Previously On

LAST WEEK IN ST. LOUIS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13 Counties and even municipalities are gearing up to tax the heck out of recreational marijuana, the Post-Dispatch reports. Your friendly neighborhood pot dealer is looking more and more like a better bargain. Also, a listicle making the rounds from some publicity-hungry company named Safewise says the most dangerous Missouri city after dark is actually Springfield. We don’t believe it here in St. Louis, but we intend to trumpet it at every opportunity.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14 Lamar Johnson is free — after 28 long years in prison. We’ll give Kim Gardner this: She fought hard, and an innocent man now has his freedom. That’s not a small thing. Also: Emerson announced last week it was keeping its HQ in St. Louis. Remember when we all took a big sigh of relief? Well, now CEO Lal Karsanbhai is issuing a dose of “tough love.” It’s likely warranted (who among us can defend the inequities in our educational outcomes?), but it’s still hard to accept.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 15 At 6 a.m., a man fatally shot the carjacker attempting to steal his vehicle at a gas station just north of downtown — a maddeningly familiar scenario in recent months.

keep firing after the carjacker is fleeing — a man in Soulard now faces seconddegree murder charges over that vigilantism in a previous incident.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16 Michael Butler quits running the Missouri Democratic Party to spend more time selling all-you-can-drink booze. He couldn’t have decided this before his (contested) reelection last month? Also, who among us saw snow flurries in the forecast? RIP, Tim McCarver. We’ll miss your voice.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 In yet another chess scandal with St. Louis roots, SLU’s chess coach is accused of sexual assault and harassment. First, the allegation that Magnus Carlsen used anal beads to cheat in the St. Louis Chess Cup and now this — who knew being the Chess Capital of the World meant being linked to so much bad behavior?

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18 It’s Mardi Gras, and Soulard is positively packed. Somehow police managed to issue only seven summons for underage possession, which gives us new appreciation for the sheer laziness of the SLMPD. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

A sleep gummy that I basically take every night. It allows me to wake up in the morning ready to roll.

—Rosalind Early

“I would strongly encourage that, you know, you flee the situation as soon as possible,” a police captain told the PostDispatch.“But if you’re in such a situation where you have to defend yourself, you must defend yourself.” Just don’t

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19 Former President Jimmy Carter has entered hospice. This is one time thoughts and prayers are actually appropriate — we send them to all the Carters and regret every time we mocked the idea of all the adultery staining our dirty little hearts