"STL Working Mom" Author: Marijean Jaggers

About the blogger: I lived and worked in St. Louis for 18 years then, suddenly, moved to Charlottesville, Va. at the end of 2005. I've kept my job in St. Louis and am still the STL Working Mom, traveling back for work and keeping my head in the 'Lou for most of the week. Charlottesville is home. This is the space where I tell tales about the boy, 16 and the girl, 10 and my furry co-worker, Clover. You'll also find random thoughts about being a working mom, working at home and traveling. There are also bits about St. Louis and Charlottesville and the transition from one to the other.

Recent Highlight (January 19): In a stunning move by the County, we've recently been notified that the elementary school will discontinue crossing guard services. The Albemarle County Police Department says that it is illegal for anyone other than a uniformed police officer to direct traffic.

I haven't been this riled up since my neighbor tried to weed my garden.

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In 1969 the Chicago Journalism Review reported a story that had been ignored by the mainstream press, alleging that the political machine of Mayor Richard Daley had covered up the murder of two members of the Black Panther Party at the hands of police. The article led to a grand-jury indictment. It also ushered in the popularity of local "journalism reviews" as a check on the credibility and ethics of the hometown press.

Inspired by Chicago, Charles Klotzer founded the St. Louis Journalism Review in 1970. Among more than 30 journalism reviews that sprang up across the nation in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it stands today as the sole print-based survivor. (The Columbia Journalism Review and the American Journalism Review continue to critique media on a national level.)

It's debatable why other media reviews failed, but it certainly doesn't help matters that most cities now feature just one daily paper -- making for less "mainstream press" to evaluate. Also, with the advent of the Internet, anyone can hold the media's feet to the fire. Did anyone ever hear of Matt Drudge before he published the story Newsweek refused to run -- a sordid tale involving a White House intern and a sitting U.S. president?

The prohibitive cost of newsprint may be another factor. For the past eleven years, Webster University has subsidized the production costs of the SJR -- spending $30,000 to $40,000 to print and distribute the (by and large) monthly publication. Those subsidies end next month, and the SJR will once again land in the hands of its founder, Charles Klotzer.

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Five months after meeting with St. Louis Post-Dispatch editors and P-D reporter Carolyn Tuft, a federal labor arbitrator has ruled that the daily must revoke Tuft's two-day suspension and reimburse her for lost pay, but he let stand the 576-word apology editors published reprimanding Tuft for a pair of investigative reports she wrote about local televangelist Joyce Meyer.

The articles, published in the spring of 2005, alleged, among other things, that the Meyer family lived "free of charge" in two residences owned by Joyce Meyer Ministries, a nonprofit. The articles also reported that "[t]he ministry's board of trustees, which is headed by Joyce Meyer, agreed to pay her a $900,000 annual salary in 2002 and 2003," and went on to state: "The board agreed to provide the couple with free personal use of a corporate jet and luxury cars, [and] a $2 million home where all bills are paid by the ministry."

The paper initially stood behind Tuft's reporting. One month later, however, editor Ellen Soeteber, who has since left the paper, and managing editor Arnie Robbins, who has since been promoted to editor, published an apology stating the articles did not meet their "standards for fairness and accuracy."

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My usual Monday morning ritual goes something like this: Alarm goes off way too early. I hit snooze. Doze. Alarm goes off again. Snooze. Doze. Repeat a few more times, until I realize I'm going to be late to our Monday meeting. Swear. Hop out of bed, shower and throw on whatever clothes I can find. Go outside with wet hair, pray it doesn't freeze. Etc. Etc.

However, on this particular Monday morning, I paused from freaking out about how much crazy-old-lady white hair I have on my head (seriously — thanks, genetics) and from obsessively listening to the new Idlewild album, to check out the Point's new morning show.

In fact, I did not hit snooze for at least the first ten minutes I was awake, as my radio was broadcasting the sweet strains of U2's "Desire" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" sometime just after 8 a.m. Heartened, I continued to listen — only to hear Donnie Fandango throw down a request-line gauntlet for either System of a Down or Nickelback. (Like a Triscuit battling a Wheat Thin, that one. I'm not sure who won; at that point, I hit snooze.) Whatever artists received the most votes — listeners were to text either "S" or "N" to a specific phone number — would be played next, reminiscent of that pre-TRL MTV call-in-request show I was addicted to in seventh grade. (And no, not Totally Pauly.)

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Move over, Nostradamus. Rev Halofan of the LA Angels blog Halos Heaven predicted World Series hero Jeff Weaver would sign with the Seattle Mariners in a January 3 post.

Excerpt:

Word is Nintendo has enough hydroponic profits they would have smoked with Zito that they are questioning why not go after Stoner #2...

My source says "Not 100%" (not yet like last year's inkwell) as Jeffo dug the Midwest Farmers Daughters in Saint Louie, but Boras will dig for the dough and it may be Emerald Green in a week or two...

Unreal genuflects in Halofan's general direction.

-Unreal

In case Night & Day hasn't given you enough ideas for what to do tomorrow night, you could also head over to Joe's Café (6014 Kingsbury Avenue) from 9 p.m. to midnight for a fundraiser benefiting Boots Contemporary Art Space. This new-ish gallery's Party to Publish hopes to raise enough cash to put out the first edition of Boot Print, the art space's newspaper. The ubiquitous Jason Wallace Triefenbach sets the party mood by providing the soundtrack for the video projections — and the drinking. And you supply the funds (admission costs $10; drinks are free).

-Alison Sieloff

Calling all techno-geeks, electro-freaks, house-heads, trance-dorks and whatever clever genre-noun combination you want to employ: The RFT is again holding its annual competition to find one DJ in town that will be flown to Miami and represent for St. Louis at the Ultra Music Festival, which takes place this year on March 23 and 24. (Adrian Fox was the city's representative last year; see "Music Sounds Better With You," March 8, 2006, for how things shook out.)

Like last year, to enter the contest please send me a mix of music — any length, although one CD will more than suffice — that shows off your beatmatching skills, individual style and personal flair. The deadline for submission is 6 p.m. on Monday, February 12. I repeat: 6 p.m. on Monday, February 12. No exceptions.

Finalists will be notified by Monday, February 19, and there will be a final DJ spin-off to determine the winner on Thursday, March 1 at Atomic Cowboy; details will be announced later. Feel free to send this link to appropriate parties. Email me with any questions — as always, I'm found at...

-Annie Zaleski

Since I now know my mother reads these blog entries at Ye Olde RFT Blog (Hi, mom! Sorry I haven't called lately; volunteering at the nursing home every night after work is a tough job!), this post is dedicated to her.

You see, when she and I visited St. Louis a handful of times from 1994-1998, she tolerated my obsession with 105.7 FM The Point (er, and Vintage Vinyl and West End Wax -- see, I'm old school) with grace and patience. (For those curious: I had surgery at St. Louis Children's Hospital back in the day; ask me about it sometime if you see me, I'll certainly talk about it -- but I won't show you the scar.) As a music-obsessed teenager, I listened to the radio constantly, and being able to tune into the Point was one of the highlights of my many trips here. In fact, I have fond memories hearing the Breeders and Paul Weller (and, er, Crash Test Dummies), as well as XTC on the flashback lunch.

I was heartened this morning, then, to wake up to the news on the Point that the Cleveland-based syndicated show Rover's Morning Glory was no more. (I love my hometown, but that show was a painfully unfunny, shock-jock trainwreck.) In its place, the station is going to have Donnie Fandango, an on-air personality from 1996-2001, preside over a show that's — gasp — "music intensive," according to a press release I received from Kristi Carson, Public and Community Relations Director of Emmis in St. Louis. (Emmis Communications is the parent company that owns the Point.)

Music in the morning? In St. Louis? A non-syndicated morning show? What's going on?

The announcement goes on to say that "Donnie will have free reign over the music and will be experimenting on-air with different playlist themes, on-demand requests, and listener input on which band or artist to play next."

With the commercial radio stations in this town growing ever-impersonal, I can't help but think that this move — no matter how it turns out — is a positive step forward. Sure, one can mock the Point because they still play too much shitty metal, but I also heard the Dead Milkmen's "Bitchin' Camaro" a few weekends ago. So I'll certainly tune in for the possibility of hearing more stuff like that.

-Annie Zaleski

This just in, from unitedforpeace.org:

St. Louis Portrait for Peace
Saturday, January 27th 2007 11:30 a.m.

Location:
South Grand and Arsenal (NW corner, by Tower Grove park) across the street from 3606 Arsenal St. Louis MO 63118

Can't March on Washington? Be Counted In The St. Louis Portrait For Peace
Congress Get the Picture - No New Funds for the War

Pose for group photo of St. Louis war opponents. Send it to Congress and Call for an End to the War. Coffee and Cocoa provided by Mokabe's.

Contact:
Bill Ramsey
staff@insteadofwar.org
314-725-5303

-Unreal

Last week Lew Prince got a phone call from Let Justice Roll, a group that lobbies on behalf of a higher minimum wage. Prince, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl (and sometime Riverfront Times opera critic), actively campaigned for Missouri's minimum wage ballot initiative, which voters overwhelmingly approved last November. The caller asked whether Prince would participate in a press conference with Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who is spearheading the campaign to lift the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour by 2009.

The bill passed the House last week, and Kennedy wanted to do a little press surge for the Senate because his Republican colleagues wanted to tack on tax breaks for restaurants and other businesses that rely on low-wage workers.

Recalls Prince: "I e-mailed back saying, 'Of course. Just tell me when to be by my phone and where to call.' I got this frantic phone call saying, 'No, no, no. You have to be in Washington.'"

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