News

Homeowners refinancing to cash in on low interest rates this summer unwittingly have bailed Boone County out of a sluggish year in sales tax and investment income, all thanks to fees collected by the Recorder of Deeds’ office.

Think of it as a bonus, County Auditor June Pitchford said. The income, expected to total nearly $1 million, is almost twice what the county expected from Recorder Bettie Johnson’s office when the fiscal year began in January.

A new law allowing Missouri citizens to carry concealed weapons is only a few days old, but Boone County Sheriff Ted Boehm is already worried that his department might not be able to handle the additional duties.

“I think there is a lot for us to do,” Boehm said. “I know our role is going to take more work than issuing the permits.”

When diagnosed with a chronic disease such as diabetes, most people wouldn’t think twice about scheduling regular doctor’s appointments. But the federal government is reminding people today that the best way to combat these diseases is to visit the doctor — even in times of good health.

“Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day,” a program that began two years ago, is being celebrated nationally today. The event is directed toward minority populations. A report by the Missouri Hospital Association shows that minorities have a higher rate of certain chronic diseases and as a result tend to have lower life expectancies than the rest of the population.

The Columbia City Council approved the final annual budget for the 2004 fiscal year on Monday night.

The budget of about $236 million is a 3.3 percent increase over the city’s 2003 amended budget.

Sitting on the counter at Main Squeeze, a natural foods restaurant on Ninth Street, is a petition calling for an end to junk food in public school vending machines.

Leigh Lockhart, owner of Main Squeeze, said that since she displayed the petition started by a Columbia group many people have signed. She thinks allowing the sale of junk food in schools contributes to the growing problem of Americans’ obesity.

A pilot literacy project sponsored by the Columbia branch of the American Association of University Women will be unveiled tonight at Field Elementary School.

The new curriculum, spotlighting the lives of 10 Missouri women, is being prepared by freelance author Carlynn Trout of Columbia.

A small herd of cattle grazes in the pasture north of Brown School Road and a stone’s throw from a farmhouse that sits at the end of a winding driveway. Steep ditches, not shoulders, line either side of the gently sloping two-lane county road, and the stop sign atop the hill catches unsuspecting drivers off guard.

The oasis of country living, however, is now part of the city of Columbia, a target for the kind of growth that has transformed the northern fringes of the city over the past several years. At its Sept. 2 meeting, the Columbia City Council annexed and rezoned the 86-acre property, between Shalimar Gardens on the east and Crestwood Hills on the west. Owned by Forrest and Elizabeth Sappington, the land will be developed by PGS Development LLC. Plans call for as many as 150 single-family homes and 66 duplexes.

In her third month leading the Columbia Public School District, Superintendent Phyllis Chase still has some empty bookcases and piles of papers and books on her desk. Busy as she is, she doesn’t have time to notice.

Fresh off two weeks of answering questions about newly released Missouri Assessment Program test results and less positive No Child Left Behind Act statistics, Chase stressed the importance of accountability.

This is the time of year when I once envied football fans. I thought it was pretty wonderful that they could so casually shrug off the cares of the world around them and throw themselves whole-heartedly into a sports contest. It seemed to me that it was a grand thing to be in such superb control of one’s emotions that they could be shifted to and fro at will.

Chronic disease is the leading killer of Missourians older than 35, and blacks exhibit a much higher risk of suffering from some of these diseases.

The Missouri Hospital Association, in a report released last week, said chronic diseases — including heart disease, diabetes and cancer — accounted for 64 percent of deaths in Missouri in 2001.

BOONVILLE — A forest green shroud flapped in the light September breeze. The stern lines of a bronze sculpture could just barely be made out beneath the cloak.

Columbia officials are considering two steps to save money and reduce the environmental impact of government vehicles: switching to B-20 biodiesel fuel and buying up to three hybrid cars.

Both measures are included in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2004, which is up for final approval by the Columbia City Council on Monday night.

After two weeks and one meeting between both sides, neighbors and developers remain at odds over the proposed 53-acre Grindstone Plaza project, which is scheduled for a public hearing and vote by the Columbia City Council on Monday night.

Members of the Grindstone-Rock Quarry Road Neighborhood Association and representatives of Aspen Acquisitions asked the City Council two weeks ago to table a vote on the project so the developer could have more time to address neighbors’ problems with the plan.

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.

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.

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.