STLPR0%
St. Louis County judge keeps Page in charge while on trade mission to London 46%
By Rachel Lippmann0%
4/16/2026, 10:36:47 PM
Topics: St Louis County
BS Summary: This article contains 11 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Optimism Bias, and Ambiguity (Equivocation), with Self-Serving Bias as the most egregious example at 23% saturation with 65 hits. Analysis detected 356 faulty-reasoning hits from 282 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 47.9% and a BS Rank of 46% (9,195 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 54.70% of the article peer group.
The head of the St.
Louis County Council will not become acting county executive when Sam Page goes to London on Sunday.
Circuit Judge Mary Elizabeth Ott on Thursday granted a request from Page to halt enforcement of a 2025 ordinance that places the chair of the council in charge of county government if the executive is out of the country or temporarily disabled.
“This Court finds that although physically absent from the County, State and Continental United States, from April 19, 2026 through April 24, 2026 the Petitioner Sam Page in his capacity as St.
Louis County Executive will not be effectively absent from the County as the Supreme Court of Missouri has defined that term,” Ott wrote.
Page said Tuesday he would be reachable by phone and other modes of communication and could therefore carry out the duties of county executive.
The ordinance would have put Chairwoman Rita Heard Days, D-Bel-Nor, and a frequent critic of Page’s, in charge for the six days.
She had told St.
Louis Public Radio previously she had no plans to make drastic changes while Page was away.
Days said Thursday she would abide by the judge’s ruling.
An outside attorney for the county council said she would not comment on pending litigation, including whether the council might appeal the temporary restraining order.
A spokesperson for Page said in a statement that the county executive appreciated the ruling and Ott’s “thoughtful consideration of the facts and the law.”
“With this ruling, Dr.
Page looks forward to leading a delegation of regional leaders on a trade mission to London,” the statement said.
Analysis
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