MLM Counties News. Notices. Need-to-know Information.

In the wake of a settlement terms leak, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has released a statement on negotiations with the country’s largest mortgage servicers.

Fifty state attorneys general, represented by Iowa’s Tom Miller, are involved in the negotiations. On Wednesday, Koster’s office released a statement.

A Starbucks’ tip jar invited a theft that led to the death of a man who intervened, claims a wrongful death lawsuit brought against the coffee company. Roger Kreutz was a customer at a Crestwood Starbucks in 2008 when he tried to stop Aaron Poisson from stealing a tip jar, according to the suit. Kreutz chased Poisson into the parking lot, where Poisson hit him with his car. Kreutz died from his injuries.

Tagged with: Roger Kreutz Starbucks tip jar

A prominent Clayton office building is heading for the foreclosure auction block and the owner says it’s just as well.

Centene Corp.’s move, a loan coming due and a generally poor real estate market put the Sevens Building in Clayton in foreclosure proceedings. And a representative for the owner’s management company says it doesn’t want to keep the building.

It’s not a flux capacitor but a grant that will bring 9,000 Missouri Supreme Court case files into the 21st century.

Just about six months after Clayton banned smoking in parks, one resident is making the city defend its ordinance in court.

Plaintiff Arthur Gallagher, front, and civil rights attorney Bevis Schock, center left, smoke Thursday with lawyer Hugh A. Eastwood, center right, and law clerk Russell Anhalt on a Clayton sidewalk by Shaw Park. Gallagher and Eastwood decided after a service at The Church of St. Michael & St. George to file a lawsuit against the city of Clayton challenging its outdoor smoking ban in parks and other areas. It’s legal to smoke on the sidewalk, but the four lean into Shaw Park, daring to cross a line to make their point.

Tagged with: Bevis Schock Linda Goldstein smoking ban

The Missouri Supreme Court pulled one St. Louis County trash lawsuit off the curb yesterday when it agreed to hear the case.

Tagged with: Missouri Supreme Court St. Louis County trash districts

One lawyer was disbarred, another put on inactive status and a third reprimanded by the Missouri Supreme Court this week.

Tagged with: Daryle Edwards Discipline Keith Cheung Larry Coleman

Judge Mary Russell was appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court in September 2004. She was retained in the November 2006 general election with 69.8 percent approval rating. When she’s not on the bench, she’s probably at a Cardinals ball game or with her husband, Jim, and family.

A federal judge ordered the Housing Authority of St. Louis County to allow a sex offender to stay in a Section 8 voucher program and pay back rent to the man’s landlord.

A former board member for the Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District has lost his appeal for his job in the Missouri Court of Appeals, but his attorney says he will be up for election again in April.

Tagged with: Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District Northeast Ambulance and Fire Protection District

The bank behind $4.36 million worth of loans for Spa WingHaven in O’Fallon is claiming that the spa has breached its agreements and demanding that some big-name backers pay up. Reliance Bank filed separate lawsuits against Fred Weber Chairman Thomas Dunne Sr., developer Paul McKee Jr., Lodging Hospitality Management Chairman Robert O’Loughlin, PFG Middendorf founder Orville J. Middendorf and Natoli Engineering Company Inc. President Carmelo Natoli on Feb. 18 in St. Louis County Circuit Court. The bank claims the men collectively guaranteed nearly all of the debt.