St. Louis News Blog

Who wants to bet how long it'll be before Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report come to town for this one? 

Will the trolls have the last laugh?

​Somehow we knew it would come to this.

An anonymous website called "Kurt Greenbaum is a Pussy" (www.kurtgreenbaumisapussy.com) popped up yesterday with a mission -- it seems -- to destroy the career of Post-Dispatch editor Kurt Greenbaum.   

Greenbaum is the man who infuriated an army of Internet trolls this week when he wrote how he outed a commenter on the newspaper's website. The commenter allegedly wrote the word "pussy" in response to an article on stltoday.com that asked readers to "name the strangest food" they'd ever eaten.

Greenbaum saw that the response came from an IP address belonging to a local school and called the school's headmaster. The commenter was later confronted by the principal and resigned immediately from his job.

The site kurtgreenbaumisapussy.com is registered to Domains By Proxy, an Internet hosting site that allows web creators to hide their identity. Daily RFT has emailed KGP, asking for an interview. We'll let you know what -- if anything -- we hear.

Meanwhile, the website contains Greenbaum's home address and phone number as well as the addresses and phone number of his bosses at the paper and encourages readers to let them know how they feel.

Update 3:22 p.m.: The site no longer lists Greenbaum's home address. Also the site's creator returned my query and said he/she would answer some questions via email. He/she wouldn't talk on the phone and wanted to remain anonymous. Pussy!

I'm awaiting his/her response.

Like so many of our fellow layabouts who have nothing better to do, Unreal has looked on slack-jawed and mesmerized over the past week as Stltoday.com social media editor Kurt Greenbaum underwent a slow-motion self-immolation, beginning last Friday when he outed a poor schmoe at a local educational institution who had the gall to answer an innocent question -- "What's the craziest thing you've ever eaten? And did you like it?" -- with a one-word rejoinder: "Pussy".

twitter.com/kgreenbaum

Kurt Greenbaum

​

Steve Brown was sentenced to two years' probation and a $40,000 fine. Jeff Smith got a year in prison and must pay a $50,000 fine.

​In a letter to U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson, former state rep. Steve Brown's wife, Rebecca Brown, stated she is "deeply disappointed" by her husband's illegal act but proud about how he handled the debacle.

"His decision to accept responsibility and assist with the investigation came without hesitation," Brown wrote.

Steve Brown wore a wire for the government earlier this year and captured his then-good friend Jeff Smith trying to blame a cover-up of an FEC violation on a dead campaign worker.

In a political column that appeared a day after their sentencings, Smith seemed to take Brown to task for turning against him.

Rebecca Brown's letter (after the jump) helps to explain her husband's loyalty to Smith and his "palpable envy of Jeff's success."

"Perhaps most telling was a comment [Steve] made to me shortly after his [guilty] plea when support began pouring in from his friends," Brown writes of her husband. "He told me that all he had really ever wanted in this life was to have friends and now he finally knew that he did. How deeply regrettable it is that it took such a disgrace for him to make this discovery."
 

twitter.com/kgreenbaum

Kurt Greenbaum

​Stltoday.com editor Kurt Greenbaum yesterday posted a lengthy reflection on why he outed a commenter on the Post-Dispatch website that cost the commenter his job.

The person had twice published the word "pussy" in the comment thread for a story that asked stltoday.com readers to name the strangest thing they'd ever eaten.

After the second posting, Greenbaum saw that the IP address of the commenter was registered to a computer at a local school. Greenbaum then called the school, and the headmaster confronted the guilty employee. The man then resigned on the spot.

In his explanation yesterday, a somewhat contrite Greenbaum admitted that he may have overreacted but did not rule out that he would do the same thing again.

"Have I set some sort of precedent for STLtoday?" writes Greenbaum. "We don't routinely, and would not routinely take the steps I took in this case. For particularly bad cases of abusing our guidelines with vulgarity and obscenity, we would not rule it out."

At yesterday's federal sentencing of Jeff Smith, U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson noted her receipt of numerous letters asking for leniency for the former state senator. Jackson said she never counted the missives, but estimated that they well could have totaled 100.

Jackson also referenced a lone dissenter. Daily RFT has learned it was a man named Richard Luthmann.

Luthmann was a friend of Artie Harris, a 2004 campaign worker for Smith who, according to court documents and testimony, lied to the Federal Elections Commission on Smith's behalf in early 2007, and then committed suicide two months later.

http://dperera.com/friends_of_artie

Artie Harris left St. Louis after the Smith for Congress 2004 campaign. He was working for New York's Attorney General when he took his own life. Smith apparently attended his funeral.

​
According to wiretaps, Smith tried to blame his campaign's misdeed on Harris.

His friend, Luthmann, was none too pleased when those revelations surfaced this past summer. "I write this to the St. Louis paper and to the people of St. Louis to make it known what a despicable piece of slime Jeff Smith is," Luthmann subsequently wrote in a letter to the St. Louis American.   

​Regarding my post yesterday on how Sarah Palin's book tour is avoiding major cities and Democratic strongholds in favor of discount retailers in podunkville...

Yesterday the Springfield News-Leader reported a tidbit that supports my premise. Palin is in fact stopping in Missouri to promote her book Going Rogue.

So where will Palin land? St. Louis? Kansas City? Springfield? Columbia?

Nope. She's visiting Branson.

But even that's not quite right. Palin is visiting a suburb of Branson.

Is it just Daily RFT, or does it sound like Jeff Smith is flipping the ol' bird to the people who put him behind bars?

​St. Louis Post-Dispatch political columnist Tony Messenger has a nice scene-scetter of the Jeff Smith sentencing in this morning's paper. 

northeastfiredistrict.org

Fire District Chairman, Robert Edwards

​Last night Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee held a news conference to release her findings on the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District.

Unfortunately for Montee -- and taxpayers in the district -- the audit is less than comprehensive. That's because the corrupt questionable officials with the fire district refused to hand over key financial documents to the state.

Following is Montee's initial report on the fire district.

​11.16.2009 4:59 pm
Jury awards $100,000 in RFT photo dispute
By Robert Patrick
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A federal jury in St. Louis on Monday awarded $100,000 to a woman who claimed that nude photos of her torso appeared in a 2006 Riverfront Times article about cosmetic surgery without her permission.

Lawyers for the woman had sought $2.5 to $3 million for compensatory damages alone, but one male juror said the jury awarded only enough to pay something to her lawyers and to allow for her hotel and travel expenses. The woman, identified in court documents only as "Jane Doe," now lives in Georgia.

The juror, who declined to provide his name, said that the jury thought that Doe's lawyers were just trying to "drum up" a case, and there was not enough proof to award more money. He said the cosmetic surgeons seemed remorseful and that jurors thought the office staff and the newspaper were more at fault.

OK, test time! Based upon what you just read, choose the single phrase that most accurately completes the sentence below:

Had a conversation today with Albert Watkins, the attorney for Casey Ray.

Ray, if you'll recall, is the woman who in May found a copy of the script for the Twilight sequel New Moon in a Dumpster outside the Chase Park Plaza hotel in St. Louis.

Watkins says a TMZ.com news item about Ray -- mentioned on this here blog yesterday -- is not true.

Stop the presses! These "journalists" got the story wrong!?

​Earlier this week TMZ reported that Ray was ungrateful with the arrangement Summit Entertainment made with her after she -- on the advice of her attorney Watkins -- returned the script to the film company. Summit, in turn, rewarded Ray with tickets to last night's Hollywood premiere of the film.

According to TMZ, Ray is now complaining about the deal because she had to pay her airfare and hotel accommodations in L.A.

That's wrong, counters Watkins, who says that he, too, was contacted by TMZ. 

Jeff Smith remains free on bond -- until he gets the letter from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons telling him where and when to report.

​Susan Uchitelle wanted Jeff Smith to do more community service at Confluence Academy.

Vince Estrada wanted the former poli-sci instructor for Washington University to tutor students in the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District and help coach the St. Louis Eagles basketball team.

Martin Matthews asked that the former state senator be allowed to continue helping out at the Matthews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club.

All in exchange for prison time.

But U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson decided that no length of community service -- something Smith was previously known for -- would serve as punishment for the two obstruction of justice charges that he pled guilty to this past summer.

Smith's attorney, Richard Greenberg, had asked for house arrest and community service.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith said it would be foolish to let Smith "live off of his substantial net worth" and requested a prison sentence of fifteen to 21 months.

Judge Jackson didn't quite meet them halfway: She went with twelve months and a day, plus a $50,000 fine and two years' supervised release.

(The twelve months and a day is a technicality that can result in a defendant with good behavior being released before the end of the term.)

Jackson honored Greenberg's request to ask the U.S. Bureau of Prisons for a bed at the Marion, Illinois, penitentiary so Smith can be close to his family and friends -- some of whom were in court this morning.

​St. Louis shares many things in common with Baltimore, Maryland. We have the same brick infrastructure, the same *&%@ed up government, the same run-away crime and -- now -- the same STD.

Yesterday the Center for Disease Control published findings indicating that Baltimore has surpassed St. Louis as the most chlamydia-infested region of the country.

In 2008, 1,235 people per 100,000 residents in St. Louis had chlamydia for a total of 4,300 total cases. Baltimore had a higher infection rate of 1,321 per 100,000 people.

Yesterday came news, too, that St. Louis is also no longer No. 1 among people with gonorrhea. That title now goes to Richmond, Virginia.

Last week's RFT feature story was about the DisAbility Project, a theater troupe here in St. Louis made up of actors who have disabilities. All week long Daily RFT has been posting video of the DP in action. All skits were shot during a performance on October 28 at the Saint Louis Art Museum for an audience of students, ranging from elementary to high school.

Before the show, four cast members talked with us about the audience for the day's performance and what they hoped everyone would get out of it.



After the show, the cast members introduced themselves.

Photo courtesy of Albert Watkins

Casey Ray

​Remember the case of Casey Ray?

Ray was loitering outside a St. Louis hotel where George Clooney and other actors were staying this past spring when she found the script to the Twilight movie sequel, New Moon, in a Dumpster. (What Ray, a hairstylist, was doing rummaging through the trash remains a mystery.)

Anyway, Ray and her St. Louis attorney -- the inimitable Albert Watkins -- negotiated the safe return of the script to Summit Entertainment. In return, Summit provided Ray with a tickets to the Hollywood premiere of the film tomorrow as well as an autographed copy of the script.

Today, Watkins dispatched a press release stating:

Armed with an updated "do", carefully selected accessories, and her invitation to walk the red carpet, attend the premiere, and hob knob with the stars, Casey Ray is staying at Hollywood's famed Roosevelt Hotel and introducing herself to the Left Coast. "I suppose this will be my first and last red carpet walk," said Ray, "and I plan on making sure it is memorable."

But is everything really so peachy in La-La Land? Hollywood gossip site TMZ.com is reporting that Ray is now bitching about her arrangements.

bergersbeat.com

Jerry Berger

​Back when we was a pup, men were men and what happened in the newsroom stayed in the newsroom. That's why Unreal coughed up our morning tequila shot when we read Chad Garrison's scoop about 76-year-old Gossip Column Emeritus Jerry Berger getting banned from the Post-Dispatch premises for allegedly feeling up the male help.

"After a recent newsroom visit, we received several complaints from staff members about inappropriate behavior directed at them from Jerry," says P-D editor Arnie Robbins. "I love Jerry. We're friends. But we cannot tolerate that type of behavior in the newsroom."

Well, here at Riverfront Times, we take pride in our old-school cred. That's right: We not only tolerate "that type of behavior in the newsroom," we openly encourage it.

​Ah, yes, Daily RFT readers. We know you've been waiting with bated breath to find out the outcome of the case of Ronald Ball vs. PepsiCo.

Ball, as you'll recall, is the Granite City man who claims he found a mouse in the bottom of his can of Mountain Dew. Ball made the discovery, btw, after taking a big ol' swig of the soft drink. Blech!

Last week Ball filed a motion to dismiss his case. At the same time he also asked the judge for permission to re-instate the lawsuit at a later date.

Presumably Ball and his attorney decided they needed to build a better mousetrap (ie. bolster their case) before taking it to trial. 

Last week Unreal revisited our favorite local sex blogger, The Beautiful Kind, a 36-year-old divorced mom who was recently ranked #5 on a fellow sex blogger's list of the 100 best on the Internet.

This week's RFT feature story is about the DisAbility Project, a theater troupe here in St. Louis made up of actors who have disabilities. All week long on Daily RFT, we'll be posting video of the DP in action. All skits were shot during a performance on October 28 at the Saint Louis Art Museum for an audience of students, ranging from elementary to high school.

The big dance number, "Gettin' Jiggy":

King Khan & BBQ Show

​Fans of the rock duo The King Khan & BBQ Show were disappointed last night when the band was a no-show for its scheduled concert last night at the Off Broadway in St. Louis.

Today the Riverfront Times music blog A to Z has the skinny on why the band failed to appear.

Turns out at least one member of the outfit got arrested yesterday in the-middle-of-nowhere-Kentucky. Kristin Klein, tour manager for the band, was arrested in Oak Grove, Kentucky, and charged with driving on a suspended license and possession of a controlled substance.

The band was supposed to be driving from Nashville to St. Louis yesterday. 

www.sportsnet.ca

Danton seems to have undergone a makeover since his days in St. Louis.

​

Danton during his stint with the Blues in the '03-'04 season.

​Mike Danton sat down this week with Canadian broadcaster sportsnet.ca.

Danton, now 29, tells about his life and mental state in 2004 when he was convicted of in federal court in East St. Louis of hiring a hitman to kill his sports agent David Frost.

But as Danton tells sportsnet.ca, he was really trying to kill his biological father. He also says he found the allegations of a homosexual relationship between him and Frost as "laughable."

Check out the entire interview by clicking on the following links:

Part I: The Target
Part II: The Frost Relationship
Part III: Behind Bars
Part IV: Suicide

campaignforliberty.com

Bierfeldt

​Remember the case of Steve Bierfeldt?

If you answered no, you're not reading enough Libertarian blogs. Let us quickly recap...

Bierfeldt is the development director for presidential candidate Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty. He was in the St. Louis airport back in April when Transportation and Safety Administration officials found $4,700 in cash in his luggage and detained him for questioning.

When Bierfeldt refused to answer their inquiries, TSA officials responded: "Are you from this planet?" and "You want to play smartass, and I'm not going to play your fucking game."

Bierfeldt recorded the conversation on his iPhone and used the threats to sue the TSA on charges of violating his civil liberties. Bierfeldt (who was being represented by the ACLU) has now dropped his lawsuit after the TSA agreed to change its policies.

This week's RFT feature story is about the DisAbility Project, a theater troupe here in St. Louis made up of actors who have disabilities. All week long on Daily RFT, we'll be posting video of the DP in action. All skits were shot during a performance on October 28 at the Saint Louis Art Museum for an audience of students, ranging from elementary to high school.

In this skit, called "Facts and Figures", cast members share some sad facts about how disabled people have been treated throughout history and some sad facts about their lives today.



More facts and figures after the jump.

Jennifer Silverberg

Ana Jennings with DP director Joan Lipkin.

​"If I was able to break into entertainment, I'd change people's attitudes," says Ana Jennings, an actress in the DisAbility Project, the subject of this week's RFT feature story. "I'm a pretty good singer. I do comedy pretty well. I've been told by audience members that I have good timing. I'd like to do what I do with DP on a grander scale."

Unfortunately for Jennings, there aren't many disabled characters onstage, and many of those roles are going to non-disabled actors. In the past month on Broadway, there have been protests from disability rights groups over the casting of two disabled characters in major productions.

'Cause you can't keep MetroLink down.

​That's the news from the Washington University Student Life newspaper.

In an article today the paper reports that Wash. U. has already forked over $25,000 to support a tax measure that could go before voters as soon as this April. Philanthropist Sam Fox has given another $10,000, according to the Student Life.

In November 2008 voters in St. Louis County narrowly defeated Proposition M that would have boosted the sales tax by half a percent to pay for future MetroLink expansion and other costs. Months after the initiative failed, Metro was forced to severely cut back its service owing to budget shortfalls.

Student Life reports today that Metro boosters want the tax hike on this coming April's ballot because some of the temporary funds that have restored transit services expire in May.

This week's RFT feature story is about the DisAbility Project, a theater troupe here in St. Louis made up of actors who have disabilities. All week long on Daily RFT, we'll be posting video of the DP in action. All skits were shot during a performance on October 28 at the Saint Louis Art Museum for an audience of students, ranging from elementary to high school.

We begin with "The DP Rap", led by Ana Jennings.

​Even before voters in St. Louis County overwhelmingly approved a smoking ban last week, opponents of the ban warned that they might challenge the statute in court. 

At a press conference in October, Bill Hannegan of "Vote No on Proposition N" and Keep St. Louis Free said he and others were examining the constitutionality of the ban.

While opposed to any law prohibiting smoking, they argue that the the county ordinance is particularly unfair because it exempts casinos and bars that derive 75 percent of their revenue from alcohol sales.

Under this argument, smoking advocates say  businesses exempted from the ordinance would unjustly draw patrons away from establishments (such as restaurants and bowling alleys) that must abide by the ban. 

"There's reason to believe that such exclusions would be illegal under the law," said Hannegan back in October.

A day after last Tuesday's vote in St. Louis County (which also triggered a somewhat similar smoking ban in St. Louis City) Hannegan was quoted in the Nov. 5 Post-Dispatch saying much the same thing.

From the P-D:

Bill Hannegan, an activist against both smoking bans, said opponents met Wednesday with lawyers to discuss ways to overturn them.

He called the county ban unconstitutional "special-interest" legislation that favors casinos.

So how 'bout it? Is the county smoking ban unconstitutional? Or is Hannegan and other anti-ban folks just blowing smoke?

Daily RFT recently discussed the county's smoking ban with three area experts on constitutional law. Their consensus?

On Monday KTVI (Channel 2) followed up on the story reported in Riverfront Times and Daily RFT about an old Spanish cannon in Forest Park.

The gun has sat in the park for over a century with no plaque or identification, its history a mystery to park officials and city archivist. Enter Fred Ruhrwien.

A volunteer at the park, Ruhrwien spent the past year searching for clues about the cannon. Recently he struck gold when the St. Louis County Library subscribed to a database that includes copies of the Post-Dispatch from the late 1800s to early 1900s.

We'll let Ruhrwien explain the rest:
 

Jeff Cooper

​Earlier today Daily RFT shared an announcement about a new professional soccer league that plans to bring a team to St. Louis.

This afternoon, we got in touch with the league's spokesperson, Jeff Cooper, the Illinois attorney who's been trying to bring a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to St. Louis for years.

Cooper already owns the professional women's soccer team, St. Louis Athletica, and will also be the principal owner of the men's outdoor team when the new league starts this coming April.

Daily RFT: This is exciting news for soccer fans in St. Louis. How long has this new league been in discussion?

Cooper: About six months, although the other teams in the league [Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina Railhawks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps] first formed a team owners association about two years ago. Until now, those teams have played in the United Soccer League - First Division, which was owned by Umbro then Nike and then sold again in August. The owners wanted a league they could control.

How is the quality of play in this league compared to that in the MLS?

cortlandreview.com

Weber.

​In an unlikely convergence of RFT feature stories, reformed pickup artist turned filmmaker Eric Weber (who once neatly turned the tables during an Unreal interview) has just published a short story in the online literary magazine The Cortland Review about a suicide pact between two married octogenarians.

It's not quite the Final Exit Network -- for one thing, the network doesn't figure into the story at all, and for another (spoiler alert), the characters don't use the controversial Final Exit method of a plastic hood and helium tank. There is, to be perfectly honest, no pickup artistry, either.

It is, however, a deeply moving story about long-term marriage, sexual frustration and dysfunction, impending death and the sorrows of growing old and more than worth ten minutes of your time.