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DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the
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Two hundred more Missouri National Guard troops have been activated and will arrive in the St. Louis area by morning, according to state officials.
Gov. Matt Blunt issued an executive order today declaring a state of emergency in response to last night's ice storm which left hundreds of thousands without power.
"This storm left a trail of snow and ice across the state, thousands without power and countless Missourians stuck at home," Blunt said. "I am declaring a state of emergency to ensure state resources are readily available to assist however needed."
Blunt also activated the National Guard and directed the state to provide power generators in anticipation of the cold nights which many Missourians are facing.
"Several dozen guard members" and heavy vehicles started arriving this afternoon and generators will be staged to be utilized as directed by local officials. The Guardsmen will be available to go door to door, transport people to warming stations, distribute food or otherwise assist wherever they can with the storm response.
Mayor Francis Slay and County Executive Charlie Dooley requested the state's help this morning.
By 4:00 p.m. 30 guard members were expected to arrive in the St. Louis area, and by 5:00 p.m. an additional 50 to 60 more were expected in the Festus, Farmington and Desoto areas. The 200 more on the way will be in place by 8:00 a.m. and be disbursed throughout the city and county as directed by local officials.
Mayor Francis Slay has requested that Gov. Matt Blunt again mobilize the National Guard to aid a city that is largely without power.
According to Jeff Rainford, the mayor's chief of staff, there are approximately 53,000 city households currently without electricity -- compared to 95,000 earlier this year when summer storms left hundreds of thousands of residents without power for several days.
It appears that for many residents, it's the same story, different season. Ameren officials say it could be 24-48 hours before they will even know when power will be restored.
To help deal with the extremely cold tempertures (expected to drop in the single digits tonight), Rainford said four heating centers are open (see below), with the Wohl Recreation Center, 1515 N. Kingshighway, being left open throughout the night.
Most of the city's libraries are with power and open for people to warm up in. While the city's homeless are being directed to the 12th and Park Recreation Center, 1410 S. Tucker Blvd.
Rainford said the fire department checked on 60 of the city's senior centers this morning and found 11 without power. He said efforts are underway to get power generators set up at those facilities.
And many more generators are on the way. Rainford said the state is purchasing close to 600 generators which will arrive sometime tomorrow. The mayor has requested that the governor send some National Guardsmen to help set up those generators and to help provide primary medical care, just as they did this summer.
Slay praised city workers for helping to clear the streets early this morning. "The Streets Department has done an outstanding job in clearing the arterials and many of the secondary roads," the mayor said on KSDK at noon. He said their work enables Ameren and emergency workers to get where they need to go.
If anyone needs assistance, they are asked to call 1-800-427-4626. This number is operated by the United Way and only for people needing help, not to ask Ameren when power is coming back on. Please be safe and take care of your neighbors.
Warming Centers in the City of St. Louis:
Township Hall (2060 Delmar) St. Louis Senior Center (5602 Arsenal) Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church (5544 Dr. Martin Luther King) Wohl Recreation Center (1515 N. Kingshighway)
For the second time this year, Ameren officials are telling St. Louisans they may be without electricity for several days.
At a press conference this morning, officials with the power company said it could be two days before they even know how long it will take to restore electricity to its quarter million St. Louis area customers currently without power.
Several shelters are being made available to help people stay warm during these difficult times. In St. Louis City, people can go to Township Hall at 2060 Delmar, the St. Louis Senior Center on Arsenal, and Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church at 5544 Dr. Martin Luther King.
If you have any information on other shelters, please post them in the comments section. And please check on your neighbors. If you live on the side of the street with power, don't let your neighbor across the street go cold.
Representatives from the power company Ameren say that, as of 9:15 this morning, 496,351 people are without electricity in Missouri and Illinois -- nearly 200,000 of those are in the St. Louis area.
At a time when some elected officials are calling for the state to take absolute control over St. Louis Public Schools, one new state rep is looking for slight changes in existing law to improve education in the city.
State Rep-elect Jamilah Nasheed says she is preparing legislation to address "social promotion" in SLPS. She said too often in public schools students are passed to the next grade without actually mastering the skills they need to succeed in that grade.
"Right now we have too many children who are falling behind. Our focus needs to be fully on our children and how we can best meet their needs," she said.
Nasheed said she is continuing the work of former State Rep. and State Senator Paula Carter, who in 2001 passed Senate Bill 319 which requires school districts to develop assessment mechanisms for third-grade and older students who are reading below grade level and to provide them with additional summer school reading instruction.
"Paula Carter worked diligently to provide the children of this area with the opportunities they needed to receive a good education," said Nasheed.
"I want to take a closer look at our system in order to ensure we are meeting the standards that Paula Carter set. If we are not, I want to find ways to improve the system so that our children graduate from high school with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed as adults."
The Council of Black Elected Officials will be meeting again on Saturday to approve the organization's by-laws and discuss the upcoming 5th District State Senate campaign.
Readers will remember this group, which has been dormant for many years, met again for the first time a few weeks ago (see video below). Not much happened at that meeting, leaving hopes high that this weekend these elected leaders can begin to broker some kind of deal that could avoid a replay of this year's 4th District race which left north St. Louis' black vote split.
The Council will again be meeting at the Gateway Classic Foundation, 2012 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, at 10:00 AM.
Students at Beaumont High School received a surprise visitor yesterday.
Rapper and actor Bow Wow, who is in town to promote his new album, stopped by during a special assembly at the school.
Principal Travis Brown selected 200 students who were either on the honor roll or had perfect attendance to attend the last-minute assembly. "We are honored that Bow Wow visited our school," said Brown. "Our teachers and staff try to find ways to encourage students who are achieving in the classroom."
Bow Wow, 19, spoke to students about the importance of staying in school.
"I didn’t get a chance to attend high school because I got started in the business at a young age," said Bow Wow. "I was one of the lucky ones to have fame, but it is really important that you put your mind on achieving great things when you leave school."
Bow Wow has been making records since 2000. He has also appeared in several films, including "Like Mike", "Roll Bounce" and "Johnson Family Vacation" with St. Louis-born Cedric the Entertainer.
The owners of the German-style restaurant The St. Louis Gast Haus will be hosting a fundraiser for Lewis Reed's Aldermanic President campaign next week.
Ann Sueme, and Bill, Maritza, Carmen, and Ed Stock will be hosting the event on Monday, December 11, from 5:30 to 8:00 PM at their restauranta at 1740 Chouteau. Requested contributions are between $50 and $1,275.
Despite repeated assertions by the school board president, St. Louis Public Schools maintains that Vashon's new basketball coach does not make a $125,000 per year salary.
As late as yesterday in a "You Paid for It" segment on KTVI Channel 2, Board Pres. Veronica O'Brien repeated her claims that Anthony Bonner, the former NBA star who was recently hired to replace legendary and controversial coach Floyd Irons at Vashon High School, is receiving a salary that dwarfs that of many principals and teachers in the district.
"Anthony Bonner makes $125,000 and the man is doing three and four jobs. That will not change. So that is your answer for the public," O'Brien told investigative reporter Elliot Davis. But according to SLPS officials, that's not what district records show.
According to SLPS Communications Director Tony Sanders, Bonner, who officially started with the district on Oct. 17, earns an annual salary of $72,000 plus standard employee benefits in his position as Executive Director of Community Outreach, a position that did not previously exist and some believe was created just for Bonner.
Bonner also receives an annual stipend of $4,084 for coaching varsity basketball at Vashon, the same stipend paid to every boys basketball coach in the district.
Click here to watch Elliot Davis' report featuring a revealing ambush interview of O'Brien.
State Rep. Rodney Hubbard is having a birthday party and he's inviting the whole city.
Hubbard and entrepreneur Kevin Bryant, of Inkosi Design Studio, are hosting the "1st Annual St. Louis House Party" on Friday, Dec. 8 to celebrate their birthdays and their love for their town.
"Rodney Hubbard and Kevin Bryant believe that we’ve got a lot to be proud of in St. Louis," reads their press release. "...Our sports teams, entertainers and of course all the new development that’s going on downtown. That’s why they are celebrating their birthdays with not just their families, but all of St. Louis."
The party starts at 9:00 at Club Dreams, 3207 Washington, and will be hosted by Chocolate Tai, of Nelly's Derrty Entertainment, and Universal Records recording artist Penelope.
And St. Louis' own Jibbs, the latest hometown rapper to break through to national fame, is scheduled to perform his hit "Chain Hang Low".
A portion of the proceeds from this event will go towards "Toys in the Hood", a not for profit venture created to provide toys for low income families for the holidays.
We have for some time been considering a move from Blogger to WordPress. We designed the custom template you are seeing now all by ourselves (in that respect, Blogger's simplicity is very nice), but WordPress' CSS programming mumbo jumbo is über intimidating.
Can anyone out there build us (or modify) a WordPress template to match the look of our current one?
And while we're making our Christmas wish list public here; we're also in the market for a used cordless microphone... And a decent camera flash... And a Nintendo Wii... And investors for a big project we're working on.
Gov. Matt Blunt appeared on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" Monday to discuss what he and host Bill O'Reilly called "activist judges".
Specifically, the two discussed a recent ruling by Lawrence County, Missouri Judge Larry Meyer, who sentenced 50 year-old Kenneth Slaght to probation after he was convicted of raping his 9 year-old step-granddaughter.
"This is a great example of why we need to take discretion away from judges," said Blunt. "We need to have strict mandatory sentences, and that's what we'll have in the future in Missouri."
While other urban mayors are fighting to take the reigns of their city's failing school districts, Mayor Francis Slay continues to push instead for the state's Republican governor to take over St. Louis Public Schools. And he's finding an ally in the woman he first appointed to the school board.
After denials four months ago by his aides, Robin Wahby and Ed Rhode, of secret conversations first reported by PUB DEF in July in which the mayor's office called on the state to intervene following the defeat of his hand-picked school board candidates, Mayor Slay, a Democrat, has grown more and more vocal about his desire for Gov. Matt Blunt to take control over St. Louis' beleaguered schools.
"A State takeover of the district is a needed first step," the mayor wrote on his website Saturday.
"If legislation is needed to make the law clear and to protect a takeover from legal challenge, the Missouri General Assembly should pass a bill the first month it is in session -- and the Governor should sign it."
The current school board president, who Slay appointed to the board in 2004 after former member Rochelle Moore was removed because of her erratic behavior, has joined Slay in calling for state intervention.
Veronica O'Brien said that while she doesn't yet support an all-out "takeover," she does think the state should do away with the superintendent's office.
"A state takeover in the truest sense would be disastrous and it would not help the children," O'Brien told KSDK this week. But she said she wants to see the position of superintendent completely eliminated and replaced by two positions; a chief operating officer and a chief academic officer.
O'Brien also has begun to undermine the credibility of the very woman she abruptly introduced as superintendent just four months ago.
"Dr. [Diana] Bourisaw does not have the experience to handle some things in this district," O'Brien told Channel 5. She said she once believed Bourisaw had the "potential to grow," but no longer.
O'Brien said she doesn't believe she personally deserves any of the blame for the current state of the district. "I don't think I bear the burden of many years of the district falling apart," she said.
In that regard, she and the mayor are again on the same page.
For three years, between April 2003 and April 2006, Mayor Slay enjoyed unprecedented influence over St. Louis Public Schools. Under the direction of his original slate of candidates -- Vince Schoemehl, Bob Archibald, Ronald Jackson and Darnetta Clinkscale, who later became the heavy-handed board majority -- the district embarked on an expensive experiment, overseen and co-directed from the mayor's own office, that turned control of the district over to a New York City-based corporate turnaround firm and a superintendent that had absolutely no prior experience in education.
When the dust settled, the district was left in debt, the community was even more divided, and the New Yorkers where back in New York preparing for their next adventure in New Orleans.
But Slay, like O'Brien, accepts no blame for his role in today's mess.
"It would be controversial to give up local control of the St. Louis Public Schools, but it would be plain wrong to allow the district to continue to betray the futures of thousands of students," Slay wrote today on his website. "It's past time for a state takeover. Why not just say that?"
If Slay and O'Brien get their way, it would put St. Louis City residents in the very unique position of being perhaps the only city population in America with no control over either its own police force or its own public schools.
Now the commentary:
It is not leadership to jump to the front of a steady march and join in the chorus. Indeed, it is cowardice for elected leaders to abandon their mission and turn over the power voters invested in them to outsiders -- whether they be from New York City or Jefferson City.
If Mayor Slay wants to be a good leader and if he truly wants someone to have the authority to "put the district in the hands of a strong administrator with a mandate to stabilize the district and start it on the long road to recovery," as he says, then he should ask for that power, not pass the buck to a governor who has repeatedly voiced his own insensitivity to this state's urban people.
Instead of giving our power over to the state, the mayor should ask for control over his city's schools -- as mayors have done in Chicago, Cleveland and Los Angeles, and as is currently being considered in Seattle and Washington D.C.
It would be controversial, but no more so than if a governor who is not directly accountable to St. Louisans was given control.
And at least there would finally be one person the voters of this city could hold accountable for the future of our public schools.
Journalism legend Ed Bradley, who died on Nov. 10 of leukemia, left a quarter of a million dollars in his will to local TV achor Cordell Whitlock, the "60 Minutes" icon's godson.
In a 2002 joint interview with USA Today, Whitlock, of KSDK Channel 5, credited Bradley with sparking his interest in journalism when he was in the third grade and Bradley got him into a White House press conference.
"I remember seeing Jimmy Carter walk into the room," said Whitlock. "That was the first time I'd ever seen someone I'd watched on TV in real life. It was breathtaking, just blew me away."
According to the New York Daily News, Bradley left Whitlock $250,000 in his last will and testament. The largest portion of Bradley’s $5 million estate went to his wife Patricia Blanchet.
UPDATE: There were a few surprises this morning as the filing window opened for incumbents and challengers seeking to run in the March 2007 primary elections.
As we first reported last week, former school board member Bill Haas is challenging 18th Ward Alderman Terry Kennedy. When we asked Haas, who has run unsuccessfully for numerous offices over the years (including mayor and, most recently, state representative), why now alderman, he said simply "it was on the ballot."
Haas added it would be an honor to replace "a great alderman like Terry Kennedy."
The biggest surprise came in the filing of retired police officer Matt Browning against 12th Ward Ald. Fred Heitert. [Click here to read more about this and view a video interview with Browning.] Both are Republicans and Browning's moving personal story and considerable name recognition could make this race very competitive.
Alderman Craig Schmid (20th Ward) also got a challenger in Cherokee Street resident Galen Gondolfi.
In the 6th Ward, Kacie Starr Triplett's name will appear on the ballot above Committeeman Patrick Cacchione and first-time candidate Christian Saller.
Another surprise came in the 4th Ward, where neither incumbent Ald. O.L. Shelton or his expected challenger, Sam Moore, showed up this morning to file. [UPDATE: Shelton filed at 4:30 p.m]
Still Developing...
UPDATE 2: Here are some photos from today's filings. Please don't steal our photos. If you'd like to use them, just ask.
The city's only Republican alderman got an unexpected challenger this morning, former St. Louis City police officer Matt Browning.
Browning, who lost his legs in October 2004 after being pinned between two cars on a routine traffic stop, filed to run against 12th Ward Alderman Fred Heitert this morning in the March 2007 Republican primary. Check back later for video...
UPDATE: Here's that video we promised. In it, Browning says one of the reasons he decided to run was the terrible state of many of his ward's sidewalks. He said they make it hard -- even dangerous -- for pedestrians, especially wheelchair-bound residents such as him, to move around the ward.
Heitert, the city's longest-serving alderman, filed shortly after Browning. He told KWMU's Tom Weber this morning that he'd like four more years representing the 12th Ward in City Hall.
"I enjoy serving the people in the 12th ward and I just want to continue," he told Weber. "They've had me for 28 years - I feel I've served my people well. I wish Matt the best."
