In a toast to 2024, St. Louis Public Radio looked back at our most-read articles online. And we thought about the big storylines of the year.
Then we smashed those lists together to come up with our admittedly subjective and somewhat nondefinitive top stories of 2024. The results encapsulate a wild year rife with protests, innovation, petty scandals, insects, celestial happenings — and much more.
Read on for some great tales, superb writing and a top story that’s absolutely worth scrolling all the way to the bottom for.
24. VP St. Louis ousts its own figurehead — the Veiled Prophet is no more
In a baby step away from its racist history, St. Louis’ secret society ditched its titular figurehead, the Veiled Prophet, earlier this year. But, confusingly, VP St. Louis has continued to use VP in its name, telling St. Louis Public Radio: “VP is just letters. It stands for nothing.”
Read more about VP St. Louis’ new look.
23. As St. Louis Reparations Commission ends, Black St. Louisans say cash payouts are a must
The median Black household income in St. Louis is $33,000, while the median white income is about $77,000. That stark division is part of the reason why some are arguing that cash payments are the best way to begin to address the harm to Black St. Louisans from decades of structural racism.
Read more about the Reparations Commission.
22. Why more than 1,000 St. Louis homicides remain unsolved
St. Louis is one of the deadliest cities in the U.S., and too often no one is held accountable — not even the killers. A yearslong, multipart investigation published by St. Louis Public Radio, APM Reports and the Marshall Project examined why the city police department struggles so much to solve homicide cases and how that affects the families and communities that have lost loved ones.
Read more from the investigative series.
21. City SC supporters plan to boycott MLS for excluding St. Louis from U.S. Open Cup
If there’s one surefire way to make St. Louisans angry, it’s to leave St. Louis out of something. Such was the case when Major League Soccer decided not to allow City SC to participate in the U.S. Open Cup.
Read more about the fallout.
20. Washington University anti-war protest leads to over 80 arrests
As the war between Israel and Hamas raged in Gaza, students at universities across the U.S. protested their institutions' investments in companies profiting from the fighting. At Washington University, law enforcement officers arrested more than 100 protesters, who included students, employees and even Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
Read more about the Washington University protest
19. Up to 60 billion cicadas are about to emerge in St. Louis. Here’s what you need to know
Undeniably, the sound of St. Louis’ summer was the overwhelming hum of billions of cicadas. St. Louisans eagerly prepped for their revival, cooked them like shrimp, wondered why there were so few in the city and then promptly forgot they were ever here.
18. 2024 Total Solar Eclipse: What you need to know in Missouri and Illinois
Just as the moon covered the sun in its entirety, St. Louis Public Radio covered everything one would need or want to know about this year’s eclipse.
Read more and then check out our perfect eclipse playlist.
17. Food delivery, flowers, Amazon: How Keisha Scarlett spent $141K of St. Louis Public Schools money
First, St. Louis Public Schools was hit by transportation woes. Then it was money problems. Then the mess got bigger and bigger until the recently hired Superintendent Keisha Scarlett became the fired superintendent. The details about Scarlett’s short tenure are startling, including the charges on her work credit card.
Bath & Body Works, Massage Envy, food delivery — the list goes on.
16. West Florissant Avenue burned in the 2014 Ferguson unrest. Its recovery has been uneven
This year marked a decade since Black Ferguson teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson. The incident birthed a movement but also destruction, as people fed up with the bleak status quo burned and looted many north St. Louis County businesses. Since then, some areas have seen more investment than others.
15. Missouri House will not consider two bills expanding firearm access this session
It’s rare that anything shakes Missouri’s stance on firearms. But a shooting that left one dead and more than 20 injured at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory celebration did just that. In its wake, the Missouri House decided not to take up two bills that would have expanded firearm access in the state.
14. Embattled Missouri Rep. Sarah Unsicker jumps into race for governor
Sarah Unsicker’s political unraveling began in earnest when the St. Louis County Democrat posted a photo to X of herself with conspiracy theorist Eric Garland and right-wing troll and Holocaust denier Charles C. Johnson enjoying “basil lemonade.” That led to her political downfall in the Missouri House so, naturally, she decided to run for governor.
For more on this, and her conspiratorial stance on the Springfield, Missouri, take on cashew chicken, read on.
13. A St. Louis man is bringing aqua cremation to Missouri's first crematory
Getting buried or cremated — that’s so last year. Jon Hughes made waves this year when he opened a funeral home that specializes in the eco-friendly burial alternative aquamation.
12. Riverfront Times sale and layoff of news staff signals end of 46-year era for St. Louis alt-weekly
When the city’s alt-weekly Riverfront Times was sold to an undisclosed buyer in May and effectively shut down, a shocked St. Louis erupted in anger and curiosity — especially when a bevy of articles ranking OnlyFans creators began to populate its site. Who would do this? In September, St. Louis Public Radio tracked down the likely owners.
For more on this surprisingly sordid tale, read on.
11. Brian Dorsey is set to be Missouri’s first 2024 execution. A former judge wants to stop it
No one disputed the facts of Brian Dorsey’s case: He shot and killed his cousin and her husband, Sarah and Ben Bonnie. But many, including a retired Missouri Supreme Court judge who presided over an appeal, argued that he’d received inadequate legal counsel and that his sentence should be commuted to life. That argument failed, and Dorsey became the first person executed by Missouri in 2024. By the end of the year, Missouri had killed three more people on death row, raising its total executions to 101.
The retired state Supreme Court judge went on St. Louis on the Air to discuss his stance on the execution.
10. How Missouri voted on all six ballot items
The fevered pitch of the presidential election year made it a big news year, and St. Louis Public Radio’s voter guide and a story about how to check polling station wait times did big numbers. However, the surprising hit was how Missourians voted on all those ballot items, including abortion, the minimum wage and sports betting.
If you missed the breakdown, find out what passed and what went belly-up.
9. Missouri Supreme Court orders abortion legalization back on the ballot
The hottest of the aforementioned ballot issues was unquestionably Amendment 3. That the abortion legalization measure passed was less of a surprise than it staying on the ballot in the first place. Jay Ashcroft, the ACLU and advocacy groups tussled over the measure (and haven’t stopped).
Read about the Missouri Supreme Court decision that got it in front of voters.
8. Christopher Dunn is a free man after 34 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit
After more than 30 years in prison, Christopher Dunn walked free in July. Dunn described the moment as “surreal” and couldn’t find words at first.
Read more about the yearslong fight for his freedom — the scenes STLPR photojournalist Sophie Proe captured between Dunn and his mother will move you. Also, listen to Dunn talk about his experiences on St. Louis on the Air.
7. A Florissant restaurant’s age policy gained national attention — is it problematic?
The uproar when a Florissant restaurant opened with age requirements — 30 for women and 35 for men — was utterly predictable. The owners of Bliss said they had nothing against young people: They just wanted to focus on an older audience.
Read about the concept and its potential legal pitfalls.
6. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker isn’t surprised by Madison County's recent secession vote
If you didn’t think the urban-rural divide was a real thing, seeing how people voted in the presidential race — dots of blue in a sea of red — probably woke you up. But Illinois took those differences much further with a threat from rural and suburban counties to secede from the Chicago area and form their own state.
The governor, as you might expect, isn’t too fond of this. Read about why he’s not surprised (or concerned) about it.
5. Missouri executes Marcellus Williams for 1998 murder he said he didn’t commit
The state executed Marcellus Williams — who had long maintained his innocence — in September after the governor and U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt the proceedings. Williams’ attempts to stop the execution had largely fallen apart when it was discovered that the DNA on the murder weapon hoped to be exclusionary actually belonged to the original investigators.
For less than a half-day, it looked like a surprise deal to commute Williams’ sentence to life in prison might save his life. For more on the history of Williams’ efforts and how Attorney General Andrew Bailey scuttled the fight, read more.
4. The Chesterfield Mall will be replaced by a $2 billion ‘high-end urban downtown’
Dead malls, new development, TIFs, alternatives to the oft-perceived “crime-ridden” downtown St. Louis, if a suburban area can truly have a downtown — the tale of what is to become of the former Chesterfield Mall hit all those notes. Read more about the surprisingly contentious development.
3. Missouri and the Midwest are gearing up for water fights fueled by climate change
Missouri has a lot of water, the western states don’t, and people don’t want to share.
Read more how climate change will make the fight over water rights into a war.
2. St. Louis prepares for major earthquake with drills in streets, skies and waterways
A major earthquake along the New Madrid Fault collapses bridges, twists roads and crumbles buildings — that’s the scenario that emergency responders faced during a disaster preparedness drill that took place in St. Louis in July.
Read more about what the 500-some participants encountered.
1. Watch: Alton sinkhole, estimated 100 feet wide, collapses in the middle of park
When a well-placed security camera captured the exact moment a giant sinkhole opened up in an Alton park — swallowing an entire stadium light pole — that was pretty much destined to be the top story of the year. Chef’s kiss: drone photos of the 100-foot void and the fact that no one was hurt.
If you missed this, catch up ASAP.
