Rams coverage

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TUESDAY • 01.05.2016 • $1.50

THE RUSH IS ON TO LA

Rams, Chargers and Raiders all file for relocation

INGLEWOOD

CARSON

TEAM • St. Louis Rams COST • $1.9 billion FUNDING • Privately financed INCLUDES • $2.2 billion retail, housing and entertainment development SITE • The old Hollywood Park Racetrack

TEAMS • San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders COST • $1.8 billion FUNDING • Privately financed INCLUDES • NFL offices and parking SITE • Former dump

BY DAVID HUNN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Donations flood in to school

ST. LOUIS • After nearly two years of speculation, the St. Louis Rams have finally, officially applied to move to Los Angeles.

The National Football League confirmed receipt of the application late Monday.

The Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers also submitted a proposal.

The Rams, in a two-sentence statement, said only that the team informed the NFL of its proposal to relocate “to the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area” for the 2016 season.

The moves have long been expected. Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought land in Los Angeles County two years ago, and announced last year his plans to build a new stadium there. The Chargers and Raiders quickly followed suit, with plans for a two-team stadium in Carson, Calif.

Still, the official applications are momentous. The NFL has been absent from the country’s second-largest market since the Rams and Raiders left in 1994. League officials have worked hard to get a team moved this year.

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

See RAMS • Page A4

Fox High juniors Alissa Bennett (left), 16, and Erica Lengyel, 17, sort through a mountain of donated bags in the school media center Monday. Flood victims can pick up clothing and other items at the Arnold school from 4 to 7 p.m. through Friday.

Generosity inundates Fox High, helps victims of Meramec

BY KIM BELL St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ARNOLD • The community’s generosity is playing out in real time at Fox High School, where the library is overrun with stacks and stacks of donated clothes and cleaning items for victims of the Meramec River’s record flood.

Two juniors brainstormed with a teacher and the principal last Thursday about how they could best help.

“I thought maybe a couple boxes outside Walmart,” said Miranda Cuker, 17. “We’ve got to do something.”

They put the word out that the school would be accepting donated items for flood victims over the weekend. Principal Ryan Sherp said the school was going to be open anyway, because of a weekend wrestling

Fox High junior Nick Norris (right), 16, works at the end of a chain of students loading a trailer from Faith Community Church in House Springs. Thousands of cars lined up to bring donations to the school.

ST. LOUIS • Never underestimate the power of a few kind words.

Ally Dixon, 21, has a baby girl on the way. She has a pretty name picked out: Joelle Eliza, the Eliza for Elijah in the Bible. She has the due date: Jan. 12. Her boyfriend is excited to be a dad and a breadwinner to support them.

But she also has her worries. She has no family in town. Her mom died when she was 14. And she’s been

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Pitching in

agement penned by a volunteer through a new initiative in St. Louis called “Letters of Love.”

“When I got it, I was like, ‘A letter for me? Really?’”

Dixon said. “I got this letter See LETTERS • Page A9

See GUNS • Page A9

See SHELTER • Page A6

more — than any of them had envisioned.

On Saturday morning, cars loaded with donated bedding, toys, food, cleaning supplies and clothes jammed Jeffco Bou-

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See DONATIONS • Page A6

Obama looks to go around Congress, push new gun rules

BY DAVID NAKAMURA Washington Post

LOCAL • A4

PARTLY CLOUDY

TOMORROW

BY DOUG MOORE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

President Barack Obama’s administration on Monday unveiled a series of new executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence and hoping to make progress in one of the most frustrating policy areas of Obama’s tenure.

The package, which Obama plans to announce Tuesday, includes 10 separate provisions, White House officials said. One key proposal would require

match, so they figured they might as well have a half-dozen teachers and administrators on hand to help supervise the donation campaign.

The payoff was more — way

mostly on her own since moving from California to Kirkwood when she was 17.

“I’m kind of just floating, and I’m just nervous,” she said.

Recently she got a homemade gift from a stranger that didn’t cost a dime.

Yet it made her feel like she was part of a community of women, so much so that she burst out: “Pregnant women unite.”

It was a letter of encour-

Downtown residents want a resolution to repeated delays

Downtown residents fed up with City Hall’s failure to come up with a permanent spot for a homeless shelter will meet Tuesday night demanding solutions.

Their frustration centers on what they view as chronic delays by city leaders to address downtown homelessness — ones that could continue to direct the homeless population to a downtown church for months to come.

Residents who live near the Centenary United Methodist Church, in the city’s Downtown West neighborhood, said gunfire, fights, drug dealing, litter, public urination and defecation, prostitution and harassment are all constants they have to endure.

Laura Griffin said her 37-year-old son was attacked outside her loft in the 1600 block of Locust Street on Dec. 5 by two men. They beat him and took his wallet and cellphone.

“This is my life now. In my 10-plus years here, I have never had such issues or fear,” Griffin said in an email outlining some of the public safety problems she says are a result of the nearby church shelter, run by the nonprofit

Notes for moms-to-be aim to provide hope, improve health

BY NANCY CAMBRIA St. Louis Post-Dispatch

levard, stretching to Highway 141. About 3,000 cars Saturday came to drop off clothes and supplies. Arnold police were directing traffic; some of the wrestlers were helping to unload. Another 1,000 or so cars arrived Sunday before school officials started turning away donations, a few hundred at least, because they were running out of space.

The Service Center adjacent to the school, which normally has seating for 600 people, was full of bags and boxes of donated items. The high school cafeteria was half full, the teachers’ dining area completely full. Parents and community members came over the weekend to help sort.

The high school librarians surrendered their space, too.

Neighbors vexed over homeless shelter

Arch visitors are grounded until spring

Stock market off to sluggish start

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Oregon refuge standoff continues

• A16

Fisher bullish on future of Rams

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Blues lose to Senators, 3-2 in OT

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LOCAL

A4 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Arch visitors grounded till spring; hugs allowed

BY TIM O’NEIL St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • You can still “hug” the Gateway Arch.

It says so on the signs rolled out by park rangers Monday to remind visitors that the Arch is closed temporarily for construction of the new, expanded underground museum and visitors center. The current phase of that work is expected to keep the monument closed until sometime in the spring.

Meanwhile, the signs say, “You can still touch, hug and photograph the Arch.”

Until Monday, visitors still had been able to ride to the top during the $380 million reshaping of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial grounds. Access is possible only by walking in front of the Old Cathedral and between construction fences to the south leg.

Befitting a cold, windy Monday in January, few visitors dropped by to hug stainless steel, even if sunshine made it glisten.

Rangers said an occasional person dropping by hadn’t heard of the closing, but most were there just to look at the construction or the flooding on the Mississippi River.

They also took pictures, just like when the Arch is open for rides to the top. Krista Lawson, of Kirkwood, brought her brother, Ethan Hoppe, and his girlfriend, Callie Morgan, who were visiting from Loveland, Colo. They knew about the closing, but Morgan had never seen the Arch up close.

“I am impressed,” she said.

Her group, along with Lawson’s toddler, Christopher, then posed

And the end may be in sight: Key NFL owner committees are meeting Wednesday and Thursday in New York City to review the two applications, plus competing proposals to keep the teams in each hometown. The league’s full ownership is taking up the issue again — for the sixth and, perhaps, last time in a year — next week in Houston.

Several owners have said they hope to finally vote on one of the plans.

The owners, in their decision, will lean on a six-page list of NFL relocation guidelines.

The outcome may mean an end to football in St. Louis. The city has already lost one team — the Cardinals to Arizona in 1988. Many speculate that, if the Rams leave, St. Louis won’t land another.

Dave Peacock, co-chairman of Gov. Jay Nixon’s stadium task force here, cautioned on Monday against overreaction. “This is part of the process,” he said.

“It was fully expected. Thankfully, this process hopefully plays itself out by the end of next week.”

He said the task force will consider sending to the NFL a formal response to the Rams’ relocation filing.

The Raiders also released a short statement late Monday confirming the team’s submission.

Chargers owner Dean Spanos, however, commented at length on his decision, posting a video, a transcript and a statement on the team website.

DIGEST JEFFERSON CITY > GOP lawmakers call for professor’s ouster • More than 100 Republicans in the Missouri House want a Mizzou communications professor ousted after she was caught on camera bullying a student journalist in November.

Melissa Click, an assistant communications professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, helped lead activists forming a circle encompassing hundreds of yards to block reporters from an encampment on Mizzou’s Carnahan Quadrangle, following the November resignation of University of Missouri System President Timothy M. Wolfe.

A video that went viral showed Click calling out for “muscle” to help remove a student journalist

Side streets will maintain access to Gravois Avenue ‌

BY LEAH THORSEN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

CHRISTIAN GOODEN • cgooden@post-dispatch.com

National Parks Service rangers move items Monday from offices in the Gateway Arch to their temporary quarters in the Old Courthouse.

next to the Arch as another visiting family took photos for them.

A spokeswoman said the park plans in two or three weeks to

announce when it can reopen the Arch for rides. Completion of the new museum isn’t expected until 2017.

Stadium task force to weigh response to Rams’ filing RAMS • FROM A1

M 2 • Tuesday • 01.05.2016

“We have tried for more than 14 years, through n i n e s e p a ra te p ro p osa l s a n d seven different mayors, to creKroenke ate a world-class stadium experience for fans in San Diego,” Spanos said in the statement.

“Despite these “This is efforts, there is part of the still no certain, actionable soluprocess, It tion to the stawas fully expected.” dium problem.

We are sad to — Dave have reached this Peacock, co- point.” chairman of NFL staff dethe stadium clined to distask force cuss the details of the proposals received Monday, saying via a statement that “each team submitted the appropriate documentation in support of its application,” as required by NFL policy.

The teams had already largely unveiled their plans to the public.

Kroenke has proposed a privately funded $1.9 billion stadium set among more than $2 billion in shops, offices, town homes — even a 6,000-seat theater — at the old Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, Calif.

The Chargers and Raiders, on the other hand, have plans for a $1.8 billion football-focused facility just down the freeway.

In response, government offi-

from the area. The video sparked a national wave of criticism against Click and other activists.

A day later, Click resigned her courtesy appointment with the journalism school. But she retained her teaching job in communications.

“The fact that, as a professor teaching in the communication department and the school of journalism, she displayed such a complete disregard for the First Amendment rights of reporters should be enough to question her competency and aptitude for her job,” lawmakers said in a letter sent last month to the UM Board of Curators. (Alex Stuckey) SPRINGFIELD, MO. > Missouri State’s top black official resigns • Missouri State University’s top black official announced his

cials in Oakland, San Diego and St. Louis all mounted proposals to build and finance new stadiums, in hopes they might keep their teams in town.

St. Louis’ $1.1 billion stadium proposal is the only local effort, however, to finish planning in 2015. Nixon’s task force had to sidestep a few potential requirements, including public votes in the city and legislative votes at the state capital, and may have a few still to fight. Still, late last month, it proposed a riverfront stadium built with $400 million in state and city money.

San Diego city leaders, on the other hand, told the NFL they need a public vote to secure public cash. And early plans for a real estate development in Oakland fell apart.

The decision now is in the hands of the league’s 32 owners.

Three-quarters, or 24, have to approve any team’s move.

Owners will weigh the economic benefit to the league of each proposal. And they’ll compare those to a lengthy list of relocation guidelines, which include discussions of fan loyalty, previous relocations, previous tax incentives, club financial performance and stadium adequacy, among other issues.

Owners have also discussed charging a $550 million relocation fee per team, two sources close to the process confirmed on Monday. That figure, too, will require owner approval.

David Hunn • 314-340-8121 @davidhunn on Twitter dhunn@post-dispatch.com

resignation Monday, less than a week after the school said an investigation by outside attorneys found “no credible evidence” that the university discriminated against him.

The school released a statement saying Ken Coopwood, vice president of diversity and inclusion since October 2011, will be on leave until his resignation takes effect on April 30. Coopwood, the school’s first black vice president, said in the statement that he thought it best to pursue opportunities outside the school.

“There are many people at the university and throughout Springfield who are committed to ensuring that the Missouri State campus is known for being a place of inclusion, and I am confident that the good work will continue on campus and in the community

A plan fiercely opposed by many residents and businesses to shut off access to Gravois Avenue from some side streets is dead.

Any street closure must be approved by the city’s Board of Aldermen, which didn’t happen, said Andrew Gates, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation.

So the agency decided to move forward on a road-improvement project that does not include shutting off any side streets.

“There really wasn’t much of an appetite for street closures without a bigger plan for what we’re going to do with Gravois as far as making it more pedestrian-friendly and a safer street,” said Alderman Jack Coatar, whose ward includes a portion of the road.

Alderman Cara Spencer said her ward, which includes the Gravois Park and Dutchtown neighborhoods and is about a square mile, has 46 single blocks of one-way streets.

She called for more data collection to determine a plan for making decisions such as which streets are one-ways and get closed, and said pedestrians need more time to safely cross Gravois than they have now.

Because Gravois is a diagonal road that cuts through the standard street grid, side streets often enter Gravois within 50 feet of each other. That means that at intersections with signals, there are six legs of traffic at one

intersection instead of the normal four.

MoDOT, which maintains the state-owned road that is part of Highway 30, had said reducing the number of entrances to Gravois would help keep the flow of traffic steadier and reduce the areas where pedestrians have to cross roads along Gravois.

The streets that would have lost access were southbound Tennessee Avenue; southbound Louisiana Avenue; northbound and southbound Pennsylvania Avenue; eastbound and westbound Lynch Street; eastbound and westbound Shenandoah Avenue; and eastbound and westbound Wyoming Street.

Other streets that eventually could have been cut off from Gravois included Juniata Street, Oregon Avenue, Virginia Avenue, Sidney Street and Ann Avenue.

But that doesn’t mean controversy over the future of Gravois is done. The goals of the revised project on the road are to improve signals and repair and resurface the road — and while that work is being done, MoDOT said it can consider changes to striping and signals.

Any mention of changes to lanes on the road, including bike lanes, also has generated disagreement.

An open-house style public meeting will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Jan. 12 at the Five Star Senior Center, 2832 Arsenal Street.

Leah Thorsen • 314-340-8320 @leahthorsen on Twitter lthorsen@post-dispatch.com

LAW & ORDER BERKELEY > Man charged with murder • William C. Clarett, 33, was charged Friday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the shooting of Travis Hayden on April 22 in Berkeley.

Police said Clarett, of the 6100 block of Shillington Lane in Berkeley, followed Hayden in a car into a driveway in the Clarett 8000 block of Busiek Avenue about 12:30 p.m., chased him on foot and fired several times as the victim lay on the ground. Hayden, 28, lived in Kinloch.

Clarett was held in lieu of $1 million cash-only bail. Police said the crime was not random but have not revealed a motive.

EAST ST. LOUIS > Death may be murder • Lenear McKissick, 36, was found dead in her apartment Saturday in what may be the first homicide of 2016 in East St. Louis, police said. Officers were called to her home in the 2900 block of Waverly Avenue about 11 a.m.

Police said they believe she was slain but were awaiting autopsy results for the cause of death.

McKissick’s son had called police asking them to check on her, said Sgt. Lester Anderson.

Officials believe she had been dead at least 24 hours. Anderson said detectives were questioning a “person of interest.”

EAST ST. LOUIS > Person held after killing • Police Chief Michael Hubbard said Monday that detectives had at least one “person of interest” in custody in a New Year’s Eve drive-by fatal shooting. Johnnie Brim, 16, was hit by shots from a passing vehicle about 6:30 p.m. Thursday as he sat on a front porch of a friend’s house in the 1600 block

after my departure,” Coopwood said.

The Missouri State Board of Governors hired three Springfield attorneys in December to investigate after an online petition alleged that Coopwood was subjected to “despicable and hostile” behavior by his staff. His supporters also alleged that the school administration discriminated against Coopwood and marginalized him by restructuring his job a year ago.

The full report wasn’t publicly released. In a summary released last week, investigators wrote: “Based upon our investigation, we find no credible evidence which leads us to conclude that Dr. Coopwood has been discriminated against because of his race in connection to his employment at the university.” (AP)

of Wilford Avenue. He died shortly after 10 p.m. at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis.

MADISON COUNTY > Shots wound child in house • A toddler playing on the living room floor of his home near Granite City was hit by one of several shots fired into the front of the residence about 12:15 a.m.

Sunday, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office said.

The child, 3, was treated and released at a hospital and was expected to make a full recovery, deputies said. It happened in the 4700 block of Warnock Avenue, near the northeast edge of Granite City. Family members took the child to a hospital.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the sheriff’s dispatch line, 618-692-4433, or anonymous tip line, 618-2963000.

EAST ST. LOUIS > Fire victims were mother, son, boyfriend • The three people killed in a house fire about 1:30 p.m. Sunday were Kendra Williams, 27; her son, Jayden Harris, 4; and Williams’ boyfriend, Chantez Reynolds, 32, officials said. The names were previously released, but not the ages or relationships.

Neighbors helped several others escape from the burning two-story frame house in the 2000 block of North 43rd Street.

Williams and Reynolds were found in a bedroom, Jayden in the living room. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Lynn Sherrod, the aunt of Chantez Reynolds, said he worked at a Walmart and was the father of a baby Williams was expecting.

They had been in a relationship since last fall. Reynolds was not the father of Jayden but was the father of two other children from a previous relationship, who were not present at the fire.

URBANA, ILL. > University OKs deal for jilted professor • The University of Illinois has finalized a $600,000 legal settlement with a professor who lost his job offer over a series of anti-Israel tweets.

The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that the settlement with Steven Salaita was finalized Dec. 24 after all parties signed it.

Officials say motions to dismiss Salaita’s state and federal lawsuits against the university will follow after he receives his payments by early February. The school’s total payment will be $875,000, $600,000 plus $275,000 in attorneys’ fees. The university admitted no wrongdoing.

Salaita was offered a job starting in fall 2014 but the university rescinded the offer over messages on Twitter objecting to Israeli action against Palestinians. (AP)

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UNDER THE GUN Obama sets the stage for the final year of his presidency by announcing gun restrictions. Republican lawmakers are pushing back, as the divisive issue arises in an already tumultuous campaign year.

Kroenke blasts region in relocation proposal Economic health • Says area isn’t able to support 3 pro teams Attendance • Below average despite ‘significant’ investment St. Louis stadium plan • Will lead to a team’s ‘financial ruin’

BY DAVID HUNN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • The St. Louis region is losing population and lags in economic drivers to such a degree that it cannot support three professional sports teams, St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke told the National Football League in his proposal to move to Los Angeles.

Moreover, despite “significant” investments in the team, game attendance “has been well below the League’s average,” Kroenke continued in the league submission, obtained late Tuesday by the Post-Dis- Kroenke patch.

And the local plan to build a $1.1 billion riverfront stadium? “Any NFL Club that signs on to this proposal in St. Louis will be well on the road to financial ruin, and the League will be harmed,” the application said.

In contrast, Kroenke’s proposal to build a $1.9 billion, 3 million-square-foot football palace in Inglewood, Calif., provides the league with “the best economic opportunity in Los Angeles,” it said.

See STADIUM • Page A6

Neighbor shooting in his yard struck woman, suit says Matriarch’s death ‘is not going to go by unnoticed,’ family asserts ASSOCIATED PRESS

A tear wells up in President Barack Obama’s eye as he speaks Tuesday at the White House about the youngest victims of the Sandy Hook shootings, while detailing steps his administration is taking to reduce gun violence.

More gun sellers would need to be licensed and required to conduct background checks $500 million would be devoted to treating those with mental illness Firearms lost in transit would have to be reported to federal authorities

‘Driving while gay’?

Bill would ask officers to try to gather that data, too

BY KEVIN McDERMOTT St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • For the past 15 years, police offi-

cers in Missouri have been required to record the ethnicity of drivers they stop on the roads, so the information can be examined for evidence of racial profiling.

Reams of data now indicate that “driving while black” is a real offense in the eyes of some Missouri officers and departments.

But “driving while gay”?

New state legislation unveiled Tuesday would expand the current process of data collection that police officers in Missouri are required to follow during traffic stops to include not just

BY JOEL CURRIER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS COUNTY • Four relatives of an 84-year-

can Congress are starting 2016 on one of the country’s most divisive issues: the availability of guns in an era of mass shootings.

In a speech touting executive actions that the White House concedes will not be a panacea in stopping gun violence, Obama said Tuesday that he would issue executive orders requiring tighter federal oversight of gun sales; step up efforts to increase gun safety; devote $500 million for mental illness treatment; and require more stringent reporting of lost and stolen guns.

old south St. Louis County woman fatally shot last summer while sitting on her back porch filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against the neighbor they believe killed her.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in St. Louis County Circuit Court accuses Raymond O. Bodicky, 77, of killing Betty Lou Knight on June 26 while shooting his gun in his backyard.

Bodicky is a retired widower with no criminal history in Missouri, Knight court records show. Reached by phone at his home Tuesday, Bodicky declined to comment and wouldn’t say if he had an attorney.

See GUNS • Page A7

See LAWSUIT • Page A6

BY CHUCK RAASCH • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

WASHINGTON • President Barack Obama and the Republi-

U.S. auto sales hit an all-time high in 2015

Salads: A fresh start to the new year

LET’S EAT

TODAY

RECORD SALES 2015

17.47 MILLION

PAST HIGH 2000

17.35 MILLION

See GAY • Page A4

BY LISA BROWN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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Automobile buyers turned out in droves in 2015, helping push U.S. sales to an alltime record.

Low gas prices and easy credit made buying a new car more attractive and affordable, driving U.S. vehicle sales to 17.47 million last year, according to data released Tuesday by research firm AutoData. That topped the previous record of 17.35 million set in 2000.

It’s the sixth year in a row auto sales grew in the U.S., the first time that’s happened since the 1920s, according

TOMORROW

Caregiver’s lawyers seek to oust prosecutors • A4

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Brain trauma found in former MU player

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Ken Griffey Jr. a shoo-in for Hall of Fame • B1

Snap judgment

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Man shooting in his yard killed neighbor by mistake, suit alleges LAWSUIT • FROM A1

The suit was filed by Knight’s husband of 65 years, Dale A. Knight, and their three children — Cindy Johnson, 60, and Gay Turner, 54, both of south St. Louis County, and Dale A. Knight Jr., 63, of suburban Tampa, Fla. The suit accuses Bodicky of “negligently and carelessly” killing Betty Knight by shooting a gun across private property, in violation of county ordinance and state law.

Knight died on her back porch in the 5000 block of Crosswood Drive with her husband at her side. Police ruled out Knight’s husband as a suspect but have said very little publicly about the case. It has remained officially unsolved, though Knight’s family and some neighbors have long suspected Bodicky.

“We’re not the suing kind of family, but I want justice for my mom,” Johnson said Tuesday. “He’s not just going to sit in his house and enjoy the rest of his life. If he would have come forward, none of this would be happening.”

Knight’s family has said a bullet sailed through a half-wall of the covered back porch about 3:30 p.m., zipped past Dale Knight and struck his wife in the neck as she scanned Facebook on her iPad. The backyards of Crosswood Drive touch those of Lampglow Court, where Bodicky lives.

St. Louis County police have never made an arrest but did take the case to prosecutors in August, apparently under the theory that a stray bullet had hit Knight. Prosecutors declined to issue charges against Bodicky because of insufficient evidence.

Police said this week that they had finished their investigation.

Several neighbors interviewed by the Post-Dispatch said that shortly af-

Kroenke blasts market in relocation proposal STADIUM • FROM A1

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

Three generations of Betty Knight’s family talk about her in June outside of Knight’s home in Oakville. They are (from left) Knight’s daughter Cindy Johnson; Knight’s grandchildren Ryan Shanahan and Kelly Miller; and Knight’s great-granddaughter Nora Miller, who is the daughter of Kelly Miller.

ter the shooting, detectives collected guns from nearby homes for ballistics testing and questioned people about Bodicky’s reported habit of shooting squirrels in his backyard.

Authorities served a search warrant at Bodicky’s home, but documents related to the search are sealed. Police have told the Knight family they were unable to find a gun that matched the bullet that killed Knight.

The Knight family’s lawyer, John A. Kilo, said he thought investigators had done a good job finding enough evidence to show that Bodicky’s actions had caused Knight’s death.

“Our investigation reveals that (Bodicky) had a habit of shooting squirrels from his backyard and was shooting at squirrels on that day,” Kilo said.

Bodicky worked for Sherwood Medical, a medical and surgical device maker acquired by Tyco in 1998, and patented a method of manufacturing a soft-tip catheter.

Among recent public postings on Bodicky’s Facebook page is a link to an article from a conser-

vative blog on the threat posed to gun rights by a new California law.

Betty Knight’s relatives have described her as the family matriarch, a grandmother of nine and greatgrandmother of five.

They said she was a stayat-home mother most of her life, in “perfect health,” and was planning to travel the world in her remaining years.

She loved watching birds, gardening, knitting and doting on her husband, who has suffered anger, confusion, depression and anxiety since his wife’s death.

The lawsuit, her family says, is not about money.

They say it’s to stand up for their mother, to help their father and to hold Bodicky accountable.

“My mom’s death is not going to go by unnoticed,” Johnson said. “We’re doing this for Mom.” Joel Currier • 314-340-8256 @joelcurrier on Twitter jcurrier@post-dispatch.com

M 1 • Wednesday • 01.06.2016

The document is part of a proposal required by league relocation guidelines. The NFL declined to release it publicly. The Rams, however, agreed to do so.

Its 29 pages amount to both a gushing celebration of Kroenke’s Los Angeles stadium plan and a scathing review of the future economic well-being of St. Louis.

Kroenke’s stadium is designed for two teams, is shovel-ready, can open by 2019, and would be the largest in the NFL, the application said. “We believe an Inglewood Super Bowl could generate as much as $50 million more in League revenue than the Carson proposed stadium …,” it said.

St. Louis, on the other hand, “lags, and will continue to lag, far behind in the economic drivers that are necessary for sustained success of an NFL franchise,” the application said.

Dave Peacock, cochairman of Gov. Jay Nixon’s riverfront stadium task force, responded late Tuesday, arguing that St. Louis is a good market.

The Rams’ analysis of the St. Louis plan contains “inconsistencies and inaccuracies,” he said.

Plus, the team picked St. Louis statistics they wanted to use. “And that’s probably not surprising,” Peacock said. “Their job is not to give a balanced argument.”

Plenty of other cities — Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Buffalo — don’t have the same growth you see in California or Texas, “yet they’re very good NFL markets,” Peacock said.

It’s not just about market size, he continued.

It’s about the team’s performance, on and off the field.

“The St. Louis Cardinals outperform their market size, and the Blues, with new engaged ownership, have dramatically changed their economics in the last few years,” Peacock said.

But Kroenke’s application doesn’t rest on economics alone. It carefully builds a devastating argument that his L.A. proposal is better than his competitors’, that he has a contractual right to leave St. Louis and that a Rams’ move would make the league stronger.

Kroenke and his staff sent the proposal Monday to the NFL. The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders also filed Monday, proposing a twoteam stadium in Carson, a dozen miles south of Inglewood.

But the Rams publicly released just a two-sentence statement notifying the public of the submission.

Fans here were irritated. The public authority that runs the Edward Jones Dome wanted to see Kroenke’s application, too, and wrote to the NFL. Late Tuesday, Rams executive vice president Kevin Demoff provided the document.

In it, Kroenke describes building a “world-class, iconic structure,” akin to those in Dallas and Minneapolis. It is designed with 70,000 fixed seats, plus 30,000 standing for large events. A clear roof protects fans, but open sides allow for “an outdoor fan experience.”

And the facility, surrounded by 8.5 million square feet of office, hotel and dining space, would serve “as the epicenter for a NFL retail and entertainment district,” according to the document.

The Rams are the right team to fill the stadium, the document says, with

the “longest and strongest” connection to L.A. fans.

Moreover, Kroenke argues, the Rams have a contractual right to leave St. Louis.

St. Louis promised the team a first-tier football stadium without delivering, the application says.

The Jones Dome is among the worst stadiums in professional sports, Kroenke said, and the team has negotiated with the stadium authority for years to get improvements.

But perhaps the most scathing section of the application comes at the end, when it attacks St. Louis.

It calls San Diego and Oakland “significantly more attractive markets than St. Louis.” San Diego is the 12th most attractive metropolitan area in the country, it says, and Oakland’s gross domestic product is expected to rise above San Francisco’s in 10 to 15 years.

St. Louis’ recent economic growth, on the other hand, ranks 61st among the largest 64 U.S. cities, according to the document. And it has the lowest rate of population growth of any major U.S. city since 2008.

“Compared to all other U.S. cities, St. Louis is struggling,” the application says.

Key owner committees are set to review the application this week in New York. The league’s full ownership will take up the issue, and may finally vote, in Houston next week.

Peacock, the St. Louis stadium task force cochairman, hopes they’ve done their homework: “I would love for our submission and our plan to get its fair day in review.”

David Hunn • 314-340-8121 @davidhunn on Twitter dhunn@post-dispatch.com

U.S. auto sales hit all-time high in 2015 as economy rebounds cars and trucks.

Ford was the best-selling individual brand for the sixth straight year, with sales of just over 2.5 million.

Volkswagen, meanwhile, saw sales plummet after it admitted in September that its diesel cars cheated on U.S. emissions tests.

VW’s sales fell 5 percent for the year.

Low gas prices spurred sales of small SUVs, which became the largest segment of the market, at 14 percent, beating out small and midsize cars, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Unlike 2000, when the midsize Ford Explorer SUV was the nation’s third-best seller, small SUVs such as the Honda CR-V are the now the vehicle of choice.

Honda sold more than 900 CR-Vs every day in 2015; sales of the Nissan Rogue small SUV jumped 44 percent.

But low gas prices also claimed some victims in 2015: small cars, hybrids and electrics.

Sales of Nissan’s Leaf electric car dropped 43 percent last year to just over 17,000, while Toyota

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to TrueCar, a website that tracks car pricing.

“There’s been a significant move to crossover vehicles and trucks, and the economy is getting better,” said Brad Sowers, coowner of the Jim Butler Auto Group, which owns several Missouri dealerships. New car sales at Jim Butler Chevrolet in Fenton rose to 2,822 last year, up from 2,228 in 2014.

At Jim Butler Maserati, which opened in a temporary location in Crestwood last year, the dealership sold 14 of the luxury vehicles priced up to $200,000 in the last four months of 2015, beating the dealership’s owners’ expectations for its first year in operation.

“St. Louis is not a flashy town, and we’ve done better than anticipated,” Sowers said of the luxury Italian automaker sales. The Maserati dealership and a new Alfa Romeo dealership are slated to open in a permanent location in August.

“Consumers are feeling very confident in the economy, and there are more products than ever, particularly with SUV and truck models,” said Akshay Anand, senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book, the California-based vehicle valuation and automotive research firm.

At the Mungenast Automotive Family, which owns five car dealerships in the region selling Toyota, Acura and other imports, sales were up 3 percent in 2015 versus 2014, according to spokesman Donald Levin.

“It just was one of those years where people had more money to spend on transportation,” Levin said.

Analysts and dealers said they expected sales to be strong in 2016 but at a slower pace.

“A lot of consumers put off buying cars in 2008, 2009 and 2010 because of

the recession,” Anand said.

“The average age of vehicles now is over 11 years old, and many consumers waited until the time is right.”

John and Peggy Osman of Waterloo spent Tuesday afternoon at the Mungenast St. Louis Honda dealership in south St. Louis County deciding whether to buy a new Honda Accord or a CR-V compact sport utility vehicle.

Whether to buy new wasn’t a question — the couple always trade in their car every three to four years for a new model.

“We don’t want to inherit somebody else’s problems,” John Osman said.

Laurel Spencer, 26, of Wildwood, shopped Tuesday in Fenton for a new Chevrolet Cruze compact car to replace the Cruze she’s leased for three years.

“It’s nice because gas prices are low, and it’s cheap to fill up,” she said.

Based on the December sales data released Tuesday, General Motors led all automakers in the U.S. last year, with sales up 5 percent to just over 3 million

Ecco • Rockport • Dunham • Cobb Hill • Clarks • Trotters

AUTOS • FROM A1

Prius hybrid sales fell 11 percent to about 185,000.

Subcompact cars were also hurting. Chevrolet Sonic sales fell 31 percent for the year.

Mercedes-Benz took the crown as the top-selling luxury brand in 2015. Mercedes’ sales rose 4 percent to 380,461, a U.S. record for the brand. BMW and Lexus were close behind.

Even during the recession, luxury vehicle sales held steady, never dropping below 12 percent of the U.S. auto market.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Lisa Brown • 314-340-8127 @lisabrownstl on Twitter lbrown@post-dispatch.com

U.S. VEHICLE SALES BY MAJOR AUTOMAKERS Toyota numbers include Lexus sales; Nissan includes Infinity; Honda includes Acura.

(SOURCE: Companies’ filings and Reuters calculations) AUTOMAKER 2015 2014 % CHANGE 3,082,366 2,935,008 5.0 General Motors Ford Motor 2,613,162 2,480,942 5.3 Toyota Motor 2,499,313 2,373,771 5.3 Fiat Chrysler 2,243,907 2,090,639 7.3 Honda Motor 1,586,551 1,540,872 3.0 Nissan 1,484,918 1,386,895 7.1 761,710 725,718 5.0 Hyundai Kia 625,818 580,234 7.9 Subaru 582,675 513,693 13.4 BMW 404,537 395,850 2.2 Mercedes 380,461 366,589 3.8 Volkswagen 349,440 366,970 (4.8) 319,184 305,801 4.4 Mazda Motor 202,202 182,011 11.1 Audi Mitsubishi 95,342 77,643 22.8 Jaguar Land Rover 85,048 67,238 26.5 Volvo 70.047 56,366 24.3 51,756 47,007 10.1 Porsche TOTAL 17,438,437 16,493,247 5.7

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 • 01.12.2016 • $1.50

COMMENTARY

Here we go again, St. Louis Jim Thomas has written about the NFL for the PostDispatch since 1991 and has covered every Rams game since their arrival in 1995. As relocation to LA looms over the franchise, he reminisces about the good and bad.

Heavy debt burdened miner even before prices, demand fell

BY JIM THOMAS St. Louis Post-Dispatch

St. Louisan James Busch Orthwein had just sold the New England Patriots to Robert Kraft, who was committed to keeping the team in the Boston area.

Months earlier, the St. Louis expansion bid had crashed and burned in spectacular fashion.

Carolina and Jacksonville were awarded the two franchises.

So even with construction of a $300 million domed stadium well underway, St. Louis’ hopes for an NFL franchise appeared doomed.

With that in mind, I met with Post-Dispatch deputy sports editor Mike Smith to plan the future. My future, actually.

Smith, now the P-D’s assistant sports editor/online, suggested I help with our Cardinals See RAMS • Page A4

ARCH COAL FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY

BY JACOB BARKER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

FREDERICKSON: NFL RESCUING OAKLAND WOULD BE A BITTER PILL FOR ST. LOUIS • B1 GORDON: NFL OWNERS WHO MOVE ARE AN ECCENTRIC LOT • B5 LIVE UPDATES OF THE NFL OWNERS MEETINGS IN HOUSTON • STLTODAY.COM/RAMS

Arch Coal, the nation’s second-largest coal miner, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, becoming the latest company to succumb to cheap natural gas and federal regulations.

Falling demand for coal and lower prices have already sent several major coal companies to bankruptcy court. But Creve Coeur-based Arch was also buckling under a heavy debt load taken on before coal prices fell, and many expected a bankruptcy filing after it failed to reach an agreement with creditors to restructure debt outside of the courts.

Still, the move sent ripples through an industry with a

large corporate presence in the region. St. Louis-based Peabody Energy’s shares fell by 20 percent as investors worried the country’s largest coal miner, also saddled with heavy debt, might be next to fall. Shares of St. Louis-based Foresight Energy, a leading miner in the Illinois Basin, slid 21 percent.

The hard line taken by some of Arch’s creditors to a restructuring outside of bankruptcy could indicate other coal creditors may be unwilling to negotiate, said Kris Inton, a Morningstar financial analyst. Peabody last month disclosed it was in talks to restructure some of its $6.3 billion in debt.

“Arch tried really hard to find a way to restructure outside of See COAL • Page A6

CLEANING UP FROM RECORD FLOODS

CHRISTIAN GOODEN • cgooden@post-dispatch.com

Steve Flannery (left), of Pacific, shows a pair of Red Cross aid assessment workers around South Third Street Monday in Pacific, where he owns several properties. A federal and state program called “Operation Recovery,” being coordinated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Missouri National Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, began curbside removal of flood-damaged debris in the area Monday. Damage assessments for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance Program, available to public entities and eligible nonprofit organizations, are also to begin this week.

Champion of Ferguson Brian Fletcher dies suddenly

$21 million gift will endow Art Museum’s leadership

BY STEPHEN DEERE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

BY DAVID HUNN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

FERGUSON • As businesses burned, protesters converged and a city evolved into a symbol, Brian P. Fletcher left no doubt where he stood: He loved Ferguson.

He loved it so much that he emblazoned that phrase on yard signs, T-shirts, hats and koozies.

A group he organized sold the Fletcher items in such great numbers that what began as a public relations campaign to restore the city’s tarnished image morphed into a fundraising effort. It generated more than $130,000 for businesses

ST. LOUIS • Two of the region’s most prolific donors have given the St. Louis Art Museum its largest single cash gift ever.

Barbara Taylor, former president of the Art Museum board, and husband Andy Taylor, executive chairman of Enterprise Holdings, donated $21 million to endow the museum’s directorship, effective Jan. 1.

The money comes on the heels of $5 million from the Taylors for the museum’s new sculpture garden and more than $10 million the couple gave for the museum’s new wing.

This donation, however, is focused on funding the museum’s top position, currently held by Director Brent

See FLETCHER • Page A6

See MUSEUM • Page A4

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LOCAL

A4 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 1 • Tuesday • 01.12.2016

Day shelter will remain at church Downtown neighbors air concerns at meeting; city pledges stronger police presence

BY DOUG MOORE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A day shelter for the homeless will stay put at a downtown church through the end of June, despite strong opposition by neighbors.

The congregation of Centenary United Methodist Church voted Sunday to continue housing the shelter run by the Bridge Outreach, a nonprofit.

“Through the years, we have remained committed to a constantly changing neighborhood, including those less fortunate than ourselves,” said the Rev. Kathleen Wilder, senior pastor at Centenary. “It is our calling from Christ to serve all in our midst.”

However, in a press release, the church made it clear the congregation eventually wants out of the shelter business.

“The lease is slated to begin

this month and will conclude on June 30, 2016 with no options for extensions,” the release states.

Residents and business owners argue that a patchwork of services and temporary shelters is not effective and damaging more than a decade of work transforming downtown into one of the city’s fastest-growing neighborhoods. If the Centenary congregation would have voted against an extension, the Bridge would have moved a few blocks into a building at 1520 Market Street, often referred to as City Hall West.

Resident Lauralyn Parmelee said the decision by the church was disappointing and will do nothing to improve homeless services or the neighborhood around the church.

Laura Griffin, who lives in the 1600 block of Locust Street, called the decision to keep the Bridge at Centenary “good peo-

ple trying to do good things but not having the education or experience to truly have a worthwhile and effective program.”

While the city has promised a stronger police presence, with no fewer than two officers in the area at all times, Griffin argues that will only “drive the drug dealers, users, pimps and prostitutes down our more residential streets where lighting is poor, and they can better hide, making our lives even more worrisome.”

In October, the Bridge and city leaders began looking for a temporary space to house the nonprofit, settling on the Market Street building, which houses the city’s public health department, municipal courts and other offices. The Bridge was supposed to be out of the church by the end of December to make way for another longterm tenant, a charter school.

But that deal fell through.

However, a day before the move from Centenary to Market Street, Eddie Roth, the city’s human services director, told the Post-Dispatch that there had been a change of plans. An anonymous donor had stepped up, making it possible to keep the day shelter at Centenary, with the $100,000 used to pay rent, utilities and other expenses.

Roth has said the donation would allow the services to continue uninterrupted at the church while the city continues its efforts to open a permanent, 24-hour facility for the homeless that would combine the day services now offered at Centenary with those of an overnight shelter the city runs out of its 12th and Park Recreation Center.

But downtown residents argue that the city is dragging its feet, content to continue with temporary fixes for homeless services while residents have to

Rams beat writer has seen it all RAMS • FROM A1

baseball coverage.

You know, it looks like the Rams are serious about moving from Los Angeles, I replied.

Why don’t we let this calendar year play out, monitor that, and see what happens? He agreed to that course of action.

That was 22 years ago this month.

So there was a time during which if I showed up in another town, that town’s NFL team was in jeopardy of moving elsewhere. In Foxborough, Mass., when Orthwein still owned the Pats, I did a pregame radio interview on the team’s flagship station.

There was a possibility that Orthwein could move the Patriots to the Midwest. Gil Santos, the team’s esteemed broadcaster at the time, was professional and courteous as could be asking questions. As soon as the interview ended and the station went to commercial break, Santos turned to me with a stern look and a sharp tongue: “Why are you trying to take our team? Why don’t you go get the Rams? I hear they might be leaving.”

I explained to Santos that I wasn’t trying to take anyone’s team; I was just doing my job.

Turned out he was right about the Rams leaving. Although you’d never know it from the first time I met Rams president John Shaw — in the visiting team owner’s box at Arrowhead Stadium in 1994.

The Rams were playing the Kansas City Chiefs that day.

“I don’t know why you guys are here,” was how Shaw greeted me and a former P-D columnist. “We’re not moving to St. Louis; we’re moving to Baltimore.”

Shaw was always a kidder, in a devious sort of way. He also had a reputation as one of the NFL’s brightest minds, helping to create the free agency and salary cap systems that are a staple of the league today.

He also loved the art of the deal, negotiating the stadium lease and the terms of the Rams’ departure from Southern California to St. Louis.

Those negotiations included a “first-tier” clause which stipulated that the St. Louis stadium must be maintained at a level among the top eight stadiums in the league, to be measured every 10 years.

If the stadium didn’t meet “first-tier” provisions, the Rams could break the lease.

Well, we know what’s happened from there. St. Louis again is in jeopardy of losing an NFL team.

This has been a recurring theme over the past 30 years.

Bill Bidwill’s Cardinals left for the Arizona desert in 1988. The ill-fated expansion effort of the early ’90s was followed by the pursuit of the Rams, and now, the effort to keep the Rams.

Here we go again, St. Louis.

St. Louis always seems to be scrambling to prove its NFL worth; the NFL always seems lukewarm about St. Louis as a league market. Strangely, some of the same characters are still around from 1991, the year I began covering the NFL for the Post-Dispatch during the height of the expansion process.

• In 1993, as St. Louis’ expansion effort was imploding, local civic leaders contacted a

deal with public safety and nuisance issues such as drug dealing, prostitution, harassment, public urination, litter and fights. The outrage escalated to a meeting last week of the St. Louis Downtown Neighborhood Association.

Roth, through a text message, said Monday he had no comment.

Mary Ellen Ponder, Slay’s chief of staff, said in a statement Monday that the city’s priority now is to “help the Bridge, wherever it is located, to be a good neighbor.”

“The city has a primary responsibility to care for our own most vulnerable residents,” the statement said. “The weather punctuates that responsibility with urgency. The vast majority of city residents understand that.”

Doug Moore • 314-340-8125 @dougwmoore on Twitter dmoore@post-dispatch.com

Cost of museum directors in U.S. has been rising MUSEUM • FROM A1

CHRIS LEE • clee@post-dispatch.com

Rams coach Scott Linehan (left) talks with Post-Dispatch sportswriter Jim Thomas as they ride on the back of a golf cart in Rams training camp in 2008 at Concordia University in Mequon, Wis.

THE HOUSTON SOLUTION NFL OWNERS MEET THIS WEEK • They will discuss, and likely vote, on moving the Rams, San Diego Chargers or Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles.

WHEN • The Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities met Monday to discuss a possible committee recommendation. The full ownership meets Tuesday and Wednesday.

WHERE • The Westin Hotel in suburban Houston.

WHY • Los Angeles has been without an NFL team since the Rams and Raiders left after the 1994 season. Owners have worked for a year to get a team back in the country’s second-largest market.

THE VOTE • One owner may vote from each of the 32 National Football League teams. League guidelines say a team must receive at least 24 votes to relocate.

Houston businessman about possibly stepping in as the money man on their proposed ownership team.

His name was Bob McNair.

Things didn’t work out with St. Louis, but he went on to own the expansion Houston Texans.

Now a member of the league’s Los Angeles Opportunities committee, McNair raised St. Louis’ hopes of keeping the Rams last month when he told the Houston Chronicle: “St. Louis, they have come up with a proposal that’s getting pretty close in my opinion to being an attractive proposal.”

• In the early ’90s, a young, midlevel NFL executive was entrusted with overseeing the expansion process. A small group of reporters from the five cities seeking expansion teams kidded him on more than one occasion that he would some day be NFL commissioner. He didn’t like the joke.

H i s n a m e wa s Roge r Goodell. He is now NFL commissioner, and on Saturday he issued a report to club owners stating that St. Louis’ stadium proposal to keep the Rams was inadequate and that the Rams have met relocation guidelines.

• In the 11th hour of the area’s expansion effort in the fall of ’93, civic and business leaders hastily recruited a wealthy, media-shy Missourian to add financial punch to the project.

His name was Stan Kroenke.

Although the expansion effort failed, Kroenke later purchased 40 percent of the Rams,

paving the way for the team’s move from Los Angeles to St. Louis. In 2010, he became majority owner and talked about how he was a Missouri man and would do everything in his power to keep the team in St. Louis.

Last week, in the Rams’ application for relocation, Kroenke issued a scathing rebuke of St. Louis, portraying the Gateway to the West as a dying town and saying the proposed stadium plan would mean “financial ruin” to anyone who owned a team playing in it. Now, after taking advantage of the first-tier clause negotiated by Shaw, he needs 24 votes this week in Houston from club owners to move the Rams back to Los Angeles.

431 GAMES As for Shaw, he’s semi-retired and living in Los Angeles, oddly enough serving as an unofficial consultant to San Diego owner and good friend Dean Spanos, who’s trying to move the Chargers to L.A. and as such is a Kroenke rival.

If Kroenke gets his way, it will be over for the Rams in St. Louis after 431 games. That total includes preseason, regular season and postseason contests. I’m the only media member to have seen all 431 in person.

From colorful-yet-flawed quarterback “Pretty Tony” Banks and his dog Felony to running back Todd Gurley.

From the talented but troubled

Lawrence Phillips to the offensive pyrotechnics of the Greatest Show on Turf.

Strolling the sidelines were the likes of “Big Daddy” Rich Brooks; “Mad” Mike Martz; the hard-driving, yet ultrapositive Dick Vermeil; and Jeff Fisher.

I can recall only two times when I thought I might be in jeopardy of missing a Rams game. There was the Buffalo game in 2012, and a flight cancellation. I managed to arrive in time on a snowy day to see Martz in the press box, working the game for network television. He told me that Danny Amendola, then the Rams’ top wide receiver, would have had trouble making any of his Greatest Show teams.

The other near miss: I was sick all week in Atlanta for Super Bowl 34 — of all games — capping the 1999 season. But with the help of Rams coverage teammate Elizabethe Holland, I made it to the press box that Sunday to cover the spine-tingling 23-16 victory over Tennessee (along with about 20 other P-D writers, photographers and editors).

The team owner at the time, the late Georgia Frontiere, looked NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue right in the eye as she accepted the Lombardi Trophy after that game, saying: “This proves we did the right thing, coming to St. Louis.”

Kroenke now thinks otherwise. Lots of lousy Rams football, punctuated by the spectacular Greatest Show, now could be coming to an end.

As I packed my laptop after the Rams’ final home game of this season — a 31-23 win over Tampa Bay on Dec. 17 — I paused to look out on the field at the Edward Jones Dome. Just in case it was the last time I was in the building.

If Kroenke’s planned relocation bid is approved, St. Louis’ second NFL marriage will be over. There probably won’t be a third.

Jim Thomas @jthom1 on Twitter jthomas@post-dispatch.com

Benjamin. The gift will allow the museum — a public body whose $30 million dollar budget is two-thirds funded by St. Louis and St. Louis County property tax dollars — to spend more on operations, while also head-hunting in the future for topnotch, expensive directors.

“It means the museum can compete in the national and international markets for talent,” Benjamin said. “It really makes it possible for the museum to have the person it wants to have in this position.”

The cost of hiring the top leaders of U.S. museums has been steadily rising.

Benjamin is poised to make $640,000 in total compensation this year.

Museums across the country have looked to donations to cover the cost.

Art museums in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and New York all now have endowed directorships, Benjamin said.

Christine Anagnos, executive director of the Association of Art Museum Directors, called the phenomenon “increasingly common.” Still, she said $21 million is a “very large gift.”

“It’s an extraordinary gift for the museum and the community it serves,” she said.

The Taylors, including Andy Taylor’s father, Enterprise Rent-A-Car founder Jack Taylor, have been voluminous donors, for a variety of causes, for many years.

Last year, the Taylors donated millions of dollars to the Missouri History Museum’s efforts to renovate the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum downtown.

And this summer, the Taylors announced $92.5 million to 13 cultural institutions and charities, including $30 million to Forest Park Forever, the nonprofit organization that shares management and maintenance of St. Louis’ largest park, and $25 million to CityArchRiver, the foundation spearheading the $380 million renovation of the Gateway Arch grounds.

Still, Benjamin, the art museum director, said this gift took him by surprise.

Barbara Taylor was at one of her last meetings as president of the art museum Board of Commissioners, the government body that runs the museum, when she stepped up to the podium and announced the donation, with little fanfare.

“In hindsight, I can tell you it was planned by Barbara,” Benjamin said.

“But it was a shock and surprise to everyone in the room. It was a pretty exciting moment.

“I was speechless.”

The Taylors asked the museum not to broadcast the donation.

The money has since been deposited into a restricted investment account.

The museum will annually take a percentage, depending on market earnings, to pay for the director’s salary and benefits. This year, the museum plans to harvest 4.5 percent, or about $945,000. The excess will go toward museum operations.

Benjamin said the news came so late in the year that the museum couldn’t budget for the money. But he imagines the dollars once spent on his position can now be “redeployed for other purposes.” He figured the total saving at about $1 million a year, making some things possible, he said, that would not have been possible before.

For instance, the museum would like a larger “virtual presence” online, he said. “And that comes at a price.”

The position’s new title is the Barbara B. Taylor director.

David Hunn • 314-340-8121 @davidhunn on Twitter dhunn@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

WEDNESDAY • 01.13.2016 • $1.50

NFL APPROVES TEAM’S MOVE TO LOS ANGELES

GOODBYE, RAMS NFL COMMISSIONER ROGER GOODELL

“Relocation is a painful process. ...

This was an opportunity to return the Rams to their home city.”

ST. LOUIS MAYOR FRANCIS SLAY

RAMS OWNER STAN KROENKE

“We worked hard, got a little bit lucky, and had a lot of people help us. ... We have to have a first-class stadium product.”

“The NFL ignored the facts, the loyalty of St. Louis fans, who supported the team through far more downs than ups.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS

St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke talks to the media after team owners voted Tuesday in Houston to allow the Rams to move to a new stadium just outside Los Angeles.

• Feckless thugs of NFL leave us with just memories

• Team owners vote 30-2 after hours of wrangling

• Black-hearted Goodell fronts a cash-driven cartel

• Chargers can join Kroenke; Raiders are left out

BENJAMIN HOCHMAN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

You’ll forever remember that body-freezing feeling of bliss when St. Louis won the Super Bowl, when Rams linebacker Mike Jones corralled the player on the 1-yard line, and it hit you, all at once: it’s over,

Obama looks ahead in final State of Union He urges optimism, not fear, among Americans

than 10 hours of presentations and negotiations, to allow Dean Spanos to move his San Diego Chargers — but not to the site he proposed. Instead, after multiple closed-door meetings, Spanos agreed to consider leasing or buying into Kroenke’s stadium in Inglewood, southwest of downtown L.A.

time has run out, it’s irreversible.

That feeling again paralyzed St. Louis on Tuesday night, but this time from the losing side, in a warped, diabolical, eviltwin sort of way: it’s over, time has run out, it’s irreversible.

They took St. Louis’ Rams. They’re gone. The feckless thugs in business suits decided St. Louis isn’t suited for the NFL, and just like that, they’re in Los Angeles,

HOUSTON • National Football League owners on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to strip the Rams from St. Louis and send the team to owner Stan Kroenke’s proposed $2 billion stadium in Los Angeles County.

The owners also agreed, after more

See HOCHMAN • Page A8

Owners thrilled • This is what ‘we need to do in Los Angeles.’ B1

BY DAVID HUNN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

See RAMS • Page A8

Alton boy, 11, killed in drive-by may not have been targeted

A picture of fifthgrader Romell Jones, 11, from his mother Sonya Dixon’s Facebook page.

BY JOEL CURRIER St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ALTON • Sonya Dixon’s teenage son

rushed into their apartment Monday evening to tell her his younger brother, Romell, fell and was knocked out while ducking gunfire outside.

Dixon’s son told her someone carried Romell L. Jones, 11, into the recreation center across the street but wasn’t hit. When she found him lying on a table unconscious in his bright orange hooded sweatshirt, she couldn’t immeSee SHOOTING • Page A9

BY JULIE PACE Associated Press

WASHINGTON • Eyeing the end of his presidency, Barack Obama urged Americans Tuesday night to rekindle their belief in the promise of change that first carried him to the White House, declaring that the country must not allow election-year fear and division to put economic and seSee OBAMA • Page A9

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Vol. 138, No. 13 ©2016

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A8 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

State sets goals for Riverview Gardens schools District will get special midyear review to determine status

BY JESSICA BOCK St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Riverview Gardens School District was handed a road map Tuesday for how it could receive the state’s seal of approval in June and end a three-year migration of students from its schools.

The Missouri Board of Education met in Jefferson City with Superintendent Scott Spurgeon to lay out specific performance targets the north St. Louis County district must meet to receive an upgrade in accreditation status once the school year ends.

The district has demonstrated performance gains for three years. Last school year, it did well enough to qualify for full accreditation.

But the state board wants to see further improvement.

To get the upgrade in status that Spurgeon is pushing for, the education department is asking for significant improvements in test scores in all four core subjects: math, reading, science and social studies.

In addition, the district must earn 70 percent of points on the annual performance report in college and career readiness, attendance and graduation categories. It exceeded this goal in 2014-15.

After the meeting, Spurgeon called the requirements “rigorous” and “reasonable.”

“We do believe we can achieve it, absolutely,” he said.

Reviewing a school district in the middle of the year is rarely — if ever — done by the department and state board. The board considers accreditation for all districts in December.

This special review will take place over the next five months, with periodic reviews of curriculum and student achievement. In May, state education officials plan to report to the state board on the condition of the district. The summary would basically be a hybrid of the annual performance report typically made public in August.

The stakes are high for Riverview Gardens, where a state law that allows students to transfer from unaccredited districts to higher performing ones has cost about $25 million in tuition and transportation since the 2013-14 school year.

If the district were to regain accreditation, nearly 540 transfer students living in the north St. Louis County school district could be forced to return to Riverview Gardens because they would no longer have the right to remain at their new schools in the 2016-17 school year.

State education officials have encouraged school districts to keep the transfer children, regardless.

State board member Mike Jones, who represents the St. Louis area, said if Riverview Gardens earns provisional or full accreditation, there could be damage to students forced to leave schools in higher performing school systems.

“It’s really going to be a question of public morality about how the St. Louis educational community treats these particular children,” he said, “and will they provide them a level of justice to balance out whichever way we have to go.”

Riverview Gardens students showed significant progress during the last school year — the most in the state — moving from 45.4 percent on the 2014 annual performance report to 79.3 percent in 2015, enough to fall in the fully accredited range. It takes a vote from the State Board of Education to do so.

After the results, Spurgeon asked for a reconsideration.

“We are in a much better place educationally and with the community than we were three years ago,” Spurgeon said.

Elisa Crouch of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Jessica Bock • 314-340-8228 @jessicabock on Twitter jbock@post-dispatch.com

LOCAL

M 2 • Wednesday • 01.13.2016

Rams owner should drop name ‘Stan’ HOCHMAN • FROM A1

as if St. Louis was an annoying, yipping dog they shooed away.

Roger Goodell, whose heart is as black as a hockey puck, saw the St. Louisans trying to save the Rams and essentially laughed. Silly old St. Louis. You think you’re an NFL city? The commissioner of the danged NFL didn’t even have the courtesy to even publicly applaud the efforts of the St. Louisans trying to get a new stadium here; on the contrary, he publicly bashed their plan, again and again. And then, had the audacity to give NFL monies to Oakland, a city that did nothing to save its own team, in efforts to save its team.

Stan Kroenke, he should just go by “Kroenke” now, one name like Cher or Madonna. Going by Stan is an insult to the St. Louis sports icon he was named after.

Stan Musial will forever be remembered as what was best of St. Louis sports. Stan Kroenke will forever be remembered for what was worst: moving the team so the billionaire could make more billions.

We get it. St. Louis messed up with that top-tier stadium stuff, the loophole in the lease. But come on. That’s a weak crutch.

You know it.

What happened in Houston

was atrocious, an embarrassment to sport, something the NFL seems to be mastering in.

The NFL commissioner and his owners had a chance to save an NFL city. We know how much the NFL supposedly cares about its fans, from those NFL family commercials, from the way they honor the military and breastcancer fighters. But they’ll only honor you if it’s convenient to them. Here’s a whole city, hundreds and thousands of people, the same people who packed the Dome when the team was run well and winning, the same people who spent hard-earned money on overpriced tickets and jerseys, and said: We don’t need you anymore.

Roger Goodell, you botch everything. You’re an embarrassment to integrity. Concussions.

Ray Rice. Now abandoning a city in your NFL fraternity, the sports equivalent to leaving a soldier behind?

And to think, that L.A. committee actually voted in favor of the Chargers and Raiders project. After all that, think about it.

After all that, the NFL folks said that the Chargers and Raiders L.A. project was better for the league than the Rams’ L.A. project. And what happened? It, too, was shooed to the side.

St. Louisans are the latest to

realize that fans are pawns. Fans are powerless. Used. Played. It hurts.

And the efforts of Dave Peacock, Bob Blitz and the task force? What precedent does the NFL now set and send to any other city in this situation? St. Louis had no stadium hope. These guys moved mountains. Think about it: they got the Board of Aldermen to agree to that big payout. They got a multimillion-dollar naming rights deal. They accomplished so much.

Yet the NFL did not care.

Maybe there were flaws in the task force’s plan, we don’t know for sure. But clearly the NFL, if it wanted to, could have worked together with them to save football in St. Louis. Instead, there is no football in St. Louis.

As Joe Buck, the St. Louisbred broadcaster, texted me on Tuesday night: “(Tuesday was) a bad day for a great city. I couldn’t be more proud of Dave Peacock and all he tried to do for the future of St. Louis. It was always bigger than football.”

So to recap, the Rams build a huge following in the late 1990s and early 2000s, win the Super Bowl and go to another. Then, the same fans are treated to some of the worst football seen in NFL history. For a decade.

The last time the Rams made the playoffs was 11 years ago this Friday. The fans still cared. But the ownership and league said: You don’t even get bad football anymore, we’re moving this terrible product to put on display in Los Angeles.

I keep thinking of the fans. Of the readers. Of the people I grew up with here. Of the generations in their blue and gold jerseys, chanting BRUUUUUUUUCE! They didn’t do anything wrong.

But there was more money to be made, and the NFL went and snatched it. We’re not in a normal world. We’re in the world described and predicted by Ned Beatty’s character in the classic film “Network.”

He screamed and bellowed to get his point across: “There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds and shekels.

“It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today.”

Benjamin Hochman @hochman on Twitter bhochman@post-dispatch.com

CRISTINA M. FLETES • cfletes@post-dispatch.com

Mickey Right, 18, of Oakville, waits with friend Zach Remelius (not pictured) outside the Edward Jones Dome on Tuesday, hoping to find other upset fans after NFL owners voted Tuesday to allow the Rams to move to Los Angeles.

Rams will play in LA next season RAMS • FROM A1

The Rams will play in a temporary home in the Los Angeles area next season.

The news almost immediately drew outrage from St. Louis fans, and disappointment from local leaders.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said in a statement that the NFL ignored the facts, the strength of the market, the local plan to build a new stadium, and the loyalty of St. Louis fans, “who supported the team through far more downs than ups.”

St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger said he was “bitterly” disappointed.

Dave Peacock, co-chairman of the task force to build a new football stadium here, called his work with the NFL more “contemplated and contrived than I realized.”

“We’d aim for a target, hit it, and they’d say, no the target was over here,” he said of the NFL’s direction.

And lifelong fans, such as Mickey Right, were crestfallen.

“This whole thing’s made me want to become a basketball fan,” said Right, who visited the Edward Jones Dome late Tuesday in homage. “It just really loses your faith in the NFL. It’s supposed to be a league of integrity.”

The Rams and the Chargers, if the team moves, will each pay a $550 million relocation fee.

Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis is, for now, left out of moving plans. Spanos had worked with him for at least a year on a two-team stadium in Carson, Calif., just south of Kroenke’s site.

“We’ll see where Raider Nation ends up here,” he said after the meetings. “We’ll be looking for a home.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said after the meetings that Davis will have the opportunity to take the second spot in Inglewood, if Spanos declines.

Also, the league has agreed to pay an extra $100 million — beyond the $200 million in NFL stadium construction funds — to

either Spanos or Davis, whichever stays in his hometown.

Goodell called both the Carson and the Inglewood projects “outstanding.”

But he said he expected Kroenke’s plan to become “one of the greatest” sports and entertainment complexes in the world.

“We have the return of the Los Angeles Rams to their home,” Goodell said. “We have a facility that is going to be absolutely extraordinary in the Los Angeles market that I think fans are going to absolutely love. And I think it’s going to set a new bar for all sports, quite frankly. And, that, we’re very proud of.”

Those close to the process said after the meeting that it was Kroenke’s stadium vision — in its physical beauty, surrounding redevelopment, and its pitch to house the NFL’s substantial media businesses — that swayed owners. They came into the meeting, insiders said privately, liking his plan better.

Still, they had to vote twice to cut the deal. The first vote favored Kroenke, 20-12, but failed to get the necessary threefourths of the league’s 32 owners, as required when a team applies to move to a new city.

The owners then took a break while several met behind closed doors with Spanos and Davis.

The final vote came in 30-2, several sources told the PostDispatch — and left St. Louis without an NFL team, again.

ST. LOUIS SAGA The day was historic for the league. Owners have never agreed to relocate two teams at once.

And it ends a year of deliberations by finally returning the NFL to Los Angeles, which has been without a team for more than two decades.

Most credit Kroenke for starting the race. Three years ago, the billionaire real estate developer took his landlords at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis to arbitration over the now-infamous “first tier”

clause in their lease. The clause required the state of Missouri, city of St. Louis and St. Louis County to renovate the Dome — for about $700 million — up to the league’s “first tier,” or top eight stadia. Local officials declined, and, as prescribed in the lease, the Rams went year-toyear at the Dome.

Two years ago, Kroenke bought land in Inglewood, next to the Los Angeles International Airport.

Just a year ago, he announced he was building a “world-class” stadium there.

Spanos has said publicly that he took Kroenke’s move as a direct threat to the Chargers’ fan base, one-fourth of which comes from L.A., he said. Soon after Kroenke’s announcement, Spanos and Davis announced a two-team stadium in Carson.

In the meantime, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon named a stadium task force, which proposed a $1.1 billion open-air stadium on the St. Louis riverfront — with $400 million in public funding — just north of downtown.

The past year featured regular revelations. At some point, nearly every pundit made a prediction.

Then, last week, the league’s relocation filing period opened, and all three teams submitted.

Kroenke pitched a sparkling stadium set among shops, restaurants and hotels. His proposal also blasted St. Louis, calling the city “struggling,” and the region unable to sustain three professional sports teams.

Moreover, Kroenke said, Nixon’s stadium plan was so inadequate, not only would the Rams decline, but any NFL team that took the deal was on the path to “financial ruin.”

Officials, from Mayor Slay to Sen. Claire McCaskill, were outraged. Nixon’s stadium task force sent a point-by-point response to the league.

But, this past weekend, Goodell sent a report to all owners saying that the task force plan was inadequate.

Early on Tuesday, it seemed like St. Louis fans could hold on

to hopes that owners might vote otherwise. The league’s Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities, made up of six influential owners, recommended in favor of the Carson project.

But by midday, it didn’t seem to matter. Kroenke’s proposal took top billing in early votes, and the owners broke several times, with L.A. committee members meeting in private with Spanos and Davis.

FUTURE OF NFL IN ST. LOUIS Late Tuesday a triumphant Kroenke took the stage, unflinchingly, in a large room at the Westin Hotel, site of the meeting. “This is the hardest undertaking that I’ve faced in my career,” Kroenke said. “I understand the emotional side.”

Kroenke, infamous for ducking the spotlight, spoke haltingly, but answered every question asked by dozens of reporters at the news conference. It was the most he had said to St. Louis in two years.

And he was unapologetic.

“We worked hard, got a little bit lucky, and had a lot of people help us,” he said, nodding to league staff.

“We have to have a first-class stadium product.”

After the press conference, as NFL security ushered Goodell away from the throngs, the commissioner stopped for a moment to discuss the NFL’s future in St. Louis.

“We haven’t had an opportunity to speak to the governor; of course, I will,” Goodell told the Post-Dispatch. “I think that’s got to be a decision we jointly have to make.

“It’s going to take a high-quality stadium that we’re comfortable with,” Goodell said. “That’s a starting point.”

And then, he said, they’ll have to match St. Louis to a team.

Kristen Taketa of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report from St. Louis.

David Hunn • 314-340-8121 @davidhunn on Twitter dhunn@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

THURSDAY • 01.14.2016 • $1.50

WHAT’S NEXT? St. Louis is done with football

McCASKILL PREPARES LEGISLATION TO PROTECT CITIES OUR VIEW

DON’T COUNT ON KHAN

SOCIAL MEDIA REAX

TAKE PRIDE, ST. LOUIS

KROENKE’S ‘VISION’

Loathe Kroenke if you like, then get to work

Jaguars owner rules out any move to St. Louis

For some fans it was a blow.

Others said ‘Good riddance’

Hochman: Don’t let loss of Rams shake our confidence

He says detailed renderings of the project swayed owners

PAGE A16

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Slay says NFL officials were not ‘truthful’

BY DAVID HUNN St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • Regional officials,

stunned by the impending departure of the St. Louis Rams, prepared on Wednesday for life without the National Football League. They contemplated legal options, debt payments on the city’s old stadium, and even the loss of the giant “Edward Jones” logo across its top.

And at least some consensus emerged: St. Louis is done with professional football.

Mayor Francis Slay said the city’s dealings with the league should be a warning to other local governments across the nation.

“They were not being truthful,” Slay said from his office lobby at City Hall. “And they knew we were putting a lot of energy into this.”

Slay added: “We were being led on.”

Bob Blitz, co-chairman of Gov. Jay Nixon’s riverfront stadium task force, said he would be talking with the NFL soon but didn’t think those conversations would include bringing another football team to St. Louis.

“I don’t think there is a team ready to move,” Blitz said.

At the same time, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., exasperated by the NFL’s decision, began drafting a bill to claw back public dollars from professional sports teams that prematurely leave their hometowns.

McCaskill has been pressuring

See NEXT • Page A9

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

Nick Perryman (left), 19, of St. Louis, holds a sign while Sam Sextro, 19, of Glendale, attempts to light candles as they mourn the loss of the St. Louis Rams on Wednesday next to the Edward Jones Dome. They are members of the St. Louis University High Rams Club. They were hoping for more members to come out in support of the Rams. Many drivers were honking in support as they drove past the two men. STORY • A8

Rams’ departure a blow to a number of businesses

BY LISA BROWN AND TIM BRYANT St. Louis Post-Dispatch

On Fridays, when Rams players were in town, the team had up to 20 dozen doughnuts from Strange Donuts delivered for a caloric infusion.

The doughnut shop, which has three St. Louis locations, specializes in sweet and savory con-

coctions, such as chicken-andwaffle doughnuts and doughnuts shaped like crab rangoon and filled with cream cheese and crab meat.

“They really liked the sprinkle ones,” Strange Donuts’ coowner Jason Bockman said of the Rams’ standing weekly order, dubbed “Fat Fridays.” Strange Donuts also sold more than

Officials’ letters to aid drug dealer rile police union

BY CHRISTINE BYERS AND ROBERT PATRICK St. Louis Post-Dispatch

CLAYTON • The head of the union repre-

senting St. Louis County police says it was wrong for Chief Jon Belmar to write to a judge in support of a politically connected member of a drug conspiracy broken up with the help of his own department.

The letter could “increase an already growing demand” for a no-confidence vote by union members, said their president, Officer Gabe Crocker. He would not specify other grievances.

St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger also wrote a letter in support of Michael Saracino II, who with about a dozen others was indicted in federal court in 2014 in connection with a ring that distributed millions of

Mizzou self-imposes penalties for NCAA violations Infractions date back to the Frank Haith regime Penalties include postseason ban for the current season PAGE B1

See LETTERS • Page A4

1,000 doughnuts at each Rams game played at the Edward Jones Dome for the past two seasons.

For Strange Donuts and many other local businesses, the departure of the Rams will have a negative impact on the bottom line. A few others say the loss of the team will open up new opportunities.

Bockman previously counted

himself a fan of Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who orchestrated the team’s move to Los Angeles.

Not anymore.

“It’s a shame that we won’t have a team anymore,” Bockman said. “But the people of St. Louis are resilient. We’ll get behind teams that want to be here. Go See IMPACT • Page A8

U.S. sailors released

by Iran; event irks nuclear deal critics

Winning Powerball ticket sold in California • A2

BY ADAM SCHRECK AND ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press

TODAY

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES • It

turned out to be the international crisis that wasn’t.

Less than a day after 10 U.S. Navy sailors were detained in Iran when their boats drifted into Iranian waters, they and their vessels were back safely Wednesday with the American fleet.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tapped the relationship he has formed with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif in the three years of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, speaking with him at least five times Tuesday by telephone. Kerry credited the quick resolution to the “critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country secure

City code violation fines called oppressive • A4 Horns of a dilemma

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TOMORROW

44°/25° AM RAIN POSSIBLE

WEATHER A20 POST-DISPATCH WEATHERBIRD ®

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See IRAN • Page A4

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A8 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

RAMS MOVE TO LA

M 1 • Thursday • 01.14.2016

Vigil for dream that died

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

Tommy Williams, 29, of St. Louis, shows a picture on Wednesday of himself with his son, Carter Williams, 3, at a recent Rams game, as he sits next to the Edward Jones Dome. Williams said that he was in denial and near tears over the Rams’ leaving St. Louis. He said he had to come downtown and be near the Dome.

Club members mourn the loss, unsure what to do now

BY DOUG MOORE St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sam Sextro and Nick Perryman have not known a St. Louis without the Rams.

The 19-year-olds were raised cheering for the team that came to town two years before either was born.

Last year, they formed a Rams fan club at St. Louis University High School when they were both seniors.

The group would meet after each game, go over the highlights and discuss what the team could have done better.

“It was not pretty most weeks,” Sextro said.

On Wednesday afternoon, the two young men stood outside the Edward Jones Dome, the now former home of the Rams. Sextro lit candles. A street corner vigil mourning the loss of the NFL in the STL. They brought signs to pass out, including “Why Stan?” and “Think About The Kids, Stan.”

Stan, of course, being Stan Kroenke, the Rams owner who successfully lobbied to have his team moved to Los Angeles.

Sextro and Perryman promoted their

vigil on their SLUH Rams Club Twitter page, which as of Wednesday afternoon had 418 followers. The page managed

by Sextro touts itself as the “Official #1 Fan Club for the St. Louis Rams.”

For the first 30 minutes of their vigil Sextro and Perryman stood alone at the corner of Broadway and Convention Center Plaza, before a friend joined them carrying a sign with a blown-up photo of the faces of Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz, the two-man task force Gov. Jay Nixon appointed to try to keep the Rams in St. Louis. The small crowd got a flurry of honks from passing motorists.

On Tuesday night, after the news broke that the Rams would be headed back to L.A., Sextro and Perryman were at the same corner, among about a half dozen fans. They sang “Amazing Grace.” A hymn about redemption.

Forgiveness. Even for the most egregious sin.

Tommy Williams of St. Louis pulled into a nearby parking lot during Wednesday afternoon’s vigil.

“I came by for one last look,” he said of the Dome in its current state, still covered with signs marking it as Home of the Rams. Williams said he had trou-

ble explaining the departure to his son, Carter, 3.

“I told him the owner wanted to take the team somewhere he feels it will be better for him,” Williams said, fighting back tears. “My son kept saying: ‘Why, why, why?’ ” Williams took out his phone, showing a photo of his son in a Rams sweatshirt, another wearing a Sam Bradford jersey. He blamed Kroenke for “taking a memory out of my son’s childhood.”

Kroenke’s action “will come back and bite him somehow,” he said.

Sextro, a freshman at the University of Dayton, and Perryman, in his first year at Mizzou, said the fate of the SLU High Rams Club was uncertain.

“There will be an executive board meeting to determine the future of the club,” he said. Options include disbanding, moving allegiance to another team, or continuing to root for the Rams, who will now be playing home games 1,800 miles away from the Dome.

The latter option seems highly unlikely.

Doug Moore • 314-340-8125 @dougwmoore on Twitter dmoore@post-dispatch.com

Rams’ departure a blow to some businesses IMPACT • FROM A1

Cards and Go Blues.”

The Rams played only eight regular season home games a year and a couple of preseason games, but when they were in town, many area restaurants, hotels and stores selling team jerseys and T-shirts were packed with customers wearing blue and gold.

“It will be a hit, in terms of trying to replace that with steady business,” said Steve O’Loughlin, president of Lodging Hospitality Management, the Maryland Heights-based company that owns the downtown Hilton where Rams players and coaches stayed the night before games. The hotel, which is situated just a few blocks south of the Dome, also was a favorite for Rams fans and other teams’ fans from out of town, O’Loughlin said.

LHM’s Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark rented 843 hotel nights to the Rams team in 2015, and another 2,879 hotel nights at its Sheraton Westport hotels for Rams players during spring and summer training.

“That will be something we’ll have to replace, but it’s nothing like when the Cardinals are in town when downtown hotels and those at Westport fill up,” O’Loughlin said. “With the Rams’ eight games, we can absorb that with other business.”

O’Loughlin, who is on the board of commissioners for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, said the Rams’ departure would free up the America’s Center to accommodate more conventions during the fall.

“There were restrictions on America’s Center, and now this opens up opportunities for conventions all year round,” he said.

Robust Wine Bar’s owner Stanley Browne also cited the opportunity to add more big conventions as a positive outcome of the Rams’ move. Rams fans would stop in for drinks or food before or after afternoon and evening games at his downtown restaurant on

Washington Avenue only steps from the Dome.

“It’s a shame to lose a national franchise team; however, the Rams only play eight home games,” Browne said.

“We have to move forward with America’s Center to book more events and concerts. Hopefully that will benefit downtown businesses, but it’ll take time.”

The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, operator of America’s Center — including the Edward Jones Dome — has the job of luring meetings to the now-NFL-less dome.

CVC President Kitty Ratcliffe and top deputies were traveling and unavailable for comment, the agency’s spokesman said.

Schlafly Beer’s co-founder Tom Schlafly said that like many St. Louisans, he was disappointed that the city was losing an NFL team. The brewer’s Tap Room brewpub in downtown west was busy on regular season and preseason games, and Schlafly beer is sold at the Dome.

Schlafly Beer’s parent company, the St. Louis Brewery, had season tickets to Rams games from 1995 to 2014, but not in 2015 as the team teetered on the brink of leaving town.

“I didn’t want to get emotionally invested in them because I thought they were going to leave,” Schlafly said about the decision to end the craft brewer’s season tickets in their last season in St. Louis. Schlafly also is a minority investor in the Blues, St. Louis’ professional hockey team.

“As an owner of the Blues, (the Rams departure) is probably moderately helpful to the Blues, if you assume there’s a fixed amount of money people can spend on sports.”

At the Ceci Unique Gallery, a longtime retailer on Washington Avenue, customers appeared to be steering clear of the rack near the entrance that featured Rams T-shirts and sweatshirts.

Store owner Ceci Abresch said she’d probably have to discount Rams-re-

lated apparel and merchandise. “We have more in inventory,” she said. “It’ll take maybe six months to sell.”

Losing the Rams will mean lost business, but she makes significantly more revenue from sales to Cardinals fans, Abresch said. “It’s not like the Cardinals, but everything hurts.”

Some St. Louis area companies that have forged deep ties to the Rams may continue to do business with the team.

Chesterfield-based R.J. Liebe Athletic Company has made the letters and numbers embroidered on Rams jerseys worn by players since the team came to St. Louis. The company, founded in 1923 with facilities in Chesterfield and midtown St. Louis, also counts Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League among its customers.

Rams officials have assured the company it will continue to be a supplier even after the move, said Tim Liebe, R.J. Liebe’s vice president.

Even so, Liebe said, the team’s presence in the city will be missed.

“I think it’s a sad day for us,” he said.

“I’m afraid we won’t get another team, and I think St. Louis is more than a two-sport town.”

Gary Andreas, a nationwide hotel consultant based in Chesterfield, said the Rams’ departure would ding the St. Louis area’s hotel industry.

“I wouldn’t want to be the hotel that hosted the out-of-town team,” he said.

Many visiting NFL teams stayed at the Ritz-Carlton, in Clayton.

Most Rams games at the Edward Jones Dome had little effect on the local hotel market. Andreas said the majority of St. Louis Rams fans lived in the immediate area or within easy driving distance.

“So much of the Rams fan base was local enough to drive in, catch the game and drive out,” he said.

Lisa Brown • 314-340-8127 @lisabrownstl on Twitter lbrown@post-dispatch.com

RAMS REACTIONS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA ‌ There was an early outpouring on Twitter upon the news that the St. Louis Rams were leaving town and heading to Los Angeles. For some fans it was a severe blow to the gut, while others said “Good riddance.”

My 9-year-old nephew, who just got into football, is in tears because the Rams are leaving. Thanks for lying to the #STLNFL fans, @NF Dave Cline @davidtcline The past six years with the St. Louis Rams have been some of the best years of life. I have been blessed to cheer on my favorite team from the best seats in the house, travel and perform all over the world with my best friends, represent the team at Pro Bowl, and give back to this amazing community as much as possible. I am forever indebted to the St. Louis Rams, and I am so proud to have been a part of this team. I have a heavy heart tonight, but on to the next chapter in my life! #StLouisRams #Rams #RamsCheer #NFL mlove_1 Rams cheerleader via Instagram These Rams, the same ones that brought us the Greatest Show on Turf, are leaving due to the greed of an owner. Truly heartbreaking. #ByeRams Ryan Jasper @Rjay340 While googling “Stan Kroenke,” I accidentally typed “Satan Kroenke”#AccidentallyOnPurpose” Carson Schaefer @carson_schaefer Pour some out for Isaac, Torry, Az Zahir, Marshall, Kurt, Kevin, DeMarco, Todd, Keith, Zgonina, Proehl and the rest of The St. Louis Rams trey wingo @wingoz The NFL and Stan Kroenke have displayed a callous disregard for the St. Louis area and its loyal football fans.

Steve Stenger @StengerSTLCo What’s going on in Houston is beginning to feel like a shotgun wedding NFL style. Grrrr. #rams #chargers Claire McCaskill @clairecmc Thank you St. Louis for all the great memories created and thank you fans for all the support! #Stl.2011-2016 #L.A.HereWeCome Robert Quinn @RQuinn94 Humbly, eternally gratefully: Thank you St. Louis.

I’m sorry we fell short the past 8 years. You treated me like family anyways. I love yall Chris Long @JOEL9ONE Want to send a shout out to all the awesome @ STLouisRams fans in the LOU... You made my time there extremely special & we’ll never 4get You! Kurt Warner @kurt13warner Start the countdown clock on the Rams moving back to St. Louis. I give them 20 years in LA. John Gruber @gruber Dad weighs in on #Rams to L.A. news: “I don’t foresee the Lakers moving to St. Louis!”

Kate Mather @katemather My mom hates sports. The only Rams player she can name is Kurt Warner. I know she’ll buy our family discounted Rams’ gear. She likes deals. marcia martinez @MMartinezSJR

01.14.2016 • Thursday • M 1 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • A9 RAMS MOVE TO LA

MESSAGES LEFT ON THE GROUND WEDNESDAY OUTSIDE THE RAMS TRAINING CENTER IN EARTH CITY RAMS SWEATSHIRT

RAMS HAT

RAMS JERSEY

PHOTOS BY DAVID CARSON • dcarson@post-dispatch.com

‘KROENKE AND GOODELL ARE LIARS!’

‘THANKS FOR NOTHING STAN!’

‘TAKE THIS WITH YOU! DON’T COME BACK!’

St. Louis is done with football

DAVID CARSON • dcarson@post-dispatch.com

A St. Louis Rams jersey was left on the ground outside the Rams Training Center in Earth City on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the NFL owners approved the Rams’ move to Los Angeles for the 2016 season. The plan is to build a $2 billion-plus stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

NEXT • FROM A1

the NFL for a year to keep the Rams in St. Louis. She spoke with Commissioner Roger Goodell the night before Tuesday’s NFL owners’ vote.

“St. Louis stepped up, in good faith,” she told the Post-Dispatch Wednesday. She called plans to spend $400 million in local and state tax dollars on a $1.1 billion St. Louis riverfront stadium a “massive” public investment, and the region’s second, after construction of the Jones Dome itself.

The NFL instead approved Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s request to move the Rams back to Los Angeles.

“I’m confident at this point that the NFL used excuses to turn down our stadium project,” McCaskill said. “There’s no question in my mind that, years ago, Stan Kroenke made up his mind he was going to L.A.” She called the years spent planning the new St. Louis stadium “a useless exercise.”

Her office is in the early stages of drafting legislation.

“I have a chance to make sure no other community will get treated like St. Louis,” she said.

“The heart of the NFL isn’t just in the mega media markets.”

McCaskill said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., had expressed interest in cosponsoring the bill.

Blunt could not immediately be reached for comment. He told reporters earlier in the day that “not every problem is a federal problem.” Still, he said he was “certainly open” to talking about other ideas.

McCaskill also hinted that regional leaders may be considering a suit against the NFL. If the league didn’t comply with its own relocation guidelines, her staff later clarified, anti-trust laws may have been violated.

ROBERT COHEN • rcohen@post-dispatch.com

Jim Gibilterra (left) of St. Charles and Bryan Hodges of the Central West End, both original personal seat license holders at the Edward Jones Dome, remember the good days Wednesday, including wide receiver Ricky Proehl’s catch in the 1999 NFC Championship to beat Tampa Bay. The men met while photographing their names on the wall of honor plaques at the stadium that recognize the original PSL holders.

LEGAL OPTIONS

Blitz, task force co-chairman and attorney for the public Jones Dome authority, said legal options were available but not yet under consideration.

“We have to learn everything about why the decision was made,” Blitz said after a meeting Wednesday of the authority board.

Blitz said he was unhappy with the NFL. “They refused to acknowledge that we met the requirement to fit their guidelines,” he said.

The departure leaves the dome with a mountain of debt.

The state, St. Louis County and St. Louis city teamed up to pay $300 million for dome construction in 1991, before

the Rams agreed to move to St. Louis. The state pays about $12 million a year toward debt and upkeep; the city and county each pay about $6 million.

The three still owe a collective $100 million, due in 2021.

Moreover, the city said it expected to lose about $4.2 million a year, at least in the “short run,” as tax revenue falls because of the team’s departure.

And the task force has spent $16 million so far on planning for a new stadium.

Cities have been compensated for losing teams before.

In 1995, the sale of personal seat licenses to St. Louis fans paid off $27 million in bonds on the Rams’ old home in Anaheim, Calif., as part of the team’s relo-

cation agreement with the NFL. There is no suggestion that the NFL will do the same here.

Jim Shrewsbury, the dome authority’s chairman, said they’d focus on landing events and conventions.

“That’s the only thing we can do,” he said.

St. Louis Aldermanic President Lewis Reed said he would hold hearings on potential uses for the dome. He called the nowempty stadium a “unique opportunity” to bring jobs and “alleviate the burden the Rams leaving has placed on city coffers.”

NAMING RIGHTS In addition, the Edward Jones Dome — now without its signature tenant — could also lose its

name.

The Des Peres-based financial company’s logo has been on the building since 2002, when it displaced TWA. Edward Jones signed the naming rights deal with the Rams football franchise, not the regional tourism commission that operates the facility on behalf of the dome authority. In 2012, the company extended the naming rights deal until 2025 for $42.3 million.

But that deal was contingent on the Rams’ staying in St. Louis.

“We have the option to terminate our agreement if the Rams terminate its use of the stadium for its home games,” said Regina DeLuca-Imral, a spokeswoman for Edward Jones. “We will consider our options carefully.”

Edward Jones could create a separate naming deal with the dome authority.

But DeLuca-Imral wouldn’t directly address that point.

ON THE RIVERFRONT Area leaders even began thinking Wednesday about alternatives on the riverfront, said Otis Williams, director of the city’s development corporation.

The agency helped commission a $332,000 study of the land months ago. It envisioned residential towers, hotels, shops, a high-tech business incubator, plus wetlands, green space and parks stretching more than a mile, from the Gateway Arch grounds to the new Mississippi River bridge.

“We had a plan with the stadium, and a plan without the stadium,” Williams said. “We are revisiting our options here.”

He said the agencies involved would meet in the next few weeks to discuss steps forward.

David Hunn • 314-340-8121 @davidhunn on Twitter dhunn@post-dispatch.com

WHY WE

♥

ST. LOUIS

SPECIAL SECTION

IN THIS PAPER

Sunday • 01.17.2016 • $2.50 • FINAL EDITION

Iran releases four Americans in swap On other side of landmark deal, U.S. clears 7 Iranians accused of violating sanctions

AMERICANS RETURNING JASON REZAIAN Washington Post reporter wrote about changes in his father’s homeland

BY BRADLEY KLAPPER, MATTHEW LEE AND ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press

SAEED ABEDINI

VIENNA • Four Americans detained in Iran

will be coming home and seven Iranians in U.S. custody also will win their freedom in a breakthrough swap negotiated by the longtime foes, officials in both countries said. A fifth American was freed separately.

The news emerged as a landmark deal took effect Saturday relieving sanctions on Iran in return for its progress in pulling back its nuclear program.

Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, pastor Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, whose name had not been previously made public, were freed from custody in Iran and were to be flown to Switzerland, U.S. officials said. U.S. student Matthew Trevithick was released indeSee PRISONERS • Page A8

Evangelical pastor from Boise, Idaho, was building an orphanage

AMIR HEKMATI Longest-held prisoner was accused of being CIA spy

NOSRATOLLAH KHOSRAVI-ROODSARI Not previously identified, he is described by Iranian state television as a businessman

FACE TIME WITH CARDS WARMS YOUNG HEARTS Trey Lindenfeld, 10, picks up his brother Breck Lindenfeld, 6, to get a picture with Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams after having him sign a photo for them Saturday during the team’s Winter Warm-Up downtown. The Lindenfeld boys are from Fort Collins, Colo., and came to St. Louis with their mother for the event. Story • A11

NOTHING TO SHOW Stadium task force spent $16.2 million in failed attempt to keep Rams

BY DAVID HUNN AND NICHOLAS J.C. PISTOR St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS • When the last check

is sent and the books close on the failed plan for a riverfront football stadium here, the public will have paid out more than $16.2 million.

The bills rose steeply over the last several months. The public agency that owns the Edward Jones Dome paid 22 companies, including architects, surveyors, bond attorneys, construction managers, geotechnical engineers, financial advisers and a minority workforce expert.

Local architecture firm HOK made the most, more than $10.5 million. The Dome authority’s attorneys, Blitz, Bardgett & Deutsch, have billed for almost $900,000. Thompson Coburn bond and financing lawyers

See STADIUM • Page A12

Are you a lawbreaker?

No guarantees Task force says members were frugal, obeyed law, and worked hard Effort criticized Contracts were awarded without bids and rewarded political donors David Nicklaus says fans will spend money on other pursuits. Business, E1 Benjamin Hochman says Seattle lost Sonics, feels our pain. Sports, C1

Abortion remains front and center in ’16

STL SUNDAY • B1

BY ALEX STUCKEY St. Louis Post-Dispatch

JEFFERSON CITY • Kat Kis-

Schlafly aims for growth DAVID CARSON • dcarson@post-dispatch.com

BUSINESS • E1

3-D printing is reshaping medicine WU doctors use printed molds to aid surgery, build cheaper prosthetics

Find the right chair for you

BY BLYTHE BERNHARD • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Dr. Albert Woo held the tiny skull in his hands, turning it over and studying its imperfections.

There was too much bone around the nose. The right eye socket was out of place. The reconstructive facial surgery would have to protect the tear ducts and delicate structures of the eye.

Woo and a colleague planned out the operation using the replica created with a 3-D printer.

The next morning, when they opened up the skull of 5-year-old Myah McWilliams, they already knew what to do.

See PRINTING • Page A14

LIFESTYLE • H1

sick sat in a bathroom stall at the Royale bar in St. Louis, panic setting in as she stared at the positive pregnancy test in her hands.

Kissick had tried to have a child when she was married.

But she has endometriosis, a painful condition that reduces the chance of getting pregnant — and increases the odds of miscarriage and postpartum complications for people who are.

Now it was 2010, three years after her divorce. Kissick, 36, found herself pregnant and alone.

About two years later, a

See ABORTION • Page A15

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HUY MACH • hmach@post-dispatch.com

Gary Skolnick, a statistical analyst at Washington University School of Medicine, cleans a model of 5-year-old Myah McWilliams’ skull last month that was just created on a 3-D printer. The model helped surgeons plan the operation to correct Myah’s facial structure.

Fischer’s new TV comedy A&E • F1

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FROM A1

A12 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 2 • SUNDAY • 01.17.2016

LAURIE SKRIVAN • lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Banners heralding the past achievements of the St. Louis Rams hang from the roof of the Edward Jones Dome over an empty football field on Tuesday. The turf had been put away after what was the Rams’ last season in St. Louis.

Expensive, exhausting effort may lead to something great STADIUM • FROM A1

charged $760,000.

And the effort spent $1.3 million on options to buy land along the north riverfront.

Gov. Jay Nixon’s stadium task force, which guided the Dome authority’s hiring, has faced some criticism in the process. Some of the contracts were awarded without bids, which the task force said weren’t required. The firm of task force co-chairman Bob Blitz was one of the largest benefactors of the effort. And many of the stadium contractors are also political donors.

Still, those who worked on the effort to build the $1.1 billion open-air stadium along the Mississippi River, and keep the St. Louis Rams from fleeing to Los Angeles, say they were frugal, followed all laws, cared deeply — and worked their tails off.

Blitz attorney Kevin Fleming spent over 1,000 hours coordinating the project’s legal and administrative business. He touched nearly every section of the task force’s NFL application. And he remembers, a few years ago, when the Rams won in arbitration and were free to leave town.

“I was a Rams fan. I’ve got a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old that I’m going to raise here in St. Louis,” he said. “And I remember thinking, is anybody going to stand up for us? Is this just going to happen, and we’re going to lose another company?

“I had no idea then that I’d be part of that fight,” he continued. “It’s been a life and a career highlight.”

The outcome was far from guaranteed. Everyone involved knew they had to produce a “viable” stadium plan — by National Football League standards — to have a hope of keeping the Rams in town.

Then, Tuesday, it all came to a sudden halt. NFL owners voted 30-2 to approve Stan Kroenke’s request to move the Rams to his proposed $2 billion football palace in Inglewood, southwest of downtown L.A. Fans were furious, leaders insulted.

In the aftermath, it’s also clear that there are collateral losses: hotels, T-shirt shops, apparel makers, breweries and an army of workers at Sunday football games will all take a hit.

THE LOSERS The city will lose at least $4.2 million a year in game-day dollars — $1.9 million in sales tax, $1.8 million in ticket tax, $300,000 from the 1 percent earnings tax on player salaries — plus an untold amount in parking, restaurant and hotel revenue.

The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, the group that books events at the convention center and Dome, will do without $300,000 to $500,000 from its lease with the Rams (though leaders say the team’s departure will eventually allow them to book more large conventions each fall).

And about 650 part-time Dome workers will miss earnings from the 10 football Sundays.

Other losses are less obvious.

The Rams Foundation gave more than $3.5 million to St. Louis area charities and causes since 1995, according to tax documents. It gave tickets and grants to nonprofit organizations and schools. It built six playgrounds across the region. It gave annual donations to the United Way of Greater St. Louis, the Fair St. Louis Foundation, the Magic House and others.

“For the holidays, it’s going to be tough,” said Ruby Jones, a senior director at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri. Jones said the Rams gave considerable time and money for a Christmas youth program where kids were able to buy presents.

Jeff Brewer, foundation treasurer, didn’t respond to requests for comment. A worker at Rams Park in Earth City said Brewer had been working at the team’s

Los Angeles office “for a while,” and provided a number with a California area code.

CONTRACT WINNERS The task force engaged more than 30 companies in total. The work ranged vastly in scope and dollars.

HOK earned almost two-thirds of the total. The company declined an interview with the Post-Dispatch on Friday, but the architects said earlier that 30 employees and 30 contractors were working on the proposal.

They envisioned an arena with plazas and gardens, bridges and bike trails, soaring glass sides, a wall of public art, a three-story brew pub and a 30-foot-wide observation deck stretching over the Mississippi River flood wall.

By December, they had nearly finished the first two stages of architectural work — schematic design and design development.

But the task force also worked with smaller companies, for smaller dollars. It paid consultant Darryl A. Piggee $75,000 to help build a minority workforce plan that officials deemed the deepest and widest ever assembled on a public project in Missouri. It paid the south St. Louis County industrial engineers Design Nine about $27,000 to work on moving the railroad tracks that cut through the proposed stadium’s footprint.

The task force even paid the Post-Dispatch — about $4,500 to advertise for contractors.

Most of the stadium work was awarded without bids. Fleming, the Blitz attorney, said the Dome authority is not technically a state agency and doesn’t have to follow state rules. In a few cases — for geotechnical work, environmental cleanup and construction management — the task force sought bids to get a better price.

feelings.

Pam Neal, owner of Al’s Restaurant, is happy the 90-year-old business will live another day. “We think there’s a bright future for the north riverfront,” she said.

Mark Schulte, co-owner of the long narrow Cotton Belt building, is still hoping the Dome authority will buy his land.

“I challenge our community not to waste our opportunity,” he said. “I’m so sick of people saying no. We can do this.

We have the resources, we do.

“The question is, do we have the guts, patience and creativity?”

David Hunn • 314-340-8121 @davidhunn on Twitter dhunn@post-dispatch.com

STADIUM SPENDING HOK $10,521,157 Options on real estate $1,300,000 $889,601 Blitz, Bardgett & Deutsch Thompson Coburn $760,726 John Loyd/Unlimited Projects $520,134 HCKL (A Hunt-Clayco-KAI- $450,000 Legacy joint venture) Environmental Operations Inc. $327,764 Geotechnology Inc. $244,950 David Mason & Associates $236,125 $180,525 Downtown Now! SMG, BSG, Pelopidas $177,859 Ameren Missouri $136,974 Premier Partnerships $104,886 Thompson Hine $83,046 $75,000 Darryl A. Piggee Husch Blackwell $75,000 Barrett Sports Group $ 61,464 Design Nine Inc. $26,614 Columbia Capital Municipal Advisors $16,372 (paid by state) Kwame Building Group Inc. $10,808 Department of Natural Resources $5,000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch $4,534 Gilmore & Bell $576

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‘STOP SPENDING MONEY’ Many of the contractors had political ties. Since 2011, the companies engaged by the task force gave more than $200,000 to Gov. Jay Nixon, and more than $300,000 to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. Blitz’s firm, for instance, gave more than $10,000 to both.

Nixon’s office and Slay’s campaign said their chiefs played no role in the selection of stadium contractors.

And task force co-chairman Dave Peacock said the team scrutinized contracts and double-checked rates with advisers.

In December, as the NFL vote neared, he told contractors to ramp down. “Stop,” he said. “Stop spending money.”

Blitz bristled at the suggestion that his firm took advantage of the public dime.

He said he’s worked more than 1,000 hours on the project, paid for expenses out of pocket, and even stopped billing the Dome authority for its regular meetings. “I have not charged one dime to the task force,” he said.

He wasn’t the only one. Dome authority records show that neither Peacock nor Jim Woodcock, a partner at the public relations firm FleishmanHillard, were paid, either.

Asim Raza, general counsel for the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, said he and two of his engineers also put in hundreds of hours for free. When the task force asked about relocating the association’s tracks, “We jumped at the opportunity to be a part of a civic effort,” Raza said in an email.

Jim Shrewsbury, chairman of the Dome authority board, said regional and state leaders will figure out how to back-fill some of the $16 million.

The authority has new assets, he noted.

It owns Rams Park, where the team practiced. It can start marketing the Dome for fall conventions. And it has dozens of options on prime riverfront land.

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IMPROVEMENTS IN ST. LOUIS SCHOOL DISTRICT

NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS STEP UP

A secret ballot for NFL owners.

A resistance to a public vote.

And one clause in the Rams’ lease.

How St. Louis lost the Rams

“I thought we had a good shot. Obviously, tonight, we learned otherwise.”

Dave Peacock, stadium task force co-chairman, on the night of the NFL vote.

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

Fourth- and fifth-graders Amon Greer (from left), Ricardo Wilkes, Sale Siday, Rexhep Palloshi, Alexander Yohanis and Cannon Jones dance to “Watch Me” at a celebration at Oak Hill Elementary in St. Louis last month. The families of three of the boys come from other countries.

Staff members spend much of their time working on enrichment strategies that keep children coming to school.

MEETING STATE BENCHMARKS Half of St. Louis Public Schools are performing at the level of state accreditation — a sharp increase from two years ago. Here’s how many schools meet 70 percent or more of state benchmarks.

2015

2013

Oak Hill Principal Karessa Morrow presents fifth-grader Ricardo Wilkes with a copy of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School” last month as a gift for him reading on grade level. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God,’” said Ricardo when he was found to be reading on grade level for the first time. “It was the best day of my life.”

70%

More resources, data-driven approach have helped pupils gain ground at what were traditionally lowest performers

See SCHOOLS • Page A6

ST. LOUIS • There was still hope

for St. Louis football on the day the region lost the Rams.

The plan to build a new stadium here had strident support.

Michael Bidwill, owner of the Arizona Cardinals, had worked for weeks to round up votes among his National Football League colleagues. Jerry Richardson, owner of the Carolina Panthers, lobbied so ardently he had even flown to visit some owners.

At midday on Jan. 12, the influential NFL Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities recommended 5-1 that the league’s 32 owners approve a stadium project in Carson, Calif. That would move the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers to Los Angeles. Rams owner Stan Kroenke would be stuck in St. Louis.

But as the hours passed in Houston, optimism disappeared.

See STADIUM • Page A4

Marines mourn 12 lost in helicopter crash, including St. Louis captain • A13

BY ELISA CROUCH • St. Louis Post-Dispatch

For decades, children who have fared the worst academically in St. Louis have been those in its neighborhood schools.

They tend to come from unstable housing situations, from the deepest poverty. Most don’t qualify for higher performing choice or magnet schools, or they have parents who didn’t try to enroll them. They end up in classrooms with high concentrations of children with skills below grade level, who bounce from school to school, with the smallest chance of graduating.

Some of this appears to be changing.

Last year, gains made in the city’s neighborhood schools were so significant that St. Louis Public Schools experienced its best performance in more than a decade, as measured by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

BY DAVID HUNN AND JIM THOMAS St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Get outside for some cold weather workouts • H1 Magnet and choice schools (shaded darker) had led the district’s performance.

Now, a growing number of neighborhood schools are meeting state standards.

Note: This tally of schools does not include some specialized programs or schools that had insufficient data to be rated by the state.

SOURCE: Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Forest Park pruning yields healthy woods • B1 TODAY

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RAMS

A4 • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

M 2 • SUNDAY • 01.24.2016

The saga of how LA snatched back the Rams STADIUM • FROM A1

The committee’s Carson pick was expected. And most thought it would take several ballots for one side to gather the 24 votes necessary for league approval.

It didn’t. The first vote killed the Carson project. Owners voted 21-11 in favor of Kroenke’s sparkling Inglewood stadium. It was just a matter of time to reach 24.

By day’s end, the vote was 302.

St. Louis stadium officials were left wondering what went wrong.

“I thought we had a good shot,” Dave Peacock, co-chairman of Gov. Jay Nixon’s stadium task force, said late that night.

“Obviously, tonight, we learned otherwise.”

No one moment killed the effort to keep the Rams in St. Louis.

But task force members, league and team executives — past and present — as well as multiple owners agreed that three factors, above all others, sunk the St. Louis effort: • A secret ballot.

• A resistance to a vote of residents or state legislators.

• And one clause in the Rams’ 21-year-old lease.

A tipping point might have come the week before the Houston meeting. Rams Chief Operating Officer Kevin Demoff presented Kroenke’s stadium plan — round after round of dazzling full-color renderings — to 17 owners on three committees in New York City. Owners say now that the display went exceedingly well.

“We’re sitting there in New York, and I’m watching this presentation on Inglewood, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Holy (expletive),’” said one owner, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I said, ‘There is no way that the owners in that room are not going to approve this project.

This is pretty spectacular.’”

Even committed Carsonbackers left New York City worried.

THE FINAL HOURS: THREE SECRET BALLOTS Walking into the Houston meetings, Chargers owner Dean Spanos and his supporters thought they had lined up about 20 votes. Spanos was well-liked by owners, who also sympathized with his long fight for a new stadium in San Diego. Richardson had been “aggressively” lobbying for Carson, one owner said — so aggressively, in fact, that league executives got calls from owners who said they felt “bullied.”

Several asked Commissioner Roger Goodell about a secret ballot. Goodell put the issue on the day’s agenda. The owners took it up and voted. It passed 19-13.

In the NFL, secret ballots occur about as often as Rams playoff berths.

In this case, it opened the door for Kroenke.

“In the almost 30 years I was behind those doors at those meetings, the only instances in which I recall the use of the secret ballot were the selection of the commissioner and the selection of Super Bowl sites,” said former Raiders CEO Amy Trask, now a CBS Sports analyst.

“It was tremendously significant,” she said. “And also somewhat surprising.”

It’s one thing to tell an owner he’s got your vote. It’s another to look him in the eye and say he doesn’t. Former Rams President John Shaw has said on more than one occasion that when he walked into owners meetings in

released publicly, the NFL protested.

The task force secured $158 million in stadium naming rights, and proposed using that to fund construction. The NFL argued naming rights were club dollars.

The task force suggested using game-day tax revenue — on tickets, parking, hot dogs, etc.

The NFL cried foul again: The city had waived ticket taxes for the Cardinals and the Blues. Why not the Rams, too?

Finally, the day before a key vote by the city’s Board of Aldermen, the plan changed one more time. The task force proposed sending ticket taxes, too, back to the NFL, in exchange for higher stadium rent and $100 million more from the league.

Two days later, Goodell wrote to Peacock saying the $100 million was “fundamentally inconsistent with the NFL’s program of stadium financing.” The league had no plans to pay it, he said.

But the letter was misleading to the general public. League owners and executives had multiple conversations with the task force about such an offer, both sides acknowledged. And the league did have plans to pay that money — a fact which became clear after the owners vote in Houston. There, the league offered Spanos and Davis $100 million extra toward new stadiums in their hometowns.

Kroenke would have gotten the same deal, executives said after the Houston meeting, had he lost the vote and stayed in St. Louis.

Another blow came just days before the Houston meeting.

In a report sent to owners Jan. 9, Goodell said there are “significant concerns about the certainty and long-term viability of the Task Force’s stadium proposal to retain the Rams,” according to an excerpt obtained by the Post-Dispatch. Moreover, he said, the Rams have the right to relocate.

Nixon told the Post-Dispatch that, in the end, few of those criticisms mattered.

“Even if we stopped and did those things, we’d still be here, and the team in LA,” Nixon said on Friday. “I do not believe a few million dollars on either side would have changed the outcome.”

Still, an airtight stadium plan was the last hope for the task force. It had to be perfect in the league’s eyes.

And it wasn’t.

1995 in Phoenix, he felt he had 18 votes in favor of moving the Rams to St. Louis. Turned out he had three.

In Houston, the impact of the secret ballot was immediate. Owners voted 21-11 in favor of Inglewood. Someone flipped for Carson in the next vote, and it went 20-12.

Just like that, eight or nine Spanos votes had disappeared.

Owners took a break. It was time to broker a deal. By day’s end, Kroenke’s Inglewood palace won, 30-2. The league gave Spanos a one-year option to move in with Kroenke; Raiders owner Mark Davis could move if Spanos didn’t.

The secret ballot didn’t carry the day alone. Some owners and executives now say Demoff’s New York presentation got even better in Houston. Some say the rare appearance of Seattle Seahawks owner and Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen — who urged owners to pick the best stadium project — swayed the room.

Over six hours, the league had done something it almost never does: Overruled a committee vote.

THE LAST MONTHS: A CASCADE OF FAILED PLANS Two years ago, Goodell and NFL Executive Vice President Eric Grubman urged Nixon to go public with his support for a new stadium.

But Nixon waited at least 10 months to announce his task force, until the day after the November 2014 election. The day before, a new county executive was elected.

The county would prove to be more obstacle than aid.

In January 2015, Nixon’s task force revealed plans for a $1 billion riverfront stadium. A key tenet: no new tax dollars. St. Louis, St. Louis County and the state could all instead extend annual payments — $24 million in total — that cover debt and upkeep on the Edward Jones Dome, where the Rams played.

Nixon was worried that there wasn’t time for a public vote, especially since the NFL decision was proving to be a moving target — once projected for the fall, then December, then January. In addition, leaders weren’t sure a vote would pass. Polling in the city showed roughly a 50-50 split among voters. If Kroenke funded opposition, results could be worse.

So Nixon — who was already ignoring calls for a vote of the state Legislature — sought to sidestep St. Louis and St. Louis County laws requiring elections.

That March, Nixon met with County Executive Steve Stenger to talk about his role. Stenger told Nixon that the county charter would require a public vote for any direct support of a new stadium.

Nixon’s team shifted gears, Stenger said. Could the county instead cover Jones Dome upkeep, or the remaining $115 million in debt?

The county’s role, however, “was never formalized,” Stenger said Friday. The task force suggested the county could support the stadium “in some other way, other than through public financing,” he said.

At the end of March, Nixon cut the county out of the stadium financing plan.

Nixon and Peacock shrugged off the loss. But the county represented one-fourth of the stadium’s anticipated public financing. It was money the task force would never recoup.

With every revision, every plan

20 YEARS AGO: A DESPERATE CITY None of this would have mattered were it not for a few paragraphs among hundreds of pages in the Rams lease.

At the end of 1994, St. Louis had just lost its bid for an expansion franchise. James Orthwein, a Busch heir, had sold the New England Patriots — the region’s backup plan — to business magnate Robert Kraft. And a downtown football stadium was onethird built.

The Rams were months into negotiations with regional leaders hoping to lure the team east.

In November, attorneys for all sides met in secret in La Jolla, Calif., a tony beachside neighborhood north of San Diego.

Rams President Shaw was worried about stadium upkeep.

It was a problem in Anaheim, where the team had played since 1980. He knew St. Louis hadn’t funded a new stadium for the football Cardinals, who had fled to Phoenix seven years earlier.

He didn’t want such issues to become a problem if the Rams moved to St. Louis.

In Shaw’s mind it wasn’t as much physical obsolescence as economic: A team’s ability to make money was rapidly changing. Club seats, luxury suites and other extras were cutting edge, as were in-house advertising and stadium naming rights.

Shaw told his attorneys before they met in La Jolla to make sure the St. Louis stadium could adapt to changing revenue streams.

Three main parties were negotiating the lease. Greg Smith represented the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, which would run the dome. Attorney Richard Riezman and his firm, then called Riezman & Blitz, spoke for FANS Inc., the group of civic leaders trying to lure the team. The Rams were represented primarily by L.A. attorneys Milt Hyman and Marty Gelfand, as well as sports consultant Marc Ganis.

It’s unclear who introduced the now-infamous “first-tier” clause, which required the stadium to be among the top eight facilities in the league after each 10-year increment. Shaw and Ganis have both said the Rams brought it up. Most say they now forget. Some think it was actually a St. Louis attorney.

“It might surprise you, but I favored it,” said former convention center director Bruce Sommer. “I had been managing the Kiel and St. Louis arena. I learned that if the public owns it, likely they’ll never put another dime into it. And in a number of years, it won’t be a very good facility.”

But regional leaders refused to guarantee a dollar figure on the upgrades — they didn’t want to commit future tax dollars.

The parties went back and forth on the subject.

At one point in negotiations, Hyman pushed away from the table. “‘Guys, do I need to remind you? There’s only one NFL corporation that wants to move,’” Sommer recalls him saying. Then Hyman pulled his chair back to the table. “‘Now let’s get reasonable.’”

The St. Louisans had little choice, Sommer said. “What are we going to do, sit here with an empty $300 million stadium, and be the laughingstock of the country?”

Neither Hyman nor Gelfand returned calls seeking comment.

In the end, they worked out a deal that allowed the Rams to leave the dome if the parties couldn’t agree on top-tier upgrades and arbitrators ruled in their favor.

“Believe me, I tried to convince the St. Louis parties not to do it even though I was representing the Rams,” Ganis said. “I knew then, and I explained to them then, that this was going to be a major mistake they were making.

I told them.”

“We weren’t looking to be pigs,” he continued. “We just wanted the building updated on a regular basis over 30 years.

That’s all we were looking for.

We knew that St. Louis was a challenging market compared to many of the other markets in the NFL. So we had to have a firstclass building.”

Smith, the convention center attorney, chuckled some last week when asked about the clause. It didn’t, then, really seem like something they had to worry about.

“My recollection,” he said, “was we thought we had plenty of time to figure that out.”

David Hunn • 314-340-8121 @davidhunn on Twitter dhunn@post-dispatch.com

KEY MOMENTS FOR ST. LOUIS RAMS Feb. 1, 2013 • Arbitrators rule in favor of Rams’ $700 million proposal to reach first-tier status at Edward Jones Dome.

July 2013 • Regional leaders reject Rams’ $700 million plan.

“We simply don’t have the money to do it,” convention and sports complex authority head Jim Shrewsbury says.

January 2014 • Rams owner Stan Kroenke buys 60 acres in Inglewood, Calif.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell tells St. Louis not to overreact: “There are no plans to my knowledge of a stadium development.”

Nov. 6, 2014 • Gov. Jay Nixon announces formation of task force headed by former Anheuser-Busch executive Dave Peacock and attorney Bob Blitz to keep NFL football in St. Louis.

Jan. 5., 2015 • Kroenke’s plans are made public to build an 80,000-seat stadium in Inglewood, partnering with Stockbridge Capital Group on a multi-faceted 300-acre project.

Jan. 9, 2015 • Stadium task force reveals plans for an openair riverfront stadium on the north edge of downtown St. Louis.

Jan. 26, 2015 • Rams convert Edward Jones Dome lease to year-to-year status.

March 2015 • St. Louis County taxpayers are removed from stadium financing, stripping plan of $6 million a year and raising questions about viability of the project.

Oct. 6, 2015 • Proposed St. Louis stadium gets a $158 million name: National Car Rental Field.

Dec. 6, 2015 • Task force cuts deal to fill financing hole, giving stadium naming rights money to NFL but keeping anticipated tax revenue.

Dec. 10, 2015 • Aldermanic committee votes 7-2 to send stadium financing bill to full Board of Aldermen.

Dec. 16, 2015 • Houston Texans owner Robert McNair tells Houston Chronicle: St. Louis is “getting pretty close, in my opinion, to being an attractive proposal. And if they do come up with an attractive proposal … I don’t think the Rams will receive the approval to relocate.”

Dec. 17, 2015 • Goodell warns Nixon and his task force that the NFL has no plans to contribute $300 million toward construction of a St. Louis stadium.

Dec. 18, 2015 • Aldermen approve funding plan for stadium construction, 17-10.

Jan. 5, 2016 • Rams file for relocation, blasting the St. Louis market and stating that any NFL club agreeing to stadium proposal here “would be well on the road to financial ruin.”

Jan. 9. 2016 • In a report sent to NFL team owners, Goodell calls the St. Louis stadium plan inadequate, suggests that Rams have met relocation guidelines.

Jan. 12, 2016 • League owners meet in Houston, approve Rams’ move to Los Angeles, 30-2.

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