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Olutosin Oduwole: Illinois Student Freed After Alleged Terrorist Threat Attempt Faces Appeal

Should a university student be imprisoned for a piece of paper that appears to threaten a "murderous rampage similar to the [Virginia Tech] shooting?" That question, it seems, will continue to be debated in court, with news this week that the Illinois Attorney General is appealing the overturned co ... More >>

Olutosin Oduwole: Should Student Who Wrote of "Murderous Rampage" Remain in Prison?

Olutosin Oduwole, a 27-year-old former Southern Illinois University Edwardsville student who was convicted of attempting a deadly mass shooting, was released from prison last week after an appeals court overturned his verdict. But this might not be the end of his legal troubles. Prosecutors are no ... More >>

Illegal Downloading Is Wrong, But I Do It Anyway

Art and life co-habitate, informing, imitating, and enriching each other constantly. Each week in Better Living Through Music, RFT Music writer Ryan Wasoba explores this symbiotic relationship. Question: If you were in the middle of a riot, streets overrun with people freaking out, smashing windows ... More >>

Whats Up Is Down But Not Out -- Yet

Jay Swoboda, founder and prime mover for Whats Up St. Louis.​Jay Swoboda became a social activist on a whim. The economics major spotted a woman on Washington University's campus who was "really cute." Swoboda wanted to get to know her so he decided to volunteer alongside her at STONE Soup, a stud ... More >>

Judgment Awarded Against Suspect Charity Aiding Joplin Tornado

Photo: Albert SamahaThe Joplin tornado leveled the town and killed more than 160 people.​Here's an update to a story we originally reported on back in July. Yesterday, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced that his office had received a consent judgment against Puerto Rico-based charity ... More >>

Missouri Sues Dubious Charities Collecting Money for Joplin

crowdrise.com/JoplinMissouriTornadoAlivio Foundation has raised more than $9,700 online for Joplin, but where is the money?​Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced today that he's filed suit accusing two alleged charities of defrauding donors who thought they were helping victims of the J ... More >>

Joplin Benefit Album Gets its Start on Twitter, Comes Out Tomorrow

Courtesy of Zach Becker​Zach Becker is what you'd call a big-picture person. The 29-year-old, currently somewhere between looking for jobs and considering a return to college, frequently comes up with big ideas, but there's some question about how often they come to fruition. Two days after Jo ... More >>

Timothy Kebel: Illinois Man Scammed $100,000 Worth of Cardinals World Series Tickets Off eBay

Timothy Kebel, 34, of O'Fallon, Illinois pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud yesterday in East St. Louis federal court. His crime? Bilking eBay vendors out of more than $100,000 worth of tickets to the 2006 NLCS and World Series. Kebel admitted that he won 31 auctions for game tickets, completed t ... More >>

St. Louis Blogger "The Beautiful Kind" Fired for Writing About Sex

Emily GoodSt. Louis sex blogger The Beautiful Kind had her cover blown on Twitter -- and lost her job.​Two months ago Riverfront Times featured local pseudonymous sex blogger The Beautiful Kind as part of our "Bloggers Bakers Dozen [scroll down]." "The Beautiful Kind might make you blush," R ... More >>

Rap Lyrics or Deranged Terrorist Threat? You Decide!

An Illinois judge is left to fill in the blanks.​Not that rap lyrics are required to rhyme, but we here at Daily RFT are having the darndest time imagining the following sentence as musical verse: If this account doesn't reach $50,000 in the next 7 days then a murderous rampage similar to the VT s ... More >>

R.I.P. DJ Gothfather, a.k.a. Stephen Talbert

Sad news to report this afternoon: Stephen Talbert, who spun under the name DJ Gothfather and was a familiar figure in the local goth scene for over fifteen years, died of heart failure yesterday. According to a Livejournal post by Joel Lovins (a.k.a. DJ Skeletal), Talbert (who was known as Laz) had ... More >>

Interview: Chunklet's Henry Owings, Author of The Rock Bible

Double Down

Gary Kaplan put all of his chips on BETonSPORTS and drew the worst hand of his life. Now he’s making tuna casserole in a St. Louis jail.

Spank You Very (Very!) Much

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Dumb & Dumber

If they'd sold drugs on a street corner, punishment would have been swift. Instead, they used the Internet -- and the party lasted for years.