M.W. Guzy is a retired St. Louis cop who currently works for the city Sheriff's Department. His column appears weekly in the Beacon.
It turns out that the Obama administration has been conducting its own variation of electronic surveillance that the Bush administrated. The problem is not the need to combat terrorism, but the blanket invasion of privacy and the revelation of who the people are who have access to our secrets.
The two big news stories of last week involved Michele Bachmann, a politically moribund congresswoman from Minnesota, and Phineas, a condemned dog in Salem, Mo. Critics maintain that the central character in each drama is a danger to society — a contention their respective supporters vigorously dispute.
In law enforcement circles, it is axiomatic that people used to revere and respect the police. But a look at the numbers shows that officers are less likely to be killed now than in the years prior to World War II, and that holds even when the prohibition years are taken out of consideration.
You have to know your audience: McDonald's regulars don't need free-range chicken or a certain breed of beef; a second-chance high school needs personally motivated students as opposed to people ordered to attend and low-income Democrats by and large don't want a cigarette tax.
Hegel may explain the trajectory of politics: A thesis breeds its antithesis. The dissonance between these polar opposites results in a new state of affairs called a synthesis. That synthesis becomes the new thesis as the process repeats itself. Thus does history travel its tangled paths.
A weak sequel to Dostoyevsky’s original may be taking shape in the unfolding investigation into the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Evolving revelations there seem to validate the observation of Karl Marx that history repeats itself “the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.”
First the Cardinals left and then St. Louis built a stadium before having a team. It made a sweetheart deal – for the team – to lure the LA Rams here. Now, as the team seems to be rebuilding, its long-term future in this River City is iffy at best.
A threatening nuclear North Korea, an abortion-doctor's murder trial, failure of gun legislation -- all overshadowed by the Boston Marathon bombing, envelops of ricin, a fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas: What lessons will Americans learn?
Moral panic is a disproportionate fear of a specific danger. American history is full of examples of moral panic leading to wars that could have been avoided. The lurking menace of the moment is one Kim Jong-un, North Korea's young dictator who's been busy rattling sabres.
The stick-up man who panics and kills a shopkeeper during an armed robbery originally intended only to take the money and run. He’s a different animal than the psycho who coolly plots to shoot up a grade school but fails to plan for any method of escape.
gun control · fiscal cliff · Boston marathon explosion · Akin controversy · Fourth Amendment · Suicide · Solitary confinement · sequestration · Climate change · immigration
Wayne LaPierre · John Roberts · Rand Paul · Stan Kroenke · Todd Akin · Clint Eastwood · Reginald Clemons · Gabrielle Giffords · Georgia Frontiere · Michele Bachmann
National Football League · St. Louis Rams · Rams · University Of Missouri Columbia · U.S. Supreme Court · National Rifle Association
When you register with the Beacon, you can save your searches as news alerts, rsvp for events, manage your donations and receive news and updates from the Beacon team.
Take a look at our tutorials to help you get the hang of the new site.
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.
The Kranzberg Arts Center, the Ethical Society and the Tavern of Fine Arts have been added as venues this year, with the last location hosting a free concert. The programs, which feature established works and new composers, will also be at the Wool Theater at the Jewish Community Center.
Bryan Payne, a St. Louis native, and Kristin Cassidy, who is not, use their city dwelling as a continually evolving canvas to display their finds. Here, Payne says, people can readily find the tools for art so "it's just up to them if they want to make it."
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.
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.
The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis will bring in four of the world’s top-10 chess players for the strongest-ever tournament on U.S. soil. This September matchup will feature Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky -- America’s top-two players -- as well as Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Armenia’s Levon Aronian – the world’s top-two.
When the mining company filed for bankruptcy, 22,000 workers and retirees lost their earned and negotiated benefits and joined the nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance. The cost of treating the uninsured adds to insurance and health costs for everyone.
Asking for contributions for a child’s college education is legal in Missouri. But not right. Because a parent should help his or her children in almost any way they can, such obligations must be kept far away from a politician’s public responsibilities — it is not hard to figure out which one would lose if they conflicted.
Donna Korando is the Beacon's Voices editor. You can contact her and submit opinion pieces for possible publication at dkorando@stlbeacon.org.