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NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken. “I’m not sure I’m going to get out of here alive,” said Canadian tourist Larry Mitzel, who handed a reporter his business card in case he goes missing. “I’m scared of riots. I’m scared of the locals. We might get caught in the crossfire.”

A local transportation planning group has identified nearly $70 million in highway and street improvements it wants to complete within the next three years. The projects, approved by the Coordinating Committee of the Columbia Area Transportation Study Organization as part of its fiscal 2006 Transportation Improvement Program, include 59 transportation projects by five government and nonprofit agencies.

A tractor-trailer carrying explosives sprung a fuel leak Thursday morning on Interstate 70, forcing an emergency crew to drain the remaining fuel. The tractor-trailer was traveling east en route to Alabama when some debris from the road punctured the right fuel tank.

Shoveling dirt is rarely a cause for celebration. Yet Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremonies for the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute brought prominent members of Columbia and MU together to begin construction by doing a bit of shoveling. The shovel was in fact the one used in 1919 to break ground for nearby Neff Hall.

Members of the MU tuition task force anticipate that in the next few years each campus in the University of Missouri System will have its own tuition rate. Called “decoupling,” the idea is being discussed at the same time as Elson Floyd, president of the UM System, is seeking input on guaranteeing tuition rates.

While two MU commuter lots are filling up, a new lot at Reactor Field that cost $1.2 million isn’t getting much use. On Monday morning, about 55 cars occupied the 980-space lot near the Research Reactor Center on Providence Road south of Memorial Stadium.

SLIDELL, La. — The comedy/tragedy mask tattoo on Mike Durand’s right biceps couldn’t be a more appropriate symbol for how he rode out Hurricane Katrina. The tragedy is everywhere in Slidell, particularly along U.S. 11, a route that parallels the shattered Interstate 10 into New Orleans. At first, it’s just downed trees. Then, it’s downed trees that have chrushed cars crashed into buildings. Speedboats sit on restaurant porches and are suspended above the ground, caught between the wall of a pawn shop and some concrete stumps.

The rescue efforts of Task Force I came to an abrupt halt Thursday when armed looters shot at Federal Emergency Management Agency workers. However, the looters did not directly target the Task Force I workers.

A few days ago, Anthony “Tony” Kovall was sitting in class at Columbia College. Today he is being deployed to Louisiana, where he and other members of the Missouri National Guard will assist with Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. Kovall, 19, graduated from Rock Bridge High School in 2004. He and his family lived in Columbia for about 10 years but moved to Madison, Wis., a year ago. Kovall joined the National Guard the summer after his junior year of high school. He graduated in January from six months of training to be a combat medic.

Supplies ran dry at a small, but growing, number of gas stations across the United States on Thursday as Gulf Coast refiners and pipelines remained hobbled by Hurricane Katrina and motorists nervous about tightening supplies lined up to top off their tanks. Most of the stations with “out of gas” signs and yellow caution tape draped across their pumps were concentrated along the East Coast and in Midwest states. Station owners said many of the shortages were temporary, exacerbated by panic buying and delayed deliveries.

Uncertain of their final destination or when they might return, approximately 50 members of the 128th Field Artillery Battalion were making preparations at the National Guard Armory north of Columbia on Thursday to leave for the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. “I don’t know exactly where we are going or when we are leaving,” 1st Lt. Farron Fitzpatrick said on Thursday afternoon. “The mission is changing by the hour.”

Lax ticket sales leading up to Saturday’s season-opening football game between Missouri and Arkansas State could make one of the most intense stadiums in the National Football League feel like a ghost town when the teams take the field at 11 a.m. Saturday. According to Dean Lee, athletic director at Arkansas State, the game’s host, ticket sales were resting right around 21,000 as of Thursday afternoon, less than 48 hours before the teams are set to meet. The figure is well below the Tigers’ average attendance from a year ago, 59.570 and almost 40,000 less than when the teams met last season in Columbia.

A kid without a field. That’s what Adam Crossett was 15 years ago, when he would strap on his plastic helmet and pull on his tiny red jersey with the tiny white number, and tear through his Liberty neighborhood on Halloween, pretending he was one of those players that played every Sunday a few miles down the road.

Students from three New Orleans universities have begun taking classes at MU and the University of Missouri-St. Louis. At least seven other institutions across Missouri are gearing up for additional enrollment as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Ann Korschgen, vice president for enrollment management at MU, said 10 students have already enrolled as undergraduates. The university has received at least 35 undergraduate inquiries as well as inquiries from students considering the university’s professional schools, she said.

A year ago a Rock Bridge sophomore quarterback made his varsity debut against Marshall. Logan Gray threw two interceptions but managed to lead the Bruins to a 7-0 victory. Since that game, a lot has changed for Gray. After that game, Gray blossomed in his first varsity season, throwing for 2,029 yards and leading Rock Bridge to a 6-4 record. His impressive season has made major programs such as Georgia, Iowa and Missouri take notice. Rock Bridge coach A.J. Ofodile said Gray is a completely different player since that first game.

10. The Arkansas State student union is home to “Clyde”, a 1,000-pound statue of a Native American chief carved in marble. 9. Until 1970, freshmen wore beanies and it became tradition for freshmen to tip their beanies as they passed Clyde.

Frantically filling out paperwork Thursday evening, Pat Chavez of the American Red Cross directed church members where to put snacks in anticipation of scores of refugees fleeing Hurricane Katrina. “I’d be a nervous wreck if I had to stay in a shelter,” she said.