Belleville

Sample Craft Brews at Inaugural Belleville Ale Fest Saturday

Belleville, Illinois, is jumping on the craft-beer bandwagon. The small city to the east of the big river is hosting its inaugural craft-beer festival this Saturday, April 20, from noon to 4 p.m at the Belleville Crossing shopping center. Gut Check spoke with John Lengerman, the executive director ... More >>

Executive Inn in Belleville is Apparently the Worst Hotel Ever

A hotel in Belleville is making a name for itself in the national press -- unfortunately, it's for being nightmarishly awful. That's according to dozens of guests who spent a night at the Executive Inn and lived to complain about it. Of 22 reviews on the site Trip Advisor (with names like "If you w ... More >>

Southwestern Illinois College Evacuated Because of "Emergency"

Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville posted a notice on its Facebook page within the last hour ordering everyone off the campus. The full posting reads:"An emergency has occurred at the Belleville Campus. Please evacuate and stay off the campus until further notice."Below the post, several st ... More >>

The University of Lindenwood-Belleville's New Football Field Is ... Unique

The University of Lindenwood-Belleville will field its first football team this September in what was formerly Belleville's Township Stadium. To prepare for its first foray into NAIA football, the school completely refurbished the stadium, from the seating to the pressbox, and  all the way down ... More >>

St. Clair County Sheriff's Department Raids 13 Shops for Synthetic Drugs

The St. Clair County Sheriff's Department joined forces with the Belleville Police, US Marshals, Cahokia Police, Mascoutah Police and the Fairview Heights Police to simultaneously execute search warrants at thirteen businesses in the county suspected of selling synthetic drugs. The 10 a.m. raid was ... More >>

The International Space Station -- and Beyond

12-Year-Old Girl Reportedly Raped at Fun Spot Skate Center

​The St. Clair County Sheriff's Department is investigating an unidentified 12-year-old girl's claim that she was raped at Belleville's Fun Spot Skate Center on Saturday night. The victim's mother told police that her daughter was raped in the bathroom by a juvenile acquaintance. A 16-year-old boy ... More >>

Belleville's all-ages haven closes after four years

Belleville's Trauma Harness Brings Post-Punk Gloom to the Midwest

Mabel SuenTrauma Harness dismisses the stage and performs on the floor at Illegal Tone in Belleville. ​ The Wicked Witch of Belleville likes to throw musicians into a dirty black cauldron. She vigorously stirs the pot, concocting odd bands that creep and slither their way into nearby cities. T ... More >>

The Mississippi River Music Festival Returns, With Music From Belleville And Beyond

​In 2006, Don Bailey closed Three-1-Three, his music club in downtown Belleville, leaving a hole in a once-vibrant live music scene. "I always enjoyed Belleville and the music scene, from Uncle Tupelo to Fragile Porcelain Mice," says Bailey. "I booked over 2000 bands at the 313 Club, and I not ... More >>

Guns Claim Two More Children in St. Louis Region

"From an infant's cold, dead hands!"​A ten-year-old Belleville boy accidentally shot and killed his five-year-old brother yesterday while playing with a shotgun kept in the home. An "extremely tragic accident" is how Belleville police chief William Clay described the incident. A day earlier -- Tu ... More >>

Man Sues Bar After Getting Nailed in Face by Underage Boozer

Is this the man who hit a Belleville man in the face with a bottle of vodka?​An underage guy walks into a bar. He somehow gets his hands on a bottle of vodka and takes a few swills. Eventually, he gets a little tipsy. In an uncontrolled moment of gesticulation, he swings his arm around wildly ... More >>

Belleville Historical Society Plans Saloon Museum

stag-beer.com​ Belleville loves its bars and taverns. They dot corners through the town, impervious to fads and trends, most of them still advertising Stag Beer, which moved production from Belleville to Milwaukee in 1988. The Belleville Historical Society is in the early stages of celebrati ... More >>

This Month in Science

image via​Here in St. Louis, lots and lots of people are working tirelessly to explain the meaning of life -- not in the philosophical sense, but literally: How does the universe work? Here are some of the discoveries they've made this month, as reported in Riverfront Times and Daily RFT: It ... More >>

The Exterminator: Metro-East Folks Lurve It

Image viaDaily RFT would feel uncomfortable moving any serious weight around The Exterminator​Yesterday, the BND dutifully asked Belleville residents: So now that you've got a 12,000-pound police Humvee with surveillance cameras that's parked right in your 'hood, aren't you worried about invasions ... More >>

FYI: If You Plan to Trick-or-Treat in Belleville, You Must Be Under 13 and Done By 8 p.m.

Halloween in Belleville: Grandpa approved.​There oughta be a law. A law against those hormonal tweens who show up at my house each Halloween. You know the ones I'm talking about. The kids who bang on the door long after I've turned off the porch light and counted up all the leftover fun-size Butte ... More >>

Dancing Transsexual and Belleville Tire-Slasher One and the Same

Last week an anonymous evildoers slashed 33 tires in various parking lots around Belleville. Yesterday Belleville police apprehended a suspect in two of the slashings -- and it was someone very well known to Bellevillians. David L. Stone, who also goes by Susan L. Stone, has become a regular presen ... More >>

The Harmed Brothers

9 p.m. Wednesday, September 1. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue.

Marquis Griffin: Belleville Homicide No. 2; 15-Year-Old Shot in Head

Police have yet to issue charges in the slaying Sunday night of 15-year-old Marquise Griffin. â€‹The teen from Swansea was found dead in the yard at 502 N. Fourth Street (above) in Belleville. He'd been shot once in the head. 

Honor System Alive and Well in Metro East

Robin Wheeler​"You may have the honor, but they probably have the system," one diner said to another at JFires' Market Bistro in Waterloo, Illinois, during Father's Day brunch. The cynic was speaking of the honor-system farm stands that dot the nearby countryside, like Scharf Farm, located o ... More >>

Belleville's Skyview Drive-In Bucks the Trend; Attempts to Expand

www.drive-ins.comThe Skyview: In business since 1949.​Who said the drive-in theater is a dying industry these days? Okay, this website did. It tracks the ever declining number of outdoor cinemas in the United States. But don't share the dire predicaments with the owners of the St. Louis region's o ... More >>

The Peaches! They're Early!

Robin Wheeler​Been jonesing for the first sweet, juicy local peach of the season? You don't have to wait as long as usual. Most years the first St. Louis-area peaches don't ripen till the end of June. So imagine Gut Check's joy upon walking into Eckert's Country Store yesterday to find tables ... More >>

Jarrell Fountain: Teenager Stabbed to Death Near Belleville Elementary School

For the second time in a week a metro St. Louis man has been murdered at or near a local elementary school. Google Street View​Today's homicide was first reported at 6:30 a.m. when Belleville police were called to a home in the 300 block of N. First Street after the owner of the property discovere ... More >>

The Dive Bomber: An All-Star at the League Lounge

Since I'm not a fan of sports (or swarming masses of humanity), the All-Star Game hoopla was wasted on me. Yeah, I know. The money and exposure are great for St. Louis, but I'd rather hit myself in the head with a bat than fight the crowds of crazy that converged on downtown this week.Still, as a ... More >>

Big Weekend in Belleville

The Dive Bomber: The Cat & Fiddle Tavern

Robin Wheeler writes for the blog Poppy Mom. She also has a strange attraction to drinking establishments with jars of pickled -- or possibly fossilized -- eggs. She reports on these dives for Gut Check every Friday.The Cat & Fiddle Tavern is located in an old house on the edge of Belleville. T ... More >>

Would You Notice If Someone Shot You In the Head?

A man from Belleville didn't, and apparently that's not entirely uncommon. From the Belleville News-Democrat:BELLEVILLE -- A doctor said Thursday it's possible for a person to get shot with a small-caliber bullet and not know it.That's what apparently happened to Robert Bunn Sr., 69, who was found d ... More >>

Homespun: The Mhurs

The Mhurs
(self-released)

Jingle Belleville

East-side entertainment

The Sweet Science of Printing

Let’s get it on

There's No Place Like Belleville!

Broadway Center of Arts takes a bow

Become a Chili God (In Belleville, At Least)

Square Deal

Walk the Walk

Square Up

Being There (and Here, and There Again)

Smackdown in Belleville

First came the crackdown. Now the mayor’s gone gunning for Three-1-Three.

“If farmers are supported, there can be many markets, enough for everyone to have access to local, quality food.”

Week of July 6, 2006

Crackdown in Belleville

Some bar owners worry that strict law enforcement could jeopardize their livelihoods

Win Lose Die

Belleville racketeer Thomas Venezia goes out with a bang

Best 'Ville

Belleville

Let's Go to the Hop

And, like, dance or something

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Week of January 28, 2004

Oh-la-la!

Funky and grotesque, The Triplets of Belleville will animate your world

Young & In the Way

Cumberland Gap is not the fourth-best country band in St. Louis

Living for Cinema

Art reflects life at this year's St. Louis International Film Festival

Two for the Show

Art fairs return in pairs

Pie-Eyed

Two Metro East purveyors of dainties satisfy all the senses

STANDUP GAL

Comedienne Lea Delaria brings her renowned cabaret act home to St. Louis

Working Folks

Belleville's Three-1-Three does the job on a budget for proletarian gourmets