THE MISSOURI STREAM

  For the past seven months, you have known us as The Commerce Dispatch. Today, that name becomes part of our history.  Welcome to  The Missouri Stream. This is more than a new name and a new logo. It is the next chapter of a news service that grew much faster, and in a very different direction, than we expected when we launched in March. When The Commerce Dispatch began, the idea was simple. Build an independent local newspaper from the ground up and earn a place in the community.  The name itself came from Commerce, Missouri. Commerce is one of the oldest communities in the state. It was once the county seat of Scott County and once appeared destined for a much larger future. That future never came. The community declined, but it never fully disappeared.  That stubborn spirit is something that we connected with.  Then we discovered that a newspaper called The Commerce Dispatch had actually been published in Commerce in the 1800s. We researched the name, t...

I don't know. That's the honest answer. I'm 40 years old. People around my age have lived through a strange stretch of American history. We remember the 1990s, the dot-com crash, September 11, the wars that followed, the crash of 2008, COVID and the years that came after it. We also remember when things were cheap. We remember the before, when a gallon of gas cost less than a dollar. I remember putting gas in my first car, a tiny 1991 Toyota Corolla. The tank wasn't big. I would hand the cashier a $10 bill and a $5 bill and get change back. A friend rode to school with me, and his mother gave me $10 every week for the gas. I knew I could add $5 of my own money and fill the tank. A 32-ounce soda at the gas station was 50 cents. My first apartment was $375 a month. Electricity was around $50. Water was maybe $15 or $20. A box of Hamburger Helper, with milk and hamburger, could make dinner for around $5. Hamburger Helper was poor-person food when I was growing up. My f...