Valmeyer community High school, in Monroe County, under water after the levee break.

For the record: The St. Louis region’s political and business leaders have no excuse if they fail to act quickly to repair the levee system that protects Madison,…

Kathleen Galligan/Detroit Free Press/MCT

No state has been hit harder by the economic recession than Michigan, where unemployment stands at 15.2 percent. Michigan has had to cope for years with huge losses in auto and other manufacturing jobs. Lawmakers have made an…

Soulard Mardi Gras Parade 2000 (Photo by Jerry Naunheim Jr.)

With municipal budgets expected to be stagnant or worse for years to come, and with police services usually the largest item on those budgets, how should cities set priorities?

Obviously, the first priority…

Les Sterman

Les Sterman is one of St. Louis’ most capable regional leaders. He also may be the most influential person in the area you’ve never heard of.

Hundreds of politicians have come and gone over the last 26 years. But throughout,…

Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca and President Ronald Reagan inspect assembly line at the Fenton plant in 1983. Scott Dine / Post-Dispatch

The last Dodge Ram pickup rolled off the assembly line at the Fenton North Plant on Thursday. The South Plant,…

(Peter Muhly/AFP/Getty Images)

The size of the economic stimulus package that may be proposed by the incoming Obama administration grows larger by the minute. At last measurement, it was approaching $1 trillion.

That has generated a list-making frenzy by local governments, state agencies…

Clayton and the city of St. Louis were not alone in vying to become home to a new headquarters for Centene Corp., the health benefits manager that is now pursuing a $211 million project in Clayton.

In the same quarter that Centene…

Regionalism, a value more frequently honored hereabouts in the abstract than in practice, paid off in a nice honor for St. Louis last week: The St. Louis region was named as one of 10 “All America” cities by the National Civic…