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State Rep.-elect Adam Schwadron is the latest guest on Politically Speaking, where he talked with St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum about his election to the Missouri House and some of his priorities and expectations.

Schwadron is a St. Charles County Republican who defeated Democrat Cindy Berne by 545 votes earlier this month to represent the 106th District. That includes a portion of St. Charles that is more politically competitive than other parts of the county.

Here’s what Schwadron had to say during the show:

• Why St. Charles County is so Republican-leaning yet his race was so competitive. His predecessor, state Rep. Chrissy Sommer, narrowly won a special election in 2011 but ended up winning subsequent races by larger margins.
• Potential efforts to overhaul how the absentee ballot works in Missouri. A number of county elections officials have sought to get rid of the specific excuses to vote absentee, but have not been successful.
• Efforts to shield businesses from lawsuits related to COVID-19. After this episode was recorded, Gov. Mike Parson expanded a special session to include that issue.
• The potential of having St. Charles County in one congressional district, which is something that some of his GOP colleagues, like Sen. Bill Eigel, R-St. Charles County, support. Such a move could make it easier to elect someone from St. Charles County to Congress, which has been a goal among Republicans there for a number of years.

Schwadron is a St. Louis County native who owns a carpet cleaning business. He first entered the electoral arena in 2018 when he unsuccessfully ran for St. Charles County election director, a race that his fellow Republican Kurt Bahr eventually won.

Schwadron will be sworn in to office early next year.

Follow Jason Rosenbaum: @jrosenbaum

Follow Adam Schwadron: @AJSchwadron

Music: “It’s Getting Hectic” by The Urge

Photos by Lindy Drew, Humans of St. Louis

Many schools have started hybrid in-person and online learning, even as coronavirus cases keep rising and students continue to experience disparities in accessing technology, meeting their daily needs, and learning at home. So in this episode, we’ll hear from a first generation college student who has been helping her community navigate the education system and an executive director of a local education-based nonprofit will share what parents and families face when navigating the St. Louis Public Schools system and how that impacts students’ experiences with higher education. And then, we’ll zoom all the way out to examine why St. Louis’ educational landscape remains uneven and segregated over six decades after the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

This episode was produced with the help of Lindy Drew, Lead Storyteller and Co-Founder of Humans of St. Louis, which is a paid content partner of Navigate STL Schools and Forward through Ferguson.

As always, We Live Here’s coverage remains independent.

State Sen. Scott Sifton is the latest guest on Politically Speaking, where he talked with St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum about the dismal election results for the Missouri Democratic Party and ways it can get back on stable footing.

The Affton Democrat represents Missouri’s 1st Senate District, which takes in most of unincorporated south St. Louis County and municipalities like Webster Groves, Maplewood and Brentwood. Because of term limits, Sifton was barred from running again in the General Assembly’s upper chamber.

Here’s what Sifton talked about during the show:

• How President Donald Trump’s overwhelming victory in Missouri almost certainly led to dreadful results for Democrats, including Gov. Mike Parson’s big win over Democratic state Auditor Nicole Galloway.
• What happened in some competitive St. Louis County races, including Republican wins by state Sen. Andrew Koenig and U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner. Sifton also touched on the decline of Missouri Democrats’ fortunes in rural parts of the state.
• Why the passage of Amendment 3, which repealed the Clean Missouri redistricting system, will have big consequences for Missouri Democrats going forward. He also touched on whether bipartisan commissions or appellate judges would even consider using the eligible voting standard when counting Missourians, which could mean children aren’t included when the redistricting process begins.
• Whether Missouri Democrats have a strong enough bench to run in critical races in 2022 and 2024. Two years from now, Democrats will be defending state Auditor Nicole Galloway’s position and trying to take back a U.S. Senate seat held by Roy Blunt.

Sifton is an attorney who was first elected to the Missouri House in 2010. After a single term, Sifton challenged Sen. Jim Lembke in one of the most competitive state Senate contests of the decade. Sifton narrowly prevailed and won reelection in 2016 by a relatively comfortable margin.

Sifton considered running for governor this year but bowed out of that race to endorse Galloway. He ended up not running for anything this year, but he hasn’t necessarily ruled out reentering the electoral arena at some point.

Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Scott Sifton on Twitter: @ScottSifton

Music: “Eulogy” by Tool

Back in early March, we were collecting stories from first generation college students about their experiences on campus. Since then, COVID-19 hit college campuses across the country and we’re seeing a rising number of cases since students have returned for in-person classes. So in this episode, we hear from a first generation college student about navigating post-grad life during a pandemic, a health reporter will share what it’s like to report about the virus at a university, and a student activist will tell us about how they are fighting to uplift the demands of Black students on campus.

Brent Benjamin had never set foot in St. Louis when he showed up on a snowy day in 1999 to interview for a job running its namesake art museum.

He got the job, and made his impact over more than two decades at the helm of St. Louis Art Museum. He led a $160 million capital campaign, at the time the largest ever for a St. Louis arts organization, to fund construction of the museum’s East Building and creation of an endowment to pay for future upkeep. Notable exhibitions during his tenure include “Vincent van Gogh and the Painters of the Petit Boulevard” in 2001 and “Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost World” in 2018.

Benjamin announced in September that he plans to retire next summer. In January, the organization will begin its search for his successor in earnest.

He is also president of the American Association of Museum Directors, and from that seat maintains a deep understanding of the relationships among different institutions and the state of the field today. Benjamin said the tax funds the St. Louis Art Museum receives as a part of the Zoo Museum District largely insulate it from the budgetary mayhem created by pandemic-related closures earlier in the year. But the ongoing struggles of other museums could affect simple things like the ability to borrow artwork for new exhibitions.

“I am very worried about what the exhibition dynamic looks like, in particular,” he said, “because these organizations are not going to have the capacity to operate as they have.”

In this episode of Cut & Paste, Benjamin reflects on his time at St. Louis Art Museum and looks to the future. He also reveals some of the behind-the-scenes challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic — including the nerve wracking ordeal of sending a painting by Monet halfway around the world with no one to keep an eye on it.

Follow Jeremy on Twitter: @jeremydgoodwin