The Army Corps of Engineers wants to know how you think they did informing the public about flooding along the Missouri River.
They hope you’ll take the online survey to assess information reports from the Missouri River Joint Information Center. (Click here)
The survey closes Tuesday evening.
Tyler Palko got yanked from the game — and possibly saved his job. He wasn’t making any bold proclamations, though.
Palko shook off two miserable starts and threw for 157 yards and a touchdown even though he was briefly lifted for Kyle Orton, and the Kansas City Chiefs beat Chicago 10-3 Sunday on a day when the Bears lost Matt Forte to a sprained right knee.
“No one likes to get taken out, but at the end of the day, it’s the coach’s decision and you’ve got to roll with the punches,” Palko said. “(Coach Todd Haley) indicated earlier in the week by any means necessary, we need to get a win.”
The Chiefs got one, and their four-game losing streak ended.
The quarterback debate?
Well, that might not be over, but Palko can at least say he made a strong case.
“You have to earn the right to put your hands underneath center,” he said. “If that’s a week-by-week basis, then that’s how it’s going to be. I’m not the coach, and I don’t handle those decisions.”
He might get some more time, considering Orton took just one snap at the start of the second quarter and left the game after injuring his right index finger.
Haley said he doesn’t “really have much to give you” when asked about the injury.
Palko gave him enough, though. He connected with Dexter McCluster on a wild 38-yard pass to end the first half on a ball that got deflected by Brian Urlacher and Chris Conte, giving the Chiefs a 7-3 lead and their first touchdown in three games.
Kansas City (5-7) got a 21-yard field goal from Ryan Succop in the third quarter to make it a seven-point game, and Jon McGraw intercepted struggling backup Caleb Hanie in the end zone in the fourth.
The Chiefs also recorded seven sacks — three by Justin Houston — and intercepted Hanie three times.
The Bears (7-5) dropped their second straight after winning five in a row, but the biggest loss Sunday came in the first quarter.
Forte took a hit to the right knee from Derrick Johnson on a run for no gain deep in Chicago territory with 6 minutes left in the period, another big blow for a team contending in the NFC.
Quarterback Jay Cutler was already out indefinitely after breaking his right thumb against San Diego on Nov. 20, and now Chicago might have to make do without the league’s third-leading rusher.
“It’s not a good feeling when you see your star tailback go down with a knee injury,” coach Lovie Smith said. “Part of the game. We’ll just keep our fingers crossed and hopefully it’s not that serious.”
In the fourth and final year of his rookie contract, Forte has been one of the Bears’ most valuable players. He has also been durable during his career, starting all 60 games since he entered the league in 2008, but that run could be in jeopardy.
Forte stayed on the ground while being examined by medical personnel and walked to the sideline under his own power after that hit to the knee. He remained there for several minutes before heading to the locker room.
Orton, a former Bear, didn’t last long in this one.
On his first play since he was claimed off waivers from Denver, he was hit in the hand by Major Wright as he tossed an incomplete pass.
Palko came back in and wound up completing 17 of 30 passes without an interception. It was a big improvement for a quarterback who got picked off three times in each of his first two starts after Matt Cassel suffered a season-ending hand injury.
“I really thought Tyler did a great job today,” Orton said. “He’s been through a lot. It’s great to see a guy get his chance and take advantage of it.”
Hanie might be blowing his opportunity, though.
“Don’t blame one guy for this loss,” Smith said. “We all had a big say in what happened today.”
Hanie did nothing to quiet the calls for the Bears to go after Donovan McNabb, completing 11 of 24 passes in his second start for Cutler. Besides getting sacked seven times against a team that came in with just 13, he threw three interceptions for the second straight week, and whatever chance the Bears had, basically disappeared when he got picked off in the end zone.
Hanie had completed four straight passes to put the ball on the Chicago 13 after connecting on just one in the second half when Roy Williams juggled a throw. The ball hit off several defenders before a diving McGraw picked it off in the end zone with just over 4 minutes left.
“Obviously, the production wasn’t there,” Hanie said. “Three points is not good enough. I’ve just got to do a better job getting us in the right position and getting the ball to our guys.”
— Associated Press —
A letter from Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is on its way to the Army Corps of Engineers expressing the need to restore a Holt County Levee.
The Governor is calling on the Corps to pay for the entire cost of repair estimated at about four million dollars. Holt County Levee L497, protects roughly 8,000 acre’s of farmland and Forest City. The Corps removed the levee from their program this year.
The Governor says the Corps of Engineers refuse to help the Forest City Levee District with rehabilitation of the levee. The Governor calls that action unjust.
That levee failed during flooding this year caused by record releases from the Gavins Point Dam and a record amount of runoff into upstream Missouri River reservoirs.
The application deadline is quickly approaching for the National Corn Growers Association’s Academic Excellence in Agriculture Scholarship Program. Scholarship applications must be postmarked on or before December 9. Partly sponsored by BASF Corporation, five one-thousand dollar scholarships will be awarded to undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a degree in an agriculture-related field during the 2012-13 school year. Applicants must be entering at least their second undergraduate year or any year of graduate study, and they, or a parent or legal guardian, must be an NCGA member.
NCGA’s Grower Services Action Team Chair Brandon Hunnicutt, believes – this program is important for candidates as it helps fund their ongoing education, but it is also important for the industry as a whole. By helping tomorrow’s leaders further their studies, we proactively create a generation ready to lead agriculture for decades to come.
Scholarship recipients will be selected in early 2012. Recipients and a parent or guardian will enjoy travel and lodging to attend a portion of the 2012 Commodity Classic in Nashville, Tennessee., to be recognized at the NCGA Awards Banquet and have the opportunity to learn more about modern agriculture.
St Joseph’s very expensive sewer improvement and upgrade projects got a shot in the arm Thursday from the agency requiring those improvements.
The EPA has required the city reduce raw sewage discharges into the Missouri River, and now is chipping in a $485,000 grant to help pay for improvements.
The money will help the Whitehead Creek Stormwater Separation Project, one of the nine projects expected to cost about $150 million.
City Manager Bruce Woody says the $485,000 is a “significant number by itself,” and is a “step in the right direction.”
“Certainly we have some frustrations over the long-term expense for our long-term control plan, but in the short term, I’m certainly appreciative of this help from the EPA,” Woody said.
The Whitehead Creek project which will remove stormwater runoff from the existing sewer system, by routing storm runoff around the sewer system and directly into the Missouri River.
The project will include 5,300 feet of pipe, 11 junction boxes and seven manholes. This will reduce combined sewer overflows and pollution discharges to the Missouri River.
The Whitehead Creek project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2014. It could be twenty years or more before all nine projects in the long-term plan are completed.
The man accused of dragging an Elwood police officer across a motel parking lot with his car has been arrested in St Joseph, and is being held pending extradition.
Derek Briggs, 27, of 1110 Mason, was arrested by officers from the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force and the St. Joseph Street Crimes Unit on Wednesday.
Briggs is being held on an unrelated probation violation charge in Buchanan County.
The officer confronted Briggs on Tuesday in the parking lot of the Capri Motel in connection with the investigation into a stolen cell phone.
The officer suffered minor injuries during a scuffle in which he says Briggs briefly took his service weapon. The policeman was treated and released from Heartland Regional Medical Center. Investigators located Briggs at an apartment lat 2704 Monteigne St. on Wednesday and took him into custody. He’s being held without bond in the Buchanan County jail.
Arraignment was scheduled December 2nd for Xavier Johnson of Kansas City and Kasey Hall of St Joseph. Each faces up to 30-years in prison if convicted on felony second-degree murder charges.
A third suspect, the alleged shooter Elijah Pickett, was charged earlier, and was set for a scheduling hearing December 5.
Witnesses say the three men barged into a home near 16th and Jules August 22 and demanded money and keys. They say Ulmer tried to intervene after the suspects threatened his children, and was shot at least twice in the head.
In a news release, Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins commended the St Joseph Police Department, and in particular detectives Paul Gatewood and Scott Coates for “tirelessly pursuing” leads in the case.
Registration is now open for the U.S. Grains Council’s 9th International Marketing Conference and 52nd Annual Membership Meeting to be held February 13-15 in Panama City, Panama. Wendell Shauman, Chairman of the U.S. Grains Council, noters – what better place to review and discuss the dynamics of trade and chart a course for the Council than at the literal crossroads of world trade, the Panama Canal. The Meeting’s theme is “Your Highway to the World.”
Shauman says, – in Panama City, participants will get an insider’s look at the changing flow of world trade that will come with the renovation and expansion of the Panama Canal. Attendees will appreciate an up-close look at the canal and construction progress, as well as plans for the future presented by representatives from the Panama Canal Authority.
Online registration is available through February 3 and hotel reservation can also be made on line at www.grains.org. Organizers emphasize, a valid passport is required for entry into Panama.
The country’s inland navigation system moves more than a billion tons of domestic commerce valued at more than 300-billion dollars per year. This includes about 60 percent of all grain exports. To let candidates for political office know that farmers and their allies are paying attention to their positions on funding for essential lock and dam improvements along the Mississippi River, representatives from commodity organizations, shippers, barge operators and the Waterways Council have decided to move forward in the creation of a structured plan that places an emphasis on expressed goals.
After an organizational meeting, the Waterways Council was selected to lead this new effort. Now, WCI will begin to review an action proposal by former Illinois Congressman Jerry Weller, of the U.S. Strategies Corporation, and Phil Bradshaw, an Illinois farmer. NCGA President Garry Niemeyer believes, – acting together, we can magnify our voices, and thus our effectiveness, exponentially. Achieving our goal is not only important for farmers and shippers, our nation as a whole will benefit from the job creation and shipping efficiencies this project would generate.
Investment in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Waterways has not kept pace with the needs of the transportation sector. The lock system is approaching 80 years old and cannot accommodate modern barging practices that use 1,100 foot barge-tows. Many of the locks are only 600 feet long, forcing barges to use the time-consuming and dangerous double-locking procedure.
The Kansas City area media community is mourning the loss of Don Harman, meteorologist and personality for Fox-4 TV.
A police report says Harman, who had been a meteorologist at WDAF since 1999, died Tuesday evening at his home in Kansas City.
The report said he was found by his wife.
WDAF president and general manager Cheryl McDonald said in a statement Wednesday that Harman was a beloved meteorologist and personality at the station, and that “words cannot express how deeply he will be missed.”
The station’s website said Harman also worked at stations in Iowa and West Virginia before joining WDAF.
He was a funny guy. The station set up a tribute on their website, which you can reach here.
