After Sen. Barack Obama folded a prayer he had composed and tucked it between the stones of the Western Wall in Jerusalem (as those are at left),  a student searched, found it and launched the prayer into the media. Local experts comment on the ethics of revealing the senator's prayer.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder has worked with African-American leaders on such issues as improved funding for Harris-Stowe State University and has marched in the Call to Oneness. In return, he's benefited from fundraisers. But will he get votes?

Minorities are underrepresented in medical fields, so the Multicultural Initiative for New Doctors, a free program run by St. Louis University, has stepped in to help fill the gap. On Tuesday, 5th and 6th graders who dream of becoming doctors gathered in the anatomy lab at SLU's medical school to dissect sheep's brains. The students investigated lobes, tubes, and ventricles as part of MIND's BrainLink group.

Maplewood firefighter and paramedic Ryan Hummert (right, in a photo from the Maplewood Fire Department) was ambushed and fatally shot at what initially appeared to be a routine fire. Attacks on firefighters and paramedics are thankfully rare, but increasingly fire departments across the country are developing ways to keep firefighters safe from violence.

Updated at 3:27 p.m., July 23 - The new Ballpark Village plan will have to go back to the city and state for approval. The residential component is close to being gone. But also disappearing is the hole in the ground that is the future village. Some details were made public in a press release Wednesday. (Photo by Rachel Heidenry | The Beacon)

The Americans are excited, says the head of the locally based Bosnian newspaper Sabah. But Bosnians have waited 13 years for the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, charged with the massacre of thousands at Srebrenica. "Everything came too late." (Photo from 1994)