Zachary Clampitt

Zachary Clampitt, 23, has been charged with resisting arrest, second-degree assault of police and first- and second-degree property damage following an almost four-hour standoff with police yesterday at a south St. Louis County Motel 6 (6500 South Lindbergh Boulevard).
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If you're looking for a new hobby that's both beneficial to society and a little bit morbid, Madison County health officials have an offer you don't want to miss. Between now and October 15, they want you to be on the look out for dead birds. For science, of course.
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There's the answer, people. Sure, it's kind of a blurry answer, but an answer all the same.

The St. Louis Cardinals scored nine runs last night. It was a beautiful offensive performance, just the kind of beating a team of this talent level should regularly put on pitchers the caliber of one Joe Blanton. He threw meatballs, they ate meatballs by the bucket. Nine runs, fifteen hits. Oh, and two walks. (Which still isn't nearly enough, but I suppose when you collect more than a dozen hits as a team there was a reason why everyone was swinging rather than taking.) Pretty good night for the sticks. More >>

Police report that James M. Johnson, a 50-year-old black man, was shot in the chest at 1:30 a.m. this morning after an argument with a relative in the 4200 block of Randall Place, where Johnson lived. The relative, allegedly Johnson's 17-year-old nephew, fled the scene. Johnson died in the hospital at 5:47 a.m. Police are actively searching for the suspected shooter while the investigation continues.

Every so often, we scour the local Missed Connections section of Craigslist, in search of the best posts. Here's one that caught our eye recently.

Just the toots of us

The running of the balls.

Last night's Cards vs. Phillies game was a real eye-opener, at least when the seventh-inning stretch rolled around and a streaker jumped the rail. Collin J. Grundstrom stripped it and ripped it, running willy-nilly to deep centerfield -- where most fly balls are snagged -- before being snared by stadium security.

In the understatement of the season, head of security Joe Walsh told the press that Grundstrom "appeared to have been drinking." You don't say ...

Video after the jump.
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The Post-Dispatch was not the only publishing institution in Missouri to have a bad week. Yesterday morning, Tim Wolfe, the president of the University of Missouri system, announced plans to shut down the University of Missouri Press.

The news came as a complete surprise to the ten-member staff, editor in chief Clair Wilcox told the Columbia Daily Tribune.

It was true the press, which was partially funded by a $400,000 annual subsidy from the university system, had continued to operate with a deficit even after seven employees had been laid off three years ago, but who expects a university press to be a major money-making operation?

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Photo by Nicholas Phillips

The protesters' handiwork at Fifth Third Bank on Olive St.

Around ten people were arrested downtown late last night after tagging some banks and scuffling with cops and civilians.

(Daily RFT happened to be a couple blocks away when the melee erupted. At about 10:40 p.m., the Cardinals game had just ended when white city police cars from all directions started squealing toward the intersection of 8th and Pine streets all while a helicopter whirred overhead). 

Turns out a few dozen people had been demonstrating downtown against the Chicago police's handling of protestors at the NATO summit last weekend, according to the Post-Dispatch. Then a few of them took it to the next level and tagged at least two banks: Fifth and Third on Olive Street, and The People's National Bank a couple blocks east. (The arrestees denied affiliation with the Occupy movement, apparently).

The property manager at the former bank tried to stop them, but got assaulted, KMOV Channel 4 is saying.
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The DEA, the Franklin County Narcotics Enforcement Unit, and the police departments of Kirkwood and Pacific conducted a joint operation early Wednesday morning to break up a methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution ring. Twenty-one suspected meth cooks from Franklin and Jefferson counties are now in custody.
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Nineteen-year-old father Alexander Brooks was charged with two counts of aggravated battery to a child after doctors at Cardinal Glennon discovered that his son had serious injuries during a routine examination.
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