Franks faces Hubbard in special election on September 16
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Voters in Missouri House District 78 will elect their Democratic nominee for state representative
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2015 Newspaper of the Year!
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St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited SEPTEMBER 8 – 14, 2016
Vol. 88 No. 22 COMPLIMENTARY
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STL’s first chief resilience officer Patrick R. Brown is the City of St. Louis’ inaugural chief resilience officer, funded by a twoyear grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.
Patrick Brown went from the mall to the mayor’s office to the Rockefeller Foundation By Chris King Of The St. Louis American
Photo by Wiley Price
The Rockefeller Foundation started its 100 Resilient Cities program to help cities around the world become more resilient to social, economic and physical challenges – things like riots and earthquakes. But St. Louis’ inaugural chief resilience officer, Patrick R. Brown, admits that one of the city’s first problems he identified is “nothing earth-shattering.” It’s the City of St. Louis’ information technology” (IT) infrastructure. “You can imagine how notsophisticated it is,” Brown said, but it sounds worse than one might imagine. Brown, 31, who previously was deputy chief of staff for Mayor Francis G. Slay and the city’s director of Intergovernmental Relations, should know. The
n “We can’t and don’t track and measure our daily activities, and a resilient city should.” – Patrick R. Brown
city still uses a main frame computer, a dinosaur in terms of computer applications, and many departments still use the DOS operating system, which speaks the language of computer dinosaurs. This makes for countless inefficiencies, but that is
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Public defenders win suit over witness info Prosecutors will appeal By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American A Missouri judge sided with the St. Louis public defender’s office in the heated lawsuit against Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce’s office regarding withholding witnesses’ contact information. On August 31, Circuit Judge Gael Wood of Franklin County ordered that city prosecutors must provide public defenders with the last-known addresses of witnesses who don’t have protective orders and stop redacting information from evidence without permission from a judge. For 10 years, Joyce’s office has maintained a practice of withholding the information necessary for defenders to contact witnesses – without obtaining protective
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Photo by Wiley Price
Waving at the parade Lahaki Roosevelt waved at the Labor Day Parade, along with her niece Ashland Jackson, 4, and nephew Ashtyn Jackson, 7, in downtown St. Louis on Monday, September 5.
Ferguson activist Darren Seals dies at 29
Helping students ‘get there’ Erica Snelson, 2016 SEMO Counselor of the Year By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American
A locally known Ferguson activist who protested in the streets seeking justice for Michael Brown Jr.’s death was killed early Tuesday, September 6 in North St. Louis County. Police say their investigation revealed that Seals suffered a gunshot wound before the car was set on fire. The incident is currently being investigated as a homicide. See story page, A9 Erica Snelson
BUSINESS
St. Louis, she ultimately took the leap and even Facetimed Snelson when she arrived at her dorm. Guidance counselor Erica Snelson will “Seeing kids in a space that they didn’t never forget the academic journey of one of think they’d ever get to makes me feel that 29th her students at Grand Center Arts Academy. every day is worth it,” she said. The girl had lost both of her parents within On Saturday, October 1, Snelson will three months of each other. receive the 2016 SEMO Counselor of the “For her, who was raised by her brothers Year award at the St. Louis American after her parents passed away, she didn’t think Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education college was an option,” Snelson said. Scholarship and Awards Gala. However, Snelson worked closely with the student Snelson arrived at the academy when its future and helped pave a way to an Iowa college. Although See SALUTE, A6 the student had some last-minute jitters about leaving
SPORTS
LIVING IT
‘Let’s create the workforce we are looking for’
Instant classic in East St. Louis
The evolution of Tre’von Griffith
Chemical engineer Seqwana Pryor founded PryCor to innovate new ways of diversifying the tech start-up sector.
East St. Louis edged CBC 32-28 in the featured game of the Gateway Scholars Classic.
Young musical theater actor, home from Berklee College of Music, released new EP as TreG, “I’m Back.”
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