My neighbor told me she plans to cut down her tree and my heart stopped. The tree in question is an enormous Japanese maple that covers her yard and spills into my own. In the spring, it splashes a rich red across my bathroom window, and the tree has become such an integral part of my home that I can barely imagine life without it ..read more

Three presidential candidates — President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and Independent Robert F Kennedy Jr. — will split the “pro-war vote.” But the Green Party candidate argues she is the only anti-war candidate and has shifted her campaign to focus on America’s involvement in Israel’s ongoing attacks of Gaza. “We are the one campaign… that will end this genocide,” she proclaims. Dr. Jill Stein is running for president as the Green Party candidate for the third time and has never garnered more than 1.1 percent of the vote (and when that happened, in 2016, Democrats bitterly blame ..read more

Rapper Joey Bada$$ will be gracing St. Louis with a performance this evening, but unless you're the type of millionaire who can afford tuition at Washington University or the type of super-genius who gets to go there for cheap on account of your superior intellect, you are not invited. The Brooklyn native will be the headlining act at the school's Spring WILD event, held this year on Mudd Field and open exclusively to Wash U students. Opening up the show will be pop singer Iyaz, pop-rock band THEM and St. Louis' Non Euclidean Geometry ..read more

Hailing from St. Louis, where the sounds of live music and the aroma of cannabis intertwine in a classic harmony, a new strain captures the essence of both worlds. Mississippi Nights, cultivated by Vibe Cannabis, is more than just a nod to the legendary music venue that once vibrated with the sounds of future legends. It's a tribute, a memory encapsulated in the form of a groundbreaking strain by Jay Wills, the visionary behind Tree1Four Genetics ..read more

After years of struggle and community backlash, Peter & Paul Community Services closed on a building it says will serve as a new and expanded shelter in north St. Louis. The Little Sisters of the Poor site (3225 North Florissant Avenue) will replace the organization’s 60-bed shelter in Soulard as well as plans to open in a more industrial site nearby. “The biz owners around Sidney Street were dead set against welcoming us there,” an agency spokeswoman explains of the site just east of Soulard where they had won city approval to move ..read more

Administrators at the St. Louis City Justice Center wasted no time violating a judge’s order telling them to allow attorneys to pass their clients legal paperwork relevant to their cases. According to an email that public defender Matthew Mahaffey sent to top jail administrators, one of his attorneys went to meet a client yesterday in the jail and found the paper pass to be locked.  That was just one day after Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Hogan wrote an order to both Jail Commissioner Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah and Sheriff Vernon Betts declaring they stop any policies that restrict detai ..read more

The 25-year-old man accused of stomping on a teen girl's head outside a St. Louis County McDonald's has a litany of previous arrests for assault, including one conviction in the City of St. Louis for which he is currently on probation. These details came to light at a bond hearing for Johnny Ricks, who is facing a first-degree assault charge stemming from the April 7 incident. St. Louis County Circuit Judge Krista Peyton ordered Ricks to remain in jail on a $150,000 bond, but not before a back-and-forth between prosecutor Te'Arie Williams and Ricks' attorney Derek Cortez ..read more

St. Louis’ 21c Museum Hotel was named one of the “41 Best New Hotels in North America and Europe 2024” by Esquire last month.  21c Museum Hotel (1528 Locust Street) opened last year in Downtown West in the city’s old YMCA building. While nodding to the building’s past by keeping the gym’s flooring, a renovated iteration of the YMCA's lap pool (now the Locust Street Athletic and Swim Club), keeping the wood paneling and more, the hotel offers luxurious rooms, art galleries, a top-notch bar and incredible, immersive art throughout.  ..read more

Say goodbye to the signs that once flourished along Missouri highways, announcing that civic groups or grieving family members were cleaning up the nearby litter: The Missouri Department of Transportation has scrapped its Adopt-a-Highway program. The state agency's decision follows its suspension of the 37-year-old program last May — which came about after family members adopted a section of I-44 in the memory of a man convicted of killing a Kirkwood police officer. Missouri's Adopt-a-Highway survived a legal battle that allowed the Ku Klux Klan to adopt a portion of highway, but it appa ..read more

The campaign director for a book-burning Missouri Secretary of State candidate took the mic at St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones’ “Cabinet in Community” forum on Tuesday — blasting her as a “diversity mayor” and blaming her for recent high-profile incidents that happened far outside the City of St. Louis’ borders. Jones quickly shut down Maicoll Gomez, who is the brother and campaign manager of Valentina Gomez. A 24-year-old Benton Park resident, Valentina Gomez is attempting to fight the culture wars in the Republican primary to replace Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft ..read more