Janet Saidi

This week, Janet Saidi sits in for Scarlett Robertson as host of Off the Clock. A week after True/False weekend, Columbia was home to another cultural spree: Independent Actors Theatre’s fourth annual short Women’s Play Festival. KBIA’s Harum Helmy brings us some highlights from the event, which featured six short plays, four different playwrights and three local directors.

Concerns about a “blight” designation in the city of Columbia are continuing to come out in public forums. Issues such as using outdated census data from the year 2000, incorporating the first ward in the blighted zone, and potential employment of felons in the new “blighted” areas are among concerns being raised. 

The Blight Decree proposal passed at the February 6th City Council meeting created a map that made about 60 percent of Columbia a “blighted” zone.  About 80 people gathered to discuss the ramifications of the Blight Decree proposal that was brought before the Columbia City Council by Regional Economic Development, Inc., or REDI. 

Columbia City Manager Mike Matthes has announced plans to implement 14 recommendations made in a report highly critical of the Columbia Police Department. The report outlines problems within CPD, saying the department's reputation in the community has been steadily dropping.

"The community has lowered the report card of the police department from a B to a D over the past six years," said City Manager Mike Matthes.

The American Soybean Association is pushing for U.S. trade representatives to negotiate better trading terms with Europe, looking for the European Union to ease the strict restrictions it imposes on genetically modified soybeans. The group petitioned a U.S. trade representative who is part of a new working group with the European Union to work on its behalf. 

Regional news from the KBIA newsroom, including:

• Curators discuss proposed budget cut outcomes
• Senate Democrats end filibuster
• Judge hears closing arguments in congressional redistricting
  

Regional news from the KBIA newsroom, including:

• Missouri Senate passes legislation that increases the  information government agencies must put online
• Claire McCaskill announces her $5 million re-election war chest
• Missouri State Treasurer announces a new financial assistance package for beginning farmers

   

A bronze replica of the MLK National Memorial in Washington DC has been presented to MU. The statue replica was presented at MU’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. KBIA’s Elizabeth Trovall was there, and has this report.

Regional news from the KBIA newsroom, including:

• Missouri's first female chancellor is Cheryl B. Schrader
• House passes budget caps
• Missouri tries to tax cigarettes
• Medicinal cannabis activists arrested

A former engineer at the Callaway Nuclear Plant is requesting that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, look into possible violations of the operating license at the Callaway plant, owned and operated by Ameren Missouri.

By Janet Saidi

Larry Criscione is an engineer who previously worked as a senior reactor operator at Ameren Missouri’s Callaway Nuclear Plant. He’s filing a petition with an NRC petition review board, asking them to look into possible violations in plant shutdown procedures, which Criscione says are not in compliance with the plant’s operating license and NRC regulations.  

Regional news from the KBIA newsroom:

• Winter weather advisory remains in effect until 6pm today
• An Ameren plant in Missouri is a top-ten polluter in the US