Blogs

In a wide-ranging and pretty interesting interview at The Big Lead, Buzz Bissinger, author of Tony La Russa hagiography 3 Nights in August, mans up and apologizes for going off on Deadspin.com founder (and St. Louis homeboy) Will Leitch.

Bissinger's tirade unfolded last week during a segment of Bob Costas' HBO show Costas Now, when a panel (Bissinger, Leitch, Costas and Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards) discussed "Internet Media."

Bissinger had interrupted Leitch as he was responding to Costas' initial question, asserting that the Deadspin-ner is "really full of shit." Here's a link to the fracas (more after the jump):

The Riverfront Times knows how to cover a story in a timely fashion. But sometimes the local press must band together in order to take on an issue of great magnitude. You know: Reporters helping reporters.

Such is the case with Ballpark Village. Cooperation is vital in order to convey all the nuances of this story to people who may not have ventured outside in the past two years and have no idea why there's still a big hole where old Busch Stadium used to stand.

That's why we at RFT were happy -- gratified, even -- to lend a hand to our brethren and sistren at KSDK-TV (Channel 5) when our paths crossed on the Ballpark Village beat.

Seriously, I was just on my way to bed, when things started shaking and freaked me out. The St. Louis Livejournal community confirmed I wasn't crazy. And according to the U.S. Geological Survey, it was a 4.5 magnitude earthquake centered five miles northwest of Mt. Carmel, Illinois (and 131 miles away from St. Louis).

That's about as strong as the 4.6 earthquake aftershock that hit the area last Friday morning at around 10:15 a.m., after the 5.2 earthquake that happened a few hours before.

Can't deal with this anymore. Someone hold me.

-- Annie Zaleski

Earlier this year, Dewanzel "Jazz" Singleton, president and CEO of East St. Louis-based Lock 'Em Down Records was the subject of a feature story in the RFT. Singleton was arrested in August and faced felony charges of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine.

The DEA alleged that Lock 'Em Down Records was "financially supported by illegal drug proceeds."

At the time Singleton maintained his innocence.

Here’s an excerpt from that story, published January 9:

"Singleton, who has never been convicted of a crime in his life, has pleaded not guilty. He points out that the DEA has failed to produce any hard evidence: no cash, no drugs or paraphernalia. Despite being under heavy surveillance, he notes, he has never been seen conducting a single narcotics transaction. Though several DEA sources provided circumstantial evidence against him, not one claims to have purchased drugs from him or to have seen him sell drugs.

'If you caught me doing something wrong, then I can understand,' he says during an interview at a downtown St. Louis restaurant. 'OK, take me away, I got to pay my debt to society, that's the way it goes. But [they] haven't caught me with anything: no drugs, no money, no guns. Nothing.'

If the DEA's version of events is true, then Dewanzel Singleton led an improbable double life. And if he's innocent, Singleton is the victim of an equally astonishing string of coincidences, betrayals and poor judgment."

This week's cover story on bail bondsmen mentions Senate Bill 1247, in which we wrote: "In February, Sen. Maida Coleman, a St. Louis Democrat, introduced Senate Bill 1247 that would take oversight of the bail industry away from the Department of Insurance and place it in the hands of a "professional bail bond board."

Oddly enough, a hearing on that bill was canceled Thursday -- the day after our story was published.

The bail bond board being discussed in the statehouse would be responsible for all licensing, registration, discipline and rule-making for the state's bondsmen and bounty hunters. Though it does contain a provision requiring bondsmen to notify the proposed board within ten days of pleading guilty to a felony, it nonetheless retains the language of the ''Lee Clause.''

On March 13, a St. Louis County jury told James Neumann, CEO of Chesterfield-based outdoor advertising firm AdOne Media Inc., that he and his company had to pay $1.1 million in damages to a former employee. Earlier this month he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

The damages were the result of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Sherry Flotron, an employee who worked for the company for four months starting in January 2007.

Flotron claimed Neumann constantly dogged her when she worked for the company and that he sexually assaulted her while the pair was on a business trip to Las Vegas. Neumann denied the allegations, pointing out that Flotron continued to buy stock in the company, and even convinced her father and grandmother to invest, until just before she was fired.

[Update posted 10:45 a.m. April 17:]
Here's Marjorie Stelmach reading the title poem from A Joyful Noise:

[end update]

[Update posted 2:00 p.m. April 16:]
Here's Jon Dressel, reading "A Poem and a Prayer to St. Hoffstein, from A Joyful Noise:

[end update]

[Update posted 11:00 a.m. April 16:]
Here's Dave Clewell, reading three of Dad's poems from What Manner of Beast:

[end update]

[Update posted 6:00 p.m. April 15:]
Here's Andy Cox, reading "The Father":

[end update]

I now have a dauntingly large digital recording of the evening of Monday, April 7, when three dozen poets read their favorite Donald Finkel poems.

Seeing as how I'm also in possession of a free computer program that allows one to chop up mp3 files into little bits, I can't think of an excuse for not following through on my promise to upload Curtis Lyle's kick-ass reading from Answer Back.

So here that is:

It was only one of the night's many highlights, for sure.

The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission and the three audiovisual unions with which it has been warring for the past three weeks officially reached an agreement today and released the details, i.e., new work rules. They are effective immediately.

I'm pasting the new rules after the jump, for all you folks who have followed the CVC-union fracas (which I first visited in a spring 2007 cover story, "Bad Blood") in RFT and who like to know every last nut and bolt of a thing. In [italicized brackets] I translate a bit here and there...

In case you didn't get enough of pickup artists in this week's feature (and who possibly could?), here are some links to more PUA material. You know you want it, baby!

Fast Seduction 101
A glossary of pickup terms
The Real Assanova
Eric Weber's How to Pick Up Girls album
The Pickup Game
A conversation with Mystery

The gurus:
Neil Strauss
Mystery Method
Juggler
David DeAngelo
Tyler Durden
Ross Jeffries

PUAs in action:
A street pickup
The boot-camp experience (with a terrible rap)
Mystery in the field

-Aimee Levitt

I got a link earlier this week from St. Louis Post-Dispatch managing editor Pam Maples, alerting me to the fact that the Los Angeles Times has apologized again for its Tupac murder story and -- literally this time -- retratcted it.

Last week I wrote wrote about a major correction published by the Post-Dispatch. The Post, I noted, had seemingly broken new ground by deleting the erroneous story in its entirety from STLtoday.com. The LA Times, meanwhile, had treated its correction in a manner more consistent with journalistic tradition, appending it to the top of the original story, which remained available online.

Judging from the text of the Times' second stab at addressing the controversy that flared up over its story, the first apology didn't satisfy lawyers for Sean Combs, whom the story implicated in the Tupac murder. Craig Silverman, who blogs about newspaper corrections, breaks it down at regrettheerror.com.

I talked to Silverman last week about the Post-Dispatch's correction.

Residents of Crystal City couldn't keep their elected officials from approving a plan last December to bring an iron-ore smelter to their Jefferson County township. Yesterday many of those same residents expressed their continued disapproval for the project in the one place their opinions count: the election booth.

In Tuesday's municipal election, a slate of candidates affiliated with the anti-smelter group Concerned Citizens for Crystal City (C4) won all four open city council posts. Of the three contested battles, the C4 candidates each collected approximately 59 percent of the vote. (Ward I incumbent Della Selmon, a critic of the smelter, ran unopposed.)

Crystal City voters also approved yesterday a bill to annex the Festus Airport. Members of C4 speculate that the city wants the airport for access to Wings Enterprises' proposed $1 billion smelter.

For more on the controversy surrounding the smelter development, see my story, "Smelterville," published January 16 in RFT.

-Chad Garrison

[Update published April 15, 3:00 p.m.: I've uploaded an mp3 file of Curtis Lyle reading from Answer Back; the link is below (search for "Lyle")]

The tribute to Donald Finkel -- yes, that's my dad -- Monday night at Duff's Restaurant in the Central West End drew nearly three dozen poets, each of whom read their favorite Finkel poems.

A slideshow of photos by RFT staff photographer Jennifer Silverberg is available here.

A couple of shots to give you a taste:

The top one's of two of Dad's best drinking buds, Pete Genovese and David Clewell. Genovese published my father's chapbook-length poem "Beyond Despair," an exploration of the River Des Peres, on his Garlic Press imprint. Clewell, a member of the first class of Washington University's Graduate Writing Program, is one of Dad's closest friends.

The lower shot is of Curtis Lyle, who utterly astounded me with his reading of a section from Answer Back, a book-length poem published in the late 1960s. The poem, which begins as an exploration of caving (a longtime obsession of my father's), blooms into a diatribe on war, racism, myth and art.

Howard Schwartz and Peter Carlos recorded the event (audio and video, respectively; I'm trying to get a clip of Curtis Lyle's reading to post here).

[Update published April 15, 3:00 p.m.: Here's Curtis Lyle reading from Answer Back]:

In the meantime, here's the evening's musical interlude, provided on CD from Marty Ehrlich, a brilliant reed player and friend of Dad (who used to babysit me). Marty couldn't make it in person, so he sent this:

And finally, one anecdote, to justify the headline on this blog post:

Sommelier Chris Hoel is bidding adieu to his native St. Louis. An e-mail I got from him this morning says he’s accepted a job at The French Laundry, the preeminent chef Thomas Keller’s Yountville, California restaurant. Hoel is/was one of only two advanced sommeliers (certified by the Court of Masters Sommeliers) in St. Louis. I chronicled his attempt to become a master sommelier in last year’s cover story, “The Wine Master.”

-Kristen Hinman

Officials from Vashon High School reported today that five ineligible students played for its championship boys’ basketball team between the years 2002 and 2006.

Two violations resulted from improper recruiting; the other three students were ineligible because of residency violations.

The findings were presented in a closed session to the Missouri State High School Activities Association’s Board of Directors this afternoon during the board’s quarterly meeting at the Tan-Tar-A resort at Lake of the Ozarks.

MSHSAA would not disclose the students’ identities because of federal privacy laws. (More on that later.)

According to a MSHSAA statement, a sixth student could also be found ineligible. Vashon is taking more time to investigate.

Vashon today also asked the MSHSAA board to act on these violations at its next association meeting, in June. The high-school waived its rights to any appeals. That means that state championship titles could be removed.

Here’s our 2006 “Basketball By the Book” cover story, which launched this MSHSAA investigation beginning in January 2007. And here’s a cheat sheet to the alleged cheaters.

-Kristen Hinman

Craig Silverman, editor of the Web site Regret the Error and author of a book by the same name, got back to me this afternoon about the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's March 30 retraction, which I posted about here.

This past Sunday the paper ran a detailed correction and apology for a story it had published on Easter Sunday, March 23. That front-page feature told the story of a woman who had overcome an abusive spouse and homelessness; it turned out the protagonist had fabricated the entire tale, complete with a fake name.

Silverman says the Post-Dispatch deserves credit for being so forthcoming. In the apology, authored by editor Arnie Robbins and managing editor Pam Maples, the paper concedes that its standards for verification weren't followed.

"They had some internal breakdown. There's actually something positive about that. I haven't seen a lot of papers admit that they also had a role in the mistaken thing in the paper," says Silverman, a freelance journalist in Montreal who also writes about workplace culture for the Toronto Globe and Mail.

But Silverman questions the paper's choice of where to publish its retraction. The Post chose page A2. If the original, front-page story was so "terribly wrong," Silverman asks, why did the paper not run the retraction on page one? "I would argue that's a front-page mistake," he says.

Likewise, Silverman differs with the Post's decision to permanently remove the story from STLtoday.com. While erasing an error from the public record might seem like the most logical course of action, Silverman says, he advocates leaving erroneous stories online with corrections appended.

"For the sake of the historical record, for the sake of even learning from the mistake, you need to keep what's there," he says.

You can read Silverman's post about the incident here.

-Kathleen McLaughlin