Maria Altman

The city of St. Louis today marked the halfway point in its ten-year effort to end chronic homelessness.

A five-year report released today shows a 20 percent drop in the city's chronically homeless since 2005.

Chronic homelessness is defined as those homeless for a year or more or four times over a three-year period.

The report also states that the overall homeless population also decreased, from about 1,500 in 2005 to about 1,300 last year.

The updated plans for the Gateway Arch were revealed at a public meeting last night as well as the possible cost of the project.

The preliminary figure is $578.5 million.

Walter Metcalfe, Jr., who has headed up the CityArchRiver foundation that sponsored the design competition, says completing a vision is worth the price:

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a lower court did not follow procedures when it allowed the adoption of a Guatemalan woman’s child four years ago.

Encarnacion Romero was arrested at a poultry processing plant in southwestern Missouri in 2007 under suspicion of illegal immigration. The next year her infant son was adopted by a Carthage couple while she was in prison.

Romero says she never agreed to the adoption.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

And just in time comes historian Adam Arenson’s new book “The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War.”

While Arenson is a professor at the University of Texas El Paso, he spent a year in St. Louis doing research for his book.

The president and CEO of the St. Louis Regional Chamber & Growth Association will step down by the end of this year.

Dick Fleming made the announcement Thursday.

He will continue to lead the RCGA until the board chooses his successor.

Fleming says the St. Louis region works together much better than it did when he first joined the RCGA back in 1994.