2005

St. Louis School Board member Bill Purdy called the program "a national scandal" and "a travesty" and refused to vote for it at the school board meeting on October 11. Fellow school board member Ron…

PUB DEF Weekly is pleased to announce it is now hosting a blog for Peter Down's informative St. Louis Schools Watch.The URL is http://slswatch.pubdef.net and it will be updated often, so check it regularly.This continues…

October 31, 2005 -- According to Deb Peterson's column in Sunday's Post-Dispatch, State Senate Minority Leader Maida Coleman is still "waffling on the decision" to run in the Democratic primary for state auditor.As we reported…

By Peter DownsSt. Louis Mayor Francis Slay yesterday unveiled his first major moves to retain control of the school board. He announced the resignation of Vincent Schoemehl from the board a mere four and a…

Here's the right-leaning National Review's John J. Miller's assessment of the Talent/McCaskill Senate race:The Democrats didn’t recruit their best candidate to challenge GOP senator Jim Talent -- that probably would have been secretary of state…

Chris Wright, the superintendent of Hazelwood Public Schools, has written a sharply-worded letter to the chief executive officer of Applied Scholastics rejecting her claim that the company is working with Hazelwood Public Schools to tutor…

According to campaign finance reports electronically filed by Amber Boykins' campaign for state senate, the four-term state representative (D-60) made a $15,000 no-interest loan to her campaign.It's not uncommon for candidates to do this to…

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December 1, 2005 -- Fifty years ago today, a 42-year-old Southern black woman made a decision to no longer be a party to her own disrespect. Rosa Parks said “no” to the question of her…

By Peter DownsNovember 22, 2005 –– Last Friday, David Welch, director of gifted education programs for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, gave representatives from metropolitan area school districts the news they had…