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Reporter Lucas Hudson interviews Mayor Francis Slay in this week's issue of the Vital VOICE.
From Hudson's intro:
The city’s sweltering racial thermometer portends an all-out political meltdown as Mayor Francis Slay was booed right out of the Old Courthouse by supporters of the city’s ousted first black fire chief, Sherman George, as he gave a speech Jan. 21 honoring Martin Luther King Jr. This humiliating show of resentment demonstrates that Slay’s legacy is in danger of being permanently branded with the scarlet R of racial unrest.
African-American displeasure with his administration did not start with the political game of chicken that resulted in the public demotion of George, but that event lit the match in an environment already filled with the fumes of African-American distrust, suspicion and anger at what some have described as Slay’s "racial politics."
In a Jan. 11 interview with the Vital VOICE, Mayor Slay speaks to these issues, and also outlines African-American progress that has taken place under his administration, declaring that "There isn’t enough coverage of positive news."
From the interview:
The Vital Voice: We both know that some of the city’s African-American leaders are up in arms over what many have described as your “racial politics.” With racial tension inflamed in the wake of Fire Chief Sherman George’s removal, The National Society of Black Engineers has threatened to move its 2011 conference scheduled to take place in St. Louis unless the situation changes. In addition, a citizen’s group primarily made up of African-Americans called the Citizens to Recall Mayor Slay has started an effort to recall you from office.
Consultant and blogger Antonio French’s site (www.PubDef.net) lists major gripes the black community has with your administration, which I have paraphrased. They include:
Disassembling the city’s largest black voting ward (the former 20th).
Removal of the city’s only ever black fire chief and the subsequent 4-to-1 promotion of whites over blacks.
The closing of more than a dozen schools (neighborhood anchors) in North St. Louis.
The disproportionate investing of hundreds of millions of tax dollars in downtown and white neighborhoods, while northern black neighborhoods continue to suffer.
Mayor Slay, if you don’t agree with African-American disillusionment regarding your administration, can you at least understand it?
Mayor Slay: I am very aware of some racial unrest in the City of St. Louis. I am very aware of some of the reaction to what happened in the Fire Department. I will also tell you that if Chief George had made the promotions, he would still be the chief. I talked to civic, political and clergy leaders throughout the community during the process before any decisions were made. I want you and the community to know that I did everything I could to try and get the promotions done without confrontation or controversy. I respect Sherman George as a man of principle, but ultimately, we disagreed how to handle that situation.
There isn’t anybody in St. Louis that agrees with every decision I have made, but there are some people that want to divide the city. However… I don’t think anybody can argue with the fact that St. Louis is much better today than it was seven years ago. We were losing jobs and people faster than virtually any other city in America. Now, our job base has stabilized, our population is on the increase, and we’re getting national and international recognition for our successes. Chief Mokwa and I just announced that crime in the city has dropped 16 percent from last year. Crime is now at a 35-year low. That is something that impacts everybody positively.
Have we solved all the issues? We have not. And some of those allegations like disassembling the largest black ward in the city…Well, the people are still there. If that was the largest black voting ward the city, it is still the largest black voting ward in the city, but it just has a different number on it.
Most people only hear the negatives, and there is no balanced view. For example, the affordable housing initiative that I helped pass is spending $5 million a year, with much of that money impacting people of color. When I took office in the year 2000, 31 percent of the kids tested were positive for lead, and now it is only six percent. The neighborhoods with high incidences of lead poisoning are in predominately African-American areas. I am not suggesting there are no more challenges and everything is fine, but there isn’t enough coverage of positive news.
VV: What specifically have you done, and what more can you do to defuse the current racial tension in the city?
MS: I have been working hard to call upon fair-minded people who are very interested, regardless of what they think of my decision or how it was done—to pull together, begin the healing process and move the city forward. I believe that is going to take some time, but I have been very encouraged by conversations with a number of black leaders. I believe I realize how deep this issue goes, and I am not taking this tension for granted. It is going to take a lot of work and leadership from me and my office.
Click here to read the entire Vital VOICE interview.
VIDEO: O'Reilly Pushes Obama Aide, Calls Him "Low-Class" and "S.O.B."
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Monday, January 07, 2008 at 10:56 AM
Fox News' Bill O'Reilly is anything but subtle and he let an aide to Senator Barack Obamaknow exactly how he felt when he couldn't get immediate access to the Democratic presidential candidate in New Hampshire this weekend.
O'Reilly reportedly got into a physical altercation with Marvin Nicholson, the Obama aide. According to reports, O'Reilly pushed Nicholson and demand that he get out of the way of his view of Obama.
On September 18, Multimedia KSDK, Inc. filed a complaint with YouTube about our posting of a video contrasting a September 13 story by reporter Mike Owens which ended with a promise to air a tape of an allegedly crooked real estate seller "saying he makes regular payments of cash to the local alderman" with their September 14 follow-up story that makes no mention of the allegation.
YouTube suspended our account and took all 500 of our videos off-line. We filed a counter-notification with YouTube charging that KSDK was full of shit and our usage of their video clearly falls under the "Fair Use" doctrine.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay told Channel 5 reporter Cordell Whitlock yesterday that he thinks Firefighters Union Local 73, which is white-dominated, and F.I.R.E., the African-American firefighters organization, need to come together.
But as Slay was quick to publicly remind ex-fire chief Sherman George, the mayor's office controls the fire department. He can, as he did with George, order both sides to the table.
Instead, he has clearly sided with Local 73.
To now say "something" needs to be done by "someone" "someday" is just skirting his responsibilities once again.
According to a survey paid for by the Downtown St. Louis Partnership and reported today by the Post-Dispatch, "those living [downtown] are younger, richer and better educated than the average St. Louisan."
Just one problem: the mail survey doesn't include downtown's largest population: the poor and the homeless.
"Developers say the number of young adults moving to downtown validates their investments," reports the Post. Self-validation is a dangerous thing when it involves public money.
The Post's articles offers a few clues to why the survey's results differ from what anyone who's spent any time downtown has surely observed: there are more homeless people than yuppies downtown.
The survey was sent in late summer to 5,000 downtown residents (that is, people with known addresses)
Only 14.5% of those people bothered responding
Of those 727 residents who did respond, 46.3% were between the ages of 25 and 34
Only about 7% of respondents said they had children (maybe those with children were too busy to respond)
Of the respondents, 146 had dogs and only 53 had kids
Though it will probably never show up on any Downtown Partnership survey, one of the largest populations downtown, without a doubt, is the homeless.
Any given day, a downtown visitor is more likely to see homeless men and women than they are groups of these mysterious 25-34 year-old hipsters the Post writes so much about.
Despite making up such a large population downtown, very little in comparison has been spent to address this homeless downtown population. In fact, many resources have been spent to sweep them away.
In 2004 more than a dozen homeless persons, many of them veterans, filed a federal lawsuit complaining that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has a policy of attempting to drive the homeless from downtown St. Louis and telling them downtown is "off limits" to them.
The suit, filed with the assistance of the ACLU, alleged that St. Louis police officers have routinely arrested the homeless without any suspicion they have committed crimes, have thrown fireworks at them to get them to move from a public park, have taken the homeless to remote areas and dumped them, have taken their food, medication, driver's licenses and insurance cards, have made them engage in forced labor prior to ever seeing a judge, and have generally attempted to remove the homeless from downtown, particularly before major events.
The word "homeless" does not appear one time in the Post's story about the face of downtown.
There are a lot of people hurting in the City of St. Louis. Not just struggling to make ends meet, but really struggling — to find shelter, to food for their children.
This is a developing story, which seems to be getting more desperate everyday. But you won't see this story on the front page on the Post-Dispatch. This will not be the top news story on Channels 5, 4 or 2.
There is a horrible disconnect between our community and those that report on it, and those who are supposed to report to it.
While the parents, media and lawmakers look for someone to punish for the suicide of Megan Meier, others wonder how Internet postings could possibly drive someone to suicide.
"What if the boyfriend was real?" asked a friend of mine. "What if he dumped her, called her a [vulgar name] and she ran home and killed herself? Would they try to prosecute him?"
Good question. While the link to the popular social networking website MySpace has made this St. Charles tragedy a worldwide story, the media's thirst for sensationalism mixed with politicians' opportunism has really left common sense and any idea of personal responsibility at the roadside.
Shouldn't a 13-year-old be able to handle "meanness" better than this? Or is this newly-coined "cyber-bullying" really a new, more menacing threat to young people, as an editorial in the Post-Dispatch claimed today:
"The pervasiveness of technology, including cell phones, e-mail and instant messaging, coupled with the anonymity it bestows, makes electronic harassment less escapable and more effective. Bullies no longer lurk only in school hallways and playgrounds; now, they slip right into a child's bedroom, wreaking havoc even when school is out."
Really? Are emails really more scary than three bigger kids beating the hell out of you everyday at lunch? Because sticks and stones can indeed break your bones. Words — well, they can be hurtful too, but at 13 years-old aren't kids at least responsible enough for their own actions as to rule out the words of a faceless boy or girl as the reason for them killing themselves?
Ironically, at the same time newspapers, TV news, and the girl's parents are arguing that 13-year-old Megan was not responsible for her own actions, a St. Louis County judge sentenced young Sherman Burnett Jr. to 60 years in prison for a crime he committed when he was — you guessed it — 13 years-old.
So which is it, Missouri? Are 13 year-olds responsible for themselves or not?
Because if they are, young Sherman should go to jail for a very long time for kidnapping, beating and sexually assaulting his 6 year-old neighbor. And young Megan was old enough to know what the hell she was doing when she decided to take her own life. No words from someone she never met caused her suicide.
Or is someone else really responsible for causing Megan to hang herself in her room, because as a child, Megan was manipulated and harassed to the point of her own suicide and, like young Sherman, had no concept yet how precious life — theirs or others — actually is.
So which one is it, Missouri? What are 13 year-old kids responsible for — your kids and mine?
On Friday, KMOV Channel 4 interviewed Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett, who is the new official local spokesperson for the Barack Obama presidential campaign, and PubDef.net editor Antonio French on the results of a new KMOV/Post-Dispatch poll showing Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani leading their primary races.
In perhaps the most disgusting example of inaccurate, protective reporting ever witnessed, KSDK Channel 5 is reporting that only a few dozen people attended yesterday's rally to recall Mayor Francis Slay.
From KSDK.com:
Dozens of St. Louis residents gathered on the steps of City Hall Sunday, demanding a recall of Mayor Francis Slay.
The group of citizens, city and religious leaders say they support former Fire Chief Sherman George, and believe his demotion was the result of a racial divide in the mayor's office.
Watch PubDef's video from Sunday's event. We invite you to pause the video at the beginning and the end and do a head count for yourself. At its peak, there were easily 700 people in front of City Hall yesterday.
This content has been restored and your account has been reinstated.
Sincerely,
Harry The YouTube Team
Our YouTube account has been restored and I am happy to report that all 507 of our videos are back online.
It was two weeks ago that KSDK Channel 5 filed two bogus copyright infringement claims against us with YouTube claiming we unfairly used segments from their news broadcasts in our media watch reports.
We maintained our usage of KSDK's video falls under the "Fair Use" provision in copyright law and filed a counter-notification with YouTube.
Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. For example, if you wish to criticize a novelist, you should have the freedom to quote a portion of the novelist's work without asking permission. Absent this freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative comments about their work.
Our win against KSDK, though it will likely go completely underreported locally (like far too many significant events — which is, of course, why PubDef exists and KSDK is threatened by us), is huge in this new media vs. old media revolution which we are proudly engaged in.
One small step for PubDef; one giant leap for St. Louis independent media!
On Wednesday we filed a formal counter-notification with YouTube in response to our account being suspended and our more than 500 videos being taken off-line. The suspension came just hours after KSDK Channel 5 filed two complaints with YouTube alleging that we violated their copyrights by using clips of their broadcast in our piece criticizing their coverage.
We believe our usage of KSDK's video falls under the "Fair Use" provision in copyright law. From the Stanford University Libraries:
Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. For example, if you wish to criticize a novelist, you should have the freedom to quote a portion of the novelist's work without asking permission. Absent this freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative comments about their work.
The webzine NewTeeVee.com has written about our spat with KSDK Channel 5, which has resulted in all 500 of our YouTube videos being taken off-line:
French argued that the use of the clips — less than sixty seconds from two different newscasts, edited to include titles commenting on the station’s reporting — was clearly fair use. He pointed to past Pub Def footage used by Fox News to argue that this is standard operating procedure in broadcast journalism. “We think we’re ideal YouTube users,” French said of the site. “We work our butts off here; we don’t get any money, it’s completely free.”
Mike Shipley, the news director at KSDK, confirmed that the station had issued the takedown notice, but disagreed that French’s clip was clearly fair use. “It’s not my understanding that fair use allows for you to take the piece in its entirety and reuse it for your own purposes,” Shipley argued over the phone, continuing:
"He never approached us about the material at all. If he had excerpted something and edited all on his own and put together his own presentation about it, that would be one thing. But to simply pirate the video from our site and use it without our permission is copyright infringement."
French said that what troubles him is that in the course of a few hours he can go from providing a public service using YouTube’s platform to being completely removed from the site.
Yesterday evening, Multimedia KSDK, Inc. filed a complaint with YouTube about our posting of a video contrasting a September 13 story by reporter Mike Owens which ended with a promise to air a tape of an allegedly crooked real estate seller "saying he makes regular payments of cash to the local alderman" with their September 14 follow-up story that makes no mention of the allegation.
At 5:29 PM we received notice that YouTube took that video off-line. Then late last night, around 1:00 AM, all of our videos went off-line. That's around the time KSDK Channel 5 filed a second complaint, this time on the posting of the original Sept 13 video. YouTube responded by suspending our account and taking all 500 of our videos off-line.
First, we believe our usage of Channel 5's video falls under the "Fair Use" doctrine, the same doctrine Channel 5 presumably operates under each week as they use video content from other sources in their news broadcasts. In fact, PubDef's own video has appeared on local television without our expressed written consent, presumably under "Fair Use".
Secondly, KSDK never contacted us to ask us to remove the content and its labeling of us as a copyright infringer with YouTube is wrong and has caused us and our readers quite an inconvenience.
As we work this issue out with YouTube, we'd just like our readers and our community to know what's going on, and the extent to which KSDK has gone to crush fair journalistic criticism.
According to a new ranking by BlogNetNews.com, PubDef.net is the 7th most influential political blog in Missouri.
The site (more specifically BlogNetNews.com/Missouri) launched a new feature this week that ranks which Missouri state politics and news blogs are having the most influence on the direction of conversation in the state blogosphere.
Considering we haven't even heard of, let alone visited, half the other blogs on the list, we're not sure how realistic the ranking is, but we'll take the compliment just the same.
"Our rankings come from data provided in your RSS feeds, data from the activity of readers on BlogNetNews.com and data about Internet traffic from third parties," says the site's operators.
Each Sunday morning at 12:01 AM, BlogNetNews.com will release a new top 20 list of the blogs "most powerfully shaping opinion in the Missouri blogosphere." Here's the link.
And here's the current list:
1 Tony's Kansas City 2 Fired Up! Missouri - 3 The Turner Report 4 Politics Blog 5 KY3 Political Notebook 6 The KC Blue Blog 7 PUB DEF 8 CHATTER 9 Show Me Progress 10 Branson Missouri 11 Rhetorica: Press-Politics Journal 12 Blog CCP 13 Ozarks Messenger 14 Arch City Chronicle News 15 Ozarks Politics 16 The Source 17 The Kansas City Post 18 Corner of the Sky 19 Missouri Politics 20 Gone Mild
Okay, so this is probably a great time to encourage you to ADVERTISE on this "influential" website. Rates are reasonable. Call (314) 260-7321 or email us for a quote.
And if you're not an advertiser, but still want to support PubDef and help us expand our coverage, SUBSCRIBE for only $7.00 a month. Get a quarterly DVD of our best videos and a warm and fuzzy feeling for helping to keep independent media alive in St. Louis.
KSDK Chickens Out, Doesn't Name Accused Alderman or Air Tape
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Monday, September 17, 2007 at 11:20 AM
After promising that on Friday we'd hear a tape of a allegedly crooked real estate seller "saying he makes regular payments of cash to the local alderman," KSDK ran a short follow-up that did not include the tape, the name of the alderman, or any mention of the allegation.
An email to reporter Mike Owens, who investigated the story, has gone unanswered.
YouTube Note: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Multimedia KSDK, Inc"
Last night Channel 5 reporter Mike Owens did a story on a shady real estate man who sold a couple a home that he apparently no longer owned. The real owner is evicting the "buyers" and the shady salesman is ducking the law and TV cameras.
It was a pretty good story. But more interesting than the story itself was the teaser at the end.
"Tomorrow night, more on Furqan and we'll hear a tape of him saying he makes regular payments of cash to the local alderman, a charge the alderman denies."
Hmmmmmm. Who could it be?
Considering the reporter is married to 28th Ward Alderman Lyda Krewson, we can pretty much rule her out.
According to clues from Owen's report, the property Wali Furqan sold the couple is located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of the 3rd Ward, represented by longtime alderman Freeman Bosley, Sr.
Whoever it is (and we really can't wait to find out who), as the KSDK report stated, he (or she) completely denies the charge.
Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe appeared on Lizz Brown's radio show this morning to counter any claims that he ever spoke in favor of House Bill 1, the economic development package which contained the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit.
Brown even played for her listening audience the first few seconds of PubDef's recording of Troupe's testimony in which he criticizes the bill as a "Christmas Tree" for legislators around the state, "with the exception of the Land Assemblage part of the bill." Brown then quickly instructed her engineer, Howard, to turn off the tape.
She and Troupe of course left out the part when Troupe said, "Mr. Chairman, I think the bill is a great bill... I think it brings a lot of economic development to the area and I support everything in this bill."
PubDef wasn't the only one who was shocked by Troupe's 180-degree turn in Jefferson City. State Rep. Jamilah Nasheed, who has consistently opposed the Land Assemblage Tax Credit, was visibly furious with Troupe after his testimony.
She argued with him as he returned to his seat two chairs away from her. Across the lap of Rodney Boyd, lobbyist for Mayor Francis Slay, Nasheed voiced her displeasure in a loud whisper. When her loud whisper was no longer a whisper at all, she and Troupe took their conversation to the hallway.
The conversation ended with Nasheed walking away and yelling "sell out" to the alderman and former state representative.
Guess she misunderstood Troupe's testimony too.
Troupe will be hosting a forum tonight on the dangers of the bill he called a "great bill" three weeks ago. Fellow aldermen April Ford Griffin, Freeman Bosley, Sr., and Marlene Davis are supposed to be there as well.
The entertainment starts at 6:00 PM at Lexington School, 3130 Norwood Avenue.
If the confrontation plays all the way out, George will lose his job. That will not be good, and I say that not just because I like George. Firing him would be racially divisive. A lot of people in the black community see the dispute as a matter of respect. George is the chief. Where's the respect?
There has not been much in the tone of the mayor's rhetoric. It's almost as if the mayor thinks history started yesterday. I mean, come on, this is about race. George came through the ranks when the association was pretty much a white guys' club. Nothing unusual about that. My dad was a union electrician in Chicago and I remember when his union was that way. Those fellows felt that they were protecting what was theirs.
I remember the business agent talking to my father. "If your son wants to get into the union, he's not going to have to wait in line behind any blacks," he said, although he used another word for blacks. It's a word we don't use any more. Times have changed, and thank goodness for that.
But it's easier for white guys like me or the mayor to say that times have changed.
Kristen Hinmanwrites on the Riverfront Times blog:
Bryson, who has worked in Mayor Francis Slay’s office for just shy of seven years and has a background in social work, brings an additional new perspective to the director’s office –- that of an African-American. “One of the reasons the mayor chose me is so that we can work on race relations,” says Bryson.
Race has long been said to be a factor in the tenuous relationship between George and city hall. “If you talk to clergymen on the north side,” points out Bryson, “they will suggest that part of the problem in the past between the public-safety director and the fire chief may have been race.”
Bryson says he and George already have “a good working relationship” from having made the rounds at various public boards and commissions over the past few years.
As the new public-safety director puts it: “My race will not be an ace in my pocket. It will be a different way of looking at things.”
Click here to vote for PubDef.net in the RFT's "Best of St. Louis" Poll
Following revelations last week that Streets Department employees have been working on private jobs on public time and with public equipment, another city worker, Sterling McKinney, told Channel 4 News of how three years ago he was ordered by his supervisor to pave the driveway of a city business.
He told Channel 4 that it is common for low-level workers like him to be ordered to do such "high-profile jobs." For fear of losing their jobs, he said, the workers comply.
When informed about McKinney's allegations, Ed Rhode, spokesman for Mayor Francis Slay said he was happy to hear McKinney "confessed his wrongdoing."
"We all know this is wrong and we plan to turn this information over to the Circuit Attorney for prosecution," said Rhode, suggesting that the whistleblower may soon need to find himself a lawyer.
"Fight, fight!," as we used to say on the school yard.
The Political Eye column of the St. Louis American newspaper and MayorSlay.com, a creation of Public Eye, Inc., the PR firm of Richard Callow, have gone to the mattresses.
Last week, the American reported that actions by the city's public safety director, Sam Simon, had possibly left city firefighters in a dangerous position by ordering that all Fire Department airmasks be removed by Aug. 1 without notifying Fire Chief Sherman George.
A few days after the report was published, Mayor Francis Slay's anonymously-written blog, MayorSlay.com, called the story "bad reporting" and outlined its own version of events:
Five years ago, two St. Louis firefighters died tragically. Their widows filed suit against the manufacturer and distributor of some of the Department’s equipment. In the course of the first trial, testimony suggested that equipment might be defective. Both widows are convinced the equipment contributed to the deaths of their husbands.
Armed with that information, Simon wrote to the distributor asking for a $1.2 million refund. The distributor responded by offering to remove the equipment, but without refunding any cash. Simon declined. At no point did Simon ever order the equipment removed.
That’s the simple chronology that "supports" the baseless assertion by some partisans that Simon’s actions were improper.
Bad reporting? "Surely it is not 'bad' reporting to report a 'demand' as a demand. That is simply letting grammar be one's guide in interpreting the English language," answered today's anonymously-written Political Eye column.
In another post on mayorslay.com, using the same pompous tone, Slay-Rainford-Callow-Rhode write, “One of the challenging things about the current state of news reporting is the mix of rumor and fact that gets churned around in blogs, talk shows and boards - and then re-reported on mainstream TV and radio.”
It should be evident from Simon’s signed letter and the statement of the "facts" on mayorslay.com that the mayor’s own blog is guilty of mixing rumor and outright lies with whatever facts it churns around - and, unfortunately, the mayor’s version of events too often gets "re-reported on mainstream TV and radio," whether or not it is based in fact.
In a press release sent out today, St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Diana Bourisaw says CEO Rick Sullivan is still running the district.
"Rick Sullivan’s appointment to the Special Administrative Board remains in effect," said Bourisaw. "Reports indicating that Governor Blunt withdrew Mr. Sullivan’s appointment are unfounded. The district will continue with business as usual."
Unfounded? Not really.
Below is a copy of the letter, signed by Governor Matt Blunt, withdrawing Sullivan's nomination.
Click images to enlarge
The question that now remains is whether the Special Administrative Board will have to re-elect Sullivan as President of the Board following Blunt's expected re-appointment of the Chesterfield real estate developer in the coming days.
Both Rick Sullivan and Derio Gambaro have indeed been withdrawn. This is a fact. Read the letter for yourself above.
Before the next meeting of the Special Administrative Board of St. Louis Public Schools (and after the Missouri Senate has adjourned again till January), Sullivan will most likely be re-appointed by Blunt through a letter sent to the Senate. This is the process.
In the meantime, Sullivan cannot legally vote, hire, fire, sign contracts, or anything else. No matter what PR people or the "Daily-Disappointment" says.
Last week, Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe (D-St. Louis) appeared on Lizz Brown's radio show and was quoted in the St. Louis Argus screaming to high heaven about how horrible the proposed Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit was for north St. Louis.
He even attacked St. Louis' black delegation to the state legislature for supporting the tax credit earlier this year.
But when he testified in Jefferson City before the special House committee examining the bill, Troupe had nothing but praise for the bill.
"Mr. Chairman, I think the bill is a great bill," said Troupe. "I think it brings a lot of economic development to the area and I support everything in this bill," said the former state representative.
Show Me Progress was founded in summer 2007 by a coalition including members of Democracy for America, Progressive Democrats, bloggers, and other Missouri activists. Our goal is to provide a resource and gathering place for the Missouri progressive community. Show Me Progress is a member of the 50 State Blog Network.
This 5-part video report comes from the UK's Sky One television network. Ross Kemp on Gangs is an award-winning documentary series that looks at gangs and gang members all across the world — including London, New Zealand, and Rio de Janeiro. For its second season, Ross Kemp came to "one of the most violent US cities," the City of St. Louis, Missouri.
Those people who still don't think that St. Louis is a violent place to live for tens of thousands of its law-abiding, peaceful, and productive residents... well, you don't know St. Louis. You don't know what terrorism really is. And you don't know why so many people are angry — at government, the police, and their seemingly blind neighbors.
"They don't care," says a crying mother in the second video. "It wasn't their kid that was killed."
Please watch these videos.
Look for a cameo from Alderman Sam Moore in video #1, a "Jamilah Nasheed for State Rep" yard sign in video #3, lots of mentions of my O'Fallon Park neighborhood and its "Associated Crips," an anti-gang program at Carnahan School ran by Kabir Mohammed, and a very disturbing interview with two Blood gang members in video #5. Thanks to Doug Duckworth for calling our attention to this video.
www.blognetnews.com/Missouri — Jumping ahead of other news aggregators that just reprint posts, the editors of BlogNetNews say they take and organize feeds of top Missouri-centric news and political bloggers to create new content and information that will organize our respective slices of the Internet to make it work better for you, our readers. Features include:
The day's top news - based solely on what news stories Missouri bloggers are linking to - no matter what mainstream news source they're in.
A Missouri political blogs search engine.
A quick guide to the hottest blog comment sections in the Missouri-centric blogosphere (still being fine-tuned a bit).
A quick index of the day's most active Missouri state news and politics blogs.
A guide to the Missuori blogs most linked to by other Missouri bloggers.
www.newletters.org — A couple of quick clicks can provide a peek into Kansas City’s literary venue. New Letters, the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s international literary magazine, offers through its website the most comprehensive listing of literary events in the Kansas City region.
This community service includes details and contact information for events sponsored by a range of organizations throughout the area, including those in Lawrence, Kan., Columbia, Mo., and everything Kansas City.
And coming soon...www.showmeprogress.com (see the preview here). Think DailyKos, but from Missouri (so slower and not quite as progressive as it thinks). ShowMeProgress.com is an effort to bring together progressive bloggers from across the state, to offer a political site with insights from all corners of Missouri.
