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A bill that would expand the responsibilities of dental assistants, including allowing them to clean teeth, has drawn protest from Missouri dental hygienists.

Dental assistants with at least three years of clinical experience and who have completed a minimum of 72 hours of clinical training would be permitted to remove tartar and plaque from patients’ teeth under the proposed bill.

The case brought against MU assistant basketball coach Tony Harvey has been dismissed from Boone County Circuit Court.

Ken Hensel, a house painter, sued Harvey for close to $5,000 and accused him of failing to pay Hensel for the paint job he did on Harvey’s house.

Chancellor Richard Wallace and James Morgan, artistic director for New York’s York Theater Company, are among those being recognized during MU’s annual Arts and Science Week, which began Monday.

Wallace will receive the Honorary Alumni Award for his exceptional leadership at MU. Morgan will be given the Distinguished Service Award for his help in the development of “Mizzou on Broadway,” a literary theatrical showcase that features original work by MU students on the New York City stage.

In the future, organs for transplant may come from a printer, not the operating room.

Gabor Forgacs, a professor of theoretical physics and biological sciences at MU, his colleagues and his research team have successfully created tubes of biological tissue using a modified printer and drops of living ink, the MU News Bureau announced.

This week, a conference at MU will look at whether the common understanding of religious history in America changes when viewed through the lens of the Louisiana Purchase.

“We usually tell the story of America and America’s religion from the starting point of New England and the Puritans,” said Richard Callahan, an assistant professor of religious studies at MU. “We forget that there were people to the west (of New England) already.”

JEFFERSON CITY — Students, teachers, parents and principals converged on the Capitol on Monday to chastise their government leaders for cuts to public school funding and to ask for more money for their schools.

About 2,000 rally participants chanted “S-O-S, save our schools” and raised homemade banners urging elected officials to make children their priority. Several school officials told of how state funding cuts have resulted in fewer teachers, larger classes and program cuts to everything from athletics to tutors to teacher training.

JEFFERSON CITY — Vernieca Kellum of West Plains doesn’t know what the Foundation Formula is. She doesn’t know the mathematical intricacies of Missouri’s education funding. She said she

doesn’t follow state politics.

Last-minute, significant changes in development plans for the Philips farm prompted the Columbia City Council to table its decision on annexation and rezoning for the property Monday night.

At Monday’s pre-council meeting, the council was given a list of proposed changes to plans for the 489-acre farm just southeast of Columbia. Those changes were submitted to the city staff Friday after developer Elvin Sapp learned the city might want to redraw the boundaries of a regional park proposed on the land.

“The sky is not the limit, nor are the stars. Wish it... dream it... do it.”

This is the saying scrawled across the back wall of Expressive Outlet, a unique clothing store on Forum Boulevard in Columbia. A few feet away is a picture of the store’s co-owners, Molly Morgan and Michele Towns, on their first buying trip in New York City. Their story is the classic American dream: friends who dream about starting a small business together — and do it.

Columbia’s new branch of the political consulting business, Rosman & Associates, can add years of experience to a candidate’s campaign, along with a lot of enthusiasm.

Owner David Rosman, who established himself in Denver over the past 25 years, decided to move to Columbia after being offered a job here. After the potential job fell through, Rosman quickly made local politics a main priority, and he chose to start a business here based on new markets and growth opportunities.

The City Council made the first step toward improving what one PedNet Coalition member described as "a black hole" in the city during Monday night’s meeting: a 14,000-foot strip of land running along the north side of Business Loop 70 between Creasy Springs Road and Garth Avenue.

After several residents came forward to request that the proposed 5-foot sidewalk be expanded to 6 feet, the council decided to vote on the motion at a later date.

Walking through the doors of a hospital can be scary enough for those who know exactly what’s going on around them. But for those who don’t understand the language being spoken, hospital visits can become even more intimidating. With the creation of a new Web site, the Missouri Hospital Association is trying to make visits easier on everyone who walks through the hospital doors — no matter what language they speak.

Since Oct. 1, HealthTranslations.com has been available for local hospitals and paid subscribers. According to Leslie Porth, vice president of health improvement at MHA, the Web site, a link off the MHA’s Web page, helps translate the most important documents needed when a patient enters the hospital.

National Public Radio’s Linda Wertheimer has talked to American Democrats throughout the country, and one overriding message has come through for the future, still undecided, Democratic candidate.

“American people are saying we don’t care what you do, just do what works,” Wertheimer said.

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri’s automobile industry supports exempting Missouri-made vehicles from state sales tax, but it could cost the state’s roads — while saving a new-car purchaser as much as $1,000.

The measure would exempt vehicles made in Missouri from state sales tax. Individual cities could decide to exempt Missouri-made vehicles from local sales tax as well. The bill’s supporters said this would likely increase sales of Missouri-made vehicles and encourage other manufacturers to open plants in the state.

Bass Pro Shops wants to use its Columbia store to teach people more than just how to fish — it wants to teach them about water quality.

In the midst of controversy over land-disturbance permits in the polluted Hinkson Creek watershed, Bass Pro Shops is promising that its Vandiver Drive store will protect the creek and be a model for other developments in the watershed. And it’s backing up those claims by planning to use several storm-water management techniques in construction and to put an interactive water-quality education center at the store.

In the late 1990s, Boone County law enforcement officials, faced with the rising cost of housing inmates at out-of-county facilities, discussed building a new jail. The problem became acute in 1998, when the county spent more than $650,000 to incarcerate inmates in other jails.

By the end of the decade, the average daily population at the Boone County Jail had stabilized at about 200 inmates. Talk of building a new jail waned, and instead the work-release section of the jail was renovated to accommodate more inmates.

After more than four years of deliberation over the future of the Boone County Fairground, the Columbia City Council tonight is poised to put its stamp of approval on a master plan for how the county should proceed with developing the property as a park and recreational complex.

A resolution on tonight’s agenda calls for the council to endorse Option III, which includes three ponds, a lake, several athletic fields, trails, shelters and an ice hockey and roller rink.

MU’s red brick Sociology Building stands empty. A sign on each door tells passers-by to “Stop” in large red letters. Most of the windows are covered. Inside, there are a few abandoned chairs, desks, file cabinets and sheets of paper strewn across the floor.

Hardly anyone has been inside the 111-year-old building — once the home of the law school, then the business school and, finally, the sociology and rural sociology departments — since it closed a year and a half ago.

Linda Wertheimer gets recognized by strangers all the time. But it’s not her face that’s familiar; it’s her voice.

“I was standing in line at the airport one time and saw a blond woman across the room,” Wertheimer said. “I asked the woman in front of me whether she thought it was Sissy Spacek. The woman said, ‘I don’t know if that’s Sissy Spacek, but are you Linda Wertheimer?’ She recognized my voice.”

The inaugural True/False Film Festival wrapped up its three-day run Sunday in Columbia, receiving rave reviews from moviegoers and filmmakers who seemed optimistic that the festival could become an annual city event.

At the 2:30 p.m. Sunday showing of “CSA: Confederate States of America,” people lined up in the cold outside the Blue Note to purchase tickets. The film is a mock documentary about what the world would be like if the South had won the Civil War.