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Western to Upgrade Fitness Center and Cut Funding for Community Arts

Missouri Western will upgrade a fitness center and cut arts funding.

The University announced more than $200,000 in renovations to the Baker fitness center, one day after announcing funding cuts arts programs.

The university will reduce the size of the Center for Community Arts in a cost cutting move that University officials say will allow the university to focus on core programs for children.

”To do that, we will unfortunately have to eliminate the personal enrichment courses we’ve offered to adults.”said Dr. Gordon Mapley, dean of the Western Institute.

Adult classes such as yoga, pottery and social dance will be eliminated.

”Unfortunately, budget realities require us to make difficult decisions, ” said Dr. Robert Vartabedian, Missouri Western’s president. ”Missouri Western remains fully committed to seeing the arts flourish on campus and in the community, but this is a necessary step toward meeting the budget realities we face.”

The new Western Playhouse professional theater is expected to be self supporting and will not affect the budget.

The renovations to the Baker Family Fitness Center will cost approximately $220,000. The University Board of Governors accepted a bid Thursday from Brooner & Associates Construction.

”The renovations will make the fitness center more inviting and pleasant for the students, employees, alumni and Gold Coat Club members who get so much use out of it already,” said Kurt McGuffin, director of athletics. ”The project will also add a much-needed locker room for our woman’s soccer team.”

The accepted bid was the lowest of five St Joseph Contractors, according to University officials.

The project will be funded by Max Experience student fees and money set aside for renovation projects in the university’s auxiliary budget.

 

No Charges for Man Who Shot Intruder in St Louis

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis resident will not face charges in the shooting death of an intruder.

Authorities say 38-year-old Jerome Burse and a second man broke into a home Wednesday afternoon and stole property. One of the adults in the home, a 23-year-old man, fired shots at the intruders. Burse collapsed outside and died at a hospital. The second suspect got away and police don’t know if he was shot.

The name of the man who shot Burse was not released but police said Thursday the case has been classified as justifiable homicide under Missouri’s Castle Doctrine. The law allows those who encounter intruders in their homes or vehicles to use deadly force without fear of being criminally charged or sued.

LightSquared Files for Bankruptcy Protection

LightSquared filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. The company failed to reach a debt restructuring deal with its creditors. The company wanted to create a wireless network using satellites. Federal regulators at first championed the idea, but in recent months turned its back on the proposal after military, agriculture and others said the satellite signals could interfere with global positioning systems used broadly by airplanes, agriculture and consumers.

According to the company’s biggest investor, Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital, LightSquared says the filing was necessary to protect the Company against creditors who were looking for a quick profit, as opposed to our goal to create long-term market competition, job creation, and the promise of wireless connectivity for every American.

According to the filing, LightSquared employed 168 people in the U.S. and Canada and generated about 30-million dollars in annual revenue from businesses who leased its airwaves. Unsecured creditors include Boeing, which is owed 7-million dollars; Alcatel-Lucent is owed 7-million; and Burson Marsteller is owed 265-thousand dollars.

Ag Groups Focus on Crop Insurance

The House Agriculture Committee continues key farm bill hearings this week, and as it does a dozen farm groups have sent a letter to House Ag Chairman Frank Lucas and Ranking Member Collin Peterson on the importance of crop insurance. In their letter the groups state – Federal crop insurance provides an effective risk management tool to farmers and ranchers when they are facing losses beyond their control. They note – it reduces taxpayer risk exposure; it makes hedging possible to help mitigate market volatility; and it provides lenders with greater certainty that loans made to producers will be repaid.

One of the groups that signed the letter was the National Corn Growers Association. NCGA has previously stated that crop insurance remains the number one priority in the new farm bill as well as a market oriented, risk management tool to cover multi-year price declines.

Other groups signing the letter were: American Farm Bureau Federation; American Soybean Association; American Sugarbeet Growers Association; National Association of Wheat Growers; National Barley Growers Association; National Cotton Council; National Farmers Union; National Sorghum Producers; National Sunflower Association; U.S. Canola Association; and the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council.

Senators Push for Senate Action on Farm Bill

44 U.S. Senators have signed a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell calling for a timely and open debate on the Senate farm bill, the ‘Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012’. According to the Senators, the bill takes steps to reduce the deficit and decrease government spending by 23-billion dollars. The letter continues, – the bill, earlier passed the Senate Ag Committee, sets an example of how Senators can come together in a bipartisan way to craft meaningful, yet fiscally responsible, policy.

The bill streamlines conservation programs and helps prevent fraud and abuse in nutrition programs. Also, the risk management, conservation, research, trade promotion and nutrition programs in the legislation impacts nearly every American. Many of these programs will expire at the end of the year if no action is taken to reauthorize the farm bill.

Those Senators signing the letter are: John Barrasso, Max Baucus, Michael Bennet, Richard Blumenthal, Roy Blunt, Scott Brown, Sherrod Brown, Maria Cantwell, Bob Casey, Dan Coats, Kent Conrad, Chris Coons, Mike Crapo, Mike Enzi, Al Franken, Kristen Gillibrand, Chuck Grassley, Kay Hagan, Tom Harkin, John Hoeven, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Daniel Inouye, Mike Johanns, Tim Johnson, John Kerry, Mark Kirk, Amy Klobuchar, Herb Kohl, Pat Leahy, Dick Lugar, Claire McCaskill, Jeff Merkley, Jerry Moran, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Jim Risch, Bernie Sanders, Jeanne Shaheen, Olympia Snowe, Jon Tester, John Thune, Mark Udall, Tom Udall, and Ron Wyden.

Suspect Evades Police in Country Club Village Overnight

Authorities are searching for a suspect who evaded police in Country Club Village overnight.

27 year-old Rick Billings fled from police during a traffic stop after 1:00 am. Police were attempting to serve a warrant earlier in the day.

An officer spotted and attempted to stop the suspect overnight. The suspect though was able to drive from the scene and into a yard.

Country Club Village Police Chief Richard Scott says Billings then drove towards the officer and the officer fired one shot at the vehicle. The officer is okay but Billings managed to get away.

Chief Scott says Billings has a criminal history and is known to carry a handgun.  

If you have information that could lead to his arrest, call the Tips Hotline 238-TIPS.

 

 

AZ’s Flake Tries to Improve EPA’s Exceptional Event Exemption Process

Arizona Representative Jeff Flake has introduced the Commonsense Legislative Exceptional Events Reform – or CLEER – Act. Flake says exceeding Clean Air Act standards can have costly regulatory consequences even when caused by so-called exceptional events like a dust storm that rolled through parts of Arizona last summer. According to Flake – farmers and ranchers in arid parts of the nation are already forced to spend too much money mitigating dust. He says asking them to pay more to get rid of dust caused by natural phenomena completely outside their control is unacceptable. Flake says the EPA has a complex process to exempt the spikes caused by exceptional events from air quality data and the process by which states submit events for review is complicated, unpredictable, long and expensive. Even the EPA has admitted the process is broken.

Currently – Flake says there is no timeline for the EPA to review requests to exclude an exceptional event – which come in the form of costly demonstrations submitted by states for the agency’s review. The CLEER Act would require a 90 day review period. If the EPA hasn’t taken action – the demonstration under consideration would be considered approved. Among other things – the legislation also would require the EPA to provide specific and publicly-disclosed criteria that exceptional events demonstrations will be evaluated on.

Flake says the bottom line is that states, farmers and ranchers shouldn’t face bureaucratic penalties from the EPA for naturally occurring events. He says the CLEER Act will make the process for exemption clearer, faster and less costly.

Senators Eye Changes to Ag Committee’s Farm Bill

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn will try to amend the Senate Agriculture Committee’s farm bill in order to cap crop insurance premium subsidies. It’s been reported that Coburn’s spokeswoman says the Senator is hopeful the Senate will engage in debate and vote on amendments to the measure that would include the Government Accountability Office’s recommendations and save taxpayers one-billion dollars. According to the GAO – that would be the annual savings from a 40-thousand dollar cap. The GAO has also said USDA’s data mining program could be improved with better coordination between the Farm Service Agency, Risk Management Agency and insurance companies.

Coburn – along with Senator Dick Durbin – have told the leaders of the Senate Ag Committee that they support further reforms to the federal crop insurance program that would be consistent with the GAO’s findings and recommendations. Coburn and Durbin further stated that further investigation into the efficacy of reducing premium subsidies is warranted. As for those who say crop insurance programs have been cut enough already – Coburn and Durbin say further reductions do not reflect opposition to the program. Instead – they say it’s critical to make good programs better to ensure they’re performing as intended and are fiscally sound taxpayer investments.

David Graves of the American Association of Crop Insurers says the same types of questions about crop insurance have been raised for over 30 years – and during that time – Congress has expanded the role of federal crop insurance. He says all farmers are subject to forces they can’t control – and it’s important that all farmers have an opportunity to participate in a program that helps them with those risk factors that are beyond their control.

U.S. and EU Working on Trade Agreement

According to European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht – the U.S. and EU are making progress on a trade deal. In fact – the details may be spelled out by mid-2014. Tariffs, services, procurement and regulatory issues are reportedly topping the agenda for the proposed agreement. In June – an interim report on the potential scope of the deal is due – with a final document expected by the end of the year. Negotiations could start soon after – and if De Gucht has anything to say about it – could last for as little as 18 months. According to De Gucht – any agreement must be ambitious enough to include all areas of economic importance and realistic enough to be successful within a limited period of time.

According to the German Marshall Fund – the U.S. and EU have trade flows between them of 4.4-trillion dollars annually. A spokesperson for the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office says the two are examining a number of options for expanding transatlantic trade and investment – including a potential comprehensive trade agreement. Attempts to reach agreement between the U.S. and EU have been unsuccessful in the past.

Clean-up Continues at State Park Campground after 2011 Floods

The day-use facilities at the Lewis and Clark State Park are open, but clean-up of the campground is expected to continue into this fall.

Park officials reopened the park last month for day-use only.  The clean-up started in September after last years flooding caused damage to the park.

Many peopled have already called asking about the campground this year.

Park Supervisor Amber Terry says workers need more time to finish getting the campground ready.

“We are working on that right now but we don’t have a set date,” Terry said.  “We’re trying to get it open by Labor day.”

Some of those things include the cleanup of dead trees and the campsite fire-rings. She says the electrical system will likely take the longest as all the wiring must be re-done.

“It’s a little deceiving,  I think people drive by and look at it now and from glancing from the street it doesn’t look that bad,” Terry says.

She says the cleanup concerns all the things that can’t be seen from the roadway.

Those things include clearing out tree’s that have died in last years flooding.  The tree’s must be removed because they pose a safety hazard to campers if the tree’s or limbs fall in the campground.

New gravel must be brought in after the gravel washed away in the campsite driveways last year.  Silt and sand needs cleaned up as well.The campground’s fire-rings were sent off to be sandblasted and powder coated because of the rust caused by the flood waters.

Finally, the electrical system is being re-installed.  Most of the campgrounds 70 sites have electrical hookups the were damaged in the flooding last year.  All new hookups and wiring is being installed.

You can keep updated with the progress by calling the park, 816-579-5564.

 

 

 

 

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