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Larry Conners.

On Tuesday we reported on KMOV-TV (Channel 4) anchor Larry Conners' controversial comments on his Facebook page pondering whether the IRS was targeting him in response to a critical interview he did with President Obama. Later that night -- after getting national attention for his comments -- he issued a short on-air statement admitting that he had issues with the IRS for several years prior to the Obama interview and saying his views were his own.

Now he is temporarily off the air. KMOV officials and Conners' attorney say it's not a suspension.

"He's dying to talk to everybody," Conners' attorney Merle Silverstein tells Daily RFT, "but until he gets released from this order of the station, he is barred from making any comment."

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Riverfront Times is seeking applications for an Editorial Assistant to keep our Editorial Department running smoothly.

Candidates should:
- Be detail-minded.
- Possess excellent communications and writing skills.
- Possess a knack for organizing and following through on complex projects.
- Be gifted with a preternatural knack to maintain a Zen-like calm under pressure.

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The Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, the local newspapers owned by the same company as the Post-Dispatch and published online at stltoday.com are undergoing a major transition that involves shuttering two print editions and laying off twenty employees.

The official announcement from parent company Lee Enterprises calls this a streamlining initiative to focus efforts online, and says the communities where the papers were published will still be covered at stltoday.com. One laid-off journalist -- who got the call Saturday morning -- tells Daily RFT that the former staffers are not convinced.

"This doesn't just hurt the people that are laid off. It affects the communities that were being covered by these newspapers," the now unemployed writer, who wished to remain anonymous, tells us.

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via Twitter

Larry Conners.

Yesterday, KMOV-TV (Channel 4)'s Larry Conners made quite a splash when he speculated on his Facebook page whether the Internal Revenue Service may have targeted him in response to his interview with Barack Obama last year. Our original coverage is below. Since his post got national attention, Conners went on air to address the controversy -- and offer a pretty surprising disclosure.

His issues with the IRS, he announced, "preceded that interview by several years."

And, he emphasized, his views are his own, not that of his company.

Watch his full statement below.

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The National Association of Black Journalists has named five feature stories published last year in Riverfront Times as finalists for its 2013 "Salute to Excellence Awards."

The stories are:
- Code Dead, freelance writer Christopher Tritto's examination into the encrypted note left on a dead man's body in St. Louis that has stumped the FBI's foremost code-breakers.

- Daddy Do-Over, former staff writer Nicholas Phillips' feature story on the Fathers' Support Center of St. Louis that provides a bootcamp for estranged fathers.

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via KTVI

This guy knows the dangers of weed.

"It's a high that won't result in higher achievement."

So says KTVI (Channel 2) which has an earnest, in-depth, punny report on the dangers of marijuana -- after two Parkway West High School students allegedly brought pot brownies to school where they intended to hand them out.

From a marijuana advocate in sunglasses to the insight of stoner-looking teens skateboarding in the Loop, the news report has everything you'd want from a local television dispatch on pot. Video below.

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via ksdk.com

A legitimate comeback?

"Could Todd Akin be the new comeback kid?"

KSDK (Channel 5) seems to answer its own (pretty ridiculous) question with its much hyped, underwhelming interview with the former Missouri congressman who destroyed his Senate campaign by saying, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

The station promoted the exclusive as an interview about his "comeback," -- tweet your comments with hashtag #AkinComeback! -- but were the hints of new political ambitions legitimate? Check out the video below.

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via KSDK

Is this Todd Akin "comeback" legitimate?

They shout his name at the Missouri State Capitol when lawmakers propose anti-abortion bills. He was the inspiration for an entire episode of Law & Order SVU this season.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin, the failed Senate candidate who got national attention for his controversial abortion remark, is back...with an exclusive KDSK (Channel 5) interview in which the reporter states, "It may be the greatest comeback ever." Huh?

The segment airs Thursday at 10 p.m., but KSDK already has an intriguing teaser out. Video below.

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Kurt Schaefer, do you wanna duel?

Currently on the Columbia Daily Tribune's "Letters to the Editor" page, you will find commentary from one reader that is a bit unusual.

In his April 17 letter, Dave Raithel writes of Republican State Senator Kurt Schaefer, "I will duel with him until his or my death, with weapons of his choosing, at a place and time as he identifies."

On Twitter, readers are slamming the paper for choosing to publish a letter that some are labeling a "death threat."

"I thought it was a lively piece of rhetoric," Jim Robertson, managing editor, tells Daily RFT. "If you read it...in context, I think you'd have to work hard to make that a death threat."

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The Arch endured while the rest of St. Louis was destroyed, apparently.

It has been almost a year since the first rumblings of SyFy channel's original science-fiction drama Defiance made waves on the Internets. Daily RFT's interest was piqued by its setting: It unfolds 33 years in the future in St. Louis, though Earth has been terraformed by an alien species crashing into the planet. Little remains of the St. Louis we call home -- no Mississippi River, for example -- but somehow the Arch still stands, if not a little worse for wear.

Last night Defiance premiered on SyFy, and Daily RFT watched the entire hour-and-a-half pilot to find out how St. Louis fares.

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