Northwest Crossings lease deal

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Sunday • 02.04.2018 • $4.00 • FINAL EDITION

KIRKWOOD CITY HALL SHOOTING • 10 YEARS LATER

SIGNS OF CHANGE 10 years after tragedy, community reflects on sorrow, growth

Higher costs for county offices fall to taxpayers Deal with Steve Stenger contributors sparks plan for council hearings

BY JEREMY KOHLER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. ANN • Consolidating several St.

Louis County offices at the former Northwest Plaza was supposed to save county taxpayers $10 million.

At least, that was the justification in June 2016, when a letter from County Executive Steve Stenger’s interim chief of operations asked the County Council to approve the unprecedented real estate deal — a two-decade commitment to rent more than 150,000 square feet at the renovated mall in St. Ann, now known as the Crossings at Northwest.

The deal came without any competition and emerged from closed discussions between the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership and the owners of the complex, brothers Robert and P. David Glarner, who have made $365,000 in contributions to Stenger’s political campaign — an unparalleled sum in county politics and more than a tenth of what he’s raised altogether.

PHOTOS BY ROBERT COHEN • rcohen@post-dispatch.com

Mallory and Matthew Abate, who recently moved to Kirkwood from Arkansas with their dog Peanut, have coffee as night falls on Kirkwood City Hall last month. Ten years ago, on Feb. 7, 2008, Charles “Cookie” Thornton stormed into a City Council meeting, killing five people before being shot dead by two Kirkwood police officers. Mayor Mike Swoboda died months later from his injuries.

BY CHRISTINE BYERS • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A

KIRKWOOD

notice taped to the front door of City Hall warns visitors that no signs are allowed inside.

It appeared not long after Charles “Cookie” Thornton showed up at a City Council meeting, wearing a sandwich sign. He hid two guns underneath it. With those weapons, Thornton, a Kirkwood resident with long-standing grievances against city officials, unleashed 72 seconds of hell, killing six people and wounding a reporter. Casualties included two council members, the public works director, two police officers, and the mayor, who died seven months later.

Thornton’s rampage, which ended when two Kirkwood officers responding to the scene shot him, had a wrenching effect on the residents of this tranquil, relatively prosperous community.

For many, it exposed a racial divide in the predominantly white city of about 27,000.

About 1,000 of those residents live in a 10-block, mostly black neighborhood known as Meacham Park — a place Thornton called home.

The Feb. 7, 2008, shooting forced people in Kirkwood to address some difficult truths. In the decade since, there have been signs of change — if you know where to look.

These signs reflect a city determined to move forward. And they highlight places where progress is still needed.

Many of them are unwritten, reflected instead by the residents who have since felt called to civic duty.

In the strength of the survivors who continue to serve in the same chambers where colleagues died.

In the reignited sense of activism among others.

In the resolve of the first responders.

And in the resilience of the widowed.

The Post-Dispatch interviewed a few of the people directly and indirectly affected by the tragedy about how they and their community have changed in its aftermath, and the change they hope is still to come.

See COUNTY • Page A7

Missouri GOP convention holds a smile through scandals, discord

BY KEVIN McDERMOTT St. Louis Post-Dispatch

KANSAS CITY • Missouri’s top elected

Republicans gathered here this weekend for their annual show of party unity, gamely smiling through in-party fissures that have divided the state GOP recently.

Amid various events at the party’s “Lincoln Days” convention, organizers and officials boisterously cheered Gov. Eric Greitens — who not long ago faced calls for his resignation from some fellow Republicans after admitting a past extramarital affair while denying allegations he threatened to blackmail the woman.

Also in attendance at the sprawling Westin Kansas City Hotel was state

See GOP • Page A11

Four friends play pickup basketball last month at Meacham Memorial Park in Kirkwood. In the years since the City Hall shooting, the park was renovated, and police officers have held lunches there to bond with residents. The basketball players are Zae Walker (left), Michael Bernickus (under hoop) and Jeremiah Roth (right). The fourth man declined to be named.

Mizzou tops Kentucky SPORTS • B1

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WEATHER B13 Reflection and remembrance

Forgotten ‘Beverly Hillbillies’ book published • C1 Spice up your spring training travel plans • H6

See KIRKWOOD • Page A4

> ONLINE A look back at the tragedy and the healing that followed in Kirkwood. postdispat.ch/Kirkwood10

Diaper Bank meets serious need for area families • A2

TODAY

A portrait of former Kirkwood Mayor Mike Swoboda hangs in Kirkwood City Hall during a council meeting Thursday as a plainclothes police officer watches from the rear of the room.

Swoboda was the mayor of Kirkwood when Charles “Cookie” Thornton shot seven people during a meeting 10 years ago.

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The move to the Crossings would allow the county to shut down offices with expiring leases or with structural or safety problems, saving up to $10 million over the 20-year lease, Glenn Powers, then Stenger’s interim chief of operations, told the council.

But a Post-Dispatch analysis of the county’s real estate contracts, obtained by the newspaper through public record requests, reveals that the lease does not save money and has the potential to cost millions.

Stenger’s staff could provide no evidence that before agreeing to the Crossings lease, the county conducted a side-by-side analysis of other options, from renovating current offices to renting other locations or building a new office.

Previous public estimates valued the deal at around $50 million, but the newspaper’s analysis shows that taxpayers will pay at least $69 million, and possibly more.

T h e Pos t - D i s pa tc h found: • The deal cost taxpayers from day one. The county is paying more for the Crossings than it was paying for offices it replaced.

And expenses will go up nearly 4 percent per year for nine years, then 3 percent for five years.

• Taxpayers are still paying for county offices long vacated. The county moved out of some buildings months or years before their leases terminated and will eat $3 million in rent for empty space in Maplewood, Hazelwood and Northwoods.

• County taxpayers paid the Crossings owners more than $300,000 extra last year to cover its share of the property taxes at the mall, even though the owners’ taxes are already refunded via tax-increment financing.

• The lease offers virtually no opportunity for the county to back out.

Stenger has repeatedly denied that the Glarners’ gifts to his campaign influenced the deal, and said the “Post-Dispatch narrative

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LEFT • The Crossings at Northwest, formerly known as Northwest Plaza, as seen in 2016 in St. Ann. DAVID CARSON • dcarson@post-dispatch.com

concerning my campaign contributions is misleading and tiresome.” And, his campaign staff noted, the Glarners have also given to council members, albeit in much smaller amounts.

But the combination of a massive real estate deal — and seemingly reciprocal campaign contributions — has cast a long shadow over his reputation as the gifts pile up.

“People will wonder if the offices were located there because of the contributions or on their merits,” said David Kimball, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “I think given the size of the contributions, it’s fair to wonder that.”

Retired political scientist Lana Stein said the practice of donating to campaigns is part of a political climate in which “you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours,” and said the practice casts a shadow over nearly every elected official.

“It’s a kind of corruption, but that doesn’t mean that everyone that takes part is personally corrupt,” she said.

T h e G l a r n e rs sa i d through a lawyer that they have given to Stenger “because they believe he is an effective leader for the region.” They said donations were not tied to the Crossings lease.

The St. Louis County Council voted 6-1 in July 2016 to approve the deal.

That night, Hazel Erby, a Democrat who represents the 1st District, criticized the lack of transparency that led to the deal, but

said after touring the new office space she “fell in love with it” and didn’t feel her concern about the process “should penalize the boost that this will bring to the economy in … North County.”

Councilman Sam Page, a Democrat who represents the 2nd District, remarked that the county was getting a “better space” for “a great value.”

The lone dissent was from 7th District Councilman Mark Harder, a real estate broker who said he doubted the claim of $10 million in savings. He said he would have felt better if Stenger returned the Glarners’ contributions.

Several county government departments moved into the office last year, including the Board of Elections, the Division of Workforce Development, and a satellite office of the county assessor. The new site is popular with county employees who work there.

The site is safe, attractive and high-tech, with plenty of parking and elbow room. And it adds life to a blighted former shopping center the Glarners rejuvenated with tens of millions of public subsidies.

Stenger said the consolidation “is beneficial for taxpayers and county employees” and said he was proud of the benefits the community is seeing from the economic revitalization of St. Ann. His staff pointed to flaws at other locations, from unsafe parking lots to mold.

At $12.98 per square foot, with annual increases and the added burden of insurance, maintenance

and taxes, the county did not get a remarkable bargain for office space in north St. Louis County.

A massive office space is available for lease nearby in Bridgeton for about $9 per square foot. And the Glarners have listed another large office space in the Crossings for $10 per square foot, with a term of just five years. The county said the Glarners did $10 million in work to customize the space for county offices, but had no receipts.

Since the council approved the lease, its relationship with Stenger has soured. Now council members say they voted without all the information about how much the deal really cost — part of a pattern in a Stenger administration that reveals information selectively.

The council is planning a series of hearings starting this month.

“This is an onerous lease,” said Ernie Trakas, a Republican who represents the 6th District. “Why would the county enter into an onerous lease?

There are a lot of questions that we have. These will be ongoing and comprehensive hearings — it’s not going to be fluff. We’re going to try to bring before the committee every relevant individual to help us understand how the process went from beginning to end.”

Page said the moribund former Northwest Plaza had been a “source of great anxiety” for the county and St. Ann. “They really didn’t have a good plan to bring it back, and we were all pretty motivated to try

and find a solution, and this seemed like it was a good one,” he said.

“But I made it clear to everyone on the county executive’s staff that this had to be a good deal for the county. It had to save us money, and if it didn’t save us money we shouldn’t do it. They insisted that it did and we gave them the benefit of the doubt.”

DOOLEY’S ROLE In a meeting with a reporter, Stenger’s advisers insisted the effort to move county offices into the former Northwest Plaza started before his election, providing the newspaper with articles and clips showing that former County Executive Charlie Dooley had strongly supported public subsidies for revitalizing the mall with a mix of uses, including government.

Dooley said Friday he never made commitments to move county offices there. “Talk — that’s all it was,” he said. Moving whole departments such as Workforce Development and the Board of Elections was “never in the conversation.”

He harshly criticized the length of the deal. “That makes no sense,” he said.

“They paid for nothing.”

It’s not clear to what extent the Stenger administration compared the Crossings deal to other options.

T h e Pos t - D i s pa tc h asked a Stenger aide on Jan. 25 for copies of any cost analysis that was done prior to agreeing to a 20year lease, or for any documentation to support the claim that up to $10 million could be saved. A one-page spreadsheet was provided.

Stenger aides provided a new analysis last week that suggested the Crossings lease would save $8.5 million over 20 years. And, they said a more secure building would save more than $2 million in security over that time.

But the newspaper pointed out an omission on the staff’s analysis. While the cost of the old spaces factored in all expenses, the cost of the Crossing lease omitted a big one: taxes.

A TAX ERROR The county paid $306,000 to the Glarners for its share of the 2017 property tax bill, a proportional share of the $1.3 million the Cross-

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ings owners paid in property taxes.

That’s likely to be the smallest bill the county will ever pay; it still could end up owing taxes for last year.

The Post-Dispatch discovered in tax records that the county assessor’s office mistakenly appraised a large portion of the complex — that is currently finished and occupied — at only 3 percent of its taxable value.

Crystal Ulett, the deputy assessor, said her staff had also caught the error and was working on it. It was not clear if the 2017 tax bill would be amended.

“We are not able to say for certain what the increase of the entire property will be at this time because all of our numbers for that are still being worked,” Ulett said.

But the tax bill will make a huge difference in how much taxpayers have to pay for the mall. Even if there were no change, and the county paid $306,000 each year for the next 19 years, the lease would cost $66 million. With the $3 million the county is committed to paying for vacated space, that total is $69 million.

That’s the exact same amount — $69 million — that Stenger’s staff projected would have been spent on the county’s former leases, with annual increases of 4 percent, if it had not moved offices to the Crossings.

But if the county’s tax bill this year went to $500,000, and increased at the same 4 percent used in the county’s model, the taxpayers’ burden would swell to $77 million by the end of 2027.

Of course, the Crossings could be a better deal than moves county officials might have made later on to upgrade offices.

Stenger said in a statement that as a CPA, “of course” he knew improvements to the Crossings would result in increased taxes for the county.

“But those taxes benefit the County, school districts and other public entities, which in turn increases home values for a result that far outweighs incremental increases in our payments as a tenant,” he said.

Jeremy Kohler • 314-340-8337 @jeremykohler on Twitter jkohler@post-dispatch.com

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TUESDAY • 02.13.2018 • $2.00

WHITE HOUSE’S $4.4 TRILLION BUDGET PROPOSAL

MILITARY TRUMPS DEFICIT

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW

BY ANDREW TAYLOR AND MARTIN CRUTSINGER Associated Press

Dead on arrival? • This budget may be more irrelevant than usual because it doesn’t take into account a recent hike in spending limits for defense and domestic programs.

Red ink • The budget showed a dramatic increase in deficits over the 10-year budget window.

Medicare slashed • The budget calls for about $500 billion in cuts from projected Medicare spending over the next decade.

Infrastructure work • Trump wants to use $200 billion over the next decade to support $1.5 trillion in new spending to rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

Privatized space station • The budget proposes pulling NASA out of the International Space Station by 2025 with private businesses running the space station instead.

WASHINGTON • President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget plan Monday that envisions steep cuts to America’s social safety net but mounting spending on the military, formally retreating from last year’s promises to balance the federal budget.

The president’s spending outline for the first time acknowledges that the Republican tax overhaul passed last year would add billions to the deficit and not “pay for itself” as Trump and his Republican allies asserted. If enacted as proposed, though no presidential budget ever is, the plan would establish an era of $1 trillion-plus yearly deficits.

See BUDGET • Page A4

WITH A SPRING IN THEIR STEP

Report says top opioid makers paid anti-pain advocates $9 million at play in McCaskill’s findings

BY CHUCK RAASCH St. Louis Post-Dispatch

DAVID CARSON • dcarson@post-dispatch.com

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright throws off the mound Monday at the Cardinals spring training complex in Jupiter, Fla. Pitchers and catchers officially report Tuesday. The remainder of the squad is scheduled to check in on Sunday, with full workouts set to begin next Monday. FULL COVERAGE IN SPORTS

Trump hedges on extensive plan to rebuild roads, bridges

BY KEN THOMAS Associated Press

WA S H I N GTO N • President Donald Trump sent Congress a sweeping plan Monday to rebuild the nation’s depleted roads and bridges — then immediately raised doubts about how committed he was to delivering on that campaign promise.

“If you want it badly, you’re going to get it,” Trump told state and local officials during a meeting at the White House. “And if you don’t want it, that’s OK with me, too.”

Trump suggested that his proposal — aimed at spurring $1.5 trillion in spending over a decade — was not as important to him as other recent administration efforts to cut taxes and boost military spending.

See ROADS • Page A5

TODAY

‘Village’ provides socialization, volunteers for older St. Louisans

BY JEREMY KOHLER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. ANN • In the days just before

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J.B. FORBES • jforbes@post-dispatch.com

in development. Five years ago, Gordon helped start what would become known as STL Village, a nonprofit that shares the model of similar networks across the country. It is funded by annual memberships and fun-

Clemens mansion is salvaged

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draisers, and those who join determine what the priorities of the village should be.

With older people “swimming in an ocean of ageism,” villages are crucial in helping

a top official in St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger’s office told the County Council that a long-term lease for county office space at the former Northwest Plaza shopping mall would save taxpayers $10 million, a much different conversation was happening among county officials reviewing the lease.

“The bottom line is that any claim that this is a cost-savings measure for the County would appear to be quite inaccurate,” Ted Medler, the county’s division manager for planning and programming, wrote on June 1, 2016, to Nichalos Gardner, who was then the county transportation director.

Gloria Gordon, 94, one of the original members of STL Village, talks to the group last month during a “Souper Sunday” gathering at Executive House in the Central West End.

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Emails counter Stenger’s claim of money saved on office lease

BY DOUG MOORE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • A few months ago, Gloria Gordon decided it was time to give up driving.

For many older adults, parking the car for the final time symbolizes letting go of independence. But Gordon, 94, doesn’t see it that way.

She is part of a network of people who help each other, whether it be with a ride to the doctor or assistance setting up a computer. The group, now entering its fifth year, is called a village. Not a brick-and-mortar community but one that links those 50 and older to one another to remain independent, socially engaged and educated on issues such as health care and scams targeting the elderly.

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Trump Jr.’s wife opens powder-filled letter

BY JAKE PEARSON Associated Press

NEW YORK • Donald Trump Jr.’s wife

was taken to a New York City hospital on Monday as a precaution after she opened an envelope addressed to her husband that contained an unidentified white powder, though police later said the substance wasn’t dangerous.

The episode happened after 10 a.m. when Vanessa Trump, 40, opened the letter at her mother’s midtown Manhattan apartment, investigators said. She called 911 and said she was coughing and

felt nauseated, police said.

The powder turned out to be cornstarch, according to a report in the New York Times.

“Thankful that Vanessa & my children are safe and unharmed after the incredibly scary situation that occurred this morning,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter. “Truly disgusting that certain individuals choose to express their opposing views with such disturbing behavior.”

The New York Fire Department said it treated three patients who were taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Trump releases infrastructure proposal ROADS • FROM A1

“If for any reason, they don’t want to support to it, hey, that’s going to be up to them,” Trump said of the Republicancontrolled Congress. “What was very important to me was the military, what was very important to me was the tax cuts, and what was very important to me was regulation.”

Speaking of infrastructure, Trump added: “This is of great importance, but it’s not nearly in that category. Because the states will have to do it themselves if we don’t do it. But I would like to help the states out.”

The plan is centered on using $200 billion in federal money to leverage more than $1 trillion in local and state tax dollars to fix America’s infrastructure, such as roads, highways, ports and airports.

The administration released a 55-page “legislative outline” for lawmakers who will write the legislation.

With the plan heavily dependent on state and local dollars, Democrats warned it would raise tolls on commuters, sell off government-owned infrastructure to Wall Street and eliminate critical environmental protections.

The proposal lists Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International Airport as examples of assets that could be sold. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., warned that the proposal included studying whether the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility, should sell its transmission assets. He called it “a looney idea” with “zero chance of becoming law.”

“After a full year of empty boasts, the president has finally unveiled a puny infrastructure scam that fully fails to meet the need in America’s communities,” said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

Convening a roomful of state and local leaders, Trump listened as governors and mayors pitched individual projects in their states and described the challenges involved with gaining federal permits.

“It seems to me that the pyramids in Egypt were built faster than some of the projects that we’re contemplating,” said Esteban Bovo, chairman of the MiamiDade County Commission in Florida.

Trump vowed repeatedly that the federal permitting process would be streamlined but said it would be up to state and local leaders to ensure that local permits don’t hold up worthy projects.

“Washington will no longer be a roadblock to progress. Washington will now be your partner,” Trump said.

During the meeting, the former real estate developer reveled in his past life as a builder, pointing to his 1980s completion of a troubled renovation of Wollman Rink in New York City’s Central Park.

When a local official from Pennsylvania noted plans to add connections for an interstate highway — estimated to cost more than $500 million — Trump was blunt. “Get the price down a little bit,” he said to laughter.

“To me this is a very, very sexy subject,” Trump said. “The media doesn’t find it sexy. I find it sexy because I was always a builder, I always knew how to build on time, on budget.”

The proposal features two key components: an injection of funding for new investments and to speed up repairs of crumbling roads and airports, as well as a streamlined permitting process that would reduce the wait time to get projects under way. Officials said the $200 billion in federal support would come from cuts to existing programs.

Half the money would go to grants for transportation, water, flood control, cleanup at some of the country’s most polluted sites and other projects.

States, local governments and other project sponsors could use the grants — which administration officials cast as incentives — to cover no more than 20 percent of the costs.

Transit agencies generally count on the federal government for half the cost of major construction projects, and federal dollars can make up as much as 80 percent of some highway projects.

Officials alarmed at expense, emails show EMAILS • FROM A1

Several internal emails reviewed by the Post-Dispatch show that despite the assurance of Stenger’s advisers that the deal made financial sense, officials in several county departments were alarmed about the expense and the length of the lease. And they were concerned about an unusual negotiation for a two-decade commitment to rent more than 150,000 square feet at the renovated mall in St. Ann, now known as the Crossings at Northwest.

The deal will cost taxpayers at least $69 million, and could run as high as $77 million, according to the newspaper’s analysis of the county’s real estate contracts. The owners of the Crossings, Robert and P. David Glarner, are friends of Stenger who have donated $365,000 to his campaign, an amount that is unparalleled in county politics. The Glarners and Stenger have repeatedly denied any quid pro quo; Stenger has called the question tiresome.

The newspaper revealed on Feb. 5 that the deal does not save money – and has the potential to cost millions. Days before the newspaper’s story, Stenger’s advisers insisted the deal saved money.

But the newspaper pointed out their figures did not include millions of dollars the county will pay for property taxes at the Crossings and to rent empty space at buildings across the county that were vacated months or years before their leases ended.

In a statement emailed to the newspaper on Monday, Stenger said he was “not personally enriched by a campaign contribution and would never allow one to influence my decisions on behalf of St. Louis County.” He said the officials involved in the conversations about the Crossings lease in 2016 “based their estimates on incomplete information.”

And he stuck with the claim that the county was saving money.

He said there were “numerous County staff members who wholeheartedly endorse and approve of this move” and that feedback on the Crossings from residents and employees “has already been overwhelmingly positive. They tell us that the facility is a nicer, safer and far more convenient setting to visit and to work in.”

The County Council voted 6-1 in July 2016 to approve the Crossings lease, but now the council has scheduled hearings before its ethics committee to review the deal. The first is scheduled for 4 p.m.

Tuesday. Emails reviewed by the newspaper were obtained by the ethics com-

mittee chair, Councilman Ernie Trakas, in response to requests he sent to several employees in the county’s public works, some of whom are expected to testify.

“I think we obviously found documents that show that the department of public works and transportation employees as well as county counselor’s office did not see the Crossings lease as the great deal it’s been portrayed as,” Trakas said Monday. He said those officials were “customarily and routinely involved in developing lease agreements for space the county rents.”

The emails seem to run counter to Stenger’s Northwest Plaza narrative, suggesting that his administration acted against the advice of career county government employees who would normally be involved in approving real estate deals.

Under terms of the lease, the mall’s owners have “absolutely no risk,” Gardner wrote on March 2, 2016, to Medler, Stephanie Leon Streeter, deputy director of the county’s departments of transportation and public works, and Bob Grant, the deputy county counselor. “I can only imagine that looking closer at this, we are probably selling our soul to the DEVIL on this one.”

Gardner, who left in April to accept a job with the mass transit system in Washington, could not be reached for comment. Medler and Streeter, who still work for the county, also could not be reached.

Medler wrote that Anthony Badino, a top Stenger adviser who had managed the county executive’s 2014 campaign, had unilaterally negotiated the lease with the Glarners. “He negotiated it alone and then dumped it on legal,” Medler wrote.

Badino could not be reached for comment.

In a meeting with a reporter this month, Stenger’s staff could provide no evidence that before agreeing to the Crossings lease, the county conducted a side-by-side analysis of other options, from renovating current offices to renting other locations or building a new office.

But the emails unearthed by Trakas showed the county did have an analysis in 2015 comparing the cost of building new office space to renting space either at the Crossings or at another site.

“On the spreadsheet, in each case, purchasing space is more economical than leasing space,” Streeter wrote in July 2015. “Please help me understand.”

Jeremy Kohler • 314-340-8337 @jeremykohler on Twitter jkohler@post-dispatch.com

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And others call it“a miracle!”

The name of the product is the AloeCure. It’s not a drug. It’s something completely different. And the product is available to anyone who wants it, at a reasonable price. But demands may force future prices to rise.

TOP DOC WARNS: DIGESTION DRUGS CAN CRIPPLE YOU! Company spokesperson, Dr. Liza Leal; a leading integrative health specialist out of Texas recommends Aloecure before she decides to prescribe any digestion drug. Especially after the FDA’s stern warning about long-term use of drugs classified as proton pump inhibitors like Prilosec®, Nexium®, and Prevacid®.

In a nutshell, the FDA statement warned people should avoid taking these digestion drugs for longer than three 14-day treatment periods because there is an increased risk of bone fractures. Many people take them daily and for decades.

Dr. Leal should know.

Many patients come to her with bone and joint complaints and she does everything she can to help them. One way for digestion sufferers to help avoid possible risk of tragic joint and bone problems caused by overuse of digestion drugs is to take the AloeCure.

Analysts expect the AloeCure to put a huge crimp in “Big Pharma” profits.

The secret to AloeCure’s “health adjusting” formula is scientifically tested Acemannan, a polysaccharide extracted from Aloe Vera. But not the same aloe vera that mom used to apply to your cuts, scrapes and burns. This is a perfect strain of aloe that is organically grown in special Asian soil; under very strict conditions.

AloeCure is so powerful it begins to benefit your health the instant you take it. It soothes intestinal discomfort and you can avoid the possibility of bone and health damage caused by overuse of digestion drugs. We all know how well aloe works externally on cuts, scrapes and burns. But did you know Acemannan has many of other health benefits?...

HELPS THE IMMUNE SYSTEM TO CALM INFLAMMATION According to a leading aloe research, when correctly processed for digesting, the Aloe plant

has a powerful component for regulating your immune system called Acemannan. So whether it’s damage that is physical, bacterial, chemical or autoimmune; the natural plant helps the body stay healthy.

RAPID ACID AND HEARTBURN NEUTRALIZER Aloe has proved to have an astonishing effect on users who suffer with digestion problems like bouts of acid reflux, heartburn, cramping, gas and constipation because it acts as a natural acid buffer and soothes the digestive system. But new studies prove it does a whole lot more.

SIDESTEP HEART CONCERNS So you’ve been taking proton pump inhibitors (PPI’s) for years and you feel just fine. In June of 2015 a major study shows that chronic PPI use increases the risk of heart attack in general population.

UNLEASH YOUR MEMORY Think about it. If you kept dumping fat and grease down your drain; how long do you think it would take to clog it up?

The answer is, not very long at all. And that’s exactly what happens to your brain every time you eat processed, fried or fatty foods. Studies show that your brain needs the healthy bacteria from your gut in order function at its best. Both low and high dosages of digestion drugs are proven to destroy that healthy bacteria and get in the way of brain function. So you’re left with a sluggish, slow-toreact brain without a lot of room to store information.

The acemannan used in AloeCure actually makes your gut healthier, so healthy bacteria flows freely to your brain so you think better, faster and with a larger capacity for memory.

Doctors call it “The greatest health discovery in decades!”

SLEEP LIKE A BABY A night without sleep really damages your body. And continued lost sleep can lead to all sorts of health problems. But what you may not realize is the reason why you’re not sleeping. Some call it “Ghost Reflux”. A low-intensity form of acid reflux discomfort that quietly keeps you awake in the background. AloeCure helps digestion so you may find yourself sleeping through the night.

CELEBRITY HAIR, SKIN & NAILS One of the Best-Kept Secrets in Hollywood.

Certain antacids may greatly reduce your body’s ability to break down and absorb calcium. Aloe delivers calcium as it aids in balancing your stomach acidity. The result?

Thicker, healthier looking hair…more youthful looking skin… And nails so strong they may never break again.

SAVE YOUR KIDNEY National and local news outlets are reporting Kidney Failure linked to PPI’s. Your Kidney extracts waste from blood, balance body fluids, form urine, and aid in other important functions of the body. Without it your body would be overrun by deadly toxins.

Aloe helps your kidney function properly. Studies suggest, if you started taking aloe today; you’d see a big difference in the way you feel.

GUARANTEED RESULTS OR DOUBLE YOUR MONEY BACK Due to the incredible results people are reporting, AloeCure is being sold with an equally incredible guarantee.

“We can only offer this incredible guarantee because we are 100% certain this product will work for those who use it,” Says Dr. Leal.

Here’s how it works: Take the pill exactly as directed.

You must see and feel remarkable improvements in your digestive health, your mental health, in your physical appearance, the amount inflammation you have throughout your body – even in your ability to fall asleep at night!

Otherwise, simply return the empty bottles with a short note about how you took the pills and followed the simple instructions and the company will send you...

Double your money back!

HOW TO GET ALOECURE This is the official nationwide release of the new AloeCure pill in the United States. And so, the company is offering our readers up to 3 FREE bottles with their order.

This special give-away is available for the next 48-hours only. All you have to do is call TOLLFREE 1-800-540-8761 and provide the operator with the Free Bottle Approval Code: Q147. The company will do the rest.

Important: Due to AloeCure’s recent media exposure, phone lines are often busy. If you call and do not immediately get through, please be patient and call back.

Those who miss the 48 hour deadline may lose out on this free bottle offer.

THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE. INDIVIDUAL RESULTS MAY VARY ALOECURE IS NOT A DRUG. IF YOU ARE CURRENLTY TAKING A PRESCRIPTION DRUG YOU SHOULD CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE USE. FOR THE FULL FDA PUBLISHED WARNING ON PROTON PUMP INHIBITORS PLEASE VISIT HTTP://WWW.FDA.GOV/DOWNLOADS/FORCONSUMERS/CONSUMERUPDATES/UCM213307 *compensated for opinion

STAR POWER SHINES IN SEC > Breakout players, colorful coaching personalities and plot twists abound at the Southeastern Conference Tournament. • TWO-PAGE PREVIEW IN SPORTS

ROBERT COHEN • rcohen@post-dispatch.com

Wednesday • 03.07.2018 • $2.00

A THAW IN KOREA

Council says it was duped on lease costs

North Korea vows to pause missile tests, hold ‘candid talks’ U.S. skeptical but welcomes opening for renewed dialogue NORTH, SOUTH LEADERS MEET North Korea “made it clear” that it would not resume nuclear tests or missile launches during talks with the South, U.S. The meeting in Pyongyang followed a visit to the Olympics in South Korea by Kim Jong Un’s sister.

TRUMP, PENCE MAINTAIN TOUGH STANCE President Donald Trump credited progress to U.S. sanctions, saying, “Hopefully it will lead to a very positive result.” Vice President Mike Pence said U.S. and allies would keep “maximum pressure” on the North.

NEW MATH

St. Louis County may pay $20 million to $30 million more than presented INTERNAL EMAILS

County employees raised concern over unusual rental negotiations

BY JEREMY KOHLER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Hopefully it’s positive; hopefully it will lead to a very positive result,” he said.

Word of North Korea’s willingness to hold talks came from South Korean officials, returning from what they described as productive meetings in the North, during which Pyongyang said it was prepared to discuss denuclearization and

CLAYTON • An adviser to St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger who urged the County Council in 2016 to support a 20-year commitment to rent office space at the former Northwest Plaza shopping mall because it would save $10 million testified on Tuesday that he had never actually read the lease.

And officials in Stenger’s administration were scrambling to prepare for millions of dollars in increased costs associated with the project almost im- Stenger mediately after the council ratified the deal in July 2016.

Those were two disclosures in a tense, two-hour hearing on Tuesday, at which council members revisited claims made by Stenger administration officials two years ago that the unprecedented lease was a good deal for taxpayers. Council members now say they were misled into backing the deal.

See KOREA • Page A10

See COUNTY • Page A7

PHOTO FROM NORTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) meets with South Korean National Security Director Chung Eui-yong in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Monday.

A HISTORY OF FAILURE Past attempts to disarm North Korea. A10

BY ANNA FIFIELD, PHILIP RUCKER AND KAREN DEYOUNG Washington Post

TOKYO • The White House responded

with cautious optimism Tuesday to North Korea’s reported proposal to hold “candid talks” with the United States and South Korea, and to put its nuclear weapons and missile testing programs on hold

while engaged in dialogue.

“I think they are sincere,” said President Donald Trump, who attributed the apparent change in attitude to the tough sanctions and other actions that the United States has applied and pushed others to impose on North Korea.

Officer’s wave at stunt biker troubles officials

BY KIM BELL St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • The latest homemade video of a daring stunt motorcyclist is making the rounds on social media — and St. Louis police are featured in an unlikely role. Stunt riders long have boasted that St. Louis is a haven for them. Some say St. Louis police are so preoccupied with violent crime that they don’t crack down on the bikers’ antics.

The latest video, posted several places online over the weekend, See STUNT • Page A6

TODAY

Hoop dreams

30°/40°

ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Donald Trump, shown Tuesday in the White House, said he believes North Korean officials are sincere in their call to hold talks with the U.S. and South Korea.

CARELESS, IMPRUDENT DRIVING “Every person operating a motor vehicle on the roads and highways of this state shall drive the vehicle in a careful and prudent manner ...”

Missouri, revised statutes 304.012

Missouri exporters fret over tariffs, trade war ‌

Midwest ERs slammed with opioid overdoses

BY CHUCK RAASCH St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY BLYTHE BERNHARD St. Louis Post-Dispatch

WASHINGTON • “This thing is scary,” said Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst.

“This thing” is President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States would impose steep tariffs on imported aluminum and steel. It’s a move Trump says is necessary to challenge arrangements he says lead to huge trade deficits for the U.S. His move has been applauded

Emergency room visits for opioid overdoses spiked in 2017, particularly in the Midwest, according to a new report. The rise in hospital visits is an early indicator that the nation’s deadly opioid epidemic is still growing, doctors said.

The Midwest had the highest increase of ER visits for opioid overdoses in any region, up an average 70 percent from July 2016 through September 2017 according to a

TOMORROW

27°/42° MOSTLY SUNNY

WEATHER B12

GREITENS INVESTIGATION

NEWS • A4 POST-DISPATCH WEATHERBIRD ®

> Top economic adviser leaves as President Trump tries to sell tariff plan.

Page A6

See TARIFFS • Page A6

House probe begins out of the public eye

PARTLY SUNNY

COHN OUT AT WHITE HOUSE

> Emergency rooms saw more than 142,000 opioid overdoses nationally in the 15 months studied. > ILLINOIS 66 percent increase > MISSOURI 21 percent increase

See OPIOIDS • Page A5

Botanist behind the treats

• LET’S EAT

Meeting on West Lake draws crowd

• A3

St. Louis loses out on housing funds

• A4

Senate moves to weaken bank rules

• A13

1 M Vol. 140, No. 66 ©2018

Bommarito INFINITI .com

EN7 P O 4/ 2

03.07.2018 • Wednesday • M 2 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A7 LOCAL

Wayward guard loses inmate in East St. Louis They were supposed to be traveling to Texas from Oklahoma, but ended up at Casino Queen hotel

BY NASSIM BENCHAABANE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

EAST ST. LOUIS • A private security firm employee tak-

ing two inmates to Texas from Oklahoma was more than 500 miles outside his planned route when he checked into a hotel here Sunday night, fell asleep and woke up less than an hour later to find one of the inmates and $5,200 in his own cash gone, police said.

East St. Louis police were looking for the inmate, Brian Jordan, 33, as of Tuesday night. He was not considered to be armed and dangerous, but police broadcast a description of him to surrounding cities.

A private security firm driver was transporting Jordan from Oklahoma City, where he had been caught in a stolen vehicle, to a city in Texas where he had violated parole for methamphetamine possession, East St. Louis Police Chief Jerry Simon said. The driver, Lamont Henderson, worked for Guard Force International, out of Austin, Texas.

Simon had no information on the second man who was being transported by Jordan the guard.

It was unclear exactly why Henderson, Jordan and the second inmate were in East St. Louis, which is about an eight-hour drive northeast of their alleged starting point.

The three men checked into the Casino Queen hotel about 10 p.m. Sunday. Henderson told police he had fallen asleep for about 40 minutes and woke up to find Jordan gone. Surveillance cameras caught Jordan walking out to the security firm’s van in the hotel parking lot shortly after 1:30 a.m. Monday, removing a cellphone and clothing and then walking west toward the Eads Bridge, Simon said.

Henderson didn’t call police until about five hours after he realized Jordan was gone, telling detectives he was out looking for Jordan himself during that time.

Henderson said he was scheduled to meet a supervisor in the St. Louis area Monday — detectives were investigating that and whether he gambled at the hotel or visited family members in the area, Simon said.

Reached by phone Tuesday night, Gordon Brooks, CEO of Guard Force International, hung up when a PostDispatch reporter identified himself and did not respond to further requests for comment.

Police were unaware of the three until the security guard called police about 6:40 a.m. Monday, Simon said.

East St. Louis police immediately alerted surrounding cities and broadcast Jordan’s description.

Henderson told police Jordan vanished along with $5,200 cash the guard had in a satchel. It was unknown why the guard had the cash.

The other man being transported told police he was asleep and learned of Jordan’s disappearance when Henderson woke him up, Simon said.

It was unclear whether the inmates were handcuffed when they arrived at the hotel, Simon said. He said police had not yet obtained security footage of their arrival.

Jordan is described as about 6 feet tall with a medium build.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call East St. Louis police at 618-482-6700.

Nassim Benchaabane • 314-340-8167 @NassimBnchabane on Twitter nbenchaabane@post-dispatch.com

LAW & ORDER ST. LOUIS COUNTY > Crash victim identified • Authorities have identified a St. Louis man killed in a chain-reaction crash on Reavis Barracks Road on Sunday night.

Jose Solis-Luna, 43, was pronounced dead at a hospital Sunday night after the three-car crash about 6 p.m. Sunday. He lived in the 3800 block of French Court, just south of Carondelet Park.

The crash began when a westbound sedan rearended another car west of Green Park Road about 6 p.m., St. Louis County police said.

The second car traveled into eastbound traffic, where it was T-boned by a third car.

Solis-Luna was driving the third car and suffered fatal injuries.

The driver of the second car, a 48-year-old woman, was in extremely critical condition at a hospital, according to police. A passenger in her car, a 19-year-old woman, and the driver of the first vehicle, a 19-year-old man, were both taken to a hospital. Their conditions were not available, but police said they were stable.

Authorities asked anyone with information about the crash to call St. Louis County police at 636-529-8210 or CrimeStoppers at 1-866371-8477.

O’FALLON, ILL. > Teen arrested over threat at school • A 15-year-old boy was taken into custody overnight for scrawling a threatening message on an elementary school, police said Tuesday morning.

A handwritten message found Monday on a window at Hinchcliffe Elementary School said, “I’m going to shoot this (expletive) up,” according to police. Window screens were also cut.

Police said the teen took full responsibility and said the message was a joke. He was being held Tuesday morning in the St. Clair County Juvenile Detention Center.

Police say they will turn the case over to the state’s attorney’s office for charges.

The elementary school is at 1050 Ogle Road in O’Fallon.

Developers donated to Stenger’s campaign COUNTY • FROM A1

The lease for nearly 150,000 square feet at the redeveloped mall in St. Ann, now known as the Crossings, will cost taxpayers at least $69 million, and could run as high as $77 million, according to the newspaper’s analysis of the county’s real estate contracts. The development’s owners, Robert and P. David Glarner, are friends of Stenger who have donated $365,000 to his campaign.

A Post-Dispatch investigation published on Feb. 5 provided the first public in-depth accounting of the real costs, finding that the deal does not save money and has the potential to cost millions.

Days before the newspaper’s story, Stenger’s advisers were still insisting the agreement saved money. But the newspaper pointed out their figures did not include millions of dollars the county will pay for property taxes at the Crossings and to rent empty space at buildings across the county that were vacated months or years before their leases ended.

Tuesday marked the council’s second ethics hearing on the matter since the newspaper’s findings were published.

Internal emails between county government employees, obtained by council members as part of their investigation, revealed that several employees were alarmed at the expense and length of the deal.

They were also upset about the unusual negotiations with the Glarners, led

by Stenger’s former campaign manager Anthony Badino, that did not include input from career county government employees who would normally be involved in negotiating a lease. By the time those officials were included, in the spring of 2016, Stenger’s office had already decided on the Crossings.

Stephanie Leon Streeter, deputy director of the county’s departments of transportation and public works, testified on Tuesday that she had to edit the boilerplate language in an internal letter about the project to make it clear county employees had not reviewed the lease, or that the lease was typical.

“The best I felt we could say was that they were acceptable,” she said.

WHAT THE COUNCIL WAS TOLD A June 2016 letter from Glenn Powers, Stenger’s interim chief of operations,

urged council members to ratify the deal, and indicated its terms were favorable to those at several sites where the county had expiring leases. But council members Ernie Trakas and Mark Harder noted on Tuesday that Powers’ letter did not disclose that the county would also be liable for costs such as building maintenance and property taxes.

“Did you read the lease before signing it?” Trakas asked Powers.

“I didn’t sign the lease,” Powers answered.

“You didn’t?” replied Trakas, pointing to the signature.

“I’m sorry, I answered in error on that,” Powers said.

Trakas: “Back to my original question — did you read it before you signed it?”

Powers: “No.” Powers signed the lease because Nichalos Gardner, who was then the county transportation director, had refused to do so. Emails obtained by the council revealed that Gardner had told several colleagues that by entering the lease at Northwest Plaza, the county was “selling our soul to the DEVIL.” Gardner quit in April 2017; he could not be reached for comment.

Council Chairman Sam Page told Powers that council members “have the responsibility to make the decision based on the information we get. You can understand that information that we get with your signature on it would not inspire confidence moving forward. … A key point that is missing here is that this lease may cost $20 million to $30 million more than was presented to us originally.”

The Stenger administration knew right away that the lease was going to cost more money. Budget director Paul Kreidler testified that all of the extra costs expected for 2017 were represented in a single line item — for $2.5 million.

Council members said they had no idea that line item was for increased costs associated with the lease. Kreidler responded that nothing had been hidden from them, and that he thought someone had asked a question about it at a budget hearing.

“So in your world,” Trakas asked him, “$2.5 million buried on page 103 or 104 in a several hundred page budget book is right there for everybody to see?”

Jeremy Kohler • 314-340-8337 @jeremykohler on Twitter jkohler@post-dispatch.com

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Adult Diapers May No Longer Be Needed Thanks To Amazing New Pill Clinical studies show new pill may be effective enough to replace adult diapers for bladder control; initial users show dramatic reduction in trips to the bathroom, embarrassing leaking, and nighttime urgency.

Robert Ward, Associated Health Press AHP− Adult diaper sales are expected to plummet as results from a clinical trial on a new, patented bladder control pill have finally been released.

Sold under the brand name UriVarx™, the new pill contains key ingredients that keeps the bladder from releasing voluntarily, which reduces accidents and frequent bathroom trips.

Perhaps more impressive, it also targets the tiny muscles around the bladder, which helps the bladder to create a tighter seal.

This would explain why the average UriVarx™ user in clinical trials experiences a 66% reduction in urinary incontinence symptoms, such as day and night leaking and sudden urges to urinate.

NEW PILL MAY REPLACE DIAPERS FOR BLADDER CONTROL: This new patented clinically proven pill solution is now available nationwide

NEW DISCOVERY IN BLADDER CONTROL

EXCITING RESULTS FROM URIVARX USERS

Until now, doctors believed it was impossible to strengthen the muscles that control the bladder.

They are amazed to see that it can now be done with the non-prescription UriVarx™ pill.

Many UriVarx™ users say their bladders have never been stronger. For the first time in years, they are confident and in complete control. Adult pads and diapers are no longer a big worry.

“As you get older, and the involuntary muscles around your bladder weaken, you lose urinary control. With your bladder wall unable to properly seal, you constantly leak and feel pressure to urinate” explains Dr. Bassam Damaj of Innovus Pharmaceuticals.

“After my third child, I couldn’t control my bladder. I was running to the bathroom all the time! And once I hit my 60s it became so unpredictable I needed to wear adult pads every day” explained Marie L. of Danbury, CT.

“UriVarx™ targets the bladder muscles and help restores vital kidney health, reducing urgency and frequency. It also helps you “hold it” for hours so you never have to worry about embarrassing accidents ever again!”

FREEDOM FROM SUDDEN URGES AND LEAKS Since hitting the market, sales for the patented UriVarx™ pill have soared and there are some very good reasons why.

To begin with, the double blind large clinical studies published in the clinicaltrials.gov have been impressive.

Participants taking UriVarx™ saw a stunning reduction in urinary frequency, which resulted in fewer bathroom trips both day and night.

They also experienced a dramatic decrease in incontinence episodes, such as leaking and bed wetting.

The active ingredients in UriVarx™ comes from a patented formula. It is both safe and healthy.

There are also no known serious side effects in its history of use.

Scientists believe that the ingredients target the muscles of the bladder to grow stronger. These muscles are responsible for keeping the bladder tightly sealed.

They also help the bladder to completely empty, allowing bacteria to be flushed from the urinary tract.

Research has shown that as you get older, certain hormonal changes in the body cause these muscles to shrink and become lose. This is what causes the bladder to be over active and the resulting urine accidents and why UriVarx™ seems to be so effective in the published clinical trials.

“I was embarrassed so before going to my doctor I decided to try UriVarx and I’m so glad I did! The urgency is gone and I no longer feel like my bladder is about to explode. I can also “hold it” when I need to so I’m no longer living in constant fear of finding a bathroom.”

IMPRESSIVE CLINICAL RESULTS The exciting clinical results published on the government clinical website clinicaltrials.gov show that UriVarx™ can strengthen your bladder fast, significantly reducing the urine urgency and leaks.

In a new doubleblind, placebo-controlled clinical study, 142 men and women with bladder control issues were separated into two groups.

The first group was given a placebo while the other received UriVarx™.

The results were incredible. The participants who received UriVarx™ saw major improvements in leaking, pressure, and the urgency to go − all without the usual side effects seen in prescription drugs! They also reported fewer trips to the bathroom both day and night.

Overall, the UriVarx™ group experienced: • 56% Reduction in Urge Incontinence • 66% Reduction in Stress Incontinence • 61% Reduction in Urgency • 33% Reduction in Frequency • 46% Reduction in Nighttime Bathroom Trips Additionally, at the end of clinical trial and after seeing the results, 84% of the participants taking UriVarx™ said it significantly improved their quality of life.

“The clinical findings are incredible, but people

still wonder if it will really work” explains Dr. Bassam Damaj. “It’s normal to be skeptical, but we’ve seen thousands of UriVarx™ users get results exactly like the participants in the study.

It’s an amazing product.”

HOW IT WORKS UriVarx™ is a pill that’s taken just once daily.

It does not require a prescription.

The active ingredients are patented natural extracts.

Research shows that as we get older, the muscles which surround the bladder weaken. This is caused by hormonal changes in the body that causes the muscles to atrophy and weaken.

When they become too small and weak, they cannot seal your bladder shut, which causes leaking, accidents, among other incontinence symptoms.

It also prevents your bladder from fully emptying, which can result in persistent bacterial infections and UTIs. UriVarx’s™ active ingredient targets the muscles around the bladder, making them stronger. Supporting ingredients in UriVarx™ support kidney function and overall urinary health.

BLADDER PROBLEMS GONE With daily use, UriVarx™ can restore strong bladder control and help users overcome leakage without the negative side effects or interactions associated with drugs.

Leakage sufferers can now put an end to the uncontrollable urges, the embarrassing accidents, and enjoy an entirely new level of comfort and confidence.

HOW TO GET URIVARX IN MISSOURI This is the official release of UriVarx™ in Missouri. As such, the company is offering a special discounted supply to anyone suffering from bladder issues who calls within the next 48 hours.

A special hotline number and discounted pricing has been created for all Missouri residents.

Discounts will be available starting today at 6:00AM and will automatically be applied to all callers.

Your Toll-Free Hotline number is 1-800-757-6349 and will only be open for the next 48 hours. Only a limited discounted supply of UriVarx™ is currently available in your region.

THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FDA. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE. RESULTS MAY VARY.CONSULT YOUR PHYSICIAN BEFORE TAKING THIS SUPPLEMENT. URIVARX IS NOT A DRUG.

S E RV I N G T H E P U B L I C S I N C E 1 878 • W I N N E R O F 1 8 P U L I TZ E R P R I Z E S

TUESDAY • 04.17.2018 • $2.00

BY JEREMY KOHLER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

CLAYTON • Members of the

St. Louis County Council for several months have claimed they do not have the resources to maintain a check on a county executive whose agenda, they charge, has been driven by campaign contributors.

On Monday, two council members proposed asking county voters to solve both ends of the problem they perceive. A council committee will discuss the proposals Tuesday.

Councilman Ernie Trakas proposed a county charter amendment that would set a $2,600 contribution limit for any county office and restrict contributions from people bidding on county contracts.

Candidates could not accept contributions from anyone

COUNCIL AIMS TO CHECK STENGER CHARTER AMENDMENTS PROPOSED BY COUNCIL MEMBERS PAGE, TRAKAS: 1) Set a $2,600 contribution limit for any county office, and mandate that no candidate shall accept a contribution from anyone competing for a county contract.

2) Allow the council to hire its own legal counsel in its ongoing legal fight with County Executive Steve Stenger about funding for the county auditor, who reports to the council.

Stenger, in an emailed statement, said he was in favor of campaign contribution limits and didn’t think the proposals went far enough to limit candidates who self-fund campaigns.

Stenger

Trakas (left) and Page

50 YEARS IN THE GARDEN Steve Wolff removes a maturing Victorian water lily this month.

A Miami Rose water lily grows in the lab at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

bidding on a county contract in a period from 90 days before the county requested proposals to 90 days after the contract was awarded.

And Council Chairman Sam Page proposed an amendment that would allow the council to hire its own legal counsel in its ongoing legal fight with County Executive Steve Stenger over funding for the county auditor.

If approved by the council, the amendments would be put to St. Louis County voters on the Aug. 7 primary ballot.

Stenger’s tenure has been dogged by repeated accusations that donors to his campaign get favorable treatment by his administration.

The council has recently held hearings into the county’s See STENGER • Page A4

Protest-free ‘buffer zones’ around health care facilities are rejected

Steve Wolff transfers a maturing Victorian water lily at his workstation.

BY CELESTE BOTT St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Horticulturist reflects on career spent amid the water lilies

ST. LOUIS • The St. Louis Board of Al-

dermen wrapped up its session by approving two measures that its more senior members have fought for for years: a plan to set in law specific goals for hiring women and minority contractors on city projects, and another granting subpoena power to the Civilian Oversight Board that investigates citizen complaints against police officers.

But aldermen soundly rejected a proposal to ban protesters within an 8-foot radius of a health care facility’s driveway.

Supporters said the measure would offer a clearer means to charge those who impede the flow of traffic in and out of facilities such as Planned Parenthood.

Protest “buffer zones” have been

See BUFFER • Page A4

Judge to rule on dismissal of Greitens’ criminal case PHOTOS BY CHRISTIAN GOODEN • cgooden@post-dispatch.com

Steve Wolff, a senior horticulturist at the Missouri Botanical Garden, shelves sprouts in the greenhouses this month to keep safe until it warms enough to plant them around the grounds. Wolff started working at the garden in 1968. He is retiring this week.

and is rooted underwater.

Wolff, a gentle, bespectacled 68-yearold, is often spotted in waders weaving around the glass art in the Missouri Botanical Garden pools.

He keeps the water lilies pristine, growing some lily pads as large as 5 feet across. He gets little pricks from thorns hidden underneath the smooth surface.

BY ERIN HEFFERNAN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • Steve Wolff knows one

thing he’ll miss most about the garden where he’s spent the last 50 years: the water lilies.

For decades he’s cared for the striking but finicky flower that blooms at night

BY ROBERT PATRICK AND JOEL CURRIER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • A St. Louis judge said he would rule Thursday on defense motions to dismiss the criminal case against Gov. Eric Greitens.

St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison gave lawyers a noon Wednesday deadline for any filings related to the defense motion after Greitens’ lawyers on Monday morning aired more complaints of withheld evidence.

Greitens is facing a felony charge of invasion of privacy for allegedly taking a nude picture of a woman in March 2015 without her consent. The woman told a Missouri House committee investigating Greitens that he threatened to release the

And he sometimes answers questions about how deep the water is from curious kids who see his head sticking out of the pool by laughing and standing up from his knees.

Wolff has been a horticulturist at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis See GARDEN • Page A4

Save-A-Lot plans to move headquarters into old Northwest Plaza Northwest, the site of the former Northwest Plaza in St. Ann. The project is contingent on approval of tax subsidies from both state and county government. County Executive Steve Stenger has asked the County Council to approve a 50 percent

BY BRIAN FELDT AND JEREMY KOHLER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Save-A-Lot, a chain of grocery stores with more than 1,300 locations across the country, plans to move its headquarters from Earth City to the Crossings at

TODAY

In full flower

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abatement of Save-A-Lot’s personal property taxes for 15 years, and a onetime abatement of sales tax on new equipment. The share of the county’s subsidy would be about $800,000.

See GREITENS • Page A7

Raasch: The Trump-Greitens link > A7 Governor’s office is ‘pushing forward’ > A7 Defense says Hawley should drop probe > A7

See SAVE-A-LOT • Page A5

Cards activate Gyorko, Gregerson

Weinstein stories win Pulitzer Prize

SPORTS

Safety concerns sink Allegiant stock

• A6

New Russia sanctions seem up in air

• A6

Eldorado Resorts buys Lumière owner • A8 1 M • A9

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LOCAL

A4 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • Tuesday • 04.17.2018

Horticulturist lived at the garden for a time GARDEN • FROM A1

since 1968. He even lived in the garden with his family for several years. Their small house had a bell in the kitchen that would clang and wake him in the middle of the night when temperatures in the greenhouses spiked or dipped.

Wolff watched as the place transformed around him. When he was hired, only 10 of the institution’s 79 acres were laid out in gardens. Now little unused space remains. During his tenure the garden expanded, the staff grew from 65 to 421, and attendance quadrupled.

It’s now clearly one of the top botanical gardens in the world, he said.

April 9 marked Wolff’s 50th year at the garden, a landmark before he plans to retire this week.

On a recent morning, he contemplated leaving the place as he stuck his hands in the greenhouse pools, pulling out dead lily pads as he spotted them.

“Leaving is bittersweet,” he said. “I hope I can pass on some institutional knowledge so the young people behind me can remember the history. So they can love this place like I do.”

‘OUR BACKYARD’ Wolff was hired as an intern in 1968 while on Easter break from Lutheran High School South. He was 17 and, finding a locked gate when he reported for duty his first day, panicked and hopped the wrought iron fence to make it to work.

Early on, he did a lot of pruning and odd jobs in the plant beds and the Climatron, which was a new attraction at the time. He spent as much time as possible in the garden, determined to learn.

After graduating from high school, Wolff took classes in horticulture at St. Louis Community College at Meramec, but working in the garden was his real education.

He learned how to care for unusual plants but also discovered the history of the institution, which was founded by prominent businessman Henry Shaw in 1859.

“I’ve always liked that he made the garden for the public to enjoy,” Wolff said. “It wasn’t his private garden that later was opened up, this was always his vision.”

Wolff met what he calls many “great names in horticulture”

CHRISTIAN GOODEN • cgooden@post-dispatch.com

Steve Wolff (left), 68, imparts a little advice to fellow horticulturist Tyler Peterson this month at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

during his early years, including one of his personal heroes, George H. Pring, who was the pre-eminent tropical water lily expert of his time.

In one of his first weekends, Wolff spotted Pring in a greenhouse dressed in his signature attire: a shirt and tie, a skimmer hat and seersucker pants he wore even under waders while working in the lily pools.

“I told him: ‘Sir, you’re not allowed in here,” Wolff said.

“And he just said: ‘Son, I have been here longer than you’ve been alive.’”

“I thought my career was over right there,” Wolff said, laughing.

When Wolff was 24, he noticed a beautiful young woman who worked in the education department walking to pick up the mail for the office each day.

He began making a point to mow the lawn near her path each day.

Wolff soon learned her name was Doris and asked her out.

His favorite spot in the garden to this day is the rose garden because he remembers spending time with her there when they were dating, falling in love with the garden as a backdrop.

The couple married in 1975 and soon moved into a home on the garden grounds. Wolff volunteered to occupy the home because there needed to be a licensed engineer on garden grounds at all times.

He remembers waking up in the middle of the night to fix the boiler or fill in as a night watchmen when members of the small security force called in sick.

Two of Wolff’s four children spent their first years of life in that home, playing in the gar-

den.

He remembers their black Labrador, Midnight, getting loose and his 2-year-old daughter Jennifer chasing him through the garden paths.

They eventually bought a house beyond the garden grounds in 1979. Their former garden home was torn down and replaced with a front entrance parking lot.

WATER LILY MAESTRO Wolff took on more responsibility in the garden in 1972 when he was put in charge of water lilies, one of the garden’s most striking plants.

Wolff typed out letters to his mentor Patrick Nut, a water lily expert at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, to learn the intricacies of caring for the lilies.

Nut replied with advice on how to store the tubers, what kind of soil to use and ways to prevent the plants from dying during fluctuations in water temperature.

Over the years, Wolff also developed an expertise in chrysanthemums, learning how to make them cascade into complicated shapes to fit specific displays in the garden. It’s another tricky task that took years to master, he said.

Wolff took stints in management as well but always preferred working hands-on with plants.

New challenges would present themselves each year as the garden grew. Wolff watched the development of the Japanese Garden, the Chinese Garden, the Ottoman Garden, the Victorian District, the William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening and the Monsanto Center for research.

St. Louis aldermen pass minority-inclusion bill BUFFER • FROM A1

enacted in cities such as New York and Chicago, but St. Louis aldermen rejected the idea on a 9-15 vote Monday amid concerns that the bill would have unintended consequences on other protesters throughout the city “You can’t pick and choose who can protest. It’s the First Amendment for everyone,” said Alderman Pam Boyd, 27th Ward.

Sponsoring Alderman Christine Ingrassia, 6th Ward, said she felt the plan engaged a variety of stakeholders throughout the region and walked a careful line to protect all involved.

“There’s a balance of constitutional rights here. One is the right for free speech, which we want to be able to respect. The other is a right for women to access health care,” she said.

Ingrassia said even though the bill didn’t pass, the conversation was necessary and will continue into the next session, which begins Tuesday.

Karen Nolkemper, executive director of the Respect Life Apostolate of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, applauded the bill’s defeat.

“Our work of prayer and presence will continue because we know that women facing difficult or unplanned pregnancies need real options and support, not abortion,” she said in a statement.

But for local reproductive rights groups, Monday’s vote was a disappointment.

“St. Louis had an opportunity to prove that cities can lead the resistance against the antichoice agenda of the Trump and Greitens administrations, but we failed to pass this proactive measure,” said Alison Dreith, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri.

MINORITY CONTRACTORS “We have been working on this thing for decades,” Alderman Terry Kennedy, 21st Ward, said of the minority inclusion bill, which seeks to address discrimination in public contracting.

Dating back to 1997, the mayor’s office has had a policy awarding 25 percent of subcontracts in city projects to minority-owned businesses, and 5 percent to women-owned businesses. Attempts to codify such requirements in legislation have been unsuccessful, but St. Louis mayors have continued to reauthorize the program through executive order.

Sponsored by 22nd Ward Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, the bill that passed 27-0 on Monday outlines hiring goals that businesses must attempt to meet when bidding on St. Louis projects and contracts.

Depending on availability, contractors must, in good faith, hire subcontractors in keeping with the following breakdown: 21 percent African-Americanowned, 11 percent womenowned, 2 percent HispanicAmerican-owned, 0.5 percent Asian-American-owned and 0.5 percent Native Americanowned.

Those percentages are based on a 2015 study that found the city didn’t go far enough in its efforts to address disparity in the hiring of subcontractors.

Looking at prime and subcontracts awarded by the city between 2007 and 2012, the study showed nearly 74 percent of subcontracts went to companies owned by white males.

“The city has really gotten serious with minority participation. And we finally have the empirical data to justify it,” Boyd said.

But the proposal sparked concern from some minority business leaders. Karlos Ramirez, president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of St. Louis, argues that separating the requirements by race and identity continues a cycle of segregation, and could hinder which minority groups participate.

Kennedy pushed back on that assertion in a fiery speech Monday, acknowledging that the bill can be amended or improved over time but that “no perfect piece of legislation” exists.

“There is no attempt to dis-

enfranchise any minority whatsoever,” he said. “The idea is to ensure that there is fairness, and that the city of St. Louis can really deal with equity.”

Alderman Sarah Martin, 11th Ward, questioned whether the city should have worked more closely with St. Louis County, which conducted a similar disparity study and is now putting into law hiring goals that group all minorities together, instead of segmenting by race.

“There has been conversations with the county, it’s just for a change, St. Louis is ahead of the curve in the region,” Kennedy said.

STRONGER OVERSIGHT Not long ago, a Civilian Oversight Board with subpoena power — a key recommendation in the Ferguson Commission Report — was a political nonstarter for former Mayor Francis Slay.

Now, with support from St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards and St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden, it passed with little resistance.

The measure allows the board to issue subpoenas to compel the appearance of witnesses or the production of evidence as it investigates allegations of police misconduct. Without that power, supporters argue, the board is toothless.

But the measure has been criticized by the St. Louis Police Officers’ Association, which represents rank-and-file officers in the city and notes police have already agreed to release investigative files and summaries of officers’ statements to the board.

Asked if there was tension on the issue in his department, Hayden said, “Not as far as I’m concerned.”

“I want very competent investigations, and for the persons under the right circumstances to get access to it. I’m all for it,” he told the Post-Dispatch.

Celeste Bott • 314-340-8119 @celestebott on Twitter cbott@post-dispatch.com

But Wolff counts one milestone as the most significant.

In 1983, voters approved a measure to add the garden to the Museum-Zoo District, giving the institution access to property tax dollars. The money allowed the garden to expand and dramatically grow its research, in addition to expanding attractions.

“When I started, people in St. Louis thought of us more as a park. It was Shaw’s Garden, a nice place to take a walk,” Wolff said. “Now it’s like a university or a museum. It’s an institution.”

Ex-youth pastor at Clayton church is charged with child molestation

BY JOEL CURRIER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On a recent morning, Wolff walked through the greenhouses in the khaki cargo pants and green garden staff shirt he wears almost every day.

He walked along tanks where his water lilies begin to grow and threw a handful of flakes to Clyde, the large goldfish that lives in a tank with the lilies and likes to nibble on Wolff’s finger.

“He’s our pet,” he says, smiling and sticking his finger in the water for Clyde.

As he moved through the greenhouses, volunteers and staff stopped every few minutes to wish him well.

“We all look up to him,” said senior nursery manager Derek Lyle. “I hate that so much institutional knowledge is walking out the door.”

It’s an emotional goodbye for Wolff, whose voice sometimes breaks when he talks about his last day. But it’s also hard for his daughter Jennifer, who has worked in interpretation at the garden for 18 years.

“I’m so proud of my dad,” she said, getting emotional. “So many people have come to my office in tears telling me that he was kind to them, and they’re going to miss him.”

Wolff said he hopes retirement will allow him to spend more time with his grandchildren and on the porch of his country home near Owensville, Mo., about an hour and a half west of St. Louis.

“I want to just sit and watch the dogwoods bloom,” he said.

He says he is going to try to resist returning to the garden too often, but he knows he’ll sometimes visit, if just to see his water lilies bloom once again.

CLAYTON • A former youth pastor at the Central Presbyterian Church in Clayton has been charged with child molestation and statutory sodomy.

Andrew Dickson, 30, of the 800 block of McKnight Road in University City, was charged April 9 in St. Louis County Circuit Court with one count of child molestation and two counts of statutory sodomy.

Charging documents say that the crimes occurred between March 1 and April 1, and Dickson admitted to fondling and engaging in oral sex with a minor.

University City police investigated the Dickson case and said the alleged crimes took place at Dickson’s home.

The church is at 7700 Davis Drive in Clayton. Dickson’s defense lawyer Mark Hammer could not be reached for comment.

In a statement, the church’s executive administrator, Tim Page, said that “when Central Presbyterian Church learned of this deeply disturbing situation, we immediately reported it to the appropriate authorities and proceeded to terminate this individual from his position. We are fully cooperating with authorities investigating this matter. We are focused on caring for the victim and supporting our church community as we grieve and heal together.”

The church’s website listed Dickson as a preacher who gave several sermons in the past couple of years.

Dickson also wrote at least two blog posts to the church’s website about recommitting himself to youth ministry and about God’s role in preserving social connections among teens. Links to those sermons and blog posts appear to have been removed from the church’s website but were accessible through searches of cached sites.

Bail for Dickson was originally set for $150,000, cash only. On Friday, Associate Circuit Judge John Newsham lowered Dickson’s bail to $75,000 and allowed him to post 10 percent to be released. Conditions of Dickson’s bail include allowing Dickson to live at a home in Washington state and barring him from contacting the alleged victim or that person’s relatives.

Erin Heffernan • 314-340-8145 @erinheff on Twitter eheffernan@post-dispatch.com

Joel Currier • 314-621-5804 @joelcurrier on Twitter jcurrier@post-dispatch.com

LAST DAYS

Stenger says he favors limits to campaign contributions STENGER • FROM A1

long-term lease for office space at the former Northwest Plaza in St. Ann. The plaza’s owners have donated $365,000 to Stenger’s campaign.

And the Post-Dispatch has reported on several deals between the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership and local businessman John Rallo, who has donated at least $20,000 to Stenger.

In an emailed statement, Stenger said he was in favor of campaign contribution limits and didn’t think the proposals went far enough to limit candidates who self-fund campaigns.

A FUNDING QUESTION In October, a four-member council majority filed suit against Stenger and two other county officials, claiming they had stymied oversight by blocking County Auditor Mark Tucker, who reports to the council, from hiring a staff.

Tucker only recently released his first audit after more than 13 months on the job, and a transcript of a meeting with members of the council showed him fumbling for words to discuss what he was doing. Stenger has questioned Tucker’s competence and repeatedly called for him to be fired.

The lawsuit says the council’s 2017 budget provided for two staff positions in the auditor’s office. Even if those positions were filled, it said, the office would be an “understaffed outlier” compared to other auditor staffs in the region and nation. St. Charles County, which has a population of less than 40 percent of St. Louis County, has an audit staff of six, the lawsuit claims. Stenger has pointed out that Tucker hadn’t even filled positions that he was authorized to fill.

The suit said the council members for months asked Stenger and the acting director of personnel to fill the two auditor staff positions, but Stenger’s administration “obstructed the interview and hiring process … and otherwise refused to fill open staff positions.”

Because the Stenger administration has blocked any legal expenses for the council members to hire outside lawyers, the suit also asks the court to force the county to pay the legal fees.

An April 6 letter to the council from Stenger accused the council of violating the county charter by hiring an outside law firm “to file an unauthorized frivolous lawsuit which purports to be filed by the council members in their official capacities.” Stenger refused to sign a bill that set up the council’s contract for outside legal help, but the council voted 6-1 on April 10 to pass it over his objection.

The lawsuit remains pending in St. Louis County Circuit Court.

Last week, a judge said only Tucker had standing to challenge Stenger on the budget issues, but the judge rejected Stenger’s attempt to have the case dismissed and said it should proceed to trial on its merits.

TRAKAS FRACAS Trakas is a Republican who has frequently voted with Democrats Page, Rochelle Walton Gray and Hazel Erby to oppose Stenger initiatives. This month, a special prosecutor asked the courts to remove Trakas from the council because he performs contract legal work for three outstate school districts. The county charter bars council members from holding any other governmental employment. A hearing in the case has not yet been set.

Trakas has accused Stenger of orchestrating that effort to remove him from office.

On Monday, Page proposed a charter amendment to addresses that issue, too, although any change would likely be too late for Trakas.

Under the proposed amendment, the definition of “employment” in the county charter would be subject to the same test established under state law that distinguishes employees from independent contractors.

Jeremy Kohler • 314-340-8337 @jeremykohler on Twitter jkohler@post-dispatch.com

S E RV I N G T H E P U B L I C S I N C E 1 878 • W I N N E R O F 1 8 P U L I TZ E R P R I Z E S

FRIDAY • 04.27.2018 • $2.00

COSBY CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

OUT • JACKSON

Ronny Jackson

‘AMERICA’S DAD’ MAY SPEND REST OF LIFE IN PRISON

VA nominee withdraws amid conduct allegations PAGE A10

Bill Cosby leaves court Thursday in Norristown, Pa., after he was convicted of drugging and molesting a woman at his home 14 years ago.

GRILLED • PRUITT

Scott Pruitt

PAGE A10

NORRISTOWN, PA. • After decades of whis-

pers, lawsuits, investigations and close calls — and a multitude of women who lost hope anyone would ever believe their word against that of “America’s Dad” — Bill Cosby could be headed to prison at age 80 for the remainder of his life.

The comedian was convicted Thursday of drugging and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia mansion 14 years ago in a verdict

See COSBY • Page A10

ASSOCIATED PRESS

EPA chief told he’s ‘unfit to hold public office’

BY MICHAEL R. SISAK AND CLAUDIA LAUER Associated Press

WORKSHOP HELPS FAMILIES HANDLE AUTISM

IN • POMPEO

Mike Pompeo

CIA chief is confirmed as top diplomat

BY KAROUN DEMIRJIAN AND CAROL MORELLO Washington Post

WASHINGTON • The Senate confirmed Mike Pompeo on Thursday as secretary of state despite lingering objections from Democrats who have questioned his record of hawkish policy positions and past controversial statements about minority groups.

The split vote — 57-42 — represents the political scrutiny Pompeo is likely to encounter as he moves from the CIA to the State Department, where he’ll face the simultaneous challenges of reinvigorating an agency beset by flagging morale and answering for a president who is prone to impulsiveness on the global stage.

Only six of the 14 Democrats who backed Pompeo to be CIA director last

LAURIE SKRIVAN • lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

“The workshop has given me confidence. I am working on how I phrase directions,” said Karly Gadomski, 30, who plays with her son Tenzin Harris, 8, during the last days of a two-week autism training program on Thursday at Easterseals in Creve Coeur.

Condition affects 1 in 59 children — and those who love them

See POMPEO • Page A10

BY BLYTHE BERNHARD St. Louis Post-Dispatch

CREVE COEUR • The coach sits in the

control room, wearing headphones as she watches the action on the monitor.

“Don’t give him attention right now,” autism training specialist Anna Duke instructs a mother through an earpiece as

she tries to play a board game with her child who would rather play with a toy.

The parent training program at Easterseals Midwest is a two-week course that teaches families strategies for behavioral and communication challenges with their children with autism.

See AUTISM • Page A4

County considers voiding lease on Northwest Plaza

Tisaby refuses to answer questions in Greitens case

BY JEREMY KOHLER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

vestigated an invasion of privacy charge against Gov. Eric Greitens refused to answer questions in a deposition Thursday, leading defense lawyers to call for witnesses and evidence linked to the investigator to be excluded from the case.

BY ROBERT PATRICK AND JOEL CURRIER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • A former FBI agent who in-

CLAYTON • Four members of the St. Louis County Council have raised the possibility of backing out of the county’s 20-year lease for office space at the former Northwest Plaza in St. Ann because County Executive Steve Stenger has accepted $365,000 in campaign donations from the county’s landlords.

A seven-page letter issued to Stenger on Thursday by the chairman of the council’s ethics committee, Ernie Trakas, claims the county charter allowed the council to void contracts in cases when an officer or employee of the county received a benefit from the contract.

Trakas, R-6th District, convened his committee Thursday for a meeting that lasted one minute and 15 seconds. He,

If they are successful, that could include the woman who says Greitens took a partially nude photo of her in 2015 without her permission.

“His perjury, his activity, his involvement has infected everything he touched,” defense attorney Scott Rosenblum said of private investigator William Don Tisaby during a hearing between deposition sessions. Rosenblum said pros-

Fowler hits game-winning single in 13th

WU rallies to condemn sexual assault

SPORTS

PAGE A3

See COUNTY • Page A4

ecutors once described Tisaby as the lead investigator and an integral part of the team. “Tisaby’s all over the case,” he said.

First Assistant Circuit Attorney Robert Steele denied Rosenblum’s claims about Tisaby’s larger effect on the case, telling Judge Rex Burlison, “There is no taint.”

Steele said witnesses, including See GREITENS • Page A4

Audit suggests violations in regulation of weigh-station industry • A2

TODAY

Outlet mall may be rebranded as entertainment destination • B1

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A4 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • Friday • 04.27.2018

2.5 percent of boys, 1 percent of girls affected

Investigator won’t answer questions in Greitens case GREITENS • FROM A1

PHOTOS BY LAURIE SKRIVAN • lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

As Karly Gadomski plays with her son Tenzin Harris, 8, at Easterseals in Creve Coeur, a therapist watches from another room and coaches Gadomski through an earpiece on better ways to give instructions to her son.

AUTISM • FROM A1

Autism affects 1 in 59 children, up from 1 in 68 children identified with the developmental disorder in 2014. That translates to 2.5 percent of boys and nearly 1 percent of girls, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that tracked thousands of 8-year-olds at several sites across the country, including St. Louis.

The local training program, which runs for eight hours each day, includes individual and group instruction and activities for the children and parents.

During the first week, therapists work with the children in three daily activity sessions while the parents watch and take notes from a separate room. Parents take over the sessions in the second week, while the trainers watch and offer guidance through the earpiece.

“I’ve learned to change the way I speak to him,” said Karly Gadomski, 30, about her son Tenzin Harris. “Instead of telling him ‘no,’ ‘don’t’ and ‘stop,’ I’m telling him what he can do instead.”

Tenzin, 8, was diagnosed with autism at age 2. Gadomski, a single mother, said her biggest challenge was communicating with Tenzin, who is nonverbal. When he got frustrated during a training session, Tenzin threw the tablet computer he uses to communicate and shattered the screen.

“If he doesn’t feel like I know what he wants, that leads to acting out,” Gadomski said.

Tenzin is fascinated by ceiling fans and will climb on furniture to get a closer look.

He has broken several fan blades in their home, but he’s also interested in how they work. Once he ordered a fan on eBay and built it himself, Gadomski said.

Anna Duke, an autism training specialist with Easterseals, put a fan in the training room with Tenzin to challenge him to focus on his assigned tasks.

“We want to see these behaviors during training so we can work on it,” Duke said.

Autism is marked by delayed or impaired speech and difficulties with social interactions. It was not commonly diagnosed before the 1980s, when rates started to increase. Doctors said the recent rise in the autism rate reflected continued improvements in identifying the disorder, particularly among black and Hispanic children.

The CDC campaign “Learn the Signs, Act Early,” which launched in 2004, could also be a factor.

“There’s no such thing as an autism number, there’s no test that you run, so this is clinicians’ applying their judgment to who is impaired by this condition,” said Dr.

ABOVE • Training specialist Anna Duke supervises a session as Karly Gadomski plays with her son Tenzin Harris on Thursday.

LEFT • Tenzin Harris jumps on a trampoline Thursday at Easterseals in Creve Coeur.

Tenzin was diagnosed with autism when he was 2.

John Constantino of Washington University, one of the authors of the CDC report.

Constantino said that when today’s definition of autism is applied to populations of children studied in the 1960s, the true rate of the disorder is virtually unchanged.

“It’s just that we were either missing it and not aware of it, or not diagnosing it, or for many cases diagnosing it as intellectual disability,” he said.

The Easterseals program in Missouri is free for families, with help from state mental health programs and fundraising. It is the only parent training program of its kind in the country but is threatened by state budget cuts, according to leaders in the nonprofit organization, which focuses on people with disabilities.

The trainers follow up in the families’ homes and in the community for real-world practice of the coping techniques they learned in the program. For Tenzin, that is likely to involve a trip to the grocery store, where Gadomski has had to abandon the cart several times and leave when her son has had a meltdown.

During the two-week training session, Gadomski has learned to give descriptive praise such as, “I love the way you are sitting in the chair,” instead of a simple “good job.”

She now gives Tenzin small tasks, such as turning the pages when she’s reading him a book. The trainers teach parents to give commands instead of asking questions — “Sit in the chair” instead of “Can you sit in the chair?” They are also told not to say “please” when giving directions and to reserve “thank you” for unprompted good behavior.

One of the biggest misconceptions about autism is that it is associated with aggression or violence, Duke said.

“It’s bigger than that. It’s a communication deficit,” she said. “If someone is doing something highly inappropriate, there’s something blocking that communication.

And knowing what it is, we can respond to it effectively.”

Blythe Bernhard • 314-340-8129 @blythebernhard on Twitter bbernhard@post-dispatch.com

Letter pushes Stenger to explain impact if lease is voided COUNTY • FROM A1

Sam Page, D-2nd District, and Hazel Erby, D-1st District, approved the letter, which posed 17 questions to Stenger about the deal. The fourth member, Mark Harder, R-7th District, was absent but said later that he supported the action.

The lease for nearly 150,000 square feet will cost taxpayers at least $69 million and could run as high as $77 million, according to the newspaper’s analysis of the county’s real estate contracts. It does not seem to allow the county any chance to back out.

The Stenger administration initially touted the deal as saving taxpayers $10 million. The newspaper revealed in February that that wasn’t true, with an investigation providing the first public in-depth accounting that found it had the potential to cost millions more than previously disclosed.

County Council members scheduled a series of ethics hearings after the newspaper’s report, saying Stenger’s administration had misled them.

The development’s owners,

Robert and P. David Glarner, are friends of Stenger. They have borrowed $32 million using the county’s lease as surety, according to records obtained by the council as part of its inquiry.

Both Stenger and the Glarners have repeatedly denied any link between the unprecedented political donations and lucrative real estate deal.

“I don’t have any financial relationship with the Glarners,” Stenger said in a text message on Thursday. He called the Crossings “a catalyst to redevelopment in North County” and “a good deal for taxpayers.” And he said he was happy to provide the committee with answers. The Glarners could not be reached for comment.

Stenger has acknowledged that he was involved in negotiations for the lease. After winning election in 2014, Stenger placed Anthony Badino, who had managed his campaign, in charge of finding sites where the county could relocate many of its satellite offices.

The Stenger administration largely kept those deal-

ings out of the hands of career county government employees who were normally in charge of site selection and negotiations.

Some of those employees expressed dismay at the unusual process.

Stenger’s interim chief of operations had to sign the lease because the county’s transportation director refused to. In testimony this spring, that interim chief, Glenn Powers, testified that he had not read the lease before signing it.

Trakas’ questions made it clear that his committee thought the lease and donations were connected — and that the council could void the deal altogether.

“Please explain the fiscal and operational impact should the County Council declare the …

Crossing leases void,” the letter instructed Stenger.

Stenger told a reporter in a text message that the question was “absurd because it would be a matter for a court to decide, and then only after expensive litigation and the high risk of the loss of tens of millions of dollars for our County.”

While Stenger has frequently

pointed to the county’s role in reviving the moribund former mall, the letter pointed to the jobs relocated from county offices in Northwoods, Maplewood, Olivette and Hazelwood and suggested it was an economic zero-sum game. ”What makes being located in St. Ann superior to leaving jobs and county government functions where they had been?” it asked.

It was not clear on Thursday what action the council could take to void the lease. The charter suggests a contract could be voided by resolution, which would not be subject to veto.

The letter constitutes one of the most aggressive actions in the long-running war between Stenger and a majority of the council.

Trakas has blamed Stenger for orchestrating an effort to remove him from office because he performs contract legal work for three outstate school districts. That issue is pending in St. Charles County Circuit Court.

Jeremy Kohler • 314-340-8337 @jeremykohler on Twitter jkohler@post-dispatch.com

Greitens’ accuser, had already been asked whether Tisaby affected their testimony.

“They already asked her that, she told him, ‘No,’” Steele said.

Rosenblum accused Tisaby of a series of violations that affected the criminal case against Greitens.

Rosenblum said Tisaby put “words in the mouth” of witnesses, removed information favorable to Greitens from reports and may have made suggestions that affected the recall of Greitens’ accuser. In past hearings and court motions, they have accused Tisaby of lying about various parts of the investigation, including things as routine as whether he took notes.

T isaby asserted his Fifth Amendment right against selfincrimination 50 times, Rosenblum said in court. Burlison then granted an additional 15 minutes of deposition time, after defense attorneys successfully argued that they wanted to make sure Tisaby wouldn’t say there were important questions he would have answered.

Tisaby’s attorney, Jermaine Wooten, told Burlison that Tisaby had already said he would take the Fifth for every question.

Tisaby and Wooten declined to comment after the deposition finished.

Prosecutors later had Tisaby smuggled out the rear of the courthouse to avoid the media.

Tisaby’s deposition originally was scheduled for Monday, but a lawyer said he was unavailable as he was working on matters of “national security.”

Earlier Thursday morning, Wooten sought a delay in the deposition, saying he’d just been hired at 7 a.m. and needed to talk with his client. Burlison refused to delay the deposition, saying Wooten should have known what he was taking on.

Defense lawyers have cited Tisaby’s performance as one of the reasons to disqualify St. Louis prosecutors from a separate felony case filed against Greitens last week. Prosecutors have in recent weeks distanced themselves from Tisaby. One compared him to the inept fictional detective Inspector Clouseau.

Cris Stevens, a lawyer with Armstrong Teasdale and former federal prosecutor, said that the potential fallout of Tisaby’s refusal to testify depended on the extent of his involvement in the case.

“If Tisaby’s only real substantial role here was interviewing witnesses, his taking the Fifth may not have that much effect on the case,” he said. “If Tisaby had more of a role than interviewing witnesses, like collecting evidence, then that could cause problems.”

Regardless, with fewer than three weeks until the trial, the renewed focus on Tisaby’s potential transgressions means that “obviously, the circuit attorney’s office is playing defense on this,” Stevens said.

Also Thursday, Burlison refused to allow defense attorneys to question former Democratic Party Chairman Roy Temple. Greitens’ attorneys had initially sought information about whether Temple had provided any money to Greitens’ accuser’s ex-husband. Temple denied providing any money to anyone.

Lawyers then said that they wanted to know what the ex-husband had said to Temple. Temple’s attorney, Joseph Bednar, was opposed, saying it would have no relevance to the criminal case against Greitens. “He was not in the basement of the defendant’s house,” Bednar said, referring to the location where the woman told a House committee investigating Greitens that he took her photo after ripping her shirt, pulling down her pants, groping her and spitting water in her mouth.

And a state appeals court declined Thursday to override Burlison’s April 23 order requiring that the woman turn over her cellphone to a special master who could potentially share some data with Greitens’ attorneys.

Meanwhile, in Jefferson City, attorneys for Greitens asked a Cole County judge to bar Attorney General Josh Hawley from investigating the governor. Hawley announced last week that he had found evidence of criminal wrongdoing in how Greitens used a donor list from the veterans charity he founded, to raise money for his campaign. The judge did not rule immediately.

Hawley turned the evidence over to Gardner, who charged Greitens last week with felony computer tampering in the matter.

Jack Suntrup of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Robert Patrick • 314-621-5154 @rxpatrick on Twitter RPatrick@post-dispatch.com

A L E E E N T E R P R I S E S N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D BY J O S E P H P U L I T Z E R D E C . 1 2 , 1 8 7 8

Friday • 06.15.2018 • A12 RAY FARRIS PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER •

GILBERT BAILON EDITOR •

TOD ROBBERSON EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

Open for inspection A St. Louis County real estate deal deserves independent scrutiny.

S

2015. Stenger and the Glarners deny any t. Louis County taxpayers should connection between the lease and the welcome the County Council’s contributions. plan to ask federal prosecutors and The Glarners also have used their county Missouri’s attorney general to inlease as collateral for a $32 million loan, the vestigate a real estate deal at the Crossings council’s inquiry shows. at Northwest. The council’s ethics comIn supporting the lease, Stenger’s mittee recommended the examination in administration said it would save taxpaya 26-page report that County Executive Steve Stenger ridiculed as politically moti- ers $10 million, but a Post-Dispatch review showed that may be inaccurate. The newsvated and filled with inaccuracies. paper’s analysis showed the project could Controversy swirls around the county’s cost between $69 million and $77 million, 2016 deal with a pair of Stenger’s bigand not $50 million, as was publicly estigest donors for a 20-year lease for office mated. space at the former Northwest Plaza in Stenger adviser Paul Hampel criticized St. Ann. If the deal is great for the county, the council’s claim that the administration as Stenger has said repeatedly, he should had hidden a $2.4 million appropriation welcome the investigation as an opportunity to clear the air and get the contentious in last year’s budget to pay for some extra costs. He said the council had a pattern issue behind him.

The ethics committee also said it would recommend that the council consider terminating the lease with developers Robert and P. David Glarner, brothers who have donated at least $365,000 to Stenger’s campaign, an unprecedented amount in DAVID CARSON • dcarson@post-dispatch.com county politics.

The Crossings at Northwest, formerly known as Northwest The council is Plaza, as seen in 2016 in St. Ann. expected to act on of approving projects and then becoming the ethics report at its regular meeting politically motivated to oppose them.

Tuesday.

Council members have accused the Negotiations with the Glarners were administration of duping them on some unorthodox from the beginning. Career issues by deliberately burying key approvcounty government employees who rouals within other, more routine business tinely control real estate site selection and items. They acknowledge having approved negotiations testified in council hearings projects without rigorous review. The eththat they were excluded from the process. ics committee recommends that the counThey say they were brought in after the cil require that all lease proposals include Northwest Plaza site was selected and a detailed cost analysis, including costs of a lease already drafted by the St. Louis potential alternatives, before the council County counselor’s office. gets a final draft.

Stenger’s former campaign manager, Taxpayers should require transparency working as a special project manager for from elected officials to ensure that their the county, began an effort to relocate dollars are being spent fairly on county some county offices in 2015 that resulted business. An independent investigation in the Glarners’ lease. The Glarners also should bring much-needed clarity. began donating to Stenger’s campaign in

Media behemoths AT&T-Time Warner ruling underscores the weakness of antitrust laws.

U

bought NBCUniversal in 2011, the department was forced into an all-or-nothing posture. Judge Leon criticized the government’s case as exceptionally weak.

The AT&T-Time Warner deal is a “vertical” merger, in that most business aspects of the two companies do not overlap. Antitrust regulators traditionally have been less concerned with vertical mergers than horizontal ones, which consolidate companies in the same business. Leon’s decision almost surely will trigger a bidding war between Disney and Comcast for 20th Century Fox’s movie and television assets. It signals a green light for vertical mergers in the health care industry such as the proposed CVS-Aetna and CignaExpress Scripts combinations.

The cable industry’s biggest problem now are the so-called FAANG tech companies: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. They’ve got cable customers cutting their cords in favor of internet streaming services. AT&T might provide the internet service that streams the video, but that’s all it will do.

The government faces difficult changes regulating the techmedia sphere because the indusAP try changes so quickly. The bulk of Netflix’s business 10 years ago The logos for Time Warner and AT&T appear above alternate trading posts on the floor of the New York was DVD rentals. Amazon was just launching video on demand.

Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Today there are almost as many Amazon Prime members as there are cable DirectTV and U-Verse. AT&T will now customers. control programming, including HBO and The tech industry is regulated lightly, if Turner Broadcasting’s raft of cable netat all. This has promoted innovation and works, including CNN. growth but at the cost of massive consoliPresident Donald Trump, railing about dation as big companies swallowed the “fake news” on CNN, instructed the competition. It also created the conditions Justice Department to oppose the merger. for Russian hackers to intrude on the 2016 But the deal also drew opposition from election. The government has a hard time liberals, who complained that it would regulating that which it doesn’t underlead to higher prices and fewer choices for stand. It must get smarter. consumers.

Judge Leon was constrained by the Trump’s pique with CNN hamstrung weakness of current antitrust law. Mergers the Justice Department. Instead of reachchiefly benefit the investor class but are ing a compromise on anti-competitive bad news for most Americans. parts of the deal, as it did when Comcast .S. District Judge Richard J. Leon’s decision Tuesday to allow AT&T to complete its $85 billion takeover of Time Warner is a classic good-news/badnews development. Good in that the U.S. president was prevented from using the Department of Justice to punish a perceived enemy. Bad in that it not only further consolidates the media industry, it also opens the doors for more megamergers in other industries, reducing jobs and competition and potentially raising prices and stifling innovation.

AT&T, already the world’s largest telecommunications company measured by total assets, will add Time Warner to a TV and internet portfolio that includes

See editorial cartoons from around the country online at stltoday.com/opinion

YOUR VIEWS • LETTERS FROM OUR READERS State makes anemic investment in early childhood programs The news of two early childhood centers in St. Louis closing and a third cutting back its capacity (“Finding child care more challenging as 3 preschools close or scale back,” June 9) is most distressing.

As the article points out, there already is a shortage of quality early child care programs to meet the needs of working parents in the St. Louis area. The article cited the financial difficulties faced by these centers, including hiring and retaining qualified teachers.

Also noted is the necessity of schools and community child care providers collaborating to maximize opportunities for quality education for children.

Missouri’s anemic investment in early care and education contributes to the problem. It ranks behind most other states in the reimbursement it offers child care providers for caring for children from low-income families. At only $369 per month per child, this represents just 36 percent of the average cost. This contributes to the financial challenges of child care providers, and to their difficulty in retaining quality staff. Wages matter. The median income for a child care professional in Missouri is $18,840.

Quality early childhood programs are proven to help prepare children to succeed in school and contribute to their social and emotional development. These programs are especially needed by lowerincome working families who may not otherwise be able to afford them.

Providing quality early childhood programs is an investment in our future — one that results in more children succeeding in school, becoming productive members of our workforce, and growing into effective parents and citizens.

Katie Kaufmann and Sanaria Sulaiman • St. Louis Regional Early Childhood Council

Sessions tells governments to police their streets Regarding “Domestic abuse isn’t grounds for granting asylum, Sessions says” (June 12): Why must America keep paying for people and countries that don’t appreciate our generosity? Why must America always give in to emotional issues we didn’t create around the world? Why do other countries refuse to straighten out their internal strife, especially gang and drug crimes? I realize supply and demand, but the vast majority of violent behavior stems from illegal narcotics use and sale.

Bottom line, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is sending the signal for these governments to get it together and start policing their streets, because the new sheriff ain’t taking the overflow from their ineffective ability to lead.

Times, they are changing for the better, but now other countries have to actually work. Passing the buck to their rich neighbors in the north isn’t going to fly any more.

Paul Swigert • Florissant

Administration is arrogant, misguided on tariffs President Donald Trump’s and his staff’s response to Canada’s reciprocal tariffs on U.S. exports is probably best described as arrogant, irrational, ignorant, incompetent and misguided messages to satisfy an unsophisticated group of U.S. citizens.

The president placed new tariffs on Canadian exports of steel to the U.S. after previously excluding Canada. He declared the action was for national security but never explained the security threat caused by importing Canadian steel.

For the past 70 years, Canada has been a reliable ally who shares our values. Canada had no choice but to issue new retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in response to U.S. steel tariffs. Talk would have been a better course.

The lack of intelligent comprehension by the president and his staff is alarming.

They continue to look at the revenues in a balance of trade analysis and say that the U.S. is being cheated. The real number is earnings, not sales. The products and services exported by the U.S. generate significantly higher margins than the low-margin goods the U.S. imports.

Lastly does the president and his staff realize that many of our imports are manufactured by U.S. companies in other countries and then shipped to the U.S.?

Why hurt American companies?

Jim Zemenick • Webster Groves

LAURIE SKRIVAN • Post-Dispatch

Former St. Louis city police officer Jason Stockley arrives with his legal team on Aug. 1, 2017, at the Carnahan Courthouse.

Editorial shows bias against Stockley I am once again astounded by the willful ignorance and profound bias the editorial board demonstrates regarding the Jason Stockley decision (“Stockley: the sequel,” June 12).

In the wake of his exoneration via a bench trial, the editorial board seems to suggest that his loss of reputation, career and money at the hands of an overzealous, politically motivated prosecutor do not bear remuneration.

It is highly significant to understand that this case was brought under the guise of new evidence former Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce claimed to have obtained from investigators, specifically Kirk Deeken. But the Post-Dispatch reported (Sept. 30): “Deeken also testified in a sworn deposition in May that he knew of no new evidence given to former Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce as she had claimed when she charged Stockley last year with murdering drug suspect Anthony Lamar Smith in 2011.

Deeken said police had provided Joyce’s office with nothing new in the case since federal agencies finished reviewing it and declined to charge the officer, in 2012.” Of course, the editorial fails to address that fact.

The editorial board has offered nothing but racially charged platitudes designed to destroy Stockley, a West Point graduate and decorated combat veteran who chose to continue his life of public service as a police officer. I once again challenge the editorial board to show the Stockley decision was wrong based on the facts and the law. Of course, it cannot.

Stockley will win this civil suit easily, and justice will be served.

Matthew Petrocelli • Edwardsville Read more letters online at STLtoday.com/letters

TOD ROBBERSON Editorial Page Editor • trobberson@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8382 KEVIN HORRIGAN Deputy Editorial Page Editor • khorrigan@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8135

I know that my retirement will make no difference in its cardinal principles, that it will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty • JOSEPH PULITZER • APRIL 10, 1907 PLATFORM •

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