—Justice for Arla Harrell: It has taken two decades of efforts, but World War II veteran Arla Harrell finally has the justice he's long sought. Harrell was among hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops subjected by their own government to mustard gas experiments during the war. The tests were top secret, so Harrell couldn't talk about it, but he has long known that the cancer and emphysema he suffered were linked to mustard gas exposure.

The Department of Veterans Affairs repeatedly denied Harrell and other veterans the benefits they deserved for their suffering. This week, Harrell finally won his appeals to receive benefits dating to 1991. His ordeal prompted Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to sponsor the Arla Harrell Act, which shifted the burden of proof toward the government in the benefits battle. Harrell is 90 and clinging to life, but this was a victory worth hanging on for.

—Swipe left: Our brethren at the Kansas City Star's editorial board took a decidedly non-neighborly swipe at St. Louis in an editorial mocking the idea of establishing a Hyperloop between the two cities.

"Seriously, though, how many of us are in a screaming rush to get to St. Louis?," the editorial said. Well, harumph to you, too. St. Louis has better architecture, better baseball and the best hockey, especially since KC doesn't have an NHL team. We also have bragging rights to a world-class zoo, symphony and art museum.

True, there's been trouble getting that Loop trolley on the track, just like KC can't seem to get the Buck O'Neil Bridge rebuilt. Transportation is not Missouri's strong suit, so chalk one up for Gov. Eric Greitens' imagination for dangling the possibility of traveling across Missouri at speeds up to 671 mph to try to lure Amazon's second headquarters to the state.

—Surviving and thriving: St. Louis' Andrew Oberle is a living testament to resiliency. After surviving a horrific chimpanzee attack in 2012 that resulted in two dozen reconstructive surgeries, Oberle, 31, has launched a trauma care program at St. Louis University.

Two chimps attacked Oberle while he was working at an animal sanctuary in South Africa, the Post-Dispatch's Blythe Bernhard reported. Oberle was mangled from his scalp to his feet, losing his nose, ears, most of his fingers and both feet. Dr. Bruce Kraemer, a plastic surgeon at SLU Hospital, has treated patients who were mauled by bears and crocodiles, but said Oberle's injuries were the worst he had ever seen animals cause.

Oberle has since fathered a child, made plans to marry and is working on a master's degree in health administration. He is "one of these people that has a positive life energy," Kraemer said. "You feel better just by being around him. His resilience and his fierceness of wanting to succeed so he can help others is very inspirational."

—Tough question. Awful response: Ames Mayfield, an 11-year-old Cub Scout from Broomfield, Colo., was bold enough to ask a pointed question of a Colorado state legislator early this month. During a den-organized event, he questioned Republican state Sen. Vicki Marble's support for a bill that would allow domestic violence offenders to continue having gun-ownership rights. "Why on earth would you want someone who beats their wife to have access to a gun?" he asked.

The question got him kicked out of his den, which seems anathema to all the principles of courageous forthrightness that underlie Scout Law. Marble, meanwhile, finds herself in ongoing controversy, first for questioning whether the boy was prompted to ask the question and later for remarks she made in 2013 linking health issues among blacks to eating barbecue and chicken. She blames "the PC police" for the controversy. Is it possible she actually said what she said, and that the kid made her address an uncomfortable issue?

—Tanks for the memories: St. Louis has known little but a red tide of frustration in the decades-long effort to build an aquarium. That could be about to change now that the new owners of Union Station announced plans to break ground Thursday on a 120,000-square-foot, 1.3-million gallon set of mega-fish tanks.

Our aquarium-deficit dates to 1923 when one proposed for the zoo was turned down. It continued through the Spanish Pavilion fiasco of the early 1970s to a 1993 proposal from a New York developer named Donald Trump for a casino-hotel-aquarium-marina-whatever on the riverfront.

A succession of small operations and big plans followed for the next 20 years. Then Bob O'Laughlin's Lodging Hospitality Management Corp. took over Union Station in 2011 and a big (well, biggish) aquarium became part of its family destination plans. Along with a Ferris wheel.

We can hardly wait until 2019 to see the dream become a reality.

—Michigan dodges a bullet: Kid Rock, the 46-year-old rapper/rocker/country singer, toyed for months with whatever former White House adviser Steve Bannon has for a heart this year by suggesting he would run as a Trump Republican against Democrat Debbie Stabenow in Michigan's U.S. Senate race next year. Alas, it is not to be.

Kid (real name Robert Ritchie) told shock jock Howard Stern this week, "(Expletive) no, I'm not running for Senate. Are you (expletive) kidding me? Like, who couldn't (expletive) figure that out?"

A White House visit in April, alongside fellow Michigan rocker Ted Nugent and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, apparently was as close as the Kid wanted to get. Too bad. He would have fit right in.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH