While author Elaine Viets currently lives in Florida, the St. Louis native visits often and more often than not, her stories involve a St. Louis connection.

For many years Viets was columnist for the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

A few months ago, St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh visited with Viets to talk about the latest book in her Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper series.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) delivered a mixed report card Friday on the state budget and other bills passed by the Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly this week.

While he complimented lawmakers for increasing funding for K-12 schools and higher education, he also criticized them for passing legislation that would cut state income tax rates for individuals and corporations.  He told reporters that the bill would gut state revenues by more than $800 million.

David Axelrod, the former senior advisor to President Obama spoke at Webster University Friday, speaking on a variety of topics, including the Affordable Care Act.

Axelrod was a key advisor to the president during the passage of the Affordable Care Act.Axelrod used his time to take a swipe at states (like Missouri) doing their best to not implement parts of the law.

“There are still many snipers on rooftops trying to make it not work, in the form of Governors and Congressmen," Axelrod said. "But I think it’s important for the country that it succeeds.”

The Transportation Departments says 149 control towers at small airports that were slated for closure will remain - open at least through Sept. 30.

The department sent out a brief statement Friday. It says Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has determined there is enough extra money, under a bill passed by Congress last month, to keep the towers open through the end of the budget year.

An East St. Louis police detective is in federal custody today on charges that he and six other men helped distribute more than five kilos of cocaine in St. Clair and Madison counties over the last month.

Orlando Ward, 41, has been with the department for more than a decade. He will remain in jail until a hearing on May 15.

St. Louis has always had a love-hate relationship with the Mississippi River.  The city depends on the river for its very existence. Yet we cursed the river for giving us too little water last fall and we now curse it for giving us too much.  As is the case with so many of life’s mysteries, we need to look to poetry for insights into our complicated relationship with our river.

Seventy years ago, St. Louis native T. S. Eliot wrote The Dry Salvages, which opens with the lines:

There are more than one million homeless K through 12 students in America, and in Missouri, the number of students without permanent homes has doubled over the past five years.

If you’re like us you find those statistics daunting, but what do they mean? 

With that in mind, today we’re peeling back the data to understand the impact rising homelessness is having on education.  

A proposal to cut state income taxes in Missouri for both individuals and businesses is on its way to Governor Jay Nixon (D).