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The Islamic African Relief Agency, based in Khartoum, Sudan, denied Saturday any ties to the Columbia-based Islamic American Relief Agency.

The Islamic American Relief Agency was raided by an FBI–led task force on Oct. 13. On the same day, the assets of both agencies were frozen and the agencies were listed as Specially Designated Global Terrorists by the U.S. Treasury Department. They also were accused of supporting al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, and Hamas.

Two former hippies and a retired little devil dutifully unloaded 10 pounds of Halloween candy on the scale at Dr. Scott Robinson’s orthodontics office. Kelsey and Grady Harrington had braved the rain on Sunday evening sporting Afros, sunglasses and tie-dyed shirts while their younger brother Lucas donned a devil costume to collect hordes of Kit Kats, Reese’s Pieces and Laffy Taffy. The trio — Kelsey, 10, Grady, 11, and Lucas, 8 — decided on Monday to share their bounty with children halfway around the world in Iraq.

“I did it because of where it was going and because I got some money,” Grady Harrington said.

JEFFERSON CITY — The forecast for Election Day: strong voter turnout expected, with chances of lines at some polling places, periods of impatience and prospects for victory too close to call in some races.

Today, Election Day 2004, is upon us at last.

The last time the people of Anthony, Kan., chose a president, Memorial Park was a patch of grass with picnic tables and elm trees but no memorial to speak of. Rising from the earth now is a tribute to the turning point of the past four years — parts of steel beams from the World Trade Center, a block of limestone from the Pentagon, some dirt from a field near Shanksville, Pa.

Osama bin Laden is as common a household name as John Deere. The postal carrier’s son spent eight months in Iraq and might have to return. Wheat farmers at the co-op feel the pinch of soaring diesel costs. And business at the Pride of the Prairie Quilt Shoppe has collapsed as manufacturing layoffs have left customers cutting back.

Counting ballots hours before voting even started: That’s what got four longtime election judges up at 3 this morning.

Retirees Isabell Cochran, Marjorie Koenig, Bette Faddis and Norma Falloon headed to the Harrisburg Christian Church to begin checking the number of ballots against the voter rolls before voters started arriving at 6 a.m. They are four of more than 700 judges in Boone County this year and have among them over 80 years of experience working at the polls.

JEFFERSON CITY— As part of an effort to protect their ticket in Missouri’s race for governor, representatives from both major parties said they have a staff of lawyers and poll watchers ready and on the lookout for dirty tricks this Election Day.

Paul Sloca, spokesman for the Missouri Republican Party, said the GOP has assembled a “rapid-response legal team” of hundreds of party workers, but declined to go into detail about his party’s legal preparations.

Mike Hanauer of Ashland has loved fishing his entire life, but he took up trout fishing just last year after he retired from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services in Jefferson City.

Instead of traveling to the trout streams of southern Missouri, Hanauer only had to drive to Cosmo-Bethel Park in south Columbia.

JEFFERSON CITY — From the ballot box to the election returns on the evening news, the responsibility of counting each Missourian’s vote will fall upon the state’s 114 county clerks and the office of the secre-tary of state.

Individual votes are counted at the county level, where ballots are collected from each polling place and taken to a central location, usually the courthouse or a county government center.

One outcome of this election season for me is that I’ve learned a lot about people in my community. As most everyone knows, I take a lot of pride in being a Missourian. I love being around folks who have grown up close to the soil. I’ve always felt I could find a way to get along with the kind of people who make a creed of common sense.

Somehow, something has sneaked into some people’s thinking that I can’t recognize. We are the kind of people who grew up going to Sunday school. Every year at every church, we did the Christmas pageants, where we dressed up like the wise men and Mary and Joseph and talked a lot about peace on Earth and good will toward men. We learned at home how to say “thank you” and “please” and, in kindergarten, how to play together in harmony. Since then, we’ve worked together, had meals together and shared the same goals for our community.

More than $2 million will be spent to renovate two city buildings to make them compliant with fire and building codes.

The Columbia City Council unanimously approved a $2.3 million renovation plan on Monday for the Howard and Gentry buildings downtown. They also asked the architects to work on detailed specifications for the project.

With 30 cents and an 18-year-old’s idealism, Timothy Kiefer turned Election Day into more than just his first opportunity to participate in democracy; he turned it into a test of his capitalist mettle.

Kiefer has worked for Lakota Coffee Co. for all of a month. He came up with a business idea early Tuesday morning that would result in skyrocketing sales and increased recognition for the coffee kiosk he runs at the Columbia Public Li-brary, which served as a polling place Tuesday.

Sitting behind the wheel of a large, empty bus with five vacant green seats, Daryll Watkins’ wide-eyed reflection shines through a rearview mirror with a small American flag appropriately hung next to it. For Watkins, the drive is work as usual. But today, his destination could help decide the course of a nation.

“I can go to these places and I show up with my mind and body, and I’m pretty good at it,” said Watkins, transportation coordinator for Services for Independent Living. “But I like going to places that my mind, body and heart is into.”

ST.LOUIS- The St. Louis Cardinals, fresh off their World Series loss, have dismissed their hitting coach because of an alcoholism problem, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Mitchell Page, the Cardinals’ hitting coach for 3 1/2 seasons, was informed of the team’s decision Thursday by general manager Walt Jocketty and manager Tony La Russa, according to STLtoday.com, the Web site of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Hickman’s Drew Huckla, at 5 feet, 10 inches and 190 pounds, looks more like a football team’s fullback than a soccer team’s goalkeeper.

Opposing strikers are finding out that Huckla brings the physicality of football to a sport known more for finesse and touch.

KANSAS CITY- On a day dominated by offense, it took a defensive back to settle things.

Indianapolis star Peyton Manning had thrown five touchdown passes when he lofted the ball into Kansas City’s end zone with just under 2 minutes left Sunday. This time, the catch in the end zone belonged to Chiefs safety Greg Wesley, who returned the ball 65 yards to seal Kansas City’s 45-35 victory.

LINCOLN, Neb. – As bad as it played against Nebraska, Missouri’s offense had chances to get back in the game.

With a little more than five minutes left Saturday, the Tigers had their best chance, a first-and-goal at the 8-yard line. Although the offense failed to score, it never would have had those chances without the defense’s continued stout play. The defense again proved itself and highlighted an otherwise disappointing 24-3 loss to the Cornhuskers.

About 50 people showed up at MU’s physics building Thursday to hear a spin on the Bush administration’s science and technology policy.

Mary Good, former undersecretary of technology administration during the Clinton administration, made the case that Americans need to take a good look at the role science plays in the nation — regardless of who wins the presidency Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Kit Bond greeted a crowd of scientists, professors and community members for the opening of the National Center for Soybean Biotechnology at MU on Thursday.

The center is on the second floor of the new Life Sciences Center. Speakers at the opening said they think research done at the center could lead to larger crop yields, new plant-based medicines and domestically manufactured energy sources.

On the fifth floor of the MU Physics Building, a narrow, curved staircase leads to a small room dominated by a large telescope pointed toward the dome ceiling.

This is Laws Observatory, open to the public from 8 to 10 p.m. every Wednesday. Stargazers can browse the exhibit room or look through one of three telescopes on the roof — at least for the near future.