Gallery

By Yi Gan  ¦   The Columbia Refugee Garden at Broadway Christian Church has between 40 and 50 plots for refugees to grow food.

Friday marked the beginning of Missouri's period for selling fireworks. Vendors' permits will expire July 10.

By Carrie Durkee  ¦   Chronic wasting disease has been discovered in the wild deer population in Macon County, and residents are concerned about how it will affect the hunting industry in the region.

By Robert Swain  ¦   Families enjoyed entertainment and activities and interacted with animals Wednesday at the Family Fun Fest at Flat Branch Park in Columbia.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS  ¦   The summer solstice — the official beginning of summer — arrived at 6:09 p.m. in Columbia and Wednesday is the longest day of the year. Across the country, temperatures rose to near-record highs.

By Yi Gan, Robert Swain  ¦   Summer Welcome, MU's orientation for incoming freshmen and transfer students, has been running each summer since 1969. This year's Summer Welcome includes the largest group of students in the program's history.

An Angus steer that escaped from a pen ran loose through east Columbia and across campus Tuesday morning before it was killed. The animal injured one man.

By Caitlin Jones  ¦   Bennet Fallis plays golf Sunday with his sons Joseph, 10, and Andrew, 7, on Sunday during a Father's Day event at the Country Club of Missouri.

By Caitlin Jones  ¦   Six barbershops fielded teams in the Battle of the Barbershops Basketball Tournament. The Father's Day event was held Sunday in Douglass Park in Columbia.

By Amy Bruer  ¦   Adam Boster hopes events such as Sunday's Fantasy Fair will make the 40-acre property he owns in Kingdom City a year-round family-friendly entertainment destination.

By Amy Bruer  ¦   Students participated in the Missouri High School Rodeo Finals on Saturday at the Boone County Fairgrounds.

By Amy Bruer  ¦   The annual Juneteenth celebration was held at Douglass Park on Saturday afternoon. The event continues Sunday.

By Carrie Durkee  ¦   Roxie Campbell, naturalist, gave a presentation on the nine species of bats that can be found in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park and then led a viewing as the bats emerged from the caves. The presentation included an educational game for children, which mimicked bat's echolocation in a tag game.

By Caitlin Jones  ¦   Harry Potter fans attended a trivia night on Friday at Hickman High School. Ticket sales benefited The Eliminate Project, which raises money toward the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus in Third World countries.

By Yi Gan  ¦   A new subdivision at Route K and Old Plank Road will feature 30 homes built by Habitat for Humanity volunteers and future homeowners. The first, which will be finished in about two months, will be owned by Mohammad Mazban, who moved his family to Columbia from Iraq four years ago. The homes will be built on land donated by Boone County National Bank several years ago.

By Robert Swain  ¦   Stickers with the statement "I wish this was ______" are plastered on an empty storefront on Broadway. The stickers are part of a civic art project to gather community input on downtown development and the future of this vacant store.

Twenty-eight foals have been born during this year's breeding season on Warm Springs Ranch in Boonville. Sixteen of the young horses have the correct physical traits to one day become Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales.

By Yi Gan  ¦   Brooke Wright and Madeline Cuppy, both high school juniors, are competing for the crown in the 2012 Missouri High School Rodeo State Finals Queen Contest. The contest, held at the Boone County Fairgrounds, has multiple areas of competition, including speech, modeling and horsemanship. The winner will be announced Saturday.

By Tatiana Fernandez  ¦   The Columbia Kiwanis Club and the Hickman's Dumbledore's Army Club prepare for Harry Potter trivia night. The event is a fundraiser to help eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus.

By Yi Gan  ¦   Crop insurance adjusters came to Columbia to learn about assessing hail damage. Eighty-five people attended the annual training, which was held at Bradford Research & Extension Center on June 12-13.