Missouri River

Biking in the Dark

The Four Worst Traffic Jams of 2013 in St. Louis

MoDOT, bless its cold, gravelly little heart, announced yesterday the worst traffic jams of 2013, uh, wait, make that its largest construction projects for the upcoming year. Huzzah! It's so rare when you know in advance what you'll be bitching and moaning about. You'd think that surviving the two- ... More >>

[VIDEOS] Blanchette Bridge Explosion-fest!

The westbound Blanchette Bridge was definitively blown up yesterday. This allowed the $63 million renovation project go forward (and allowed taxpayers to pretend they were at Universal Studios).For the time being, the eastbound span alone will perform double-duty and allow I-70 motorists to keep cro ... More >>

The Missouri River Is Among the Most Endangered Rivers in America

The Missouri River ranks number four on American Rivers Most Endangered Rivers list, and it's not because of pollution (that would be the Mississippi's issue): The Missouri is threatened by outdated flood management.

Eating Hermann

Chesterfield Council To Consider Another Shopping Center in Floodplain

The proposed mall would lie between I-64 and the Missouri River.​Members of the Chesterfield City Council tonight are expected to take up a measure to rezone 48 acres of floodplain along Interstate 64 for commercial use as an outlet mall. If that sounds familiar, it's because it is. Following the ... More >>

Nitrate Pollution in Mississippi River Basin Remains High Despite Conservation Efforts

Kelly Brady, USGSUSGS personnel sample water on the Missouri River at Hermann last month.​A new study out today indicates that the Mississippi River Basin (that includes the Missouri and Illinois Rivers) remains just as polluted from nitrates today as it was in the 1980s.The news comes despite eff ... More >>

Ten Best Food Events This Weekend: July 29-31

Image via​Friday (July 29): Stairway to Heaven @ Bissell Mansion Restaurant and Dinner Theatre Enjoy a four-course dinner with wine while attempting to unravel bits and pieces of the this murder mystery featuring plenty of punny musical references. Entrée choices include New York strip stea ... More >>

Receding River Allows Amtrak to Restore Full Service to Kansas City

Amtrak: Now free to move about Missouri.​Amtrak will restore full service between St. Louis and Kansas City beginning Wednesday. Flooding along the Missouri River forced Amtrak to reduce its runs between the two cities earlier this month after Union Pacific switched more of its freight traffic ont ... More >>

Before Computers, Giant Model of Mississippi River Determined Flood Risks

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers via PlacesThe Mississippi River model during its last days of use in the early 1970s.​This spring, computer models helped the Army Corps of Engineers determine the exact outcome of flooding when the agency made the controversial decision to blast the Birds Point Levee ... More >>

Swollen Missouri River Forces Amtrak to Reduce St. Louis to Kansas City Service

The Union Pacific line west of Jefferson City as viewed this morning.​Flood waters along the Missouri River have forced the Union Pacific railroad to divert its freight trains to a line of track the carrier shares with Amtrak. The resulting congestion has forced the passenger train to temporarily ... More >>

June Rainfall Could Triple St. Louis Average for Month

Area rain gauges runneth over in June.​Surprise! It's raining -- again. The National Weather Service warns that St. Louis is likely to see strong thunderstorms mixed with heavy rains throughout the day and into the evening. Today's precipitation could help triple the region's normal rainfall for J ... More >>

Ten Best Food Events this Weekend: May 13-15

Image viaBring your pooch to Yappy Hour at the Bleeding Deacon this Sunday!​ Friday, May 13: Grand opening week @ I Scream Cakes During Cherokee Street's Cinco de Mayo celebration last Saturday, a new kid on the block opened its doors for the first time. I Scream Cakes debuted its custard sty ... More >>

Show Review and Setlist: Rodney Crowell at Blueberry Hill Duck Room, Monday, February 28

Story time with Uncle Rodney Crowell is a heartwarming way to spend the evening. Once upon a time, in a land called Southeast Texas, there were demonic possessions, grand mal seizures, bottles busted over heads, lies, more lies, alibis, memories of love and lust at Roy Acuff concerts and tornados hu ... More >>

Cougar Sighted in St. Louis Suburb (And No It Wasn't Picking Up Young Men at a Bar)

Missouri Department of ConservationA trail camera caught this image January 12.​Let there be no mistake. The cougar sighted in Chesterfield this month was the real deal -- puma concolor, a.k.a. mountain lion, a.k.a. panther -- and was not, we repeat, not, a 40-something-year-old female homo sapien ... More >>

1860 Map Shows Missouri's Slave Population

Below is a map from the 1860 U.S. Census showing slave population in Missouri. Surprisingly, perhaps, the biggest concentration of slaves wasn't in the southern part of the state but, instead, along the Missouri River corridor. Two notable exceptions being New Madrid and Mississippi counties borderi ... More >>

All We Need Is Music

Catfish-zilla Caught in Missouri River: Beast Weighs in at 130 Pounds

A Florissant man may have caught a world-record catfish Tuesday morning. The beast weighed in at 130 pounds -- or 6 pounds more than the one caught in 2005 outside Alton. Greg Bernal, an unemployed land-surveyor, and his girlfriend Janet Momphard, were fishing the Missouri River near the Columbia Bo ... More >>

Another Feces Folly: At Least 315,000 Gallons of Raw Sewage Seep Into Missouri River Tributaries

Is there no end to this crap? Earlier this week we reported on a leak from an MSD lift station that may have sent several million gallons of untreated human waste into the Mississippi. Now comes word from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources that two other sewage spills occurred this morning ... More >>

FBI Seeks Help Nabbing "Granddad Bandit" -- Elderly Robber May Have Struck 21 Banks

The "Granddad Bandit" robs a St. Louis Bank of America in May.​The St. Louis FBI is holding a press conference this morning to call attention to the so-called "Granddad Bandit." The balding bank robber, believed to be in his 50s, robbed the Bank of America at 5600 South Lindbergh Boulevard in St. ... More >>

St. Charles Teens Won't Be Starring in Remake of Escape from Alcatraz

​They had the gumption, but they lacked the brains. But hey, they're teenagers! What do you expect?Three teens who escaped from the St. Charles County Juvenile Justice Center last night are back in custody after less than two hours on the lam.The juveniles successfully scaled the jail's 25-foot fe ... More >>

Reports: Missouri River "Bulging"

My! What a big river you have, Missouri.​If you've been checking local news sites (here, here, here) you'd think that the a virtual tsunami is headed down river. The Associated Press reports today that "the Missouri River is bulging in the middle of the state, and some tributaries of the bigger ri ... More >>

Budweiser, Champagne, Missouri Pecans and What's In a Name?

Photo: Jennifer SilverbergBarham at the Columbia Farmers' Market one Saturday morning in 2006Reading earlier today about how Anheuser-Busch InBev has lost another round in European courts over the use of the name "Budweiser" in Europe reminded me of the very swell time I had reporting the story, "Bo ... More >>

Budweiser, Champagne, Missouri Pecans... What's in a Name?

Jennifer SilverbergBarham at the Columbia Farmers' Market one Saturday morningReading earlier today about how Anheuser-Busch InBev has lost another round in European courts over the use of the name "Budweiser" in Europe reminded me of the very swell time I had reporting the story, "Bounty By The Cou ... More >>

Nevermind the Paddlefish, Who Are the Hillbillies Taking All Our Turtles?

www.qufriary.orgSeriously, would you eat this?The RFT aquatic-life team has donned its waders today and is ready to kick some ass. As reported this morning, Missouri conservationist can't get over this year's bumper paddlefish crop. Meanwhile, the news ain't nearly as good when it comes to Missouri ... More >>

Review Preivew: BC's Kitchen

A preview of this week's review of BC's Kitchen, Bill Cardwell's new restaurant in Lake St. Louis.

Lick Your Lips

It's time to dig in

Up Show-Me Creek: Blisters, hellish heat, a boatload of vomit and lots of painkillers. It's all part of the Missouri River 340 race.

The Grape Escape

Smoke and Mirrors in Hermann, Missouri

Got Water?

Press Release Headline of the Day

Lewis & Clark & Clark & Clark

The very last Lewis & Clark story this paper will publish this year.

Plaid to the Bone

P-p-p-plaid

Hamburger Help Her

This Chuck-A-Burger is new, but its food is classic and delicious

Lewis & Clark and Park

Your passport to adventure

St. Louis Tap Water

No, really: tap water. Give it some respect.

Best View of Downtown

The Gateway Arch

Best Public Works Project

The Page Avenue extension

UMSL Won't Play Ball

Week of May 21, 2003

Painting While Intoxicated

Plein air party in Augusta

Best Missouri Winery

Stone Hill Winery

Net Profit

In this age of shrink-wrapped food and health scares, there are still folks who crave the taste of fresh-caught river fish. Jim Beasley casts his nets every day to feed that hunger.

After the Deluge

Since the Flood of 93, Chesterfield boosters have used millions in public money to raise a levee and turn the bottomlands into a boomtown. But betting against the river is risky business.

Best Riverfront Attraction

Two Pecan Tree Pond

Water Wrongs

William Least Heat-Moon tests the current state of America's rivers

Voodoo Engineering

New plans for a levee in St. Charles County raise concerns about flooding in Illinois and the completion of Missouri's popular Katy Trail

ALL THIS AND A PAY RAISE TOO

Former state Sen. J.B. "Jet" Banks will probably make at least $36,000 a year as a retired felon

The Low Road

Hazelwood officials cast their lot with the developer of a controversial project in the flood-prone Missouri Bottoms. Their gamble is tearing the North County community apart.

When We Are History

Steve McCracken has overseen a 13-year, $800 million cleanup and burial of the radioactive waste at Weldon Spring. Now that the odyssey is nearing its end, one thought haunts him -- how to warn people in the future not to dig it up.