anyone fly through St. Louis recently??

[Blue_Tires]

Baggage handlers at Lambert caught stealing from passenger luggage
By Patrick M. O'Connell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/19/2009

UPDATED: 3:36 p.m.
ST. LOUIS -- Lambert International Airport police have broken up a ring of thieves who stole hundreds of electronics and other valuables from travelers' luggage during the past 12 to 15 months.

Police on Thursday displayed an array of DVDs, digital cameras, GPS devices, cell phones, designer watches, video games, iPods and even two handguns recovered from the thieves.

Six baggage handlers who worked for a contractor of Delta Airlines and two other friends are suspected of stealing the items, airport police chief Paul Mason said. The baggage handlers riffled through baggage in a basement room of the airport where luggage travels on conveyer belts before being loaded onto planes.

The employees stashed the items until the work day ended, then left with the stolen loot stuffed inside jackets or backpacks, Mason said.

Cartons of cigarettes, bottles of perfume, sunglasses, knives, electronics equipment, batteries, diamond earrings and a wrench kit also were recovered.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/8295463295AD00EF8625757E00531AF9?OpenDocument

[ikojo]

1. Yet another positive story about St Louis

I was watching a History Channel show about gangs in St Louis...they claim there are 10,000 gang bangers in a city with a population of 350,000..that's one in 35 people. Sad. The mayor here SUCKS. He calls himself a Democrat but ditched a meeting with Barack Obama (also attended by other city mayors) in favor of a Republican funded fundraiser and a goofy Mardi Gras ball at City Hall

The article references Slay not attending the 2009 MLK event at the Old Court House. At the 2008 MLK event Mayor Slay was booed by attendees as he began to speak. He probably didn't want to risk being booed again, during an election year. Also he is being challenged by a so called independent, but former Democrat Maida Coleman and the Green Party, Elston McCowan, both of whom are African American.

I think in St Louis many of those who call themselves Democrats, especially among the white Democrats, are really Republicans. They KNOW that a Republican cannot win in the city so they run as Democrats. I see Francis Slay as just that kind of Democrat. His ward, which is 95% white, in the city went OVERWHELMINGLY for John McCain in 2008. It would not surprise me if Slay, a very early supporter of Hillary Clinton when SHE was seen as the candidate to beat, voted for McCain over Obama.

http://www.stlamerican.com/articles/2009/02/25/news/local_news/localnews000000000000000001.txt

Slay snubs Obama at White House to attend fundraiser and gala in St. Louis

snip

According to Darwin Hindman, mayor of Columbia, Missouri and an advisory board member for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Slay is a member of the conference and was invited to the private meeting with President Obama at the White House on Friday.

Instead, on Thursday night Slay was in St. Louis, attending a poorly attended event at a Downtown nightclub thrown for him by former state Rep. Betty Thompson.

On Friday night, Slay hosted his annual Mayor’s Ball in St. Louis City Hall, a Mardi Gras-themed gala.

snip

According to public records, Slay has attended two other U.S. Conference of Mayors events within the past year, June 20-23, 2008 in Miami and Jan 16.-19, 2009 in Washington – a trip that enabled him to miss the St. Louis celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.

[ccharles000]

3. sounds like an asshole

[Wapsie B]

6. St. Louis has a significant number of conservative fundies

as well as part of the Bush family clan, a one "Bucky" Bush. Doesn't get the press like that neocon nut Richard Mellon Scaiffe but still a part of the same process.

[ikojo]

2. St Louis Mayor Slay pays black homeless people to

hold campaign signs for him as he attends Republican fundraiser.....for those not from the St Louis area, Washington Avenue is an area of pricey lofts that has been developed. Poor or lower income people cannot afford to live on Washington Avenue. Those who buy the lofts are given tax abatements to do so.

Who pays the taxes that are abated? Working people.



More from the St Louis American article on Slay snubbing President Obama and Atty General Holder...

snip

Homeless for Slay

While his counterpart mayors from cities ranging from Anchorage to Bowling Green to Seattle to Des Moines to Pittsburgh to Honolulu were settling into Washington, D.C. on Thursday night to prepare for the morning meeting at the White House, Slay was attending a so-called “Black History” fundraiser thrown for him at a Washington Avenue nightclub.

“Arriving guests were greeted by a squad of Irene Smith supporters holding red campaign signs for Irene J. Smith for mayor,” reported Nick Clement of St. Louis Schools Watch.

“Attendees were further startled by a bright yellow banner which read, ‘Welcome! The Republican Party Thanks You for Your Support.’”

snip

“Slay’s campaign staff were evidently irritated enough by the Irene supporters outside to hire a passing group of African-American homeless men to carry ‘Slay for Mayor’ signs in front of the nightclub,” Clement reported.

[Blue_Tires]

5. Ehrlich did the same thing while running for Md. Governor...

it's like the GOP has a standardized dirty tricks playbook...

[alarimer]

4. One more reason never to put electronics in checked bags

I do not trust the baggage handlers not to steal it.