Astronauts are taking the Olympic Torch where no torch has ever gone. The torch bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics is on a space walk.  (The walk ended earlier Saturday)

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Missouri Farm Bureau has long had policy opposing the Affordable Health Care Act. A recent conversation brought home to me just how important and correct that policy is. A county leader called to tell me about her situation and how Obamacare has affected her family. Like most farmers, her family depends upon the individual insurance market for their policy, and like millions of other Americans, they’ve just received a cancellation notice. Because they’re the kind of people who actually live out the values of self-reliance and individual initiative so many people talk about, she was profoundly upset that her family qualified for subsidies on the government exchanges. “We can afford to pay for our own care!” she said, but also pointed out that giving subsidies to those who can care for themselves will lead to even more dependency on the federal government.

I imagine she’s something of an outlier and most Americans will gladly accept those subsidies. I congratulate her and her family on their insistence on paying their own way, and I hope that kind of independence is rekindled by the nationwide disgust with the roll out of our country’s new healthcare plan. The combination of subsidies, mandates and regulations is, as Tom T. Hall once said, “a perfect example of a negatory romance.” We’ve had a long love affair with complicated and expensive government programs, but this may end our belief in a free lunch courtesy of Washington, D.C. As one disappointed Obamacare voter pointed out: “I was in favor of the health care plan, but I didn’t realize that I would have to help pay for other people’s health care!”

So far, most of the cancellations have taken place in the individual market, and the President’s press secretary is at pains to point out that “only” 14 million people are involved in the individual market. Fourteen million seems like a big number to me. That would be everybody in Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa. Of course, since the business mandate was waived for a year, we’ll have another wave of cancellations next year. I’ve seen estimates as high as 96 million people losing their insurance policies, but nobody really knows because we don’t know what will happen to rates as Obamacare stutters into existence. One thing is sure: No group may be harmed more than farmers, because most of us don’t have employer-provided coverage and we depend upon the private market for insurance.

We have many problems in our health care markets; reforms that help control costs and provide wider coverage are desperately needed. Obamacare is not that reform. As our Farm Bureau delegates realized years ago, health insurance is complicated. It takes a special kind of arrogance to think the federal government could solve the problem in just three years with a massive, unwieldy and poorly thought out piece of legislation. We do need to go back to the drawing board, be more modest in our goals and legislate common sense reforms that acknowledge most people can take care of their health insurance without government subsidies or interference.

Blake Hurst, of Westboro, Mo., is the president of Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.
– See more at: http://www.mofb.org/NewsMedia/CuttotheChase.aspx?articleID=413#sthash.GWQZCjdX.dpuf

An assistant Missouri attorney general has been appointed as a special prosecutor as the state considers whether to re-try a Columbia man for the 2001 slaying of a sports editor.

Boone County Prosecutor Dan Knight said Friday that he had a conflict of interest in Ryan Ferguson’s case. He noted that an appeals court decision overturning Ferguson’s conviction cited the actions of an investigator for the prosecutor’s office.

Ferguson was convicted of murder and robbery in the slaying of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt. But an appeals court ruled Tuesday that the prosecution had wrongly withheld evidence from defense attorneys and said Ferguson did not get a fair trial.

(AP) A coalition backing a Missouri income tax cut has put forward a potential ballot initiative limiting state tax credits.

Grow Missouri says it filed two initiatives Friday with the secretary of state’s office that would amend the Missouri Constitution to curb tax credits.

One plan would impose a $200 million annual cap on tax credits; the other would ban all new tax credits upon voter approval of the amendment on the November 2014 ballot. If the state nonetheless exceeds the tax credit caps, the proposals would trigger an automatic reduction in the state’s income tax rate.

The treasurer for Grow Missouri says the group plans to file additional ballot initiatives in the coming weeks that would reduce Missouri’s income tax rates for businesses and individuals.

(AP) The Missouri Supreme Court is imposing a new fee on attorneys to help provide legal aid to low-income residents in civil court cases.

The court said Friday that it had approved an additional $30 annual fee to be paid by lawyers starting in 2014. The fee is expected to generate at least $750,000.

Missouri’s legal services fund helps pay for attorneys to aid people in civil cases such as child-custody disputes, protective orders, home foreclosures and bankruptcy cases.

The Supreme Court says the fee increase will help offset a recent cut in federal funding for low-income legal services.

Missouri’s four regional legal aid programs also receive funding from a state fee charged on the filing of civil and criminal court cases.

(AP)  Motorboats, horseback riding and river access would be restricted in some areas of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways under a new draft management plan.

The riverways is under the direction of the National Park Service, providing oversight for sections of the Jacks Fork and Current rivers, along with creeks and streams near those rivers. The public has 60 days to comment on the plan, which was released Friday.

An estimated 1.3 million visitors come to the area to canoe and kayak, fish and camp.

The draft plan includes three different alternatives, with varying levels of restrictions, along with a no-action proposal. The park service is backing the middle-of-the-road alternative, which would add a small learning center near the town of Eminence and more trails.

The Missouri Department of Labor announced Friday the state minimum wage rate for 2014 has been established, according to state law, at $7.50, effective January 1.

All businesses are required to pay at minimum, the $7.50 hourly rate, except retail and service businesses whose annual gross sales are less than $500,000. Per state law, the minimum wage rate is calculated once a year and may increase or decrease based on the cost of living as measured by the previous year’s Consumer Price Index. Missouri law does not allow the state’s minimum wage rate to be lower than the federal minimum wage rate.

Compensation for tipped employees must also total at least $7.50 per hour. Employers are required to pay tipped employees at least 50 percent of the minimum wage, or the amount necessary to bring the employee’s total compensation to a minimum of $7.50 per hour.

 (AP) — This year’s corn crop is the largest the nation has ever seen, and exceeds earlier government projections.

In its first report since the government shutdown, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday it expects 13.99 billion bushels of corn. It had forecast 13.8 billion bushels. The previous record was 13.1 billion in 2009.

Heavy rains delayed spring planting and drought conditions returned to parts of the Midwest. Some analysts thought there would be a subpar harvest.

But adequate rain and cooler temperatures at pollination time produced exceptional results, especially in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

Prices dropped below $4.20 a bushel Friday, the lowest since 2010.

That means some farmers see lower profits, but chicken, pork, and beef producers will have lower feed costs. Grocery prices won’t be impacted.

(AP)  Former Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White has been nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court.

White’s nomination Thursday by President Barack Obama marks a third chance for him to become a federal judge.

White was twice nominated by President Bill Clinton for a federal judgeship in the 1990s. But the Senate rejected White’s nomination after it was opposed by then-U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft of Missouri.

White later testified against the nomination of Ashcroft to become U.S. attorney general.

White served on the Missouri Supreme Court from 1995 to 2007. Since then, he has worked as an attorney in private practice in St. Louis.

Obama nominated White to replace Jean Hamilton, who retired as federal judge in the Eastern District of Missouri.