Mental Health

Thieves' Bazaar: Hospitals, doctors and dealers have made Medicare the nation's sweetest crime. The feds are now trying to shutter the door.

Music is M.A.G.I.C.: Benefit Show Tonight Inspired by Our Story on Children's Hospital's Music Therapy Program

Here at RFT Music we report frequently on local music events, but we're guessing that it's rare that a story of ours directly inspires one. Last month I wrote about the music therapy program at St. Louis Children's Hospital. The story was so intense and personally touching to me that I also wrote a ... More >>

First Look: Bombay Food Junkies Food Truck

When Sid and Krupa Panchal moved from Mumbai (formerly Bombay) to St. Louis eight years ago, they knew they would miss the street food of the coastal Indian city. Finding that none of the Indian restaurants in town specialize in the type of food traditional to Mumbai, the Panchals took matters into ... More >>

Bombay Food Junkies Hits Kickstarter Goal for Food Truck

So, yeah, maybe there's something to this whole using-Kickstarter-for-your-new-restaurant plan, after all. Bombay Food Junkies, a vegetarian Indian food truck start-up, reached its Kickstarter goal of $5,000 last week. It is the third recent local success on the popular crowdfunding site: Katie's P ... More >>

Bombay Food Junkies Truck Nears Launch, Turns to Kickstarter for Decoration Help

Gut Check told you last month about Bombay Food Junkies, a new food truck featuring vegetarian and vegan Indian cuisine. The wife-and-husband team of Krupa and Sid Panchal plan to serve pav, a sandwich-like dish that Krupa told us is the most popular street food in Bombay (or Mumbai, as the city is ... More >>

May Induce Queasy Pleasure: Side Effects is well worth risking

Bombay Food Junkies Truck to Bring Vegetarian Indian Street Fare to St. Louis

Since moving to the United States from their native Bombay, (or Mumbai, as it is now known), India, Krupa and Sid Panchal haven't found anything like the street food they enjoyed in their home city. So the wife-and-husband team are taking matters into their own hands: In the next few months, the Pan ... More >>

Third Patient Sues Castlewood for Planting False Memories

When Brooke Taylor was being treated at a Ballwin-area eating disorder clinic, she uncovered a devastating secret from her past. In the course of her therapy at Castlewood Treatment Center for Eating Disorders, Taylor realized a close family member had repeatedly raped her, and that she'd been phys ... More >>

How Fair Are Federal Sentencing Guidelines? One Skeptical District Judge Weighs in

In this week's feature story, "Our Military Doesn't Have a Gambling Problem," we narrate the tumultuous swan dive of decorated Army Sgt. Dreux Perkins, who returned home from a combat tour in Iraq with post traumatic stress disorder and a pathological gambling addiction. His condition prompted him t ... More >>

Can a Clinically Delusional Person Pretend Not to Be Delusional?

​Our feature this week is about a guy who government psychiatrists have diagnosed with "delusional disorder, grandiose type." Despite the fact that he's never raced competitively, he believes himself a world-class cyclist, and has repeatedly threaten to murder those who seem to have gotten in his ... More >>

Repeat DUI Arrestee Dan McLaughlin Keeps Job as Cardinals Broadcaster

​Good news, sports fans. The glory days of baseball broadcasting -- when a commentator could be forgiven for a bit of misbehavin' -- are alive and well. Why's that? Because this week Fox Sports Midwest announced it will retain Cardinals play-by-play broadcaster Dan McLaughlin for the 2012 season. ... More >>

Missourians Are More Sober Than Rest of U.S., Study Shows

​For those who think Missouri is home to a bunch of meth-makers, heroin addicts and beer swillers, the most recent national statistics out of Washington show that, surprisingly, this is far from being true. In fact, when crunching the latest data for both drugs and alcohol, Missouri ranks eith ... More >>

Missouri Critter Hoarder Convicted of 75 Counts of Animal Abuse

Image viaNo more hoardin' for Virginia Gambriel​Early last year, authorities raided the southwest Missouri home of Virginia Gambriel and found not only 40 dogs, 13 cats, 10 rabbits, 2 doves, 2 turtles and a chinchilla. They also found three dead chinchillas in her fridge and a dead cat in a cage. ... More >>

Stage Capsules

Dennis Brown and Paul Friswold suss out the local theater scene

The Missouri National Guard Has a Suicide Problem

And, no, it's not jihadists strapping bombs to themselves. (Thank God.)Unfortunately, for reasons still unknown, six members of the state's National Guard have killed themselves this year. That's the most in one year since the Guard starting keeping track in 2001. Remarkably, none of the six were de ... More >>

Black Women Don't Want to Be "Tits on a Stick," Mizzou Grad Student Finds

Research shows black women also like big butts, they cannot lie.​Rashanta Bledman grew up in LA's South Central neighborhood, full of black and Latina women who loved their curvy bodies and big butts. When she started high school in Hollywood and, later, college in Orange County, she discovere ... More >>

Missouri Therapists to Haiti's Rescue

Leonardo Drisdel: Trial Set for Radio Host Accused in Grisly 2005 Murder

Leonardo Drisdel in jail back in 2005.​Leonardo Drisdel, former host of the talk show The Human Factor on the now defunct AM station WGNU will stand trial May 2, 2011 for the slaying of Cassandra Kovack. On June 4 2005 police found Kovack dead in her Miami Street apartment, her body beaten, her ar ... More >>

Washington University Among the Most Stressful Colleges in America

Be nice to Wash. U. students. They're really stressed out.​Another day, another ranking. This one involves rating which of the nation's top 50 campuses are the biggest pressure cookers, of which Washington University placed No. 13 -- in between Yale and Dartmouth. Stanford is the leading ... More >>

'Tis the Season

Dr. Feelbad: When a west-county physician went haywire, no one intervened to shut him down

Did This Mother Poison her Son for Attention?

A Well-Examined Life

She feld Jung, in a Freudian sense

Naked Came the Schizophrenic: Willy Holtzman's revealing play about Carl Jung's mistress gets a local staging

RFT reader wishes the Cubs 100 more years of failure

Fizzled Out: Andrew Gladney, heir to the 7-Up fortune, is off to a federal penitentiary

Quiet, or You Get the Lash!

Music in the library

Yo quiero Chihuahuas!

A tale of the toughest dog in North America.

Driving While Mexican-American

The Mexican muses on the high rate of DUIs among Hispanics.

Asian Persuasion

P.F. Chang's China Bistro
25 The Boulevard
Richmond Heights
314-862-2624

Rehab for Rockers

Don't Know Smack

Down from the mountain, a softly lit Heath Ledger can't save this by-the-numbers Aussie drug flick.

A Very Bert Dax Christmas shows

9 p.m. Friday, December 15. Lemmons (5800 Gravois Avenue)

9 p.m. Saturday, December 16. Way Out Club (2525 South Jefferson Avenue).

Get Happy!!

It's the tears of a clown for the Minus 5's Scott McCaughey.

Local Motion: Sgt. Amanda Pinson benefit

Friday, May 19, at 7:30 p.m. Pop's (1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois)

The third annual STLPunk Christmas party, featuring Femme Fatality

Sunday, December 26; Creepy Crawl

Sea of Change

Don't like what's playing at the Red Sea? Come back tomorrow.

Gone but Not Forgotten

The dark legend of GG Allin still drives the Murder Junkies

Hard Case

Marie Clark's group-therapy sessions are a sex offender's worst nightmare. Her down-and-dirty approach gives some of her colleagues the willies too.

Angel's Wings

Only Jay Nixon stands in the way of Angela Coffel's freedom

Best Example of Wasted Taxpayer Money

Angela Coffel

The Girl Who Came from the Moon

She was alone in the world until a rebel psychologist befriended her. Now, all he wants for her is freedom. All she wants is family.

Best Grocery Store

Gewinner's Market

The Olmstead Challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court says it's time to end segregation: People with disabilities must be allowed to leave institutions and move into the community. Sounds great -- except the state's overwhelmed and the community's nowhere near ready.

Letters to the Editor

Published the week of February 23

Dilated Peoples, Jurassic 5, Beat Junkies

Thursday, August 5 ; Karma

Sympathy for the Devil

Six years ago, a St. Louis judge took a hell of a risk. He let Von Nebbitt go free despite years of drug dealing and stealing, weapons offenses and parole violations. One of them has learned a lesson.

Psychiatric Disorder

In the chaos of the ER, patients with mental or behavioral problems receive scant attention