The Post-Dispatch story for Thursday details the case of Floyd Wilcut, who died in a work-related truck accident. He refused a possibly life-saving blood transfusion because his faith forbids it. He was a Jehovah’s Witness.

That was eight years ago. And his widow hasn’t collected death benefits since about a year after his death, when the checks suddenly stopped.

Now, a court case has landed in the Missouri Supreme Court. According to our story, “The question before the Missouri Supreme Court is the degree to which Wilcut’s faith should be accommodated within the state’s workers compensation system.”

Was his decision under his faith “reasonable,”…

Let’s just make this clear from the outset: This Talk of the Day topic is about legal immigration.

We’re reporting for Tuesday’s Post-Dispatch about the expiration of the H-2B visa program, the program by which tens of thousands of workers legally live and work in the United States. Here’s a quote from a recent story on the subject by USA Today:

For example, tens of thousands of seasonal workers at hotels, resorts and other small businesses could lose their jobs unless Congress renews a separate law that allows the government to issue more than the 66,000 H-2B visas it is supposed to be limited to….

The rules of the new Illinois law are still as foggy as our weather this week, but in just three short weeks, smokers in Illinois will be banned from lighting up in public places.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed in July the Smoke Free Illinois Act, which bans smoking in virtually all public places. But a state committee hasn’t adopted the specific rules that clarify the law.

Smoking on patios, for instance, is still uncertain. The law says smoking will be banned in all indoor public places or places of employment, and within 15 feet of an entrance, open window or ventilation intake.

“Our…

From our story online today:

The St. Charles County prosecutor said this morning there will be no criminal charges filed in the case of the teenage girl who committed suicide after being bullied on the Internet.

County Prosecutor Jack Banas announced his decision at a news conference called to discuss the Megan Meier case. Megan, 13, of Dardenne Prairie, hanged herself last year. Her parents said her suicide was the result of harassment via her My Space web page.

Banas said, “I think you have a lot of facts that have gone out across this country that are a misstatement of facts.”

He said the…

A two-story-tall mural painted on the side of a building just north of Interstate 55, on 13th Street, is sparking a federal lawsuit that challenges the city’s zoning code.

St. Louis officials say the sign is too big and is a nuisance that needs to be removed. But supporters say it is a political statement — maybe even art — and should remain.

In Monday’s story, Sign pits the city vs. policy critic, David Hudson, a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn., says the issue is a tricky constitutional dilemma — fighting clutter versus protecting free speech — that…