Fossil Fuel Energy Production

Peabody Energy Holds Shareholder Meeting in Wyoming: Trying to Escape St. Louis Protests?

Critics of Peabody Energy have become quite good at making a scene at their protests of the corporation headquartered in St. Louis. And that might just be why Peabody is going to be holding its annual meeting for shareholders a thousand miles away in Gillette, Wyoming. At least that's the theory of ... More >>

Top Ten Strangest Missouri Bandits: Mr. Polite, Spider-Man, Granddad and More! (PHOTOS)

This week, St. Louis County police charged a Fenton woman who allegedly walked into a smoke shop with a knife, asked for cash -- and then settled on a measly $7.50 in tip jar coins. Not really worth all the trouble, if you ask us. But the bizarre incident got us thinking about the craziest bandits i ... More >>

Photos: Seven Arch Coal Protesters Lock Themselves to 500-Pound Plant Pot, Face Arrest

Here's one way to make a scene: Lock yourself to a 500-pound potted plant inside a corporate building as others dance and sing loudly in the lobby. That's exactly what a group of activists did yesterday inside the Arch Coal headquarters in Creve Coeur. And the demonstration -- aimed at drawing atten ... More >>

Woman Accused of Trying (But Mostly Failing) to Rob Three People With Toy Gun

According to the Madison County Sheriff's Office, at least one of Amy Zielinski's three robbery attempts on December 1 actually succeeded. In that one, the 34-year-old allegedly came into the BP Amoco in Pontoon Beach just after noon on Saturday, showed a "handgun," took some money and left in a red ... More >>

Vontel Harris, St. Louis Homicide No. 101; Shot Outside a Mobil Station on Kingshighway

Yesterday, Vontel Harris of the O'Fallon neighborhood was in the parking lot of the Mobil station at Kingshighway and Delmar Boulevard.  At about 1 pm., the cops say, a white, newer-model Mazda SUV pulled in front of him and a companion and started shooting. Harris  suffered gunshots to th ... More >>

Anti-Coal Activists Want City to Wake Up to "Peabody Takeover"

When it comes to Peabody Energy Corp., it's hard to tell who's being naughty or nice. This week, the activist group Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment has been staging demonstrations against Peabody, the largest private-sector coal company in the world, headquartered in downtown St. ... More >>

In the Galleries - Joan Hall: Marginal Waters CLOSES October 13 at Bruno David Gallery

The Ten Most Egregious Tax Loopholes in the U.S.

Tea Partiers Hold Flash Mob Outside Peabody Energy; Coal Co Kicks Supporters to the Curb

If you were downtown yesterday evening you might've caught red-clad Cardinals fans headed to Busch Stadium, an especially brilliant sunset, and maybe a scant group of activists commemorating the one-year anniversary of Occupy St. Louis at Kiener Plaza. Also hard to miss was a surreal and sizable g ... More >>

Streetwalkin' is Bumpin' in South City; Johns Rejoice While Aldermen Look to Legislate

Street prostitution is alive and well in parts of South City, and members of the Board of Alderman are working on legislation to shut down strolls in residential areas. Last week, KMOV 4 reported that street-walking ladies had descended on neighborhoods in Cardonolet and Dutchtown after a city ord ... More >>

Helen Denson Charged in Lottery Ticket Theft, High-Speed Chase

Helen Denson, 41, has been charged with a slate of crimes following her alleged gas station theft and high-speed chase through St. Charles County early Tuesday morning.According to St. Peters Police, Denson wrapped a gray scarf around her face and then stuck up the BP gas station at 150 Salt Lick Ro ... More >>

Foiled Again! Gas Thieves Try Wrapping Their Way to Success

Fairview Heights police received an unusual phone call this past Saturday. A man was behaving suspiciously on the roof of the BP gas station at 6400 North Illinois Street. It was 11 a.m., so the caller had a good look at the man, and was able to describe him and the two men waiting in a parked car w ... More >>

America's Petro-Terrorists: Wall Street and Washington conspire to destabilize the U.S. economy, one barrel of oil at a time

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 >>

Claire McCaskill Asks FTC Chair to Watch for Gas Gouging

Claire McCaskill: Not too pumped about gas prices.​With Memorial Day around the corner and gas prices flirting with the $4-a-gallon mark, Sen. Claire McCaskill and three colleagues yesterday sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz, calling on him to investigate potenti ... More >>

Peabody Opera House Gets Social

Tom Paule Photography via www.peabodyoperahouse.comThe ticket lobby at the Peabody last month -- still a long way to go before opening day.​It's not quite like Grandma trying to figure out Twitter -- but it's close.Like many a grand dame who's found herself thrust into our increasingly wired age, ... More >>

Cardinals: A Humble Suggestion for This Season's "Mobil on the Run" Song

The good folks at Mobil on the Run have given us some notable pieces of advertisement over the past couple years, but I have yet to see a new commercial from them this baseball season, regarding the number six or any other numbers, serious or otherwise. To which I say: bunk! We need cheap drink ... More >>

Homophobe Physicist's Solution to Gulf Oil Spill Was Right in Your Kitchen Cabinet

image viaThe solution to the BP oil spill?​Last spring, you may recall, Washington University physicist Jonathan Katz got kicked off a panel assembled by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu that was supposed to figure out how to stop the BP oil spill. Katz's banishment had less to do with his scien ... More >>

The 2010 RFT News Challenge

Protesters Planning Mock Awards Ceremony at Peabody Energy Headquarters in St. Louis Today

Image viaProtesting Peabody Energy: Not a coal black tie affair.​You know how The Razzies are the anti-Oscars? They're the "awards" that "salute the worst that Hollywood has to offer" each year? Well, that's kind of what a group of climate change protesters have planned this afternoon in downtown ... More >>

Son of Avowed Wash. U. Homophobe Comes Out in Post-Dispatch

image viaIsaac Katz​Back in 2003, Washington University physics professor Jonathan Katz published an essay on his departmental web page called "In Defense of Homophobia". In a stroke of what some might call poetic justice, Katz's 22-year-old son Isaac came out publicly yesterday in an essay th ... More >>

Students Protest Speech by Peabody Energy CEO Greg Boyce at Wash U Research Symposium

Photo by Keegan HamiltonWash U students had a message for Peabody Energy's Greg Boyce at the Symposium for Global Energy Future​Greg Boyce, CEO of Peabody Energy, the world's largest privately held coal company, stepped to a podium Saturday afternoon at Washington University's Symposium on Global ... More >>

Artgasm: This Weekend's Art Openings, October 1-3, 2010

When Katherine Bish saw a news photo of an oil-slicked pelican after the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, she did something about it. She doused people in chocolate syrup, to be exact. Bish's black-and-white photographs attempt to capture the tragedy and imagine how humans in that scenario would look ... More >>

Wash U. Students Want University to Come Clean on Coal Research

Image viaBy contrast, coal accounts for more than 80 percent of Missouri's energy. ​For many environmentalists, the phrase "clean coal" is a contradiction in terms on par with military intelligence and jumbo shrimp. But to the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering at Washi ... More >>

Organization Sues to Get Bluefin Tuna Endangered Species Protection

The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna after the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In a press release the agency states that the species has been threatened by overfishing, with the oil spill endangering br ... More >>

Missouri Official Proves It's Possible to Advance Career No Matter Your Job Performance

Leaving Missouri's E. coli waters, for the Gulf's oil-tarred.​A man suspended from his job for two weeks without pay last year, today has himself a new, high-profile job overseeing a $20-billion trust fund for those impacted by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Mark Templeton, head of the Missouri Dep ... More >>

Giant Vehicle Lumbers Across Indiana at 0.10 MPH

Photos courtesy Peabody EnergyThe dragline crosses a highway on its slow march to the Bear Run Mine. ​Here's an interesting tale for all you gearheads.  For the past two weeks in southwestern Indiana, one of the world's largest mobile vehicles has been lumbering across farmlands and rural hig ... More >>

BP Honcho Says He'd Gladly Eat Gulf Coast Seafood

BP's COO says he'd eat seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. The AFP reports that Doug Suttles issued his statement of faith in Gulf seafood two days after Louisiana reopened 2,400 square miles of coastal water for fishing. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Louisiana have been testi ... More >>

Capped!

Last month ... and today.​After 85 days -- and 184 million gallons of oil spewed into the gulf -- BP says it's finally capped the Deepwater Horizon oil well. Hallelujah.

Is Anybody Really "Tarballing" BP Gas Stations?

Image viaGone tarballin'!!!!​When Unreal heard a rumor that St. Louis BP gas stations had seen an uptick of people pooping on their restroom floors -- apparently in protest for the worst environmental disaster in American history -- we called up quite a few of 'em. Most said there was no increase ... More >>

Washington Park's Mobil Gas Station of Death

Those gas prices are killer!​Running on empty in southern Illinois? You might want to avoid filling up at the Mobil station on Kingshighway in Washington Park.After yet another homicide in the gritty East St. Louis suburb, the village's police chief told the Belleville News-Democrat that police "a ... More >>

Henry Rollins

8 p.m. Thursday, July 1. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard.

Local Protesters of Big Oil to Put Hands Across the Sand, Er, Mud and Silt

Hands Across the Sand​On Saturday, dozens of St. Louisans will gather on the riverfront beneath the Arch to hold hands in a silent protest against offshore oil drilling. Local event organizer Stacey Critzer anticipates 50, maybe even 100 participants. It's not exactly Hands Across America, but the ... More >>

Anti-BP Protest Planned for 10 a.m. Today at Delmar BP

Where it goes down today.​Activists who favor stricter clean-energy legislation, and oppose the controversial Murkowski resolution, are holding a rally at 10 a.m. today at BP gas station on Delmar.The rally is being organized by Repower America and its Missouri chapter, plus like-minded groups suc ... More >>

The Morning Brew: 6.9

How to spot oil-tainted seafood? The nose knows. Slashfood reports that, in an effort to find a cost-effective way to keep products ruined by the BP oil disaster from reaching customers, the FDA and NOAA are busy training seafood inspectors on how to detect oil by smelling the fish. The Atlantic v ... More >>

Mall Employee Gets Kinda Naked to Protest Oil Extraction in Canada

Lush employee Rachael Wall protests mining the Canadian Tar Sands. Click to view larger version.​Editor's note: Daily RFT sent able-bodied intern Steve Hardy to the Galleria today to report on one of the most earnest protests ever held on a Wednesday afternoon in a mostly vacant shopping mall. Bel ... More >>

Lush Cosmetics Employees Stripping to Stop Canadian Oil Production

Artist's butcheringLeft, soaps sold by Lush Cosmetics. Right, the Canadian tar sands. Only if a good scrubbing by one would clean the other.​While the Deep Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico continues to cough up oil underwater, a chain of organic soap shops is planning a separate protest this ... More >>

Controversial Wash U Prof Jonathan Katz Cut Loose From Gulf Oil Spill Relief

Jonathan Katz ​Well that didn't take long.Yesterday Daily RFT covered the White House's controversial appointment of Jonathan Katz, a physics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, to a team of five scientists asked to help the Department of Energy and BP stem the flow of oil gushing int ... More >>

White-Sand Beaches of Destin, Florida Are NOT Covered In Oil, But Cancellations Have Begun

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaplanbr/ / CC BY-SA 2.0Calm down, St. Louisans - no oily sheen yet.​St. Louisans love love love Destin, Florida. Nary an oil glob has washed ashore, but officials down there just told KTVI that the gigantic BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico has spooked would-be visitors: ... More >>

Jonathan Katz: Wash U Prof Tapped By Obama to Solve Gulf Oil Crisis is "Homophobe, Climate Change Denialist"

Image sourceJonathan Katz describes himself as "a homophobe and proud"​Washington University physics professor Jonathan Katz is part of a five-man team of the nation's "best scientific minds" assembled by the Obama administration to help BP stem the flow of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. He' ... More >>

Before Filling Up at BP/Amoco, Check This Out

​60 Minutes last night ran a two-part story on the disaster of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. In interviews with a survivor of the explosion and with engineering experts, the early evidence suggests that that blame lies squarely with BP for ignoring warnings about the well an ... More >>

Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Spills Over to St. Louis Seafood Scene

Image viaThe Gulf of Mexico oil spill as seen from the International Space Station​Nearly a month after the explosion that sunk the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killing several workers, oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico. While the federal government and BP struggle to contain the en ... More >>

Great Coal Debate at Wash U. Tonight: Peabody Energy v. Sierra Club

​Didya know that 83.5 percent of Missouri's energy comes from coal, and that St. Louis is headquarters to the two largest coal companies in the country in Peabody Energy and Arch Coal? Add it all up and it makes St. Louis a great place to discuss the role of coal in our lives and its impact on the ... More >>

Country Version of "Six is a Serious Number" is Seriously Awful

​Remember how last year you heard that 'Six is a Serious Number' advertisement on the radio, or saw it on the television, and immediately found it annoying? You thought to yourself, "This is just terrible. Who in the hell thought this was a good idea?" But then, something odd happened. T ... More >>

Group Plans Corporate and Government Protests in St. Louis This Week

Will this Internet-famous St. Louis protester be there?​I'm not sure if the People's Settlement would fall under the category of an extremist militia as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center. But this I know, the People's Settlement are not Tea Party activists. No, far from it. So who/what is ... More >>

The Big Bloody: In East St. Louis, Three Women Shot at Gas Station, Children in Vehicle

Police have arrested a man suspected of executing a triple-slaying on Saturday night at an East St. Louis Mobil station, reports KMOX.

Wash U. Students Steamed About "Dirty Energy" Flash Executives

Wikimedia CommonsWash U. kids show big balls in protesting reception attended by energy executives, including some from the coal (above) industry.​Actually, it was a flash mob. Some 100 students clad in yellow T-shirts and arm-bands paraded into the "America Energy First Conference" cocktail recep ... More >>

The Road to Ravioli

The latest stop on Ian’s Illinois vacation hits close to home.

Naughty Santa

Red Moon, 1500 St. Charles Street, 314-436-7900.