For patients in nursing homes, treatment with antipsychotic medicines is pretty much routine.

Though the drugs were developed to treat schizophrenia, they're also used to manage the dementia-related behavior of elderly patients. Up to a third of patients in nursing homes get the drugs, despite their risks.

Regional news coverage from the KBIA News room, including:

• Stephens College reorganizes academic departments
• No more Cool Stuff downtown
• Missouri House passes English driver's license requirement

One of science fiction's jobs is to give humanity a map of where we're headed. From Jules Verne to William Gibson, sci-fi authors have described their versions of the future, and how people might live in it.

Those ideas came up in a recent conversation I had with Brian David Johnson, who works for Intel as a futurist — a title that gives him one of the tech world's cooler business cards.

There was a 0.9 percent drop in sales of new homes in January vs. December, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development just reported.

The annual sales rate, 321,000, was still 3.5 percent above the pace of January 2011, however.

And The Associated Press notes that the dip in January from December may have partly been due to the fact that "the government said the final quarter of 2011 was stronger than first estimated."

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- U.S., Other 'Friends Of Syria,' To Call On Syria's Assad To Step Aside.

-- Obama's Tax Plan Is 'Step Forward,' But Not Enough, Key Republican Says.

Stephens College is reorganizing, in a move that won’t cost more money, but will shuffle departments and faculty.

In a move that likely opens him up to some obvious Democratic attacks, Mitt Romney is turning to members of President George W. Bush's economic brain trust to craft what he hopes will be a winning economic message.

The kitschy and iconic downtown Columbia store Cool Stuff is closing its doors after 23 years in business. Owner Arnie Fagan, an MU alum, opened the store in 1988 as a tie-dye shop.

Campaigning in Michigan Thursday night, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney reached out to Tea Party voters — a segment of the party that he's had a hard time winning over in previous states during this primary season.