Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent

Hippos Cannabis has a 40,000-square-foot production facility in Vienna, Mo., a town of 600 people that’s just 30 minutes north of Rolla.

Since Missouri’s recreational marijuana sales began in February, they’ve added 25 workers, bringing the total employees to 70 — who come from Vienna or the surrounding communities.

“A lot of the employees were born and raised and went to high school in Vienna, and now they’re all working together,” said Nicholas Rinella, CEO of Hippos which also includes three dispensaries throughout Missouri. “So it’s a real community at the facility.” ...

After spending nearly 30 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, a St. Louis judge on Tuesday ruled Lamar Johnson should be set free.

“I spent quite a bit of time on this, and these questions are not easy,” said St. Louis Circuit Judge David Mason, when he announced his decision in the case at the Carnahan Courthouse Tuesday.

During a weeklong hearing in December, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner argued the innocence of Johnson, who was convicted of murdering his friend Marcus Boyd in 1995 in South St. Louis. ...

The Associated Press called the race shortly after 10 p.m.

Throughout her campaign, Valentine has said working as a nurse and experiencing immense grief from family tragedies have both taught her how to listen to people’s needs and to be of service.

“I thought, ‘Could I do this?” said Valentine told The Independent in June. “And then my life kind of just went in front of me, and I felt maybe all these times and things throughout my life that really affected me deeply… maybe they’re the exact reason that I can make a difference in a crazy political system. ...

Inmates at St. Louis’ primary jail filed a federal class-action lawsuit Tuesday accusing guards of torture with mace and depriving them of water for days.

The inmates are represented by a team of attorneys from the MacArthur Justice Center, ArchCity Defenders, the SLU Law Legal Clinics, and Rights Behind Bars.

“They spray chemical agents on detainees who are handcuffed,” the inmates allege in the lawsuit. “They use excessive amounts of chemical agents — enough to fill the room with a fog of the substance — and leave detainees to ‘marinate’ in the burning air without access to the medical unit or even water to properly wash the chemical agents from their eyes.”...

Short of that, the city is asking for a rehearing in front of the entire U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Eighth District to stop the case from moving forward, according to the city’s petition filed Thursday.

On Jan. 25, a three-judge panel in the Eighth District affirmed a lower court’s decision that qualified immunity – or protection of officers from lawsuits – didn’t apply in the arrest of retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Brian Baude in a 2017 St. Louis protest.

“Police may be entitled to qualified immunity protections if they arrest individual offenders with at least arguable probable cause,” it states, “but officers cannot enjoy such protections by alleging that ‘the unlawful acts of a small group’ justify the arrest of the mass.” ...