Huffington Post

Steve Cookson's "Don't Get Sick" Bill That Could Punish Poor Students Gets National Attention

Another Republican lawmaker in Missouri is getting national attention -- this time for a very short piece of legislation that critics say could punish poor children who get sick. House Bill 1040, introduced last week, says in its entirety: "School age children of welfare recipients must attend pub ... More >>

Disappearing Ink: What will happen to all the books?

Washington University: Officials Suspend Sigma Alpha Epsilon After Alleged Racist Pledge Prank

The Washington University chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity is in hot water today after allegations surfaced of a pledge activity that involved photographing black students and reciting a rap with racial slurs. University administrators have officially suspended the SAE chapter and are now ... More >>

The Electric Pencil Takes Manhattan

If you plan to be in New York this week, you might want to take a couple of hours and venture to Hirschl & Adler Galleries on Fifth Avenue, near Central Park, and take a look at their new exhibition, "Talisman of the Ward: The Album of Drawings By Edward Deeds." After all, it's winter and too told f ... More >>

St. Louis Etsy Artist Will "Jazz Up Your Crap" for Twenty Dollars

Getting a crappy gift is a universal experience. Feeling too guilty to throw it out might be a particularly Midwestern affliction. That's why when Daily RFT read about an Etsy service called "Jazz Up Your Crap," we had this weird feeling that whoever was behind it had to be a St. Louisan. The artis ... More >>

Claire McCaskill Mocks Justice Antonin Scalia's "Weird Hat" at Inauguration

Just before President Barack Obama took the oath of office for his second term, Senator Claire McCaskill went all Joan Rivers on the men of the Supreme Court and their curious taste in headgear. Justice Antonin Scalia got it the worst for an odd little chapeau that looked a bit like an overturned b ... More >>

Schadenfreude Overdose: National Restaurants Anti-"Obamacare" Policies Hurt Business

Last month, following the reelection of President Barack Obama, Gut Check examined five national restaurant chains sticking to anti-"Obamacare" policies. Papa John's chief executive John Schnatter threatened to raise pizza prices and cut employee hours to part-time to side-step paying for health ins ... More >>

Is South County Tween Nicole Westbrook the New Rebecca Black?

Remember Rebecca Black? She is the California teenager whose parents paid for their daughter to perform a song called "Friday" in a now-infamous YouTube music video. Black became internet famous overnight, mostly because everyone agreed that it was the worst song they'd ever heard. Black says she cr ... More >>

[VIDEO] HILARIOUS Presidential Race Parody from STL's Anastasis Films

John Pa and Matt Seilback of Anastasis Films have done bleeding heart St. Louis pride. They've done a truly badass campaign ad. And now they're back at us with a hilarious political parody in cartoon form!

Akin Camp Scoops Post-Dispatch By Publishing Email From Reporter Kevin McDermott

Late yesterday afternoon, Todd Akin's campaign got ahead of a Post-Dispatch scoop by publishing emails between the campaign's spokesperson and longtime political reporter Kevin McDermott. The email from McDermott contained what appeared to be the story's first four paragraphs revealing that Akin w ... More >>

The Bleacher Report Formula for Web Dominance: Garbage In, Money Out

Carrie M. Becker: 2012 Riverfront Times MasterMind Award Winner

Dave Catanese, Politico Reporter, Yanked from Todd Akin Coverage

Related content: National GOP, Crossroads Abort Akin: Pregnancy Comment Causes Pullout Todd Akin Has the Inside Scoop: Women Can't Get Pregnant from 'Legitimate Rape' [UPDATE from Akin Campaign] Dave Catanese, a Politico writer and former local political junkie, really stepped in it as the Todd ... More >>

Legitimate Todd Akin Memes Hit Tumblr

It seems to us first of all, from talking to doctors, it's a legitimate dumb-ass comment Todd Akin does not have ways to shut that down. The HuffPo headlines were starting to run dry, so it was only a matter of time before the Todd Akin #legitimaterape fiasco became a meme. The Tumblr comm ... More >>

Brad Pitt's Mom to Springfield Newspaper: Gay Marriage Bad, Mitt Romney Good

Earlier this week, a letter written by "Jane Pitt" of Springfield in the News-Leader caused a minor stir. At first, the paper confirmed that, yes, it was Brad Pitt the Famous Actor's mother Jane. Then it retracted that. Then yesterday they retracted the retraction. "To clear up earlier confusion," ... More >>

It's the Ground-Bacon Burger! Or, This Heat Has Sapped The Last of Gut Check's Joy

Going viral and then some today -- so far Gut Check has seen links from Gawker, Eater, BuzzFeed and Huffington Post: a hat tip to you all! -- is the "'merica Burger" from a California burger joint called Slater's 50/50. The "'merica Burger" is a patty made from 100 percent ground bacon that is then ... More >>

Silent Protest Against NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Mimics 1917 East St. Louis Riot March

Yesterday,  thousands marched down Fifth Avenue in New York City to quietly protest perceived racial profiling in the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy. Organizers say they made a conscious effort to mimic something that happened there a century ago: The silent march that took place in the wake of t ... More >>

Freaky Lights Spotted Over Blue Springs: Possibly Aliens, Definitely Internet Gold

The freaky blue-red lights seen twinkling over Blue Springs (KPLR, KMOV) have now begun to trickle into newscasts across the country; even Huffington Post is all over it in their Weird News section. It all started with this newscast on KCTV Channel 5 in Kansas City: The newscast has elicited some pr ... More >>

Carl's Jr., the Hardee's of the West Coast, Test Markets Ice Cream "Brrrger"

Questionable dessert interpretations of the burger aren't new. Japanese company Happy Kitchen sells a candy hamburger kit to meet the high demand of making fast-food-inspired confections at home, while stateside sweets seller Efrutti produces weirdly adorable novelty gummy candy mini-hamburgers, hot ... More >>

Pulitzer Prizes Announced

The Pulitzer Prize committee has just announced its awards for 2012. No Missouri publication received an award or finalist citation. In the Local Reporting category, 24-year-old Sara Ganim of The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, became one of the youngest prizewinners in history for her w ... More >>

Whitney Houston's Death And The Celeb-Blogging Search Engine Spiral

Some of the blog entries written about Whitney Houston's death last week were a legitimate outpouring of grief, and some of what I felt when I heard the news was a real sadness, a real desire to express what the passing of a musician I hadn't thought about in a few years meant to me, but this blog e ... More >>

Top 5 Pieces on Trent Arsenault, Missouri-born DIY Sperm Donor / Porn Star

​You either know Trent Arsenault as:(a) the 36-year-old virgin in California who has fathered 15 children by giving away his own "organic" sperm on the Internet, OR(b) "TrentDog," the amateur porn star on Xtube who's videotaped himself masturbating with a water polo ball and frozen blueberries. Bu ... More >>

Tea Party Princess: Victoria Jackson went from the big leagues of comedy to the rabid right of modern politics

Local Artist Wonders, What If Barbie Were Secretly a Hoarder?

If you've seen St. Louis artist Carrie M. Becker's recent collection "Barbie Trashes Her Dream House" -- and odds are that you have, since the photos have gone viral over the past few days, appearing in, among many other places, Jezebel, the Huffington Post and Time.com -- you may wonder if there's ... More >>

Missouri's 2012 Primary Election Would Be Very Telling If It Weren't Officially Meaningless

​A couple of weeks ago, Huffington Post blogger Will Bower wrote, "This February 7th, 2012, I'll be paying closer attention to Missouri's primary results and asking myself 'What if Missourians had been able to go first this time 'round?'" Bower, an outspoken crusader for election reform, proposed ... More >>

"Very Small Hair-Like Metal Fragments" Prompt Recall of Craisins

​Craisins, the dried-fruit snack best known for being the "dessert" that the mother of sad, lonely third-grader Dakota Williker-Smith packs in his lunch every day and also for decorating wine-bar cheese plates like so many bloody mouse droppings, can now add "recalled food product" to its résumé ... More >>

Tampons Soaked in Vodka: Quick Drunk or Urban Myth? [Updated]

Update: (Tuesday, November 22, 11:30 a.m.) Inevitably, perhaps, an intrepid blogger has tried the vodka-soaked tampon and reported on her efforts. Details follow the original post after the jump! ​Taking shots of booze through the eyeball. Soaking gummi bears in booze. What adult-defying method o ... More >>

Tea Fertilized by Panda Poop and Other Crap We Can't Afford

Image viaHey, panda! We have plans for that bamboo when you're done with it.​How often have you stared at your cup of tea while it's steeping and thought, "You know, the only thing that could make this tea better would be if it had been fertilized in panda poop."If the answer is very often, then s ... More >>

Prince Ea's "Make 'Smart' Cool" movement picks up steam

Study: St. Louis Is Nation's 36th Most Caffeinated City

Image via​The website Bundle has released a study that purports to have determined the country's most caffeinated cities. Yes, there is a slideshow accompanying the study. No, this isn't straight-up Huffington Post-style linkbait.According to Bundle, Chicago is America's most caffeinated city, wit ... More >>

Prince Ea On The Minor Explosion Of His "Backwards Rappers" Video

Image via​In the little over a week since its August 8 release, the video for Prince Ea's "Backwards Rappers" has gone moderately viral. By that, we mean that is has garnered attention in the right places -- CBS News, the Huffington Post, Reddit -- and from the right people -- Sage Francis, Br ... More >>

Ten Ridiculous Amazing Themed Restaurants We Wish Existed

Image viaWould you like a danish from a Supreme Court Justice?​Sometimes at Gut Check International Headquarters, we get tired of eating gourmet meals day in and day out. We admit it: We like a little kitsch once and a while. Today, this story from the HuffPost Food about outrageous themed res ... More >>

Rare Fungal Disease the Latest Horrible Thing to Hit Joplin

image viaZygomycosis: the next horrible thing to hit Joplin.​Just when you thought things in Joplin couldn't get any more post-apocalyptic, the Huffington Post reports this morning that a rare and deadly fungus is now infecting tornado survivors. Zygomycosis happens when soil or vegetative m ... More >>