ST. LOUIS — Miss Today in St. Louis Tuesday morning? Here are the top 5 stories for the St. Louis area:
A food mart in north St. Louis was destroyed during a Monday night fire.
About 50 firefighters responded to the scene at Kings Food Mart in the 6100 block of Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. around 11 p.m.
A spokesperson for the St. Louis Fire Department said there was heavy smoke and fire when firefighters arrived.
There no were injuries reported, but the building was heavily damaged and is considered a total loss, according to the fire department.
Neighbors told 5 On Your Side that the area has depended on the store for years.
For almost a quarter of a century, Brian McKenna was a spicy sportscaster in St. Louis. But five years ago, he was diagnosed with malignant melanoma.
He had 6 surgeries and had to deal with paralysis on the right side of his face. The radiation was brutal.
So were the bills.
And that leads us Sunday. McKenna has been a good guy to so many charities in St. Louis. So on Sunday, many of his friends decided to help him out financially.
His close friend, Stephanie Bozich, made a bet with him to get him off of social media so they could set up a Medical Fundraiser.
"I told him if he could stay off social media for a week, I would pay for him to go on a trip to his favorite destination, San Clemente,” Bozich said.
With McKenna off social media for a week, another friend, Kim Koenig, set up a fundraiser to help with his bills and watched with amazement as the numbers skyrocketed.
"The fund kept growing and growing," Koenig said. "It kept climbing and climbing."
So right outside his home, a parade erupted. He had no idea what was happening. A friend took him on a walk to keep him away from his house as the celebration was gearing up.
The Missouri Department of Conservation is looking for public input on a regulated hunting season for black bears.
According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, a proposed limited and highly regulated season would only be open to Missouri residents.
If approved by the Missouri Conservation Commission, a season could occur as soon as the fall of 2021. MDC is asking for initial public comments through June 5.
According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, over the last 50 years bear numbers in the Missouri Ozarks have increased significantly and now Missouri is home to between 540 – 840 black bears. Bear numbers are currently increasing each year and bear range in the state is expanding.
Most of the state’s black bears are found south of the Missouri River and south of Interstate 44. The Missouri Department of Conservation said it is proposing to establish three ‘bear managements zones.’
The proposed hunting season for black bears would begin each year on the third Monday in October and run for 10 days or until bear management zones specific quotas are reached, whichever comes first.
READ MORE: Missouri Department of Conservation looking for public input on proposed bear hunting season
The pause in U.S. executions during the coronavirus pandemic likely will end Tuesday with the scheduled lethal injection of a Missouri inmate for slaying an elderly woman nearly three decades ago.
Walter Barton, 64, would be the first person executed in the U.S. since Nathaniel Woods was put to death in Alabama on March 5. Soon after that, efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus shut down the U.S. economy and led to strict limits on social distancing, including inside prisons. Three states have put aside executions over the past 2 ½ months.
Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Monday that he had not heard anything to make him reconsider the execution, which he said would “move forward as scheduled.” A federal appeals court on Sunday overturned a 30-day stay of execution granted by a judge two days earlier. Barton's attorney has asked for a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gladys Kuehler operated a mobile home park in the town of Ozark, Missouri, near Springfield. In October 1991 she was found dead in her bedroom. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted and stabbed more than 50 times.
Barton has long said he was innocent, and his case has been tied up for years due to appeals, mistrials and two overturned convictions.
Other states, including Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, have postponed executions after attorneys argued that pandemic-related closures prevented them from securing records or conducting interviews for clemency petitions and court appeals.
Today in St. Louis goes one-on-one with your questions to Dr. Garza