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DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the
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Early this morning, Timothy Bacon was shot and killed while he was on his way for cigarettes. According to a story by Bill Bryan on STLToday.com, he was shot by three men -- one of whom came back to the body to fire several more shots.
Bacon, 21, was the young man who, according to the Missouri Division of Family Services, was badly beaten by then-Vashon basketball coach Floyd Irons in 2000 and whose case was recently brought up by St. Louis School Board President Veronica O'Brien, who called for a federal investigation into the matter.
Mayor Francis Slay took the stand today in the trial of Percy Green vs. The City of St. Louis. He testified -- as did his deputy, Barb Geisman, yesterday and his chief of staff, Jeff Rainford, later this morning -- that Green was not fired in retribution for comments he made in a June 17, 2001 article in the Post-Dispatch.
Percy Green contends that he was fired as director of the Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE) Certification program because he was openly critical of what he told the Post was a "broken system." He also said this week that Slay wanted to weaken the office "because his major political contributors are owners of businesses that stand to profit from doing business with illegitimate 'front' companies."
Closing arguments in the case are expected around 12:30 after which Judge Jean C. Hamilton will hand the case over to a jury of 7 whites and 1 black. We expect a verdict later today.
Developing...
UPDATE: The jury found in favor of the City of St. Louis. Green says he has not decided yet if he will appeal.
HAM MAKES IT OKAY - U.S. Senator Jim Talent and his Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill may not be each other's favorite people right now, but it was all smiles yesterday at the State Fair's annual ham breakfast.
About 900 people attended the event -- with nearly all of them clearly already supporting one candidate or the other with a t-shirt or sticker proudly planted on their chests. For their part, Talent and McCaskill bumped into each other a few times and spoke cordially about family, the weather, and of course, ham.
HOUSE OF CLAY - Congressman Lacy Clay is hosting a free conference on homeownership starting this weekend. "10 Weeks to Homeownership" is being held at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1444 S. Compton, in cooperation with FannieMae, CitiMortgage, New Day Realty and With Ownership Wealth (WOW).
Word on the street is Congressman Russ Carnahan may be needing those services as he packs up and moves to a newly purchased home in Washington D.C. [UPDATE:Joel Jennings, Carnahan's communications director, tells us that the Congressman has only secured a larger apartment "to better accommodate his family when in D.C." and not actually bought a house.]
CROSSING $2M BRIDGES - Gov. Matt Blunt told reporters this week that he has not decided yet whether he will be running for re-election in 2008. But there is one thing he (and now we) definitely does know: he is "absolutely not" interested in running for a seat in the U.S. House or Senate.
As for what he'll do with the nearly $2 million he has already raised should he decide not to run: "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," he told the Columbia Daily Tribune.
VIDEO: Residency Supporters and Opponents Address Police Board
By Antonio D. French
Filed
Thursday, August 17, 2006 at 1:12 AM
Meeting tonight at the Tandy Center in north St. Louis, members of the St. Louis Police Board again heard from civilian employees of the department who want to be allowed to move out of the City of St. Louis. Board members also heard tonight from citizens who want all police employees to live where they work.
Jamilah Nasheed, who as a new State Rep will soon be representing the north St. Louis neighborhood where the meeting was held, spoke against lifting the residency requirement.
"I'm against any city resident that's on the city payroll to be living outside of the city," said Nasheed.
And in his first interview with PUB DEF, Mayor Francis Slay said he hopes the police board, which as mayor he is a member of, waits to decide on this issue until after city voters are again allowed to let their feelings be known through a non-binding referendum which will appear on the November ballot.
"Frankly, tonight there was a total of 13 people that testified. We have 350,000 residents in the City of St. Louis. I'm sure there's a lot more than 13 in this neighborhood alone that have an opinion on this issue," said Slay.
Some people have emailed us saying they are having trouble watching the few videos we've posted recently using the Vimeo video sharing service. The solution is very simple: download and install the latest version of Flash for your Mac or PC. It's free, only takes a minute to install, and will make your iLife so much better.
The St. Louis School Board of Education, which just met yesterday, will meet again on Friday for an Emergency Special Board Meeting at the Administrative Building, 801 N. 11th Street.
The last such meeting ended with the abrupt resignation of Superintendent Creg Williams and a whole beehive full of new controversy for SLPS.
This Special Meeting will begin at 3:00 p.m. in open session and will move immediately into closed session to discuss an undisclosed emergency legal matter.
Developing...
UPDATE: An SLPS spokesperson has sent out another meeting notification -- this time without the word "emergency."
"This should not be considered an emergency meeting," he wrote in his email correcting the earlier announcement.
With the ongoing legal issues involving board members Veronica O'Brien (who appeared in court last week seeking a restraining order against a former district employee) and Bill Purdy (who at least two other board members are seeking to have removed from the board) -- not to mention the numerous legal issues normally facing any district the size of SLPS -- there is no guessing which issue this meeting will be about.
During the power outages last month, more than 1,500 people were left in the dark at Lambert Airport after three separate power generators failed. An investigation by Chris Hayes of Channel 2 News revealed that those generators had not been properly serviced in years, despite claims by the airport's deputy director, Girard Slay, brother of Mayor Francis Slay, that they had been tested as recently as June 30.
At a press conference after the storms which knocked power out to much of the region, Girard Slay told reporters that the generators had been regularly maintained -- including the June 30 test which he said included them being ran "at idle speed for a half hour." He told the same thing to Lambert's director, Kevin Dolliole.
But records reviewed by Channel 2 showed the June 30 "tests" did not allow the generators to run at all. In fact, according to the station's report which aired last night, there is no record of the main terminal's generator being turned on at all since September of last year.
After learning the truth about the maintenance records, Dolliole told Channel 2 that the situation was "unacceptable" and said he has notified Mayor Slay about pre-disciplinary hearings which may include his brother.
Slay has posted a comment about the situation on his blog. He notes that "a supervisor initially claimed that [the generators] had been tested every month." He does not mention his own relationship to that supervisor.
Cleaning out the ol' PUB DEF video vault, we recently came across this jewel. It's a video we shot almost exactly two years ago -- back in August 2004 before we had any outlet to share such videos. It's from the St. Louis stop of the Hip-Hip Summit which sought to increase youth participation in the 2004 Presidential Election.
The video features Summit founder Russell Simmons; his brother, Reverend Run from Run-DMC; rappers Jadakiss; Loon; Remy Martin; Biz from D-12; soul singer Anthony Hamilton; hip-hop legend Doug E. Fresh; and HSAN President/CEO Dr. Benjamin Chavis. Oh, and Nelly.
Look for cameos by State Rep. Rodney Hubbard, 5th Ward Committeewoman Cheryl Nelson, and a certain St. Louis American reporter that doesn't mind rudely getting next to celebrities while they're talking to other people just so he can get his picture taken with them.
PUBDEF.NET received nearly 45,000 visits in July -- including several days in which many of our readers were without electricity. The first two weeks of August have already brought more than 27,000 visits.
Typical 160x600 banner ads like the one on the right side of this page run $100-$250 per week. We also produce and/or host video ads (from 30 seconds to 10 minutes long) like these below for very reasonable prices.
If you'd like to advertise on PUB DEF, email us today at advertising@pubdef.net or call (314) 779-9958.
The St. Louis Board of Education will meet tonight at The Administrative Building, 801 N. 11th Street, Room 108. The Executive Session will begin at 6:00 p.m. and is closed to the public. The open session will begin at 7:00 p.m.
Among tonight's agenda items are approval of the Non-GOB (General Operating Budget) budget for the 2006-07 school year and setting of tax rate for Fiscal Year 2007.
The St. Louis City Police Board will again be listening to opinions from the public about the residency requirement for civilian employees of the Department. But this time the board will be meeting in north St. Louis.
Tomorrow at 7:00 p.m., the Board -- which includes Mayor Francis Slay -- is supposed to meet at the Tandy Center, 4206 W. Kennerly, for its monthly meeting. Over the past few months, they have heard comments from groups in south St. Louis that were largely stacked with civilian employees and their families who mostly spoke in support of lifting requirement to live in the City of St. Louis.
Those opponents of the requirement point to the state of the city schools, the rise in property values, and even crime as reasons all employees of the Police Department should be able to move out of the city.
At past meetings, supporters of the current rule were often met with loud interruptions and booing from the audience. It will be interesting to see how different tomorrow's northside meeting will be.
Fight May be Brewing for City Dems Chairman Post, Committee Meets Tonight
By Antonio D. French
As the Democratic committee-men and -women of the City of St. Louis prepare to gather tonight to elect their officers, rumors are circulating about a possible battle for the top spot of that occasionally influential body.
Some are suggesting a challenge to the chairmanship of 7th Ward Committeeman Brian Wahby will come from the northside -- possibly from the 1st Ward.
When reached by phone, 1st Ward Committeeman Talibdin El-Amin said that he definitely would not be seeking the chairmanship. But Mr. El-Amin would not say whether his wife, Committeewoman and outgoing State Rep. Yaphett El-Amin, would be seeking the office.
Mrs. El-Amin could not be reached for comment, but her name has come up most frequently when we called around on this story. Considering some of the still fresh wounds from her campaign for the state senate, which ended last week in a loss to upstart Jeff Smith, it isn't clear if she would have enough support even among northside black committee members to stage a strong challenge.
Wahby said he isn't worried. "I'm pretty confident in my support," he told PUB DEF.
Tonight's meeting at The Cedars, 39 Lebanon Drive, at 6:00 p.m. will also try to serve as an after-Primary "coming together" to begin to heal those wounds in the name of making a strong push for the Democrats' statewide nominees -- most notably U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill.
Many of last Tuesday's Primary winners have been invited to attend tonight's meeting, including: the next License Collector, Mike McMillan; the next Collector of Revenue, Gregory F.X. Daly; the next 60th District State Rep, Jamilah Nasheed; and the next 4th District State Senator, Jeff Smith.
TALENT WON'T TELL - The Secretary of State's office last week approved for the November ballot a measure that would raise the minimum wage in Missouri to $6.50 ($1.35 higher than the federal minimum wage). Gov. Matt Blunt is against it, candidate for U.S. Senate Claire McCaskill says she supports it, but her opponent, incumbent Jim Talent won't say whether he favors it or is against it.
We do know that Talent did support a bump in the federal minimum wage -- but only if it was linked to another tax cut for businesses and America's most wealthy individuals. We also know (thanks to the Associated Press) that one of the groups opposing the ballot measure is the National Federation of Independent Business, which Talent briefly lobbied for in Washington after he lost his 2000 campaign for Governor and left the U.S. House.
THE CASE OF PERCY V. SLAY - Percy Green will have his day in court Wednesday. The jury trial is expected to last only a few days as the legendary activist makes his case against the City of St. Louis and Mayor Francis Slay for his 2001 termination as director of the Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE) Certification program. Green contends that the mayor wanted to weaken the office for political reasons.
"The purpose of the certification program was to prevent white, male-owned businesses from setting up 'front' companies to get city contracts that should go to legitimate minority- or woman-owned businesses," wrote Green in an email. "A weak (or non-existent) certification program benefits Slay because his major political contributors are owners of businesses that stand to profit from doing business with illegitimate 'front' companies."
The trial is set for August 16, at 9:00 a.m. in the new Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse, 111 South 10th St., in Judge Jean C. Hamilton's Courtroom, #16 North.
Early this morning, Timothy Bacon was shot and killed while he was on his way for cigarettes. According to a story by Bill Bryan on STLToday.com, he was shot by three men -- one of whom came back to the body to fire several more shots.
