Sarah Fentem
Sarah Fentem reports on sickness and health as part of St. Louis Public Radio’s news team. She previously spent five years reporting for different NPR stations in Indiana, immersing herself deep, deep into an insurance policy beat from which she may never fully recover. A longitme NPR listener, she grew up hearing WQUB in Quincy, Illinois, which is now owned by STLPR. She lives in the Kingshighway Hills neighborhood, and in her spare time likes to watch old sitcoms, meticulously clean and organize her home and go on outdoor adventures with her fiancé Elliot. She has a cat, Lil Rock, and a dog, Ginger.
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The region is recovering after a massive storm dumped more than 9 inches of rain. People and animals are staying in makeshift shelters while the flash flooding recedes.
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The historic rainfall broke the single-day record set in 1915. -
The most rain in St. Louis in more than 100 years reports over 10 inches in under five hours. The rains caused flash flooding — closing major roads and leaving many stranded in their cars on roads.
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As fewer people are getting tested for the coronavirus in offices, labs and pharmacies, sewer shed surveillance has become one of the most accurate ways to show the virus still exists in the community. The state and its partners at the University of Missouri are monitoring 112 sites to see if viral particles are increasing and if new variants are emerging in the region's wastewater. -
Abortion rights supporters in Missouri decried the court's decision to roll back decades of federal protections for people seeking abortions. -
Missouri environmental groups are decrying proposed state rules that would allow power plants to discharge contaminants like coal ash into groundwater through a general permit for multiple facilities. Power plants currently have individual, site-specific permits. -
For more than three years, Missouri officials have been finding, tracking and testing the state's backlog of thousands of unaccounted-for kits, which are used to identify rapists and people who commit sexual assault. The Attorney General's office announced Monday that the state has sent 3,298 kits to labs for DNA testing. -
Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott has donated $9 million to Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, the largest one-time donation the organization has ever received. -
Republican state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman’s proposed amendments would make it a crime to transport someone to receive an abortion, help pay for the procedure or instruct the person on ways to end a pregnancy. Abortion rights advocates say the measures are part of a larger trend of lawmakers in conservative states using unconventional legal methods to outlaw abortions. -
Local public health programs at the forefront of the nation’s pandemic relief efforts, particularly for poor people without health insurance who are most at risk of getting sick, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky told Washington University medical students on Thursday.
