Missouri News

The growth of the geospatial industry in St. Louis is catching national attention. The city has been selected to host the GEOINT Symposium in 2023 and 2025.

The event, held annually by the United States Geospatial-Intelligence Foundation, is the largest gathering of geospatial-intelligence stakeholders. It brings in roughly 4,000 attendees each year.

St. Louis currently has more than 10,500 jobs in the geospatial sector, according to figures calculated by the St. Louis Development Corporation. The agency says the total economic impact is $4.9 billion.

One of the biggest donors for Missouri Republicans is calling on Gov. Mike Parson to veto the strict abortion regulations that lawmakers passed at the end of the 2019 session. If he doesn't, there could be a statewide ballot measure in 2020 to repeal them. 

Overflowing rivers and reservoirs across Kansas are already producing significant flooding, particularly in the southeast corner of the state.

But, forecasters say, things could get much worse over the next several days as slow-moving thunderstorms develop over central and northeast Kansas.

“We’re going to see repeated bouts of thunderstorms over the next several days and those storms are going to move repeatedly over the same areas,” said Chad Omitt, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson used the first State of the City address in recent memory to continue her advocacy for a city-county merger.

But with the demise of the statewide Better Together plan, Krewson isn’t rushing to start a process that could place a merger proposal before city and county voters.

This interview will be on “St. Louis on the Air” over the noon hour Friday. This story will be updated after the show. You can listen live.

The 28th annual St. Louis African Arts Festival will return to the World’s Fair Pavilion at Forest Park this weekend from Saturday through Monday. The festival aims to educate people in St. Louis about the wide ranges of cultures among African nations and the African diaspora.

On Friday’s St. Louis on the Air, guest host Sharon Stevens will talk to a couple of the festival’s organizers to explore what patrons can expect at the event, such as an African marketplace, movies, food, various cultural demonstrations, kids’ activities and more.

Back to school will be a little later in Missouri next year if lawmakers get their way.

The Missouri General Assembly passed a law pushing school start dates back about a week over the opposition of school administrators. It’s part of an effort to encourage families to fit one more weekend of trips to amusement parks and lakeside cabins around the state.

Listen Live Entertainment, the producer of the LouFest music festival, has withdrawn a lawsuit charging that vendor Logic Systems, Inc. deliberately sabotaged the 2018 event.

Listen Live canceled the August festival only days before it was set to begin, after major technical vendors — including sound-and-light specialist Logic Systems — pulled out, citing missing or chronically late payments.

The concert promoter had alleged that Logic Systems’ president, Chip Self, exaggerated the festival’s financial troubles in comments to the media, including St. Louis Public Radio, to sabotage the event and launch his own competing festival. Self denies the accusations.

Jason Reynolds is a prominent poet and author of middle-grade and young adult novels. He’s a National Book Award finalist and the author of such books including “Ghost,” “Long Way Down,” and “When I Was The Greatest.”

Reynolds recently sat down for an onstage conversation with Kameel Stanley, the former co-host of St. Louis Public Radio’s “We Live Here” podcast.

In April, the Kansas Supreme Court said the state’s constitution gives women a right to abortion.

That landmark ruling bolsters an ongoing lawsuit to expand access to abortion in Wichita. The case aims to clear the way for a clinic there — unable to find any willing, local doctors — to lean more on physicians in other states.

Counties across Missouri hoped this was the year that the Department of Corrections would make headway on the $20-$30 million they’re owed for housing inmates who eventually go to state prisons.

But legislators allocated only $1.75 million more to address the backlog. Missouri's practice of reimbursing counties in this way is unique in the United States, and local sheriffs and county leaders say it’s time for a better solution.

A new volunteer program aims at providing local students free science, arts and math education, with a particular emphasis on geospatial technology.

GatewayGIS will tutor K-12 students in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. Geospatial technology focuses on the science behind location-based services and mapping.

The organization will collaborate with volunteers from local and national agencies and organizations that will teach the specialized topics through classes and seminars.

Admit it: When you think of chess, an image immediately forms in your mind of two older men, possibly bearded, hunched over a board in a dimly-lit tournament hall. One of the players may be ominously declaring, “Check.” Make no mistake, though: This view is decidedly dated, and the United States Chess Federation (U.S. Chess) is working hard to permanently bury it as we work to show that chess is a game that welcomes anyone — regardless of gender, national origin, age or special circumstances.

The Lee’s Summit school board remains deeply divided over issues of race and equity, a week after voting down a plan to bring in consultants for diversity training.

At a tense work session Wednesday night, newly elected board member Mike Allen accused the district’s first black superintendent, Dennis Carpenter, of only caring about black students.

Carpenter responded, “I will not let you do this. Tell me when I said I was here for the black kids only.”

U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley and Roy Blunt want the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop focusing on protecting wildlife in the Missouri River and instead focus on flood control and navigation, a move that environmentalists are calling misguided.

In 2004, the Corps of Engineers changed its management strategy for the Missouri River to protect two endangered species of birds and one fish, the pallid sturgeon. However, landowners near the river have alleged that prioritizing wildlife over flood protection has caused them extensive property damage from major floods.

So far this year, the St. Louis Blues have generated nearly $4 million in city revenue. And now that the hockey team is headed to the Stanley Cup Final, the city expects an extra financial bump.

That’s according to estimates from St. Louis Budget Director Paul Payne. He said the city will predominantly benefit from direct revenue brought in from sales taxes on tickets. Indirect money from spending on things like concessions, parking, restaurants and hotels will also contribute to the city’s budget.

“I’d estimated back at the beginning of the playoffs you’d see the three games would probably be somewhere in the area of $300,000, which would go up with each succeeding series,” he said.

English rock band The Who first released “Tommy,” the wildly successful rock opera, on May 23, 1969 – exactly 50 years ago this Thursday, when Springfield, Missouri-based bluegrass band The HillBenders will open for The Who at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre.

It might seem an unlikely concert pairing, except that The HillBenders’ 2015 album is a full-length Tommy tribute, bluegrass-opry style.

St. Louis on the Air producer Evie Hemphill caught up with Jim Rea, the group’s guitarist and musical director, as he and the rest of the HillBenders anticipated sharing a stage with The Who.

Matt Staub considers himself to be a forward-thinking guy.

And lately, he's been wondering whether, if he'd been a city leader in the 1950s, would he have wanted to build the downtown loop — those four highway arteries that form a boundary around Kansas City, Missouri's central business district.

Enterprise Center and much of St. Louis erupted in bedlam Tuesday night as the final horn sounded, sending the St. Louis Blues to the 2019 Stanley Cup Final.

The Blues beat the San Jose Sharks in spectacular fashion, scoring two power-play goals and an empty-netter to win 5-1. It sets up a rematch of the 1970 final, which the Boston Bruins won in four.

Updated, 10:30 a.m. Thursday: The meeting this week ended with a commitment to resist the plan approved in February at the General Conference; the church leaders present are not yet calling for a split. Some churches will continue to marry and ordain LGBTQ members.

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The United Methodist Church is in crisis.

In February, the General Conference of the church held a special session in St. Louis, Missouri, to decide whether to allow marriage and ordination for its LGBTQ members.

Before the death of Michael Brown Jr., entrepreneur Ohun Ashe said she did not see many black-owned businesses in her community.

In 2014, Ashe was in the streets of Ferguson and St. Louis protesting the killing of Brown. She recorded video footage of scenes between police and protestors and even the moment when she was arrested and thrown into a paddy wagon. Once demonstrations died down, Ashe was determined to understand her role in the protests.

It was not until 2016 when Ashe envisioned providing the St. Louis community with an online black business directory, ForTheCultureSTL.com.

NASA scientists are lighting flames on the International Space Station to help a Washington University engineer learn how soot forms from fire.

The NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio is conducting the flame experiments remotely. The space agency is sending data to researchers who are exploring ways to eliminate soot so that fuel can be burned more cleanly.

In this very special episode of KCUR’s Statehouse Blend Missouri podcast, we joined forces with St. Louis Public Radio’s Politically Speaking podcast to round up the 2019 session of the Missouri General Assembly.

On a special edition of Politically Speaking, St. Louis Public Radio links up with KCUR’s Statehouse Blend to review the ins and outs of the 2019 session of the Missouri General Assembly.

St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum and Rachel Lippmann joined KCUR’s Samuel King and Brian Ellison to talk about the final week of the legislative session. That’s when the Legislature sent abortion restrictions to Gov. Mike Parson.

Updated, 11:15 a.m. Thursday: On Wednesday, the Kansas City council's finance and governance committee recommended that the the street name restoration measure, which would restore the Paseo name, be placed on the November 5 ballot. The full city council is expected to vote on the measure in two weeks.

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Micheal Logan remembers a time when blacks in Kansas City, Missouri, weren’t allowed to go south of 27^th Street.