Don Marsh

David Sheff is a journalist and New York Times best-selling author. 

In 2008, he wrote a memoir, Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction, about how his family dealt with his son‘s methamphetamine addiction.

In a new book, Sheff argues that addicts suffer from an illness and are not simply victims of their own bad choices.  “We must acknowledge addiction is an illness…and not just bad behavior…because we punish bad behavior…we treat illness,” Sheff writes.

In 2005, President Bill Clinton established the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).  The goal of the ongoing project is to “create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.”

Caroline Kennedy and her brother John grew up in a culture of words and reading.  Their mother was particularly fond of poetry dating back to experiences as a child with her Grandfather.  On gift-giving holidays, she requested that her children select and recite a poem rather than purchase a gift, which helped them develop a sense of language and rhyme.

Later this month, on April 27, St. Louis mayor Francis Slay will become the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history.

With more than 81 percent of the vote, Slay won his fourth term as mayor yesterday, besting a candidate from the Green Party, and prior, defeating two primary challengers including Board of Alderman president Lewis Reed.

“I love this city dearly and I really love the people more than anything,” Slay told host Don Marsh.  “I like what I do and I’ve got a good team and I’m looking forward to the next four years.”

When it comes to successfully or unsuccessfully governing and managing communities, leadership decisions can make or break a city or region.

St. Louis has been cited as a city “that let greatness slip away over the 20th century.”  That’s the contention of Colin Gordon, Professor of History at the University of Iowa, in his book, Mapping Decline…St. Louis and the Fate of the American City.