Robert Koenig began his journalism career as a city desk reporter for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Later, Koenig worked as a legislative assistant for former U.S. Rep. Robert A. Young.
Subsequently Koenig spent two years as an officer of the U.S. Information Agency (now part of the U.S. Department of State) in Washington, D.C., and in Bonn and West Berlin, Germany. He joined the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1982, spending five years in St. Louis and seven years in the newspaper's Washington Bureau, where he covered developments in Congress and federal agencies of interest to Missouri and Illinois. His awards include the National Press Club's top awards for Washington Correspondence and Regional News Reporting in Washington.
In 1994, Koenig left the Post-Dispatch, writing for such publications as the Journal of Commerce (New York), Science (Washington) and National Georgraphic from various international places. He also completed a book, "The Fourth Horseman" (PublicAffairs Press, 2007) about the development of biological warfare and sabotage in the early 20th century.
After moving back to Washington late in 2008 and working as a freelance writer and editor, Koenig joined the Beacon as its first Washington Correspondent in October 2010. He is married to another native St. Louisan, Mary Ellen Noonan Koenig. They have four children.
Email: rkoenig@stlbeacon.org
With both the Army and Air Force rocked by sexual violence charges against personnel tasked with preventing sexual assaults, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill introduced a bill Wednesday to mandate strict new criteria for officers in such jobs.
A major water resources bill approved Wednesday by the U.S. Senate calls for more public-private partnerships in river and harbor infrastructure, speeding up environmental reviews and studying ways to maintain Mississippi River navigation during severe droughts and floods.
U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, responding to the revelations about Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, said Wednesday that his office was looking for Missouri examples – but so far had not found any.
When U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt announced that he planned to block President Barack Obama’s nominee for the nation’s top environmental job, Gina McCarthy, he couched his opposition in terms of a controversial flood-control project in Missouri’s Bootheel. But Blunt’s Senate “hold” dovetails with a wider Senate Republican strategy to scuttle her nomination.
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill says her Senate panel will investigate allegations that U.S. government agencies are trying to suppress or soften reports of waste and corruption in how billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on "reconstruction" projects in Afghanistan.
With the Pentagon reporting a sharp increase in sexual assaults and the Air Force officer in charge of preventing such crimes charged with sexual battery, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill is stepping up her efforts to try to toughen prosecution and deter such assaults. Sen. Roy Blunt praises her efforts.
A Senate Commerce panel chaired by U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill held a hearing Tuesday to examine errors in credit reporting that affect the lives of millions of Americans who apply for car loans or mortgages and, in many cases, seek to rent an apartment or apply for a job.
The Senate’s approval of a “marketplace fairness” bill to make it easier for states to collect taxes on internet sales now shifts the focus to the U.S. House and – ultimately – to states such as Missouri that don’t enforce their existing internet sales taxes.
Five quotes are the framework for our Washington correspondent's Beacon favoite moments.
At the first Senate hearing on the "targeted killing" program, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and others called for more transparency and oversight of the drone program and questioned whether an unintended consequence of the attacks was to alienate many people in the Middle East who might otherwise have been sympathetic.
gun control · Federal budget · federal debt · gun violence · Second Amendment · Flooding · Mississippi River flood control · sequestration · sexual violence · Sexual assault
Claire McCaskill · Dick Durbin · Roy Blunt · Mark Kirk · Roy Blunt · Barack Obama · Ann Wagner · Todd Akin · Jerry Costello · Bill Enyart
Mississippi River · Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway · Afghanistan · St. John's bayou · Iraq · Scott Air Force Base · Bootheel Levee · Grafton · Newtown, Conn. · Chechnya
Army Corps of Engineers · Environmental Protection Agency · Monsanto · U.S. Supreme Court · National Journal · National Rifle Association · St. Louis Beacon · Internal Revenue Service · Tea Party
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.
With the exception of its laser focus on gun rights, the 97th session of the Missouri General Assembly that ended at 6 p.m. Friday pretty much reflected the recent tradition: The Republican majority portrayed it an “immense success,’’ the Democrats called it an extremist failure and Gov. Jay Nixon declined to say.
The school, which was designed to help students who had dropped out come back to class to earn their degrees, started three years ago. But founder Stephanie Krauss said it was unable to overcome obstacles that had kept its target audience from succeeding in school.
When the first group of students who entered KIPP Inspire charter school in south St. Louis were ready to be promoted out to area high schools, seeing how they've done was a natural follow-up.
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 feeling is openness, with soaring, airy spaces planned for easy and logical circulation and planned to reveal art not only to its best advantage but also appropriately and respectfully. Still, the building is notable more for its architectural reticence than its audacity.
When a Chicago photographer found more than a thousand unidentified slides, he set out to discover the couple behind them -- with a little help from social media.
The first reunion came about after Tom Hall broke his collarbone and musicians came together for a fundraiser. Then came two more. Hall simply says, “We decided that it’s fun to pay. We make good music. And people want to hear it.”
Donna Korando is the Beacon's arts and features editor. You can contact her at dkorando@stlbeacon.org.
Speaking to reporters at Monsanto, Howard Buffett warned that future generations would foot the bill for irresponsible soil use. He urged leaders to address thorny issues such as malnutrition and environmental destruction.
Twenty winners will split a million dollars and a wide array of professional services after this year's Arch Grants competition. Victors will also see one-on-one business mentoring in their prize package. The diverse group includes everything from biotech concerns to fashion enterprises.
Eleven IT entrepreneurs vied for the attention of more than 70 investors at Capital Innovators' annual Demo Day. This year's crop of hopefuls wooed potential investors with eight-minute presentations on a wide variety of business ideas.
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.
Speaking to reporters at Monsanto, Howard Buffett warned that future generations would foot the bill for irresponsible soil use. He urged leaders to address thorny issues such as malnutrition and environmental destruction.
Vernon Bowman's challenge to Monsanto Co.'s patent on its Roundup Ready soybean seeds was billed as a David vs. Goliath contest. Goliath won and won big. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that an Indiana soybean farmer had violated Monsanto's patent on its genetically engineered soybean seeds.
St. Louis theater artist Andrea Purnell dramatizes mental health issues for a living. For her efforts and potential, she'll receive a Grand Center Visionary Award for Emerging Artist in May 13 event at The Sheldon.
Sally Altman is the Beacon's Health and Science editor. You can contact her at saltman@stlbeacon.org.
When the first group of students who entered KIPP Inspire charter school in south St. Louis were ready to be promoted out to area high schools, seeing how they've done was a natural follow-up.
Much as Americans may disagree over politics, we share a belief in the public's right to know. This week's controversies were a reminder that a healthy press is vital to a healthy democracy.
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.
Donna Korando is the Beacon's Voices editor. You can contact her and submit opinion pieces for possible publication at dkorando@stlbeacon.org.