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Many members of the Missouri National Guard started their trip home on Tuesday. Spc. Karmen Reiss of the 175th Battalion from Fulton, said the group was called off its tasks on Monday and told to prepare for departure. “They called us, said ‘Get your stuff, you’re going home,’” Reiss said.

Fire trucks and fire stations don’t come cheap, so city officials are hoping Columbia taxpayers will agree to help pay for them. Proposition 3, one of six questions the Columbia City Council has placed on the Nov. 8 ballot, would extend the city’s quarter-cent capital-improvement sales tax for three years. It would generate an estimated $15 million.

A judge on Monday upheld the firing of a former Boone County assistant fire chief after the Boone County Fire Protection District voted to terminate him. Circuit Judge Ellen Roper declined to reinstate the former assistant chief, Bruce Piringer. The fire department’s board voted to dismiss Piringer after a closed meeting in June but did not clearly record the vote in the meeting’s minutes. Piringer’s attorneys said he had not been legally fired and asked the judge to give Piringer his job back.

A Columbia teenager was arrested Sunday on suspicion of raping a Centralia woman at her home and threatening the woman’s daughter with a knife. The daughter escaped and flagged down a Centralia police car.

A volunteer task force has been established to promote greater use of Columbia Regional Airport, which has struggled with declining passenger numbers in recent years. The task force will concentrate on marketing the airport’s favorable characteristics and what airport advocates believe are the advantages of flying from Columbia Regional rather than driving to the airports in St. Louis or Kansas City.

Summer unofficially comes to an end tonight when the rock band Wilco plays outside to a sold-out crowd at the last installment of the Ninth Street Summerfest. Between 2,500 and 3,000 people are expected to pay to listen to the Chicago-based band, with others expected to show up outside the barrier to listen for free, said C.K. Hoenes, owner of W.G. Grinders and one of the Summerfest sponsors.

The Harrisburg R-VIII school district could have a football program in its future. When is another issue.

Maddie Callis plans on playing golf her entire life. Golf is not merely a high school activity for her, it is a lifetime sport. “I want to become the most experienced person I can be,” Callis said. “I want to learn in the classroom, but I want to learn outside of it too.”

Lindsey McDaniel is a quick learner. After losing last week to Hickman, the Bruins junior setter realized she, along with the rest of the team, was giving away too many points serving the ball into the net.

Catchers need to be tough. They have to sacrifice their bodies. They need to block the plate to keep that tying run from scoring. They need to be willing to get a few bruises crouching behind the plate, where the action is heavy. Hickman freshman catcher Katlyn Britt does all those things and more.

After a history of vandalism, remakes, and damage from water and the occasional snowplow, the Tiger Spot on Lowry Mall outside Ellis Library is once again in dire need of care and maintenance. A dozen small and large chunks of the 30-foot-diameter glass tile mosaic have vanished, leaving deep scars in the tiger’s face. “We are aware of the damage, and we are looking into what steps to take in order to fix it,” MU spokesman Christian Basi said.

Public school students will be dismissed early from classes because extreme heat is predicted for this afternoon, Columbia Public Schools announced Monday. Here are times for early dismissals:

Kathy Forshee said her life depends on Medicaid. Without the medication the program helps her purchase, Forshee said she probably would have died a year ago from melanoma, as doctors predicted.