The Energy Department has again slashed its prediction for next year’s average price of gasoline across the U.S., this time to $2.60 a gallon.
That’s 23 percent below the projected average for this year and the lowest since 2009.
If that comes to pass, the price drop will save U.S. drivers $100 billion over the course of the year.
In its most recent short-term energy outlook, released Tuesday, the Energy Department cut its gasoline price forecast for 2015 by 35 cents a gallon. It was the second cut of more than 30 cents a gallon in two months.
The average national price of gasoline fell to $2.66 a gallon Tuesday, according to AAA, 61 cents less than last year. The national average has fallen every day since September 26.
JEFFERSON CITY -In a letter to Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission Chairman Stephen Miller today, Gov. Jay Nixon asked the commission to conduct an analysis of options for utilizing tolls to improve and expand I-70 and free up resources for road and bridge projects around the state.
“A strong transportation system is critical to Missouri’s economic competitiveness, but Missouri’s transportation funding is approaching a critical juncture,” said Gov. Nixon. “That is why I am requesting that the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission analyze and provide options for utilizing tolls to address one of our most pressing transportation infrastructure needs – improving and expanding Interstate 70 – and to free up resources currently dedicated to repair and maintenance on I-70 for road and bridge projects throughout the state.”
The St. Joseph Police Department issued a warning on Social Media Tuesday to let residents know of possible phone scams taking place in the community.
According to the department recently a few residents have received phone calls from individuals claiming that they have won a large amount of money and a car.
One of the possible scams claimed to be from Publishers Clearing House.
The SJPD reminds residents that if they were to win a prize they will never be asked to provide money or a credit card.
The Publishers Clearing House scam has been a warning issued by the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office in past years.
In 2012 the Sheriff’s Office reported scammers told the victim they had won $1.2 million prize, but the caller stated they would need a money card from Wal-Mart worth $500 to claim the prize.
The winners were told to call back with the money card number for their package to be shipped.
The scammers called the victim three times asking if the winner had gotten the money card and said the fee would go up if they didn’t act soon. The victim was a senior citizen and told the caller they could not afford the money card.
If you come into contact with a scam authorities urge you to contact your local law enforcement agency.
MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State University President Dr. John Jasinski has been appointed to serve on the Missouri Higher Education Coordinated Plan Steering Committee to develop a new coordinated plan for higher education in the state.
The Missouri Department for Higher Education will spend the next year developing the plan “Preparing Missourians for Success: A Blueprint for Higher Education.” A final plan will be presented to the coordinating board for approval in December 2015.
“Higher Education in Missouri is quickly evolving to meet the needs of our state and its students,” said Dalton Wright, chair of the coordinating board. “It is vital that we have a plan in place that reflects today’s higher education environment, makes good use of our available resources and produces the highly-skilled graduates needed for economic growth.”
The steering committee of members representing commerce and industry, education and government will assist with the development of the plan. The department will gather input from steering committee members and the public during a series of nine meetings. The plan will focus on the topics of accessibility, affordability, quality and degree completion.
State law calls for the coordinating board to design a coordinated plan for higher education in Missouri. The current plan, “Imperatives for Change,” was adopted in 2008.
Public meetings will take place throughout the state, beginning Dec. 11. More information is available atdhe.mo.gov/blueprint.php.
Jasinski, who began his presidency at Northwest in 2009, also serves as chair of the Council on Public Higher Education, the organization consisting of CEOs from Missouri’s public four-year universities.
A monthly report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Tuesday show St. Joseph’s unemployment rate has dropped to 3.8 percent, the lowest it has been since April of 2007.
In a news release issued by the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Patt Lilly said Gallup Inc. may be looking at the city.
“I recently got a call from the Missouri Chamber saying Gallup may call me to figure out how we do it,” said Lilly. “We were able to continue growing local business and employment thanks to St. Joseph’s strong agricultural companies, as well as a diverse wealth of other employers.”
The city is below state average of 5.9 and the national average of 5.8.
Other Missouri cities also saw drops in unemployment rates with Columbia at 3.1 percent and Jefferson City tied with St. Joseph at 3.8.
However, according to the Chamber St. Joseph has a distinction that the other cities did not.
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce recently commissioned Gallup Inc. to perform a study of Missouri Business Dynamics between the years 1977-2011. That study showed the Missouri’s major metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) grew at different rates at different times during the last three decades.
“Growth slowed over most of that time in each MSA except St. Joseph (one of the top consistently growing MSAs in the country 2001-2011),” it stated in the Gallup report.
The release said that while every other Missouri MSA saw a decline in either or both employment growth or increase in firms, St. Joseph was the only city to see growth in both categories.
Lilly said that in times of recession, the world’s population still has to eat, because St. Joseph is the top exporter of goods worldwide from Missouri behind St. Louis and Kansas City. So agricultural science companies continued strong production and animal health companies, which work closely with the agriculture market, were able to grow.Food processing companies also maintained its strong presence in the local economy.
“St. Joseph should be aware of and proud of its economic success,” Lilly said. “With the hard work of the City of St. Joseph, Buchanan County, State of Missouri and local business investors, we’ll continue to be a statewide leader in 2015 and the years to come.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA says a newly spotted 1,300-foot wide asteroid is not a threat to hit Earth, despite recent media reports.
NASA’s Near Earth Object program manager Donald Yeomans said the asteroid, discovered in October by Russian scientists, won’t even get that close to Earth in the next 150 years. And it isn’t a threat to any other planet, either.
Calculations by NASA and Harvard say the closest asteroid 2014 UR116, will get to Earth is about 2.7 million miles in April 2047. Yeomans said that is so far away that it doesn’t make NASA’s running list of risky near-Earth objects.
Yeomans said in-depth analysis confirmed that that the space rock would not near Earth soon.
Former Kansas football standout Arnold Snell passed away Saturday, Dec. 6, after a long battle with cancer. He was 49.
From the gridiron to his position of Deacon at Greater Pentecostal Temple in Kansas City, Snell exhibited qualities of a natural-born leader.
The 49-year old spent his days impacting the lives of those surrounding him, evident by his motivation to push his teammates to new heights as a captain of the Kansas football team under first-year head coach Glen Mason in 1988.
Snell played the game to win and encouraged those around him to do the same. That drive and determination led him to a successful career in a Jayhawk uniform where he was a three-time letterwinner (1986-88). The fullback rushed for 1,762 yards on 431 carries for eight touchdowns to rank him 15th all-time on the program’s career rushing list, while making him one of 17 players to rush over 1,600 yards from scrimmage over the course of a KU career.
After his time at Kansas, Snell served as a Deacon at Greater Pentecostal Temple in Kansas City, until complications from cancer affected his ability to serve. During that time, Snell also worked as a successful sales representative in the career field of document management, breaking sales records and winning multiple awards.
A native of Mount Vernon, New York, Snell attended Mount Vernon High School where he started his athletics career as an all-around athlete. Snell excelled in football, baseball and basketball earning him a place in the Mount Vernon High School Hall of Fame and a scholarship at the University of Kansas.
Born Oct. 16, 1965, Snell is survived by his wife, Audria Snell; two sons, Brandon and Damiere; daughter, Arnice Snell Cox and granddaughter, Aydah Cox.
A visitation for Snell is scheduled from 9-11 a.m., on Saturday, Dec. 13 at Greater Pentecostal Temple in Kansas City, Kansas. The funeral service will follow the visitation at 11 a.m.
The Kansas Department of Transportation announced Tuesday it plans to transfer more than $95-million out of the State Highway Fund on the orders of the State’s Governor.
Gov. Sam Brownback announced an allotment plan today that will include that transfer of $95.7 million out of the highway fund. The plan is to address budget shortfalls in the fiscal year 2015.
In a news release from the Governor’s office is said plan was based on a recommendation from Budget Director Shawn Sullivan, the Governor will implement an allotment as provided in K.S.A. 75-3722. Sullivan subsequently notified Secretary of Administration Jim Clark to notify state agencies of the allotment.
“I appreciate Shawn’s hard work in identifying efficiencies and cost savings across state government,” said Governor Brownback. “These first steps are a down payment in resolving the immediate budget issue. I look forward to presenting a full budget proposal and policy recommendations to the legislature in January. Our job now is to address this situation through good fiscal governance while maintaining our investment in education, sustaining funding for public safety and allowing T-WORKS to be completed.”
In addition, a 3 percent reduction from KDOT’s operations budget will be included in a rescission bill that will be considered by the 2015 Legislature.
That reduction amounts to a proposed $7.8 million out of an operations budget of $260 million.
KDOT said in a news release that the reduction will impact that agency’s salary budget but there will be no layoffs or salary reductions.
KDOT also said project announced under the T-WORKS transportation program will continue as planned.
Projects already let under the 10-year program have cost less than planned, federal and state revenues have been higher than anticipated, and bond rates have been more favorable than expected.
The Governor’s allotment plan and recommendation letters may be found at http://budget.ks.gov/
“It is important for us to take these actions now to address the projected shortfall and minimize the effect of budget reductions to state agencies in this fiscal year,” Sullivan said.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The sister of Missouri death row inmate Paul Goodwin is asking Gov. Jay Nixon to commute the sentence to life in prison, calling execution an unjust penalty for a man with the mental capabilities of a child.
Paul Goodwin is scheduled to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. He used a hammer to kill a 63-year-old St. Louis County woman in 1998.
An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and a clemency petition both claim that Goodwin has an IQ of 73. His sister, Mary Mifflin, says her brother remains child-like, even in prison.
The Missouri Attorney General’s office responded to the high court appeal citing testimony at Goodwin’s trial, where a psychologist testified that Goodwin’s IQ is not low enough to be considered mentally disabled.
TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback announced Tuesday he will use his power of allotments to make fee sweeps and spending cuts to close a $280 million budget gap in the current fiscal year.
Brownback said in a prepared statement that the allotments come from recommendations made by Budget Director Shawn Sullivan.
“I appreciate Shawn’s hard work in identifying efficiencies and cost savings across state government,” Brownback said. “These first steps are a down payment in resolving the immediate budget issue. I look forward to presenting a full budget proposal and policy recommendations to the Legislature in January. Our job now is to address this situation through good fiscal governance while maintaining our investment in education, sustaining funding for public safety and allowing T-WORKS to be completed.”
Spending on Medicaid — the state’s largest health-related item — was not affected.
But the governor announced cuts to operating budgets for state agencies that administer programs for the disabled, poor and sick, as well as enforce environmental regulations.
He also proposed saving $5.4 million by delaying the expansion of the Meyer Building at Larned State Hospital, the state’s largest psychiatric facility.
The cuts and sweeps Brownback proposed are intended to get the the state only through July 1, 2015. Another $436 million budget gap looms in the fiscal year that begins on that date, and Brownback and lawmakers will have to find a way to close that gap when the Legislature reconvenes in January.
The state has not cut spending enough to keep pace with revenue reductions caused by income tax cuts Brownback spearheaded that have wiped out reserve funds.
The bulk of the budget fix Brownback announced Tuesday — $201 million of the $280 million — comes from transfers from fee funds. The governor’s memo denoted that those transfers are “subject to legislation,” meaning the Legislature will have a say on whether to allow them.
The biggest proposed transfers come from the state highway fund ($96 million) and Kansas Department of Health and Environment fee funds ($55 million). But the governor also proposed sweeps of everything currently in the Kansas Endowment for Youth ($14.5 million) and the Children’s Initiative Fund ($500,000) — money from litigation against tobacco companies that is intended for evidence-based early childhood education programs.
“Just a few months ago, Governor Brownback vetoed a transfer of $5 million from the KEY Fund, saying that fund was established specifically for early childhood programs and should remain available for such purposes in the future,” said Christie Appelhanz, vice president for public affairs at the Topeka nonprofit Kansas Action for Children. “We’re deeply distressed by the governor’s change of heart. The current budget crisis is of his own making, and it shouldn’t be paid for by our state’s youngest and most vulnerable children.”
The Children’s Initiative Fund receives money each year from the tobacco settlement, though the amount is expected to decline soon. The Kansas Endowment for Youth was intended to provide funding for the CIF programs after the tobacco money dries up.
The governor also proposed reducing employer contributions to the state pension system by almost $41 million, a move that does not require legislative approval. The Kansas Public Employees Retirement System recently emerged from a critically underfunded status in part because the Legislature agreed to increase state contributions to improve the system’s health.
The rest of the $78.5 million in cuts outlined in the governor’s plan come largely from a 4 percent across-the-board reduction in Cabinet agency operating budgets, which is also not subject to legislative approval. The Department for Children and Families, at almost $4 million, will receive the largest cut in raw dollars.
Annie McKay, executive director for the Kansas Center for Economic Growth, a Topeka-based think tank, said the cuts come on top of reductions made a few years earlier when Kansas was in the grips of the global recession.
“The governor’s plan is the latest sign of how unprecedented and unaffordable tax cuts are eroding key investments that make up the economic foundation of our state and continue to put Kansas’ future in jeopardy,” McKay said. “We’ve been down this road before and it’s a dead end.”
Andy Marso is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
The Associated Press –
The St. Joseph Police Department issued a warning on Social Media Tuesday to let residents know of possible phone scams taking place in the community.
The Kansas Department of Transportation announced Tuesday it plans to transfer more than $95-million out of the State Highway Fund on the orders of the State’s Governor.
