Mid Rivers Newsmagazine Your online news source for St. Charles County, Missouri

All four traditional Parkway high schools – Central, North, South and West – and all four traditional Rockwood high schools – Eureka, Lafayette, Marquette and Rockwood Summit – made the Daily Beast 2014 list of “America’s Best High Schools.” This annual list highlights public high schools across the country that do the best job of providing college-ready graduates. To determine the Best High Schools, six indicators culled from school surveys were used to compare public high schools in the U.S., with graduation and college acceptance rates weighed most heavily. Other criteria included: college-level courses and exams, percentage of students with ...

On Sept. 22, at approximately 3:51 p.m., the O’Fallon Police Department received a call to the area of the 900 block of Rolling Thunder in regards to a report of a subject flashing himself to adults and children. A subject wearing nothing but a jacket and holding an umbrella exposed his genitals to numerous children and adults. A school bus filled with children was present during the incident. The subject approached a 3-year-old male and asked the child to touch the subject’s penis. The child ran away. The St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office Issued charges on Jeremiah Cruesoe, a ...

The 2014 Wildwood BBQ Bash marks the 10th anniversary for the event, and the festival promises to be the biggest it’s ever been. The festival runs Sept. 27-28, and offers food, music and entertainment to local area residents.

Abby Carpenter is the third girl in her family to play tennis for the Lancers. Her older sister, Trish, and middle sister, Kelly, also played. But when the sisters talk about their accomplishments on the court, the youngest Carpenter has bragging rights. A senior, she recently became the winningest player in the history of the Lafayette girls program, surpassing the record of 148 held by Haleigh Chobanian, who graduated last spring. “It is great to have had the opportunity to play varsity tennis at Lafayette,” Carpenter said. “Breaking the record is an accomplishment I am very proud of, and I ...

Parkway School District’s Board of Education approved a new policy Sept. 10 setting out an updated system for community use of school facilities. Paul Tandy, the district’s director of communications, said that, during the last school year, a committee was formed to study Parkway’s existing “use of premise” policy and guidelines. This policy outlines the procedures to be used by both school-sponsored and non-school sponsored groups when using Parkway’s facilities for activities and events. Tandy said the previous procedures lacked sufficient clarity regarding the prioritization for reserving space by various groups. Additionally, the fee structure contained four different levels, and ...

This September, The Fulton School welcomes mothers and daughters from the surrounding areas to the four-session “Girls in the Know Speaker Series.” This series is aimed at girls age 9 to 13. Led by a group of women professionals, this month-long, interactive program meets once a week to promote open communication between mothers/caregivers and daughters while encouraging positive behaviors and decisions as pre-teen girls mature into adulthood. The sessions will cover: “Empowering Your Pre-Teen Daughter,” “Promoting a Healthy Body Image,” “All About Safety (Internet, Cell Phones, Home & Away),” and “The Birds & The Bees.” Session dates are Sept. 30 ...

For the first time in school history, the Lafayette tennis team won the top flight of the rugged Parkway Doubles Tournament. “We were the top seed and lived up to that seed in a very tight race with Marquette, who was the No. 3 seed and ended up second in the tournament,” said Lafayette coach Donna Stauffer. Lafayette played in one pool of the top flight and won 3-2 over Cor Jesu, 5-0 over Clayton and 4-1 over Parkway Central. That gave the Lancers 12 points going into the semifinals. All five Lafayette teams advanced. Four teams won their flights ...

For the first time since 2007, the Marquette Mustangs have won their own Marquette Relays. The divers and the swimmers combined to give Marquette 252 points. “They performed very well,” coach Joe Schoedel said. “We had two freshman divers, Cole Gross and Jake Venegoni, along with senior Ben Strate, that started us off great in the morning, taking second place. “From there, the swimmers took over. Our depth really showed when we finished in the top six in every single event. St. Louis University High (234 points) was second with Parkway West (212) and Parkway Central (198), coming in third ...

Recognized as an up-and-coming caterer by the St. Louis Business Journal, Balaban’s, led by managing partner Brian Underwood, has realized a growth in its catering operation of 1,000 percent over the last two years. Underwood saw the demand for catering after Balaban’s, a staple on the St. Louis dining scene in the Central West End from 1972 until 2006, reopened five years ago in Chesterfield. By 2012, Underwood had spearheaded the move to nearly double the restaurant and wine store’s footprint by adding a private Wine Room, which seats eight and houses the Library Wines from the original Café Balaban ...

Addicted to phones A Baylor University researcher said he was astounded at the findings of his study on college student cellphone use:  College women spend an average of 10 hours a day and male students spend nearly eight hours a day on cellphones. Researcher James Roberts’ survey of 164 college students found that overall, students spend the most time texting (about 94 minutes per day), sending emails (nearly 50 minutes), checking Facebook (nearly 40 minutes), surfing the Internet (about 35 minutes) and listening to music (about 26 minutes). In addition to asking about specific cellphone activities, the survey measured possible ...