Articles

The number of traffic stops made by the Columbia Police Department rose 21 percent in the last year, and blacks continued to be more than twice as likely to be searched during a traffic stop as whites.

According to Attorney General Jay Nixon’s report on Missouri traffic stops, released Tuesday, whites were searched in 9 percent of traffic stops by Columbia police, whereas blacks were searched 23 percent of the time. These numbers come from the Police Department after it reported 2003 statistics for Columbia as 8 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

Sam and Brandi Dennis have turned their passion for classic rock music into a family affair.

The couple and their three sons, ages 11 to 22, make up The Family Jam Band, and have appeared on KOMU’s “Pepper and Friends,” at Bear’s Breath Bar and Grill and at the 2004 Boone County Fair.

His students try to trick him into telling them all the time. After all, who wouldn’t want to know whether their teacher had been selected as the next Food Network star?

In mid-February, Brook Harlan, 24, a culinary arts teacher and wrestling coach at Rock Bridge High and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., packed his bags and set off for New York City.

From 1972 to 1974, an anonymous informer known as “Deep Throat” — whom Vanity Fair magazine on Tuesday identified as former FBI second-in-command Mark Felt — helped Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward write a series of newspaper articles that played a large role in ending Richard Nixon’s presidency.

That reporting had a tangible effect on both journalism and the MU School of Journalism, the world’s oldest.

Believe it or not, Columbia might become a superstar among the nation’s metro areas.

The May issue of Expansion Management magazine published a study of “America’s Super Cities of the Future,” which identified cities that are viable for high-tech companies and entrepreneurs. Columbia made the list.

On Tuesday afternoon, 32 boxes of donated nursing textbooks were ready to be shipped halfway around the world, from MU’s Printing Services to the Indian Society of Health Administrators in Bangalore, India.

Collected by Marcia Flesner, a clinical instructor at the MU Sinclair School of Nursing and president of District 7 of the Missouri Nurses Association, the books are intended to help restock the devastated nursing school library at Eastern University of Sri Lanka, which was washed out by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

MU student Mindi Emanuel’s friends and family thought they were getting “punk’d” when she told them she had been chosen for Ashton Kutcher’s new reality show, “Beauty and the Geek.”

“I found out she was on the show when she called me over Christmas break and was like, ‘I’m in California!’ I couldn’t believe it,” said Alissa Voran, Emanuel’s roommate.

A Bank of America branch off Old 63 South was robbed Tuesday afternoon when a man handed a bank teller a note demanding money. Police said that the suspect implied he was carrying a weapon but never showed one and that he fled with an undisclosed amount of money.

Columbia police described the robber as a 30- to 40-year-old, thin, white male, standing between 6 feet 2 and 6 feet 5 inches tall. He was last seen wearing a black windbreaker, an off-white baseball cap with a Nike logo, denim jeans and large-framed sunglasses. Police said he was last seen at a bus stop on Old 63 South.

Blake Tekotte had reason for high hopes entering his senior year.

As a junior quarterback, he set a school record for passing yards and led the Hickman Kewpies to a District 6 football title. In the spring he led the baseball team in batting average, home runs, RBIs and runs scored.

When Bob and Jane Smith moved from Omaha to Columbia four years ago, they brought their love for recreational bicycling with them.

The Smiths had been members of the Omaha Bicycling Club, but there was no group for recreational riders in the Columbia Bicycling Club, even though the club was divided into groups based on the style and speed of riding.

KANSAS CITY — The Kansas City Royals snapped a six-game losing streak by beating the New York Yankees for the second time in 10 tries, and run-starved Zack Greinke (1-6) went five innings for his first win in 15 starts.

It was also the Royals’ first win under new manager Buddy Bell.

KANSAS CITY — Buddy Bell faces a daunting rebuilding project with a team that could be headed for record losses, and he’s promising no quick turnaround for the Kansas City Royals.

The team’s new manager started on Tuesday, with his first game against the New York Yankees. He was given a contract through 2007, even though returning the Royals (13-37) to respectability could take longer.

DENVER — Jason Jennings became the winningest pitcher in Coors Field history on Tuesday night, allowing one run in seven innings to help the Colorado Rockies snap a four-game losing skid with a 2-1 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Dustan Mohr and Todd Greene hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth to give Jennings (3-6) the runs he needed to win his 25th game at Coors, passing Pedro Astacio. With the win, the Rockies snapped Mark Mulder’s seven-game winning streak.

ST. LOUIS — With every appearance, Matt Morris puts distance between an injury-plagued year and the shoulder injury that forced a late beginning to his season.

Morris, who won 15 games with a career-worst 4.72 ERA last year, began this year as the fifth starter. But with a 5-0 record and rotation-best 3.38 ERA heading into today’sstart at Colorado, he’s been closer to the staff ace who had 39 victories in 2001-02.

The developer of proposed 227-home addition outside Ashland failed to persuade the Boone County Commission to approve his plan Tuesday night.

Miller Properties LLC proposed the development, dubbed Shadowridge Estates, for a tract nearly one mile west of Ashland. It asked that the commission rezone 114 agricultural acres for residential and commercial use.