Former Speaker of the Missouri House Catherine Hanaway has been nominated by President Bush to be the new federal prosecutor in St. Louis. Hanaway is a Republican from Warson Woods, credited with helping the party capture the majority in the House for the first time in nearly 50 years. She lost her attempt at statewide office when she lost to Democrat Robin Carnahan in the race for Secretary of State last year. The loss prompted widespread discussion of her future, with many political observers pointing to the US Attorney for Eastern Missouri position. Former US Attorney Ray Gruender left the post to become a judge on the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals. James Martin has been serving in the post on an interim basis. Hanaway must be confirmed by the Senate.
Education Department Probes Cheating Reports
The State Education Department is investigating reports that some schools have cheated on the state MAP tests – the annual achievement tests. A Department spokesman says it’s investigating seven allegations. One of the schools being checked is a charter school in St. Louis, where a principal is accused of taking test booklets that had not been completed by students, and returning them to teachers to have students fill in the rest of the pages. But some of the MAP tests are timed tests and cannot be completed once the time is up.
Missouri’s Wild Turkey Harvest Declines
This year’s wild turkey harvest in the state is down by about 10 percent from a year ago. The Conservation Department’s Jeff Beringer says cool, wet springs the last few years might have the bird numbers down a bit and less-than-ideal hunting weather for part of this year’s season might be keeping hunters out of the woods. Beringer says that’s understandable, but hunters shouldn’t hang it up quite yet. Beringer says there’s plenty of time to bag a gobbler between now and the end of the season on May 8th.
Tickets For MU vs. Arkansas St. At Arrowhead On Sale
Tickets for MU’s first game in Kansas City sixty years went on sale this morning. The Tigers will face Arkansas St. on Saturday, September 3 at 11AM. Tickets are as cheap as $20 and as expensive as $35.
The game was originally scheduled to be a road game for MU, but Arkansas St. agreed to have the game moved from Jonesboro, Arkansas to Kansas City, which will likely give them a much bigger payday after the gate money has been collected. Missouri was interested in playing at Arrowhead as long as they didn’t have to give up a home game.
MU Director of Media Relations said, “We don’t want to (give up) any of our home games. We make a good portion of our operating budget from home game ticket sales, concessions, novelties, parking, that type of thing. We’d hate to take a game away from that and our local business operators.”
No one involved would have any problem with a sell out crowd of over 79,000, but the less-than marquee match up on Labor Day weekend might not produce a packed house. How many size crowd do officials expect?
Moller wasn’t sure, “I don’t know that there’s a hard number that we’re focusing on. We’re just hopeful that everyone will be excited about the start of the season and we get a great crowd out there.”
The last time Missouri played in Kansas City, they came away with a 33-12 win over 16th ranked Kansas on November 24, 1945.
Cardinals Fall To Brewers
The Cardinals saw their six-game winning streak come to an end on Thursday with a 4-3 loss to the Brewers at Busch Stadium. The Redbirds never led in the game, as Russell Branyan got things going for Milwaukee with a solo home run off St. Louis starter Jason Marquis in the second inning.
Geoff Jenkins made it 2-0 Brewers with an RBI single in the third inning. In the fourth Reggie Sanders hit his fifth home run of the season to get the Cardinals within one. But in the top of the fifth, Brady Clark belted a two-run double and Milwaukee took a 4-1 advantage.
St. Louis came close thanks to Roger Cedeno’s infield single, which scored Hector Luna in the seventh inning. In the eighth, Luna reached on a fielder’s choice and Scott Rolen scored to make it 4-3. In the ninth, Albert Pujols had the tying run on first, but flied out to center to end the game.
Jason Marquis suffered his first loss of the season, allowing four runs off five hits and two walks in seven innings of work.
