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After listening to the CVC-America’s Center vs. Labor battle rage all week, mainly on The Charlie Brennan Show, I decided to pull out my file containing documents I used to report and write my May, 2007, cover story, "Bad Blood," which chronicles the conflict in-depth. Among other things, the file contains a number of exit surveys (1, 2, 3) filled out by convention planners. Judging from the chatter on the radio, that’s what the people want to see.

You can now get a behind-the-scenes look at some of the back-and-forth between the unions and the convention center, as well as the exit surveys I obtained.

-- Here you’ll find an internal document prepared by the labor-relations manager at America’s Center in late 2006 that was used as a starting point for discussions between the CVC and the three audiovisual unions.

--Next is a March 8, 2007, letter from CVC chairman Dan Dierdorf that alerts convention center employees that "a conversation" with labor is imminent.

--The following day, Dierdorf and Ratcliffe provided union business reps with this position paper. Attached to the document are two examples of letters from disgruntled convention customers.

--The unions fired off this response to the CVC on April 6, 2007.

I got working on the story shortly afterward, and made a sunshine request for exit surveys. You can see my back-and-forth with the CVC’s VP for human resources, Leo Ming, by clicking here.

The CVC initially wanted to charge me $7,500 to $10,000 for the documents. But I wrangled a little and eventually narrowed my request, in the end asking for surveys filled out by 27 groups I knew (from Internet research) had held meetings at America’s Center.

You know what I really like? The Eagles. Not the football team. The band.

Now, you have to understand, for me, that was a very difficult thing to admit. Stay with me here, I'm getting to the Cardinals. I have certain indie credential that I have to maintain. I happen to be one of the very few people in the world who have ever debated, in complete earnest, which album was more influential to the post rock movement, Tortoise's "Millions Now Living Will Never Die," or Slint's "Spiderland." If none of what I just said there made any sense to you, congratulations! You clearly have better things to do with your time. For someone like me, though, my love for the Eagles just isn't the sort of thing you bandy about casually.

I tell you all of that to tell you this:

A couple of days ago, as I was considering how best to introduce this little corner of the Internet, an Eagles song, one of my personal favorites, "After the Thrill is Gone," came on the radio. As I was listening, still thinking on the Cardinals and this upcoming season, a particular line of the song reached out, grabbed me by the throat, and shook me.

"You don't care about winning, but you don't want to lose."

It suddenly hit me. That, in a nutshell, is the perfect description of this baseball season for our St. Louis Cardinals.

This is a team that is clearly in transition; the giants of the early 2000s are gone, with the notable exception of Albert Pujols. This is a team that needs desperately to develop new talent, a team that can't afford to hand out long term contracts that would compromise future flexibility.

At the same time, this is a team that publicly refuses to acknowledge a rebuild; instead, we're subjected to the term 'retooling' at nearly every turn. A team that fears how its fan base, long accustomed to playoff runs, would react to an admission that this is probably going to be a down season. They don't care about winning, but they don't want to lose.

This is where the St. Louis Cardinals find themselves, only a year and a half removed from a championship parade down Market Street. The year 2007 was the end of the era; the future begins now. Walt Jocketty, the architect of so much success, is gone, replaced by his former, more player-development friendly, lieutenant, John Mozeliak. New faces abound both on the field and in the front office. Mozeliak has made it his priority to make only moves which maintain the team's flexibility going forward, while still attempting to compete this year. The farm system will play a larger role than it has in a long, long time.

All of the pundits predict doom for this Cardinal team. Personally, I think the pundits are mostly wrong. The wheels aren't falling off this year; they came off last season. Surgery for your ace, Chris Carpenter. Surgery, again, for your No. 2 pitcher, Mark Mulder. The death of Josh Hancock. Surgery, again, for Scott Rolen. Time finally catching up to Jim Edmonds. Last year was the end.

This year is a new beginning. A new, rising star on the pitching mound, in Adam Wainwright. Dynamic offensive talent in the outfield, in the persons of Chris Duncan and Rick Ankiel. On the horizon, the future of Center in St. Louis: Colby Rasmus. A warchest of young relievers stashed away at Memphis, ready to contribute. The future of St. Louis baseball looks bright.

Below are two original videos recorded this week at St. Louis Fashion Week -- behind the scenes and on the runway. Fashion Week wraps up Sunday. The video was shot by RFT freelancer Anastasia Folorunso.

-Nick Lucchesi

Not totally satisfied with your weekend itinerary? Never fear, Go! is here! This regular feature highlights everything from rock shows to art openings, from delicious dishes to hidden-gem hangouts.

Friday, 3/28

Beyond the Ale: Quench that thank-God-it's-Friday thirst at Mosaics on Main (124 East Main Street, Belleville, Illinois; 618-355-5867) during the coffee and music house's first International Beer Tasting. From 7 to 10 p.m., have your pick of Asian, North American and European beers, and hang out with the creator of Ray Hill's American Pilsner, St. Louis native Ray Hill, as he joins in the festivities. The Bottoms Up Blues Gang provides the soundtrack to this chug-a-lug adventure. The delicious beer-tasting continues on Saturday evening with Steve Reeb on guitar. Pay $20 for fifteen tastings, which we hear is equivalent to about five beers.

Good Luck, Chuck: The World Combat League makes its first-ever stop to the mean streets of St. Louis…well, St. Charles…for a night of full-contact martial-arts madness. The league's founder, the highly idolized (see facts list) martial-arts master Chuck Norris, will be on hand for this first round of Eastern Conference playoffs. This conference includes the defending league champions, the St. Louis Enforcers, along with teams from New York, New Jersey and Miami. See all the action go down at 8 p.m. at the Family Arena (2002 Arena Parkway, St. Charles; 636-896-4200). Tickets are $22.25 to $72.25.

Johnny Angel: After his death John Denver's tunes came back to life in a big way. James Weber tells you how to pay tribute to the acclaimed singer-songwriter tonight at the Florissant Civic Center.

Saturday, 3/29

First Is Wurst: This event in Hermann can be called many things: a vegetarian's nightmare, another excuse to get tipsy, a total sausagefest. What can't be denied, though, is that Wurstfest brings together Missouri's finest sausage-makers for a two-day, face-stuffing marathon. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Stone Hill pavilion and Hermannhof Festhalle, sample bratwurst, leberwurst and more (for just $6!) to the sounds of live German music. On Sunday, don't miss the 7:30-a.m.-to-noon whole-hog sausage breakfast and the Weiner Dog Derby at 1 p.m. For more information call 800-932-8687, or see what Brooke Foster had to say about Wurstfest here.

Shake Your Tailgating Feather: Make an appearance at the pint-size social event of the season: The second annual Kids Tailgate Party at the Magic House (516 South Kirkwood Road, Kirkwood; 314-822-8900) is the place to be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. You and your little ones can mingle, shake hands with Fredbird, munch on an assortment of stadium goodies (hot dogs, nachos, ice cream) and create Cardinals-inspired crafts. Admission costs $20 and includes entrance to the Magic House.

Heaven on Earth: In the movies you've seen angels hover in midair and engage in other super-cool special effects, although never before have you witnessed them ice-skate. Behold Angels on Ice*! Turn to Alison Sieloff for further explanation.

(*In actuality, these angels might just be nice, giving people, not the beings who hang with God.)

Sunday, 3/30

Continent Analysis: Doesn't it seem like we only hear negative things about the second-largest continent on Earth? It's your last day to hear what its peoples have to say -- or rather, see what they have to film -- at the African Film Festival. Alison Sieloff shares more information about it here.

Passion for Style: Saint Louis Fashion Week is almost over. No tears, please. Just get to its final installment: The 79th annual Fashion Design Show, featuring wares by students of Washington University's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. For a full hour, the runway will be brimming with ball gowns, "class-action" suits, tailored coats (inspired by old-timey shoes!), cloaks, evening dresses and a show-ending wedding gown. All of the high-fashion fun happens at Lumière Place Casino & Hotels (999 North Second Street; 314-881-7777) at 7 p.m. Tickets are $65 for general admission and $35 for standing-room-only. And be sure to read Unreal's abridged history of St. Louis fashion here.

Yes You Can Can!: It's the turn of the century at Atomic Cowboy (4140 Manchester Avenue; 314-775-0775) as St. Louis neo-burlesque stars host "Moulin Rouge," a night of trapeze tricks, pole-dancing, fire-wielding and song. Emcee Ed Reggi, Michelle Mynx, Katrina Dhol, Lola Van Ella and Clownvis are all on the bill for this zany evening. Get your tickets ($25 in advance and $30 at the door) through www.metrotix.com. Doors open at 5 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m.

-Jeanette Kozlowski

The Greater St. Louis Labor Council issued a formal response today to Monday’s lockout of three audiovisual labor unions at the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission/America’s Center.

Bob Soutier, president of the Labor Council, called the lockout of about 150 members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local One, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 6, (Stagehands), and IATSE Local 143 (Projectionists) illegal.

Soutier also called the CVC’s proposed Memorandum of Understanding unlawful.

The MOU, which you can read in full here, states that audiovisual union members will only be allowed to work as employees of the CVC, on its terms, from here on out.

The Labor Council issued its own fact sheet in response, primarily declaring that it’s the convention contractors, not the CVC, who hire union labor, and therefore that the CVC lacks the authority to lock out the unions.

Soutier said there are no immediate plans to picket. So it’s not clear what’ll happen next.

As regular readers of RFT know, these three unions and the CVC have been at the bargaining table since early last year, when the CVC first approached labor about problems with convention customers. We broke that news in our May 2007 cover story, “Bad Blood.”

Later today we’ll post a bunch of primary documents, including exit surveys of convention planners.

-Kristen Hinman

The St. Louis Cardinals are trying to get us pumped for the upcoming season, during which we'll likely watch the "new-look Cards" finish with a losing record. And it kills me to say that. Especially after a decade-plus of stretch drives, one National League pennant and a World Series championship.

The bloom of contention is, as the poets say, off the rose. The front office has undergone changes; two executives, John Mozeliak and Bill DeWitt III, got promotions. The team on the field looks different too (as you may have read).

But with lowered expectations come funny commercials!

Check out these slightly weird ads. They don't exactly conjure feelings of an October run or a 100-win season. They do, however, make me long for summer.

The organization's new slogan, "Play Like a Cardinal," is a little fuzzily defined. Judging from these commericals, it might translate to: Share a hot dog with a friend, play hard and be sure to include the mascot in team warm-ups.

My favorite spot stars pitchers Adam Wainwright and Jason Isringhausen and a hot dog. The two aren't afraid to share a baseball during a game, and apparently also are unfazed by wiener-swapping:

Here we have Fredbird doing the high-knee jog with the team. To those who don't see the mascot every...single...freaking...day on television in St. Louis during the baseball season, the guest spot might seem novel. Well, hell, the kids love him:

A third spot has Rick Ankiel professing that he isn't just a pitcher. And he is only sort of a right fielder. Rest assured he is 100 percent "ballplayer," though:

-Nick Lucchesi

I didn't make it to the Pink Galleon over the weekend to try my hand at the new Wheel of Fortune pinball game, but my guess is that John Miller, a.k.a. "JR," still holds the high score.

As of Thursday afternoon, that was about 258 million. Miller says he had a good strategy think that day on his way home from work, so he swung by the Galleon for a rematch.

"I've dumped more money in that game than I've dumped into a game in a long time," Miller told me that evening.

Miller is one of the pinball aficionados I profiled back in December. He and his buddies, Steve and Carol Walker, Brian Bannon and Adam McKinnie (a.k.a. "Zed"), have been brushing up on their skills ahead of an international tournament next weekend in Las Vegas.

The tournament is sponsored by the International Flipper Pinball Association, the same group that created the World Pinball Player Rankings. The rankings are a fairly new development in competitive pinball. Much of a player's standing depends on how often he or she competes in sanctioned events. Miller, for example, is ranked at 25, while McKinnie stands at 101. Two weekends ago McKinnie held the high score on Pink Galleon's Wheel of Fortune, 148 million to Miller's 143 million. "He's a better player than what his ranking is," Miller says.

If you're interested in becoming a world-ranked pinball player, your chance is coming up. CP Pinball in South Roxana, Illinois, will hold its first sanctioned tournament on April 5. The entry fee is $20. Qualifying rounds run from noon until 5 p.m. Playoffs begin after 5 p.m. (There are no cash prizes.)

The competition will be mostly local, but unfortunately that does include JR. For someone who calls himself "pinball wizard," he doesn't harbor many secrets about his sorcery. If you want to save yourself a few quarters on Wheel of Fortune, Miller recommends going for the right-side drop targets on the first shot, then trying to hit the left and right ramps consecutively.

Released last fall, the pinball version of Wheel of Fortune might be more fun than watching its namesake game show for the gazillionth time. Miller reports that it comes with an engaging, complicated set of rules. "It's a throwback, playfield-wise, to the early '70s, late '60s. But technology-wise, it's awesome."

Kathleen McLaughlin

As reported today in the Post-Dispatch, the city of Valley Park and its controversial mayor Jeffery Whitteaker, are under fire again.

Whitteaker’s former secretary, Roxanne Ruppel, alleges in a sex discrimination lawsuit that she was fired from City Hall after calling it quits on an affair she was having with the mayor. (Ruppel and her husband are divorcing, according to court records; Whitteaker is married.)

Ruppel wants $1 million in damages. She filed her lawsuit March 7 in St. Louis County Circuit Court. You can view her court petition here.

News of the suit comes shortly before the April 8 mayoral election in which Whitteaker faces a challenge from another long time Valley Parker, Grant Young. Young owns Young’s Restaurant and Ice Creamery, famed in the metro area for its signature dish: fried chicken.

For a look back at the goings-on in Valley Park after the city passed controversial immigration ordinances, check out our February, 2007, cover story, “Valley Park to Mexican immigrants: Adios, illegals!” This short news story followed.

-Kristen Hinman

Tyler “Psycho-T” Hansbrough, now leading the University of North Carolina Tarheels in their pursuit of another NCAA men's basketball championship, was profiled, along with his brother Ben, by the Riverfront Times back in September 2004.

Not surprisingly, the story is coming back to life on the web, as more readers are interested in learning about the tenacious center from Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Read the story here.

An excerpt:

In their free time, Ben (now playing basketball at Mississippi State University) enjoys cavorting with friends while Tyler retreats to the solitude of one of the area's local fishing holes.

"That's the Bluff comin' out," Tyler concedes.

-Nick Lucchesi

I have received a lot of requests for the entire transcript of the November 12, 2007, interview between former Vashon High School basketball coach Floyd Irons and executive director of the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA), Kerwin Urhahn.

We previously published the first 50 pages of that Nov. 20007 interview here and here.

(To clarify: As part of Irons' plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's office for his involvement in a real estate fraud scheme, Irons agreed to provide information involving recruiting violations to MSHSAA. Irons' attorney, Rick Sindel, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith sat in on the interview between Irons and Urhahn, as did FBI agent Shannon McGarry. Irons is questioned by Urhahn and McGarry about the residences of players found by Riverfront Times to be in violation of MSHSAA and St. Louis Public School district policies.)

Below you will find three PDFs containing the final 143 pages of the transcript. The names of the students have been blacked out by MSHSAA. Our chart of Vashon basketball players published back in November, 2006, provides a cheat sheet.

Part 3: Pages 50-99
Part 4: Pages 100-150
Part 5: Pages 151-193

-Kristen Hinman

In honor of St. Louis Fashion Week, I resolved to learn the method to what I previously could only characterize as fashion madness: the selection criteria wielded by the good folks behind the counter at that nexus of local fashion, Rag-O-Rama in the Delmar Loop.

So it was that one day last week I joined the nice folks at Rag-O-Rama, including assistant manager and clothing buyer Jenny Beausang, to watch as they cast judgment on what to buy and what to pass on.

I'm no fashion expert, which is to say I occasionally found their choices mystifying. Sure, seasons play a role (no Starter parkas in July, no jorts in December), but some decisions left me scratching my head.

When you submit your clothes for approval at Rag-O-Rama, you also lay your pride on the line. Walking out of that store with the same duds you went in with can be a lonely, shameful experience: "How could they not like your favorite pair of jeans or your sweet 1992 St. Louis Cardinals 100th anniversary T-shirt? WTF, bro?"

So I salute the bravery of the two Washington University students who agreed to have their wardrobes-for-sale scrutinized by the thread-watching eyes of Beausang.

Before we get started, a quick note: St. Louisans, be proud. We are sneaker savvy. Whether they be Nike Dunks, Air Jordans, old-school Reeboks or fresh Adidas, the employees at Rag-O-Rama know St. Louis is home to some selective sneaker hounds.

On the downside, don't try to bring in your stretched-out tank tops. (Would you buy them back?) Take that ish somewhere else.

To see what's in and what's out in vintage fashion, play along with the first installment of "Sell That Dress!"

-Nick Lucchesi

Toronto fans are having a little fun with ex-Cardinal Eck. Makes Unreal kinda misty just thinking about the guy...

And that's only the beginning.

Full funniness available here.

-Unreal

A spokesman for McEagle Properties says the company will soon announce that it will work with community organizations on the hundreds of parcels that its founder, Paul J. McKee Jr., has acquired in north St. Louis.

As Riverfront Times has reported, McKee is now one of the single-largest landowners north of downtown, and his new neighbors often complain about the lack of maintenance on his properties, which include vacant lots, vacant buildings and recently vacated buildings.

“We're looking at a number of options for the maintenance of areas,” says Dan Brungard, spokesman for O'Fallon-based McEagle. He adds that “relatively soon” McEagle would make an announcement regarding its work with “community organizations.”

When it comes to McKee's work on the north side, this qualifies as a veritable fount of open communication.

In October Metropolitan Congregations United had McKee tentatively scheduled to appear at a meeting at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Hyde Park. MCU is a coalition of community-activist churches that wanted McKee to join a north side “stakeholders” group. MCU's leaders had promised not to put McKee on the spot about what he plans to do with his expanding real estate portfolio.