A State Representative who left the Legislature earlier this year to serve with the Army Reserves in Iraq is hospitalized, in very serious condition, after being shot by a sniper. Representative Jason Brown of Platte City is with the Army in Iraq. During a stop, today, in St. Joseph, Governor Matt Blunt spoke of the Brown shooting, saying this reminds us of the dangerous circumstances confronting our military men and women in the war on terror. A statement from House Speaker Rod Jetton’s office says that while Brown’s condition remains very serious, it has stabilized.
MIAA To Lose Commissioner
October 6, 2006 By
The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association will lose a key member this summer. Commissioner Ralph McFillen has notified the conference staff that he will retire once his contract expires in June.
McFillen took over as the commissioner in 1997 when Ken Jones, the first full-time commissioner, left his post. Under McFillen, the MIAA has turned into one of the nations best Division-II conferences. Just this year, four MIAA schools are ranked in the top-25 football poll. A fifth, University of Central Missouri dropped out, but was in the top-25 prior to losing to Truman State. Many of the conference’s football games can be seen on local television. The MIAA also takes part in the Mineral Water Bowl. And the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be played at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City for the fifth consecutive year.
McFillen, who turns 65 next year, is retiring mostly so he can spend more time with his family. He has a wife, Pat, two daughters, and five grandchildren.
Change of Judge Almost Gave Break to Alleged Baby Kidnapper
October 6, 2006 By
A change of judges nearly gave a woman jailed on suspicion of slashing a mother’s throat and stealing her baby a chance to go free until her court date. Instead, Shannon Torrez of Lonedell remains in the Franklin County jail on charges that she wounded Stephenie Ochsenbine and took her baby, Abigale Lynn Woods, September 15th. Torrez’s attorney had asked for a change in judge. When granted, the judge reduced bond from a cash-only one million dollars to $400,000 that would be reached through using land as collateral. The prosecutor in the case thwarted the effort when he dropped the original charges, and filed new ones with the original judge who reinstated the one million dollar cash-only bond.
Allen, Assistants Return To Iowa
October 6, 2006 By
Missouri State head football coach Terry Allen makes his return to Cedar Falls, IA where he played at Northern Iowa and served as head coach for eight years. During his coaching tenure (1989-1996) at NIU, Allen became one of the most highly regarded coaches in the Gateway Conference.
Allen’s Panthers teams won or shared conference titles in seven of his eight seasons. He was named conference coach of the year in five of his last six seasons. Allen never lost a Gateway Conference home game in his eight seasons at the helm. No conference team beat Allen’s UNI teams more than once except Southern Illinois who beat the Panthers twice.
While at UNI, Allen coached wide receiver Dedric Ward who went on to have a successful NFL career. Ward is now coaching wide receivers at MSU. Two other assistants on MSU’s staff this year (D.J. Vokolek and Rob Bolks) are also making homecoming trips this Saturday.
The Bears hit the road this week to take on #14 NIU. MSU is 1-4 overall; the Panthers are 2-2 this will be their conference opener.
Related web sites:
Missouri State Athletics Site
Cardinals Take Two Game Lead
October 6, 2006 By
If a man does not know his history, he is doomed to repeat it. Surely the Padres remember what happened to them in the playoffs last year. Just in case they do not recall the three-game sweep handed to them by the Cardinals, St. Louis is doing a good job of reminding them.
Albert Pujols went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored in the Cardinals 2-0 win Thursday afternoon. The reigning National League MVP is carrying the Cardinals on his back. It might not be too long before we hear Pujols’ name called for a second straight MVP crown.
Jeff Weaver followed Chris Carpenter’s game 1 performance with five shutout innings of his own for the win. The bullpen that had a huge question mark on its back coming into the postseason pitched well. Randy Flores, Josh Kinney, and Tyler Johnson did an admirable job setting things up for Adam Wainright who earned the save.
The Cardinals bring the series to the new Busch Stadium tomorrow with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Jeff Suppan is scheduled to start for the Redbirds.
Related web sites:
Cardinals Official Website
