The crash of a bottle of a 2001 vintage Missouri champagne against the steel hull of a new submarine tomorrow morning will officially attach the name of our state to a new Navy warship. [Read more...]
Push for mandated insurance coverage for autism begins
December 3, 2009 By
Governor Nixon is pushing the importance of autism legislation; he made stops in Jefferson City, Springfield and St. Louis with legislative sponsors of a bill that would mandate insurance coverage for treatment and diagnosis, as well as Missouri’s insurance director and doctors.
Nixon asked the legislature last session to pass a bill that would mandate insurance companies pay for the treatment and diagnosis of autism … but the general assembly failed to get it through.
Legislation has again been filed for the 2010 legislative session. Nixon, House Speaker Ron Richard and bill sponsors from both sides of the aisle say they’re optimistic that they can get a measure passed this year.
Nixon says 14 other states have such legislation in place. He hopes Missouri can be a nationwide leader in diagnosing and treating autism.
According to Senators Scott Rupp and Eric Schmitt, both of whom have dealt with autism first-hand, more than one in 100 children are diagnosed with autism.
Rupp says the fact that insurance companies won’t pay to treat the disease is deplorable. He’s sponsoring a bill that would change that. Schmitt is co-sponsor of the bill.
Rupp and Schmitt say the issue has wide bi-partisan support this year and House and Senate leadership have agreed to help shepherd the measure through the process.
The measure says that insurance companies would be required to cover the cost — up to 72 thousand dollars a year — to diagnose and treat autism.Representative Dwight Scharnhorst of Manchester is sponsoring a similar measure in the House.
Crop harvest might soon be completed
December 3, 2009 By
With a little luck and some more dry days Missouri farmers should be able to finish getting their crops out of the fields.
A wet spring delayed planting. A wet fall delayed harvest.
In non-technical terms, it was an odd weather year; a suggestion that strikes Gene Danekas, director of the Missouri National Agricultural Statistics Service Office in Columbia, as a bit funny.
“I guess so,” Danekas says after chuckling a bit. “I mean, if you’re not farming you probably enjoyed this summer, because people in town didn’t have to water their lawns and they didn’t have to run the air conditioner a whole lot. So it was pretty nice.”
Danekas tells us rain put farmers three to four weeks behind throughout the year. The corn harvest is now better than 85% complete with 90% of the state’s soybeans harvested. Excess rain in southeast Missouri crippled chances for a record cotton crop. Danekas says an early evaluation of cotton predicted a record crop. A lot of cotton will be harvested, but the rain came after the bolls were open, causing many to drop.
Rain might have slowed farmers, but it boosted yield. The Agricultural Statistics Service reports that corn yield is up an average of seven bushels per acre and the soybean yield is up an average of six bushels per acre. Danekas says crop quality might have suffered a bit due to the wet summer.
The delay in harvest will have an effect on the planting of one crop: winter wheat. Danekas says that the planting of winter wheat is well behind normal. He expects fewer acres of winter wheat to be planted in Missouri this year than last year or than normal.
“You know, if you really got down to it, I think some guys would say they would rather have a year like 2009 than they would some of these drought years we’ve had by a long shot,” Danekas says.
Even now, some fields remain wet. Still, Danekas expects harvest to be virtually complete by the end of this week.
Brent Martin reports
Pro-life group pushes no communion for McCaskill
December 3, 2009 By
An anti-abortion group wants St.Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson to deny Senator McCaskill Holy Communion if she votes for what it considers any public funding of abortion in the healthcare overhaul bill. [Read more...]
Mizzou being passed up by Iowa State for Insight Bowl? No big deal
December 3, 2009 By
Several news outlets are beginning to leak that the Missouri football team will be passed over for the Insight Bowl in Arizona on December 31st in favor of Iowa State. That has some fans stewing that Mizzou is getting screwed again…I say this works out better for the Tigers.
