The County Council on Monday night appointed the Democrat to take over the post left vacant when Steve Stenger resigned Monday after being charged in federal court with directing county contracts to a campaign contributor.

It’s unclear how long Page, now the council’s chairman, will serve. He will have to give up a lucrative anesthesiology practice to take the post.

“County government has been dysfunctional for too long,“ Page said in brief remarks after he was selected to be the county executive. “The best interests of St. Louis County have taken the back seat to the personal desires of our past county executive, and our administration will do what is best for the taxpayers no matter what. Now we will move forward together. We can only change things in our county government if we work together, and that is exactly what we will do.”

Page was a reliable ally of Stenger’s when he was first elected in 2014, and remained a supporter when the dynamics of the council began to shift in 2017.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/page-picked-succeed-stenger-st-louis-county-executive

Small businesses are often surviving month to month, especially in their early years. They can’t afford to have a payment delayed, or go through a lengthy litigation process to collect on a contract. They are also often in a position where they are trying to build relationships with bigger clients.

Big corporations on the other hand often play fast and loose with timing of payments because they know that the small business generally cannot resort to legal recourse. Big companies also have in-house legal counsel, or lawyers on retainer, in case there is a dispute.

We should not be allowing big corporations to force small businesses to act as unofficial credit lines because of a difference in bargaining power. In some cases, it is literally the difference between staying in business and going out of business for the small shop.

We need to ensure that all businesses are playing fair so that our small business community can thrive.

https://www.yang2020.com/policies/payment-small-businesses/

Small businesses are often surviving month to month, especially in their early years. They can’t afford to have a payment delayed, or go through a lengthy litigation process to collect on a contract. They are also often in a position where they are trying to build relationships with bigger clients.

Big corporations on the other hand often play fast and loose with timing of payments because they know that the small business generally cannot resort to legal recourse. Big companies also have in-house legal counsel, or lawyers on retainer, in case there is a dispute.

We should not be allowing big corporations to force small businesses to act as unofficial credit lines because of a difference in bargaining power. In some cases, it is literally the difference between staying in business and going out of business for the small shop.

We need to ensure that all businesses are playing fair so that our small business community can thrive.

https://www.yang2020.com/policies/payment-small-businesses/

In a bizarre turn of events, it turns out that the St. Louis County Council in February repealed the part of the county code that deals with selecting a replacement for the county executive. And they never adopted language spelling out a new process.

That means the code is officially silent on the matter of how to replace Steve Stenger, who was indicted earlier today.

According to a source familiar with the council's actions, Stenger's absence at meetings earlier this year was making it difficult to fill vacancies as they occurred. So the council officially repealed the language outlining the replacement process on February 22. That leaves them with a code silent on how to replace the top executive now that he's been indicted.

(The online Municode library, which serves as a repository for county ordinances and codes, isn't updated in real time — which is why that version of the code is missing this latest update.)

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2019/04/29/stengers-replacement-shouldnt-be-picked-tonight-st-louis-county-code-says

CLAYTON • St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger, a target of a U.S. government investigation into political favors traded for campaign contributions, was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on charges of bribery, mail fraud and theft of honest services.

Stenger also resigned as county executive, according to his lawyer, Scott Rosenblum.

He could not immediately be reached for comment.

In a copy of the indictment unsealed on Monday, prosecutors said that from October 2014 to Dec. 31, 2018, “Stenger and various individuals and companies schemed to defraud and deprive the citizens of St. Louis County of their right to his honest and faithful services, and the honest and faithful services of the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership’s Chief Executive Officer, through bribery and the concealment of material information.”

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/st-louis-county-executive-steve-stenger-indicted-on-federal-charges/article_7224d3c7-9691-5a84-b8ec-1b35b0388c7c.html?

The recent circus surrounding Amazon’s HQ2 project should highlight how damaging the practice of allowing localities to ‘bid’ for investment from corporations can be to our country, and how important it is for us to find a solution to this problem.

You can’t blame the corporation for trying to save money, and you can’t blame the localities for trying to attract investment and new jobs. Because no one has an incentive to stop this practice, it continues unabated.

However, it amounts to up to $90b a year of tax breaks and cash grants. Since states and other localities can’t run a deficit or print money, these subsidies amount to money that could otherwise go to school, road repair, and other important functions. These incentives are meant to steal jobs and investment from other states, not from offshoring or to entice businesses to expand when they otherwise wouldn’t.

There’s also evidence that corporations start with an idea of where they want to move, and then use a public bidding war to get tax breaks from those locations. Considering Amazon’s business, DC and NY were likely locations for HQ2 even before they received 238 proposals from cities across the country

https://www.yang2020.com/policies/end-relocation-bidding/

The recent circus surrounding Amazon’s HQ2 project should highlight how damaging the practice of allowing localities to ‘bid’ for investment from corporations can be to our country, and how important it is for us to find a solution to this problem.

You can’t blame the corporation for trying to save money, and you can’t blame the localities for trying to attract investment and new jobs. Because no one has an incentive to stop this practice, it continues unabated.

However, it amounts to up to $90b a year of tax breaks and cash grants. Since states and other localities can’t run a deficit or print money, these subsidies amount to money that could otherwise go to school, road repair, and other important functions. These incentives are meant to steal jobs and investment from other states, not from offshoring or to entice businesses to expand when they otherwise wouldn’t.

There’s also evidence that corporations start with an idea of where they want to move, and then use a public bidding war to get tax breaks from those locations. Considering Amazon’s business, DC and NY were likely locations for HQ2 even before they received 238 proposals from cities across the country

https://www.yang2020.com/policies/end-relocation-bidding/

bodybuilder cop who ran an anonymous, protester-bashing Twitter account during Ferguson is now in danger of losing his peace officer's license for stalking and harassing his wife.

In a text message, Mike Weston threatened to kill his now-former spouse if she left him and took their child, the state Department of Public Safety says.

The 32-year-old was most recently a sergeant with the North County Police Cooperative, a force that patrols several small cities. He was suspended within days of the October 2017 incident and later fired for allegedly violating rules of the suspension.

Weston has since sued Vinita Park — his employer at the police co-op — for wrongful termination. He admits in the suit to threatening to kill his wife in a text but claims the real reason for his firing was a disability — Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from serving overseas as a Marine. (Weston and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment.)


https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2019/04/29/cop-who-trolled-ferguson-protesters-could-lose-license-after-threatening-wife?utm_source=feature&utm_medium=home&utm_campaign=hpfeatures&utm_content=HomeTopFeature

PRESERVATION OF PUBLIC LANDS AND WATER

America is a breathtakingly beautiful country. From the Rockies to the Appalachian Trail, from the Grand Canyon to Acadia, its majesty is all around. If you’ve never had your breath taken away by America’s natural beauty, you haven’t been looking very hard.

America has led the world in the preservation of natural spaces for all of its people to experience and has long been the envy of the world in this regard. Every American holds equal ownership of these places and has a fundamental right to enjoy them. These natural resources should be left in a pristine condition for our children and children’s children to enjoy. Visits to and memories of our natural monuments should tie generations together.

Additionally, our waterways are an integral part of our ecosystem, and they’re interconnected in a way that makes it difficult to protect one without protecting all of them. These waterways are necessary for farming and drinking water, and damaging them harms us all.

https://www.yang2020.com/policies/public-land-preservation/

PRESERVATION OF PUBLIC LANDS AND WATER

America is a breathtakingly beautiful country. From the Rockies to the Appalachian Trail, from the Grand Canyon to Acadia, its majesty is all around. If you’ve never had your breath taken away by America’s natural beauty, you haven’t been looking very hard.

America has led the world in the preservation of natural spaces for all of its people to experience and has long been the envy of the world in this regard. Every American holds equal ownership of these places and has a fundamental right to enjoy them. These natural resources should be left in a pristine condition for our children and children’s children to enjoy. Visits to and memories of our natural monuments should tie generations together.

Additionally, our waterways are an integral part of our ecosystem, and they’re interconnected in a way that makes it difficult to protect one without protecting all of them. These waterways are necessary for farming and drinking water, and damaging them harms us all.

https://www.yang2020.com/policies/public-land-preservation/