Missouri's Days As The Nation's Meth Lab Capital Are Numbered. So What's Next? By the time he arrived at St. John's Mercy Medical Center's burn unit on February 1, Michael Murphy was blind. Hours earlier the Franklin County man had overheated a sealed tank of anhydrous ammonia at a friend's house when the chemical fertilizer literally blew up in his face. "I noticed it was flaming, on fire," the 24-year-old Murphy recalls. "I went to shut it off and realized that the tank was melting down. That's when I watched it fold." [continues 1505 words]
The Scourge Of Syphilis Re-Emerges, Deadlier Than Before Fresh sheets of plywood now mask the first-floor windows of the Better Donut Drive In. One story up, shards of glass give view to the red brick building's abandoned interior, and weeds sprout freely from its pitted concrete parking lot. The doughnut shop's best days may be well behind it, but like any building, the phantom crumbling at the corner of Grand Boulevard and Cass Street occupies its own little place in history. During the crack cocaine boom of the early 1990s, this north St. Louis shop was ground zero for the city's syphilis epidemic. [continues 667 words]
At The Crossroads Program In Chesterfield, Teen Sobriety Is Supposed To Be Fun. It's Also Expensive -- And Not Everyone's Buying. Frank Szachta has a nervous habit. When he smokes, which is often, he holds the lit cigarette between his thumb and index finger. He takes a drag, then presses the fresh Winston Light through a series of cartwheels, lacing the burning cylinder into an invisible cat's cradle around his fingers. It's graceful, almost unconscious. To a pot-smoking fifteen-year-old, it's undeniably cool. [continues 6467 words]
But Jury Convicts On Drug Charge SPOTSYLVANIA - A jury found Dr. Bernard Member guilty of the illegal distribution of narcotics last night but declared him not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of his ex-wife. Member, a Fredericksburg-area psychiatrist, had also been charged with felony second-degree murder in the death of Laura Feury, but that was dismissed earlier in the day. Jurors recommended a fine of $2,500, which was immediately imposed by Judge William H. Ledbetter. [continues 371 words]
