SPECIAL REPORTS
Tumor InvestigationFollow our ongoing coverage of the area's tumor investigation
St. Joe SchoolsKeep up with what's going on with St. Joe Schools
Northwest President SearchFollow Northwest's search for a new president
State lawmakers get chance to cut budget
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers will have a chance to put the state’s money where their mouths are when they return this week from their spring break. Legislators have been talking a lot about the need to make major cuts in state spending because of a financial crunch whose squeeze is expected to get even tighter in coming years. Their chance to do so begins today as the House Budget Committee goes to work on the proposed 2011 budget. Despite their talk, there are indications that the Republican-led House may not whack out as much spending as needed to balance the budget.
Are people receiving too many medical tests?
CHICAGO — Too much cancer screening, too many heart tests, too many cesarean sections. A spate of recent reports suggests that many Americans are being overtreated. Maybe even President Barack Obama, champion of an overhaul and cost-cutting of the health care system. Is it doctors practicing defensive medicine? Or are patients so accustomed to a culture of medical technology that they insist on extensive tests and treatments? A combination of both is at work, but new evidence and updated guidelines are recommending a step back and more thorough doctor-patient talks about risks and benefits of screening tests.
Kansas City to close nearly half its schools
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City school board narrowly approved a plan Wednesday night to close nearly half the district’s schools in a desperate bid to avoid a potential bankruptcy. The board voted 5-4 after parents and community leaders made final pleas to spare the schools even as the beleaguered district seeks to erase a projected $50 million budget shortfall. The approved plan calls for shuttering 29 of 61 schools — a striking amount even as public school closures rise nationwide while the recession eats away at academic budgets.
Senate passes jobless aid, business tax breaks
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Wednesday to extend a host of soon-to-expire elements of last year's economic stimulus measure, including help for the jobless and money to help financially strapped states pay for health care for the poor.
Obama: 'It's time to vote'
ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Democrats claimed momentum today in their drive to enact the sweeping health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama, citing near agreement on crucial issues despite persistent Republican efforts to knock them offstride.
Spring storms could be ferocious
OKLAHOMA CITY — Forecasters say a wetter-than-usual winter and a jet stream ripping over the part of the country known as “Tornado Alley” could lead to an active spring — perhaps starting with the strong twister that nicked a small western Oklahoma town Monday night. “It’s time to get ready,” Michelann Ooten of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said Tuesday as she surveyed damage from a storm that destroyed five homes and tore the roofs off several others in Hammon.
Jobless aid measure clears Senate hurdle
WASHINGTON — Legislation to give additional months of unemployment benefits to people who have been out of a job for more than half a year cleared a key hurdle Tuesday that guarantees it will soon pass the Senate.
Iraqis defy intimidation to vote
BAGHDAD — Insurgents bombed a polling station and lobbed grenades at voters Sunday, killing 36 people in attacks aimed at intimidating those taking part in an election that will determine whether the country can overcome the sectarian divisions that have plagued it since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Pop. 1 towns tell Census: Get the count right
MONOWI, Neb. — The Founding Fathers must have chuckled at the impossibility of the job when they etched it into the Constitution: Count every man, woman and child along every back road and big-city avenue in the entire country. From Key West to Nome, today’s Americans will largely get the founders’ joke yet again as the U.S. Census embarks on its once-a-decade count this year — they’re accustomed to approximations of how many people plod their shared corner of the world.
Upper Midwest braces for severe spring flooding
FARGO, N.D. — Salesmen in Fargo are hawking products with names like the Muscle Wall and the Sandbagging Buddy. Emergency workers in Keokuk, Iowa, are planning to barricade the water treatment plant with limestone boulders. The farmers’ cooperative in Quincy, Ill., is moving grain inland to keep it dry. Spring could bring disastrous flooding again to the Upper Midwest, government forecasters are warning. And folks along the Red, the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers are taking precautions, especially after calamities last year and the year before.
Jury awards $11M total in PSF lawsuit
A Jackson County jury awarded more than $11 million on Thursday to plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the odors from a Premium Standard Farms hog operation in northern Missouri. The awards included $825,000 for each of the 13 plaintiffs. A 14th plaintiff was awarded $250,000, and the 15th got $75,000, according to Mary Jacobi, spokeswoman for the Jackson County Circuit Court. Premium Standard Farms said in a statement the company would appeal. The statement said the jury had the “impossible task” of dealing with claims from 15 people.
Former Gitmo detainee running battles
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — A man who was freed from Guantanamo more than two years ago after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say. Abdul Qayyum also is seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, said the officials, interviewed last week by The Associated Press.
Outlook remains bleak for U.S. Postal Service
WASHINGTON — The post office is renewing its drive to drop Saturday delivery — and plans a rate increase — in an effort to fend off a projected $7 billion loss this year. Without drastic action, the agency could face a cumulative loss of $238 billion over 10 years, Postmaster General John Potter said in releasing a series of consultant reports on agency operations and its outlook.
Death toll hits 708 as rescue efforts ramp up
CONCEPCION, Chile — Heroism and banditry mingled on Chile’s shattered streets Sunday as rescuers braved aftershocks digging for survivors and the government sent soldiers to quell looting. The death toll climbed to 708 in one of the biggest earthquakes in centuries. In the hard-hit city of Concepcion, firefighters pulling survivors from a toppled apartment block were forced to pause because of tear gas fired to stop looters, who were wheeling off everything from microwave ovens to canned milk at a damaged supermarket across the street.
Huge earthquake rocks Chile
TALCA, Chile — One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded tore apart houses, bridges and highways in Chile on Saturday and sent a tsunami racing halfway around the world. Authorities said at least 214 people were dead. The magnitude-8.8 quake was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles to the east. The full extent of damage remained unclear as dozens of aftershocks — one nearly as powerful as Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12 earthquake — shuddered across the disaster-prone Andean nation.
Previous Next
