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A now-retired Super Bowl-winning NFL running back went on a Twitter tirade on Saturday after openly gay 2014 draft pick Michael Sam kissed his boyfriend on television. Derrick Ward, 33, who was a member of the New York Giants Super Bowl XLII-winning team, didn't hide his disdain for ESPN's decision to air Sam's smooch with boyfriend Vito Cammisano after learning he would become a St. Louis Ram. 'Man U got little kids lookin at the draft,' Ward complained. 'I can't believe ESPN even allowed that to happen.'

... Murder rates have fallen sharply in most of the country. But St. Louis is one of a few major cities, including Memphis and Washington, where the number of homicides jumped last year. It is also one of several cities, including Baltimore, Detroit, Gary, Ind., and New Orleans, where violent crime, concentrated in low-income minority neighborhoods, has remained stubbornly high, though down from the crack-driven peaks of the early 1990s. The start of the new year was equally violent. On Jan. 15, shaken by six murders in five shootings overnight, the city’s mayor, Francis Slay, called for more police, more...

Federal lawsuits allege that jails in the St. Louis County towns of Ferguson and Jennings operate essentially as modern-day debtors’ prisons, where minor traffic offenses can lead to extended periods behind bars. Two lawsuits were filed Sunday on behalf of people who have spent time in jail for failure to pay fines for traffic violations and minor offenses. The suits representing 11 people jailed in Ferguson and nine in Jennings were filed by the nonprofit Equal Justice Under Law of Washington, the St. Louis nonprofit ArchCity Defenders, and Saint Louis University School of Law. …

An attempt to mend the relationship between citizens and police in St. Louis broke into a shouting and shoving match late Wednesday — between citizens and police. Council members considering a bill to establish a civilian oversight board over police work were holding a public meeting when Jeff Roorda, the business manager of the city’s police union, and a woman appeared to get into a confrontation, an online video shows. The room erupted into shouts and profanity, as people rose to their feet and crowded in on the two. The bill was sponsored by Alderman Antonio French, an active participant...

An 8-year-old St. Louis boy went to school and told an office worker he had been shot, after his mother exchanged gunfire with a man who tried to force his way into a home, police said Tuesday. Both mother and child were hospitalized in stable condition as police searched for a suspect in the shooting, the latest of several that have plagued St. Louis over the past 13 months. …

ST. LOUIS -- Toni DiPina has been trying to solve the mystery of her unknown family since she was abandoned as a baby. The reality is DiPina, at 51, still has no clue where she came from. She does not know why one or both of her parents abandoned her at 9 months on May 26, 1963, on a vacant lot in St. Louis. No one has ever come forward. Not then and not in 2008 when the Post-Dispatch first wrote extensively about her. For decades, the only details she had from a day she was too young to remember...

As Valentine’s Day approaches love birds in the St Louis region will be looking for fine chocolates to send their partners. But, if they are pro-life they may want to avoid Kakao Chocolates. According to posts placed on the Facebook page of Planned Parenthood of the St Louis Region, Kakao Chocolate created “Chocolates for Choice” to help fund abortion giant Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood’s December 2nd post reads, “Send a gift of Kakao chocolates to yourself or a loved one and proceeds will go to Planned Parenthood in St. Louis. Kakao packages are available in three sizes, and start with...

FULL TITLE: Doctors decided this baby’s life wasn’t worth saving. Now a Missouri legislator wants to make sure it never happens again. Imagine being in a hospital watching your recently born child gasp for air as his or her oxygen levels plummet. Imagine watching in horror as medical professionals stand by doing absolutely nothing, indicating to you through body language and inaction that your son or daughter is not worth saving. This is exactly what befell Sheryl and Scott Crosier, of St. Louis, Missouri, in December 2010 when they lost their three-month-old son Simon who had the chromosomal abnormality Trisomy...

St. Louis city officials said Wednesday that the owner of the Rams isn’t returning their calls, so they plan to work directly with the NFL on efforts to keep a team—any team—in St. Louis amid speculation the Rams are headed back to Los Angeles. Billionaire owner Stan Kroenke is part of a joint venture that announced plans Monday for an 80,000-seat stadium in the Los Angeles suburbs, a move that could soon return the NFL to the nation’s second-largest market and the home of the Rams from 1946 until they moved to St. Louis in 1995. The move would have...

The Hollywood Land Company, a joint venture between Stockbridge Capital Group and The Kroenke Group, plans to build a 80,000-seat stadium, a 6,000-seat performance venue, a 300-room hotel, 2,500 residential units, 1.7 million square feet of retail and office space and 25 acres of public parks, playgrounds and open space on the site. The development, named the “City of Champions Revitalization Project”, will be built at no cost to taxpayers.

The owner of the St. Louis Rams has announced intentions to build a massive new NFL stadium and entertainment complex in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood. Stan Kroenke revealed the grand plan to the LA Times on Monday. In addition to an 80,000-seat stadium, the billionaire and his partners are proposing an adjacent 6,000-seat performance venue. Los Angeles was home to the Rams from 1946 to 1994 and, as St. Louis scrambles to come up with a plan for a new stadium in order to retain the team, the City of Angels appears ever more likely to get a...

Referee Ed Hochuli referred to replay official Tom Sifferman by his nickname “Jungle Boy,” which was heard on the in-stadium microphone during the Cardinals-Panthers NFC wild-card game Saturday in Charlotte, N.C.

Scores of protesters at the helm of the ongoing nationwide movement against police violence stormed the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Wednesday, aiming to “evict” officers they accused of “perpetrating police brutality on our citizenry.” Five of the roughly 25 demonstrators who linked arms in the lobby of the police department were arrested in the headquarters, the St. Louis Police Department told Al Jazeera. Police pepper-sprayed and forced other protesters off the premises. The detainees — four women and one man — were charged with “trespassing and peace disturbance,” said Leah K. Freeman, the department's spokeswoman. The man was charged...

Ferguson protesters stormed the police headquarters in downtown St. Louis today. They were going to hold a sit-in protest for four-and-a-half hours until they were maced and cuffed. X 2 reported: Protesters stormed the doors of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department headquarters Wednesday morning. Their plan is to occupy the department for four and a half hours. About 15 protesters were in the lobby and refused to leave until their demands were met. They also handed police an ‘Eviction Notice.

The lawyer for the St. Louis-area cop who shot dead Antonio Martin on Tuesday night has suggested his client may have been set up and ambushed by Antonio Martin, who police say pulled a loaded 9mm pistol on the officer without warning. The Berkeley, Missouri, officer was responding to a 911 call about a possible theft from a Mobil gas station about 11.15pm on Tuesday. Brian Millikan, the lawyer for the unnamed 34-year-old Berkeley officer, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the cop may have been walking into a deadly trap set by Martin and his friend. 'Their behavior is...

Riot Police Protect St. Louis Cathedral from Protesters at Christmas Midnight Mass Posted by Kristinn Taylor on Thursday, December 25, 2014, 12:18 AM Churchgoers in St. Louis Wednesday night were not allowed to celebrate the birth of Jesus without the threat of disruption by supporters of the so-called Black Lives Matter campaign. Photos posted to Twitter show police in riot gear massed in force protecting a church identified as the Cathedral Basilica.

Warning: strong language The man, identified on social media as Antonio Martin, was shot by a police officer at a Mobil petrol station on North Hanley Road.

<p>BERKELEY, Mo. (AP) — A suburban St. Louis police officer shot and killed a man who pointed a gun at him at a gas station late Tuesday, police said.</p> <p>A crowd of about 100 people were gathered early Wednesday at the scene in Berkeley, Missouri, a few miles from Ferguson, where a white police officer fatally shot black 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.</p>

BERKELEY • A teenager was fatally shot late Tuesday at a Mobil gas station on North Hanley Road here. The victim was identified as Antonio Martin, 18, by his mother, Toni Martin. Toni Martin and others at the scene said Antonio was shot by a police officer. The body remained on the parking lot just in front of the Mobil gas station at 6800 North Hanley Road at about 1 a.m. Berkeley police cars were on either side.

Weeks after protests over the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown started to subside, police in another St. Louis suburb have reportedly shot and killed an 18-year-old black man at a gas station, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Information on the shooting is thin so far, but large crowds have already started to form at the scene of the Mobil gas station in Berkeley, Missouri where 18-year-old Antonio Martin was shot. Those on scene report seeing bricks thrown and pepper spray used. St. Louis County Police released a statement saying Martin was shot after he pulled a gun...