Kristen Hare was afraid she'd made a terrible mistake her junior year at the University of Missouri when she started at the Missourian, the school's daily newspaper. All she really wanted to do was tell stories. Lucky for her, the good people at MU let Kristen do just that, and she decided that her future didn't lie in magazines, as she'd thought, but in daily news.
Kristen spent five years as the Sunday features reporter for the St. Joseph News-Press, where she also worked as an assistant Lifestyles editor. There, Kristen was the youngest reporter ever, from the smallest paper ever, to win the Darrell Sifford Memorial Prize in Journalism from MU. Her stories also won awards from the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors.
Before that, Kristen spent two years swatting mosquitoes and changing the world in Guyana with the Peace Corps. There, she met her husband, and when he got a job offer in St. Louis, she was happy to make the move and be close to family again. Kristen is pleased to be back telling stories.
She lives in O'Fallon, Mo., with her husband, Jai, and their children, Max and Leela.
Work-at-home dads such as Kevin Mitchell find ways to be with their children and their careers. The Census Bureau may not specifically count dads who work from home, but they’re out there and likely increasing for a number of reasons -- from technology to finding new ways to work in a bad economy to workplace flexibility.
With their new book, "Extraordinary Black Missourians," John and Silvia Wright explore the contributions of black Missourians. The Wrights are not among the influentials they name, but in their own lives, they’ve both been among the firsts in many things, witnessing change, and making it, too.
John and Silvia Wright's new book celebrates black Missourians. “Extraordinary Black Missourians: Pioneers, Leaders, Performers, Athletes and Other Notables Who’ve Made History,” tells the stories behind the lives of more than 100 influential black Missourians.
Thanks to the long winter and cool spring, the next few weeks will be perfect for seeing fireflies, And during the next two weeks, you can learn about these bright bugs while enjoying a range of activities at the Butterfly House with the weekly Firefly Festival. The festival helps shed light on the lives of the bright bugs of summer.
You can learn about food and how it fits in our lives all summer at the Missouri Botanical Garden, with daily offerings from local chef demonstrations to tasty treats throughout the grounds. Check out the different theme for every day of the week.
Local ethical hacker Dave Chronister talks about TakeDownCon, a hacking conference starting Monday in St. Louis: "One of the things to really understand is you're never going to be 100 percent safe. Get that out of your head. I always say that we're in the business of risk mitigation, not risk elimination."
Sacred Seeds adds a new garden and enters Europe with a new partnership. The new partnership adds the 28th garden to the Sacred Seeds network, and brings them onto their sixth continent.
"Lost Egypt," at the St. Louis Science Center, combines real images shot in Egypt with art and artifacts as well as interactive and family-friendly features and explanations of the science used to uncover the ancient world. The exhibit will run through Sept. 2.
The festival will feature various styles, including ballet, tap, contemporary, a Spanish ensemble and classical dance from India.
In an article, Kristen Hare tells the story behind the exhibit opening Friday at the Foundry Art Center. Here she tells the story behind how she came to discover there was a story there.
City revitalization · Urban redevelopment · Climate change · crowdfunding · Blue Morphos · Mass transit · Loop trolley · Flooding · Community supported agriculture · crowd funding
Derek Hoeferlin · Karl Guenther · Travis Sheridan · Michael Uthoff · Kristen Hare · Antona Smith · John Wright · Silvia Wright · Elizabeth Spiegel · Matthew Mourning
Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House · Mississippi River · St. Louis · Kirkwood · Pevely Dairy Plant · James S. Mcdonnell Planetarium · St. Louis Science Center · Laumeier Sculpture Park · Steve Stogel · Spink Pavilion Missouri Botanical Garden
Missouri Botanical Garden · Public Insight Network · InveSTL · OverFundIt · Dance St. Louis · St. Louis Ballet · Washington University · Foundry Art Centre · Missouri History Museum · Madco
St. Louis Mayor's Race · March Morpho Mania · Go! St. Louis Marathon · Spring To Dance Festival · TakeDownCon
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Meeting in St. Louis next week, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious will have its first opportunity as an assembled group to consider what to do after the Vatican issued a mandate for change this spring. It calls on the conference to reorganize and more strictly observe church teachings.
When a family of four goes to the St. Louis Zoo, they can be forgiven for not knowing it will cost them $60, $72 if they park. If they can't pay, the alternative is to tell the kids they can't do what kids do at the zoo.
Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley gave reporters less than a half-hour’s notice today when he announced that conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh’s sculptured bust will be formally installed in the Capitol at 1 p.m.
The St. Louis County Council gave its final blessing to merge some duties of city and county economic development agencies, a move that ratifies the plan announced earlier this year. The partnership will focus on business retention, expansion and entrepreneurship.
Some in Missouri and Illinois were singled out for excellence; others were branded with a consumer alert, that would-be teachers should be wary. The national group that did the survey said it will be repeated annually, said the evaluating group's president Kate Walsh.
Fifty years ago this week, President John F. Kennedy confronted Cold War tensions in Wall-divided Berlin and bolstered the confidence of its beleaguered residents by telling them, "Ich bin ein Berliner." On Wednesday, President Barack Obama will face eastward from the Brandenburg Gate for the latest address of an American president in the city that has been a flashpoint of East-West relations.
The Beacon's Mary Delach Leonard and Rob Koenig extensively covered flooding in 2011 in Missouri. Now this coverage is compiled in an iBook. Read the stories.
Duff's, a mainstay of the Central West End since Karen Duffy opened it in 1972, is closing its doors this month. Over the years, Duff's developed a reputation for reasonably priced, imaginative menus and a good selection of wines. But what made Duff's invaluable were the poetry readings on Monday evenings.
When all memories of disagreements about kissing or not kissing have faded into the special obscure place where flimsy opera plots go to rest, there will remain the beautiful singing of Smetana’s seamlessly controlled and genuinely magnificent music.
As The Muny turns 95, a new fan system makes the seats cooler than ever. Boosting the cool factor, overall, is the job of executive producer Mike Isaacson and president and CEO Denny Reagan, who talked with the Beacon about The Muny's future.
Donna Korando is the Beacon's arts and features editor. You can contact her at dkorando@stlbeacon.org.
As St. Louis gears up to be a part of events for National Small Business Week in which local entrepreneurs Jack Dorsey and David Steward will play prominent roles, the area's SBA director feels that the Gateway City's climate for entrepreneurs and small businesses is improving.
Mark Lynas, a noted British author and environmentalist, spoke Thursday at the Donald Danforth Plant Science center about his conversion from an anti-genetically modified crop activist to a proponent of GM plants.
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said the initiative is about keeping start-up businesses “here when they become successful and grow jobs here as well, rather than just being some sort of training ground for Silicon Valley companies.”
Innovation and entrepreneurial activity are on the rise in St. Louis, especially in bioscience, technology and alternative energy. The Beacon's InnovationSTL section focuses on the people who are part of this wave, what they're doing and how this is shaping our future. To many St. Louisans, this wave is not yet visible. InnovationSTL aims to change that. We welcome you to share your knowledge, learn more about this vibrant trend and discuss its impact.
Tossing a high school graduation cap into the air typically signals the launch of a bigger life. But a new study shows that's often not the case for young people with autism.
Recent research out of Mizzou suggests that excessive use of Facebook can have negative effects on romantic relationships, including cheating, breaking up and divorce. The negative impact tends to be on newer relations, under three years duration. Doctoral student Russell Clayton advocates more moderate Facebook use to prevent its threats.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against a company that had patents on genes linked to higher risks for breast and ovarian cancers. The ruling is disliked by a biotechnology industry group, but is praised by university researchers.
Sally Altman is the Beacon's Health and Science editor. You can contact her at saltman@stlbeacon.org.