A legendary St. Louis broadcaster with strong ties to St. Louis Public Radio has died.

Meteorologist Ben Abell started providing forecasts when the station went on the air in 1972. He spent years broadcasting weather reports as a volunteer while also serving as a professor of meteorology at St. Louis University.

The St. Louis Art Museum announced on Wednesday that it has purchased a painting from the artist Kehinde Wiley.

The painting was among 11 portraits by Wiley featured in an exhibit that ended earlier this month at the museum. All of the subjects were African-Americans from the St. Louis region in poses adapted from historic paintings.

St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger joins Politically Speaking to talk about Better Together’s proposal to merge St. Louis and St. Louis County.

If statewide voters approve the plan next year, Stenger will become the unified government’s first “metro mayor.”  That office was designed to be powerful: A mayor in the new government can make key appointments, use a line-item veto, and help appoint whoever is in charge of drawing districts for a 33-person council.

A recent study of American teenagers showed a big jump in nicotine vaping among young people in 2018. Even as many steer clear of other substance-related activities such as binge drinking and drug use, the number of teens who are vaping has more than doubled since 2017.

“The data shows that one in five middle schoolers are using these products and one in three high school [students] are using these products, so those are incredibly concerning numbers,” Dr. Patricia Cavazos-Rehg said during Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air.

On Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Don Marsh discussed the current state of the St. Louis Fire Department, touching on various recent initiatives as well as challenges ahead. Joining him for the conversation were Chief Dennis Jenkerson and Capt. Garon Mosby.

Most St. Louis County employees will be getting a raise soon.

The St. Louis County Council voted Tuesday to authorize departments to give 2,500 county employees a 2.8 percent pay boost.

The Missouri state school board sent strong signals to leadership of St. Louis Public Schools Tuesday it will end its 12-year oversight of the district this spring.

State Board of Education members had all good things to say at the board’s monthly meeting regarding the district's turnaround efforts from its time of infighting, constant leadership churn and a large fiscal deficit.

If a merger of St. Louis and St. Louis County is approved, faculty at a local university would draw the initial boundaries for a 33-member council — a move designed to limit partisan politics from influencing the districts.

Yet since St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger and St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, both Democrats, would choose the demographer getting first crack at drawing lines, some wonder if the mapmaking process will truly be independent.

Finding permanent housing for every St. Louis-area homeless veteran by November sounds like a steep task.

But it’s what five Missouri and Illinois counties have promised to do.

St. Louis, St. Charles, St. Clair and Madison counties joined an initiative spurred by St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson’s “challenge to end veteran homelessness.” The challenge is part of a national movement to bring the number of homeless veterans to zero. The St. Louis Area Regional Commission on Homelessness will organize the local initiative.