Articles

Demonstrators plan to hand out yellow bookmarks printed with the Bill of Rights along with other leaflets at this weekend’s Memorial Day air show after a U.S. District Court ruling described by plaintiffs as a victory for the right to free speech.

“The opportunity for people to exercise their First Amendment rights at this event is going to be much greater,” said Columbia attorney Dan Viets.

For more than two years, Columbia officials, activists and parents have debated whether the city needs a curfew to help keep teenagers out of trouble, particularly during the summer months.

The Columbia City Council and Columbia Police Department strongly support a curfew, which was first proposed by First Ward Councilwoman Almeta Crayton in 1993. But the Columbia branch of the NAACP, which cites staunch opposition among central-city residents, has managed to keep the proposed ordinance off the books.

Here’s what some teens who participate in after-school programs at the Columbia Boys & Girls Club think about the possibility of a citywide curfew.

Columbia is not the only Missouri city that has debated the effectiveness of curfews in recent years. Independence has a curfew ordinance and was featured in a national poll about curfews that was released last year.

The poll, by the National League of Cities, reported that Independence officials think parental ambivalence and lack of enforcement make their curfew ineffective.

Dorothy Thomas said her sister was living paycheck-to-paycheck when rising heating bills prompted her to take out a payday loan.

The loan was attractive because it seemed “easy to borrow at the time,” Thomas said. When her sister’s financial situation worsened, it strained her ability to pay back the loan.

Columbia police discovered a marijuana-growing operation in a northeast Columbia house Sunday after being tipped off by a Columbia woman who said she’d been assaulted by a man who was growing marijuana, Columbia police Capt. Michael Martin said on Monday.

The 21-year-old woman said the man wouldn’t let her leave after she spurned his sexual advances at his home at 1901 Lovejoy Lane, Martin said. She escaped and ran to a neighbor’s house. The neighbor called police to report a trespassing after the woman refused to leave the house.

No matter how eager we all might be to firm up our summer program, we have to admire Mother Nature’s way of playing weather games to let us know who’s boss. I barely get a fistful of new flowers planted before the temperature takes a downward plunge and I have to consider whether to cover my new efforts with plastic. At this writing, I haven’t had any casualties, but this is Missouri and so there’s time for surprises.

Watching chaos unfold in Washington, D.C., during the terrorist scare a couple of weeks ago should have reminded us again about the necessity for maintaining community preparedness. The capacity of people to panic and endanger their lives others in times of crisis, I think, cannot be overstated. We witness this on television time after time during natural and manmade disasters. Still, I don’t notice any advertising campaigns or billboards on the highways stressing the importance of self-discipline in these troubled times when almost anything can happen at any time.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A pipeline break near a Board of Public Utilities electric plant in Kansas City, Kan., early Monday caused a gasoline leak that spilled into the Missouri River.

Don Denney, spokesman for the joint government of Kansas City, Kan., and Wyandotte County, estimated that about 18,750 gallons of gasoline escaped before the leak in a line belonging to Magellan Midstream Partners of Tulsa, Okla., was stopped. He said the break was a couple of thousand feet from the river and the fuel flowed down into the water.

A former leader and subsequent critic of the “Star Wars” space weapons program will be in Columbia this week to talk about patriotism.

Robert M. Bowman’s presentation Thursday is part of a 28-state tour and is sponsored by MU Friends of Peace Studies, Columbia Peace Coalition, Mid-Missouri Peaceworks, Global Action to Prevent War, and Veterans for Peace.

Four people — at least two of them armed with handguns — ran away with nothing to show for their efforts after a Columbia man scared them out of his house by threatening them with a lamp, Boone County Sheriff’s Capt. Gary German said Monday. Boone County sheriff’s deputies arrested one Columbia man, detained two male juveniles and were searching for a third juvenile in connection with the home invasion, which happened about 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the 200 block of West Havens Drive in north-central Boone County, German said. The four men entered the house through an unlocked door ...

ST. LOUIS — A decade ago when the St. Louis Cardinals hired Tony La Russa as their manager, there’s no question he would have lost a popularity contest with Whitey Herzog.

A successful run of five postseason berths and a World Series appearance narrowed the gap. And La Russa caught Herzog, who guided the team to a championship and three pennants in the 1980s, on the franchise victory list Monday night with a 4-2 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

INDIANAPOLIS — A.J. Foyt IV hears people complain he is too young, too raw and too erratic to win in Indy cars.

At one point, they might have been right.