Friday. She will receive about $750,000 in remaining salary plus benefits. Story by @blytheb.bsky.social.
www.stltoday.com/news/local/e...

Millicent Borishade, seen here at a February 2025 press conference, after she was promoted by the four school board members behind her.

The St. Louis Board of Education finally sends Superintendent Millicent Borishade packing. Hats off to Blythe Bernhard of the Post-Dispatch. Her persistent reporting kept a spotlight on mismanagement at SLPS. www.stltoday.com/news/local/e...

Trump Considers Overhaul of Refugee System That Would Favor White People

The Trump administration is considering a radical overhaul of the US refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

The Washington Post Is Running Out Of Readers Willing To Pay Once a titan of American journalism, The Washington Post now struggles to reach even 100,000 print subscribers most days.

“The Washington Post is shrinking, both physically and in terms of its relevance. Once a D.C. powerhouse with national ambition, it’s now in retreat, dealing with a collapse in readership and constant editorial instability.” www.forbes.com/sites/andyme...

The Great Dumbening Read to the end for it’s Tronin’ time

“A universe of dumbasses talking to other dumbasses, measured by numbers that don’t make sense and don’t reflect anything other than passive screen time.” www.garbageday.email/p/the-great-...

CBP agents knocked on an El Paso home at 7:15 a.m.

The owner asked to secure his Rottweiler, Chop, in the bathroom.

While he got his ID, agents opened the door and shot Chop.

The family tried to save him as he bled out on the kitchen floor.

Illinois Press Association CEO Resigns After Dispute Over ICE Lawsuit The CEO of the Illinois Press Association, who had joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration for actions toward journalists outside a Chicago-area ICE facility, resigned this week following a ...

Illinois Press Association CEO Don Craven resigns after a split with the board over an ICE lawsuit tied to journalist protections. localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2025/1...

Nearly 55,000 children in Gaza under age 5 may be acutely malnourished, a new UN study finds A new study says more than 54,600 children younger than 5 in Gaza may be acutely malnourished, with more than 12,800 severely affected.

After two years of war and dire food shortages, more than 54,600 children younger than 5 in Gaza may be acutely malnourished, with more than 12,800 severely affected, according to a new study by a United Nations agency. apnews.com/article/gaza... #gaza #palestine

Republican Senators Denounce Jack Smith Over Jan. 6 Scrutiny of Phone Records

“Josh Hawley of Missouri … falsely claimed that the F.B.I. document showed agents had engaged in wiretapping.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/u... #missouri

Gas station slot machine company misled public on its games, St. Louis jury finds A federal judge could rule next on whether the machines constitute illegal gambling after years of inaction from Missouri politicians.

Their company gave more than $1.8 million to top Missouri politicians — including $250,000 to the current Republican governor’s PAC — in an effort to prevent the state from tightening oversight of their operations. www.stltoday.com/news/local/c... #missouri

Thousands in Gaza are missing 2 years into the war. Tormented families search for clues Two years since the war in Gaza began, thousands of Palestinians there are looking for relatives who have gone missing in one of the most destructive conflicts of the past decades.

Some 6,000 people have been reported by relatives to still be buried under rubble, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The true number is likely thousands higher because in some cases entire families were killed in a single bombing, leaving no one to report the missing. apnews.com/article/gaza...

I didn’t know that. Interesting.

This A1 story, published on Oct. 6, 1950 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was headlined “St. Louis No. 4 ‘Critical Target’ for A-Bomb if Russia Attacks.”

Back in 1950, when St. Louis was still a manufacturing powerhouse, it was described as the No. 4 “critical target” in a potential Russian A-bomb attack on the U.S. Only New York City, Detroit and Washington, D.C. were seen as bigger targets. #stlouis

A Bari Weiss-led CBS News would likely look different, but how the public feels about it might not change The public’s relationship with news is defined more by its skepticism of the profession than by its impressions of journalists or media outlets.

“People’s relationship with news ... has less to do with what the news actually looks like than it does with people’s assumption that journalism is compromised by the pursuit of profit.” theconversation.com/a-bari-weiss... #journalism

Is Jimmy Kimmel a warning of an increasingly poisoned media environment? The Jimmy Kimmel dust up is over, or is it?

Even though the Jimmy Kimmel controversy has passed, Trump and his allies remain active in shaping the direction of the media and what people see and hear. pdowns.substack.com/p/is-jimmy-k... by @downsview2.bsky.social

Anyone further claims that this administration is fighting antisemitism should be taken with pillars of salt.

Israel orders Palestinians to leave Gaza City, saying those who stay will be considered militants Israel’s defense minister has ordered all remaining Palestinians to leave Gaza City, saying it is their “last opportunity.”

Israel’s defense minister on Wednesday ordered all remaining Palestinians to leave Gaza City. Anyone who doesn’t will be considered a militant supporter and face the “full force” of Israel’s latest offensive, he says. apnews.com/article/isra... #gaza #palestine

In this June 2, 2009 photo, the Statue of Liberty is seen in New York harbor. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

“Who we are as a people and as a nation is an important part of how we must interpret the fundamental laws that constrain us. We are not, and we must not become, a nation that imprisons and deports people because we are afraid of what they have to tell us.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...