Another mortgage repair company is being pulled into court by the Attorney General, who says it’s defrauding customers. Attorney General Chris Koster says companies like First Universal Lending make cold calls or send direct mail solicitations telling people with troubled mortgages or even people wanting better mortgage deals they can fix things. [Read more...]
Sen. Mayer steps into budget chair position
November 24, 2009 By
He steps into a position that could be described as difficult, at best. Brent Martin has talked with the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Sen. Rob Mayer, a Republican from Dexter, steps into the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee as Sen. Gary Nodler (R-Joplin) steps down to concentrate on his run for Congress.
We offered Mayer or congratulations and condolences.
“You’re not the first person that has made that type of statement to me,” Mayer tells the Missourinet. “I’m honored that Sen. Shields (Senate President Pro Tem) has the confidence in me to select me for the position as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. However, I do realize the challenges that the state of Missouri faces are some of the more monumental challenges that we have faced in the history of the state.”
State lawmakers face a tough task. State revenue has been in a near free-fall. With the economy still mired in recession, state revenue likely will shrink rather than grow during the next fiscal year.
Gov. Nixon has cut a total of $634 million from the current state budget, the budget lawmakers crafted during the legislative session that ended in mid-May. Nixon vetoed $105 million from the budget. He since has withheld nearly $530 million. Nixon’s hand was forced by a 10% drop in state revenue during the first quarter of the fiscal year that begin July 1st, a $189 million drop. The recession has been indiscriminate in its effect on state revenue. Corporate income taxes fell 15.9%, individual income taxes fell 10.7% and sales tax revenue dropped 6.8%. The state has $333 million left in federal budget stabilization funds, according to the State Budget Office.
Though the legislative session doesn’t begin until the first of January, Gov. Nixon has already been out front promising both the state’s four-year and its two-year colleges that he will not recommend more than 5% budget reductions as long as they hold the line on tuition.
Mayer says his relationship with Governor Nixon, a Democrat, is good and he understands the motive behind the governor’s promise to state colleges. He says Republican leaders want to keep from cutting college budgets and don’t want to see colleges increase tuition. Still, Mayer wonders about the timing of the governor’s promise.
“You know, it’s somewhat premature to talk about what you’re going to do with certain segments of the budget when you really haven’t even arrived at a consensus revenue amount,” Mayer says.
Still, Mayer pledges to work with the governor, and the House, to craft a budget during a difficult year. Mayer says the difference between the Senate and House has been the most marked feature of budget debate at the Capitol the past few years, even though both are controlled by Republicans.
A bit more information comes in about “non-hostage” situation
November 24, 2009 By
Investigators still lack one key piece of information about the fake hostage situation at a government buidling in Jefferson City two weeks ago. They know where the call came to. They don’t know where the call came from.
Investigators say somebody got the unlisted number for an elevator telephone in the building, called it, and told the elevator rider who answered there was a hostage situation underway on the fifth floor of the building. That person told a second person who then told her supervisor who then told the alarm company that then called police.
Five law enforcement agencies responded. The building was evacuated. Streets were blocked off for four hours.
Pinkel ready for MU-KU rivalry
November 24, 2009 By
Ahh, Missouri-Kansas week. One of the longest running rivalries in college sports and one of the tightest. The series tie will be broken this Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium. Each team has won 54 games while nine games ended in ties. Of course if you ask KU, they will say they lead 55-53-9 if you go back to the 1960 game when one of the KU players was ruled ineligible by the NCAA.
Mizzou wearing Nike’s “Pro Combat” uniform for KU
November 24, 2009 By
On Saturday, the Missouri football team will take on Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium and they’ll be wearing Nike’s new Pro Combat uniform. The uniforms you will see on Saturday are a one time deal…thankfully.
Don Barnes, the Missouri equipment manager said that Nike got their design idea from incorporating the stealth bombers are Whiteman Airforce base. Listen to Don’s comments on the inspiration for the design Don comments on the inspiration for the design I like the grey helmet, but there is not a lot of gold in the uniform. I’ll hold out my final thoughts on the look until I see them on the field, but I’m thinking they look a little drab.
Actually, when I first looked at them, I immediately thought they looked a lot like the Seattle Seahawks road jerseys with obviously different colors. Or maybe a bit of Robocop with all that grey. However, the technology behind the uniforms are newly created. The uniforms themselves will be lighter in weight and are built to add more protection to the player.
Mizzou is joined by Clemson, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Miami, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, OU, Texas and TCU as the ten schools wearing the new uniforms.
Nike designed a four-way stretch twill that does not hold sweat or water making the new uniforms 46% lighter than the current Mizzou uniform when wet. Overall, the Pro Combat uniform, when wet, is still lighter than the current Missouri design when completely dry.
The Pro Combat uniform has padding zones in the shorts that cover the thighs, hips, and tailbone. The padding zones are made of foam cells that absorb, deflect and disperse the impact of on-field collisions.
There is a lot of technology that goes into the design of the uniforms, and you can get more by going to Nike.
