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Michael Moore's latest documentary, Sicko, comes out today. A critical look at America's failure to provide for the health and welfare of its people, the film has received praise from both sides of the political aisle.
Show times at the Chase Park Plaza are: (12:00), (1:15), (2:30), (4:00), (5:00), 6:30, 7:30, 9:00, 10:00
For your outdoor viewing pleasure, Martin Casas' Frontyard Features will being showing A Night at the Museam in Francis Park, 5399 Donovan Ave, next to the tennis courts tomorrow night.
Click here to listen to KWMU's story on Casas' mission to bring St. Louis' movie lovers outdoors this summer.
And for those of us who are patiently waiting for the 6:00 release of the iPhone, might we suggest this great program for converting those Netflix DVDs to iTunes viewable movies.
According to an email obtained by PubDef.net, written from St. Louis City Elections Director Scott Leiendecker to the Governor's Office, Kratky resigned "on or about Friday, June 29."
We reported last week that Kratky, who resides in the City of St. Louis, had been making moves to try to ensure his wife, Michele, received the nomination to succeed him.
Leiendecker is concerned about the timing of the required special election and any additional cost to city taxpayers.
"I am asking at the request of the Chairman of the Board [of Elections] Carol Ann Wilson that if a special election is to be called prior to the August 2008 Election that it would be called on February 5, 2008," wrote Leiendecker.
"At that time the City of St. Louis as well as the State of Missouri will already be holding an election set for the Presidential Preferential Primary. This combination will in fact save time and cost for the City of St. Louis Election Board as well as the city taxpayers," he wrote.
Leiendecker estimates calling a special election anytime before that date could cost taxpayers approximately $50,000.
After getting a free ride through most of his two terms in office, and benefiting from years of praise (deserved and undeserved) for the work of entrepreneurs and developers who've been rebuilding and repopulating downtown, Mayor Francis Slay is having another tantrum about the Post-Dispatch's "careless reporting" — this time, on its late coverage of developer Paul McKee's secret plan for a large section of north St. Louis.
"I am a great admirer of Paul McKee," Slay writes on his blog. "He is a generous donor of time and money to a range of civic enterprises. He is a mainstay of several Catholic charities. In fact, until he decided to spend money acquiring privately owned vacant lots and empty buildings in north St. Louis, he has been either feted or unnoticed. For whatever reason, this particular good deed has earned him the enmity of the local newspaper."
"The story, by political writer/blogger Jake Wagman, is a thin web of half-facts, rumors, and tenuous connections that would have benefited from better editing and less careless reporting," Slay writes.
The mayor goes on to deny that he knows any details about what McKee has in mind for the 400-plus properties he has acquired so far – but, "I do know that he is buying properties that no one else has even looked at in decades."
Neighbors of McKee's properties have complained about his lack of attention to his buildings, which have been cited numerous times by the City for dangerous conditions.
The aldermen in the wards where most of the properties are located have made several attempts to meet with McKee on his plans for the area and the condition of his properties, with no luck. At the same time, the mayor confirmed to the Post-Dispatch that he has met with McKee several times.
While McKee's plan may eventually lead to much-needed northside development, in the time between his first acquisition and when he breaks ground years from today, residents say his properties are undeniably leading to an even faster decline in the quality of life of people in his targeted neighborhoods.
Perhaps the mayor should heed the words of those citizens at least as much as that of the "vision" of a developer — and not kill the messenger in the process.
McKee wisely wanted to keep the cat in the bag until the last moment, in order to keep his acquisition price as low as possible. But after two front page stories in the daily newspaper, it is probably fair to say the secret is out. Perhaps it is time to bring the aldermen, if not the general public, to the table.
No one — not the public, and obviously not the Post-Dispatch — believes that someone as smart, or at least as rich, as Paul McKee is going to spend millions of dollars on hundreds of properties without a plan for what to do with them.
By a vote of 46 to 53, the U.S. Senate today refused to close debate and advance President Bush's controversial immigration legislation. Sixty votes were needed to end debate.
Both Missouri Senators, Kit Bond (R) and Claire McCaskill (D), voted against the motion. Both Illinois Senators, Dick Durbin (D) and Barack Obama (D) voted for the motion.
St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Diana Bourisaw recently announced the hiring of three principals to head the district’s new alternative schools. SLPS will launch a new K-12 initiative, designed specifically for disruptive students, at the start of the 2007-2008 school year.
Bonita Jamison has been named principal of Des Peres Elementary, 450 Des Peres Ave. Jamison previously served as a principal intern for the district, as well as a classroom teacher for SLPS and the Riverview Gardens School District.
Sean Nichols will be principal of Turner Middle School, 2615 N. Billups Ave. Before his new appointment, Nichols served as an SLPS assistant principal.
Kacy Seals will take the reins of Kottmeyer High School, 1530 S. Grand Blvd. Seals previously worked as an SLPS assistant principal and principal intern.
"We have hired instructional leaders with a strong understanding of the needs of alternative students," said Bourisaw. "Our goal is to offer curriculum that encourages students at all levels to achieve academically and socially."
The district is implementing its new initiative with assistance from The Big Picture Company, an organization that specializes in developing individualized instruction for students. Enrollment at each school will be limited to 150 students.
The East-West Gateway Council of Governments Board of Directors Wednesday approved the designation of $3 million in Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds to help the City of St. Louis optimize its traffic signals.
The federal funds will pay for a private engineering firm to program, maintain and manage the city’s system of traffic signals. The work will focus on alleviating traffic delays on the city’s major arterial streets resulting from the reconstruction of I-64. About 300 of the city’s more than 600 traffic lights have fiber optic links and the coordinated operation of these linked signals is a critical aspect of the plan.
The I-64 reconstruction is scheduled for completion in October 2010, though all lanes in St. Louis County between I-170 and Spoede Road will be out of service in 2008 and all lanes between I-170 in St. Louis County and Kingshighway in the city will be out of service in 2009.
Barb Geisman, deputy mayor for development, says the project to improve the city’s traffic signals will have short-term and long-term benefits.
"We are extremely pleased that East-West Gateway has made this funding available to help the city deal with the impacts of the I-64 reconstruction,” Geisman says. “In addition to improving auto travel during the actual I-64 project, this funding will improve the city's long-term traffic management by getting our signalization system in good shape and allowing us to make the most of our new computerized signals."
Previous Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds awarded the city were used to upgrade the signal system with computer hardware and fiber optics, though some improvements had not been achieved due to a lack of implementation and coordination. The hiring of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. to develop and execute a plan to optimize the signal system includes a training component to enable city workers to maintain the system after the 30-month contract with Jacobs expires in December 2009.
During the I-64 reconstruction, the plan will include continuous monitoring of traffic conditions and support a rapid response capability to allow signal programming to correspond to actual traffic conditions.
Jerry Blair, transportation director at East-West Gateway, says efforts to ease congestion on roads affected by I-64 work should benefit city traffic overall.
"The signal system could be totally overwhelmed by what happens as a result of the I-64 reconstruction,” says Blair. “This will not only help the congestion caused by I-64, there will also be collateral benefits in other areas of the city."
Starting November 4, Southwest airlines is increasing the number of daily flights it offers out of St. Louis.
Southwest currently operates 11 daily nonstop flights from Lambert Airport to Chicago Midway; one flight to Columbus; and two daily flights to Las Vegas. Southwest also currently offers five daily flights to Houston, but the Business Journal reports that will reduce to four on Nov. 4.
Southwest operates more than 60 daily nonstop departures from St. Louis and has more than 320 employees locally.
Before she was brightening the views on KMOV Channel 4, news-achor Vicki Newton was paying her dues on the other side of the state in Kansas City.
We recently stumbled upon this video on YouTube of Newton, from the '90s (judging by the hair and the huge gold buttons on her blouse), when she was at WDAF Newschannel 4 in KC.
It is with bitter sweetness that we bid adieu to Dan Martin, our first intern. Dan completed his 8-week stay at Camp PubDef yesterday. He returns to Washington University in the fall before taking his elite training into the world of new media reporting.
Good luck, Dan. Don't forget us.
New intern Gabriel Bullard, a recent Webster grad, has already begun making significant contributions to the site. Look for his first on-camera appearance sometime soon.
Are you or someone you know interested in joining PubDef.net? We are offering 8-week internships for college students or recent college grads interested in new media.
These internships offer students a chance to:
1) Witness and record public meetings of local and state government bodies;
2) Practice and improve their journalism, video production and blogging skills;
3) Learn the players in local politics;
4) And participate in (and even lead) online discussions of current events.
These internships unpaid and require approximately 10-15 hours per week of work.
About PubDef.net:
PUB DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the City of St. Louis, Missouri. Our goal is to cast a critical eye on lawmakers, their policies, and those that have influence upon them, and to educate our readers about legislation and the political processes that affect our daily lives. Our reports have been featured on NBC's "Meet the Press", Fox News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Kansas City Star, and numerous other mainstream and new media outlets. The St. Louis Business Journal recently named PubDef.net as one of the most influential players in local media. Our exclusive reports and innovative use of video has made PubDef.net one of the most read political blogs in the state. Our new project, PubDef.TV, is Missouri's first and only 24-hour political news channel.
Please send resume and references to editor@pubdef.net with the word "INTERNSHIP" in the subject line. As we review these resumes, we will be asking one question: "How can this person help make Pub Def better?"
These are the skills we have in mind as we look for the ideal candidate:
A top-notch reporter
and/or
Adobe Flash design experience
and/or
Video production experience
Now please keep in mind, potential applicants, that there are probably other skills that we can greatly use to make Pub Def even better. If you have them, tell us about them and how they can be used to keep Pub Def on the cutting edge.
If you have any questions or would like to present yourself in person, email editor@pubdef.net.
Kristen Hinman of The Riverfront Times posted a story yesterday on their blog about Susan Turk's recent email about me and my involvement, as an advisor to Lewis Reed, with the selection of Richard K. Gaines, one of the members of the Special Advisory Board of St. Louis Public Schools.
"... for my money, for Antonio to be on a payroll collaborating with the installation of the Trans Board and then to go off and complain about it in print amounts to highly questionable behavior," wrote Turk.
As a frequent reader of PubDef.net (and the St. Louis American), Susan was well aware of my role as political director for President Reed. She also knows that I am strongly against the state takeover. Still, all she needed to hear was that Richard Gaines is a member of the Black Leadership Roundtable before she concluded that the fix was in and I had flipped sides.
"My ass," I told the RFT. "The thing that Susan is missing -- and really a lot of folks on that side are missing -- is they sometimes don't know when they've got a friend."
Too many takeover opponents have adopted the "with us or against us" position expressed by a Local 420 member at the last meeting of the SAB: "If you want to help the children, then resign," he told Gaines.
As if the Transitional School District is going to disappear because only the governor's and the mayor's selections were left to decide its direction.
President Reed, Richard Gaines and I all oppose the state takeover of St. Louis Public Schools. But none of us have the power to stop it at this point. This situation will ONLY be decided in the courts or in the state legislature.
In the meantime, President Reed has selected someone to serve on the board who clearly has the most experience with St. Louis Public Schools (as student, parent, school board member, school board president, and behind-the-scenes player), someone who will not tolerate any plan for a wholesale dismantling of the district (not that such a plan has been proposed), and someone who will demand that the board operates like a responsible public body.
What Susan and I have here, perhaps, is a difference of philosophy. Can someone do more good from the inside than outside?
But, really, that's not even the question we have here.
Foes of the takeover will continue to defend traditional public education from outside of the new state-controlled system and fight for our city to regain local control of our schools.
At the same time, we will have some voices inside the process fighting to make sure, at the very least, the situation does not get worse and that our city does not have a repeat of the Roberti period, when the powers that be ran the district like a private corporation intent on protecting its trade secrets.
Susan does have a friend in me — and in Richard Gaines and President Reed — even if she didn't realize it at first.
At the last SAB meeting, I captured Turk quizzing Gaines on a range of topics, including his role on the Roundtable, a group which, despite his membership (Percy Green, another vocal takeover critic, is also a member), he strongly disagreed with many of its decisions regarding SLPS.
I'm not sure, but I think by the end of the video, Susan learns that she and Gaines agree on most things.
One more thing: The RFT's story is called "French Bread". Come on, guys. You can be more clever than that.
Okay, two: Hinman also gives me a bit more credit than I deserve, I did not run Lewis Reed's aldermanic president campaign. I was just part of the team.
Gov. Matt Blunt today called for a special election to fill the vacancy in the 23rd Senate District. The special election will be held on Sept. 4, 2007.
Republican Sen. Chuck Gross resigned from the Missouri State Senate effective May 31, creating an open Senate seat in the 23rd Senate District.
Candidates must be selected by party committeepeople and filed with the Secretary of State's Office no later than 5:00 p.m. on July 31.
There remains speculation that the special election provides opportunity for soon-to-be-term-limited St. Louis Democrat Maida Coleman to also leave the Senate early and accept a gubernatorial appointment.
Coleman's seat is currently the target of three announced candidates (State Reps. Rodney Hubbard, Tom Villa, and Robin Wright-Jones).
It is said that Blunt might give Coleman an early appointment to pave the way for Hubbard, a St. Louis Democrat with strong relationships with the state's Republican leadership.
Michael Allen, the unofficial Blairmont watchdog and half of the writing team behind the Ecology of Absence blog, says developer Paul McKee is continuing his acquisition of a large portion of north St. Louis, despite public claims to the contrary.
According to Allen, one of McKee's mysterious Blairmont companies, MLK 3000 LLC, spent $935,400 between May 17 and June 20 in order to acquire nine properties.
The properties and their recorded sales prices are:
2517 North Market, $92,000.00
2225 Mullanphy, $80,500.00
2223 Mullanphy, $80,500.00
2221 Madison, $74,750.00
1902 Dodier: $115,000
1831 Laflin, $78,200.00
1836-42 N. 22nd, $147,200.00
2529-31 Hebert, $97,750.00
2500 Sullivan, $172,500.00
According to Allen, the deeds are signed by Roberta M. Defiore, manager of MLK 3000 LLC and former consultant to the Archdiocese Office of Urban and Community Affairs. The loans come from the Parkburg Fund LC, an entity incorporated in August 2006 prior to MLK 3000 LLC's first purchase.
Here is a video produced a while back on Blairmont, featuring Michael Allen:
Many people are still waiting to see if Governor Blunt signs the huge tax credit bill that would provide as much as a $100 million subsidy for McKee's still-secret plan.
Governor Matt Blunt is in St. Louis today. He is scheduled to present a proclamation and participate in a Heat-Up St. Louis event at 11:45 a.m. at the McGowan/Walsh Sales Center, 2200 Washington Ave.
Later, Blunt will sign into law Senate Bill 384, which addresses license plate tab theft, something city residents are all too familiar with.
The signing event is at 1:45 p.m. in the St. Louis Police Board main board room, 1200 Clark Avenue #603.
"Crack-smoking Republicans" beware. A local entrepreneur is tossing his hat in the Presidential primaries once again. But this time, ex-Republican Blake Ashby is targeting his own.
Ashby, the owner of such hip spots as the Delmar Restaurant and Lounge and Mangia (co-owner) who ran for President in 2004, is now running as an independent. He says he's been a Republican since high school, but the W years have taken his party in a direction he cannot follow. Instead, he's calling on fellow frustrated fiscal conservatives to rebel against the "crackheads" he says are ruining the once Grand Ol' Party.
PubDef produced this video for Ashby and will be following his campaign over the next year as he takes his message across America.
To learn how to help Ashby rid the nation of "Crack-smoking Republicans", contact campaign coordinator Mandy Kadlec.
Branson has been selected as the host city for the 2008 Missouri Republican Party State Convention from May 30 to June 1, Missouri Republican Party Chairman Doug Russell announced today. The State Convention will be held at Branson’s Chateau on the Lake.
"Branson is known internationally for its hospitality, entertainment and family-friendly atmosphere and we are very much looking forward to holding the 2008 Missouri Republican Party State Convention in this vibrant and exciting community," Russell said. "Next year will be an exciting one for Missouri Republicans and Branson is the perfect community in which to be selecting our delegates to the Republican National Convention and adopting our state platform."
Branson was chosen by the 11-member Site Selection Subcommittee of the Missouri Republican State Committee during meetings in Kansas City this past weekend. The Republican National Committee has tentatively assigned Missouri 58 delegates and 55 alternates to the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, from Sept. 1 to Sept. 4, 2008, where the Republican nominees for President and Vice President will be selected.
In an emergency meeting Saturday, the Metropolitan Taxicab Commission vote 4-0 to revoked the license of Wilson Taxi after issues arose with the company’s insurance coverage (read our earlier report).
Two members of the commission who represent other cab companies abstained from voting; Basil Rudawsky of County Cab, and Dave McNutt of Laclede Cab. McNutt is also the vice chairman of operations for the commission. Voting yes were Chairman Louis Hamilton, and board members Vince Bennett, Richard Banahan and W. Thomas Reeves, vice chairman of finance.
The decision ratified the orders issued Monday, June 18, by Commission Director D. Michael Tully revoking Wilson’s license to operate and allowing 15 drivers to transfer to other taxicab companies.
Hamilton said the staff issued the directives subject to the commission’s approval. With Saturday’s vote the commission also opened a 30-day window for former Wilson drivers to complete the transfers, waiving the fees related to the transfer process.
The staff of the commission met Monday with taxicab companies to determine which companies would receive permits forfeited by Wilson Taxi when it was discovered Wilson was operating without insurance, confirmed Patrick McCarthy, general counsel of the commission.
Six of the drivers transferred to A Best Taxi and two transferred to Midwest Metropolitan Taxicab. Five other drivers have yet to transfer to other companies. Wilson directly held two other permits that were reclaimed by the commission.
A source familiar with the meeting convened at 4:30 p.m. Monday in the commission’s office, 100 N. Tucker, told PubDef that Tully contacted the taxicab company owners to inform them of the situation with Wilson and solicited their input.
McCarthy said the staff met with the taxicab company owners to ask them to contract with drivers affected by Wilson’s closing.
According to the source, the director revoked Wilson’s license to operate, reclaimed the company’s 15 permits and offered Wilson’s former drivers the opportunity to join other taxicab companies. When 8 drivers decided to accept the offers, the director allocated the reclaimed permits to the companies that hired the former Wilson drivers.
At the commission’s regularly scheduled public meeting Wednesday (June 20), Tully and McCarthy discussed the situation without identifying Wilson, saying that an investigation was ongoing. PubDef learned after the Wednesday meeting that Wilson was the company being discussed. Tully was not at Saturday’s meeting because he is traveling in Europe.
The commission opened the meeting at 10:20 a.m. then promptly went into executive session to discuss the Wilson Taxi situation. The public portion of the meeting was reconvened around 11:40 a.m. The commission voted , entertained questions and then adjourned.
During the public comment portion, Charles Kirkwood, a construction company owner, appealed to the commission to approve his application for permission to operate under the name Ebony Cab Co. LLC. Hamilton responded the commission will act on pending applications to organize taxi companies after the completion of a study of the taxicab market in December.
Kirkwood said that north St. Louis was under-served by taxicabs and that companies that do operate in north St. Louis are being forced out of business. He referred specifically to the February collapse of Allen Cab and St. Louis Auto Livery.
While on leave from serving in Iraq, Army Specialist Anthony Collins says he was harassed and maced by a St. Louis police officer near his home in north St. Louis.
This video was produced and distributed by the ACLU of Eastern Missouri this week at its press conference on its new "Project Vigilant" initiative, which is arming residents of the Fairground Park neighborhood with video cameras to protect themselves from abusive cops.
EDITOR'S NOTE: WATCH THE LAST 40 SECONDS OF THIS VIDEO. IT APPEARS THAT THE TWO OFFICERS COME BACK TO INTIMIDATE (OR WORSE) THE VICTIM.
Click here to watch our earlier report on "Project Vigilant".
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen took up a considerable slew of legislation at its weekly meeting Friday morning. But two bills, Board Bills 1 and 179, dealt directly with the city's financial health.
The biggest bill finalized and passed this morning was Board Bill 1, sponsored by Board President Lewis Reed and Ways and Means Chairman Stephen Conway, the city's $867 million fiscal budget. It passed unanimously.
Conway also introduced Board Bill 179, which was first read and referred to his committee. That bill directs the St. Louis Municipal Finance Corporation to issue and sell up to $155,000,000 of the Corporation’s Taxable Pension Judgment Leasehold Revenue and/or Refunding Bonds.
The money from this sale would go to pay what the city owes in connection with the Police Retirement System, the Firemen’s Retirement System, and the City of St. Louis Employees’ Retirement System.
Board Bill 137, Alderman Freeman M. Bosley's parking expenses payment bill, passed 22 to 2, despite vocal opposition during discussion from Alderman Alfred Wessels.
Board Bill 162, Alderman Samuel L. Moore's quit claim bill for 3025-27 Marnice Place, passed with 23 aye votes and 1 present. As this was Moore's first bill, however, his fellow legislators couldn't resist a traditional bit of good-natured hazing.
When the bill first came up for a vote, a roll call appeal was made and the vote came in with 22 against and only 2 in favor. After a bit of laughter, a motion to reconsider was made, resulting in its passage.
Board Bill 167, Alderwoman Phyllis Young's bill for the improvement of the two block "Gateway Mall," passed unanimously.
Board Bill 170, Alderman Terry Kennedy's bill prohibiting the issuance of any new liquor licenses within the Eighteenth Ward, passed 25-0.
These bills were given their first reading:
Board Bill 178, sponsored by Alderwoman April Ford-Griffin, would authorize and direct the Mayor and Comptroller to execute a Quit Deed claim onto A and F Realty LLC upon receipt of $25,000 payment.
Board Bill 180, sponsored by Alderman Joseph Roddy, would approve a redevelopment plan for the 4158 West Pine Blvd. Area in the case that the area is found to be blighted - as defined in Section 99.320 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, 2000 Board Bill 181, sponsored by Alderwoman Lyda Krewson, would authorize a payment of $425,000 to purchase additional park land in City Block 3899.
The folks at St. Louis Magazine were nice enough to send two attractive women over today to present me with a plaque and a couple of early copies of their July issue, which includes yours truly on its annual "A-List".
Thank you to the editors for taking note of our efforts. And thanks especially to the thousands of people who read this blog regularly and care enough about what's going on around us to search for information, work on campaigns, and (if you're really nuts) run for office.
Taxicab drivers trying to start their own company say they have been put on hold by the Metropolitan Taxicab Commission while the industry-dominated panel bypassed a moratorium on new permits to grant them to existing companies.
The organizers of City Express, whose prospective drivers are predominantly Ethiopian, have been trying to get the commission to allow them to pick up 120 existing permits forfeited by Allen Cab and St. Louis Auto Livery when the company folded earlier this year.
Several of the drivers declined comment for this story because they work for other taxicab companies and don’t won’t to jeopardize their livelihoods. Speaking anonymously, the drivers claim the commission is favoring existing companies and as a result allowing a non-competitive environment to flourish.
Former drivers for Allen Cab note that it was one of only two companies that provided substantial service to north St. Louis neighborhoods. The other is Harris Taxicab.
Drivers put out of work when Allen Cab and St. Louis Auto Livery went out of business were hired by other companies after the commission declared an emergency and granted the permits formerly allocated to Allen Cab and St. Louis Auto Livery to existing companies.
The commission placed a moratorium on issuing new permits two years ago. Michael Goldberg, the lawyer for City Express, has questioned the commission on the process it goes through to suspend the moratorium when cases like the Allen Cab situation arises.
At the most recent meeting of the commission June 20, Goldberg was able to get Patrick McCarthy, the general counsel for the commission, to admit that the process has been in his words “ad hoc.”
“I think it is important to have a fair procedure,” said Goldberg during the public comment of the meeting.
Goldberg asked for and got a commitment from the commission director D. Michael Tully to provide how many applications for permits are on file, how many are ahead of City Express and how many applied after his client.
The commission has hired a researcher from University of Missouri-St. Louis to study whether more permits are needed, whether to extend or lift the moratorium, and the quality of service in the metropolitan area. The study is to be delivered to the commission with recommendations in December.
The commission has suspended the moratorium three times since it was imposed. The latest time was earlier in June when Wilson Taxi was found to have been operating without insurance for at least 90 days, a violation of the code regulating taxicabs.
Tully told the board that an emergency was declared, Wilson’s permits were revoked and seven of its 15 drivers put out of work were hired by other companies.Wilson’s permits were reassigned to the companies that hired the drivers.
Both Tully and McCarthy confirmed to the commission that code enforcement agents were completing a full investigation of Wilson Taxi.
It seems former Senator Jim Talent is getting his legislation passed from beyond the political grave.
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill whose original version was sponsored in 2005 by Talent, who was defeated last year by Democrat Claire McCaskill, and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut). The bill calls for the US Department ofJustice to reopen "cold" cases of civil rights crimes committed prior to 1970.
The House version of the bill is named in honor of Emmett Till, a 14 year-old black teenager murdered in Mississippi in 1955 by two white men. It passed by a vote of 422 to 2. McCaskill was one of the bill's co-sponsors.
The two nay votes came from Congressman Lynn A. Westmoreland (R-Georgia) and Congressman Ron Paul (L-Texas). The Senate has already passed a similar bill.
The passage of this bill comes just five days after the June 15 "cold case" conviction of Klansman James Seale for kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 slaying of two black teenagers in Mississippi. Seale was indicted this past January, nearly 43 years after the killings. He now awaits sentencing on August 24 and potentially up to life in prison.
As expected, the State Board of Education voted today to classify the Riverview Gardens School District, a district in St. Louis County with about 8,000 students, as unaccredited.
It is the second time this year the board has taken action to strip a school district of accredited status. In March, the board voted to de-accredit the St. Louis Public Schools.
The board voted 7-0 to approve the recommendation of Commissioner of Education D. Kent King to de-accredit the school district.
“We have seen a precipitous decline in the academic performance of this school district. At the same time, there has been a dangerous decline in the district’s financial situation. We don’t know for sure if the school district will end this year in the black or in the red,” said Commissioner King.
On its most recent academic evaluation, the school district met only 3 of the 14 academic standards that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education uses to evaluate school districts for accreditation purposes.
The former superintendent of the Riverview Gardens district, Henry Williams, has recently been charged with crimes involving misuse of school district funds and other offenses. He has been suspended by the district.
The school district will have until June 30, 2009, to demonstrate sufficient academic progress to qualify for provisional accreditation status. If it does not make adequate progress in that time, it faces the prospect of state intervention and the dissolution of the local board of education.
One of the downsides for many of the roughly 120 people who attended last night's Special Administrative Board (SAB) meeting was that, because of the unique format (see our earlier post), if you weren't one of the lucky ones seated at a table Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Gaines, or Ms. Adams came to, you could very well have spent over an hour at the meeting and not heard one question or one answer.
Good thing you've got the Internet and PubDef.
From across the crowded room, thanks to a wireless microphone, we followed the conversation at one of those tables.
UPDATE: Some commenters have asked what Gaines meant when he said, in response to a question about what he'd do if he found that others were not including him in decision-making, "I get a very small salary for doing this and I don't mind giving that salary up." Gaines' salary is indeed "very small." Zero, in fact.
Gaines tells PubDef he was merely making a joke about his volunteerism. SAB members, like the elected board members, will not be paid for their efforts.
We got a little backlogged with editing today, so forgive the uncharacteristic tardiness.
Speaking of "uncharacteristic," last night's meeting of the Special Advisory Board of the Transitional School District of the City of St. Louis (try saying that three times fast), was different not only because of the free cookies and coffee, but because of the presence of something not seen in the St. Louis Public Schools in a very long time — PR savvy.
Many came to the meeting, billed as the public's first opportunity to address the new appointed board, not just to listen to the comments, but to watch a bloodbath.
Vocal opponents of the state takeover had waited for weeks to speak directly to the man from Chesterfield now in charge of their kids and their jobs. But like a smaller, faster fighter using political Judo to disable his larger opponents, District CEO Rick Sullivan and his team of (as yet unpaid) Vandiver Group PR consultants, divided and conquered.
Sullivan spread the crowd across the large meeting room in the lower level of the St. Louis Science Center, seating them at tables of seven. The parents, staff, and teachers union members were forced to deal with the SAB members one-on-one. No microphones. No clapping or applauding in agreement with angry speakers. No booing at laments about how the old system wasn't working.
Perhaps it was all smoke and mirrors, but it worked. What was supposed to be a three-hour battle among vocal opponents and supporters of the change in leadership turned into more of a town hall meeting, which winded down after only little more than an hour with people leaving, either satisfied (or pacified) or tired of waiting for one of the three to get to their table.
Strictly from a political strategy perspective... brilliant.
Sure, there were definitely complaints delivered forcefully and directly to the SAB members. The first thirty minutes were the hardest.
"Go back to where you came from," read one evaluation form handed to Sullivan.
"If you want to help the children, then resign," one Local 420 member told Richard Gaines.
But when the dust cleared and everyone had gone home, it was Sullivan and Gaines who were the last one's standing and the last to leave the building (the third member, Melanie Adams, had left earlier).
In fact, even Gaines, who had complained about the format at the start of the meeting, told one of the last parents still in the building, "I kind of liked this tonight. We got to really talk to people."
