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Steve Weddle was starting to get a little worried. He and teammate Andrew Schutte were waiting for the third member of their triathlon team, Jordan Alexander, to arrive. Weddle was trying to reach Alexander on his cell phone, but hadn’t gotten through.

So even though Alexander showed up with time to spare, Weddle wasn’t going to let his friend off the hook.

A stout little boy in a bright green shirt trudged out of the woods accompanied by his older sister whose light brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Both were smiling, relieved that the morning was over and lunch was on the way.

Jacob, 9, and Amanda Knerr, 11, woke up at 4:30 a.m. Sunday to make the trip from Columbia to Moberly with one goal in mind: beating their older brothers in the Show-Me State Games 3-D Archery competition.

ST. LOUIS — Neifi Perez hit a grand slam in the 10th inning after Chicago blew a one-run lead with two outs in the ninth, and the Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-4 on Sunday night to take two of three from the NL Central leaders.

David Eckstein’s single off Ryan Dempster (3-3) in the ninth made it 4-4 when Hector Luna slid around a tag at the plate, touching it with his hand.

For Joe Bell, 20, of Columbia, demolition derby racing is a family affair. His father Gary, all of his uncles and even his aunt have had their hand in demolition derbies, so Bell has been around derby cars since he was 6. He hasn’t always enjoyed it though.

“Oh I hated it at first,” Bell said. “My dad had to pull me out there. I thought, why do I want to get out in the heat, with a dirty car and get all beat up? Didn’t sound like fun to me.”

Transportation development districts are popping up around the city and beginning to charge extra sales taxes.

Six existing districts will generate at least $37 million

in additional sales tax revenue over the next 10 to 30 years.

Plans for at least five more TDDs are in the works, and developers could collect tens

of millions more for road projects once they’re in place.

KANSAS CITY — Ted Lilly pitched through the pain in his shoulder to retire the first 11 Kansas City batters.

Then with two out in the fourth, Emil Brown doubled off the Toronto left-hander. By the time Lilly finally recorded the third out, four straight batters had combined to hit for the cycle and the game was tied at 4, getting the Royals on their way to a 6-5 victory Sunday against the Blue Jays in sweltering 96-degree heat.

Transportation development districts are sprouting up in Columbia and could collect more than $50 million in sales taxes over the next few decades.

Transportation development districts, commonly known as TDDs, are governed by state statutes and are authorized to charge sales taxes of up to 1 percent on retail sales made within their boundaries to pay for road projects in the defined areas. TDDs often issue bonds to provide up-front money for transportation projects. Then, they use the tax revenue to pay off the bonds with interest.

After the SunTiger VI team got some much-needed rest Saturday, the MU crew and their solar car hit the road for the final stretch of the 2,500-mile North American Solar Challenge.

The team traveled approximately 355 miles Sunday from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Regina, Saskatchewan, maintaining its eighth-place ranking among the 20 cars left in the competition.

The Unclaimed Property Division of the State Treasurer’s Office has 14 workers trying to find 2 million people who own unclaimed property worth a total of $300 million.

From July 2004 to June 2005, the staff handed back $20.7 million, a record high since the agency was established in 1985.

Kurt Busch kept his poise with NASCAR’s two grizzled veterans pushing hard down the stretch.

Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin were both determined to leave Pocono for good as winners. Instead, Busch spoiled the going away party and kept moving toward another Nextel Cup title.

About 300 people will get free fried chicken, baked beans, salad and cookies Tuesday during the Voluntary Action Center’s Christmas in July at Missouri United Methodist Church. This is the 14th year the picnic will serve low-income families.

Restaurants and grocery stores in Columbia will donate the food. HyVee Food Stores and Gerbes Supermarket in Columbia are donating the chicken, Boone Tavern is donating baked beans, and the Bread Basket Cafe is donating cookies.

Two pizza delivery drivers told police they were robbed at gunpoint in separate incidents in north Columbia on Friday and Saturday nights.

Four men wearing bandanas robbed a 26-year-old delivery driver at about 10:30 p.m. Saturday in the 2800 block of Mexico Gravel Road, Columbia police Sgt. Will Green wrote in a news release.

Kylie Bain stood out on the dirt at shortstop at the Rainbow Softball Complex at Cosmo Park wearing the glove she once used as her motivation.

She was also wearing a knee brace but other than that, watching her play Saturday and Sunday in the Show-Me State Games, you would never know what she has been through the past four months.

The Wildhaber family from Columbia has played miniature golf all over the country, from Atlantic Beach, N.C., to the Grand Canyon. Vickie Wildhaber said that they play every year when they go on vacation.

“The fun thing about mini golf is that each course is different,” Vickie Wildhaber said. “It doesn’t get boring.”

Sharen Speckhals doesn’t like to use a lot of words, in fact, the shorter the phrase the better. Neither her inflection nor her coaching advice really changes, and it is this way on and off the volleyball court.

This becomes apparent after spending time with her and the nine girls that make up the Hermann/New Haven, or HNH, club volleyball team that competed Sunday in the 16-and-under age division at the Show-Me State Games.

Rocheport is like a hot desert ghost town. It hits 95 degrees before noon. The playground at Welbern Park is quiet. You spend 15 minutes standing by the Katy Trail and see only one sweat-soaked biker wheeling by.

Heading north toward Third Street, you pass house after house but not a soul is in sight.

Joe Freeman was pleased that his son Cody’s baseball team, the Lebanon Yellowjackets won the Show-Me State Games’ 16-team 9-and-under baseball championship Sunday at Antimi Fields in Cosmopolitan Park.

But he said he would have been pleased no matter what the outcome was.