On his facebook page Tuesday, Congressman Sam Graves encouraged U.S. Senators to take action.

“It has been almost a week since the House passed legislation to fund cancer research at the National Institutes of Health. 25 Democrats joined us in voting for this bill. Yet the Senate has yet to act on this or any of the bills we’ve passed to fund critical services. It’s time for the Senate to vote.”

“I have long been a supporter of the Head Start program because of its core mission of helping disadvantaged children prepare for entry into school and a lifetime of learning. Today, the House voted to fund Head Start so families who rely on the program are still served. Will the Senate join us by passing this bill?”

(AP) — A Jefferson County Democrat says she plans to seek her party’s nomination in Missouri’s 8th Congressional District election next year.

DeSoto resident Barbara Stocker will formally announce her candidacy on Wednesday morning at the Cape Girardeau federal courthouse. Stocker is a retired biochemist who worked at the former Ralston Purina Company as well as the Monsanto Company in the St. Louis area. She calls herself a “kind-hearted old lady who wants to make government work again.”

Salem Republican Rep. Jason Smith won a special election in June and plans to seek re-election in 2014. He is finishing the unexpired term of Jo Ann Emerson, who resigned.

Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is also considering the congressional race after unsuccessfully seeking to replace Emerson.

(AP) — The Sierra Club says Kansas environmental regulators are not enforcing an odor control provision in a permit for Eastern Kansas based Seaboard Food Inc.’s hog feeding operation in Greeley County.

At issue is the way Seaboard calculates water levels in lagoons used to treat manure for odor control. Its Ladder Creek facility has a capacity for 132,000 mature hogs.

The environmental group on Tuesday criticized the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for finding after an investigation that Seaboard met requirements based on head counts. The complaint filed in August is the third one it has filed.

KDHE says its secretary determined it would be a poor use of scarce fresh water to maintain full pools when the facility was not operating at full capacity.

(AP) College students may turn to the statewide ballot to try to win a greater say in decisions at Missouri’s public universities.

A proposed ballot initiative made public Tuesday would give a vote to students who sit on the governing boards of public universities. Those student representatives currently can attend meetings and participate in discussions but don’t get to vote on matters.

The initiative petition was filed by St. Louis attorney Brad Ketcher. He declined to identify his clients. But Ketcher said students should get a vote on university decisions because they are bearing an increasing amount of the costs through tuition and fee increases.

Then-Gov. Matt Blunt vetoed a bill in 2008 that could have given a vote to a student on the University of Missouri Board of Curators.

The city of Independence plans to replace the Pioneer Woman statue that was stolen from the National Frontier Trails Museum but it will be in a slightly different form and placed in a more secure spot.

The original life-size statue of a woman holding a baby in one arm and a bucket in another was stolen from the museum in June. Three people were charged after they tried to sell what appeared to be remnants of the statue to a Kansas City recycling company, police said.

The city of Independence, which operates the National Frontier Trails Museum, needs to address security and other concerns before the statue is returned to the site, said Tourism Director Cori Day.

The new statue will be placed in a different spot, because the thieves were able to load the old statue into a car from where it stood near the museum, Day said.

It’s likely the new statue won’t be unveiled until next summer, Day said, in part because the museum is undergoing a renovation and expansion project.

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AP) – A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner says President Barack Obama has called the speaker to say he still won’t negotiate on ending the partial government shutdown or raising the nation’s debt limit.

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck says the call took place Tuesday morning.

The call came as a partial shutdown of the government enters its second week with no sign of ending.

Boehner says he is willing to negotiate budget issues with President Barack Obama without any conditions. But Obama says it’s Congress’ responsibility to pay its bills and that negotiating on these issues would set a dangerous precedent.

The new leader of the University of Missouri Press says his top priority will be to get the organization’s finances in order, partly by publishing more science titles.

David Rosenbaum starts Nov. 1 as director of the academic publishing house, which nearly shut down last year. University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe wanted to close the organization but reversed that decision after it was harshly criticized by the publishing community and dozens of authors threatened to sue to return their publishing rights.

Getting the organization’s finances in order will be a challenge, Rosenbaum said.

“I don’t think anybody believes that, financially, the press is as stable as it ought to be,” he said. “Stabilizing the financial situation is a pretty important first step.”

Although he intends to maintain the Press’ core of arts and humanities titles, Rosenbaum said he wants to expand publishing into sciences and other professions.

“I think looking for titles in those areas and narrowing the focus of the editorial program are keys ways in which this operation can get more bang out of its marketing dollars,” said Rosenbaum, who said releasing more titles that mirror the university’s mission will raise the operation’s profile.

Before being hired at the Press, Rosenbaum was director of product development and project management for the American Heart Association, senior acquisitions editor at Elsevier, senior acquisitions editor at Delmar Cengage Learning and senior publisher and production manager at the Iowa State Press.

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(AP) — The 2.3-million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is allowing its 6,200 individual congregations to decide for themselves whether to sponsor troops with the Boy Scouts of America.

Missouri Synod President Matthew C. Harrison released a letter on Monday advising congregations to make their own decisions. The letter followed the Boy Scouts of America announcement in May on a change of policy to admit gay youth to scouting programs.

Harrison said in the letter that the church had signed an agreement with the Boy Scouts allowing the church to remove from troops boys who advocate what the Synod calls “a moral view that is inconsistent with the church.”

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is based in St. Louis.

(AP) — Authorities say the death of a 5-year-old southeast Missouri boy appears to be a tragic accident.

Rescue workers found the body of Devonte Dye Monday in a slough near his grandparents’ home in Qulin.

Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs says the boy was last seen playing Sunday afternoon near the old St. Francis River channel about 50 feet behind his grandparents’ home. Dobbs says the county coroner believes the boy likely died on Sunday.

Local, county and state rescuers searched for the boy most of Sunday, with the help of as many as 200 volunteers.

The the search was called off late Sunday and the boy’s body was recovered shortly after it resumed on Monday.

Authorities say the body of a 5-year-old southeast Missouri boy has been found in the St. Francis River.

Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs says searchers found the body of Devonte Dye Monday morning after a search that began Sunday afternoon near Quilin.

Butler County, Dunklin County and the Missouri State Highway Patrol took part in the search. About 200 to 300 volunteers also showed up Sunday to help.

Further details were not immediately available.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is warning the public about a salmonella outbreak traced to Foster Farms chicken.
The agency said nearly 280 illnesses in 18 states had been traced to raw poultry from three Foster Farms facilities in California.The company said it is not issuing a recall. But the USDA said the suspect packages have one of these establishment numbers — P6137, P6137A or P7632 — inside the USDA mark of inspection. No illness has been reported in Missouri or Kansas.

The chicken was distributed mainly to stores in Oregon, Washington and California. The USDA said most of those sickened live in California.

Foster Farms said in a statement that it had bolstered food safety practices at the three plants in central California.

“We deeply regret any foodborne illness that may be associated with any of our products,” Ron Foster, Foster Farms president said in a statement. “We are committed to ensuring the safety of our products, and our family owned company has maintained an excellent food safety record during its 80-year history.”

Salmonella, like other foodborne bacteria, can cause a range of gastrointestional symptoms, including cramps, diarrhea and fever within eight to 72 hours after consumption. It can also be deadly.

The USDA allows producers to sell raw poultry with a nearly 10 percent incidence rate of salmonella. Foster Farms says it’s always met that standard.