Troy Paredes, a young, accomplished Washington University law professor, was nominated as a commissioner on the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month by President George W. Bush. Paredes opposed the SEC's 2004 regulation of hedge funds, favoring instead market forces and the persuasive skills of SEC commissioners.

photo from Washington University

As the new superintendent of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, Tom Bradley had to hit the Arch grounds running -- learning the daily operations while tackling major issues regarding the role of the national park in downtown St. Louis revitalization efforts. After just a week on the job, Bradley made news when he announced that the National Park Service will encourage a public discussion on how to improve the Arch grounds.

Photo from the Library of Congress

Even as AmerenUE battled a new round of power outages brought on by weekend storms, the Missouri utility giant continues to ramp up its plan to move more and more of its most vulnerable electrical lines underground. About 150 projects are currently underway. 

Photo from sxc.hu 

Wachovia Corp. spent $6.9 billion to acquire A.G. Edwards; and the last thing the banking giant wants is a mass defection of brokers, who have rated higher on some customer satisfaction and broker satisfaction surveys than do Wachovia brokers. 

On Thursday, Walter Metcalfe, Peter Raven and Robert Archibald made a statement concerning changes to the St. Louis riverfront and the grounds of the Gateway Arch.

Major new cultural attractions could transform the St. Louis riverfront and Arch grounds by the Arch's 50th birthday in 2015. On Thursday, the National Park Service announced a public planning process to consider improvements. That comes in response to recommendations of a blue-ribbon group of St. Louisans and the Danforth Foundation. The National Park Service has been reluctant to give up any part of the Arch grounds. Thursday's announcement signals that a dramatic change could be considered.