Carlos Lee went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI, helping the Houston Astros defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-3. The top five hitters in the Astros’ lineup combined for eight hits and four RBI, and Wandy Rodriguez (7-7) and the Houston bullpen set down the final 19 hitters they faced to earn a four-game series split. Rodriguez was charged with three runs — one earned — on five hits to go with six strikeouts. Albert Pujols doubled twice and knocked in a run for the Cardinals, who had won five of six before dropping the final two games of the set. Jaime Garcia (10-5) was saddled with the loss after allowing five runs — four earned — on eight hits over six frames.
Royals Take Series Finale From Red Sox
July 29, 2011 By
Luke Hochevar threw seven solid innings as the Kansas City Royals salvaged a four-game series split with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Hochevar (7-8) was facing a Red Sox team that scored 25 runs over the past two games, but held Boston to just two runs on six hits and a walk while striking out six. Billy Butler smacked a three-run home run in a four-run fourth inning, as the Royals won for the sixth time in their last nine games. Josh Beckett (9-4) allowed all four runs on six hits and three walks while fanning eight over seven innings as Boston lost for just the fifth time in July. Dustin Pedroia homered in the eighth inning to extend his career-best hit streak to 25 games.
Next Central Missouri Honor Flight scheduled for Sept.
July 29, 2011 By
The Central Missouri Honor flight takes a break over the summer because it’s just too hot to take veterans on the day-long trip. The next honor flight is on September sixth. Central Missouri Honor Flight Spokeswoman Shelley Becker says the trip starts early in the morning, and ends very late in the day.
Becker says the veterans fly into Baltimore and often meet with other veterans on honor flights from different states. The group tours several monuments, the World War Two memorial, Korean Memorial, the Marine Memorial and Arlington National Cemetary. Becker went on the flight as a guardian last April, and she says seeing these memorials through the eyes of those who served is a completely different experience than seeing them alone.
Becker says each trip takes about 60 veterans and a guardian for every one to two veterans, depending on how much help they need. She says some veterans act as guardians, because they can push wheelchairs for their fellow veterans. The Central Missouri Honor Flight has taken more than 800 veterans to the Capitol to see memorials and monuments dedicated to their service.
She says anyone interested in becoming a guardian can apply on the Central Missouri Honor Flight website. She says those with medical backgrounds are always in demand.
Debt ceiling plans hold differing outcomes for farm programs
July 29, 2011 By
Farmers could be impacted depending on how the debt ceiling debate in Washington D.C. pans out. The Program Director for the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri, Pat Westhoff, says different proposals have differing approaches to farm programs.
Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan would reduce the amount of base acreages eligible for direct payments, meaning fewer dollars going to farmers as early as October of 2012. Other proposals would eliminate direct payments altogether. Westhoff says even if changes to farm programs are not made upon passage of a package, it may set into motion a process leading to reductions later.
Westhoff says eliminating direct payments would amount to 5 billion dollars out of the total budget defecit of over 1 trillion dollars. With cuts possible across all federal programs, however, Westhoff says it is difficult to defend any one of them. He says everything from annual appropriations bills to major spending packages will be thorougly studied.
Study explores shortage of doctors in rural Missouri
July 29, 2011 By
A new report confirms a long-held belief: that rural areas of the state are experiencing a shortage of primary care physicians.
President and CEO of the Missouri Hospital Association Herb Kuhn says 80 percent of Missouri is in what he calls a “health professional shortage area.” In rural areas, there is one primary care physician for every 1,776 Missourians. Metropolitan areas fare somewhat better, at 1 to every 962 citizens.
Kuhn says the MHA report goes beyond the numbers, though, and looks at other issues like the fact that rural doctors are aging. Over half are nearing retirement in the next 5 years.
With federal health care reform kicking in in 2014, Kuhn says more Missourians will be heading to the doctors office. Many of those will seek treatment for chronic conditions.
Research is being done now into ways to incent more doctors to practice in rural areas, but that is no easy task. Kuhn notes urban doctors make about 5 percent more money, while outstate counterparts work longer hours and see more patients and Medicaid patients.
