Education

Fort Leonard Wood is honoring the first female soldier from Missouri who was killed in action in Iraq.

A building at the fort will be dedicated Thursday to Sgt. Amanda Pinson, who died in Iraq in 2006. A memorial plaque will also be unveiled.

The 21-year-old Pinson, of St. Louis, died when a mortar detonated near Tikrit, Iraq. She was a member of the 101st Military Intelligence Detachment of the 101st Airborne Division.

Opponents of the University of Missouri's decision to revamp its academic publishing business plan to meet to discuss their next steps.

Organizers of Tuesday's meeting say the school's plans to replace the press with a digital publishing operation that will rely largely on student workers will provide a poor substitute for the traditional university press model. Some members of the Columbia campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors are scheduled to meet with university system president Tim Wolfe later Tuesday.

The 911 Services administrator for Stoddard County in southeast Missouri is calling attention to a growing problem of children playing with discarded cellphones and accidentally calling 911.

The Dexter Daily Statesman reports that Carol Moreland says parents are apparently unaware that dialing random numbers from a cellphone or landline phone will eventually reach the 911 dispatch center, causing a distraction for dispatchers and emergency personnel.

The Missouri Department of Conservation is holding several meetings to discuss regulations for blue catfish.

Anglers and conservation officials have been concerned about declining blue catfish catches from Truman Reservoir for two decades and more recently from the Lake of the Ozarks. Both lakes have at least adequate numbers of smaller blue catfish but heavy fishing for those 24 inches and larger is keeping sizes smaller. The two lakes are formed by separate dams on the Osage River.

The City of Columbia has been highlighted as a “city to watch” by a nonprofit group based in several northwestern states.