Tim Lloyd

Elected officials in St. Charles County are getting a raise.

The St. Charles County Council approved the 15 percent bump in pay last night, which will officially go into effect in 2015.

County Executive Steve Ehlmann said the county’s charter only allows them to consider a raise every four years, and the last one came in 2007.

“There’s no guarantee that anybody who voted on this tonight will ever see it, because they’ll all have to be elected to get the raise,” Ehlmann said.

On Sunday a somber Dick Durbin said the nation is in mourning in the wake of last week’s mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.     

Then the Democratic U.S. Senator from Illinois told Fox News Sunday host, Chris Wallace, it’s time to think about whether people should be able to buy assault rifles, body armor and high-capacity clips.  

“Can we have a thoughtful, calm reflection on these things and do it in the context of our second amendment?” Durbin asked.  “I think we need to.” 

The Army Corps of Engineers has started releasing more water from Carlyle Lake in Illinois to help keep barges moving along the Mississippi River.

Army Corps of Engineers Spokesman Mike Peterson says they had a pretty good idea this summer’s brutal drought would cause big shipping problems in the fall and winter.

So, they held back water in Carlyle Lake, which is a little over 50 miles east of St. Louis, because it's one of the region's few reservoirs with a little extra water from rain.  

Members of Congress from across the country are responding to the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Mo.  Republican U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt called the shooting a huge tragedy and said that it put other parts of life in perspective.

But Blunt said stricter gun laws are unlikely to deter similar acts of violence.

Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the first refugees from the Bosnian War arriving in St. Louis. 

In the coming months we’re going to take a closer look at their experiences in this country and how their presence has changed the cultural landscape of our city.   

But to know how St. Louis became home to what’s estimated to be the largest Bosnian population outside of eastern Europe, you have to first understand the brutal ethnic war that many of them fled.