Articles

I started grieving when Rob went to intensive care. Back home, I painted the exterior of our home and did yard work after taking Carol to work — taking breaks to walk around the block with tears dripping down my face. Soon guilt kicked in.

Why hadn’t I left immediately for L.A. when I learned that he was sick? Should I have taken Carol to L.A. to await the end? During many replays of Rob’s early phone calls about his illness, I recalled that he had said that he was having trouble breathing. Shouldn’t that have been enough to jump-start me to L.A.? Father’s Day had been horrible because I kept reminding myself that I wasn’t in L.A. for him. I reviewed his entire life trying to pinpoint where I had gone wrong.

The artist:

Roby Hopkins plays bass in the Columbia band Mile 48, which also features guitarist and singer Scott White and drummer Josh Jaynes. Hopkins, a member of the Missouri National Guard, is stationed in Dugway, Utah, on a security mission.

Title: America Loves Its Dogs

Artist: Eric LaPointe

It started out innocently enough. On a walk one morning, my friend told me she was trying to get up the nerve to throw out some of her worn out clothing she had been keeping in closets all around her house.

“I’ve tried before,” she said, in a confessional tone. “But I end up keeping most of it, thinking I’ll give it one more season.”

Religion has always been a controversial subject; now there is a new forum in which this controversy can be debated. “Faith Under Fire,” Pax TV’s new hour-long debate/talk show series, hosted by atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel, examines not only what religious beliefs people have, but why they have them.

The hour-long series, which began Saturday, features high-profile guests who debate today’s hottest topics in the realm of faith. Guests such as Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, musician Moby and Yehuda Berg, co-director of the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles, discuss their personal beliefs and the impact religion has in the world today.

Inside a large meeting room in a modern Christian church in Columbia, several women and one man arrange folding metal chairs facing inward in a square. Amid laughter and animated chatter, they face each other and open oblong books. The man calls out a number. The singers ripple the book to page 47 and the hymn “Primrose.”

A piercing song leaps from the tongues of those gathered. Twice monthly, the Columbia Shape Note Singers come together to sing music from “The Sacred Harp” songbook at Trinity Presbyterian Church. The group gives voice to Christian hymns in four-part harmony written in “shape-note notation.” It’s music from 18th and 19th century America.

Four Columbia high school seniors received achievement awards in writing from the National Council of Teachers of English.

Hickman seniors Ryan Jarvis, Kenneth Tanand Anita Sadhu, and Rock Bridge senior Joel Fox won the award.

It was a big announcement on short notice. A news release, describing only a “major announcement” at 3 p.m. in Memorial Union, came out at 1:44 p.m. An hour before the meeting came official confirmation of the suspected: Brady Deaton, MU’s interim chancellor, would become the real thing.

On a small stage in the Benton Bingham room, University of Missouri system President Elson Floyd lauded Deaton’s work as provost and interim chancellor. “I had the right candidate for the job, at the right moment, here on the campus,” he said.

Local restaurants might soon be required to serve up records of grease trap cleanings.

In response to a violation issued last month by the state Department of Natural Resources about a backed-up grease trap that caused a raw-sewage spill in Hinkson Creek, the city wants to require food-service establishments to document grease disposal as part of the Health Department’s regular round of inspections.

JEFFERSON CITY — With less than one month remaining before Election Day, local officials said they are having difficulty staffing Missouri’s polling places and fear many positions will go unfilled.

In June, DeForest Soaries, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, said the United States was 500,000 workers shy of the 2 million needed to run November’s election.

He’s the quiet one around the office, but everyone knows he’s there. In the midst of commotion, he helps sort everything out.

Chuck Miller, a Columbia Transit bus dispatcher, has worked for the city since 1982. He began as a building attendant, worked his way up to driver and then earned a spot as a dispatcher.

There were short dogs, tall dogs, big dogs and small dogs.

The frost-covered Saturday morning didn’t deter more than 100 dog-lovers of all ages from showing up for a stroll with their pooches at the 11th annual Dog Jog, hosted by MU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, class of 2006. Each year, the college’s junior class organizes the jog.

The work of Columbia City Manager Ray Beck and his staff reaches into your house with every flush of the toilet, every turn of the spigot.

He has a hand in where and how city streets are built.

Council/manager government

This is the form of government that has been used in Columbia since May 1949. Elected members of the council appoint the city manager, who works full time under their direction, handling the daily affairs of the city.

Ray Beck keeps thoughts about retirement to himself. He hasn’t announced plans to step down from public service, but when he does, the Columbia City Council will be looking at a different field of candidates than those from the 1985 search that ended in Beck’s hiring.

Few of them will have Beck’s training as an engineer and experience as a former public works director. Now, a majority of city managers receive training in public administration, a background that emphasizes building relationships with the council, county and community, said John Nalbandian, professor of public administration at the University of Kansas.

Days after learning it would be playing Rock Bridge in the opening round of the district softball tournament Oct. 7, the Hickman softball team defeated the Bruins 13-7 Friday at Cosmopolitan Park in a primer for next week's showdown.

Senior forward Melissa Peabody scored her first goal of the season, but it wasn’t enough to defeat the 17th-ranked Nebraska on Friday at the Audrey J. Walton Soccer Complex. The Huskers beat the Tigers 2-1 in the second sudden-death overtime to bring the Tigers record to 4-6-1, 1-2 in Big 12 play.

A Columbia online ticket broker has been accused of illegally scalping St. Louis Cardinals post-season baseball tickets.

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon is suing Show-Me Tickets Inc., accusing the company of selling tickets above their face value at sporting events in the state, according to a suit filed Thursday.

The real season begins on Saturday for Missouri and Colorado.

Both teams have had success during nonconference play, but when the Tigers and Buffaloes meet at Memorial Stadium in their Big 12 Conference openers, the success of the previous three games means nothing.

Rock Bridge senior Demond Thorpe said he thinks his team fell short when the Bruins had a chance to prove themselves and gain respect two weeks ago.

The Bruins (3-1) lost 32-14 to the Liberty Blue Jays on Sept. 17.