Newscast December 8, 2011

Regional news coverage from the KBIA newsroom

• U.S. senators from seven Missouri River states are asking the Government Accountability Office to examine this summer's heavy flooding throughout the river basin
• A task force is recommending that funding for universities and community colleges in Missouri be based in part on graduation rates and other performance-based criteria
• Police officials say there appears to be an increase in heroin related overdoses in Cole County
• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that romaine lettuce from a single farm is likely to blame for an E. coli outbreak in Missouri and nine other states.