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Vendors shouting to sell their popcorn and peanuts, ticket turnstiles rotating with that familiar clickity-clack, excited fans chatting and laughing with their friends - you're enveloped in the sounds of Opening Day with the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

But at the 7th inning, when that familiar Budweiser jingle fills the air, and the Clydesdales float across the center field Jumbotron, you may not realize it, but something is missing.

Well, someone.

Updated March 30th

A spokesman for Comptroller Darlene Green says the Board of Estimate and Apportionment can only act on layoffs proposed by the St. Louis Fire Department. The meeting last week was the first time the Board had a proposal to consider, said John Farrell, even though the department's overspending had been evident for nine months.

Our earlier story:

East St. Louis School District Sends Layoff Notices to 237 Teachers

In an effort to save $9 million, the East St. Louis Board voted Tuesday to notify 287 teachers that they might not be hired back next year. That’s according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The district serves about 7,300 students and has 562 full-time teachers.

The district is also proposing to close three schools.

Archeologists from the University of Missouri-St. Louis have discovered continental Europe’s earliest known written record.

The clay tablet fragment dates back to between 1490 and 1390 BC – at least 100 years before any other known writings from mainland Europe.

On Tuesday, voters in St. Louis and Kansas City will have their first change to determine the future of their cities’ 1 percent earnings taxes, which are imposed on the wages of everyone who lives or works in the cities.

It’s on the ballot following statewide approval last November of Proposition A.

The lead-up to the vote has been very different in the two cities.

Today, we have two reports.

Maria Altman will look at how quiet the campaign has been in St. Louis.

But first, Maria Carter of KCUR reports that things have been much more heated in Kansas City.