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http://www.flickr.com/photos/bogdansuditu/ / CC BY 2.0

Somebody recently rounded up 100 St. Louisans. Made them fling a dart at a map of the city. Gave them a month to travel to that spot and snap a photograph. Posted the photographs online at dartstlouis.com.

(The Daily RFT got wind of this from Michael Allen's Ecology of Absence blog).


First of all: That's a genuinely cool idea.

Secondly: Some of the resulting shots of St. Louis (to my untrained eyes) were so gorgeous and haunting they made me involuntarily mutter the Lord's name.

See for yourself this urban wreck; this mother and baby; this super-typical-city-bar scene; these kids on the street. I could go on.

Lastly: what's intriguing is the website barely explains how this all came to be. You can see that Schlafly and Ferguson & Katzman sponsored it, but they don't shove any commercial pitch into your face (which is appreciated, since such shoving happens, oh, a bajillion times a day).

So, to the organizers: I give you, not a dart, but a nice St. Louis-style laurel. Meaning it'll be made entirely of provel.

http://mylifeofcrime.files.wordpress.com

A grainy, MySpace-worthy photo of Lori Drew

A federal judge in Los Angeles says he will dismiss the case against Lori Drew, the St. Charles County woman convicted of three misdemeanors last November for breaking MySpace's "Terms of Use Policy."

Drew helped create a fake MySpace profile that she allegedly used to cyber-bully Dardenne Prairie teen Megan Meier, supposedly to the point that Meier killed herself. (Prosecutors failed last November to get the jury to convict Drew of a felony conspiracy charge that could have carried a 20-year prison sentence.)

The Los Angeles Times reports that U.S. District Judge George H. Wu said he was concerned that if Drew was found guilty of violating MySpace's terms of service, anyone who violated the terms could be convicted of a crime.

Drew was originally slated for sentencing in May, but that date got pushed back when Wu agreed to consider the defense's request to dismiss the case. Prosecutors had wanted Drew sentenced to three years in prison for the misdemeanor convictions.

St. Louis-based Veterans for Peace is circulating a letter it plans to to send President Barack Obama demanding that the White House release photos of abusive treatment of detainees at the hands of U.S. troops.

Obama had supported the release of the pictures to the public, but changed his mind in May, saying that he would try to block the court-ordered release of the photos. Obama's reversal came after U.S. commanders feared that the pictures depicting abusive treatment of detainees would cause rioting and backlashes in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim nations.

veteransforpeace.org

Michael McPherson, executive director Veterans for Peace

Michael McPhearson, executive director of Veterans for Peace, says he doesn't know what the pictures may reveal, but argues that the public -- especially Americans -- deserve to see them.

"The people of the United States have a right to know what troops representing our government are doing in our name," McPhearson tells Daily RFT. "We say that we as Americans believe in human rights, and if there's a contradiction between those ideals and how we are acting, that needs to be addressed."

Contrary to the fears of the Defense Department, McPhearson says he believes the biggest reaction to the photos will be seen in the U.S. -- and not abroad.

Fans of The Wire (the epic HBO series about life and crime in Baltimore) know that St. Louis shares more than a few similarities with the (mostly) fictional show.

A group called Save our Studio held a rally in Chesterfield Valley last night in an attempt to save sculptor Don Wiegand's home and studio from the wrecking ball.

Wiegand's three-acre property, which is also home to the Wiegand Foundation and a popular party spot for area nonprofits, is nestled off Baxter Road and Chesterfield Airport Road on 1 Wiegand Drive.



The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working on plans to build a retaining wall adjacent to Wiegand's property, in order to stem potential flood damage. But last month Wiegand got word from the Monarch-Chesterfield Levee Protection District, which is working with the Corps, that plans to condemn Wiegand's property altogether were in the works.

Save our Studio, headed up by Nancy Carver, is trying to arrange a sit-down with the Corps for a straight answer on the situation, according to Carver.

"This studio has survived a fire and the flood [of 1993]," says Carver. "To think that it could now be taken out by a bulldozer is heartbreaking."

flickr.com/photos/fensterbme

It's not that we here at Daily RFT endorse drinking-and-driving. We don't. (Truth be known, we're much bigger fans of drunk jazzercising.) But for those who do plan to imbibe this three-day weekend and get behind the wheel, here's a few areas you'll definitely want to avoid.

Olivette: The city sent out a press release earlier this week saying that it's ramping up its sobriety checkpoints throughout the month of July. Random motorists will be pulled over for tests throughout the month and intoxicated drivers arrested.

Unincorporated West County: The St. Louis County police sent our a release today saying it is conducting "DWI Enforcement" in parts of West County that fall under its jurisdiction this weekend. The checkpoints will be up tomorrow (July 3) and Saturday (July 4). The county police say they will conduct similar checkpoints this weekend in its Affton Southwest and South County precincts.

Johnnie Pulley, Jr.

Yesterday we reported how the rate of teenage homicides in St. Louis isn't falling as fast as the overall decline in murders this year.

And true to form, the second half of 2009 (which began yesterday, July 1) started out with a fresh teen homicide. This one, though, was somewhat unusual because of the age of the gunman.

Police say 60-year-old Johnnie Pulley Jr. gunned down 17-year-old Brandon Colenburg in cold blood yesterday in the 700 block of North Union Blvd. (near the intersection of Delmar). The shooting occurred around 8:05 a.m. when Pulley shot Colenburg in the side.

A billboard hoisted Wednesday on I-70, one mile west of Lindbergh Boulevard, warns travelers that hot dogs can kill you.

Don't drive off the road when you see this billboard on I-70.

"It's to get the attention of people traveling to St. Louis to attend the All-Star Game on the fourteenth," explains Krista Haynes, staff dietitian for The Cancer Project, the Washington, D.C.-based organization that's footing the bill for the board. "We want to alert fans that processed meats have been linked to increased risks of certain cancers, specifically colorectal cancer."

Haynes says The Cancer Project also sent a letter Wednesday to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, asking him to post warning signs next to all the hot-dog stands at Busch Stadium during the All-Star Game.

"We're hoping he'll be cooperative," says Haynes. "We hope he wants the best for his fans."

flickr.com/photos/sumares

St. Louis thinks about Chicago a lot. It's bigger. It thinks it's better. Its National League team is our baseball team's most deadly rival.

But to Chicagoans, the National League team's most deadly rival is the American League team across town. When Chicago bothers to consider St. Louis at all, it's as a source of beer, not as conveniently-located as Milwaukee.

Sometimes, though, Chicago deigns to acknowledge the existence of its neighbor 300 miles to the southwest. This past Sunday, the Chicago Tribune took the daring step of actually sending one of its reporters, travel writer Josh Noel, down here to check out the town in anticipation of the All-Star Game.

How does Noel's take on our city compare to Alan Solomon's article in the Philadelphia Inquirer? (Note: Solomon himself is a former Tribune travel writer and also did time covering the White Sox.)