Missouri News

Ameren Missouri will build a network of electric charging stations along Interstates 70, 40 and 55 by the end of the year.

Ameren Missouri is among six Midwest utilities planning to build charging stations in several states, including Missouri, Illinois and Oklahoma. The multistate network is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

As more people rely on electric vehicles, additional charging stations are needed on highways to keep them running, Ameren Missouri officials said.

When Nautica was laid off from her job at a day care in April, she ran through a list of items she needed to buy: food, diapers, wipes. As a single mother, the thought of how she could possibly afford those necessities and still pay her utility bills and rent was overwhelming.

“I kind of started losing hope, I’m not going to lie,” said Nautica, who spoke to St. Louis Public Radio on the condition that her last name not be published.

Then, she saw an advertisement on Facebook for Cool Down St. Louis, a program that eventually helped her pay off $874 in energy bills.

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While Cardinals fans haven’t been able to physically attend games at Busch Stadium this summer, some have still managed to appear in the seats.

Like many Major League Baseball teams, the Cards offered fans a chance to send in a photo of themselves or a loved one. Those photos were then put on cardboard cutouts and placed throughout the ballpark.

The team uses the money raised by the $70 fee to support its foundation, Cardinals Care.

Ferguson Mayor Ella Jones has decided to make revitalizing the city through economic development a priority of her administration.

During a virtual town hall on Thursday, Jones said she plans to focus on creating jobs, helping businesses and rebuilding city neighborhoods.

“To do this I would need the help of the region, so I can identify some key partners to help with the initiative,” Jones said.

To support her plan, Jones has formed the Mayor's Community Task Force, a group of appointed community leaders and residents.

ROLLA — Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft is encouraging voters to ignore national stories and trust their local election officials.

On the same day President Donald Trump again claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to fraud and questionable election results, the fellow Republican was traveling around Missouri advocating a safe process.

Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway released an audit Thursday calling on St. Louis officials to improve the way redevelopment subsidies are managed.

The audit found that as of 2018, the city had 109 active tax increment financing projects, known as TIFs. The city awarded more than $650 million in tax incentives to assist in funding those developments.

Updated at 7:02 p.m. Sept. 25 with information regarding Tim Eby's continued role at the station and comments from UMSL Chancellor Kristin Sobolik

Tim Eby, general manager at St. Louis Public Radio, was removed from his post Thursday after coming under fire alongside other station leaders over allegations of a “legacy of structural racism” at the station.

Alex Gordon announced his retirement from a 14-year Kansas City Royals career marked by big moments and his steadiness through baseball’s unkind twists and turns.

Gordon’s last game will be at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 27, against the Detroit Tigers. Playing on a one-year contract, Gordon said he privately told his family and close friends that this would be his last roaming left field as a seven-time Gold Glove winner.

“I wanted to keep it as quiet as I could until toward the end of the season,” said Gordon.

While nearly all over-the-board chess events have been cancelled or postponed, online chess has seen a resurgence in the face of the ongoing global pandemic. The St. Louis Chess Club hosted two online events that normally take place in-person: Champions Showdown: Chess9LX and the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz.

Johnson County Election Commissioner Connie Schmidt is predicting very high voter turnout for the presidential election, with mail-in ballot applications likely to surpass the record just set in August.

With 40 days to go before the Nov. 3 election, the county has already received more than 100,000 applications for mail-in ballots, Schmidt told the commission Thursday. The county processed about 106,000 mail-in ballots in the August primary, which set a record for all county elections since Kansas began allowing no-excuse mailed ballots in 1996.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the St. Louis area, Ken Zheng’s plans to raise money for his 1-year-old startup Takoda fell apart. Customers and investors felt the timing was too risky.

So the CEO pivoted toward telehealth — adding a video conferencing tool to his technology, which helps therapists monitor patients with substance use and psychiatric disorders.

“By the time we had finished it and brought it to market our customers actually told us, ‘It’s great that you did this, but where were you guys three months ago?’” Zheng said.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker minced no words in her evaluation of the way Kansas City police are handling the skyrocketing number of non-fatal shootings.

“If you look at the number of nonfatal shootings that the police department is able to submit to me for filing, it's really a pathetically small number,” she said.

Hope Faith Homeless Assistance Campus in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, is a daily drop-in center for people experiencing homelessness, a place where they can get meals, take showers, get supplies, and healthcare.

This election year, they're providing another critical service that the homeless don't have: an address.

Social worker LaWanda Swoopes is in charge of several essential services at Hope Faith and the one she's particularly proud of are the 450 mailboxes.

Louise Wilkerson can’t remember the first time she voted, but she’ll never forget the reception a group of white election workers gave her at a predominantly white polling station in the late 1960s.

As she cast her vote, the officials looked at her in stunned silence. But she was undeterred. Her parents, who lived in north St. Louis, made sure she knew how important it was for Black people to vote.

Updated Sept. 24 at 7 a.m. with the addition of Affton's return plan

Several school systems in St. Louis County are beginning to welcome elementary school students back to the classroom after months of virtual learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2020 Census, already hampered by political battles, a shortened timeline and a global pandemic, faces an additional hurdl

Updated at 6:07 p.m. Sept. 23

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced Wednesday afternoon that he has tested positive for the coronavirus.

His wife, Teresa, also tested positive after displaying mild symptoms, described as “the sniffles,” earlier in the day. She decided to take a rapid test, and the results came back positive, Parson’s staff said.

The governor said he does not have any symptoms at this time and feels fine. He is in isolation and is postponing all future events, including a gubernatorial debate that was scheduled for Friday.

Updated at 5 p.m. with additional public health statistics

Most student-athletes in St. Louis County will don their school colors again, as they’ll be able to start competing against teams from other schools starting next week.

All middle school sports and some high school competitions will be allowed to resume Monday, County Executive Sam Page said Wednesday morning, although high school football is most notably excluded. A limited number of spectators will be allowed to watch those games or races.

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas — With about six weeks before the election, you might see Republican Amanda Adkins’ team out knocking on doors in Johnson, Wyandotte or Miami counties. Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids’ outreach efforts in her re-election bid are virtual.

It’s just one sign of the differences between the two candidates in Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District when it comes to how they say they would respond to economic and health effects of the coronavirus.

Four Missouri women who say they suffered injuries when an intrauterine contraceptive device broke while it was being removed are suing the device’s manufacturer and its successor company.

In separate lawsuits filed in federal court in Kansas City last week and in August, the women allege the companies knew or should have known that the ParaGard IUD is defective because its arms have a tendency to break upon removal from the uterus.

This story originally appeared in the Belleville News-Democrat.

EAST ST. LOUIS — Shaunece Washington likes to keep a positive spirit.

She’s a single parent of seven kids - five live at home with her- and she stepped away from her job at Little Caesars to be at home with her children due to the pandemic.

The print edition of the Webster-Kirkwood Times returns Friday.

The suburban St. Louis newspaper suspended print operations in March because of the pandemic. The operation will be leaner with around nine employees, compared to roughly two dozen earlier this year.

The paper returns with new owners, who are convinced there is enough community interest to support a print publication during tough times in the journalism business.