www.ij.orgJim RoosBegging for Billionaires, a documentary feature examining eminent domain "abuse" in Missouri, makes its initial screening next month in (of all places) Minnesota. The film -- nine years in the making -- debuts May 2 as a "Best of Fest" selection at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. Telling the story of land owners fighting to keep their properties from private developers, the movie spends much of its time in St. Louis with subjects such as Jim Roos. A
photo by Keegan HamiltonThe Columbia Bottom Conservation AreaLocated at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers just north of St. Louis, the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area is among the last stretches of undeveloped riverfront near the city. The Missouri Department of Conservation, the state agency that manages the 4,300-acre area, describes the land as "a mosaic of bottomland habitats that includes shallow wetlands, bottomland hardwoods, prairie, and cropland. These habitats att
The North Side Community Benefits Alliance is inviting city residents to attend a forum tonight to discuss developer Paul McKee's massive redevelopment project for north St. Louis. ij.orgChristina Walsh​Leading tonight's meeting (6 p.m. at the Shining Light Pentecostal Church) will be Christina Walsh, a director with the Washington D.C.-based civil-rights law firm Institute for Justice.Topics for discussion include McKee's possible use of eminent domain as well as the developer's plans to fina
The construction of a sprawling 376-acre resort and casino next to the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area in North St. Louis County faces it's most critical vote yet tomorrow night.The St. Louis County Planning Commission already gave the initial go ahead to rezone the massive swath of land in a flood plain immediately south of wetlands that border the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, despite the protests from multiple environmental and community groups.If you've never been, her
Image Via​While thousands of St. Louis county voters took to the polls yesterday to decide important issues like a smoking ban and increased 911 funding, the fate of the largest stretch of undeveloped Mississippi River waterfront in the St. Louis region was left in the hands of six members of the St. Louis County Council.They voted 4-2 in favor of re-zoning 376 acres of wetlands south of the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area for commercial development, specifically a massive casino and resort
Image Via​Reporter Paul Hampel has an incredible story in today's Post-Dispatch about the CEO of Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. (the Vegas-based company that owns Lumiere Place, the Admiral and the new casino in Lemay) attempting to "muscle" a member of the St. Louis County Council before Tuesday's vote to re-zone wetlands near the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area to allow construction of a casino to be run by a Pinnacle rival.In a textbook case of life-imitating art-imitating life, Pinnacle's D
