Mark Maxwell

Follow the money: Since losing the 2024 primary, Cori Bush’s network moved $72,048 to her household across 26 payments, an $18,000 transfer that doesn’t reconcile, and money circling between her PACs and a nonprofit whose donors never have to be disclosed. All from FEC filings.

I asked Cori Bush how much her nonprofit raised off its tornado appeal and where the money went. She said that's "a PAC that I cannot speak to as a candidate." It's not a PAC. It's the nonprofit she called a 501(c)(4). Her team moved on. The full exchange: #MO01 #stlouis

@amberdsny I asked these questions only once before in writing. Because they involved tax documents and paperwork, I gave them several days to get their answer to me. Their deadline to respond was today. Then before we went to air, I asked the same questions on camera. Hope that helps.

@MarkMaxwellTV If you’ve asked this over and over and over and over, you’re a bad journalist. Pick something else.

Jordan Walker walks it off at the #HRDerby

The flood tossed RVs, cars, and enveloped whole buildings. Then it nearly took the rescuers. Three firefighters, separated in the current, found each other by whistle. As the Black River climbed toward a record, they all made it out. Read the full story: ksdk.com/article/news/l…

In case you missed it: country roads gave way to flood water late Thursday night into Friday morning, leaving parts of Reynolds County stranded for days. Local volunteers brought heavy equipment to fill in holes and help neighbors get by over the weekend.

NYT top newsroom lawyer David McCraw: “This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs.” nytimes.com/2026/07/11/bus…

Melissa Price-Smith vs. David Bryant. Steve Butz vs. Gina Mitten. Big races on Missouri's August 4 ballot. Hear from the candidates directly. Watch The Record Friday morning at 10:30 on @KSDKNews or the 5 On Your Side app.

Campaign finance nuance is hard. Viewer says we chased Bush but gave Bell a pass on the new $300K. (We've covered the AIPAC money more than once, it's some of the most watched in politics). The Bush payments? Buried in filings we had to dig out. Anna Massoglia untangles both.

AIPAC super PAC United Democracy Project out with an ad hitting former Rep. Cori Bush on her attendance, effectiveness and vote against the infrastructure bill when she was in Congress UDP has $865k in ad reservations #MO01 so far, the most of any advertiser, per @AdImpact_Pol

Asked about St. Louis's performance dashboard, Mayor Cara Spencer called it the "report card" voters will judge her on. Then she casually confirmed a 2029 reelection run. "Did you just announce something?" Watch her answer. And yeah, that's Martin O'Malley with her.

AIPAC is the biggest funder of Wesley Bell's campaign. We asked: has one of your positions changed since you launched with their backing? He wouldn't name one, calling it "the sandbox that we play in." Is Pritzker right that AIPAC went "Trumpy"? He wouldn't say. @KSDKNews app.

Here's a Missouri Democrat who ran for Congress swearing at journalists because we dared to tell you the truth about publicly filed, legally required documents that revealed how campaign funds wound up in a politician's personal bank account. I guess she'd rather you not know?

Just for good measure, we tallied it all up and aired this graphic. Again, $13M in campaign related expenses to hurt Cori Bush and/or help Wesley Bell is absolutely newsworthy. It also didn't end up in Bell's pockets. It was spent independently on legitimate campaign expenses.

Here's a clip from the same story where this viewer incorrectly assumes we haven't paid attention to Bell's pro-Israel PAC money.

Hi BigDawgMiz16, we actually did cover UDP's $300k ad buy. And the $13m from pro-Israel PACs since '24. I'm genuinely not sure how many comment section folks understand the difference between independent expenditures & politicians funneling PAC funds into their own pockets.

Flashback 250: 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 I placed 25 events correctly 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Play here: nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Jasmine Crockett raised money with Rep. Wesley Bell in St. Louis. Does he have her endorsement? We asked him twice: have you asked for it, or will you? Bell wouldn't say, calling endorsements something that "doesn't put food on the table."

Before the fireworks, look around. America’s 250th is not only a national milestone, it’s our local inheritance. In St. Louis, Missouri and Illinois, we see the courage, contradictions and consequence of the American story. What part will you reflect on this weekend?

@jnrosen lol it’s not. Whatever intelligence I may possess is authentic, however flawed or incomplete it is.

@MarkMaxwellTV True but your writing reads like AI here.

When a campaign drops a local journalist into its ad, it doesn’t ask us the way it’d have to ask you. It co-opts the trust we built together, covering the news you live in. That’s not us endorsing them. It’s a campaign borrowing against a relationship it had no part in earning.