Kelsey Proud

A senior administration official says China will announce deals Wednesday to purchase $45 billion in U.S.

exports, including a $19 billion agreement to buy 200 Boeing airplanes, according to the Associated Press.

The official says the deal will create 235,000 jobs in the U.S.

It is important to note, however, that these planes will be commercial aircraft. Moreover, the St. Louis division of Boeing, which produces military aircraft, is unlikely to benefit directly from today's deal.

• The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for the St. Louis region from 6 p.m. this evening to 6 p.m. Thursday evening. Snow is expected to develop over northeast and central Missouri by early this evening, then spread east and south overnight into Thursday morning. The heaviest snowfall is forecast to fall along the Interstate 70 corridor, where 4-to-6 inches of snow is expected.
• The use of so-called "fake cocaine" may be on the rise in Missouri. The Missouri Poison Center at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center received 12 calls through mid-January about people abusing the chemicals, compared to eight calls in all of last year. The powders are sold as bath salts but contain stimulants that can cause rapid heart rates, seizures and hallucinations.
• Despite the likelihood of a lawsuit, the St. Charles City Council has voted to ban protests at funerals. The City Council voted Tuesday night to allow protests during visitations and street and highway processions. But protests will be banned within 300 feet of funeral and burial sites between an hour before and an hour after an observance. The St. Louis Post-dispatch reports that the law is similar to one passed by St. Louis County, which is scheduled to take effect Feb. 7. The county has been sued by the American Civil Liberties Union and Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka-based group that protests at military funerals. A federal court hearing was held Tuesday in St. Louis on church members' request for a temporary injunction on the county ordinance.
• The St. Louis Rams hired former  Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels as their offensive coordinator. The Broncos fired McDaniels with four games to go in the regular season. The Rams announced the hire on its Twitter feed yesterday. McDaniels replaces Pat Shurmur who was hired as the Cleveland Browns head coach earlier this month. Coach Steve Spagnuolo called McDaniels one of the top offensive minds in the NFL.

NPR's Tamara Keith launches a year-long occasional series on unemployment, tracking six St. Louis residents.

We’ll post links to each of the stories in the series here for you on stlpublicradio.org.

Here's the first of Keith's series:

Looks like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner will stay, well, a dream for just a bit longer.

Boeing Co. is pushing back the delivery date for its new 787 until at least July.

Denver Broncos running back Laurence Maroney has been arrested in St. Louis on drugs and weapons allegations.

Maroney's publicist, Jane Higgins, confirmed the arrest Tuesday. St. Louis police would say only that five people in an Infiniti were arrested Monday night, and are accused of possessing marijuana and weapons.

Three, including a 25-year-old man, were accused of unlawful use of a weapon. Maroney, 25, is a native of suburban St. Louis. No one has been formally charged.