Stlog

Post-Dispatch Plays the Race Card. Question Is: Will it Pay?

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:19:32 -0600

Was I the only one scratching his head after reading yesterday's front-page ~~story~~ advertisement in the Post-Dispatch announcing the paper's new blog on race?

Has the daily fired so many of its reporters that an announcement of a blog now constitutes front-page news? Or is that the Post-Dispatch sees a way to increase Web traffic (and, thus, advertisement rates) by baiting folks with an issue that has long divided St. Louis?

Another Kurt Warner Victory Begets Another Religious Home Video

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:31:16 -0600

Last week I posted a video of erstwhile Rams quarterback Kurt Warner drawing a picture of God. (The result was a cartoon diety with an uncanny resemblance to a Derek-and-the-Dominos era Eric Clapton.)

Now, after leading the Arizona Cardinals to another improbable playoff victory Saturday over the Carolina Panthers, Warner is back. This time the Cardinals QB (again seated in what appears to be his basement) discusses concerns that some of his teammates may be going to hell.

Perhaps. But something tells me that right now Warner's infidel teammates are a lot more concerned with making it to the Super Bowl. Arizona is just one game away.

-- Chad Garrison

Burris Preparing to Rest in Pieces

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 15:27:49 -0600

Roland Burris, the could-be junior Senator from Illinois, is getting on in years. But even when you're 71, it's never too late to stop thinking about the future. And so Burris has created an elaborate tomb for himself in Oak Woods Cemetery on Chicago's South Side.

Unlike most people, whose headstones list their dates and relatives and maybe some lovely final thought, Burris has decided to emblazon his with the motto "Trail Blazer" and a complete list of all the things he was the first African-American in Illinois to accomplish, beginning with his stint as a Southern Illinois University exchange student in Hamburg, Germany, during the 1959-'60 school year through his post as Illinois Attorney General.

And, yes, there is still space to engrave "United States Senator" should the need arise.

Our friends at the Chicago Sun-Times are taking suggestions for epitaphs to reflect the unusual circumstances of Burris' appointment to the Senate. Unreal personally favors "The Senator from Blagojevich." Simple, and yet memorable.

- Unreal

One Good Egg

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:41:34 -0600

Egg donation, clearly, is not for everybody. Really, is there any woman in the world who relishes daily shots in the ass, wildly fluctuating hormones and a mildly-invasive surgery that involves a really, really long needle into the ovaries, not to mention a screwed-up menstrual cycle and several months of enforced celibacy?

But weigh that against $10,000. It seems almost worth it. An extra ten grand is awfully hard to come by, especially these days. Oh, yeah, and the joy that comes from helping infertile women have babies of their own.

Well, it seemed like a pretty good deal to me. My eggs are pretty valuable, I like to think. No obvious defects. Limited athletic ability, it's true, but high SAT scores. Jewish, if you're into that sort of thing, and some people are. Alas, my poor eggs are about two years too old: Maximum donor age is 30.

Still, I cannot possibly be the only woman in St. Louis who has considered donating (or, more precisely, selling) an egg to ward off the ill effects of this economy. Right?

P-D Layoffs: The Memo

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:25:49 -0600

An internal memo circulated yesterday to St. Louis Post-Dispatch employees indicates that some of the staffers who were laid off could get their jobs back if others resign or retire by January 21.

The Post offered a similar deal when it let go of people last fall, and reporters Christine Byers and Patrick M. O'Connell were both able to be "rehired."

Yesterday's memo, penned by Arnie Robbins and Pam Maples, the local daily's executive editor and managing editor, respectively, also notes that several budgets (wire services, travel, freelance) have been cut, and reports that the paper's Nexis subscription has been terminated. (Nexis is a subscription service providing journalists access to a huge digital archive of newspaper and magazine articles, not to mention public records. I, for one, can't imagine not having access to it.)

See the full memo after the jump.

Prince Joe Henry, 1930-2009: Funeral Service, "Prince Joe Henry Day" Declared in Brooklyn, Illinois

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:58:28 -0600

Former Negro League infielder and Riverfront Times columnist Prince Joe Henry was laid to rest Thursday, January 8, in a powder-blue casket at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, with full military honors.

Prior to the burial, a crowd of several hundred gathered at the Civic Center in Brooklyn, Illinois, to treat the ex-ballplayer and local legend to a celebratory "homegoing."

Village trustee Pamela Calvert declared January 8 "Prince Joe Henry Day," and village clerk Wendell Marshall announced that the city would rename the 100 block of North Seventh Street "Prince Joe Henry Boulevard" at a ceremony scheduled for Saturday, February 21.

Post-Dispatch Layoffs Include 14 From Newsroom

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 10:26:33 -0600

Columnist and commentary page editor Eric Mink and prep/college sports editor Cameron Hollway were among the slew of folks who got pink-slipped at the local daily yesterday.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch laid off 39 employees across four departments, including fourteen from the newsroom.

The paper did not fire any reporters or photographers, but did let go a number of copy editors, news clerks and online editors.

Although the sports department had been largely spared in the two previous rounds of cuts, this time sports lost at least two staffers, including the well-respected Hollway.

Before the layoffs occurred yesterday afternoon, the stock price of the paper's embattled corporate parent, Lee Enterprises, jumped seventeen cents to close at $0.56. That's Lee's best performance since December 5, 2008, when it was trading at $0.60.

For all of our "Post-Dispatches," click here.

-Kristen Hinman

Pornographers Ask For Federal Bailout. Better Days for Sauget?

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:38:56 -0600

Leave it to Hustler publisher Larry Flynt to come up with a plan to get America -- or at least metro East St. Louis -- moving again.

On Wednesday the outspoken Flynt (right) joined forces with Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis to ask Congress for a $5 billion bailout of the adult entertainment industry. According to CNN, the pornographers acknowledge that the industry itself is in no financial danger. Still, they feel Americans could use a boost these days.

"People are too depressed to be sexually active," Flynt said. "This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex."

Flynt operates a Hustler Club in the economically depressed town of Washington Park, Illinois. Though other southwestern Illinois enclaves known for their "gentleman clubs" -- Sauget and Brooklyn -- could surely benefit from a financial stimulus other than $1 bills.

-- Chad Garrison

Post-Dispatch Lays Off 39 More Employees

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:04:32 -0600

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch today let go of 39 people across four departments -- newsroom, finance, operations and advertising.

As far as the newsroom goes, so far I know of two online employees and one copy editor who were fired.

The cuts apparently came as the night shift began arriving for work about 4 p.m.

Dave Sinclair's "Buy American" Ads Win Organized Labor Award

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:55:16 -0600

Used to be that Dave Sinclair was the "South County Ford Dealer." These days, Sinclair prefers the title the "American Car Dealer in South County."

Sinclair's television ads -- you know the ones with the 80-year-old standing behind a podium -- have won praise from the St. Louis Building Trades Council of the AFL-CIO. Yesterday the union presented Sinclair with its first-ever Spirit of America Award for his willingness to "stand up and speak out."

Sinclair's recent television commercials have urged viewers to buy American vehicles and products -- whether from his dealerships or other vendors.

Last September Sinclair also made news when he pulled his advertising from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after the daily outsourced some of its advertising typesetting jobs to India. Back then, Sinclair told RFT : "I'm not trying to be a rabble-rouser, but I wanted to make my point clear. Here we are talking about jobless rates in the United States and they're shipping jobs overseas."

You can view a couple of Sinclair's "award-winning" commercials after the jump.

Elephant Treament Lands Saint Louis Zoo in "Hall of Shame"

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:59:43 -0600

This just in from the In Defense of Animals organization: Our very own Saint Louis Zoo has landed in the "Hall of Shame" for the confinement and treatment of its elephants.

Visitors to the zoo over the past few years may have noticed a foot brace on Clara (an elephant that was euthanized in 2007 at age 54) to aid her arthritis and foot disease. (You can see a similar foot brace on the elephant in the photo above.) Another elephant at the zoo, Sri, has lived since 2005 with a dead fetus inside her uterus.

The Saint Louis Zoo did not return calls to the RFT asking for comment on the IDA's most recent ranking. You can read IDA's entire press release after the jump.

"Knight Rider" Fans Optimistic Sen. Kit Bond Will Return To Acting

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:46:58 -0600

In a speech to the Missouri General Assembly this morning, Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond announced that he won't seek a fifth term in office in 2010.

"In 1972, I became Missouri's youngest Governor. Ladies and Gentlemen, I do not aspire to become Missouri's oldest Senator," said Bond.

The 69-year-old Republican served two terms as Missouri's governor before being elected to the Senate in 1986. Bond has not indicated how he'll spend his retirement, but sources tell Riverfront Times that the senator has not ruled out a return to acting.

In the photo to the right, Bond -- aka "KITT" (Knight Industries Two Thousand) -- appears next to actor David Hasselhoff on the popular 1980s show Knight Rider.

-- Unreal

Latest Score In World Series Ticket Scandal: Public 1, Cops 0

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:45:22 -0600

John Chasnoff has won a small but significant victory in his spat with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department over the World Series ticket scandal.

Chasnoff got word Tuesday that St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Philip Heagney has ordered police to make public the report that initiated investigations into officers' misuse of baseball tickets seized from scalpers during the 2006 baseball championship.

"I'm happy with this first step and optimistic about the next one," says Chasnoff, a St. Louis County resident (the RFT's Best Gadfly in 2008), who filed his lawsuit against the department last year.

Since this thing has been stalled forever, let's recap, shall we?

Chuck Berry: Too Pooped to Pop?

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:27:23 -0600

Entertainment Web site, Cinemablend, recently released its list of the 100 celebrities most likely to die this year.

Topping the macabre ranking is 60 Minutes windbag Andy Rooney. (Obviously, Cinemablend doesn't know that Rooney actually died a decade ago. It's true. Since the late 1990s producers at CBS have been using Rooney's embalmed corpse as a mannequin. And, yes, dead people's hair -- and eyebrows -- continue to grow long after they leave this earth.)

But what I really have issues with is the #19 ranking the Web site gives St. Louis' very own Chuck Berry. Cinemablend predicts Berry's probability of dying this year at 9 percent and writes: "He's outlived Elvis, Bo Diddley, and nearly everyone of his rivals, but like Beethoven, he'll roll over soon enough."

Conversation with the Chief: Dan Isom Discusses Towing Scandals, Gun Laws, Cops and Robbers

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:35:44 -0600

This morning St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Dan Isom invited a few reporters to meet with him to discuss his first few months on the job -- as well as anything else we wanted to talk about.

I, for one, appreciate the chief's openness. Such an invite would be anathema to some of his predecessors at police headquarters.

During the nearly hour-long meeting, Isom (who's recovering from a knee injury suffered during a charity basketball game) opined on everything from black-on-black crime to state control of the police board.

An abbreviated version of the conversation appears after the jump.