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At practice a week ago, Missouri players each received a 3- by 5-inch note card listing two things they needed to improve upon from the Sept. 6 Ball State game.

Junior defensive tackle Atiyyah Ellison’s card read, No. 1: Improve pass rush; No. 2: Force a turnover.

Kristen Hoffman, a kindergarten teacher at Thomas Benton Elementary School, spent her summer preparing for the upcoming school year at yard sales, retail store sales and sometimes behind the sewing machine.

Hoffman is like many teachers who pay out of pocket for classroom extras.

Although there are 472 Neighborhood Watch groups in Columbia, it’s hard to tell which ones are active anymore. The constant movement of people in and out of residential areas complicates the alliance between police and residents that forms the backbone of the crime-prevention effort.

That’s why Neighborhood Watch board president Richard Poelling wants to begin a second revitalization campaign this fall, with a series of eight meetings beginning Nov. 13 and ending in May 2005.

The U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services says 2,879 Liberian immigrants came to the United States in 2002, the year for which most recent statistics are available. Brewer is one of a handful of Liberians — nobody is keeping count — who live in central Missouri.

After Ball State blocked a Missouri punt in the Tigers’ second game, coach Gary Pinkel called it an indictment against him.

If special teams mistakes are an indictment against the coach, then Eastern Illinois coach Bob Spoo could be indicted on three counts of special teams blunders.

He is not pacing the court at Hearnes Center anymore, but Norm Stewart is doing his share of coaching.

More than a tournament title was at stake for Rock Bridge in Saturday afternoon’s championship game against Warrenton.

“We just knew we had to win it,” Bruins senior Ashley Selby said. “We had to keep our trophy here. (Coach Vicki Reimler) never really said it, like we didn’t go out to see the trophy case this year, but we knew we had to do it.”

By the time Cedric Alvis turned around to chase Park Hill South wide receiver R.J. Lawson as he sprinted for the end zone, Alvis had determined he wasn’t about to get beat again.

Solid defense in the second half helped the Hickman Kewpies defeat the Park Hill South Panthers 31-20 on Friday night at Preston Field in Kansas City.

It must have seemed like a truck hit Moberly. In this case it was a van – Van Alexander.

Alexander led Rock Bridge past Moberly 37-13 on Friday night at Rock Bridge Field.

Rock Bridge showed it can dominate more than Missouri tennis.

The Bruins, the defending state champions, defeated Blue Valley North, the defending Kansas state champion, 8-1 on Friday. The Bruins also defeated Joplin 9-0 at Bethel Park as part of the Missouri-Kansas Border War.

Missouri has had a successful start to its tennis season.

The Tigers won nine of 14 matches Saturday and seven of nine Friday in the Mizzou Four-Way Tournament at the Green Tennis Center.

KANSAS CITY — Missouri Athletic Director Mike Alden said Thursday he was embarrassed and “ticked off” over controversy surrounding the university’s basketball program, but disputed reports of a rift between him and coach Quin Snyder.

In a speech before the Tiger Club of Kansas City, Alden said investigations that began after basketball player Ricky Clemons was charged with assaulting his then-girlfriend in January have “consumed” the athletic department for months.

Thousands of football fans rushing to MU’s home opener Saturday against Eastern Illinois University should have no trouble parking at fraternities, sororities or downtown churches.

Although a city law bars nonprofit organizations from leasing parking spots on their properties, neither the Columbia nor MU police departments plan to enforce the ordinance.

State Farm Insurance has had a home in Columbia for nearly half a century. The nation’s largest insurer, which opened its first office in Columbia in 1956, now employs 785 people at the company’s Missouri operations center at 4700 South Providence Road. But State Farm’s future in Columbia is suddenly uncertain. The company has initiated a “top to bottom” examination of its operations in three states, including Missouri.

Two years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Columbia residents commemorated the tragedy with two separate events Thursday.

In a morning ceremony at the Boone County Courthouse, people honored Columbia rescue workers who traveled to ground zero in the days after the attacks. An evening rally at Peace Park, sponsored by the Columbia Peace Coalition, mourned the victims of Sept. 11 but also carried a more political message.

Gary Pinkel’s memory serves him well. That’s why he isn’t sleeping well this week.

Pinkel knows all too well how easily an NCAA Division I-AA team can sneak up on a Division I team, and as he prepares for Missouri’s home opener against Eastern Illinois on Saturday, he has good reason to be nervous.

In 30 days the Boone County Sheriff’s Department could begin issuing right-to-conceal handgun permits for the first time since the 19th century.

On Thursday, the Missouri Senate voted to override Gov. Bob Holden’s veto of legislation that will allow Missourians to carry a concealed handgun.

Once a month, Dean Larrick takes time from his busy schedule and drives to Rocheport to deliver food to low-income seniors with no means of transportation.

The food, mostly canned goods, frozen food and a few fresh vegetables, all comes from the Central Missouri Food Bank Pantry, and Larrick ensures it gets to the right people.

It should be closer than last year.

Tonight’s game at Rock Bridge between the Bruins and Moberly almost has to be closer than the 76-0 pounding Rock Bridge put on Moberly last year.

Thursday’s vote by the Missouri Senate to override Gov. Holden’s veto of a bill that requires 24-hour waiting periods for abortions drew opposite reactions from Columbia’s pro-life and pro-choice camps.

The new law, which will go into effect Oct. 11, will also require women to discuss with a doctor the physical, psychological and situational risk factors of the procedure before an abortion can be performed.