News

Two proposals on Missouri's August ballot are attracting millions of dollars of campaign spending.

Finance reports filed Monday show supporters of a transportation tax already have spent $2.5 million and have nearly $1.7 million available for their final push.

By contrast, opponents of the three-quarters-cent sales tax have spent just a little over $22,000.

A proposal creating a constitutional right to farm has spawned a somewhat closer financial battle.

  On this week's Intersection, we are talking with board members from Missouri Health Literacy about how to talk to your doctor.  

Today Paul Pepper meets EMILY HERZOG, a board certified music therapist at MU's Women's and Children's Hospital. At [4:50] LESLIE TOUZEAU tells us about "Organic Field Day," happening this Friday at Bradford Farm! July 28, 2014

Corn farmers in southeast Missouri are expecting high yields — but low profits.

A report compiled when Kansas City was seeking federal terrorism and emergency response grants claims Kansas City International Airport is a hub for terrorist travel.

President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Kansas City, where he's expected to speak about the economy.

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt is touting passage of legislation that authorizes the appointment of a special ambassador to the Middle East focused on religious freedom.

Regional Coverage from the KBIA Newsroom including:

• Columbia Police department will outfit officers with body cameras
• Columbia city manager presents proposed budget for FY 2015
• Powerful chemicals used in farming are found in Midwest waterways
• Feds find mismanagement at St. Louis VA

City Manager Mike Matthes is proposing that the city ask voters to approve a property tax increase and to renew the Capital Improvement Sales Tax in order to fund Columbia police and fire departments. Matthes announced this when presenting the proposed 2015 fiscal year budget at a press conference Friday morning.

When you were growing up did you play classical music? Did you have your own instrument? The classical classical duo Zofo - made up of Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi - play one piano. At the same time. KBIA's Trevor Harris  recently talked with the duo by phone about the nature of playing one piano with four hands, the process of commissioning new music for their repertoire and their new CD Zoforbit.

Today Paul Pepper chats with RUSS SCOTT, director of Maplewood Barn's latest production, "Julius Caesar," about the show and working with material written by Shakespeare. At [4:52], WENBO ZHAO (Z), Central Missouri Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, returns with WHY we need to drink water. Think you know the answer? July 25, 2014

A federal investigation finds a high rate of mismanaged disability claims at the St. Louis VA.

The Columbia Police Department plans to outfit all of its uniformed officers with body cameras.

Death-row lawyers and other opponents say the nation's third botched execution in six months is more evidence for the courts that lethal injection carries too many risks and amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Today Paul Pepper chats with REBECCA JOHNSON, from the Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction at MU, and retired Lt. Col. MIKE FAYETTE, a veteran from the Iraq War, about RCHAI's Veterans and Shelter Dogs project. July 24, 2014

Missouri's community colleges have a new tuition agreement with an online university.

The Missouri version of Western Governors University has agreed to provide a 5 percent tuition discount for community college graduates who take its online courses.

The Missouri Community College Association says the deal with WGU is the first such statewide agreement that the association has signed on behalf of its members. Community college graduates also will be eligible for special scholarships from the online school.

A City Council committee in Kansas City has endorsed a measure that would ban people from openly carrying firearms in the city limits.

The Kansas City Star reports Mayor Sly James has pushed for the ban, noting that the tourist town of Lake Ozark also has voted for a similar prohibition, even by those with concealed carry permits.

The council's Public Safety Committee on Wednesday endorsed the ban, which will go before the full City Council on July 31.

Strange theories abound following the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. What impact is that having on the people of Russia? Rupert Murdoch makes a bid for Time Warner. What does that mean for the future of corporate media? And Jill Abramson has been making the rounds, speaking with several prominent women journalists, but have they been going easy on her? Missouri School of Journalism professors Mike McKean, Judd Slivka and Stacey Woelfel discuss these issues and more on this edition of Views of the News.

  While Western media have for days been focusing on Russian-backed separatists as the culprits behind the missile attack on MH 17 over eastern Ukraine, the people of Russia have been hearing different stories from their government-controlled media.

The White House has announced President Barack Obama will be in Missouri next week to deliver a speech on the economy.

Jefferson City Police say they are ending the search for the body of Christopher Cray at the Allied Waste Landfill, just under a month after it began.

The acting secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs spoke Tuesday in St. Louis and said the beleaguered federal agency is making progress on a host of problems that led to his predecessor's forced resignation.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon traveled to Iowa to get a personal look at the latest methods in ethanol production.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, are prevalent in Missouri’s agriculture industry. The large farms are very controversial, and many have concerns about the environmental impact of the farms and humane treatment of animals living there. In Callaway County, plans for a new CAFO have prompted very vocal opposition. But CAFOs are also a mainstay of the agriculture industry, and are legal if maintained correctly.On this Intersection we addressed CAFOs in-depth: about what they are, how they’re used in Missouri, about the controversy surrounding them, and about the future of the operations in the state.

Regional coverage from the KBIA Newsroom, including:

• Missouri regulators return to the issue of paying bills with payday loans
• Demolition scheduled to begin on Monday at University Village Apartments
• Columbia City Council will vote Monday on approving funds for snow removal expenditures from last winter

The Columbia City Council is set to take a final vote Monday to appropriate funds to cover expenditures from the planned snow removal budget, according to the Columbia Tribune.

Demolition is scheduled to begin Monday at the University Village Apartment Complex on South Providence Road in Columbia, according to the Columbia Tribune.

Missouri regulators are again considering whether to stop payday lenders from collecting utility bill payments from their customers.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in November proposed a reduction in the amount of ethanol made from corn in the nation’s gas supply, much to the dismay of Corn Belt farmers. The agency has twice postponed its ruling, and the delay is vexing many Midwest farmers and politicians.

The EPA wants to reduce the amount of corn-based ethanol in the nation’s fuel supply—though the exact amount of this reduction hasn’t been decided.

Recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture says that over 90 percent of U.S. field corn is genetically modified. That figure has nearly doubled over the past 10 years.

Most of the corn farmers plant has been embedded with a gene—usually from a bacteria—that protects the corn from pests or herbicides.

Ten years ago, less than half of the corn planted had a genetically modified trait. Today, 93 percent of all field corn does, up from 90 percent last year.