Growing up in rural Iowa, Becky Vonnahme didn’t have access to many local news sources. Now, as part-time executive director of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation, Vonnahme has discovered why. Small publications, like small businesses, have a hard time getting funded. After all, ad sales alone just don’t support local journalism anymore. The foundation works to target … [Read more...] about ‘Publishers can only do so much by themselves’
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State of rural journalism: Buyers needed, news deserts expanding
The challenges of rural journalism are mainly the challenges of the communities it tries to serve, and many of those challenges are daunting. But they are not dispositive. That was made clear at the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America by some sharp, innovative and courageous editors, publishers, academics and other journalism supporters. "Community newspapers are … [Read more...] about State of rural journalism: Buyers needed, news deserts expanding
D. John Sauer: Scion of a well-known and powerful St. Louis family
Missouri Solicitor General D. John Sauer was the man who rounded up 17 Republican attorneys general to support the Texas claim that the electoral votes of four other states should be thrown out of the 2020 presidential tally. As important as that role was, Sauer is not well known to the public. His family, on the other hand, is. Sauer’s maternal grandfather, the … [Read more...] about D. John Sauer: Scion of a well-known and powerful St. Louis family
A tangled web of St. Louisans in the Jan. 6 insurrection
Many of the St. Louisans who played roles in fomenting the Jan. 6 insurrection had relationships with one another and with national figures in the chaos at the Capitol that have not been explored. Many haven’t even been previously identified. What follows is an account of some of those roles and relationships. Jim Hoft, the Gateway … [Read more...] about A tangled web of St. Louisans in the Jan. 6 insurrection
Brilliant lawyers invented false claims supporting Trump’s election lie
Young lawyers chosen to clerk for U.S. Supreme Court justices are the most brilliant law school graduates of their generation. Some go on to serve as justices themselves - Roberts, Rehnquist, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Kagan, White, Breyer, Stevens. One remarkable fact about President Trump’s attempt to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power for the first time … [Read more...] about Brilliant lawyers invented false claims supporting Trump’s election lie