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

Students participating in the A+ program this year will now have to achieve an ACT math subscore of 17 or higher to qualify for immediate benefits. The new requirement set by the Missouri Department of Higher Education will go into effect for the 2014-2015 school year. The Fort Zumwalt Board of Education was presented with the new requirements to the A+ program at its Aug. 18 meeting. Board Member Renee Porter was concerned with the new ACT requirement set by the state. “Sometimes students don’t test well, but they do well in college,” Porter said. “Students are really counting on ...

St. Peters has suspended use of its red-light cameras for traffic enforcement until it gets a clearer picture of the legal issues surrounding the devices. The city’s Board of Aldermen approved a resolution by a 6-0 vote at its Aug. 28 meeting to suspend the city’s use of red-light cameras at intersections until the Missouri Supreme Court rules on legal challenges to their use. The resolution states that the city “wishes to review the outcome of the pending legal challenges and legislative action that are being heard and proposed before continuing further operation of its ‘red-light cameras.’” The city suspended ...

Fort Zumwalt West High senior Saivaroon Gajagowni has been named a 2014 winner of the LMI Aerospace Inc. Award for Excellence in Research for his work this summer as part of the University of Missouri-St. Louis Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program. Gajagowni, along with West High senior Amanda Blythe, and Fort Zumwalt South High senior Aishwarya Mogulothu, participated in the six-week program. STARS pairs high school juniors and seniors from around the country with top mentors from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis, Confluence Discovery Technologies and UMSL, as ...

Aug. 22 signaled the beginning of another football season for St. Charles County area teams and for the Fort Zumwalt West Jaguars and Jaguar Nation that meant pads popping, cheerleaders cheering and touchdowns under the Friday Night Lights.

Marquette coach Matt Klein picked up the first win in his Mustangs career and he hopes for many more to come as he builds the program. Klein, who was hired from Knob Noster in mid-Missouri, has the Mustangs off to a 1-1 start. Marquette dropped the season opener at home 31-7 to a strong Ritenour squad. However, Marquette bounced back last year to score a 50-13 win over Northwest on the road. “Well, no doubt any time you get a win no matter what happens or how it happens, it’s a good thing,” Klein said. “I’m really happy for our ...

A Lake Saint Louis alderman is among those named to a committee examining a proposed major public works project to upgrade and replace sewer lines under the two main lakes in Lake Saint Louis. The city’s Board of Aldermen named Alderman Gary Torlina (Ward 1) to serve as the city’s representative on the committee. Other members of the committee are expected to include Tony Sneed, manager of engineering and operations for Public Water Supply District No. 2, Rick Tipton from the Community Association, and Lake Saint Louis residents Dave Williams and Chuck Ruedebusch. Torlina was named at an August board ...

St. Charles County Council members said what a group of residents wanted to hear this week, telling them they aren’t returning any military equipment donated to the Sheriff’s Department by the federal government. But the council also told residents something they did not want to hear – that they weren’t going to put a charter amendment on the November ballot asking for another vote on the future of county law enforcement. During a public comment portion of their Aug. 25 meeting, council members heard from a number of speakers on law enforcement issues. Steve Steen, one of the residents, spoke ...

St. Peters may be moving to ban the purchase of electronic cigarettes by minors and forbid them from entering so-called “vapor lounges” where they can be smoked. The city’s Board of Aldermen approved a motion by Alderman Patrick Barclay (Ward 4) during a work session on Aug. 14 authorizing him to draft a bill with the bans. The bill is expected to be considered by the board in September. Barclay said the bill would be modeled after an ordinance approved on July 21 by the Chesterfield City Council. The Chesterfield ordinance bans the sale and possession of vapor nicotine products ...

O’FALLON O’Fallon ranks 17th on ‘Safest Cities’ list The SafeWise Report released its “50 Safest Cities in Missouri” report this week and O’Fallon is listed as number 17. To compile this report, SafeWise used the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report from 2012 to analyze and rank these cities, which all have a minimum population of 4,000 people. O’Fallon was the second largest city on the list.   City celebrates ‘Days of Service’ Volunteers are needed for O’Fallon’s National Days of Service and Remembrance, held from Sept. 11-13. The event features community service projects that honor the heroes and victims ...

To The Editor: Bravo to Thomas Sowell for taking on the DeBlasio left. My wife and I are both graduates of New York City magnet schools. She graduated from what is now the LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts. I graduated from the Bronx High School of Science. It is of interest as to how the liberal left defines minorities as African Americans and Hispanics. Are not Jews and Orientals also minorities? That these latter groups have dominated New York magnet school enrollment over the decades is, in large part, because these cultures value study and education, and ...