ST. LOUIS – Two organizations have teamed up to offer a free and safe ride for up to 2,000 Missourians through New Year’s Day, including people in St. Louis.

Breakthru Beverage Missouri and Absolut Vodka will offer free rides to people in St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Columbia from 2 p.m. Saturday (New Year’s Eve) to 2 a.m. Sunday (New Year’s Day). The rides are offered through rideshare partner Lyft and part of the Safe Home After Every Occasion social responsibility program.

Missourians can score a free ride home (up to $30 value) by using ride code: BBGMONYE2022 on Lyft. The code will also be posted on Breakthru Beverage Missouri’s website and social media channels including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

“Breakthru Beverage Missouri is pleased to continue to sponsor Safe Home After Every Occasion with the generous help of our supplier partner Pernod Ricard to help Missourians celebrate New Year’s Eve responsibly by planning ahead for a safe ride home,” said Scott Johnson, Executive Vice President of Breakthru Beverage Missouri.

Since the program’s inception, it has provided more than 100,000 Missourians a free ride home.

ST. LOUIS – One man was hurt after someone shot him during a fight in south St. Louis.

The shooting happened around 3 p.m. Friday in the 4500 block of Michigan Avenue in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood.

Investigators say the victim was near Mount Pleasant Park when he got involved in a fight with another man, who shot him in the thigh. The victim, a 36-year-old man, spoke with officers about the shooting before he was sent to the hospital with minor injuries.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is handling the investigation.

ST. LOUIS – Missouri’s minimum wage will increase by 85 cents per hour at the start of the 2023 year.

Starting Jan. 1, the state’s new minimum wage will be $12 per hour for employees who work in private businesses. The 2022 minimum wage for such employees in Missouri was $11.15.

Missouri has raised its minimum wage gradually each of the last seven years, according to the Missouri Department of Labor. Recent increases are part of a plan approved by voters in 2018 to raise the minimum wage every year through 2023.

The state’s minimum wage law does not apply to public employers, nor does it allow the state’s minimum wage rate to be lower than the federal minimum wage rate. This means that the minimum wage increase may not apply to workers in retail and service businesses.

According to the department of labor, “employers engaged in retail or service businesses whose annual gross income is less than $500,000 are not required to pay the state minimum wage rate.”

Employees who work for tips, like restaurant servers, must be guaranteed at least half of the minimum wage per hour, per state law.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A judge overturned a Missouri man’s murder conviction in a case in which investigators failed to reveal that a witness was in a romantic relationship with the lead detective.

Judge Timothy Boyer on Friday overturned Lamont Cambell’s conviction in the death of Lenny Gregory III, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Gregory, the son of a retired St. Louis police officer, was found shot in an SUV in south St. Louis in July 2011.

Cambell was 17 when the shooting happened. A jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict after a 2013 trial. Prosecutors tried him again in 2016 and this time won a conviction. Cambell was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Cambell, now 28, subsequently argued that his attorney was ineffective.

A witness identification expert, Jennifer Dysart, testified to Boyer in spring 2022 that the witness’ accounts were unreliable due to poor lighting the night of the shooting. Two witnesses were married, allowing them to compare their stories, and descriptions of the shooter’s height varied, Dysart said.

The ex-wife of lead detective Jeff Hyatt testified that she learned in 2017 her husband was having an affair with one witness. Text messages showed the affair had been going on since at least July 2016, before Cambell’s trial. Boyer wrote that the relationship should have been disclosed to the defense.

Mary Fox, who represented Cambell at trial and now leads the state public defender’s office, told the judge that she could have done more to investigate the possibility of another perpetrator. She said she learned after the trial that a neighbor saw multiple people fighting with Gregory the night he was killed.

American commutes are getting longer, with a U.S. Census Bureau report released in 2021 revealing the average one-way commute in 2019 reached a record high of 27.6 minutes. Combined with high gas prices, workers’ daily commutes are increasingly time-consuming and expensive—so much so that some are calling for commutes to count as part of the workday.

Even worse are travel times for “super commuters“—that unlucky 10% of Americans traveling more than one hour each way to punch a clock.

Stacker compiled statistics about the average commute in St. Charles County using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics are calculated based on 2020 5-year estimates. St. Charles County has a shorter commute than five out of six neighboring counties, with Lincoln County, MO having the longest commute at 33.6 minutes.

St. Charles County commuting by the numbers
– Average commute: 25.6 minutes
— 7.1% higher than state average
— #47 worst commute in the state
– Workers with 1+ hour commute: 3.9%
– Workers who drive to work: 89.6%
— Workers who carpool to work: 6.2%
– Workers who take public transport to work: 0.1%
– Workers who work from home: 8.5%
– Left for work between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m.: 12.9%
– Worked outside county of residence: 45.4%

Commutes in neighboring counties
#1. St. Louis County, MO: 24.1 minutes
#2. St. Charles County, MO: 25.6 minutes
#2. Madison County, IL: 25.6 minutes
#4. Jersey County, IL: 26.5 minutes
#5. Franklin County, MO: 29.9 minutes
#6. Warren County, MO: 30.2 minutes
#7. Lincoln County, MO: 33.6 minutes

Counties with the best commute in Missouri
#1. Nodaway County: 15.6 minutes
#2. Grundy County: 16.4 minutes
#3. Adair County: 16.6 minutes

Counties with the worst commute in Missouri
#1. Bollinger County: 33.9 minutes
#2. Caldwell County: 33.7 minutes
#3. Worth County: 33.6 minutes

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Way Out Club closed in August 2021 after giving fans of the quirky bar a few months to say goodbye. Over the past 25 years, the music venue in the 2500 block of Jefferson Avenue has hosted an eclectic mix of bands. Now, they are giving former patrons a chance to take home a piece of St. Louis music history.

Bob Putnam and Sherri “Danger” Lucas, who owned the bar, are involved in the music scene in St. Louis. They decorated the club with the items that interested them. Now, many of the items they collected for decades are up for sale.

“We are very excited to announce the estate sale of the historic Way Out Club on Jefferson. One of the St. Louis’ longest running music venue (and bar) sadly closed last year. We will be hosting the liquidation of the bar and basement. It will be packed. It will be a time. Here are some sneak peek pics. Details and additional photos coming this week,” writes MoModerne Estate Sales on Facebook.

MoModerne Estate Sales says that there will be three sales from January, 6 to the 8th. They will be selling “everything” including beer signs, clocks, furniture paintings, VHS tapes, jukeboxes, band equipment, and much more.

“This is one amazing collection from Bob & Sherri, the owners of the Way Out Club in south city. This was a great hang out, and home to a ton of great shows and event. It also houses a large amount of their collection. The bar has changed ownership now, and we have the weekend to sell all the things we can find and dig out from this incredible place. There is SO MUCH. Come out and get a chance to walk through and take home a piece of St. Louis history,” MoModerne Estate Sales states on their website.

It appears that the bar has changed ownership. The 3,445 square foot space has been a bar for the past 80 years. It was recently for sale for $385,000.

WARRENTON, Mo. – The Warrenton Police Department has issued an Endangered SILVER Advisory for a missing woman.

Holly Kenoyer, 77, was last seen Wednesday at the Missouri State Bank in Warrenton between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Investigators say Kenoyer is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and is without her medication, identification, and cell phone.

Kenoyer is described as 5 feet tall and 119 pounds with gray hair and brown eyes. Police are also looking for a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado with an Oklahoma license plate in connection with her disappearance.

If you have any information on Kenoyer’s whereabouts, contact your nearest law enforcement agency or the Warrenton Police Department at 636-456-7088.

HANLEY HILLS, Mo. – One display at a Hanley Hills church is a somber reminder of how deadly this year has been in St Louis. Nearly 200 white crosses bear the names of homicide victims in the City of St Louis.

It’s a moving site to see at Mt. Beulah Missionary Baptist Church. Row-by-row and cross-by-cross, it marks the victims of homicides this year in St. Louis City.  

It’s an end of the year tradition no one wants to continue.

“I really don’t want to keep doing this,” said Rev. E.G. Shields Sr., pastor of the Mt. Beulah Missionary Baptist Church. “Leaving behind someone who loved them, very dearly, and cared for them. We do it as a constant reminder. These people are not just a number, not just statistics. They are a person who was loved and cared for by people they let behind.”

As of Friday, there have been 198 homicides reported in St. Louis City this year, according to statistics from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. At this time last year, there were 196 homicides reported in the city In 2020, it was a record 263. 

St Louis County also reported 43 homicides this year, which is down from last year’s total of 55. There were also 54 reported homicides in St. Louis County in 2020. This  does not include the number of homicides in other municipalities within the county.

Rev. Shields is calling for the violence to end.
  
“I just hope as people see these crosses. It is a reminder we just stop the killing,” said Shields.
 
The most recent murder in St. Louis County was Thursday afternoon, when police discovered 16-year-old Jaylen Miles dead from a single gunshot wound in the backyard of a vacant home on Spring Garden Drive. 
 
Keisha Hill tells FOX 2 that she knew Miles and is still devastated after she also lost her sister to gun violence. Her sister, 25-year-old Tamella Buchanan, was found deceased with multiple gunshot wounds in the 2800 block of North Taylor in 2018.

Police are still investigating that case, but have no new leads. Hill is wondering when will the violence end.
  
“My heart breaks for him,” said Hill. “I have been here a year almost. I use to see him going back and forth to the store. He was quite a dude. He did not deserve it at all,“ said Hill.

On Saturday, elected officials and members of the St. Louis community will gather from 3-5 p.m. at the Williams Temple Church of God in Christ (1500 Union Boulevard) in memory of homicide victims.

ST. LOUIS – One week removed from a historic frigid cold stretch, St. Louis will ring in the new year with relatively mild weather. That said, it likely won’t be too long before the first storms of 2023.

The penultimate weekend of 2022 will start with cloudy skies Friday evening with spot shower chances and temperatures dipping into the 30s overnight. More sunshine is expected on New Year’s Eve and temperatures will warm up to the 50s, about 10 degrees above average for this time of year.

New Year’s Eve evening activities will be cool and dry with temperatures sticking around the 40s for much of the St. Louis region. New Year’s Day is shaping up for a nice start with partly sunny skies and temperatures expected to warm into the upper 50s.  

The first St. Louis-area storms of the new year could arrive Monday, the second day of the new year. A strong weather system could mean widespread rain and lightning chances.

Current radar projections show the system could be more intense in southern Missouri and Illinois. Storms could continue to impact the bi-state region through Tuesday morning.

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