JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri’s elk population is growing, but the state’s conservation agency isn’t quite ready to start issuing hunting permits for the herds.

The Jefferson City News-Tribune reports that the state has about 125 elk after reintroducing the animal to Missouri in 2010.

The Missouri Department of Conservation Department has said it would start issuing a handful of permits if the herd grows to about 200 elk. That target remains several years away based on current reproduction rates.

The number of permits could increase to about 30 annually if the herd grows as large as 400 to 500 elk.

Elk were common in Missouri before European settlement but had been eradicated from the state by the end of the Civil War.

BY REBECCA FRENCH SMITH

On my mantle, there sits an elf. He is not of the “Shelf” variety. He is old, and not because of the curly white beard he wears, which my 5-year-old niece says is “weird” because he doesn’t look like her clean-shaven Elf. No, the bendable wire in his legs and arms has been repositioned year after year ever since I can remember. He has been with me a long time — a Christmas tradition from my childhood.

My elf tradition and more have made their way into our family over time. New ornaments every year, an advent calendar and the hanging of handmade stockings have become part of our Christmas. I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t get away with dropping oranges in those stockings, like I had as a kid, but if the advent calendar isn’t stocked full of candy on December 1, I will hear about it. The kids overlook the occasional inclusion of ribbon candy, but that is more for me.

Apart from the oranges in the stockings and ribbon candy on the coffee table, our Christmas meal has some traditions of its own. Many memories and traditions revolve around food, and certain dishes must make the menu. If they do not, it risks becoming one of those stories told every year, “Do you remember that year we didn’t have Grandma’s noodles?” Whether it’s turkey or roast matters not, as long as those noodles and broccoli casserole are on the table.

The dishes that mean the most have a history, a story to tell and a connection beyond the food. To change the recipe in any fashion is not allowed, nor is skimping or taking shortcuts. Using store-bought noodles instead of scratch, for example, is not a good idea. (Don’t ask how I know; that’s another story.)

As a result, the cooking of the holiday meal involves more thought and planning. I am appreciative of those who provide the ingredients, wherever they farm, because as Santa knows, some of those items don’t grow in December in Missouri, or any other time of year for that matter. Come to think of it, he is the culprit responsible for those oranges in my stocking. Perhaps he understands that we need farmers from many places to enjoy certain foods year-round.

As for new recipes or rituals, we have those from time to time, too. Some stick. Some don’t. Every year, though, I try and sneak in a new dish or dessert. What did we ever do without Pinterest? It certainly makes discovering that next tradition easier — as long as it doesn’t replace my elf or Grandma’s noodles.

Rebecca French Smith, of Columbia, Mo., is a multimedia specialist for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.

By MIKE SHERRY

A business-led group based in Kansas City, Mo., is leading an effort to quadruple Missouri’s lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax and direct the proceeds to early childhood health and education programs.

Organizers of the “Raise Your Hand for Kids” campaign on Friday outlined their plan for a statewide ballot initiative to an audience of about 100 business, education, health and early-childhood leaders at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

The campaign aims to increase Missouri’s cigarette tax from 17 cents to 67 cents a pack.

Campaign leaders estimated the increase would generate $250 million in state proceeds, which they said is about seven times more than Missouri currently spends on early childhood care and education programs.

About a fifth of the tax dollars would return to counties in the Kansas City area, including nearly $31 million to Jackson County.

“This is a huge win for kids,” said Erin Brower, vice president of the Alliance for Childhood Education (ACE), the group spearheading the campaign.

ACE is a coalition of business leaders looking to improve college and workforce readiness among Missouri students. Its board includes executives from a number of Kansas City-area companies, including U.S. Toy Co., Hallmark, and U.S. Engineering.

“Is it going to solve all of our problems? No,” Brower added. “Is it going to give us that seed money to really get these programs going? Yes. We think so.”

ACE hopes to get the cigarette tax increase on the ballot in November 2016. Convenience store owners, who opposed previous, unsuccessful campaigns to increase the tax, have indicated they’re willing to negotiate with campaign leaders.

Under the plan, the state would redistribute the new cigarette tax dollars to counties based on the number of children up to the age of five living in each county. County leaders would then designate the worthiest programs in their area.

Brower said local control was important because of voter mistrust of Jefferson City. But working out how counties will make funding decisions has proven to be one of the thorniest aspects of the plan.

“The more we learn, the harder we know it is going to be,” she said.

Friday’s meeting, designed to get input from local experts, was one of several the campaign has held around the state in recent months.

Leaders hope to wrap up the meetings by February and submit a proposal to state election authorities by May.

Brower said Raise Your Hand for Kids is trying to avoid mistakes that killed proposed tobacco tax increases in 2002, 2006 and 2012.

In general, she said, those efforts failed because voters perceived them as being dominated by urban interests in St. Louis or Kansas City, the laundry list of proposed funding priorities was too hard to digest or the tax increase was seen as too high.

Brower said efforts to keep this campaign simple extended even to discussions about the amount of the proposed tax increase.

“People understand 50 cents – two quarters,” she said. “That is pretty easy to explain.”

Previous efforts to raise the tax ran into opposition from the Missouri Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association.

The association’s executive director, Ron Leone, said in a phone interview that his organization had never rejected a cigarette-tax increase out of hand. He said the association had always said it could support a reasonable increase.

Leone said, however, that he considered a 50-cent increase unreasonable because it erases Missouri’s advantage of having a lower cigarette tax than neighboring states.

He said the two sides might be able to craft a compromise if, for example, the tax-hike campaign lowered the increase as part of a deal that included an excise tax on so-called e-cigarettes, which are growing in popularity.

“We are always open to taking control of our own fates in supporting a tax increase we can all live with,” Leone said.

He said the association would also like assurances that there won’t be additional petition initiatives after the November 2016 election to raise the tax even more.

Some of the comments from the speakers and audience stressed that the tax increase was an investment in a future workforce and a pro-economic-development measure.

Stephen Green, superintendent of Kansas City Public Schools, urged campaigners to focus on the moral and ethical aspects of providing services to children. He also said they should ensure that only high-quality programs receive the tax dollars.

Missouri and Kansas typically rate in the bottom half of surveys of states’ tobacco prevention and cessation programs.

In the 2014 America’s Health Rankings, an annual survey by the United Health Foundation, Missouri ranked 41st in the nation with an adult smoking rate of 22.1 percent. Kansas ranked 31st at 20 percent. The national average is 19 percent.

Brower said research shows that a 250 percent increase in the cigarette tax is a key price point in deterring children from taking up smoking.

Anti-smoking advocates in Kansas have launched their own anti-smoking campaign through a coalition called Kansans for a Healthy Future. Partners include the Kansas Health Foundation and the American Heart Association.

The coalition is not actively seeking an increase in the Kansas cigarette tax. Rather, it’s stressing to lawmakers that pricing strategies are an effective deterrent to smoking, along with clean-indoor-air ordinances and tobacco-prevention programs, said Tracy Russell, tobacco prevention manager with the Kansas chapter of the American Heart Association.

Russell said that polling done last year by the American Cancer Society found that 70 percent of Kansans supported a $1.50 increase to the state cigarette tax.

According to a coalition fact sheet, such an increase would generate an additional $87.5 million in annual cigarette tax receipts.

Russell also noted that the state last raised its cigarette tax in two stages in 2002 and 2003.

“It certainly begs the question of whether it is time to revisit that,” she said.

According to the coalition, youth smoking rates in Kansas dropped from 26 percent to 21 percent after the last increase.

Mike Sherry  is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

By ALEX SMITH
One of the biggest hospitals in the southern part of metropolitan Kansas City is about to get even bigger.

The Olathe City Council this week approved $47.1 million in bonds on behalf of Olathe Medical Center to help finance expansion of the hospital. The project carries an estimated $67 million dollar price tag.

“Projects of this magnitude show the commitment Olathe Medical Center has to this city and this region,” Erin Vader, a spokeswoman for the city, said in a phone interview.

The expansion calls for a 25,000 square foot-cancer center and a 105,000 square-foot patient-room tower for obstetrics and neonatal intensive care. Plans also envision a new entrance, kitchen and dining area.

The hospital, not the city, will be responsible for repaying the bonds.

The first phase of construction is expected to get underway by April.

Olathe Medical Center occupies nearly 250 acres at Interstate 35 and 151st Street. The 300-bed facility treats more than 42,000 patients annually.

In September, the hospital opened a $4.3 million, freestanding inpatient hospice with eight beds. The hospital eventually hopes to expand it to 32 beds.

Alex Smith is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

Prosecutor Robert McCulloch says the records released Saturday were inadvertently not included with documents made public Nov. 24, when a grand jury decided not to charge Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for killing Brown.

Among the newly released records is a transcript of an interview of Brown’s friend Dorian Johnson by the FBI and county police. The interview happened four days after the Aug. 9 confrontation in which the white officer shot the black 18-year-old.

Johnson later testified to the grand jury. A transcript of that testimony was released last month.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – The pilot of a small, private airplane somehow avoided disaster after clipping a southwest Missouri cell phone tower and crashing into a vacant lot on a university campus.

The Springfield News-Leader reports four people were aboard the plane Friday afternoon when it hit the tower and traveled a mile-and-a-half over rush-hour traffic before going down on property owned by Evangel University less than 100 feet from several houses.

A Springfield spokeswoman says two people sustained minor injuries and the other two were unhurt.

KY3 reports the pilot was Bill Perkin, owner of KSPR-TV, while the plane was owned by Integrity Home Care of Springfield.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. Investigators were expected to arrive at the scene Saturday morning.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Gov. Jay Nixon’s administration is seeking to expand college scholarships to Missouri students enrolled in an online university but is facing opposition from some traditional schools.

Nixon helped spearhead the creation of a Missouri branch of Western Governors University, an online institution.

He issued an executive order nearly two years ago directing the Missouri Department of Higher Education to ensure that its students can receive the same financial aid as those at Missouri’s public universities.

The department is pursuing a rule change to make that happen. But it’s being opposed by the Independent Colleges and Universities of Missouri. That group says any change should require a new law, and it’s raising concerns about expanding scholarships too far.

A legislative committee is to hold a hearing Wednesday on the rule change.

MARGERY A. BECK, Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Global consumption of seafood is outpacing wild fish populations, so farmers are turning from roving the world’s waters to aquaculture.

Increasingly, that includes growing fish in large indoor tanks in the Midwest — hundreds of miles from any ocean, bringing the surf to America’s turf.

Experts say fish farming in tanks — or closed containment systems — nearly eliminates fish manure runoff and waste through use of water recirculating and treatment systems. It also eliminates the chance of spreading disease or genetic mutation to wild populations.

And such tank systems can be placed almost anywhere — from Minnesota to Florida — because temperature and water quality can be controlled in an indoor environment.

Recently such operations have popped up in Nebraska and Iowa — typically cattle and corn country.