​Normally by the time the final preseason game rolls around for an NFL team most of the decisions have been made already. Sure, there will be a marginal spot or two, down on the depth chart somewhere, but the big spots have pretty much all been decided in camp and games.  More >>

Sheriff Joe

​The Department of Justice today filed a lawsuit alleging that Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio is blocking its investigation into possible civil rights violations within his Maricopa County Sheriff's Department.

Arpaio is well known in Arizona -- and increasingly nationwide -- for his sweeps allegedly designed to round up illegal immigrants and for stunts like forcing prisoners to work in chain gangs, live in tent cities and wear pink uniforms.

In a news release today, the Justice Department described Arpaio's refusal to turn over information "unprecedented" with DOJ officials unaware of any other police department or sheriff's office refusing to cooperate with it in the last 30 years.

Arpaio, meanwhile, has called the suit "camouflage" because the government has no case.

In May, Arpaio reached out across state lines to lend his support to Missouri congressional candidate Ed Martin, who he described as being a strong-willed man such as himself.
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Peter, Paul and Mary...and no gay marriage foes

​Gay marriage foes the National Organization for Marriage, who made a stop in St. Louis in early August, got a friendly little note from Peter Yarrow, the surviving member of the 60's folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary.

In the note, addressed to NOM executive director Brian Brown, Yarrow asks that the group stop playing the Peter Paul and Mary version of the Woodie Guthrie anthem "This Land is Your Land" at rallies that galvanize sentiment against gay marriage.

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Can Fielding Dawson (and RFT's Literary St. Louis feature) save this historic mansion?

​After her husband died, Marianne Burnside put her house at 750 North Taylor Avenue in Kirkwood up for sale. It was just too big for one person, she said. Unfortunately, the 135-year-old mansion, valued at $731,500, went on the market in the middle of the recession. In the past two years, Burnside has received only one offer: from a developer who wants to tear down the property and build four or five smaller homes on the 1.58 acre property.

Other residents of Taylor Avenue were upset. Though none of them wanted to buy the mansion and pay to fix it up (which some estimated would cost more than the actual house), they didn't want to see the old house destroyed. Last month they petitioned the city of Kirkwood to temporarily hold off the demolition so they would have more time to come up with a way to save the house, and the neighborhood.

Among the proposed solutions was turning North Taylor into a historic district. "They wanted to preserve the neighborhood as a whole," says Alan Lamberg, head of Kirkwood's landmarks commission. "And as we were getting more information about the neighborhood, Fielding Dawson came up."

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​It's a three-day weekend for most of us, but not for the hardest working women in show business: your local exotic dancer.

With that in mind, Daily RFT recently contacted some of our favorite East St. Louis strippers to ask them what we can do to make their Labor Day a bit more enjoyable/tolerable this year.

Here, then, is a list they helped us craft -- a list of things NOT to do.

1. We are professionals, not trained animals. We do not do "tricks" for dollar bills.

2. Ejaculating during a lap dance and then showing your friends the wet spot on your pants is not a badge of honor.
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Former America's Next Top Model contestant Kim Stolz and her bestest friends have taken to our nation's highways to discuss the most important issue facing women today. Nope, it's not domestic violence or breast cancer or even equal pay for equal work. It's menstruation!

Well, maybe your period rises to the level of a vital issue if it catches you unawares on a day you happen to be wearing white pants or if Kotex is bankrolling your trip.

Anyway, watch Stolz and friends frolic at the Arch and "spontaneously" discuss Aunt Flo's monthly visitation with a group of women they meet at Six Flags. (And no, it's not because one casually asks if one of the others happens to have a tampon or some Midol on her.) Guys, take note: Sometimes a woman's bad mood cannot be directly attributed to PMS.

If you're a social media person, then you probably know that the popular social bookmarking website Digg recently relaunched. Branded Digg Version 4, this new incarnation unleashed some radical changes on its users. Unfortunately, this transformation was not greeted with open arms.

Many of Digg's long-time users revolted. An anti-Digg campaign soon took shape, and disgruntled Digg users turned to rival bookmarking website Reddit to lash out.

In its report on the Reddit revolt, the Huffington Post noted that, according to Alexa.com, Digg's traffic had dropped 33 percent overnight.

All of this led PC World to ask a question that Digg should probably be asking itself: Has Digg Dugg Its Own Grave?

As for this blogger's humble opinion, well...

illustration by Brian Stauffer

​At 6 a.m. on July 9, 2009, agents from the FBI, the USDA, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the U.S. Marshals Service and myriad local police departments raided 29 properties in 8 states, including Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa. They seized more than 200 firearms, arrested 26 people -- and rescued more than 500 pit bulls.

It was, by far, the largest dogfighting bust in United States history.

Click this link to read "Dog Beat Dog," an in-depth chronicle of the investigation.

After the jump is a selection of the video footage entered into evidence during the dogfighting trials.

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The scene of the murder at 18th and Market.

​Federal courts reporter for the Post-Dispatch, Robert Patrick, has an illuminating article out today about the bloody slaying in May 2009 that left three men in an SUV dead near Union Station.

Patrick reports that the victims --  Allen Jones, 32, Dawon Moore, 27, and Byron Blassingame, 27 -- all had prior criminal records and that authorities were investigating Blassingame and Moore as members of the BAD Bloods street gang. BAD is an acronym for the streets controlled by the gang -- Beacon, Alcott and Davison -- in the Walnut Park Neighborhood.
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C'mon guys, we're in this together!

​Psssst...fellas...we're grateful for your service. But weren't you trained to fire at foreigners?

This from the Belleville News-Democrat this morning:

A 57-year-old Centreville man is in police custody for allegedly shooting a 55-year-old man in the leg.... [Assistant Police Chief James] Mister said the two men, who had merely spoke in passing, quarreled over which branch of the U.S. armed forces was better.

"Both men are former military men," Mister said.

Daily RFT hears that golf can be very relaxing.

Full story in the BND here.