EDITOR’S NOTE:  Sorry, the sound’s not so good on the first interview.

Earlier this week, St. Louis Community College (SLCC) suspended music professor Lawrence Stukenholtz for sexual misconduct. Stukenholtz was not suspended for any misdeeds at SLCC, but for incidents at Matter Dei High School in California, a Catholic institution.

Court records show that after reports of sexual relationships and abuse with female minors, Stukenholtz was offered the chance to resign or else face a full investigation. He resigned and eventually wound up teaching music at SLCC.

When one of Stukenholtz’s victims, Sarah Gray, found out about his position in St. Louis she contacted the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Local SNAP officials say they told SLCC administrators about Stukenholtz’s past, but after no action was taken, they met with Gray and hand-delivered a letter to the school’s main office.

Following the delivery, Stukenholtz was suspended.

Gray’s legal options against Stukenholtz are limited since she already settled a case, along with other victims.

“The settlement was basically a way for myself and the other girls to move forward,” says Gray.

Gray is currently pushing to get Stukenhotlz indicted on charges of sexual abuse of a child in Orange County, California.

PubDef talked with Gray before she and SNAP representatives delivered their letter to the SLCC.

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The President of the 24th Ward Democrats sat down with PubDef.net this afternoon to discuss the ongoing effort to recall Mayor Francis Slay and why his organization opposes it.

John Corbett, president of the 24th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, was active in the recall of his own alderman, Tom Bauer, just two years ago. Corbett is a retired University City firefighter and has spent time lobbying on behalf of firefighters in state government. He says he sometimes worked with, and sometimes against, former Fire Chief Sherman George back when George was an active member of the black firefighters’ organization, F.I.R.E.

“Sherman has his own agenda, just like I did when I was president of the firefighters’ union,” says Corbett. “I don’t think Sherman ever changed from working for F.I.R.E.”

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And now the exciting conclusion of our interview with affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly.

Connerly has come to Missouri to support a proposed amendment to our state constitution to “ban affirmative action programs designed to eliminate discrimination against, and improve opportunities for, women and minorities in public contracting, employment and education.”

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Last week, I sat down with Ward Connerly, the controversial founder and chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, a national non-profit organization created to oppose racial and gender preference, commonly known as affirmative action.

In 1996, Connerly was instrumental in getting Proposition 209 passed in California. The controversial initiative amended the state’s constitution to prohibit public institutions, such as universities, from taking race or gender into consideration in hiring or admissions.

Connerly has now come to Missouri. He has been brought in to be the spokesman for a group based out of Grain Valley, Missouri which is organizing to get an initiative passed next year which is very similar to the one passed in California.

The California initiative passed by 54%. In this much more conservative Midwestern state, supporters of affirmative action are up for a fight — one that will likely be settled on the very same ballot that decides who will be the next President of the United States.

And now, part 1 of my interview with Ward Connerly…

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Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of my interview.

PubDef.net caught up with State Senator Rita Days (D-St. Louis County) as she was leaving the Ferrara Theatre in America’s Center, where Democratic Presidential candidates Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama addressed the National Urban League Conference just moments before.

PUB DEF EXCLUSIVE

PubDef.net caught up with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean at the National Urban League Convention today. We asked him what he thought about the major Republican Presidential candidates choosing not to attend the convention.

“I’m not entirely surprised,” said Dean. “They didn’t show up at the NAACP. They didn’t show up at the National Association of Latino Elected Officials.”

“Our party is the party that includes everybody — in fact, it depends on everybody in order to win. And theirs doesn’t.”

Longtime “Blairmont” watchdog Michael Allen sat down with PubDef Friday to discuss Governor Matt Blunt’s veto just hours earlier of the giant economic development bill that included a $100 million tax credit for one man, developer Paul McKee.

In addition to giving his reaction to the veto, Allen, an Old North resident who said he fully supports the state earmarking millions of dollars in tax credits to rebuild north St. Louis, suggested ways that McKee and state legislators can craft a better piece of legislation next year — one which residents and local elected officials can support.

Learn more at www.eco-absence.org/blairmont

Very few of the tens of thousands of people who attended this week’s V.P. Parade know anything at all about its history.

Local Civil Rights legend Percy Green sat down with PubDef.net yesterday to discuss to history of the Veiled Prophet (V.P.) Parade and tell us the story of how in 1972 he led his group of militant ACTION activists in an operation to unveil the mysterious prophet.

Read more about the unveiling of the Veiled Prophet in Lucy Ferriss’ “Unveiling the Prophet: The Misadventures of a Reluctant Debutante“.

JEFFERSON CITY – Still receiving criticisms and praises alike, State Sen. John Loudon spoke with PubDef today about his passion for the controversial issue of midwifery and the fallout from his stealth legalization of the practice in Missouri.