Don Marsh

The U.S. Supreme Court, last week, heard arguments on two gay rights cases which may produce landmark rulings. 

The Missouri legislature is considering banning the use of drones by journalists while the University of Missouri Journalism School is teaching students how to use them.

And, Missouri’s contraception exception law is no more – at least for now.

Those and other topics were discussed as part of our monthly legal roundtable.

Our guests:

On April 2nd voters in St. Louis City and St. Louis County will go to the polls, to among other things, vote on whether to pass Proposition P – a 3/16th of one-cent sales tax increase which would benefit the Gateway Arch grounds, regional trails and greenways through Great Rivers Greenway, and city and county parks.

Host Don Marsh talked with people on both sides of the issue.  Peter Sortino is the chairman of the pro Proposition P campaign and Jennifer Bird, a Republican Committeewoman in St. Louis County, is opposed to the measure.

The animosity between the governments of Israel and Iran is significant.

Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei once compared Israel to a cancerous tumor which should be “cut-off.”  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel would be “eliminated,” and that the country has no roots in the Middle East.

Israel has drawn a line in the sand and is threatening preemptive action to prevent an Iranian nuclear capability.

Two people from their respective countries, however, are engaging in peer-to-peer diplomacy, putting aside  hostility.

The St. Louis American has a circulation of 70,000 and is the largest weekly in Missouri targeting African American readers.  It reaches 40-45 percent of black households in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

It has received top national honors for journalistic excellence several times and it was named the best African American newspaper in the country in 2006. 

Host Don Marsh spoke with Dr. Donald Suggs, the principal owner, publisher and executive editor of the newspaper for the last three decades.