North Side pride will be on full display Saturday in a parade rolling along St. Joseph Avenue. The Northside parade begins at 10 a.m. on April 27 near Middleton Street and heads north up St. Joseph Avenue to the Northside Complex. Entries will line up at 9 a.m. on Maple Leaf Parkway. It’s free to enter the parade but donations of canned goods for Second Harvest Community Food Bank are accepted.

A man arrested Sunday night on what police said are allegations of kidnapping, resisting arrest and assault appeared in court Wednesday and denied all wrongdoing. Brett C. Matheny, 33, appeared Wednesday morning before Associate Circuit Judge Rebecca L. Spencer of the Buchanan County Circuit Court. The South Side resident is charged with a single misdemeanor, assault in the fourth degree with a “special victim” alleged: a St. Joseph police officer. Spencer advised him to obtain an attorney or seek to qualify for a public defender. Matheny then told his side of the story before being taken back to the Buchanan County Jail. He will not be allowed to bail out of jail before his next court time, 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The lights are back on in St. Joseph after an early-morning outage left much of the city in the dark. At one point, almost 30,000 customers were without power in the area. The incident forced the St. Joseph School District to cancel classes on Wednesday.

The city is hoping a more active presence online and on social media will increase awareness and bring in new applicants for boards and committees. There will be eight board or committee vacancies in June and another in July. Those interested in applying for boards can fill out a form on the city’s website or print off an application and bring it to the city clerk’s office.

Local advocates are continuing to shed light on the issue of child abuse and exploitation in Buchanan County as summer approaches. St. Joseph’s Voices of Courage Child Advocacy Center held a 2024 Courage Conference on Tuesday to discuss the prevalence of trafficking, online sexual exploitation and other forms of abuse children are facing nationwide and locally.