Alton

Like other employers, Madison County Transit is struggling to hire drivers. To avoid burning out employees, Managing Director SJ Morrison said MCT will reduce routes in low-traffic areas.

A series of fights prompted district administrators to close Alton High School last week. On Tuesday, students return to class with new metal detectors and more staff in hallways between classes to increase safety.

The existential threat from flooding is also an economic one for the cities and towns that hug the country's major rivers. In total, flooding in 2019 along the Mississippi and its tributaries caused an estimated $6.2 billion in damage, including millions in the St. Louis region.

“There’s not a scarcity of resources right now. We have this ability to be a great economic hub because of the attributes we have in this region and the development that is happening today,” one elected leader said.

While the Mississippi River produced major flooding in parts of northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, it is expected to crest well below serious flood levels in the St. Louis area this weekend.

From May through November, bus tours will lead visitors through the rich Black history of Alton.

The project includes a new visitors center for the city and outdoor gathering areas.

A new exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum features a variety of Metro East figures, including Tina Turner, the Indigenous people who built Cahokia Mounds and surveyor Don Alonzo Spaulding.

There isn’t a specific path for the state’s vision of zeroing out carbon emissions by 2050 and ensuring areas overburdened by past pollution fully benefit from the growing green economy.

She was on vacation at the time of the accident. “Anyone that knew her, loved her and knew how much of a bright light she brought to every room she entered,” a Facebook post states.