Saturday deliveries are ending this year from the United States Postal Service.

The Post Office will start five day home delivery only August 5th of this year, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe announced Wednesday morning.

Packages will still be delivered six days a week and mail will still be accepted on Saturdays.  

 Donahoe noted that the Postal Service is losing nearly 16-billion dollars a year. The new plan is expected to save about two-billion dollars per year. Donahoe called it absolutely necessary and said it makes common sense.

“It’s an important part of our return to profitability and financial stability,” Donahoe said.

He cited a decrease in mail deliveries in recent years.

“People have voted with their feet to pay bills electronically.  That’s okay, it’s a smart thing to do,” Donahoe said.  “I wish you wouldn’t do that but it is what it is and we have to make those changes.”

A Senate hearing is scheduled next week to analyze the Postal Service’s financial problems.

 

Governor Jay Nixon outlined his plans for new funding for higher education at Northwest Missouri State University today.

His proposed budget includes a $34 million increase in higher education funding.

“Like increased student retention, higher graduation rates, improve learning and efficiency,” Nixon said.  “And friends, Northwest Missouri State rose to the challenge.  The school met all five of those performance targets.”

His budget proposal was presented to the state Generally Assembly during the state of the state address earlier this week. Under the proposal, Northwest would receive an additional $1.4 million dollars if approved in the state budget for 2014.

Nixon also announced grants for rural water supplies in Nodaway and Worth counties while in Maryville.

The grants, worth roughly $360,000, would hook-up Graham, Barnard and Sheridan to a rural water supply. Those communities had low water supplies during last summers drought.

“They need to be hooked up to the water district,  so we are providing $360,000 in Community Development Block grants to get that hooked up.”

Many rural communities dealt with low water levels in public water wells during last years drought.  Skidmore was connected to the public rural water supply last year in part by similar grants after water was trucked in from neighboring towns to supply the towns water wells.

A computer hard drive containing confidential information is back at Missouri Western after it was accidentally sold during a surplus action.

The hard drive included names and social security numbers of former students and was returned at the request of the university.

The buyer of a computer at a surplus action contacted Missouri Western earlier this month.  The drive was sent back via overnight shipping.  The location and name of the buyer was not released.

The buyer had assured the university the hard drive was not copied or transmitted in any way, University officials announced Thursday.

“Missouri Western State University makes every effort to ensure confidential information is secure,” said Cale Fessler, vice president for financial planning and administration. “We sincerely apologize for this incident. Missouri Western does not believe the information has been misused in any way.”

The university is sending an advisory to around 3,000 students who attended the university between 2005 and 2009.

Before selling surplus computers, the university routinely removes and destroys hard drives.  They claim to have taken steps to avoid similar incidents in the future.

 

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon wants to raise the pay of state employees while also cutting 190 positions in state government.

 

A northwest Missouri man has pleaded guilty to killing a co-worker with a hatchet and disemboweling a second woman seven months later.

Quintin P. O’Dell entered his pleas Thursday in Platte County Circuit Court on first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, first-degree assault and deviate sexual assault charges.

He was then sentenced to two terms of life in prison plus 207 years, all running consecutively.

The 23-year-old Platte City man admitted killing 22-year-old Alissa Faye Shippert in May 2011 on the banks of the Platte River with a hatchet he picked up on shore as he walked upstream from his mother’s house.

He also admitted slashing the abdomen of a 21-year-old woman in December 2011 at her apartment in Ferrelview, southeast of Platte City.

AT&T network outages Thursday morning left a wide area of the midwest without cellular service.

By around 11:30 Thursday morning, cell phone services were back working in St Joseph.

“Earlier today, some customers in Kansas and Western Missouri may have experienced issues with 3G wireless services. AT&T technicians quickly worked to resolve the issue, and service is currently running normally, AT&T area spokesperson Chris Lester said.  “We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers.”

Postings on AT&T’s Facebook and Twitter pages indicated the wide-spread outage affected much of Western Missouri and in Kansas, as far west as Witchita.

AT&T U-Verse customers dealt with a 2-3 day outage this week in many parts of the nation. AT&T announced this morning that U-verse service has been restored for the vast majority of customers affected by the outage. We expect any remaining customer issues will be resolved this morning.

The St Joseph Sport and Gun Show kicks off this afternoon in St Joseph. Organizers say they expect to see an increase in attendance compared with past shows.

“I expect the attendance at the St Joe Sport and Gun Show to be extremely high just because of all the gun controversy,” Organizer Kevin Hummer said.

 many rural Americans are concerned with pending legislation in Washington DC, driving gun sales, he said.

“So I think that’s what they are wanting to come out and talk to folks, some of the experts, to see what controversy there is and possibly stock up on some guns and ammunition.”

Some manufactures are reportedly as much as 100,000 guns behind. But this weekend show is not just about firearms, Hummer said.

“We have deer outfitters, taxidermist, ATV’s, RV’s boats, new cars,” he said.”  “We got things for everybody and their family.”

The show opens at 4:00pm this afternoon.  Hours are 4:00-8:00pm tonight, 10:00-6:00 Saturday and 10:00-4:00 Sunday at the Civic Arena in St Joseph.