Daily Brief: Monday, August 17, 2026

St. Louis news worth your time today — curated by PubDef, with receipts from the archive. Click through for the full stories.

Missouri child abuse investigators are overwhelmed again as backlogs return

JOPLIN — Ashley Allen had worked almost four years as a child abuse and neglect investigator for the Missouri Children’s Division when she quit in April.  Some days it seemed like the printer in her… — Missouri Independent

Missouri campaigns draw $75M in big donations, much of it from undisclosed donors

Roughly $75 million in large-dollar donations poured into Missouri politics this year. That’s a lot of cash for an election year with no governor or U.S. Senate race. Where did all that money go?… — Missouri Independent

DNC approves 2028 presidential nominating cycle starting in South Carolina, Nevada

The Democratic National Committee on Saturday approved by voice vote its lineup of six early primaries for the 2028 election cycle, kicking off with South Carolina and Nevada. DNC Chair Ken Martin… — Missouri Independent

📼 From the PubDef archive: “Irene, Maida and Mike — a Tale of Delusion, Promise and Possibility” (Nov 2008)

He resisted the pulpit. Now he’s building a church of his own 

As the son of the man who leads one of the most influential Black churches in the country, Rev. Joshua Thomas spent years avoiding the call to ministry. It’s not that he didn’t love the church; he… — St. Louis American

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