A PUB DEF VIDEO REPORT

The St. Louis City School Board heard a report tonight by Chief Operating Officer Deanna Anderson on the costs and benefits of ending the district’s contract with Sodexho and bringing back in-house many of the maintenance operations that the contractor oversees.

Watch our special video report from the meeting:

EXCLUSIVE PUB DEF VIDEO

At a press conference today meant to call attention to the working conditions of employees of Wal-Mart, America’s largest private employer, Congressman Lacy Clay was asked about contributions he has accepted from the retailer.

At the conclusion of Clay’s speech, which slammed Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott for his company’s huge profits in the face of persistent poverty among his roughly 1.4 million employees, reporter Matt Sepic of local NPR affiliate KWMU asked Clay whether he would return nearly $7,000 in campaign donations from Wal-Mart’s political action committee.

“Not at all,” said Clay. “That’s the name of the game is raising money. I have dues to pay to my Democratic Party, about $150,000 a year. So wherever I can get that money to pay those dues, I will take it.”

Clay said even though he has accepted money from Wal-Mart, he has not voted how the company would have wanted him to on many issues in Congress.

“You have to have money to run effectively,” said Clay. “I’m going to take all the money I can get.”

Check back later for more exclusive video from today’s press conference…

Take a look at St. Louis a half a century ago in this 9 minute promotional video from the old St. Louis Community Chest fund.

More than two dozen black elected officials from the City of St. Louis met this morning at the Gateway Classic Foundation to discuss plans for greater organization and cooperation.

The meeting, organized by Congressman Lacy Clay, Alderman Greg Carter and Committeeman Arthur “Chink” Washington, was an attempt to revive the defunct Council of Black Elected Officials which hasn’t met in years.

Sources say the meeting lasted nearly two hours and ended with a pledge to meet again soon — perhaps in early December — and possibly elect officers for the organization at a later time.

PUB DEF EXCLUSIVE VIDEO

The first votes have arrived at the St. Louis City Board of Elections. Election judges arrived at in police cars around 12:30 carrying white boxes filled with optical scan ballots.

Election officials said no vote totals will be released until after the polls close.

Stay with PUBDEF.NET today for hourly updates.

Actor Michael J. Fox, whose commercial for U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill has been the subject of much discussion the past few days, discussed with Katie Couric the recent allegations made by radio host Rush Limbaugh and his ongoing battle with Parkinson’s disease.

The Washington Post has posted an in-depth video report on Missouri’s Stem Cell Initiative. Click here to watch the video by Judy-Anne Goldman.

Thanks to FiredUpMissouri.com for the link.

Let’s start Friday off right — with some tunes.

Yesterday we took our camera over to the East Side, near Brooklyn, Illinois. No, it’s not what you’re thinking. It was for a project. No, not that kind of project… Look, can we just get back to the story?

Anyway, not far past all the strip clubs and prostitutes, in a town called Lovejoy (oh boy), is a school appropriately named Lovejoy School. Six decades ago, a boy named Hamiet Bluiett attended that school. That boy grew up to become one of the most respected saxophonists on the planet. Yesterday, he returned to Lovejoy and he brought along three of his friends. Together, they call themselves the World Saxophone Quartet.

The World Saxophone Quartet — comprised of founding members Bluiett and Oliver Lake, and master saxophonists James Carter and St. Louis native Greg Osby — are currently celebrating their 30th Anniversary. They will be performing tonight and Saturday at the Bistro, 3536 Washington Ave., across from the Fox Theatre.

PUB DEF EXCLUSIVE VIDEO REPORT

Several former and current workers demonstrated today in front of the St. Louis office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) demanding to be paid for work they had performed and alleging that they were instructed to tell people to vote for U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill while registering voters in support of the proposed minimum wage increase.

Ten-year ACORN veteran Josephine Perkins claims she was fired last week, in part because she informed the teams she supervised that it was inappropriate and illegal for them to campaign for McCaskill while being paid by ACORN and Give Missourians a Raise, the political action committee which supports Proposition B and, according to campaign finance reports, has given money to ACORN to circulate its literature.

Several other ACORN workers also told PUB DEF that they were told to ask voters to vote for McCaskill. But Johanna Sharrard, the political field director for ACORN, denies that is the case.

“That’s not going on in this office,” she said. “It’s not been the case at all.”

She declined to say on-camera why Perkins was fired. But Perkins told us the reason Sharrard, who has been at the St. Louis office only four weeks, gave for her termination was theft, a charge she vehemently denies.

Another ACORN worker, Joseph Weick, said he has not been paid for work he did with the organization last month. He also said that he and others were told last week that they needed to re-apply for their positions, which he took as a termination.

“They refuse to give me my check,” said Weick. “I guess there’s at least about a half a dozen of us that have worked for these people and aren’t getting paid.”

Weick said he too was told to ask people to vote for McCaskill while registering voters and passing out literature supporting the minimum wage increase, which if true could be a violation of federal election laws.

“These are very serious allegations and we are reviewing our options as they relate to the McCaskill campaign and the potential exploitation of a tax-exempt organization that is supposed to help those who need help the most,” said Rich Chrismer, a spokesman for McCaskill’s opponent, Sen. Jim Talent.

The McCaskill campaign declined to comment for this story.

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