Two are dead and one person was seriously injured in a Saturday car accident near Warrensburg.
The Missouri Highway Patrol said that Joe Jackson-Parks, 18, a football player on the Lincoln University team was a passenger in a vehicle driven by 22 year old Saul E. Solis.
Solis lost control of the vehicle on Saturday morning and the car hit a tree. He and Jackson-Parks died at the scene. Monique Y. Hardy age 22, s passenger in the vehicle was injuries and transported to a hospital in Kansas City.
Two southwest Missouri firefighters have been hospitalized after the fire truck they were in crashed on the way to a fire.
Two firefighters from the Sparta Fire Protection District were in a fire truck headed to a structure fire early Monday when the truck crashed east of Ozark.
The firefighters were hospitalized in Springfield.
State and local officials in Springfield are considering a project that would involve building an interstate loop around the city.
The plan would mean upgrading the U.S. 65 and James River Freeway corridors to create a beltway connecting with Interstate 44. Highway officials say the project would benefit residents and attract new business.
The board of the Ozarks Transportation Organization has endorsed the planned route. The city is now working with the Missouri Department of Transportation to find out what changes are required to gain federal approval for the plan.
Local officials have suggested naming the new route I-244.
(AP) –
Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver says low-income families in the Kansas City area are expected to benefit from $1.1 million in new grants for home repairs.
Cleaver announced the grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Strong Communities Fund.
Central Bank of Kansas City and Kansas City’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department received two grants totaling $1 million to help about 150 low-income families in seven neighborhoods. The money will go toward home repairs, including roof replacements and electrical upgrades.
Another $100,000 will go to Commerce Bank and Truman Heritage Habitat for Humanity for roof replacements in the Mount Washington neighborhood in Independence and neighborhoods in Buckner and Grain Valley.
The money becomes available in January.
(AP) – Gov. Jay Nixon is proposing changes to Missouri’s Bright Flight college scholarship aimed at encouraging top-ranking high school students to remain in the state for college.
Nixon was traveling Monday to Kansas City and Kirksville to discuss possible improvements to the academic scholarship. The Democratic governor told higher education officials in October that he would propose new resources for financial aid and scholarship programs.
Nixon said at that time he was working to enhance Bright Flight to ensure the best students remain in Missouri for college and afterward.
Scholarships are awarded based upon ACT or SAT scores. The Department of Higher Education reports the scholarship is worth $2,500 per award, which is less than the $3,000 authorized by state law.
AP) — A federal judge has denied a motion for a new trial from a north Mississippi company sued by Monsanto Co. for saving seeds from one harvest and planting them the following season.
U.S. District Judge Michael Mills ruled that Mitchell and Eddie Scruggs owe Monsanto Co. $6.3 million damages as a jury found in 2010. Prejudgment interest dating back to 2000 has increased the amount to $8.9 million.
In 2006, as court found Mitchell Scruggs, Eddie Scruggs and their business in Lee County violated Monsanto’s licensing requirements and its patent for use of the company’s seeds.
Monsanto has a policy that prohibits farmers from saving or reusing the seeds once the crop is grown.
Farmers contend there is no patent on the seeds, which are products of nature.
(AP) — A 44-year-old Lenexa police officer has been running a marathon each weekend for nearly a year to raise money for two charities.
Bob Schluben finished his 52nd marathon in 47 weeks on Sunday when he completed the Gobbler Grind marathon in Overland Park . He’s raised almost $30,000 for the Sunflower House in Shawnee and the Surviving Spouse and Family Endowment Fund, also known as SAFE. Sunflower House is a child abuse prevention center, and SAFE raises money to support families of police officers, firefighters and paramedics who die on duty.
Schluben initially promised to run a marathon each weekend, but he did more than one a few weekends, so even though he has done 52, he plans to do five more this year.
BY DENNY BANISTER
Tradition is tradition, often difficult to explain,
We do it because we do it, not to would be insane.
Nationalities, races and religions have traditions they must follow,
Without traditions, traditional times would be meaningless, void and hollow.
Americans each year at Thanksgiving have a traditional Thanksgiving feast,
The traditional meat served is turkey, we don’t feast on just any beast.
How did the turkey gain its place on our traditional Thanksgiving table?
Because that’s what the pilgrims feasted upon according to fact and fable.
Now we’ve all heard how they hunted the bird, but I know the real rendition,
Our forefathers’ gunpowder was damp that day, they were hunting with bad ammunition.
Don’t laugh, you’ll have to prove me wrong, but that’s what I’m here to say,
Our forefathers couldn’t have shot a buck – their buckshot was damp that day.
The men marched forward toward the woods, their ranks had one addition,
They took along an Indian scout, you guessed it – it was tradition.
The women all proudly waved good-bye as their protectors left to go hunting,
Then prepared the table for the feast, trimmed with doily, napkins and bunting.
It’s a good thing women are blessed with women’s intuition,
This first feast had to be done just right or we’d be stuck with unpalatable tradition.
They didn’t know what their pilgrim husbands would bring home for the main dish,
So they fixed foods that would go just as well with partridge, venison or fish.
They created something called dressing made from bread a day old,
They had no intention of starting a fad, they just didn’t want it to mold.
Meanwhile deep in the forest, our hunters were being harassed,
By the Indian scout who mocked their skills – the pilgrims were very embarrassed.
One spotted an elk, took careful aim, pulled back the trigger – CLICK!!
They discovered damp gunpowder would not fire, the realization made them sick.
What could they have for their Thanksgiving feast, on what would they that night sup?
One of the lads said, “Let’s stew our shoes, I’m famished – I’ll gobble it up!!!”
They were in no mood for jokes, and one of the blokes flung his musket into the field,
Just as old Tom Turkey, who heard the “gobble” jumped up – his fate was sealed.
What senses he had were knocked out that day, the turkey was plucked stuffed and roasted,
In exchange for his silence the Indian was fed while the hunters exaggerated and boasted.
They truthfully said they didn’t fire a shot, they had no need for ammunition.
That’s why today we raise turkeys on farms – to shoot them would break with tradition.
The farmers and ranchers of Missouri Farm Bureau want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving,
As to the quality of my poetry, what can I say – it’s a living.
So my poetry isn’t the greatest, I did as good as I could,
I was inspired by one of the very best, but Charles, I’m not nearly Os- Good.
Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, Mo., is a retired broadcaster from Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.
(AP) — Actress Kirstie Alley is performing Tuesday at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce dinner.
The KC Chamber’s Annual Dinner will honor outgoing Chamber Chairman Russ Welsh and incoming Chairwoman Roshann Parris. The chamber also will announce the Kansas Citian of the Year.
The event will be held at the Kansas City Convention Center’s Grand Ballroom. Alley has Kansas roots. The “Cheers” star and “Dancing With the Stars” contestant is a Wichita native who attended Kansas State University.
(AP) — The search for contestants for a “Jeopardy” teenage tournament has made a stop in Kansas City.
A couple dozen teens showed up Saturday at the Sheraton Kansas City Hotel at Crown Center. They’re among 300 youths the TV quiz show is auditioning to find 15 who will make the tournament. Just to reach an audition meant scoring well on an online quiz.
After getting their picture snapped, the teens had less than seven minutes to finish a 50-question “Jeopardy”-style written quiz. That was followed by brief buzzer-beating competitions among three teens at a time, just like on television.
The teens came from Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. Some already knew how they’d spend the $75,000 tournament prize.
