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Eric Jones in his scouting days.

Update: Eric Jones gives Daily RFT his reaction to yesterday's news.

Yesterday, the Boy Scouts of America's National Council voted to open its membership rolls to gay teenagers. Another way to read that: They will stop kicking gay scouts out.

"This policy change is effective Jan. 1, 2014," says a statement from the National Council, posted on the Greater St. Louis Area Council's website. "While people have different opinions about this policy, we can all agree that kids are better off when they are in Scouting."

This decision comes too late for former Eagle Scout Eric Jones, who was kicked out of the Scouts after telling his boss at a summer camp that he is gay. This week, secret footage of the moment the camp director tells Jones he's out of the program hit the web.

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via kmov.com

Larry Conners.

Attorneys for fired news anchor Larry Conners are considering taking legal action against KMOV-TV, which announced this week that it was terminating the veteran newsman over his controversial comments about the IRS.

"It is possible that we may institute legal action relating to the termination of Mr. Conners' employment," his attorney Merle Silverstein writes in a letter to KMOV president Mark Pimentel. "We therefore request that you carefully preserve and not destroy any and all papers, records, and documents relating to Mr. Conners' employment and termination..."

Silverstein tells Daily RFT this morning that he is considering potential legal action, which could involve a complaint with the Missouri Human Rights Commission. His full letter is on view below.

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You're going to perspire this summer. A lot. Sometimes just stepping out the front door in St. Louis is enough to cause your sweat glands to spew like Old Faithful. Sure, you could run back into the air conditioning. But to do so is to surrender. And we St. Louisans are a tougher lot than that. Besides, sweating is actually good for you: It removes toxins from the body (according to the 28 seconds of scientific research put into this article). So go ahead and break a sweat this summer with some of the following fun, outdoor activities.

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People may gripe about the heat and humidity of St. Louis in the summer. But ask someone to share his or her favorite memory about this town, and chances are you're going to hear a story about something that happened between May and September.

Why? Because summer is when we get together with friends and share. When we slow down just long enough to appreciate all that is here for the taking. And as RFT discovered when we sat down to brainstorm what we love about summer in St. Louis, the reasons could be infinite. Here, though, are 25 places to begin.

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St. Louis county police believe a man raped two Asian women in separate cases in the summers of 2011 and 2012 in the same area -- and with the cases still unsolved and the suspect still on the loose, officials are warning residents to stay vigilant. In part, that's because it's summer once again and, police say, there is always a concern the same man could strike a third time.

"We're not giving up on it. We're still working," police spokesman Randy Vaughn tells Daily RFT of the investigations. "So far, he's always targeted Asians and he's always done it in the summertime."

He continues, "It would just be naive of us not to bring it up again."

And police, he says, still want tips to try and help locate the man behind these violent sexual assaults.

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Schnucks is not the only local entity to fall victim to a large credit card security breach.

The St. Louis Classical Guitar Society, a local nonprofit music organization, sent out an alert this week to its e-mail list, warning members that the the company that runs its ticket services -- a San Francisco-based business called Vendini -- has been hacked. And for some who have purchased tickets through the society's website, that means their credit card data and personal information might have been compromised.

"This is hard for everybody," William Ash, president of the society, tells Daily RFT. "We are sorry for our patrons that this happened.... We are going to be totally transparent and make information available immediately."

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Photo courtesy of Mercy for Animals

One of nearly 3,000 pigs at Country View Family Farms in Fannettsburg, Pennsylvania. The farm is a supplier for Hatfield Quality Meats, which is sold in twelve Northeastern states.

This week's story, "The Ag Gag War," goes behind the scenes of the guerilla fight between animal rights groups and Big Agriculture.

For years organizations like the Humane Society and Mercy for Animals have being going undercover at America's largest farms, using hidden cameras to show exactly how our food is produced. The footage hasn't been pretty.

Time after time they've caught workers beating and torturing livestock. So Big Ag returned fire, introducing bills in more than a dozen states that would criminalize undercover filming on farms.

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Cleophus King.

On March 6, 2008, St. Louis County Counselor Luke Meiners agreed to take Ronald Johnson to the house of Cleophus King -- because Johnson said he needed to do his laundry there. Johnson and King, who were once lovers, had a different plan.

They had plotted to rob Meiners. When they arrived at King's home, a fight broke out and the two men tried to rob Meiners -- who struggled for more than fourteen minutes. He was beaten, stabbed, strangled and cut multiple times before he died.

This is the violent account that the St. Louis circuit attorney's office gives in its announcement that King has officially been sentenced to life in prison without parole -- an end to a very bizarre case in which King's accomplice confessed and testified against his former lover.

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Update: See photos from soccer at Busch Stadium.

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Courtesy of Gansner

George Gansner.

St. Louis resident George Gansner was able to snag a ticket to the highly anticipated Manchester City v. Chelsea F.C. soccer match tonight at Busch Stadium -- but he won't be needing it. That's because he'll be on the now transformed field refereeing the game.

"To get to do a game in my backyard is really a great honor," Gansner, a linesman, tells Daily RFT. "I get to do games all over North America, Central America and the Caribbean...but I never get to do one here in St. Louis."

But tonight, he'll finally get a chance to step on to the field at Busch for the first professional non-baseball event at the new stadium.

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Larry Conners.

Yesterday, KMOV-TV (Channel 4) fired veteran news anchor Larry Conners, one week after he wrote a controversial Facebook post pondering whether the IRS had targeted him in response to a tough interview he did with President Obama in 2012.

In the announcement of his termination, KMOV said he violated the station's journalistic standards by "taking a personal political position."

Conners, in an interview with Daily RFT this morning, argues that he did not take any personal position, but simply raised a question. Further, he says, his bosses have made him look like a criminal in their handling of this controversy.

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