Local

For nearly 20 years, business leaders in Columbia have been discovering that learning doesn’t have to end when they leave the classroom behind.

Each year, 30 members of the Columbia business community take part in Leadership Columbia, a class put on by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

The Columbia Transit System got some good news last week. A large chunk of federal money — more than $2.3 million — has been secured to renovate and expand Wabash Station, the historic Columbia landmark that serves as the main transfer point for city bus lines.

The funding is part of $10 million earmarked for transit programs throughout the state from the 2004 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. Columbia’s share is the biggest on the list.

When 26-year-old Martha Oliver and her boyfriend James Fainter moved to Columbia four years ago, they hoped to eventually save enough money to purchase a mobile home on their own land.

Last spring, Oliver endured a whirlwind sales pitch by Quality Pre-Owned Homes, a Columbia company owned by Amega Sales Inc. After receiving repeated assurances from the company that she would have no problem securing financing, Oliver said she signed a contract and put down $5,000, most of which she had borrowed from friends, on a new mobile home.

Broken bottles litter the ground. Vibrant graffiti covers parts of the brick. There’s even a Volkswagen Cabriolet snuggled up against a building as delivery trucks unload clean linens.

With their filthy grease vats and broken pavement, the alleys of Columbia represent a perhaps overlooked, yet integral, element of life downtown.

One in four families do not believe it is necessary to prepare for emergencies. And of those that do, 40 percent aren’t sure how to go about it, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

March is National Preparedness Month, and state health officials couldn’t think of a better time to launch a new program, “Ready In 3.”

Chris Blank is a freshman at MU — and he’s already working for CNN.

Since the sixth grade, Blank has steadily hiked the path toward his dream job as a newspaper war correspondent. He has gone from writer to editor and back again as he moved from school newspaper to newspaper.

An MU professor has played a large role in research that could help those suffering from schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Psychological sciences professor John Kerns is the lead author of an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Magazine. In the Feb. 13 article, Kerns and his colleagues explained and identified the parts of the brain that regulate cognitive control.

Just like the Missouri men’s basketball team, fans have something to look forward to.

Even though the Tigers lost their final regular-season home game in Hearnes Center 84-82 to the Kansas Jayhawks, excitement for the future radiates from across the street where work continues on a new arena.

Shake those keys and tickle those tummies, do anything to get those babies to smile. It could ultimately lead to a $25,000 savings bond.

That was the scene at the Most Beautiful Baby Contest at Columbia Mall on Feb. 25. Parents paid $40 to enter a child between the ages of newborn to 6. By 5 p.m., a few eager parents had already signed up their babies. By 6:30 p.m., the judging began, and it was standing-room only, a much better turnout than last time, some experienced parents said.

It’s no secret that Columbia lawyer Dewey Crepeau is looking to topple Democrat Jay Nixon’s incumbency advantage in this year’s election for Missouri attorney general.

It’s also no secret that Nixon has raised the most money to date to support his candidacy — nearly $280,000 — for a possible fourth term as the state’s leading law enforcement official.

I’ve never walked into a library that I didn’t like. And I was especially pleased last week with my first visit to Columbia’s new library, where I talked to some of my readers. I was reminded of the day as a teenager when I first set eyes on the Kansas City Public Library and thought I was in heaven. While touring the juvenile section in the Columbia library, I remembered how anxious I was when my son got his first library card and the number of times I prevailed on him to check out children’s mystery books for me to read because I was embarrassed that I still enjoyed them long after I grew into adulthood. Since I have spent a major portion of my life in libraries, I have a lot of those kinds of memories, and I’m convinced that people I meet in libraries are some of the most interesting people in the world.

As if I needed an excuse, my next visit to my local public library was to attend a book sale. Now, the last thing I need, of course, is one more book. But I found several that I couldn’t live without. My favorite in this stash was a reprint of a book called “The American Frugal Housewife” by Mrs. Child, otherwise known as Lydia Maria Child. According to the introduction written by Alice Geffen, Child published her first novel in 1823. She wrote the “Frugal Housewife” in 1829, and it went through 35 editions. This facsimile edition was reprinted from a copy found at an old book auction. In addition to her success as an author, In 1833, Child also wrote a book against slavery entitled, “An Appeal for that Class of Americans called Africans.” Later, she edited with her husband the “Anti-Slavery Standard” in New York.

He was running out of time, but Norm Stewart had never called a timeout in the final seconds of a game, and he wasn’t about to start.

  It wasn’t his style.

Donald Dale Clark Jr. was drunk and on sedatives the night of Feb. 24, according to police, when he stole a car from the parking lot of a bar on Business Loop 70, crossed the median at Interstate 70 and U.S. 63, and struck a pickup. He then walked to the nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter, where officers said they found him trying to shoplift several items.

Clark, 41, had spent years in the Boone County Jail on charges of driving while intoxicated, stealing, writing bad checks and strong-arm robbery.

"The Passion of The Christ,” which has attained blockbuster status since it opened Ash Wednesday, is causing some people of faith to take a fresh look at their beliefs and try to make sense of the conflicting emotions the movie raises.

On the one hand and generally speaking, Christians are deeply affected by the gruesome death of the man they view as their Savior; on the other, Jews are troubled by what they see as Gibson’s intent to overlook their persecution under Roman rule and to cast them collectively as Christ-killers.

At 75 years old, the love for writing — and teaching — still burns in Edward Albee.

A fervent supporter of the arts, the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner has no problem sharing his knowledge with students.

When Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond arrived with Utah Sen. Robert Bennett for a tour of MU’s Life Sciences Center on Friday, Bond assured researchers and administrators, “We’re going to try to provide as much help as we can for the things that show the greatest promise.”

Later, Bennett, the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee, said he also thought the researchers’ work showed promise and pledged he would help get them more space — by supporting MU’s efforts to get $30 million to $35 million needed for an additional wing on the Life Sciences Center.

Money management is something children begin learning at an early age with their piggy banks and allowances. One group in charge of children’s education is now learning just how small their allowance can get.

The Columbia Board of Education will meet Monday night, and discussions will continue to focus on funding — or, more painfully — the lack of it.

The sun glimmered off hoods and doors Saturday as Corvette fans gathered to check out more than 100 polished examples of a classic American sports car.

People from throughout Missouri traveled to the Quality Inn to participate in the Mid-Missouri Corvette Club’s 10th Annual Corvette Cup. The cup is a car show and a charity fund-raiser.

It was an atypical Sunday in Columbia on Jan. 25. An early morning outburst of wintry fury had covered the city in a thick layer of ice. After the ice storm, a heavy snowfall blanketed the streets and sidewalks, leaving them virtually forsaken.

As the flakes fell fast, almost like a hard rain, a woman hurried across Locust Street to the safety of a small gray building. Inside, she found warmth and a kind man waiting for her.

Things aren’t all smiles for Wal-Mart in Columbia lately.

In fact, some might say “no smiles,” or at least that’s what the yard signs say. Community First, a group of residents who oppose the building of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in the Park De Ville neighborhood, made themselves known Saturday when they handed out yard signs protesting the new building.