It's tough for non-profit businesses with a social mission to do well financially while doing good - and especially so in today's economy. Yet there are several successful efforts in St. Louis aimed at helping immigrants, the homeless and others to get the skills they need to enter the mainstream.

The deal hasn't been signed yet, but already beer industry experts are predicting that InBev's takeover of Anheuser-Busch will provoke more mergers and acquisitions in a rapidly consolidating industry.  "The targets are obvious," says one expert. International brewers will feel the need to grow because InBev plus Anheuser-Busch creates the world's largest brewer by a wide margin.

When Wachovia Corp. bought A.G. Edwards last year, many financial analysts said the deal reflected another major step in the extinction of regional brokerages. While A.G. Edwards decided that independence was strategically insupportable, other St. Louis brokerages still embrace their freedom and independence: Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. and Edward Jones. And they plan on keeping it that way.

Hotel developer Charles Drury and associates gave the public on Tuesday an early glimpse of their still-evolving proposal for two 16-story hotels overlooking Forest Park along Kingshighway, just south of the newly opened Kingshighway and Interstate 64 interchange. The approximately $100 million hotel project would be the largest in terms of size and expense for Drury Development Corp. since it built its first hotel in Cape Girardeau in 1969. Nearby residents have expressed concerns about the fate of the Lambskin Temple and 1906 Calvary Christian Church.

Wachovia Corp. has agreed to buy back from investors about $8.8 billion in controversial securities, settling allegations that its St. Louis-based brokerage unit misrepresented the ease with which consumers could get their money. "Wachovia neither admits nor denies allegations of wrongdoing," the company said Friday, referring to a tentative settlement that will create a bigger loss than the banking giant had predicted.

When Dr. Elbert P. Trulock started practicing 25 years ago, a diagnosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension was basically a death sentence. Physicians had little knowledge about the disease, which causes runaway high-blood pressure in the lung's arteries, with the net result of a steadily weakening heart. In the past couple of decades, though, St. Louis has become an important center for treating and researching PAH.

After months of work on a plan to reopen the long-dark Kiel Opera House downtown, the St. Louis Blues owners and McEagle Properties aren't ready to say that they are raising the curtain and putting entertainment back on stage there. But they are moving in that direction. Details are hard to come by. Before they make their plans public, they want to make sure that what's on the drawing boards will work.

Controversial securities marketed by Wachovia Corp.'s St. Louis-based brokerage unit could cost the banking giant $500 million in legal settlements. The company has set aside $500 million, before taxes, in reserves to cover "active settlement negotiations" with state regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission over its selling of auction-rate securities.

It's been a long and winding road to Ballpark Village, with many miles yet to go. The Cordish Co. project is going to be looking for approval from both the city of St. Louis and the state of Missouri. And in politics, approval is spelled s-u-b-s-i-d-y. Will politicians balk -- or will they do whatever it takes to make Ballpark Village a reality? (Illustration of revamped Clark Street from the Cordish website)

There was no cake, but area leaders celebrated MetroLink's 15th anniversary Thursday with a big birthday wish -- that voters approve in November a measure that would infuse the system with cash. The need for money is so severe that the system faces drastic cutbacks and riders face fare increases if the measure does not pass, said Robert J. Baer, Metro president and CEO.