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Missouri clinic accused of using experimental drugs on children

February 10, 2023

A whistleblower’s allegations of a Missouri transgender clinic has sparked a state-led investigation. The clinic is being accused of using experimental drugs on children.

The state attorney general confirmed a full investigation of the clinic is currently underway. Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced that his office has already received documents that support the whistleblower’s allegations. Bailey publicly released the list of accusations. The accusations include using experimental drugs on children, giving children life-altering drugs without parental consent, and distributing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without individually assessing the underage patients.

Bailey also said his office has evidence that the transgender clinic has been unlawfully billing state taxpayers to fund these actions.

“We have received disturbing allegations that individuals at the transgender center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital has been harming hundreds of children each year. Including by using experimental drugs on them. We take this evidence seriously and are thoroughly investigating to make sure children are not harmed by individuals who may be more concerned with a radical social agenda than the health of children,” Bailey said.
Winter storm brings tornadoes, flooding, snow to Gulf Coast states

January 25, 2023
Several people were injured when a winter storm brought tornadoes, flooding and even snow to Texas and other states along the Gulf Coast. Forecasters had issued a rare tornado emergency for the Houston area.

Substantial damage was reported in some of the Houston suburbs, but there were no reports of injuries. Suburban damage included:
- Pasadena: Several businesses sustained major damage, including the city’s animal shelter. The American Red Cross said it was opening a shelter in the town.
- Baytown: Officials reported downed power lines and damage to homes and businesses.
- Deer Park: Officials reported severe damage to a nursing home.
“There is one aspect of me that’s amazed that no one got injured,” Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton Jr. said. “We will deal with the property and recover and rebuild.”

The injuries from the Gulf Coast winter storm came in Louisiana. Three people were hurt when suffered “mild to moderate injuries” when their mobile homes were flipped or destroyed after a tornado hit north of Baton Rouge.

The storm system also brought snow and ice to much of the central U.S., including as far south as El Paso, Texas. Schools and businesses remained closed Wednesday in parts of Oklahoma, which saw snowfall totals of between 1 and 6 inches across central and eastern parts of the state.

The winter storm was expected to move east Wednesday, bringing with it the threat of damaging winds to parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Winter weather advisories stretched from southern Missouri to Maine, with areas of New England expected to see 8 to 12 inches of snow.

“The low pressure system lifting from the Gulf states and into the Tennessee Valley early this morning is expected to deepen as it continues to track northeast through the Ohio Valley and Lower Great today, then reaching the Northeast by Thursday,” the National Weather Service said Wednesday. “This storm will be multifaceted and have significant impacts across a large portion of the nation from the Gulf coast into the Northeast.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Dress code for female lawmakers sparks debate in Missouri

January 16, 2023

A recent change to the dress code for female lawmakers in Missouri is sparking a contentious debate. The Missouri House of Representatives recently adopted new rules on “proper attire” for women in the chamber. It requires female legislators and staff members on duty to wear a jacket, cardigan or blazer to cover their arms.

Many Democrats have criticized the change as ridiculous and sexist. They argue that women should not be policed for their fashion choices. “There are a lot of ways we could break decorum in this room. but a woman, what she’s wearing, that is ridiculous,” said Rep. Ashley Aune, a Democrat.

Rep. Ann Kelley, the Republican lawmaker who proposed the change, said it was done to ensure decorum and mirror the men’s dress code. That dress code requires male lawmakers to wear a jacket, shirt and tie. “You would think that all you would have to do is say, ‘dress professionally’ and women could handle it,” said Kelley.

This debate is not unique to Missouri though. The National Conference of State Legislatures said at least half of all states have a formalized dress code in place for both men and women. But gender-specific differences in how the lines are drawn is being viewed increasingly as culturally insensitive and sexist. It has prompted places like Wyoming to adopt gender neutral policies last year. Congressional lawmakers at the federal level also had their dress code rules updated under former House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2017.
New Madrid: Midwest prepares for catastrophic earthquake

December 30, 2022

A large earthquake is bound to rock the Midwest. Experts just don’t know when. The New Madrid seismic zone is a cluster of fault lines that run through Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas. It is the most active seismic area in the U.S., east of the Rockies. Every year, hundreds of small earthquakes occur in the zone.

“Until a brick hits you in the head, most people don’t react. And these small earthquakes don’t do a lot for increasing the awareness that this is a real threat,” James Wilkinson said. Wilkinson is the executive sirector for the Central United States Earthquake Consortium.

He says even a medium sized earthquake could impact as many as 8 states in the Central and Eastern U.S. Dr. Thomas Pratt with the United States Geological Survey, agrees.

“So, the emergency management community, I wouldn’t say they’re totally prepared for this. But they’re aware of it and they’re trying to prepare for it. It’s kind of hard to prepare for a disaster of this scale, but they’re trying,” Pratt said.

There are seismic stations across the country and world to help study activity in the zone. Experts say research and education are the best ways to prepare for a large-scale event.

“Whether it’s sheltering, transportation, there could be some evacuation issues, getting resources into the impact area. Those are all shared problems that we’re going to have to deal with. Memphis and St. Louis have invested millions of dollars, federal mitigation dollars, working through the state emergency management agency to address their risk,” Wilkinson said.

Experts advise the best thing that can be done is remember the drill: Drop, cover and hold on.

“The seconds that you’re standing there thinking about why the ground is shaking, unfortunately, things are beginning to fall,” Wilkinson said.

“I wouldn’t lose that much sleep over it because yes, you’re living near a seismic zone. And there could be a large earthquake that could cause damage and could cause injury. But we don’t know if that’s going to be tomorrow. We don’t know if it’s going to be 100 years from now. So, it’s not something I would stay awake at night dreading. But it will eventually happen,” said Pratt.
New Madrid: Buildings across 8 states would crumble in earthquake

December 29, 2022

The New Madrid earthquake zone threatens at least 8 states in the Central and Eastern U.S. According to experts, it won’t take a large event to cause catastrophic damage.

“Given the nature of vulnerability and the age of the structures here, the age of the buildings themselves, and the lack of science design, as the result of not really understanding that we had a seismic threat until the late 70s,” James Wilkinson said. Wilkinson is the executive director for the Central United States Earthquake Consortium.

“A lot of the bridges will get damaged, a lot of the roads will be damaged and of course a lot of the buildings will be damaged,” Dr. Thomas Pratt said. Pratt is a research geophysicist for the United States Geological Survey and said many Midwest buildings were never designed to stand up to earthquakes.

“It’s really not until the 1970s and 80s that building codes started to be significantly changed in response to seismic hazards. And in the Central U.S. they lagged a little bit, even then, because people viewed earthquakes as primarily a problem for the West Coast not the Central U.S.,” Pratt said.

“The other significant risk, challenge to this is the fact that we haven’t had the frequency of large earthquakes like you see out west to bring down old buildings, vulnerable structures so they’re built back better, stronger,” Wilkinson said.

The last time large earthquakes rattled the new Madrid zone was back in 1811, 1812 and 1895 – long before big cities were booming.

“Memphis could also see significant damage from the earthquake as well and you would see some damage in St. Louis,” Pratt said.
New Madrid: Midwest earthquake would damage at least 8 states

December 28, 2022

Experts agree that the New Madrid earthquake zone in the Midwest is a ticking time bomb. It’s due to the fact that the New Madrid faults aren’t embedded in hard rock, but soft sediment.

“The geology here makes it very susceptible to a large area of impact and that adds to the catastrophic nature of the hazard itself,” James Wilkinson said. Wilkinson is the executive director for the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC).

“It’s very unique to other seismic zones in the country. The West Coast primarily. A similar size earthquake you would see in California, which can affect a very small area. These earthquakes here can have a twenty-times larger area of impact,” Wilkinson added.

Brenna MacDonald with the Missouri Geological Survey said the mysteries and unknowns of the New Madrid zone is why it’s considered so dangerous.

“We don’t know exactly where the trace of the faults are because they are buried so deeply underneath the sediments. In some areas, they are more than a thousand feet deep,” MacDonald said.

The last large earthquake in this zone happened back in 1895. But in 2011, a 5.8 earthquake hit Mineral, Virginia. It was the largest, most widely felt earthquake the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has ever recorded, with damage reaching as far as Washington D.C.

“It might be decades or 100 years before we get another magnitude 6 or 7. But it also could happen tomorrow. We really just have no way of predicting that,” USGS Geophysicist Thomas Pratt said.
New Madrid: Looming earthquake in Midwest will be ‘catastrophic’

December 27, 2022

It’s a deadly threat you may have never heard of. The New Madrid seismic zone is a series of faults that once rocked the U.S. It runs under parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee.

“The seismic risk in the central U.S. has been defined by Homeland Security and FEMA as catastrophic,” said James Wilkinson, the executive director for the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC).

“We do live in earthquake country. This is not just a California problem or a West Coast problem. We have earthquakes throughout the Central and Eastern U.S. It’s not going to take a large event 7.0 or bigger to create significant damage and it could still be categorized as catastrophic,” said Wilkinson.

“It’s going to be messy. We’re expecting magnitude 6 to 7 earthquakes occurring in the New Madrid seismic zone. There’s about a 7% to 8% chance one is going to happen in the next 50 years,” said Thomas Pratt, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey. Pratt said the Midwest could face ground shaking as severe as the New Madrid earthquakes that spanned three months during 1811 and 1812.

“Those earthquakes were three of the largest earthquakes in the history of the United States, certainly south of Alaska. Shaking was felt throughout the entire Eastern United States, from Boston all the way down to South Carolina,” Pratt said.

In part two of this four part series, find out why the Midwest is so vulnerable to the next big earthquake.

“Oh, it will definitely happen again. There will be larger earthquakes. It’s an active debate how large those earthquakes will be, but there will definitely be larger earthquakes in the future,” said Pratt.
Student loan forgiveness still on hold following latest court ruling

November 15, 2022

President Joe Biden’s plan to provide student loan forgiveness for millions of Americans remained on hold following a federal appeals panel ruling. Monday’s ruling allowed for a stay on the student loan forgiveness program to continue while the court considered an effort to block the plan.

That effort is led by six states: Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas and South Carolina. Part of the states’ argument centered around the financial harm the debt cancellation would cause the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.

This unanticipated financial downturn will prevent or delay Missouri from funding higher education at its public colleges and universities,” the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis stated. In a statement on the ruling, Attorney General Doug Peterson, R-Neb., added the ruling “recognizes that this attempt to forgive over $400 billion in student loans threatens serious harm to the economy that cannot be undone.”

“It is important to stop the Biden administration from such unlawful abuse of power,” Peterson said.

The effort from the six states initially failed, after U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey ruled the states failed to establish standing. This case is different than the recent Texas case, in which U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman ruled last week that President Biden had overstepped his authority in creating the debt relief program without congressional approval.

Following the Texas ruling, the White House stopped accepting applications for student loan forgiveness. About 26 million people had applied, and 16 million applications have been approved. However, because of court rulings, none of the relief has actually gone out.

“Courts have issued orders blocking our student debt relief program,” the Education Department said on its federal student aid website. “As a result, at this time, we are not accepting applications. We are seeking to overturn those orders. If you’ve already applied, we’ll hold your application.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Radioactive waste contaminating Missouri elementary school

October 17, 2022

Radioactive material from nuclear bombs made during World War II is contaminating an elementary school Monday. It’s not happening in Nagasaki or Hiroshima, but in suburban St. Louis, Missouri.

In August, samples were taken at Jana Elementary School. The school sits in the floodplain of Coldwater Creek, which was contaminated by nuclear waste in the 1940s. The waste was dumped at sites near the St. Louis Lambert International Airport, next to the Missouri River tributary.

According to a report from Boston Chemical Data Corp., samples from the school’s classrooms, library, kitchen, playing fields and playground all showed shockingly high levels of radioactive isotope lead-210, polonium, radium and other toxins.

Inhaling or ingesting these materials can cause significant injuries, leading to things like leukemia or bone and lung cancer.

According to the report, “a significant remedial program will be required to bring conditions at the school in line with expectations.” The Army Corps of Engineers has been cleaning up Coldwater Creek for more than 20 years.

Missouri’s Hazelwood School District posted on Twitter that the Board of Education is consulting with attorneys and experts to determine next steps for the school.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Missouri clinic accused of using experimental drugs on children

Winter storm brings tornadoes, flooding, snow to Gulf Coast states

New Madrid: Midwest prepares for catastrophic earthquake

New Madrid: Buildings across 8 states would crumble in earthquake

New Madrid: Midwest earthquake would damage at least 8 states

New Madrid: Looming earthquake in Midwest will be ‘catastrophic’

Student loan forgiveness still on hold following latest court ruling

Radioactive waste contaminating Missouri elementary school

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Missouri clinic accused of using experimental drugs on children

Winter storm brings tornadoes, flooding, snow to Gulf Coast states

Dress code for female lawmakers sparks debate in Missouri

New Madrid: Midwest prepares for catastrophic earthquake

New Madrid: Buildings across 8 states would crumble in earthquake

New Madrid: Midwest earthquake would damage at least 8 states

New Madrid: Looming earthquake in Midwest will be ‘catastrophic’

Student loan forgiveness still on hold following latest court ruling

Radioactive waste contaminating Missouri elementary school