Local

The windows of downtown Columbia will come alive from 6 to 8 tonight as part of a Christmas tradition.

Sixteen stores will be participating in the Living Windows Festival with themes such as Santa’s Helpers, A Christmas Carol, Nuclear Christmas and Hawaiian Holiday.

Lamb’s Jewelry has been part of Columbia landscape for 60 years, but soon the building on Ninth Street between Lakota Coffee Co. and Main Squeeze will be empty. Lamb’s begins its going-out-of-business sale today at 10 a.m.

Dozens of silver watches fill the glass case inside the entrance to Lamb’s Jewelry. Antique clocks line the wall behind the case, and near the door sits a large grandfather clock. In a store where little has changed for 60 years, it is fitting that the hands on most of the clocks stand still. “It’s the end of an era,” said owner Terry Calcote.

Three men and a woman are in Callaway County Jail, charged with burglary, kidnapping and the robbery of the United Security Bank in Kingdom City.

According to the Callaway County Sheriff’s Department, a bank employee called police around 7 a.m. Wednesday to report that she and her family members had been held hostage overnight by four people dressed in camouflage and dark-colored masks.

When Joe Lopez watches his family’s old home videos, he notices something special about his son David that he hadn’t considered until recently. “David was always off to the side with a pencil in hand, drawing pictures,” Joe Lopez said.

David Lopez, 12, always has been interested in art, but before this past summer he had never attempted to employ artistic principles. In fact, the Gentry Middle School sixth-grader has never taken an art class.

If Thursday’s events had been real, more than 60 Columbians might have been infected with botulism, kept alive by beeping, whizzing ventilators because their bodies did not remember how to breathe.

The FBI would have been on their way. Cars would have clogged roads near local hospitals. The national media would have descended on Columbia in hordes while city officials tried desperately to squelch rumors before the city erupted in panic.

Citing the ongoing threat of more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, a group of Missouri politicians and scientists are gathering today on the MU campus to discuss ways to better defend the country’s food supply against agro-terrorism.

The summit is from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Reynolds Alumni Center Ballroom. Missouri senators Kit Bond and Jim Talent are among the event’s keynote speakers.

In a meeting Wednesday, Rep. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia and UM system President Elson Floyd agreed to hold a public forum in mid-January to discuss the future of MU’s medical school.

Flu season took off early in Columbia, with the first reported case coming in to the Columbia/Boone County Department of Health on Nov. 21, Public Health Manager Mary Martin said.

As of Wednesday, 63 cases of influenza had been reported, and Martin said the actual total is probably in the hundreds.

While the debate continues, the Street Standards Planning Group has moved a little closer to resolving its proposal to revamp Columbia’s standards for streets.

The proposal was initiated more than a year ago by the PedNet Coalition, the Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission and similar groups eager to make Columbia’s streets more accessible to bicycles, pedestrians and wheelchairs.

If Missouri Rep. Jeff Harris has his way, drivers on some state highways will be digging for loose change as part of their daily commute.

Harris, D-Columbia, pre-filed a bill Monday that would amend the Missouri Constitution — subject to voter approval — to allow construction of tollbooths on state highways. Tolls would help pay for improvements to Missouri’s roads, which Harris noted are ranked among the worst in the country.

When State Farm Insurance announced last year that it planned to consolidate its Lincoln, Neb., and Woodbury, Minn., operations centers, both cities hoped to save the local jobs at stake by offering financial incentives to the company. Lincoln would eventually come out the winner, due in part to what city officials said was an “aggressive” package of enticements from both public and private sources.

Early next year, State Farm is expected to complete a “top-to-bottom” review of its operations centers in Columbia, Tulsa, Okla., and Monroe, La. In a series of meetings with Columbia business and political leaders in October, the company said that any consolidation resulting from the review would not be influenced by incentives, which according to Bernie Andrews, president of Columbia Regional Economic Development Inc., would likely not be forthcoming.

In John Worre’s “The Gospel According to Scrooge” — soon to be performed at Christian Chapel in Columbia — Ebenezer Scrooge does not simply become a good person, he comes to accept the Gospel of Christ.

The full-length dramatic production follows the traditional story of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” but it adds a bit more humor and music. Most of the dozen songs were written for the play.

As winter approaches, the homeless must worry about more than finding a vacant bunk in which to pass a cold night. Homeless shelters are breeding grounds for certain diseases, say state health officials, including tuberculosis, a respiratory disease that is contracted through close contact with an infected person.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has called on homeless shelters in the St. Louis area, which have reported 15 new cases of TB among its homeless, to begin screening residents for the disease.

The Boone County Sheriff’s Department closed its investigation Wednesday into the October death of 26-year-old Reality House resident Erin Bennett, whose autopsy confirmed she died of a heroin overdose.

Investigators determined her overdose was accidental, said Boone County Sgt. Tom Reddin.

For the first time in more than 10 years, general education classes will be offered at MU between traditional fall and winter semesters. The pilot intersession program stems from student interest, MU officials said.

“Because the time between terms doesn’t seem like enough time to work, it’s hard (for students) to find jobs that fill that niche, but they have the time to do something,” said Brenda Selman, MU registrar. “We checked into their requests and responded with the pilot program.”

Missouri 25th District Rep. Jeff Harris is headed to China.

Harris, D-Columbia, was chosen by the American Council of Young Political Leaders as one of eight U.S. delegates charged with promoting foreign policy discussions between emerging political leaders around the world.

With the faint sounds of late-70s rock and disco music playing in the background, local Howard Dean supporters gathered at W.G. Grinders in downtown Columbia on Wednesday to work on their grass-roots campaign for the Vermont governor.

The evening, called a “meet-up,” focused on handwriting letters to undecided voters to swing their votes towards Dean in the upcoming Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.

Voluntary Action Center will need volunteers for two-hour shifts Monday through Friday, Dec. 8 through Dec. 17 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Volunteers will be assisting in the collection and distribution of the holiday gifts and food for VAC’s 20th annual Christmas Program at Trinity Presbyterian Church. Call Cindy Mustard or Nancy Finke at 449-6959.

Boone County Council on Aging needs volunteers to assist low-income seniors with snow shoveling this winter. There is also a need for a volunteer to assist a disabled gentleman with grocery shopping during the morning or early afternoon hours. Another senior adult needs a couple of volunteers to waterproof her deck — this would just take a couple hours. If you can help with any of these projects call Andrea Kolb at 443-1111 or e-mail her at bcca03@coin.org.

These days, it pays to be a teacher at Grant Elementary School. According to a new report on the Columbia Public School District, teachers at Grant earn $42,465 on average for their full-time services, almost $4,000 more than the state’s median salary.

The information released Monday in the 2002-03 report required by the state shows that teachers in the Columbia district earn about $2,000 more than the state average. It also shows that the district exceeds the state average in other categories, including the percentage of students entering four-year colleges or universities and the percentage of job placements for vocational students.

For more than a century, Columbians have headed downtown to bank, dine, ship and shop. And while the central business district has gone through many transformations over the years, many of the buildings from the late 19th century and early 20th century remain.

Because of its central role in Columbia’s history, the Special Business District was recently nominated by the state for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Dozens of downtown structures are several decades old, and their rich architecture and history were detailed by Debbie Sheals, a local preservationist, in a report to the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.