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St. Louis County Council approves $5M to improve cybersecurity

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:00 GMT

ST. LOUIS OCUNTY, Mo. - The St. Louis County Council approves spending millions of dollars to help improve the county's cybersecurity systems. This comes after hackers breached an important law enforcement system last month.This was a big financial move by county council members Tuesday night. The council voted to spend $5 million to help beef up cybersecurity. Council member Ernie Trakas was a main sponsor of the measure. Described as an "emergency appropriation," Trakas says the funds will be used for improvements, including figuring out and fixing weaknesses in the county's systems, buying new technology, and hiring consultants to transfer information technology capabilities from servers to the cloud. Dead tree is a big problem for elderly St. Louis homeowner Trakas concedes that the $5 million will basically drain the county's emergency savings, but Trakas made the case that the major expense is worth it to shore up the county's cybersecurity systems against future attacks. C...

Grand Center Arts Academy hosting 'International Day of the Girl' event today

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:00 GMT

ST. LOUIS - The 'International Day of the Girl' returns to St. Louis. The all-inclusive event has been celebrated worldwide for 11 years now.It encourages the public to focus on key issues that adolescent girls face and provides a way for them to connect with each other. This year, Confluence Academies will host the 'Sophia Project's International Day of the Girl' event. Monthly $500 payments coming soon for some St. Louis families This year's theme is the 'digital generation.' The conference will focus on how to help girls balance their self-esteem and self-care online while providing them with empowering tools for the future.The event is Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Grand Center Arts Academy.

Lawsuit could stop marijuana tax stacking, making cannabis cheaper in St. Louis County

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:00 GMT

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. - Marijuana prices in St. Louis County could soon be cheaper. That's if a new lawsuit is successful.FOX 2's partners at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that a dispensary in Florissant is accusing St. Louis County and the Department of Revenue of unconstitutionally collecting a 3% sales tax on top of the municipal sales tax. Dead tree is a big problem for elderly St. Louis homeowner The Missouri Cannabis Trade Association says dozens of state counties have been stacking their taxes. Buyers would save if the lawsuit succeeds, but it could also cost the county up to $3 million a year.

St. Charles County government job fair taking place today

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:00 GMT

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. - St. Charles County is hosting a job fair on Wednesday.The county has open positions in 30 government departments. They include 911 dispatchers, corrections officers, and highway department workers. The job fair is from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Wednesday at the Missouri Job Center of St. Charles County. Monthly $500 payments coming soon for some St. Louis families It's on Harry Truman Boulevard.

Jersey County sheriff hopes hunters and farmers can help in missing persons case

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:00 GMT

JERSEY COUNTY, Ill. – Ten months ago, Paige Bell’s mom went missing."It's been rough, because she's always there for her kids," Bell said.A family photo sits on Bell's dashboard as a constant reminder of who she's missing."I take it with me everywhere I go," she said.Paige's mother, Kaila Votale, went missing on Jan. 8 in Dow, Illinois, in south Jersey County."She doesn't want people to feel down or sad, so if she could make you smile, she would," Bell said.Bell and her family are still searching for closure.“Being in a family of someone who has been missing for so long, it's hard, and it hurts,” she said. “It feels like you're alone even when you're not." Monthly $500 payments coming soon for some St. Louis families The Jersey County Sheriff’s Office exhausted all of its resources when Kaila first went missing searching on foot and in the sky using infrared technology. But with no new recent leads, Sheriff Nicholas Manns is hoping fall may provide new clues in their search."This ...

Amnesty program nets pounds of drugs headed to St. Charles County Jail

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:00 GMT

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – Seven pounds of drug contraband were kept out of the St. Charles County Jail just in the last three months, according to the jail director.Corrections Director Dan Keen introduced the initiative with a metal container called the Amnesty Box.“This is a no-questions-asked (initiative),” he said. “This is your opportunity to drop any drugs or contraband that you have on you at this time.”Keen showed a box containing dozens of pills and drug containers. He said the most recent drops came in the past week.His jail also has a TSA-grade body scanner, which he said won’t catch everything. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News SIGN UP NOW “They can stick the fentanyl up under their toenail, and when they get in, they dig it out and then the...

Platt Park event space wants a liquor license but neighbors are pushing back

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:00 GMT

Last Wednesday, local attorney Doug Norberg walked along the 1900 block of South Broadway, where he and his business partner own half of the east side of the block.“There is a lot of new development around here,” he said, pointing to apartment projects.Norberg stopped in front of 1912 S. Broadway, a century-old theater that he and Paul Yaft, the business partner, bought for $1.6 million in 2018 and renovated during the pandemic.“We love it. Is it a really scary property because of how expensive it is? Yes,” he said. “It was expensive to buy and expensive to renovate. We had some really dark days.”But the challenges didn’t end when the renovations did. Last year, Norberg and Yaft leased the Jewel Theater to a local company called Latin Entertainment Group, which operated it as the Elite Event Center and threw Latin music parties there in August and September.Neighbors complained about noise, trash and reports of violence that they blamed on the parties. They also took issue with a qu...

Fossil hunting? This White Sands find suggests dried up lakes are a good place to look.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:00 GMT

The Denver-based U.S. Geological Survey scientists who this month confirmed the oldest known human footprints in the Americas at White Sands National Park say their findings open the door for fossil hunting at hundreds of ancient basins around the country, including the Great Salt Lake.The findings based on repeated testing, using multiple dating methods, place humans in North America thousands of years earlier than previously thought, a scientific paradigm shift.“This is going to open a whole new avenue in the field of archaeology,” said USGS research geologist Kathleen Springer, co-lead author of a paper published in the journal Science.  “We were working in White Sands around one dried-up lake. Well, there’s hundreds of those around the United States.”A colleague recently found a footprint in Utah near the Great Salt Lake, which has yet to be dated, Springer said. “Maybe more and more older sites will be found.”The footprint confirmation is reverberating among archaeologists who ...

Still waiting for an invite to Casa Bonita? Some diners have been more than once.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:00 GMT

More than four months after reopening, Lakewood’s famed Casa Bonita remains in its soft opening phase – or “beta testing,” as it touts on the restaurant website. The only way to visit is to sign up for its email list and get selected via a random lottery for a chance to buy tickets.While many fans await a coveted invite to see what “South Park” creators-turned-restaurant owners Matt Stone and Trey Parker have done with the famous property, some lucky locals have already dined there more than once.Boulder resident Alex Sierra, for example, went twice in July. The first time, he was invited to join a friend who was selected in the lottery. (Each lottery recipient can book a table for up to eight guests.) About a week later, Sierra received an email notification that he was a lucky lottery winner.“I was fine with waiting for whenever I got my invite, but some of my friends really wanted to go,” said Sierra, who moved to Colorado in 1999 and frequently visited to Casa Bonita before it s...

Kiszla: Avs’ quest to regain championship mojo begins with defenseman Cale Makar

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:55:00 GMT

Truth be known, the Avs’ defense of their glorious NHL championship in 2022 ended at the victory parade.After taking long and glorious gulps from the Stanley Cup, the Avalanche could never shake the hangover.Gabe Landeskog, the best captain any hockey team could want, came up with a lame knee that stubbornly refused to heal.Nazem Kadri took a well-deserved payday in free agency and took his mess-around-and-find-out attitude with him to Calgary.Rather than getting down to the difficult task of building a dynasty, coach Jared Bednar was stuck endlessly trying to patch cracks in his lineup.Although the Avs never surrendered to the grind, they also never regained that championship mojo, and after making a late run to win the Central Division, it felt like this team was already out of gas before the playoffs even began.“We were kind of like a loaded gun. I felt like we weren’t ready to fire all year. We were always just reloading,” Cale Makar told me Monday, reminiscing about the failure...