st. louis

O'Fallon, Mo. (AP) — A police association comprised largely of Black officers is urging St. Louis County’s police chief to address long-standing racial concerns within the department. The Ethical Society of Police, which was founded in 1972 to address racial bias, represents about 300 officers in the county and city of St. Louis. In a Monday letter to St. Louis County Police Chief Mary Barton, the society says it has waited since Barton became chief in April for evidence that she would take action.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis hospitals are filling up with coronavirus patients at an alarming rate, and experts say many of those patients are coming in from other areas of the state. Meanwhile, the Kansas City area over the past week recorded its highest number of deaths over a one-week period, with more than 80 people dying from COVID-19. Missouri is among several states across the U.S. seeing a spike in confirmed cases and hospitalizations related to the coronavirus. The state health department on Tuesday announced 1,695 additional confirmed cases and 28 more deaths.

O'FALLON, Mo. (AP)- A leading coronavirus expert in St. Louis is warning that hospital workers are "over-worked and demoralized" after months of battling the coronavirus, and the worst may be yet to come. Dr. Alex Garza of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force says hospitalizations are getting higher and intensive care unit beds are filling up at a time when the flu season is about to create even more strain on the health care system. The St. Louis region is actually in better shape than the rest of the state.

The remains of a Missouri soldier who died nearly 70 years ago in the Korean War will be buried Thursday at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis County.

The burial plan for Jerome V. Hummel of St. Louis was announced by the Army on Monday. Hummel was a corporal who was reported missing in action on Nov. 30, 1950, near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea, after his unit was attacked by enemy forces. He was 23.

Remains turned over by North Korea in July 2018 were tested, including DNA analysis, and proved to be those of Hummel.

St. Louis and St. Louis County will ease stay-at-home orders later this month, but officials caution that the process will be slow for the area of Missouri most ravaged by the coronavirus.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page announced late Tuesday that public health restrictions would be reduced starting May 18. Page said Wednesday that the reopening process will be driven by metrics such as hospitalizations, ventilator usage and rises or falls in confirmed cases.

A top St. Louis law enforcement official has sparked outrage by remarking that not all of the area children who have been killed by guns this year were innocent victims.

While the children who were under 10 years old were innocent victims, some of the older slain children had been linked to illegal activity, St. Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards said Thursday at an aldermanic committee meeting, expounding on what he said during an Oct. 3 interview on St. Louis Public Radio station KWMU's "St. Louis on the Air," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The St. Louis prosecutor's office has seen more than 100% turnover in the past 2 ½ years following a change in leadership.

Since Kimberly Gardner became circuit attorney, after campaigning to be a reformer, more than 65 prosecutors have quit or been fired, causing the office to lose a combined 470 years of experience prosecuting crimes in St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Several hundred people turned out for a town hall meeting to address rampant gun violence in St. Louis, and emotions boiled over.

Democratic U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay and the St. Louis Aldermanic Black Caucus hosted the event Wednesday at Harris-Stowe State University amid an upsurge in homicides in St. Louis. The city has already seen 134 killings this year, compared to 119 at the same time in 2018.

Five attorneys from the Missouri Attorney General's office are now turning their attention to violent crime in St. Louis, and a few more will soon take on similar tasks in Missouri's two other largest cities.

A swearing-in ceremony was Thursday for assistant attorneys general who will work as special assistant U.S. attorneys in St. Louis. It is part of the "Safer Streets Initiative," launched by Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen in January.

A Christopher Columbus statue in a St. Louis park is being called into question about a year after a Confederate monument was removed from another park in the city.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a commission will review whether the 130-year-old statue belongs in Tower Grove Park.

David Lauber is the park's director of development. He says the panel will include historians, art experts, and representatives of Italian-Americans and Native Americans in St. Louis.

The grounds of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis will now be officially known as The Gateway Arch National Park.

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a bill that renamed the former Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

 The St. Louis-based utility company Ameren plans an $11 million program aimed at creating about 1,200 charging station plugs for electric vehicles.

Ameren's "Charge Ahead" plan, detailed Thursday in a Missouri Public Service Commission filing, also calls for adding electrified vehicles, including forklifts, in commercial settings.

A black firefighters organization has settled its 2015 lawsuit against the city of St. Louis over disputed promotion examinations.

Disaster specialists are assessing flood and storm damage across Missouri in the wake of storms and severe flooding.

Gov. Eric Greitens said Wednesday that local, state and federal disaster specialists are working to determine the size and scope of the damage as part of the state's application seeking a federal disaster declaration.