The Missouri Tigers lost 60-59 at Oral Roberts when Michael Craion got a layup to bounce around and in with .09 seconds to pull off the upset. Mizzou led by as many as 11 in the second half and couldn’t put the home team away.
Lottery Commission names politically-connected director
December 9, 2009 By
The state lottery has a new director–May Scheve Reardon, a former St.Louis County state representative and former head of the state Democratic party. She had been in the private personal finance business.
Reardon becomes the fifth executive director of the state lottery’s 24-year history, replacing Larry Jansen who quit after a disagreement with the lottery commission just a month ago.
The chairman of the commission says Reardon will “move the agency in a new direction.” She has some general thoughts of what that means. “One of the things we are looking to do is really bring in technology when we work with our marketing and work with our advertising,” she says.
Short spur makes big difference for Amtrak
December 9, 2009 By
It’s only 9,000 feet long, but it is making a huge difference for passenger rail service between Kansas City and St. Louis.
State Sen. John Griesheimer (R-Washington) tied an event in mid-Missouri to the holiday season.
“This is a Christmas present to the state of Missouri; it’s an early Christmas present to the state of Missouri and all Amtrak riders,” Griesheimer told those gathered in the California City Hall for the dedication ceremony of the rail siding completed just prior to Thanksgiving.
Griesheimer referred to the 9,000 foot spur laid down just West of California, built under a cooperative agreement between the state, Union Pacific and Amtrak at a cost of $8.1 million. That 9,000 feet of side rail allows freight trains to get over and let Amtrak passenger trains pass through. The difference it makes is astounding. Amtrak on-time performance between Kansas City and St. Louis, once lagging between 55-and-79%, hit 100% during the Thanksgiving holiday week.
State Transportation Director Pete Rahn says the project would not have been completed without a $5 million appropriation from the legislature.
“And that was a first time in which the General Assembly had supported a proposal to take public monies and invest into a private rail system,” Rahn said.
The state funding allowed Missouri to secure $3.3 million from the federal government to complete financing of the project.
Poor on-time performance has long been a criticism of Amtrak. It has hurt its ability to sell passenger service to Missourians and has been a point of harsh criticism in the state legislature. MoDOT has applied for federal economic stimulus funding to make other such improvements to the central Missouri railway. Officials say additional rail sidings at Knob Noster and Strasburg would improve on-time service.
Brent Martin reports.
McCaskill doubts rejection of abortion language will sink Senate health care reform bill
December 9, 2009 By
The defeat of an abortion-related amendment to the health care overhaul bill being debated in the U.S. Senate has some observers thinking the legislation might be in jeopardy. But Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) doesn’t think the action will stand in the way. [Read more...]
Highway Patrol busy working crashes, slide-offs
December 9, 2009 By
Motorists in Northwest Missouri are navigating the icy roads today after getting anywhere from four to ten inches of snow, which followed freezing rain.
Lt. Scott Meyer with Troop H in St. Joseph says a couple of tractor trailers slid off the road earlier on Interstate 29 …. that’s what caused the back up and closed the interstate.
Meyer says troopers have worked more than 30 slide offs and crashes since yesterday afternoon in the Troop H area.
There have been nine fatal accidents since Sunday afternoon in the Troop H area. Three today were attributed to a train versus car crash.
Meyer says since about 4 p.m. Tuesday until 9 a.m. today, they worked 16 slide offs, 15 crashes, one was a fatal. He says the roads are still snow and ice covered.
When the temperatures are this low and with a negative temperature windchill, it’s hard to get things thawed out enough to make a difference to motorists, he says.
