Archive for the ‘Government, Politics, Law and Order’ Category

Carnahan finally served her long-awaited jury duty. According to a south St. Louis neighbor, Cong. Russ Carnahan’s wife showed up for her stint on Monday and when she returned on Tuesday, she wore the same clothes. She was overheard to say, “I have no clothes here.”

One owner along the half mile of hoppin’ shops along trendy Washington Avenue was puzzled late Friday night to find a street vendor setting up his cart on the sidewalk patio outside of his front door. The store owner, who pays the city a fee for the use of the public space, found that the street vendor had been issued a permit by the Streets Dept. for the identical space.  After a visit by the police, the dueling eateries cohabited for the evening, but vowed to sort out the matter with their aldermen and other city officials this week.

The columnist, who usually ventures no further west than St. Charles,  was edified to learn from State Auditor Susan Montee’s amusing email on Monday that a high point of the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia this year is a 600-pound cow sculpted out of local butter by artist Jane Hargrave.  (Hope it is nowhere near the Giant Missouri Ear of Corn display.)

Big spending campaigns are quadrennial bonanzas for dozens of local vendors – restaurants, landlords, office supply companies, graphic artists, hotels and printers – that cater to politicians and their staffs. And no campaigns in recent memory are likely to match the combined expenditures of U.S. Senate candidates Roy Blunt and Robin Carnahan. Yet, some local union printers and mail houses may be disappointed to notice that a mass mailing from the Carnahan campaign is post-marked and printed (yes, by a union printer) in. . .Milwaukee.

Some political observers wonder if the recent collapse of a planned big box retail development in Florissant signals the end of one-person rule in St. Louis County’s largest municipality. For decades, as police chief and mayor, savvy Robert Lowery, Sr. has had the final word in most issues. Yet, with the county tax increment financing commission likely to recommend against the use of TIF, Lowery opted to back-pedal rather than try to muster a super-majority on his increasingly fractious City Council. Combined with the specter of a charter review commission and the release of state auditor Susan Montee’s report, Lowery’s decision seems like an acknowledgment that the second 50 years of public service might be harder than the first.

Hometowner David Fisher, the recently retired director of the St. Louis Metropolitan Parks and Recreation District, apparently has his hands full in Minneapolis.  Fisher, who also retired as supe of the Minneapolis Park Board, has spent the summer on special assignment at his former Twin Cities gig stabilizing an administration rocked by his successor.  According to news accounts there, Fisher has, among other changes, fired or suspended some park system cops.