Good evening, St. Louis. We’re wrapping up the day for you with the most important stories you need to know and your weather outlook.

 

The heat sticks around through early next week with highs in the mid-90s through Monday. The heat dome looks to break down by midweek as storm chances increase.  


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Today’s Big Stories

1. St. Louis area grows but city still shrinks
The United State Census Bureau revealed the St. Louis Metropolitan statistical area (STL-MSA) increased by over 3,000 new residents, but many counties and city populations decreased.

2. Missouri auditor launches full review of the St. Louis building division

The state of Missouri has launched a performance audit of the City of St. Louis’ Building Division after an investigation revealed evidence of improper governmental activity.

3. Highly potent opioid found in wastewater at five St. Louis-area schools

After seeing a growing presence of nitazenes in school wastewater testing, multiple Missouri agencies are warning the public about the ongoing threat. Nitazenes are a highly potent class of synthetic opioids that have increasingly been detected across the state.

4. Capitol News: Lawmakers advance Pritzker’s cell phone ban, social media regulations

House committees advanced portions of Gov. JB Pritzker’s legislative agenda on Wednesday, though in many cases lawmakers conceded they’d need to amend their bills to gain broader support. The House was working ahead of a Friday deadline for passing bills out of committee, an early test for Pritzker’s and other policy proposals, many of which have stagnated for multiple years.

5.Cardinals begin new era whether players call it a rebuild or not

After an offseason of change that saw the St. Louis Cardinals officially enter the Chaim Bloom era as team’s President of Baseball Operations and accelerate a process to trade away veterans who were not going to be here when the franchise expects to enter a window where it can compete at a championship level annually, it’s time to see what that will mean on the field in 2026.

 Banned from Olympic Events

Transgender women athletes are now excluded from women’s events at the Olympics after the IOC agreed to a new eligibility policy on Thursday which aligns with U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order on sports ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.