(Missourinet) – U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says he has learned first-hand the contributions being made by Fort Leonard Wood soldiers.

During a recent visit to Iraq, some Iraqi soldiers told Carter that many of their warfighting skills came from Fort Leonard Wood troops.

“They helped them cross rivers. They helped them deal with explosives and barriers and all the kinds of defenses that ISIL is trying to wrap around Mosul,” says Carter. “You want to know the here and now, the strategic significance of what goes on here, you just need to turn on your television and look at the battle from Mosul.”

Carter met Wednesday with about 100 soldiers from the Army, Marines and Air Force during his visit to Fort Leonard Wood in south-central Missouri. He also met at the base with reporters, including Missourinet affiliate KJPW radio.

He says America’s fighting around Mosul in northern Iraq is going according to plan.

“The character of the tactical situation will obviously change day to day, but it also changes as the cord gets closer the noose gets tighter and tighter around Mosul. The enemy might choose various tactics. We don’t know which ones they will, but we’re ready for anything,” says Carter.

The last U.S. Defense Secretary to visit Fort Leonard Wood was Donald Rumsfeld in 2004.

(Missourinet) – The Missouri Secretary of State’s office has announced a new website for voters.

The Missouri Voter Outreach Center is a page on the secretary’s website which offers a variety of services for those casting a ballot next Tuesday.

By typing in their address, residents are taken to a page with information specific to where they live.  It features a map of where the local polling place is along with its address, as well as the location and contact information of the local election authority.

From that page, there are links to where voters can view candidates and measures that’ll appear on their ballots, and see which legislative and congressional districts they live in.  Voters can also view a list of upcoming elections and voting registration deadlines as well as update their registration status.

The secretary’s office says the site meets World Wide Web Consortium standards for users with a wide range of hearing, movement, sight and cognitive abilities.

The Missouri Voter Outreach Center offers services for residents in every county in the state except Boone, which has its own website. Go to the Missouri Voter Outreach Center here.

(Missourinet) – The University of Missouri’s next system president says he intends to build a better relationship between the school and state legislators.

Dr. Mun Choi has been named the system’s next top leader.

“Elected officials are tremendous stewards of public resources and they try to do the best for the citizens of the state. I’m confident that through my interaction, I can share with the legislators in Missouri my commitment to see positive outcomes,” says Choi.

Some state legislators proposed deep budget cuts this year to the university, in response to the way school leaders handled racial protests last fall on the Columbia campus. Demonstrators called for the resignation of then-president Tim Wolfe. Mike Middleton has served as the interim president since Wolfe’s exit.

“The first thing I have to do is to listen to their point of view and also how to find out how we come to common grounds when it comes to higher education,” says Choi. “My job as a system president is to advocate for resources that are needed to continue the rise of the UM system to become one of the top research institutions in the country.”

Choi says he has read demands made by a group of students, Concerned Student 1950, who led last fall’s campus protests at Mizzou.

“It’s also very important for all of us to open that line of dialogue with students, with faculty and with staff members, so that we can avoid dramatic action so that they don’t feel, they, meaning any group of students or faculty members, that their voices are not heard,” says Choi.

Several curators were at a press conference Wednesday to announce Choi as the system’s next president, including chair Pam Henrickson, David Steelman and Jon Sundvold. State Reps. David Wood (R-Versailles) and Travis Fitzwater (R-Holts Summit) were also there.

Choi will be the university system’s 24th president and the system’s first president of Asian descent. He was one of five finalists for the top post.

Choi is the provost and vice president at the University of Connecticut. He starts at the system in Columbia on March 1.

(Missourinet) – Budweiser’s Clydesdale horses made their first appearance as the company’s mascot after the repeal of alcohol prohibition in 1933.

Warm Springs Ranch in Boonville is a breeding farm for Budweiser’s Clydesdales, resting on more than 300 acres in mid-Missouri. Ranch supervisor John Soto says August Busch, Jr. gave August Busch, Sr. a team of Clydesdales in 1933 as a gift to celebrate the repeal.

“Al Smith, who was the governor of New York at the time, was very instrumental in the repeal of prohibition. So they shipped to New York and presented Al Smith with a case of post-prohibition Budweiser. Then they also went to the White House to FDR and they also gave him a case of Budweiser,” says Soto.

The news compelled the company to make the horses the official mascot.

“The people thought that was great. So then they started going out as the Budweiser Clydesdales and it’s been that way for over 80 years now,” says Soto.

The Clydesdales have been in many Budweiser television commercials, including some that debut each year during the Super Bowl. Soto remembers seeing some Budweiser Clydesdale ads as a young child. He says the only Budweiser commercial that has been filmed at the Warm Springs Ranch was four years ago. Many of the company’s commercials are filmed in California.

More than 26,000 people per year visit Warm Springs Ranch. Soto says the Boonville farm, which includes more than 70 horses, is a worldwide attraction. The Clydesdale babies are a popular stopping point on the tour.

“Along with the babies, you also learn everything about the Budweiser Clydesdales from the hitches to the history of the Clydesdales. You get everything in one tour that you could want to know about the Clydesdales,” says Soto.

November 6 is the last day of tours for the season at the ranch.

(Missourinet) – The state transportation department wants to install special surfacing, “Wrong Way and “Do Not Enter” signs and guard cable to try and reduce the number of traffic crashes along a mid-Missouri roadway.

A five-year audit by the department shows more than 400 accidents, including 11 fatalities, have occurred since 2011 along the Route 54 corridor from Camdenton to Mexico. MODOT engineer Dave Silvester says using a high friction pavement treatment has reduced out-of-control crashes by up to 90% each year where it has been installed.

“I suspect we’re going to see a lot more of this (treatment), particularly in areas where there are some lane departures,” Silvester tells reporters during a press conference Tuesday in Jefferson City. “If we can keep cars on the road, that’s got to be our goal.”

A recent rash of wrong-way drivers on Route 54 in Miller County and a double-fatality crash between Holts Summit and Jefferson City prompted transportation officials to audit the 100-mile stretch of roadway from Camdenton to Mexico. The audit examined three types of crashes: wrong-way, curve and cross-median. The route has had 10 wrong-way crashes in the past five years that have killed 11 people.

“If we keep people on the road, that’s our goal,” says Silvester. “This will give the folks that additional traction, that friction between the road and the tires.”

Nine of those 10 wrong-way crashes involved a driver who was physically impaired, such as by a seizure or by drugs and alcohol. There have been 69 cross median crashes, including four fatalities, on Route 54 between Mexico and Camdenton since 2011.

Silvester says the audit found the existing conditions along the corridor meet all state and federal standards.

The cost and when the project would begin has not yet been determined.

To view the executive summary of the audit, click here.

(Missourinet) – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) says the FBI is breaking protocol by announcing days before an election that an investigation has been reopened into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Emails on a computer belonging to Anthony Weiner, the ex-husband of a top Clinton aide, has prompted the FBI to revisit the Clinton investigation. Critics, including some Republicans, say Comey’s move violates a policy of not doing anything that could impact an election. McCaskill tells MSNBC that FBI director James Comey has bad timing.

“When you have Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary committee, writing a letter saying you are not being fair to Secretary Clinton, that is verbiage right out of Chuck Grassley’s letter, that gives you some sense of the outrage,” says McCaskill.

Grassley (R-Iowa) has demanded more details in writing about the investigation, saying the information did not go far enough.

“Here is what I was taught as a prosecutor: the facts are your friend when you are seeking justice. Until you know the facts, keep your mouth shut,” says McCaskill. “What happened here is Comey opened his mouth, when he didn’t know what the facts were. It is clear they have no idea what these emails are.”

Clinton has called on the FBI to release all the information it has in relation to the newly discovered emails. She says Comey doesn’t know whether the emails are significant or not.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump praises the FBI’s decision and says he hopes justice will be done.

The general election is November 8.

(Missourinet) – The person who will lead the University of Missouri system will be named Wednesday.

A press advisory from Mizzou says the new president will be announced at 9:30 a.m. in Jefferson City at the Capitol Plaza Hotel.

The UM Board of Curators meeting agenda Monday morning included a private executive session to discuss personnel matters and approve contract negotiations.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that University of Connecticut provost Mun Y. Choi will be named to the position. Choi has been UCONN’s provost since 2012.

The 24th president replaces Tim Wolfe, who stepped down last fall after protesters demanded his resignation for the way leadership handled racial incidents on campus. Mike Middleton has been serving as the interim president since Wolfe resigned.

A presidential search committee planned to name a new president by the end of this year.

(Missourinet) – Halloween is one of the most common days of the year that Missouri law enforcement checks to see if the state’s more than 18,000 sex offenders are following the law.

Some of the offenders have additional restrictions they are required to follow on Halloween. Captain John Wheeler with the Cole County Sheriff’s Department in mid-Missouri tells Missourinet that officers want to lessen the possibility of those individuals re-offending on Halloween.

“Halloween is a fun time, but everyone just needs to be careful,” says Wheeler.

According to state law, the additional Halloween restrictions that some sex offenders must follow are:

1. Avoid all Halloween-related contact with children;

2. Remain inside his or her residence between the hours of 5 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. unless required to be elsewhere for just cause, including but not limited to employment or medical emergencies;

3. Post a sign at his or her residence stating, “No candy or treats at this residence”; and

4. Leave all outside residential lighting off during the evening hours after 5 p.m.

Some law enforcement agencies will have extra officers on duty on Halloween to conduct the compliance checks. Those who fail compliance checks could be ticketed or jailed.

“Any person that does not comply with these restrictions is guilty of a class A misdemeanor,” says Wheeler.

Cole County has 140 registered sex offenders – 34 of which have the additional Halloween restrictions. Western Missouri’s Jackson County has the most registered sex offenders – about 2,200. Southwest Missouri’s Greene County has roughly 700.

Law enforcement does periodic compliance checks on sex offenders. Those individuals are required to register every three months or twice a year, depending on their conviction. Sex offenders are also restricted from living 1,000 feet from a daycare or school. They must provide information to law enforcement about their place of residence and work, registered vehicles, internet and phone use and a list of other things.

To search for sex offenders living in your area, click here.

(Missourinet) – The Missouri State Highway Patrol says about every two-and-a-half hours, a traffic crash involving deer happens in the state.

Highway Patrol Captain John Hotz says deer are more active in October and November.

Hotz says that in Missouri in 2015, there were 3,732 traffic crashes involving deer. He says three people were killed and 346 others were injured.

“What happens in a lot of cases, people panic and they overreact and a lot of times they end up leaving the roadway and overturning and then as they’re overturning, unfortunately they’re not wearing seat belts, and then they’re ejected from the vehicles,” Hotz says.

Hotz reminds motorists that trying to avoid striking a deer could cause a more serious crash.

“If you’re driving down the road and you don’t hit the brakes too hard, typically the front of your car is not nose-down. We know under heavy braking, a lot of times the front of the vehicle kind of goes down towards the pavement, and that’s the times when you worry about that deer coming in the vehicle with you,” Hotz says.

Hotz tells Missourinet most deer-vehicle collisions occur between the hours of 5 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The Highway Patrol says the largest number of traffic crashes involving deer happen in November. Hotz notes hunting and crop harvesting may cause deer to be in places they aren’t usually seen.

(Missourinet) – The University of Missouri is introducing a new four year program in the field of Public Health. Students who obtain a bachelor’s diploma are able to work in the health field without having to have an advanced degree, or be a medical doctor or nurse.

Doctor Michelle Teti with the M.U. School of Health Professionals says graduates work in communities, hospitals and health agencies in a wide range of disciplines. “The way I like to explain public health is that doctors treat people who are sick. Public Health practitioners try to prevent people from getting sick or hurt in the first place, and try to continue to promote wellness by encouraging healthy behavior.”

MIZZOU’s implementing the program in response to student demand as well as a need for public health professionals in Missouri and across the country. Teti notes the program will fill a void for students who are attracted to the health field, but who may not want to pursue education beyond obtaining a four year degree. “Certainly lots of people have an interest in medicine, but not in being a clinician” said Teti. “Public health is really about creating system in the environment so that you can operate in a healthy way.”

Teti says students who obtain a degree will complement the clinical work of doctors and nurses by dealing with policy and prevention. “For example obesity is a chronic health problem everywhere. Doctors are treating the consequences of obesity. Public Health practitioners are working to develop exercise or education campaigns.”

Students can specialize their focus to work in fields such as disease tracking, health education, environmental health and disaster preparedness. Teti says the average salary of a Public Health professional is $47,000, with upward mobility readily available.

University of Missouri Curators voted to approve a proposal from its School of Health Professions to create a Bachelor of Health Science (BHS) in Public Health degree. The program will be implemented after the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education gives final approval.

M.U. is the only public institution within 300 miles to offer a Public Health bachelor’s degree. The only other Missouri school with a similar program is St. Louis University.