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Robert Strongman Daniel died Saturday, Jan. 17, 2004, at Lenoir Health Care Center. He was 90.

Dr. Daniel was an influential figure in teaching psychology. He was an MU professor emeritus of psychology and the founding editor of “Teaching of Psychology,” an academic journal.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Declaring Missouri's economy sound but its school system in jeopardy, Gov. Bob Holden renewed his call Wednesday for new taxes and revenues while blasting Republican lawmakers for cuts that "endangered the future of countless children."

In a State of the State address foreshadowing his re-election campaign, the Democratic governor pressed his case as the protector of education and the encourager of an improving economy.

Missouri: Gateway to the Future

It felt like a member of his family died.

Arthur Lewis remembers the day Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered. Lewis was 15 on April 4, 1968.

DES MOINES, Iowa — John Kerry and John Edwards rode 11th-hour surges to a one-two finish in Iowa’s kickoff presidential caucuses Monday, dealing a stunning blow to favorite Howard Dean. Kerry’s comeback blew the nomination fight wide open, setting the stage for a free-for-all in New Hampshire’s follow-up primary.

Dean finished third, stripped of his front-runner’s mantle but still defiant — “We will not give up,” he told backers.

For years the city of Columbia has concentrated its affordable housing efforts in the racially and economically segregated neighborhoods that straddle Providence Road, just north of Broadway.

Potential homebuyers in search of an affordable house — one costing no more than $80,000 — are largely confined to searching in these neighborhoods, where residents live apart in communities of their own.

The city of Columbia will buy a 1.3-acre parcel of land in north-central Columbia for a new fire station, pending the approval tonight of the Columbia City Council.

The new fire station will help the Columbia Fire Department reach its goal of responding to at least 80 percent of its calls in 41/2 minutes or less.

Children too young to read leaf through colorful images of different kinds of food — accepting without question unusual combinations such as fajitas on waffles. Other pictures showed chocolate houses that reflected the culture and architecture of different parts of the world.

The message was elementary: Diversity enriches and has no boundaries.

A public forum on the future of MU’s School of Medicine will take place at 1:30 p.m. today. The forum will be in Acuff Auditorium at the medical school. MU, medical school officials and local legislators will attend.

— Missourian staff

In anticipation of President Bush’s speech to the nation tonight, Columbia-area residents were asked Monday to describe what state their union is in. From the conflict in Iraq to the U.S. economy, here is what some of you said.

It took John Connor more than a year to buy a house in Columbia. With an imperfect credit history, a limited amount of money and few affordable homes to choose from, Connor, an auto technician, wondered if he’d ever find a place to call home.

“There were some times of despair, where I was depressed,” Connor said. “You just feel: ‘Am I ever going to find a place?’ ”

Although you might not have noticed, for the past 20 years two small brick buildings in a five-acre field of grass at 301 W. Green Meadows Road have been Rock Bridge Christian Church. Now, the congregation has decided to build a sanctuary that’s sure to be noticed.

The congregation intended to build the sanctuary 20 years ago, but generosity held it back.

It’s hard to dwell on life’s more serious aspects with your cat at your feet, spread out on his back, sound asleep with all four of his paws pointed skyward. It does remind you, however, about the necessity of keeping things in their proper perspective. Simply put, the earth will not stop turning because you forgot to put out the garbage, and the sky will not fall because you forgot your aunt’s 90th birthday. But dire consequences could result if you don’t remember to check the oil in your car.

Keeping things in perspective is important, and even when you have a cooperative cat, it’s not always easy to achieve. And to be honest, I’m sometimes not even in the mood to try. That’s one purpose the observation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday serves in my life. When I’m reminded of the example this man set before us in his brief lifetime, it’s embarrassing to examine some of my attitudes and behaviors in the areas of generating peace and understanding.

When a school bus overturned outside St. Louis last Monday, seriously injuring one student and the bus driver, Marla Wilcox reacted like many local parents.

“It caused fear, of course,” she said. “I have a kid that rides the school bus.”

The risk of contracting the human form of mad cow disease is minute, but Americans face other food-borne risks from bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria.

More people die each year in the United States from these bacterial infections than have died from variant Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease — thought to be caused by mad cow disease — thus far around the world.

NORMAN, Okla. – Coming in, the Missouri men’s basketball team knew winning at Oklahoma’s Lloyd Noble Center would not be easy and would probably be decided in the final moments.

It wasn’t easy and was decided in overtime, and that’s what made Saturday’s 79-75 victory against the Sooners all the more special.

For nine years, Jean Cribb lived in an apartment at the end of a cul-de-sac in a busy area of northeast Columbia, near Interstate 70. The nighttime traffic noise was tough to take, so Cribb, a single parent of two children, asked a real estate agent to help her find a three-bedroom home in the $300-a-month range.

A year passed, during which the agent showed Cribb just one house she could afford to buy. The house, in the Lake of the Woods area, was a “major fixer-upper,” said Cribb, who has an in-store marketing job with Sears in the Columbia Mall. “It was disappointing to see what my money would really get me.”

Deciding whether to buy a home is like asking someone to dance, said Rob Weagley, chairman of the consumer and family economics department at MU. It can be particularly intimidating for people with low or moderate incomes, who, assuming they won’t qualify, are sometimes reluctant to ask financial professionals about mortgages.

But with the availability of low-interest mortgages and special homeownership programs, families of modest means can stop paying rent and put their money into owning a house.

Groundwater studies in the vicinity of wells that draw drinking water for Columbia indicate that one of the city’s wetlands units used to treat waste water could be leaking contaminants into the underground system.

Joseph Richards of the U.S. Geological Survey, which has been studying groundwater in the Missouri River bottoms south of Columbia since 1992, said increased levels of chloride, sulfate and sodium have been detected in monitoring wells since 1995. The highest levels of chloride were detected in a monitoring well 50 to 100 feet from a city wetlands treatment unit.