Will Bauer
Metro East ReporterWill Bauer is St. Louis Public Radio’s Metro East Reporter. Before moving to Belleville, Illinois, Bauer worked at Nebraska Public Media. At the state’s NPR and PBS member stations, he served as a general assignment reporter, covering politics, higher education, agriculture and other topics. He also produced the station’s talk show, Speaking of Nebraska.
The Minnesota native graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with degrees in journalism, broadcasting and sports communications in 2020. In college, he reported for the Omaha World-Herald’s breaking news and sports desks. In his spare time, Bauer enjoys playing golf and watching movies. You can reach him by email at wbauer@stlpr.org and follow him on Twitter at @Will_Bauer_.
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The leaders of both congressional agriculture committees say federal lawmakers will move back farm bill negotiations to December. The current law expires Saturday, but experts say there should be little peril despite the blown deadline. -
The demolition process will be complete by next summer. In the meantime, St. Louis Port Authority, which owns the 142-acre property, will start the process of figuring out how to redevelop the space.
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Illinois became the first state in the country to abolish cash bail on Monday, but the courts remained slow in the Metro East.
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State lawmakers passed and the governor signed the criminal justice reform back in 2021. Originally scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2023, lawsuits slowed the SAFE-T Act's enactment. The legislation includes the elimination of cash bail.
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Sauget is one of many French names St. Louisans may botch. The family the town is named after says it one way. Many area natives say it another. Does it matter?
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Originally scheduled to be ready this year, the $105 million project was pushed back to 2025 after the pandemic slowed its progress, according to SIU System President Dan Mahoney.
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The goal of the nonprofit Veterans Community Project of St. Louis is to help transition homeless veterans to permanent housing.
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Belleville’s mayor and city council tabbed Stephanie Mills last week to be the city’s new fire chief, the first woman to fill the position in the municipality's history.
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If not repaired, the aging bridge, the only connection to Choteau Island for vehicles, could be further shuttered to the dismay of farmers, utility providers and government agencies.
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Illinois quit collecting property taxes from disabled veterans in 2015, but that has cost Metro East school districts and other taxing bodies near Scott Air Force Base hundreds of thousands — or sometimes millions of dollars.
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The $20 million will support existing grocers and encourage new stores in underserved rural and urban areas — including Venice, the small Metro East town where the bill was signed and which sits entirely in a food desert.
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Growing interest rates, high crop prices and rising transportation costs are making it more expensive to store grain — a critical step for many farmers. Economists and grain merchandisers say the market conditions leave them and farmers in an awkward place.
![Rebecca Tallman, executive director for the Veterans Community Project of St. Louis, gives a tour of the community’s homes under construction on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2023, in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood. “It feels surreal right now,” Tallman, who is also an Air Force veteran, said roughly a month ahead of the community’s first veteran moving in. “We’ve come a long way in such a short time. [It’s] exciting knowing that we’re going to hep my fellow brothers and sisters in arms.”](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/8521ffe/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1671+0+113/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F9d%2Fe3%2Fb1f2fbc243ffa2e26becd13c1832%2F090623-bm-vet-homes-1.JPG)
