Deadlines are closing in for shipping things to Missouri’s military people who will be overseas for Christmas. It’s too late for things shipped by parcel post to be guaranteed delivery by Christmas. But the Postal Service says there is still time to ship letters,cards, and packages by other means. [Read more...]
State unemployment rate drops to 9.3%
November 16, 2009 By
Missouri’s unemployment rate drops slightly, but enough to be at least a bit encouraging to state officials.
9.3%; not the unemployment rate the state would like, but a rate that at least dropped two-tenths of a percent from September and a rate nearly a full percentage point below the national unemployment rate of 10.2%.
“So, while the number is not where we want it to be, we are certainly hopeful that this is suggesting some signs of stabilization in our unemployment rate in the state,” says John Fougere, a spokesman for the State Department of Economic Development.
The state lost jobs in transportation, utilities and government. The Economic Development Department reports a loss of 2,800 jobs in the trade, transportation and utilities sector. Government jobs dropped by 1,300, with the biggest losses reported in local government. Half the losses occurred in retail trade. Growth was evident in durable goods manufacturing, which added 2,200 jobs to the economy as well as private educational and health services, which grew by 2,700 jobs. The sector of professional and business services also added a thousand jobs.
Fougere is quick to state the unemployment rate is too high, but even a drop as slight as two-tenths of a percent is welcome.
“9.3 is not where we want to be, but the numbers we see here suggests that the job market is continuing to stabilize and is also demonstrating what some independent economic sources have already been reporting about the health of our state’s economy and we’re going to keep moving forward,” says Fougere.
A report by Moody’s indicates affordable housing in St. Louis and Kansas City and a diverse economy have helped keep Missouri’s economy afloat. The report suggests 11 states, including Missouri, are recovering from recession.
Judge rules State Auditor lacks authority to audit large retirement system
November 16, 2009 By
A judge in Jefferson City has determined State Auditor Susan Montee has no authority to conduct audits of a retirement system that serves local government employees. Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan has ruled in favor of the Missouri Local Government Employees’ Retirement System (LAGERS) in a challenge to the State Auditor’s desire to carry out a financial and performance audit of LAGERS’ books and records. [Read more...]
Hunter dies in low-water crossing incident
November 16, 2009 By
A deer-hunting trip on a rainy day in southwest Missouri’s Dallas County has turned tragic.
The Missouri Water Patrol says a pickup truck has been swept off a low-water bridge on a farm near the community of Tunas. Two of the men got out through the back window of the truck. But the third man, William Willis of Independence, was unable to escape.
Searchers recovered his body about five hours after the flooded creek washed the pickup truck off the crossing.
The incident happened on a farm near the community of Tunas.
One killed, two injured during opening weekend of deer season
November 16, 2009 By
Saturday’s mild weather contributed to thousands of hunters taking to the woods for the opening weekend of deer season. For some, the weekend ended in tragedy.
A St. Louis area man has died after being shot in Callaway County. Two other men have been injured.
The Callaway County Sheriff’s Department says 67-year-old Bernie Breer was shot in the abdomen when his hunting partner removed his rifle from a shoulder sling and it discharged. Breer was flown to a Columbia hospital where he later died.
Tony Legg, State Hunting Education and Range Instructor for the Department of Conservation, says two other shooting victims were lucky.
“One gentlemen had not started hunting, he was crossing a fence, and his firearm fell and then went off,” Legg says. “He didn’t have the safety on, so that goes back to making sure that hey, if you’re going to cross an obstacle, do it properly, and apparently this gentleman didn’t.”
The other incident, Legg says, involved two men talking about a firearm and how to use it, when “It went off in the back of their truck and hit the trailer hitch, and then some of the bullet fragments hit one of them in the back of the leg.”
Legg says it’s noteworthy that all three accidents happend while the men were not hunting.
“We seem to be having a number of incidents that are outside of hunting, they’re not actually occurring in the field while people are hunting,” Legg says. “This comes from people maybe being a little nonchalant, not taking as much care as they are when they’re out in the field.”
The Conservation Department reports that in 2008, there were 15 firearm-related hunting accidents in Missouri. That was the fewest of any year in state history.
Legg says the department hasn’t heard of any serious falls this year, but that the department isn’t required to track those so they don’t always hear of them right away.
Jessica Machetta reports [Download / listen Mp3]
Tom Strother is a protection supervisor for the Conservation Department, which is recreating the accident, taking measurements and trying to figure out exactly what happened.
“Based on the findings from the Conservation agents, that info is used for hunter education classes and statistics,” he says, “So we can help identify unsafe gun skills and safety violations that can be stressed in classes so incidents like these don’t happen in the future.”
“If there is a criminal investigation, that’s done by the local law enforcement,” Strother says, But it doesn’t look like there’s anything like that in this case … the shooter was just attempting to unload his firearm.”
The other two firearms accidents on opening weekend happened in Macon and Adair counties.
Jessica Machetta talks to Tom Strother [Download / listen Mp3]
