Top Stories: A franchisee of Tim Hortons, who once planned to open 40 outposts of the Canadian doughnut and coffee chain in St. Louis has closed two restaurants amid a legal fight with new ownership. The Post-Dispatch reports a new owner of Tim Hortons wanted the franchisee to sign an agreement to commit to open 205 restaurants in the St. Louis area within a decade and invest $20 million in capital, which was not part of the initial agreement. And the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures show that Missouri’s poverty rate has slightly dropped for three consecutive years. Jeanette Mott Oxford with social welfare group Empower Missouri says she’s concerned the progress the state has made will slip because of a federal budget Congress has passed that she says will cut more than one-trillion dollars in ten years from programs that help the needy.
