Did your power flicker last night in south city? If so, it might have been because of the storms rolling through town. It might have also been because of an Ironton man stealing 35 feet of copper wire from a power substation in St. Louis Hills, doing $100,000 of damage in the process. 

Police say that they arrived at the Ameren substation on Chippewa Street around 1:45 a.m. this morning to find Marion Keenan, 61, in his van with the 35 feet of pilfered wire alongside a set of bolt cutters. 

A lock on the chain link fence around the power station had been cut and inside the station itself a significant amount of copper wire had been pulled from the structure. In addition to doing six figures worth of damage, the vandalism interfered with delivery of electricity, St. Louis police say.

Keenan is facing four felonies for burglary, stealing, property damage and possession of burglary tools.

The 61-year-old is already facing similar charges from April when he was busted trying to pull off a heist at a bank on South Grand. He was after the bank’s gutters.

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While most 16-year-olds are thinking about homework or what to wear to prom, at least seven Missouri legislators remain convinced they should be allowed to sign marriage licenses and plan shotgun weddings.

Child marriage has been a longstanding embarrassment for the Show Me State. It wasn’t until 2018 that legislators got around to banning marriage for residents 14 years of age and younger — and even then, 50 lawmakers voted no.

Currently, teens as young as 16 can marry in Missouri with parental consent. 

Earlier this year, Senator Holly Thompson Rehder (R-Bollinger), Senator Lauren Arthur (D-Kansas City) and Representative Chris Dinkins (R-Lesterville), introduced a bill that would ban marriage for anyone in the state under the age of 18. But with less than a week left in the legislative session, the ban is likely to die thanks to seven people.

These members of a key house committee are standing in the way of the ban, according to the Kansas City Star. Despite bipartisan support, these members of the majority Republican committee have chosen to stand against any reforms that would help prevent minors (especially teen mothers) from being forced into marriages.

The bill passed the Missouri Senate with overwhelming support (one person voted in opposition) and has been sent to the House Government Efficiency and Downsizing committee. Its sister bill is awaiting a vote in the House Judiciary Committee.

It is unclear who on the committee makes up this opposition. Committee Chairman Jim Murphy (R-St. Louis County) did not respond to our questions.

From 2000-2020 (some of the most recently available statistics on the topic) approximately 8,151 children were married in Missouri alone, according to Unchained At Last, a nonprofit dedicated to ending child marriages. The majority of these cases (78 percent) involved young girls being wed to adult men.

In a state like Missouri that has a complete abortion ban, teens who become pregnant are more at risk for being coerced into marriage. But hey! We apparently think that’s just fine in Missouri, and far be it from lawmakers to feel any haste in cracking down on it.

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There is a clear undertone of tension on the campus of Washington University as students finish finals and prepare for commencement, Sylvie Raymond, a senior who is graduating this coming Monday, tells RFT.

“I’m a little nervous to see how everything plays out and what measures the school takes,” Raymond says. “And obviously, there’s always the thought in the back of my mind, like, are they going to cancel graduation?”

Some schools that have seen student protests have canceled their main commencement or split it into smaller ceremonies, including Columbia University and the University of Southern California. Emory University moved its ceremony. 

“The culture of fear and fear of getting suspended, doxxed, and just generally having repercussions for voicing your political beliefs is very palpable,” Raymond says. “And that is definitely troubling for a university that ostensibly should promote the free transmission and expression of ideas.”

After protests roiled the campus on April 27, Wash U moved swiftly to suspend the students involved and bar the faculty members from campus. At least one student swept up in the mass arrests told the Post-Dispatch her degree is being withheld while her case makes its way through the criminal justice system, though she will be allowed to attend commencement.

Wash U has also sent students additional guidance on what to expect for its commencement ceremony May 13. Now, among other precautions, graduates will be subject to inspections of their regalia. 

In an email sent to people attending the university’s Law School Recognition Ceremony and subsequently shared with RFT, the university tells students, “Please be ready to unzip your regalia before and during the All-University Commencement and Law Recognition Line-ups.”

The university will also require tickets to attend the Arts & Sciences undergraduate ceremony this Sunday and the university-wide commencement on Monday, according to updated guidance on the university’s website. These tickets were sent directly to graduates to distribute. Chancellor Andrew Martin has begged students not to protest at the ceremony. 

Wash U hasn’t responded to several emails from the RFT seeking further clarity on what the administration planned to check for at commencement, including whether graduating students would be allowed to wear keffiyehs. The traditional Palestinian headdresses have become a symbol of solidarity and resistance adopted by protestors as Israel’s attacks on Gaza continue. In response, people wearing them have been detained in France and Germany, and elsewhere targeted with violence, including the shooting in Vermont of two Palestinian students wearing them, according to Reuters.

The university has also fenced off the campus and, on May 6, added tarp around some of the fencing, supposedly “in order to ensure pedestrian safety and keep the area clear while crews are setting up a stage and other structures associated with the post-Commencement celebration.” University-issued IDs are now required to enter the Danforth campus.

Raymond says that at first she thought the fence was some kind of joke, but then she began to see it as a wall. 

“It’s very troubling,” she says. “ I think it really flies in the face of this idea, or this notion that Wash U builds up about them being in St. Louis for St. Louis. I think this is very blatantly showing that that is not the case that this campus was never for the Greater St. Louis Community.”

In the days leading up to commencement, activists plan to have a standing protest at the corner of Lindell and Skinker in Forest Park just across from campus. These “Post-Up for Palestine” demonstrations will begin at 3:30 each afternoon and will include teach-ins and art builds, Resist Wash U has posted on social media.

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