Senator Roy Blunt visited St Joseph Thursday and spoke with local reporters, fielding questions about gas prices, Congressional action and inaction, and Presidential politics.

The Missouri Republican said he’d be surprised if a new farm bill gets passed this year, and said extension of current programs is more likely.

Blunt says the best opportunity for a new measure came out of the so-called “Super Committee” last year. During that effort various agriculture industries agreed to about $23 billion dollars in agriculture funding cuts over the next decade.

“I’m disappointed that that committee couldn’t do any of what it was intended to do,” Blunt said.

“If you couldn’t write a farm bill as part of that super committee structure, my guess is we’ll be extraordinarily lucky to get a long term farm bill done this year.”

Blunt also said he doubts a new transportation bill will make it out of the Congress this year.

He says government in general, and the Senate in particular, have become “very dysfunctional.”

He blasted the Obama Administration for a series of regulations and other government action that he says have held back job creation nationwide and here in Missouri.

“Raise the utility bills, constantly talk about higher taxes, unknown health care costs, and a belief that regulation is going to get worse, because it’s gotten a lot worse over the last two years, why wouldn’t it get a lot worse unless we change course? Those are the kind of things that hold job creators back, and in Missouri we’re not where we were in job creation just a handful of years ago.”

Blunt said US energy policy could be dramatically improved. He called for “common sense” decisions, including buying energy from our friends and neighbors when we can. He says not approving the Keystone oil pipeline expansion in a timely fashion was “just foolish,” and said virtually everybody in the “vast middle of the country” understands that.

“Every other country in the world, looks at its natural resources and the first two words that they think of are ‘economic opportunity.’ Only in the United States do you look at your natural resources, any significant number of leaders and the first two things they think of are ‘environmental hazard,'” Blunt said.

“Whats the worst thing that could possibly happen, and what would happen if that happened every day? Well, nobody else looks at their resources that way, and we shouldn’t either. ”

Blunt believes Republicans in Missouri will come together behind his favored presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney, despite the overwhelming support here for former candidate Senator Rick Santorum, who pulled out of the race earlier this week.

“I think Rick went out with his head held high, and he fought a good fight for the things he believed in, and I also believe it was time to quit,” he said. “I think it’s time to focus on November, and Missouri Republicans, and Independents, and a lot of Democrats in our state are going to want to look for a different direction for the country in the next four years than we’ve had in the last three.”

“Mr Romney will win Missouri, I believe.”

The National Weather Service is predicting another round of spring severe weather this weekend for Northwest Missouri.

The Executive Director of the Midland Empire Red Cross chapter says it’s important to know where you will get weather information.

Kevin Kirby says the best option is a NOAA Weather Radio.

“You can’t depend on the outdoor sirens to alert you for every warning,” Kirby says. “They were meant to alert people who are outside.”

Kirby says a weather radio can wake you up at night when an outdoor siren may not.

Another priority for when severe weather strikes is having a disaster kit.

“We need to be able to take care of our homes and ourselves without power up to three days if our area was impacted,” Kirby says.

Supplies in a disaster kit should include a battery powered radio, flashlights, food, water and medications among other things your family may need.

He says you also need to know where to take shelter.

Kirby says if your inside your home, to get to the lowest level possible. If you are in a vehicle, Kirby says if you can’t get into a sturdy building, to stay in your care in a safe place.

 

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster joined 15 other state attorneys general in a lawsuit filed against Apple and three of the nation’s largest book publishers for allegedly colluding to fix the sales prices of electronic books.

The antitrust lawsuit stems from a two-year investigation into allegations that the publishing companies conspired to raise e-book prices.

For years, retailers sold e-books through a traditional wholesale distribution model, under which retailers – not publishers – set e-books’ sales prices. However, the investigation revealed that Penguin, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan conspired with other publishers and with Apple to artificially raise prices by imposing a distribution model in which the publishers set the prices for bestsellers at $12.99 and $14.99.

To enforce their price-fixing scheme, the publishers and Apple relied on contract terms that forced all e-book outlets to sell their products at the same price. According to the states’ lawsuit, the agreement resulted in e-book customers paying more than $100 million more than they would have.

“These publishing companies conspired to raise the price of e-books,” Koster said. “This conduct was both illegal and fraudulent under Missouri law. When companies compete, consumers benefit from lower prices, and in Missouri we will continue to protect consumers by identifying and stopping this type of anti-competitive behavior.”

The states’ antitrust lawsuit seeks injunctive relief as well as damages for customers who paid the artificially inflated prices. The lawsuit cites the publishers for violating the states’ antitrust laws and the federal Sherman Antitrust Act.

The states have reached an agreement in principle with Harper Collins and Hachette to provide significant consumer restitution as well as injunctive relief.

Koster serves as the national co-chair of the antitrust committee of the National Association of Attorneys General, and is a leading voice for antitrust prosecutions nationally.

Also participating in the lawsuit are: Connecticut, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia.

Governor Nixon’s release of additional education funding will be a shot in the arm for many school districts in Northwest Missouri.

Prompted by a spike in Mega Millions lottery sales, Gov. Nixon on Tuesday made available an additional $6,755,697 for public K-12 and higher education programs in Missouri for the current fiscal year.

Lottery funds help support public education in Missouri.

The amount includes $5 million for local school district transportation programs including more than $44 thousand for the St Joseph School District.

Other districts in Northwest Missouri will also benefit. Here is a list of some Northwest Missouri School Districts provided by the governor’s office, and the amount of extra funding they will receive:
Buchanan R-IV – $3,362
Cameron R-I – $10,263
Clinton Co. R-III – $5,038
East Buchanan C-1 – $3,898
Maysville R-1 – $4,646
Mid-Buchanan R-V – $4,110
North Andrew R-VI – $2,544
Savannah R-III – $11,830
South Holt R-1 – $1,969
St. Joseph – $44,593

The Governor also released $200,000 for the Fine Arts and Scholars academies. The rest will go to a variety of education programs.

This year’s “Pound Plunge” made St Joseph a good deal lighter.

More than two thousand participants lost a total of nearly 12,000 pounds since the competition began in January.

Since its inception seven years ago, the weight-loss contest has been linked to more than 82 thousand lost pounds.

In all, 2,152 people took part in this year’s competition, sponsored by K-Jo 105.5 FM, Heartland Health, and Performance Plus Rehabilitation.

Winning the top community team prize was “Bringing Skinny Back.” Jeff Beck, Lee Beck, Alex Miller and Karen Miller lost 22.78 percent of their team body weight. They each won $200 and a pair of tickets to any beach destination in the United States.

The team from Triumph Foods, Jeff Tigges, Amanda Wilson, Chantel Carrillo and Brent Lambright, won the corporate team prize. As a team, they lost 177 pounds.

This year, organizers recognized individual achievement. Robbie Betts took top honors among the men, while Kellie Osborn was tops among the women.

The Flying Karamazov Brothers are not your father’s wild-haired, juggling, flame-throwing, kilt-and-tutu-wearing performers.

But they’ve played them on TV. They have appeared on television shows including “Late Show with David Letterman,” “Seinfeld,” “Ellen,” “The Tonight Show,” “Today” and “Good Morning America.”

This week they’ll perform in Maryville.

Northwest Missouri State University’s 2011-2012 Encore performance series comes to a close this week with a Flying Karamazov Brothers performance at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in the Mary Linn Auditorium at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts.

The audience is invited to bring objects to the theater for the Flying Karamazov Brothers to keep airborne in a challenge that ends either with a pie in the face or a standing ovation.

Tickets range from $13 to $25. Additionally, Northwest is giving away one free child/student ticket to the show (a $15 value) with the purchase of an adult orchestra ticket between Tuesday, April 10, and Thursday, April 12.

Tickets may be purchased in person at the Student Services Center located on the first floor of the Administration Building or by calling 660.562.1212. Tickets may be purchased with a Bearcat Card.

“I am very excited to be ending the series with such an interactive, high energy and high excitement show,” Director of Campus Activities Angel McAdams Prescott said. “It is very family-friendly show and The Flying Karamazov Brothers are entertainers, so this is not the typical Encore show.”

For more information about The Flying Karamazov Brothers, visit http://www.fkb.com/us/.

St Joseph City Manager J. Bruce Woody announced a department level reorganization from twelve departments to eight.

In a news release, Woody noted four goals.

“The first goal is to reduce the number of directors reporting to the City Manager from twelve to eight to free up time for strategic planning and help prevent the need for an assistant in the City Manager’s office,” Woody said.

 

“The second goal is to increase the span of control of the smaller departments, making better use of existing management through consolidation thus reducing the number of departments. Goal three is to more closely associate positions with related missions, which increases work efficiencies between staff and improves customer service. The last goal is to reduce management positions and therefore reduce expenses in the General Fund.”

The Property Maintenance Department and the Customer Assistance Department will become divisions of the Planning and Community Development Department.

The Human Resources Department and Technology Services Department will become divisions of the Administrative Services Department (currently named the Financial Services Department).

In addition to these changes, the Project Manager position in the City Manager’s office will be eliminated.

Lastly, a position in Parks and Recreation Department is being re-purposed to oversee all recreation programs and facilities.

These changes will be implemented prior to the end of Fiscal Year 2012, which is June 30, 2012, and will result in approximately $131,900.00 in combined salary and benefits savings to the General Fund annually.

A presentation of the reorganization plan was planned for a City Council work session April 11. An ordinance could be placed on first reading next week.

The government predicts food inflation of 2.5 to 3.5-percent this year. That’s lower than the 3.7-percent of 2011 – but according to Bloomberg would be higher than gains in as many as five of the past eight years. Purdue Ag Economist Corinne Alexander says consumers will see additional price gains this year. And if high prices lead to large world crops – she says there won’t be any relief for consumers until later in the year.

USDA releases the latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report this (Tuesday) morning at 7:30 Central time. The average trade guess expects corn inventories on August 31 will be 37-percent lower than a year ago at 715-million bushels. That’s down from last month’s 801-million bushel projection. As for soybeans – the average trade guess is 242-million bushels – down from a March prediction of 275-million.

Courtesy: NAFB News