FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — A Ferguson convenience store that was looted and burned after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown will be rebuilt as a job training center.
The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis said Friday that the center is part of its “empowering communities” effort.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the center will house the new Save Our Sons program. St. Louis area companies have contributed $1.2 million toward the effort, meant to give young jobless or underemployed men a month’s training before matching them with area jobs.
The center will be located on the site of a former QuikTrip that rioters set fire to Aug. 10, a day after ex-Ferguson officer Darren Wilson, who is white, shot and killed Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A dangerous new bird flu strain has affected turkey flocks in Minnesota, Missouri and Arkansas. That’s sending experts and farmers scrambling to determine how it arrived — and to stop it from spreading.
Avian influenza is common in wild waterfowl and doesn’t normally hurt them. But this strain, H5N2, is deadly when it spreads to commercial poultry.
Most U.S. turkeys and chickens spend their entire lives indoors to protect them from diseases. But the infections show that those flocks aren’t completely secure, as viruses can be tracked into barns or spread from waterfowl to shore birds that sneak into a barn.
The outbreaks have led dozens of countries to ban poultry imports from affected states. Producers are tightening biosecurity. But officials say the danger to humans is very low.
Graves: It was an honor to present Army veteran Donald Wheeler with the National Defense Service Medal and three other awards .-courtesy photo
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Sam Graves recognize Army Veteran Donald Wheeler’s service to our country in a medal ceremony on Friday morning.
Donald Wheeler served in the U.S. Army from April 1967 through November 1969. The sudden death of his grandfather led to his expedited release from the Army and prevented Mr. Wheeler from receiving the medals he had earned for his heroic service to our nation. On Friday, Mr. Wheeler will be recognized with presentation of the following medals:
National Defense Service Medal
Vietnam Service Medal with 1 bronze service star with 1 silver service star
Republic of Vietnam Campaign Ribbon with Device (1960)
SEDALIA – A Missouri man died in an accident just after 1 p.m. on Friday in Pettis County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Chevy passenger vehicle driven by Daniel E. Heaton, 26, Sedalia, 26, was traveling on Route O just north of Salem Road.
The vehicle crossed the centerline, traveled off the left side of the road and struck and embankment. The driver was ejected.
Heaton was transported to Bothwell Regional Health Center where he died.
ELMO (AP) – No charges will be filed after a 5-year-old northwest Missouri boy playing with a handgun accidentally shot and killed his 9-month-old brother.
The St. Joseph News-Press reports that Nodaway County Prosecutor Robert Rice said Friday that the mother and grandfather of Corbin Wiederholt weren’t criminally negligent. He called Corbin’s Jan. 19 death “tragic” and “accidental.”
The shooting happened as the boy and his siblings were visiting the grandfather’s home in the town of Elmo, which is located 120 miles north of Kansas City, Missouri. Rice said the mother knew her father had multiple guns. But Rice said Corbin’s mother and grandfather believed the firearms were locked up in a gun safe and weren’t loaded.
Rice said the 5-year-old found a .22-caliber handgun in the headboard of the grandfather’s bed.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) continued his efforts to fight for religious freedom around the world, noting to officials that appointing a special envoy “should not be a budget discussion. This is either important or it’s not important. You can find the money to do this if you wanted to.”
During a hearing this week before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, Blunt asked the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, David Saperstein, about President Barack Obama’s need to appoint a special envoy to promote religious freedom among religious minorities in the Middle East.
Blunt asked Chief Counsel at American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), Jay Sekulow, about the status of U.S. citizen Pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been imprisoned in Iran for his faith. Blunt has been vocal in calling for Abedini’s release, and he was outspoken in calling for the release of Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese woman who was also jailed with her children for professing her Christian faith.
Blunt also highlighted the important distinction between freedom of worship and freedom of religion last month when questioning U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during a U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs hearing.
Last year, Blunt introduced and Congress passed the bipartisan Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act, which encouraged President Obama to appoint a special envoy to promote religious freedom among religious minorities in the Middle East. Seven months after the bill was signed into law, the president has not appointed a special envoy.
Caring for the environment used to be tough duty. However, during the last couple of decades, it’s become a marketing opportunity.
Manufacturers are churning out more and more environmentally friendly products and retailers are finding in many cases they can be sold at a premium. But beware – not everything sold in the green garden is all roses. Over the long haul, selling “green” may be a lot more difficult than selling soap flakes.
Phosphate-free detergent, lead-free gas, aerosol sprays minus the chlorofluorocarbons and other green garden goodies have been available in some form or another since the early ‘80s. Today, they are nearly as common, or in some cases, more so than farm-fresh eggs, free-range chickens, hogs and cattle, fresh vegetables – you name it.
During this nearly 30-year growing period, consumers embraced the notion of buying green with a zeal that was almost patriotic. As they become more environmentally tuned in day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year, greenies bought beyond what was even required by law in a religious frenzy.
Some companies have launched their own label green brands. Many of these companies have grown their green products by the hundreds.
Many of these items are simply repackaged old ideas, you know, what’s old becomes new when introduced to a new generation of consumers especially those who choose to paint themselves green.
One such item is baking soda, which has been marketed as a more environmentally friendly way to scour pots and pans.
Can you believe it?
My mother and her mother before her used and understood that baking soda was the only real way to keep their kitchens clean or green nearly a century ago.
Another green product that has rocketed off the supermarket shelves are biodegradable garbage bags made from corn extract.
One item that’s become green is dishwasher detergent and it’s worthless. The only way to clean your dishes, knives and forks and pots and pans with today’s detergent is to run your machine half full or a couple times. I know this is the truth, because I’ve had to do so.
I’ve even visited with appliance dealers that have told me today’s dishwasher detergents no longer have phosphates (banned as unsafe for our environment) which cleaned our tableware and did it right. Today’s dishwasher detergents are not formulated to remove hard water minerals during the main wash cycle.
Lemi Shine promises to solve this problem.
Combined with your auto dish detergent, Lemi Shine removes tough hard water spots, stains and film during the main wash cycle, so says the product commercial. You will be pleased to know that Lemi Shine is comprised of 100 percent all natural fruit acids and oils. That’s right, Lemi Shine contains no phosphates or fillers.
Now don’t you feel better?
Even that revered group that I now belong to, the aging Baby Boomers, is boarding the green train.
Just the other day I read U.S. residents older than 55 are opting for unbleached bathroom paper. Not only is it the correct way to help Mother Earth, it’s also softer and easier on the ole’ bottom. I swear to God I didn’t make this up, although I kinda’ wish I had.
When will the pendulum swing the other way – toward a common-sense compromise?
Maybe it already is. Some companies who have wrapped themselves in green are finding doing so has not seemed to raise their credibility with consumers. Some in the public who walk among us are skeptical of any large organization that board the green bandwagon, particularly those that have little direct contact with the environment.
Although consumers, myself included, may want to accept social responsibility, few want to forgo quality in the products they buy.
To green or not to green?
John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is again calling on lawmakers to expand Medicaid with available federal dollars. Credit Elle Moxley
By ELLE MOXLEY
In Indiana, low-income people can open health savings accounts.
Utah lawmakers are building work participation and co-pays into their Medicaid overhaul.
Iowa will charge a monthly premium – and crack down on the costly practice of using emergency rooms for non-emergency care.
But as other deep-red states agree to expand Medicaid within their borders, Gov. Jay Nixon says Missouri is leaving federal health care dollars on the table.
“I think some people have had a hard time breaking free and understanding that what we can do is mold our own health care system if we’d like,” Nixon told University of Missouri-Kansas City nursing students during a stop in Kansas City Wednesday afternoon. “They think we’re getting one pushed on us by Washington, when in reality on the Medicaid side, this is the best time possible to get reforms.”
Efforts to expand Medicaid have stalled in Missouri’s Republican-controlled Statehouse. Nixon says that means other states are expanding their Medicaid programs with Missouri tax dollars.
If lawmakers don’t agree to expand Medicaid, Nixon says, safety-net hospitals like Truman Medical Centers will be hardest hit because they already serve so many low-income patients who are on Medicaid or uninsured.
Because the Affordable Care Act assumed states would expand Medicaid using federal dollars, payments that have historically helped subsidize the cost of providing care to low-income patients will soon taper off.
“Instead of being the growing health care center it has been for this region for the last 25 years, (Truman Medical Centers) will be constricting their choices dramatically and giving less opportunities for high quality care,” Nixon said.
Nixon, a Democrat, says he’s looking for conservative solutions that could bring Missouri lawmakers to the table.
“Shifting this discussion from ‘what dollars can we receive?’ to ‘how can we use those dollars to inject free market principles, personal responsibility and taxpayer protection in here?’ is another way we can broaden this discussion,” Nixon said.
Elle Moxley is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
MANHATTAN -A grass fire estimated to be in excess of 120-acres in Riley County near the Riley, Geary, Wabaunsee County line occurred on Friday afternoon.
The rural fire chief for Geary County, Garry Berges, said the blaze was down in pasture land where there are a lot of trees. “Also that’s where oil fields are right there along the interstate.” Berges confirmed approximately 15-20 large hay bales burned. A house was threatened but the fire did not reach it. He reported that an electrical problem beside, or at one of the pumps started the grass on fire, and then it spread before anyone knew about it.
Berges noted Geary County had two fire units, two command vehicles, and ten firefighters on the scene battling the blaze. They were called to the scene about 2:30 p.m. He noted wind was a problem, and a portion of the fire was down in a woody ravine area where it was impossible to reach.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — An investment banker and a St. Louis law firm are settling for up to $8.25 million in a lawsuit over bonding for a failed Missouri sweetener factory.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reports a settlement deal filed earlier this week will give investors back more than 80 percent of losses on the plant that never was built.
A class-action lawsuit claimed banker Morgan Keegan and law firm Armstrong Teasdale misled investors, who bought $39 million in bonds to construct a Mamtek artificial sweetener plant in Moberly.
The plant was touted as an economic boon for the north-central Missouri town until Mamtek defaulted on bond payments in 2011.
Morgan Keegan and Armstrong Teasdale denied wrongdoing in the settlement filing.
FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — A Ferguson convenience store that was looted and burned after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown will be rebuilt as a job training center.
