2005

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…

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…

According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, Steve Brown, treasurer for Jeff Smith 2006, has "bad PM". For some struggling to read Brown's chicken scratch on Jeff Smith's latest campaign finance reports, bad PM means bad…

[The following editorial, published in last week's print edition of PUB DEF Weekly, was the focus of some discussion on 'Collateral Damage' on KDHX Monday night. In the interest of public discourse, we are making…

November 9, 2005 -- St. Louis Schools Watch has a redesigned blog. Stories from the newsletter published by Peter Downs, parent and former school board candidate, can now be seen online at www.SLSWatch.PUBDEF.net

I understand there is a controversy regarding Cleveland's Naval policy. Is that true? I want to go on record that after living through Larry Myers last year and the horrible condition he left the school,…

October 24, 2005 -- The Washington Post reports that Phoenix-based New Times Media, the nation's largest publisher of alternative weekly newspapers (including the Riverfront Times), is buying the owner of the Village Voice and its…

October 28, 2005 -- At a meeting of the 26th Ward Democrats last night, St. Louis Schools Superintendent Creg E. Williams said that he had spoken with Police Chief Joe Mokwa about the use of…

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…

National opinion has finally turned on the Bush Administration. The Iraq War is now seen by most Americans as a failure and, perhaps more importantly, as unnecessary. The question is now being publicly debated whether…