Industries

Farmhaus Hosting Shane Wine Cellars Dinner on May 8

Seats remain for the first wine dinner at Kevin Willmann's acclaimed Farmhaus (3257 Ivanhoe Avenue; 314-647-3800) next Wednesday, May 8. The dinner will pair four courses with wines from Shane Wine Cellars. Shane owner and winemaker Shane Finley will attend the event. In an e-mail to Gut Check, Far ... More >>

Today is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's!

With temperatures predicted to crest 80 degrees today in St. Louis, Gut Check could use some ice cream -- but then, couldn't we always? Today is Ben & Jerry's annual Free Cone Day, with area locations slinging free scoops of ice cream from Noon to 8 p.m. Find out where to get your free sugar fix af ... More >>

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 >>

"Dump Veolia" Mounts Social Media Campaign to Halt City Water Contract

A rising tide of dissent is building against a contract between the City of St. Louis and multinational water service company Veolia. Daily RFT broke news of the deal in December after insiders at the city water division leaked memos showing that Veolia, a Paris-based company, won a contract in a c ... More >>

Veolia Water Contract Sent Back to Committee Over Concerns About Company's Reputation

Seemingly overnight, the fortunes of a lucrative contract between the City of St. Louis and Veolia Water have been reversed. Earlier this month, Daily RFT broke the news that the city's Water Division recently completed the bidding process for a consulting contract aimed at cutting spending at the ... More >>

Wine and Dine and Wind Around

Country Club Sopranos: American banks are on a massive crime spree. Obama and Romney hope you won't notice.

St. Louis-Based American Patriot Beer Makes Its Local Debut

Lifelong St. Louisan John Beal's favorite beer growing up was Budweiser. "I always wanted the Budweiser car to win," he says. When its parent company Anheuser-Busch was purchased by Belgian brewing behemoths InBev in 2008, the career roofer was "bothered" by the takeover, and decided to take matters ... More >>

Lee Enterprises Lost More Money in 3rd Quarter. Oh, and Paywalls Are Coming to "Nearly All Markets"

Lee Enterprises announced a third-quarter loss of only $1.5 million, which is down quite a bit from the losses of $155 million in the same quarter of the previous year. Successfully pushing that decimal point two places to the left means that shares only lost three cents of their value in the third ... More >>

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

Eleven Things Every Independent Artist Should Work On

Editor: Tef Poe is an artist from St. Louis City. Through powerful imagery and complicated honesty, he has earned a reputation as one of the best rappers telling the story of St. Louis, which is about much more than one place. Poe has been featured in music publications such as XXL and Urb Magazine. ... More >>

This Week in Anheuser-Busch InBev World Domination

Oh, yawn, just another week in Anheuser-Busch InBev's Borg-like growth across the world. First came news that A-B has agreed with the St. Louis Cardinals and developer Cordish Companies to be a tenant for the first phase of the long-delayed Ballpark Village project. A-B will open a restaurant feat ... More >>

Brave is the rare family film about courage that actually has some

Bagged Salad Recall Expands Nationwide

OK, so maybe you shrugged your shoulders at yesterday's news about the FDA's warning on Korean shellfish. Fair enough. Not exactly an everyday purchase around these parts. Bagged salad, on the other hand... The FDA has announced that River Ranch Fresh Foods of Salinas, California, has expanded its ... More >>

FDA Warns on Korean Shellfish

The FDA has removed shellfish from Korea -- the official press release says Korea, not South Korea, in case you were wondering -- from its Interstate Certified Shellfish Shippers List (or the ICSSL, as all the cool kids call it). Though noting that Korean molluscan shellfish "represents only a sma ... More >>

Ellen Back Again: Arnie Robbins steps down as editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and RFT checks in with his predecessor

Amazon Agrees to Pay Sales Tax in Texas; What About in Missouri?

On Monday, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and Amazon jointly announced they had struck a deal for the internet retailer to begin paying sales tax in the Lone Star state. Amazon has a distribution center in Irving, Texas, but has never paid sales tax for products shipped from the facility b ... More >>

It's Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's!

Today marks Ben & Jerry's annual Free Cone Day, with area locations slinging free scoops of ice cream from Noon to 8 p.m. Though many of its St. Louis stores have shuttered in the last few years, three shops still stand, and two are participating in Free Cone Day: Ben & Jerry's U. City (6380 Delmar ... More >>

Megaupload Goes Down: Five Lost Music-Stealing Technologies

It's true: Megaupload has been gone an entire week, and for the millions of people who used the site because they like their totally legal for-pay cloud storage to come equipped with fake download links and massive flash banner ads I'm sure things have been difficult. For copyright holders, massiv ... More >>

Spy Games and Celebrity Sightings at St. Louis-Area Bookstores

image viaWatch out, she may be packing an iPhone.​As everybody knows, the Christmas-shopping season is the most hectic time to be in retail -- as both a seller and as a consumer -- and this year, there's an extra frisson of excitement in St. Louis bookstores, thanks to some corporate espionage ... More >>

Ralph Linder: St. Louis Christmas Tree Farmer

Julia GabbertRalph Lindner puts it in park at his O'Fallon Christmas tree farm.​Ralph Lindner passes the small lake on his property as the sun starts to descend behind the hills lined with conifers. Lindner, 73, has trouble walking far. Instead, he's utilizing his "wheelchair" -- a red Snapper ... More >>

St. Louis: A Dog-Eat-Mailman World and City Health Director Wearing MilkBone Underwear

​Remember one those classic intros to Cheers when Norm walks into the bar and Woody asks him how he's doing? Norm responds: "It's a dog-eat-dog world, Woody, and I'm wearing MilkBone underwear." I recalled that scene this morning when reading the latest dust up regarding St. Louis' problem with st ... More >>

[UPDATED] Pilgrim's Pride Recalls Over 11,000 Pounds of Cooked Chicken

Pilgrim's PrideThe pilgrims aren't too proud, thanks to listeria fears. ​Yesterday we reported that there was a recall on 204 pounds of precooked chicken in Starbucks new Bistro Boxes for possible listeria contamination. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Or the beak of the bird. Yesterday ... More >>

Formerly AB-Owned Purus Vodka Expands Distribution

Image viaThis sexy bottle is "designed to emulate the shape of a water droplet off of the Italian Alps!" Recognize!​In 2008, InBev bought Anheuser-Busch, creating ABInBev, now the world's largest brewer. Of course, you know that! The story dominated the news for a large chunk of that summer. ... More >>

Ameren Fired Contractor for Flagging Environmental Violations, Lawsuit Says

​A lawsuit filed on behalf of a local plumbing contractor alleges the company lost its contract with utility giant Ameren -- after the contractor informed Ameren management of violations of environmental law and illegal discharge of pollutants.The suit was filed by Bishop & Associates, owned b ... More >>

Just When You Thought You Were Free of Zhu Zhu Pets...

image viaDespite appearances, it's not a horror movie.​Warning to anyone who has a small child or has to spend a lot of time in the presence of a small child: Zhu Zhu pets, the scourge of a couple of Christmases past, are back! Well, they were never actually gone -- except for the 2009 holida ... More >>

Express Scripts Tearing Up Fortune 500 List

Express Scripts is St. Louis' largest company -- by far.​The pharmaceutical management company Express Scripts isn't just the largest St. Louis company on this year's Fortune 500 list -- it's actually made the magazine's list of fastest growing companies across the nation.With 81.8 percent revenue ... More >>

Report: Wall Street Speculators Drive Up Oil Prices

The view from Wall Street these days.​Tired of paying nearly $4 per gallon to fuel up your car? Wondering who's making a fat profit off your daily commute? A new investigative report puts the blame on Wall Street, specifically hedge funds and investment banks that today are involved in the lion's ... More >>

St. Louis is Tops in Postal Carrier Dog Bites

It's up to you to prevent this.​We're No. 5! Celebratory chomps all around.OK, it's not actually that funny. The U.S. Postal Service today released data on the nation's top cities for dog attacks on postal carriers, and St. Louis tied for fifth (along with San Antonio) with 39 attacks in 2010. Hou ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Neighbors of Corporate Hog Farms Never Win

Today's comment comes in response to a post about a dozen families from southwestern Missouri who recently won a $1.95 million judgment against a corporate hog farm in their county. The families -- who asked for $1 million a piece -- claimed that odors and flies from the nearby hog farm had ruined t ... More >>

Hospitals Lose in Big Tobacco Money Grab in St. Louis Court

Just because you light up doesn't mean Big Tobacco has to share the cost of your subsequent hospital care, a St. Louis jury decided today.​After thirteen years of litigation, three months of trial and just over six days of jury deliberations, a group of 37 area hospitals have struck out in their a ... More >>

Six Row Brewing Company: Review Slideshow

Jennifer SilverbergA pint of the "Whale" beer at Six Row Brewing Company​One of the many new craft brewers gracing the St. Louis scene over the past couple of years. My review of Six Row Brewing Company (3690 Forest Park Avenue; 314-531-5600) is now available online, and be sure to check out Jenni ... More >>

Missouri Latest State to Push for Online Sales Tax

Local retailers want to wipe that smug smile off those Amazon.com boxes. ​Two state representatives held a press conference today in the University City Loop, calling attention to legislation that would add sales tax to purchases Missouri residents make over the Internet. State representativ ... More >>

Repudiated upon its 1961 release by the tough-talking clergyman who inspired it, The Hoodlum Priest remains as obscure and intriguing as ever

Neither Baller Nor Shot Caller

Let's Get Lit: City Offers Free Light Bulbs as Ameren Gets Sued

​This just in from City Hall: On Jan. 17, 6,000 lucky St. Louisans will be the recipients of brand new eco-friendly light bulbs. Mayor Slay is scheduled to appear at a press conference this afternoon to announce a new initiative touting energy consumption, co-sponsored by Ameren Missouri. As ... More >>

Left Bank, Subterranean Books Now Selling Google eBooks

​As of this morning, two of St. Louis's proudly independent bookstores have joined in the digital revolution: Subterranean Books in the Delmar Loop and Left Bank Books in the Central West End and downtown are now offering Google eBooks on their respective websites. Both stores have been selli ... More >>

Washington Post Highlights St. Louis Craft Beer

St. Louis craft beer welcomes more and more breweries.​Former RFT staff writer Kristen Hinman, whose desk was located directly next to Gut Check International Headquarters, has an article in the Washington Post about the growth of the beer scene in St. Louis beyond Anheuser-Busch.Hinman gives prop ... More >>

Postal Worker Stole $2,500 in Birthday Money From Wash. U. and Fontbonne Kids

image viaIs nothing sacred?​Thomas Riner, who sorted mail at the U.S. Postal Service processing center downtown, was convicted in a federal court last Wednesday, November 10, of nine counts of mail tampering and one count of mail theft. All ten cases involved taking money and gift cards from b ... More >>

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 >>

More Nudity, Shenanigans at Alton Taverns Has Mayor Threatening Crackdown

Mayor Tom Hoescht​Alton Mayor Tom Hoechst is once again attempting to clean up the image of his town's notoriously seedy bars and taverns. Hoechst tells KMOV Channel 4 that next week he'll sit down with bar owners to outline new disciplinary action should their taverns continue to violate liquor l ... More >>

Grinding Justice: Operation Streamline costs millions, tramples the Constitution and doesn't work

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 >>

HOME Nightclub Closed

Deadmau5 at Home Nightclub, September 2008. Photo by Vikram Singh.​As of today, HOME Nightclub is closed, according to a statement released this morning. The reason given was the club's inability "to sustain profitability." (Full release after the jump.) Since opening in December 2007, the ven ... More >>

Hill Brewing Company

Lights, Beer

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 >>

Art for All

Hermetica Premiere