A transition is underway at the Secretary of State’s office as the current occupant prepares to move to the governor’s office and make way for the new Secretary. Secretary of State Matt Blunt is moving on to the governor’s office. Robin Carnahan is moving in to the Secretary of State’s office. Executive Deputy Secretary of State, Dan Ross, says Blunt is determined to have a smooth transition. He says the biggest adjustment for an in-coming Secretary is getting a handle on the office’s complexity. The office has eight divisions. Elections might get the most publicity, but it also handles securities, corporate registrations, library services, state archives and more. Ross says Carnahan will be faced with finishing something Blunt started: state compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act. Outlying counties will need help getging up-to-date technology so they can access the new centralized voter registration list intended to make sure those eligible to vote get to and those not eligible don’t.
MoDOT Hopes to Keep Its Money
Missouri Department of Transportation officials hope MoDOT won’t suffer the same fate some other state agencies claim has happened when new money comes in. MoDOT officials plan to ask the state legislature to appropriate $1.8 billion to the department in the coming fiscal year, but Transportation Commission Chairman Bill McKenna, a former state senator, warns officials the first question lawmakers will ask is “Where is the Amendment Three money?”. The short answer is: not in this request. That’s because the numbers were put together before the election. Also, proceeds from an end to the diversion of gas tax dollars won’t be realized until starting next summer. MoDOT Finance Director, Pat Goff, points out that out of the $1.8 billion being requested, only about $25 million for multi-modal operations has to be appropriated by lawmakers. Goff doesn’t expect lawmakers to touch that money. Goff acknowledges that other state agencies claim to have had their General Revenue funds reduced by the amount of additional funds the agency might receive, but he does not believe that can happen in this case.
Holbrook Bringing Twain to Life for Fifty Years
This year is the 50th year that actor Hal Holbrook has been doing a one-man stage show as Missouri’s greatest author. In 1954, Hal Holbrook began doing “Mark Twain Tonight” in a small New York nightclub. He’s still doing it, still looking for new Twain material he can integrate into the show, especially Twain comments that can be applied to contemporary issues. Holbrook says he never tries to update Twain’s thoughts — never tries to say what he thinks Twain would say if he were alive today. He resists taking partisan positions with Twain’s words. But he does want people to think about issues and events.
Holbrook says he never wants to fall into the “sick trap” of thinking he is just like Twain. He is an actor, he reminds us, someone who is sometimes surprised that one person can keep an audience totally engaged for two hours by mining what he says is Twain’s enormous wealth of commentary on the human condition. The goal of the show, he says, is to make people pause and think—quoting Twain–when you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to reflect.
Holbrook performs Sunday at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg; in Columbia next Wednesday night, and then in Lawrence Kansas on the 20th. Bob Priddy has talked with him about the legacy he brings to life.
