Last Friday, I had the opportunity to have a far ranging discussion with best selling author, columnist and a documentary filmmaker Dr. Shelby Steele. This is episode two of my podcast, and in part one of this interview with Dr. Steele, we discussed his transition to conservatism, advice he would give President Trump on race and the current state of the civil rights movement. Read more…

Related:

Part two Shelby steele interview.

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By Tom Sullivan

The Post-Dispatch had a total of nearly three entire pages for a front-page story in the Sunday paper about Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the Portland Place couple who have received national attention, while at the same time there are big gaps in the newspaper’s coverage of County Executive Sam Page, who is up for election with a decision to be made in less than three weeks.

Such a lengthy article in the Post is almost unprecedented in recent years — especially for people who are not elected officials, are not running for office, have not been charged with a crime nor committed any. Admittedly, there is reader interest in the matter but three pages seem excessive when the paper is ignoring so many other things, especially with its coverage of Sam Page and St. Louis County government.

The story on the Portland Place couple was written by Post-Dispatch reporter Jeremy Kohler. He bills himself as an “Investigative reporter @stltoday — with a focus on St. Louis County.” Kohler has been covering county government for about three years, from around the time Steve Stenger and the County Council were doing battle and the first storm clouds began gathering over Stenger.

While the Post has dug into the McCloskey’s background, going back to even a birthday card Mark McCloskey received when he was 20 years old, which was an exhibit in an old lawsuit, there are huge gaps in the paper’s reporting on Sam Page and St. Louis County government. Some examples:

►   Post-Dispatch readers know all about property the McCloskeys own but not the Page family. Dr. Sam Page lives in a home worth $1.6 million according to Zillow. It has 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms and covers 7,000 sq. feet. Sam Page talks about diversity but doubt it was on his mind when buying a house in his elite West County neighborhood.

►   Sam Page is also said to own property in southern Missouri. What does he own and what is it worth?

►   If we live in a society of such inequality, as Sam Page likes to say, he has benefited enormously from it. Doctors are paid many times the average annual salary of most people. This likely has made Page a millionaire. For many years his household income has likely been in the $500,000 range as his wife is also a physician. Once when Page was council chair a council meeting was cancelled as Page and his family (or part of it) were taking a vacation in Europe. Not something the average family can afford.

►   The inequality has also allowed Sam Page to take in a considerable amount of contributions from doctors and doctor groups. Doctors can afford to make contributions. There has been no reporting on the total contributions they have made to the Page campaign.

►   The Post-Dispatch has largely ignored campaign contributions to Sam Page. Since it was the issue that caused Steve Stenger to corrupt county government and land in prison, you would think it would get a lot of scrutiny. The Page PAC was set up so Page could accept contributions greater than $2600 — the limit on contributions to candidate committees (but not political action committees) that was initiated by Sam Page when he was council chair. This is no small amount of hypocrisy on Page’s part.

►   The Page PAC has taken in about $300,000 in the last few weeks or so. Not a word in the Post-Dispatch. Today is the deadline for quarterly reports and the Page PAC should have a lot to report, along with the Page candidate committee.

►   On Sept. 27, 2019 Sam Page asked the County Council to enact a “prevailing wage” ordinance that would require prevailing wages be paid for construction projects funded by the county. It is quite a perk for construction unions as it pretty much guarantees wages for workers will be held at a higher level. In four years and four months on the County Council, Page never saw the need for such an ordinance. But now he was running for county executive. The County Council gave final approval to the prevailing wage ordinance on October 15, 2019. On December 27, 2019 — exactly 90 days after Page asked the council to approve  the ordinance — the Laborers Union contributed $50,000 to the Page campaign. Not a word in the Post-Dispatch though the paper did report Page saying that “pay-to-play politics ends now.” That was shortly after he became county executive.

►   Sam Page has also taken in over $100,000 in campaign contributions so far from Centene Corp. and its executives. This has not been reported by the Post-Dispatch. Former Centene executive Cindy Brinkley, who was making $4.7 million annually before retiring, is the lead advisor of the CARES group of five advisors picked by Sam Page to advise on how to spend the $173.5 million federal grant to fight COVID-19 effects. Presumably, it was Centene chairman and CEO Michael Neidorff who recommended Brinkley. Neidorff was best buddies with Steve Stenger and now it seems Page has taken his place. Tom Irwin, former Civic Progress executive director and now senior vice-president at Centene, promoted Page’s contrived police review plan to the St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioners last week. The police board is supposed to be separate from county government but Page and Irwin trampled all over the board’s independence.

►   The spending of the $173.5 million federal government grant has pretty much been overlooked by the Post-Dispatch, though stories were done about the morgue that was built in near secrecy and how minority contractors were being excluded. There have been questions about why so many purchases have bypassed the normal bidding process but these question have mostly been asked by reporters at media outlets other than the Post.

►   Elliott Davis of FOX-2 just did a story about nearly $29,000 was needlessly spent on legal fees in an attempt to close down the House of Pain gym. Sam Page said it should be closed. That’s small stuff compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars of other legal fees that are being spent by the county, some paid for from the federal grant and some by the county.

►   The county had a contract with Hawthorn suites in Maryland Heights that was said to cost nearly $1 million but the suites were hardly being used. It was supposed to be for first responders needing to self-quarantine. The county spent $2.6 million or more for food grants and there were considerable purchases made for face masks. It is mostly unknown how all these purchases were handled and how it was decided who to buy from.

►   Link Market got a $110,000 food grant but there have been questions about the organization. It was created a few years ago and was supposed to provide fresh produce to under-served areas at two Metro transit stations — one in Wellston and one at North Hanley — but has failed to do so. Both markets had few customers and are now closed. The Post-Dispatch coverage of this organization has been awful.

►   It is unknown when or where the CARES group meets. In a Post story about the advisory group it read: “Page has clarified that it’s not he who will make the decisions, but teams of advisors he has put in place . . . ” It isn’t easy to figure how decisions are made on spending the federal grant.

►  Dr. Alex Garza, head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, also has connections to Sam Page. He made a nominal contribution to Page’s campaign. Page appointed him to the Board of Freeholders. His wife, Melissa Garza, worked for Claire McCaskill for more than 20 years, which was how Garza got a job in the Obama administration. She was considered for a job in the Page administration as a policy advisor. Dr. Garza has praised Sam Page and Lyda Krewson for how they have handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

►   One of the first things Sam Page did after becoming county executive was ask the County Council for nearly $700,000 more for his office. The amount was reduced but it seems that the county executive’s office has grown under Page. In particular, a lot of political operatives have been hired. His chief of staff, Winston Calvert, who was forced to resign as city counselor under Mayor Francis Slay, has brought in many of his friends. This includes Tod Martin as Director of Administration. He was the deputy chief of staff for Claire McCaskill’s operations in Missouri and is the 15th Ward Democratic Committeeman in the city. On his Twitter page he says he is a “Recovering Neuroscientist.”

►   The Post-Dispatch has never listed all the people working in Sam Page’s office and has overlooked a glaring problem of Page and many people working for him: they have almost no management experience. Also, there are now four former Post-Dispatch employees working for Page and St. Louis County: two former reporters, one former editor and one former photographer.

►  Sam Page, Winston Calvert and others had apparently been planning to have Page replace Steve Stenger for some time. It was said they had regular Sunday night meetings at the office of Republican political consultant David Barklage. A 48-page “Transition Plan — County Executive Same Page” was produced, apparently well before Stenger resigned after being indicted.  They no doubt had an idea Stenger was to be indicted. Page’s candidate committee paid thousands of dollars to Calvert before Page became county executive — for “Communications.”  That description seems questionable.

►  A recent tweet said the Page bunch did some opposition research on Hazel Erby, ahead of the vote by the County Council for county executive. After stepping on and over Erby, Page said he was closer to her than anyone on the County Council.

►   Sam Page’s record on the County Council has all but been forgotten. In his first two years on the County Council he was a 100% rubber stamp for Steve Stenger. Among other things, he voted for the notorious leases at the old Northwest Plaza, saying they were a “great value” for St. Louis County. He also voted to give $3 million to the Loop Trolley — tax dollars that were totally wasted as the trolley has mostly stopped running.

►  Sam Page all but endorsed the county giving $700,000 to the Loop Trolley last year.  This apparently was because of the influence of John Meyer, president of the Loop Trolley Company. Meyer works for the Capes Sokol law firm. So does Michelle Schwerin, who Page appointed to the County Police Board and Amy Fehr, who Page appointed to the MSD board. It isn’t known what connection Page has to the law firm.

►   Amy Fehr was appointed to the MSD board last year by Sam Page. She doesn’t seem all that interested. At one point she had missed two of three MSD board meetings. There is only one a month. She rubber-stamps most everything. For all those homeowners with stormwater and backup problems, Fehr will make no difference. She doesn’t care and neither does Sam Page.

►   In 2017, Sam Page insisted the council hire someone he wanted for county auditor. This person has been a disaster as he has no accounting or auditing experience and is unable to perform audits. Page has followed this pattern as county executive — handing out jobs to favored people whether competent or not. But it has not been reported on.

►   The county has spent  hundreds of thousands of dollars for outside law firms to handle matters it would seem the County Counselor’s office should be able to handle. There have been questions about the competency of County Counselor Beth Orwick, who was hired by Page last summer. She was severely criticized for her handling of the Sgt. Keith Wildhaber matter.

►   The county hired a law firm earlier this year to handle negotiations with the owners of the old Northwest Plaza Shopping Center. The leases that the county has there, which were initiated by Steve Stenger, are said to cost $20 million to $30 million more than they should. This was supposed to be a priority issue with Sam Page. He has done some sabre rattling on the matter but has achieved no results. What’s going on with the mediation/ negotiations? Nothing about it in the P-D for some time. This is something voters should know about.

►  Sam Page has been doing some extreme pandering to African-American voters. Ray Hartmann did an excellent column on this in last week’s Riverfront Times: “Sam Page Is All Talk On Race.” Hartmann was right on target. He brought up how Page stepped over Hazel Erby to become county executive. As to Page’s new-found concern about issues concerning the black community, Hartman wrote: “The facts are not on his side and it’s too late to make them up.” But it seems Page will keep on trying and the Post doesn’t cover the issue much at all. North County residents still wonder why nothing is being done with the old Jamestown Mall, which has been a very big eyesore for years. Page just blames Stenger.

►  The Fanny Lou Hamer organization, a group of mostly North County elected officials formed in 2014 to opposed the re-election of Steve Stenger, endorsed Jake Zimmerman a few weeks ago. What was noteworthy is the group’s chair has been Hazel Erby. The Post did not give the endorsement any coverage.

►  Jeremy Kohler did a story on August 28, 2019 headlined, “Whistleblowers get protection in St. Louis County — along with a hotline to report misconduct.” On July 5 this tweet was from Councilman Tim Fitch: “Next month will be a full year since this law was passed. The Interim County Executive still hasn’t implemented the hotline. Why not???” It now seems the county executive is going ahead with a contract to hire a firm to handle the hotline. But it seems the matter was forgotten by the Post-Dispatch.

►  The County Council just passed a one-year, $2 million food contract for the County Jail with Trinity Services Group. Trinity has had troubles all over the country, some of them quite serious. There were media reports that the company served maggot-infested food, violated labor laws and failed to adequately staff jail kitchens. Trinity was fined more than $2 million by the Michigan Department of Corrections in 2017 for a variety of offenses. The issues surrounding Trinity were brought up at Council meetings in early May and numerous times after but the matter was ignored by Jeremy Kohler. When he was on furlough and the issue was brought up again, this time at a council committee meeting on June 16, it was finally covered by the Post-Dispatch. A reporter filling in for Kohler did a lengthy story on the matter.

►  In looking into the County Jail food contract, it was found the Director of Justice Services for St. Louis County, Raul Banasco, has had problems in his past. When he was the jail manager at Osceola County, Florida he resigned after several problems were found at the jail in 2010. He was also named as a defendant in a lawsuit having to do with the death of an inmate at the jail in 2009. Did the Page administration know about his past? What about the Post-Dispatch? The newspaper can go looking through court records having to do with McCloskey matters going back to 1976. But it seems to not have done basic due diligence on someone appointed to a critical job in St. Louis County government.

The publisher and editor of the Post-Dispatch are currently leading an effort to increase subscriptions to the paper, touting how the paper keeps readers well informed. Yet the paper has done an inconsistent job covering St. Louis County government and County Executive Sam Page. Readers might know more about the McCloskeys than they do Sam Page and the election is August 4.

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By Christopher Arps

I have to admit I find no particular pleasure in writing this piece. I am usually the eternal optimist. Hell, I’ve been a member of my local Optimist International club for over seventeen years now! No matter how dark the circumstances have been in my life, my faith in God and sincere belief HE will show me the correct path has always sustained me through my most trying times.

I still believe that with all my heart but my consternation lies solely in what I see currently happening in our country. I know this is not the first time our country has experienced societal unrest and change. I was born in the mid 1960’s so I wasn’t yet alive during the assassinations of President Kennedy, Malcolm X or Medgar Evers.

And I was far too young to remember the assassinations in 1968 of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and the ensuing riots that occurred afterwards in inner cities all around the country. Back then, the culture war was still in its infancy, and America was still a country that overwhelmingly believed in God, Family and Country – no matter where your personal beliefs fell on the political spectrum. God, Family and Country were the three bedrock principles that a melting pot of diverse people depended on to keep our society cohesive and orderly.

Today, those bedrock principles have been jackhammered by activist courts, the so called “woke” generation who sadly have been indoctrinated in their public schools and colleges by the 1960’s culture warriors, and by the Democrat(ic) Party which long ago sold out America and their principles for political power. I firmly believe the obliteration of God, Family and Country has resulted in the deep divisions we currently see in our country. Read more…

Related:

Black and Red Show featuring RedState.com’s four African American contributors: Editor at Large Kira Davis, Jeff Charles, Chris Arps and Lenny McAllister.

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J. Christian Adams, President and General Counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation and founder of the Election Law Center shares how non citizens are being added to the voter rolls without their knowledge.  He participated in the Americans for Citizen Voting town hall with Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen is an Americans for Citizen Voting board member. Jasha is of Hispanic descent and is an immigration attorney and owner of McQueen Law LLC. Republican Mark Meuser ran for California secretary of state in 2018. He is a practicing election law attorney and a former chief of staff for a Missouri state senator. ACV advocates against the growing movement around the nation to allow green card holders to vote in school board and some municipal elections. Our mission is to place on ballots in all fifty states, a constitutional amendment that states only American citizens can vote in our elections.

Related:

Do Immigrants Think They Should be able to Vote in the USA?

Eyewitness Accounts of Non Citizens Voting & Registering to Vote

State Refuses to Release the Number of Non Citizens on Voting Roll

Video: “Allowing Non Citizens to Vote is Ridiculous”

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Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich tries to get into his house as he arrives home in Chicago on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020, after his release from Colorado prison late Tuesday. Blagojevich walked out of prison Tuesday after President Donald Trump cut short the 14-year prison sentence handed to the former Illinois governor for political corruption. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

St. Louis based Republican political consultant and radio personality Chris Arps interviewed former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich for RedState.com. In the interview, “Blago” discusses the similarities between his case and the cases of General Flynn and Roger Stone. He also talks about the pandemic and how he would have handled it as governor, plus, he talks about his eight years in a Colorado federal prison.

I had a chance last weekend to interview with my radio partner former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich who, after his sentence commutation last February from President Trump, now labels himself a “Trumpicrat” instead of Democrat. The far-ranging interview covers what he considers his railroading by the Obama Justice Department; the similarities between his case and the cases of General Flynn and Roger Stone; the Coronavirus pandemic and how he would have handled it; and the eight years he spent in a Colorado federal prison. Blagojevich still insists he did not commit the crime of trying to sell former President Obama’s Senate seat after Obama was elected President of the United States. Read more…

Related:

NPR: Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Released Following Trump’s Commutation

Randles: “[Blagojevich] Is Sitting in Federal Prison for Attempting to do What Jay Nixon Has Seemingly Already Done”

Nixon Inherits Blagojevich’s Bag of Tricks

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If you recall in 2018, on the ballot there was an amendment to the Missouri Constitution known as Amendment 1 or “Clean Missouri”.  As per the Clean Missouri organization’s website the text was:

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
• change process and criteria for redrawing state legislative districts during reapportionment;
• change limits on campaign contributions that candidates for state legislature can accept from individuals or entities;
• establish a limit on gifts that state legislators, and their employees, can accept from paid lobbyists;
• prohibit state legislators, and their employees, from serving as paid lobbyists for a period of time;
• prohibit political fundraising by candidates for or members of the state legislature on State property; and
• require legislative records and proceedings to be open to the public?
State governmental entities estimate annual operating costs may increase by $189,000. Local governmental entities expect no fiscal impact.

There is a lot in this amendment.  In fact it even went before the courts because there were arguments there were too many disparate topics in one amendment.  The State Supreme court didn’t find that a problem.

Most would have little to no problem with the prohibition of political fundraising by candidates or members of the state legislature on State property.  The changes mandated with the changing of limits on campaign contributions, gifts and the waiting period of lobbying was not significantly different then existing legislation.

While on the surface it sounds good that legislative records and proceedings were to be open to the public, what most people don’t realize is that means if you contact your state legislature because you need help, and that assistance is not necessarily what you want your friends and neighbors to know,…..well too bad….it is now open and available to the public. This has concerned some lawmakers:

Some lawmakers have made statements that constituents personal information communicated to them will become public record.  Rademan Miller says further clarification of the “Sunshine Law” will determine if such a contention is true. “I think it’s a gray area with the plain reading of the sunshine law,” Rademan Miller said. “There are exemptions there, but there’s definitely not like a blanket provision that provides an exemption for all constituent correspondence.

The most controversial section is the redrawing of legislative districts.  Before amendment 1 became law:

Under the previous system, commissions appointed by party committees and the governor drew the new districts. Republicans and Democrats got an equal number of seats on the commissions, which were typically made up of lobbyists, political consultants and elected officials. If the commissions failed to approve new maps, the state Supreme Court appointed six appellate judges to draw new lines.

Now with amendment 1:

Clean Missouri requires a new nonpartisan state demographer to draft maps for state House and Senate districts, with a goal of “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness” as determined by statistical measurements using the results of previous elections. Districts also must be contiguous and limit splits among counties and cities. The maps will be submitted to existing bipartisan commissions for approval.

Key differences being a nonpartisan state demographer (appointed by the State Auditor) with a goal of “partisan fairness”.  So the expectation is a partisan person will find someone nonpartisan that will create nonpartisan districts?  Sounds like a recipe for disaster to us.  Apparently there are folks on both sides of the aisle that agree.

“I fear — and I not only fear, I believe — that it’s likely this is going to disenfranchise African-American voters in St. Louis and Kansas City,” said Sen. Bob Onder, a Republican from St. Charles County.

“There are definitely concerns in the caucus that the way it was written could create long, spaghetti string districts and dilute the black vote at a time when we have historic black representation in the House,” said Rep. Steve Roberts, a St. Louis Democrat and chairman of the Black Caucus.

We are in the final week of a crazy pandemic impacted legislative session and there is a fight in Jefferson City to put forth an adjusted amendment before the people.  Rep Dean Plocher (R-Des Peres) sponsored a measure to address the legislative redistricting process.  He has some bi-partisan support from an unusual place.

Related:

Video: MOGOP’s Sam Cooper Says “Clean Missouri” Is A Dirty Deal

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If you recall yesterday, your intrepid editors reviewed the St Louis County Covid19 expenditures website.  We figured if the Chair of the County Council didn’t want it reviewed then clearly someone should look into things.  We found it rather odd that the county was paying a hotel and reached out to the county for some answers.  Miracle of all miracles we received a response.

Thank you for your question. The County has secured space in a hotel that is used by first responders, the general public, and unhoused clients of the Department of Human Services.  All occupants in the hotel are quarantined pending a COVID test result or isolated after a positive result because they are unable to isolate at home.  No one is allowed to stay once a negative result has been determined, keeping the facility as “COVID only” and within the parameters of the federal Stafford and CARES acts. The specific transaction you have identified is in the “commitments” section of our transparency portal – it is a change to the purchase order with the hotel.  To-date, spending for this purpose is $596,432.61.

Paul Kreidler

Director of Performance Management & Budget

We thank Mr Kreidler for the prompt response.  I wonder if anyone knew if they couldn’t isolate at home then the county would pay for them to isolate at a hotel.

Related:

Show Me The Money….

Why On Earth Would We Need Oversight In St Louis County?!?

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Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen is an Americans for Citizen Voting board member. Jasha is of Hispanic descent and is an immigration attorney and owner of McQueen Law LLC. She shares during the ACV townhall what she has heard from legal immigrants about whether they should be able to vote in US elections.

Click here to watch the entire town hall.

Related:

Eyewitness Accounts of Non Citizens Voting & Registering to Vote

State Refuses to Release the Number of Non Citizens on Voting Roll

Video: “Allowing Non Citizens to Vote is Ridiculous”

Congressman: “What’s Wrong With Allowing Illegal Aliens to Vote?”

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As a follow up to an earlier article, your intrepid editors have been reviewing St Louis County’s COVID-19 expenditures website.

Most of the rest of them make sense….medical screening, hand soap, safety screening, telephones, janitorial supplies, blue painters tape, emergency thermometers, print services, computer equipment, webex, emergency masks, lab equipment, emergency cleaning, building permit, inmate mattresses, Covid-19 screeners, electrical work, emergency body bags, language access multicultural people, tractor trailer, emergency tables for mass casualties, majestic bleach (nothing but the best), trash bags, portable toilet(s), alcohol wipes, basket truck, toilet tissue, cube trucks, emergency bins for mass casual (guessing that is actually casualties), shelving for refrigerator, funnels, emergency ambulance,

Donations I guess…..or hope.

Loaves and fishes – $62,480

This is a little interesting

Is St. Louis County paying the United Way for a Call Center?

A couple have us flummoxed.

Related:

Why On Earth Would We Need Oversight In St Louis County?!?

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Republican Mark Meuser ran for California secretary of state in 2018. He is a practicing election law attorney and a former chief of staff for a Missouri state senator. Marc tells a sad example of how an eagerness to register voters by the California Department of Motor Vehicles leads to a green card holders deportation.

Click here to watch the entire town hall.

Related:

State Refuses to Release the Number of Non Citizens on Voting Roll

Video: “Allowing Non Citizens to Vote is Ridiculous”

Congressman: “What’s Wrong With Allowing Illegal Aliens to Vote?”

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