Articles

Some Missourians have bad memories of past attempts to use public pension funds to promote the local economy, but State Treasurer Sarah Steelman is revisiting the idea.

Steelman in mid-June formed the Task Force on Increasing Access to Capital for Missouri Business. At its first meeting this month, the committee split into two subcommittees to study the possible use of retirement and nonretirement funds to invest in Missouri businesses.

BOONVILLE — A judge has given Attorney General Jay Nixon until Wednesday to appeal a decision to move a lawsuit seeking to stop the removal of an old Missouri River bridge that preservationists hope to use for the Katy Trail State Park.

Senior Judge William Kramer, a former Jackson County Circuit Court judge, ruled Friday that the case should be moved from Cooper County, where the bridge crosses the Missouri River, at Boonville to Cole County.

Sen. Kit Bond will visit Columbia Monday to discuss the state’s drought and how to ease its effects. Representatives from the Missouri departments of Natural Resources and Agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute and commodity groups will be present. A roundtable discussion will be held at 10 a.m. in room 171 of MU’s Life Sciences Center.

The Columbia City Council has authorized the condemnation of land, if necessary, to acquire property on the downtown block that includes the Daniel Boone Building. The city wants the property to accommodate a planned expansion of city hall.

City manager Ray Beck is in charge of negotiating with property owners and said the city rarely resorts to condemning land.

It’s midnight and you have a sudden urge to learn a new language. You could search the web and find a site that could teach you a few basic words, but pronunciation is hard to master without hearing someone else say it.

Soon, the Daniel Boone Regional Library will be able to help you.

If members of the University of Missouri System’s governing body want to get a job at the university after their terms end, they will have to wait.

At a meeting Friday in Portageville, the UM Board of Curators on a 5-4 vote approved a rule that prevents board members, members of the Missouri General Assembly and other elected or appointed statewide officials from being employed by the university for at least two years after they leave their government positions.

An engineering program at MU has been sending college students from across the country around the world to experience environmental problems. These engineering students — who traditionally do not study abroad — are also gaining international experience in an increasingly global society.

This year nine students from universities around the United States are participating in the China Environmental Program run by the MU College of Engineering.

Beta Beta Que and the Barbeque Brethern sound like names from an ancient order of food aficionados. But at the Boone County Fair, members from these behemoths of beef met for the battle of the briskets. Competitors at the 14th annual Boone’s Lick Trail BBQ Contest roasted and broiled in the sun all day Friday and until noon Saturday in hopes of being the next grand champion.

The competitors were judged in four categories of meat: pork ribs, pork shoulder, chicken and beef brisket.

Oliver “Tubby” Linsenmeyer of Columbia sucked his thumb while he peered over his mother’s shoulder at the crowd below.

His baby-soft, fluffy hair stood up like a Mohawk, thanks to two cowlicks. Tubby, 5-months-old, sporting white and blue striped overalls, had just been named the winner of the newborn to not yet 1-year-old baby boy contest at the Boone County Fair Friday night.

Mary Ann and Ken Burgen stood in line at 7 a.m. Saturday with hundreds of other breakfast-goers, eager to have their own slice of famous Boone County country-cured ham.

“I look forward to it because you see so many people,” Mary Ann Burgen said. “I’m curious what the hams will sell for. In fact, I want to buy one.”

Three residents braved the heat Saturday to hold signs and show their disdain for Wal-Mart.

“Fair Business Practices NOW,” read one of the signs, referring to the National Organization for Women. Local chapter member Seileach Corleigh organized the rally.

Wearing a striped black and white shirt and with her hair piled on top of her head, Barb Brummet laid down on a mat in the Hearnes Center gym, keeping her focus on her job: refereeing a boys 10-and-under wrestling match for the Show-Me State Games.

“I’m always looking for a match,” she said, pointing to the six mats covering the floor. “I want to make sure this sport is still here in 20 years for my grandchildren.”

Before the start of their match Saturday afternoon, coach Roger Hulett told his players to roll around in the dirt.

“We had just gotten new white jerseys,” said Hulett, who coaches The Wave, an under-10 soccer team from Lake of the Ozarks that participated in Show-Me State Games this weekend.

ST. LOUIS — Derrek Lee matched his career best for home runs with 65 games to spare. Of more concern to him is whether the Chicago Cubs can use the rest of the season to make a playoff run.

“It feels good,” Lee said after hitting his major league-leading 32nd home run in a 6-5 victory Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals. “But it was a huge game for us. We just have to find a way to put it together and keep it together.”

After six days and more than 1,500 miles of racing, MU’s SunTiger VI is in eighth place out of 20 solar cars competing in the North American Solar Challenge.

On Friday SunTiger drove the 74 miles from Joliette, North Dakota to Winnipeg, Manitoba , completing the second leg of the competition.

Kalamazoo Kings manager Fran Riordan speaks well of Taylor Stadium.

His team was 5-0 there this season before Saturday night, having outscored Mid-Missouri 65-20.

KANSAS CITY — Three hits produced a big inning for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Shea Hillenbrand and Eric Hinske each hit two-run doubles in a six-run fifth inning as the Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 9-4 on Saturday night.

Patches of light blue, red and orange dotted the crowd gathered in the top sections of Hearnes Center on Friday evening, awaiting the ceremonial lighting of the torch, officially beginning the 21st annual Show-Me State Games.

“Everybody just tells us we need to come,” said Julie Means, wearing her red Tigers’ Baseball shirt. Along with the team, she and other parents traveled more than 240 miles from Lamar and surrounding towns to attend the games.

I grew up in an age where tanned bodies were beautiful bodies. There was no Surgeon General warning about the effects of the sun, just huge highway billboards with the Coppertone baby baring her white bottom to the world.

All my friends sported deep, dark tans by mid-May. And although I have dark hair (now from a bottle), I have fair skin and could never achieve the desired dark hue. Two reasons come to mind; one I HATE lying in the sun sweating, and two, when I did expose my body to the sun, I’d either burn or freckle. OK, maybe there were three reasons. Did I ever mention that I was pudgy as a youth? The last thing I wanted was to get nearly naked with a bunch of girls who thought a size 8 was fat. So I spent my teenage years lily white, which now I am told is a good thing.