On the occasion of Bissinger’s winning a big national award, I have candy on the brain. Here’s what our story for Friday’s Post-Dispatch says:

Bissinger’s Blueberry and Açai Gummy Pandas brought home a Special Outstanding Food Innovation Award from the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade’s Fancy Food Show in New York. The association recognized winners in 32 categories, chosen from more than 2,000 entries. The judges evaluated taste, packaging and originality and recognized Bissinger’s for “outstanding confection.”

Honestly, we might have talked about this before. I just can’t remember. But it’s a holiday weekend, so let’s try something a…

Our story for Thursday’s Post-Dispatch talks about how some St. Louisans’ shopping habits are changing. “You just can’t not shop. You just can’t,” said Bridgette Moore, 43, of Baden. But how you shop can change. You might scale back what you do and find different ways to splurge.

Moore goes on: “Maybe instead of a fabulous shopping spree (at Lane Bryant) and then going out to dinner (at the Cheesecake Factory), I’ll just go buy something small and go to a nicer grocery store.”

Here’s another key piece of info from the story:

Glenn MacDonald, a professor of economics and…

Gas is at $4 a gallon — and that’s here in the Midwest! It’s more on the coasts. Nobody wants your gas guzzling SUVs or your six- and eight-cylinder engines. Including your minivans.

The economy isn’t doing so hot anyway, so you can add that to the list of problems you’ve got to deal with.

The people who really control Chrysler just announced today that “the automaker will idle completely the minivan plant and cut one of two production shifts at the truck plant in Fenton this fall for an indefinite period.”

That means 2,000 employees will be affected.

Suppose you were running…

Over five years ago, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan emptied the states’ death row over fears that an innocent person could be executed. Five years and many discussions and hand-wringing later, the state is no closer to a permanent decision.

The current governor, Democrat Rod Blagojevich, refuses to carry out executions of the 14 people now on death row despite approving several reforms. Lawmakers have ignored legislative attempts to decide the issue. And prosecutors are slower to seek the death penalty.

Like today’s Associated Press story says, “It’s time for lawmakers to lift the moratorium or abolish the death penalty.”…

After a relatively brief, and somewhat stormy tenure as archbishop of the Catholic church in St. Louis, Raymond Burke is leaving. He’s expected to remain until a bit later in the summer, when he moves to Rome for his position as “Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature.”

Burke’s time in St. Louis has been marked by a number of controversies. He has condemned the ordination of “women priests” by another faith community. He has been in a battle over control of St. Stanislaus Church in St. Louis. He said he would not offer communion to politicians who…