Hip replacements can do a lot of good, but they don't last forever.

To lower the failure rates of artificial hips, particularly in younger people, doctors have tried using metal-on-metal hip joints with larger heads.

But those metal-on-metal hips, which were supposed to be more durable, have their own problems.

Missouri backup quarterback Ashton Glaser has been arrested in Columbia on Laclede County warrants issued after he failed to show up in court for a speeding ticket.

Sikeston native and “America’s Got Talent” winner Neal E. Boyd plans to dip his toes into politics.  Boyd will run as a Republican in the 149th House District.

Auditor Tom Schweich says the state and local governments are routinely violating Missouri's open records and meetings law.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says he's disappointed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied a request to provide disaster aid to residents in 18 southern and northern Missouri counties recently hit by violent weather.

Regional news coverage from the KBIA News room, including:

• Gov. Nixon's request for FEMA aid denied.
• Schweich blasts state and local governments for not adhering to Sunshine Laws.
• A MU backup quarterback is arrested in Columbia.

"Strange things are happenin' to me" a bewitched Mitt Romney said recently to a crowd of Mississippi supporters. The former Massachusetts governor is right: Strange things do happen to folks, especially national political candidates, when they talk to us Southerners. They start drawling and twanging, trying to sound like us. Sometimes, they're mocking us; sometimes they're just trying to be friendly. We know the difference.

President Bashar Assad's forces have placed landmines "near the borders with Lebanon and Turkey" along routes used by refugees trying to flee the fighting inside Syria, the watchdog group Human Rights Watch reported today.

Saying it has collected "reports and confirmations from witnesses and Syrian deminers," the organization called such actions "unconscionable."

There was a 1.1 percent increase in retail sales in February from January, the Census Bureau says. It was the largest rise in five months, Reuters reports.

And the gain didn't come just become rising gas prices led to a 3.3 percent increase in the value of gasoline sales. According to The Associated Press, retail sales rose 0.8 percent excluding gasoline.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. You too could be the proud new owner of an entire town. Buford, Wyoming goes up for sale next month. It's at 8,000 feet, the highest town on the coast-to-coast Interstate 80. It's an old railroad town, once home to thousands, but now with a population of one. That person, Don Sammons, plans to retire from managing his businesses and move. So an auction comes in April - one gas station, one convenience store, a garage and a home. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.