Category: News

On the front page of a local television site’s news:

As any person from the state of Missouri knows, Missouri (Mizzou) is in Columbia, and they’re the Tigers.

Missouri State, formerly Southwest Missouri State University, formerly Southwest Missouri State Teacher’s College (and research indicates was Fourth District Normal School before that), is the home of the Bears.

I will leave it to you, gentle reader, whether this headline blunder was made by a young journalist who doesn’t know better (and doesn’t know that’s so) or by an AI trained on the works of young journalists who didn’t know better (and didn’t know that was so).

I don’t know what nature show I watched or book I read, but I feared Gila monsters specifically when I was young. Not that you find them anywhere in Wisconsin aside from a zoo, maybe, but I was afraid of them nevertheless. But even now I would not have one as a pet.

Man dead after being bitten by pet Gila monster

Missouri firefighters rescue bald eagle in route to another emergency

Jeez, Louise, may G-d help me to not bleed out because Heroes stop to save a hungry-looking stray puppy on the way to staunch the flow of my life blood.

Wait, no.

Firefighters with the Mid-County Fire Protection District made an unexpected emergency rescue on Monday morning.

The crew was on the way to another emergency when the firefighters spotted a bald eagle in a ditch.

After getting the initial call complete, the crew rushed to rescue the eagle by wrapping it up and bringing it back to the station to keep it safe.

Wait, AI/AP, help me out here. Were they on the way to an emergency or coming back from an emergency call?

Ah, who cares? What does it matter, humans?

Cops hunt runaway boyfriend after woman’s body found decomposing in suitcase:

A man whose girlfriend’s body was found decomposing in a suitcase two weeks after he fled is being hunted by Interpol.

The body of Laura Isabel Lopera Osorio was discovered after neighbours complained of a sickening smell coming from her apartment in Medellin, Colombia. Laura, 21, had been dating Canadian national Jesse Wiseman who is understood to have returned to North America soon after she was reported missing on January 31.

Not exactly a reprise of The Unicorn Killer, but we couldn’t have the new version impugn the environmental movement, so….

You know, I seem to recall writing a lot about the Einhorn case back in the day, but I guess that was before the blog (and I didn’t see anything that jumped out of the headlines in the old The Cynic Express(d) columns); the only mention I see of it is from a blog post in 2015 which recounts the story a bit:

Ira Einhorn, a celebrity of the sixties lefthippie type, killed his girlfriend in Philadelphia in the 1970s. After Einhorn skipped bail and hid overseas for decades, a dogged investigator found Einhorn in France. A lengthy court battle ensued over extradition and the illegitimacy of an inabsentia trial. Einhorn returned to the United States in 2002, some 23 years after his crime. He’s in jail now after a repeated prosecution, but he remains a touchstone for reminiscing radicals. Like Einhorn, Saddam faces trial for a crime committed 23 years ago. Although Hussein’s crime exceeds Einhorn’s by several factors of ten, time has rounded the moral outrages many people espouse to mere cluck-clucking or rationalization that at least Hussein made the trains run over dissidents on time.

I guess Saddam Hussein did not end up dragging his court case on for years after all.

What to know about the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration has four headings:

• THE VICTIMS
• THE INVESTIGATION
• CITY’S HISTORY
• VIOLENCE AT SPORTS CELEBRATIONS

Basically nothing except that guns are bad.

You know what we want to actually know? Who are the three suspects arrested?

Which has not come out at all, which is odd. Or telling.

As the picture of my 2024 Winter Reading Challenge form indicates, the Library Center is my home library. It is the big one, perhaps the closest to Nogglestead, although the branch in Republic might be equidistant.

So is the Library Center in national news lately? You betcha!

Riley Gaines slams ‘insufferable’ trans activists mocking one-armed pro surfer Bethany Hamilton at library event:

Transgender activists crashed a Missouri library event with former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines and surfing legend Bethany Hamilton last Friday, with at least one activist appearing to mock the one-armed professional surfer.

The two female athletes were hosting a children’s story hour featuring their inspirational titles about overcoming adversity from conservative book publisher Brave Books at The Library Center in Springfield, Missouri, on Feb. 2.

Not in a good way, though.

From an article on another episode of Missouri Teachers Gone Wild:

A pretty math teacher from Missouri has been arrested in Texas and accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old high school student.

Hailey Nichelle Clifton-Carmack, 26, from Waynesville, near St. Louis, was arrested by the Garden Ridge Police Department on Friday in Comal County.

Waynesville is between Springfield and Rolla, so “near St. Louis” in this instance is two hours away via I-44. It’s far closer to Rolla. But the story is from a British tabloid, and we can’t expect them to know where those smaller cities are. Heck, I’m surprised they thought to include “near St. Louis” as a reference point. I would presume that the British and their new guests are not familiar enough with U.S. geography to know where St. Louis is. I’m not sure that most people in the United States know where St. Louis is.

(Although I had seen the headlines elsewhere, Ace of Spades HQ posted an excerpt that had the offending geolocation aid.)

Gentle reader, I did start the action film portion of Christmas movie watching by watching Invasion U.S.A. As I did a DVD review such as I do in 2011, I won’t reiterate what I said back then.

The film hits a little differently than it did back in 2011 or even a couple of years ago.

I mean, a couple hundred Russian and Cuban commandoes bring the nation to its knees (but for Chuck Norris) by spreading out and unleashing terrorist mayhem in different cities. It could happen!

I used to tell my boys when they were younger that we didn’t have to worry about someone invading the United States because we had two large oceans to buffer us from other nations who would face great logistical challenges in getting an army across. I mean, perhaps the Chinese could stage a couple million men in Mexico and then come over the border, but….

Oh. I guess they would not have to be Chinese, would they?

So, yeah, that sort of dampens the Christmas spirit of the piece.

License plate technology leads to arrest in Camden County

If you were alive in 1984, you would have not believed you would one day be alive in 1984. Gradually, then suddenly.

A $600K mistake? St. Louis forgot to tax recreational pot sales:

City officials missed the deadline to begin taxing recreational marijuana sales this fall, leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table.

The city was supposed to start charging a 3% levy in October. But until about a week ago, no one had filed paperwork with the state to turn on the spigot. And now, per state regulations, city officials will have to wait until January.

Early estimates suggest the city could lose between $480,000 and $600,000 to the mistake.

The Powers That Would Be want to spread this competence to the entirety of St. Louis County.

Unfortunately, I think this sort of competence is percolating up through all levels of government these days. And society.

Springfield Police Chief addresses string of gun violence and more at city council meeting:

The chief says the recent shootings are not random, but the concern is still there.

“There is concern about an element in our society that hadn’t been there in the past that is growing,” said Chief Paul Williams. “We’re doing our best to keep a lid on it and take those people off the streets, but we really need the community to step up and be aware,” said Williams.

Back-to-back homicides are tragically hurting those in the Springfield area, with four deaths in just the last week.

The Springfield media is not so interested in finding what might be common threads between the victims and the perpetrators, instead focusing on the fact that guns were used since the Powers That Would Be are gearing up for a ballot initiative to supersede statewide law which keeps local governments from enacting gun control laws.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan opposes efforts to merge St. Louis City and St. Louis County.

To all those who want to force a merger: Thanks, we’re good:

In 2019, our happiness faced another challenge. Better Together, which seemed like the Freeholders on steroids, announced that we would undergo some self-improvement whether we wanted it or not. They would seek a statewide vote on merging the city with the county. Steve Stenger would be the new entity’s unelected czar.

This was beyond shocking. No more municipalities. The tiny little burgs with their own mayors and police chiefs. Gone. Webster Groves and Kirkwood. Gone. Clayton and Chesterfield. Gone.

Never have I seen the entire region pull together like it did then — THANKS! WERE GOOD!

We prevailed.

Of course, the “good government” people never stop. In the wake of the Better Together debacle, the Municipal League of Metro St. Louis called for the Freeholders to be revived. That ended happily. The county named some people to the new Board of Freeholders, but the city could not agree on its selections.

That is the last I have heard of the Freeholders, but we know, in our collective heart, that the board never dies. It stays dormant for a bit, but it will rise again.

It’s a blatant and obvious attempt for the failing city (St. Louis can’t pay its bills on time. Darlene Green and her work hours draw attention., etc.) to grab a lifeline. And to ultimately also drown the county as well.

Republic City Administrator gets smaller raise after report showed imbalance:

After KOLR 10 Investigates uncovered Republic City Administrator David Cameron received several 5-figure salary raises in recent years, city council approved a more conservative pay bump during his most recent review.

Cameron’s impressive raises included an almost $60,000 raise in 2021, which pushed his salary over $262,000 last year. But now for the first time in three years, his merit raise will come in under $10,000.

Cameron’s previous combined raises more than doubled his salary between 2018 and 2023. Taxpayers we interviewed for the original story in May were mostly shocked to learn how much he’s making.

I would say so. I would be, too.

If I recall the last city administrator in Republic ended up going somewhere bigger (Casinoport?) which illustrates that, unlike elected officials, city administrators might not represent the communities in which they’re employed–not elected. They could easily represent instead their guild (government experts) and themselves moreso than the small towns who need “expert” help.

‘United Springfield,’ a new PAC forms to support candidates for school board, City Council:

Prominent, long-time Springfield leaders have formed a political action committee to support candidates in upcoming school board and city council races that are required by state law to be nonpartisan.

The launch of United Springfield was announced Monday, a day before potential candidates were eligible to pick up packets to run for school board.

Organizers of the new fundraising PAC said its creation is a direct response to a dramatic increase in the participation of partisan and “dark money” groups — that opt not to disclose donor names — in local elections.

Springfield would all be united if only the proles followed the instructions given to them by the elites!

Yesterday, I mentioned the current mayor of Willard is in a bit of a kerfluffle as competing power blocs fight over the composition of unelected power blocs.

Today (or later yesterday; I forget when I opened the tab), we got news of a former Willard mayor under a cloud: Former Willard Board of Aldermen member & mayor faces charges of embezzling money from Prime.

Definitely sounds like embezzlement embezzlement and not the worst reading of, erm, optimistic use of a corporate expense account, which is sometimes cast as shrieking EMBEZZLEMENT! THEFT! when the alleged thief is on the wrong side.

We’ve been seeing a lot of contention in southwest Missouri between elected officials and the permanently hired “city administrators” who actually run things. Two come to mind:

• In Willard, the elected mayor is getting impeached because he fired a city administrator hired by an acting mayor when Snider was not available (the latest recriminations are Ahead of Willard impeachment hearing, aldermen continue sparring with mayor.
• Last year, the newly elected mayor of Branson and majority of the board of aldermen removed the existing city administrator (Branson cleans house after election; Board of Aldermen places city administrator on leave) and then fought over the new appointment (Branson’s new City Administrator responds to criticism over her hiring).

I’ve seen similar infighting in some of the smaller communities covered by my weekly arrival of my adopted hometown newspapers.

Why so much fighting over the city administrator?

Because people are starting to realize that these unelected officials can strongly influence policy and are only indirectly responsible to the citizens, and they will outlast changes in the electoral direction of the city/town/county or the will of the voters. And their career paths will take them to larger cities so their loyalty is to their betterment, their blending in with the wills of larger employers (larger cities) and not to the constituencies where they currently work.

Not all of them, but some of them.

Smarter men than we are set a framework for a system of government that limited this sort of thing, but cleverer men than we are have found ways around it.

General Services Administration head worked mostly from Missouri after calling employees back in:

The head of the General Services Administration, the government agency that helps to manage and support federal agencies, spent most of her time working remotely from Missouri during the year after she ordered employees back to their offices, according to a letter from the agency to Congress.

GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan, an appointee of President Joe Biden, spent 121 weekdays in Missouri and 64 weekdays in Washington from March 2022 through March 2023, GSA Associate Administrator Gianelle E. Rivera informed House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., in a letter on March 31, Axios reported after obtaining the letter Friday.

As you might recollect, gentle reader, I disagreed with Robin Carnahan when she was the Missouri Secretary of State about a decade ago, a little after her father was elected to the United States Senate after he died and her mother was appointed in his stead. Meanwhile, her brother was serving in the House of Representatives from my district.

It’s good to see she’s stayed in the family business. Although, to be honest, I should be a little pleased that she’s working from Missouri and not living the high life in D.C. Although with current crime levels, I’m avoiding cities larger than Springfield myself these days, and I’m a little cautious going to Springfield.

(Link via Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

The true story of Matthew Shepard: it wasn’t homophobia that killed him talks about conclusions from The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard (2013) whose blurb declares:

What role did crystal meth and other previously underreported factors play in the brutal murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard? The Book of Matt is a page-turning cautionary tale that humanizes and de-mythologizes Matthew while following the evidence where it leads, without regard to the politics that have long attended this American tragedy.

Meanwhile, in Springfield, we get Considering Matthew Shepard. Odds are pretty good it does not mention meth.

When the legend becomes fact, sing the legend, I guess.

(Link to the Hot Air piece and book via Instapundit.)

Not this: New St. Louis bill would allow homeless to pee in public:

Legislation to expand the rights of homeless people — including a provision exempting them from the city’s law against urinating and defecating in public — was introduced Friday at the Board of Aldermen.

The sponsor, Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier of Tower Grove East, and Aldermanic President Megan Green asserted that the exemption was needed because police had targeted the unhoused with selective enforcement.

Undoubtedly, they only enforced the law against those violating it.

You know, I don’t actually remember the St. Louis Cholera epidemic of 1849, but I know it happened.

Unlike some elected officials, for whom history started sometime in the 21st century.