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GAINESVILLE, Mo. -- A man living in Ozark County is charged with second-degree murder after a shooting during a family outing Sunday near Mammoth. The victim was a man from Mountain Home, Ark. The shooting was next to Lick Creek near Mammoth, south of Gainesville, on private property near Big Rock swimming hole. A family of about 10 from Mountain Home was enjoying their Sunday, swimming and cooking hot dogs, when the owners came down to confront them. “There was an argument, push came to shove, a gun was drawn,” said Sheriff Raymond Pace. Pace says that's when Jesus Sesena-Murrieta,...

MAPLEWOOD -- A rookie firefighter was killed and two police officers were wounded when a gunman opened fire in Maplewood early today. The ambush led to a standoff that lasted several hours. It was unclear Monday afternoon what happened to the gunman, as the house he was holed up in was burned to the ground. At 2:40 p.m., police sharpshooters continued to swarm the neighborhood near South Big Bend Boulevard and Zephyr Place. Closed all day, Big Bend Boulevard was reopened at 4:30 p.m. today. The slain firefighter has been identified as Ryan Hummert, 22, the son of a former...

This was posted on a local forum in my hometown. I am really interested in your comments. "Babe, just like you believe now, several years ago I also thought FOX was fair and balanced when they were rightfully slamming the Clinton's. I now don't think any "news" stations are fair and balanced and probably have never been. CNN, FOX or any of them. They all work for the same corporate masters. Since the huge corporations own them, they are told to obey and report the news slant they are told to do. Once again the people at the top who...

Three area women who took part in Million Mom Marches (MMM) against gun violence are putting their convictions to the test in this year's races for the state legislature. All of them have a respect for the Second Amendment, although they put the emphasis on "well-regulated" in the Constitutional wording. All are unhappy with the 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision in June, which they contend promotes the availability of weapons over the safety of people.These state candidates said they're confident voters also are unhappy — even angry – that the pendulum has swung too far in a direction of unregulated...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Legal Newsline)-A Missouri candidate for the state Legislature says he has returned a $300 contribution from fellow Democrat state Sen. Chris Koster, who's running for attorney general. Dr. Vernon (Doc) Harlan of St. Louis is running for the 71st District state House seat in the Aug. 5 primary. Harlan said he returned the contributions amid recent revelations that Koster's campaign may have "been connected to laundering of political funds."

Click on the link for a great video report on the attempt by Democrat Rep. James Oberstar and unions to shut down the 1926 passenger steamboat Delta Queen, which sails America's inland rivers.

The 11th commandment of politics is that elected officials shall not take sides in their party primaries. Then again, Missouri Republicans are burdened with so many sins, what's one more? For an insight as to why the GOP is down and out in Washington, take a look at Jefferson City. That's where Sarah Steelman, the state treasurer, is running in an Aug. 5 primary for the Missouri governorship. And it's where her reform campaign against earmarks and self-dealing is threatening the entrenched status quo, causing her own party to rise against her.

Please Freep this poll. Of the 12 candidates listed for County Commissioner, only the first is a Republican. Help by voting for Bob Ott. ottforcommissioner.com

State of the Race: July 15th, 2008. Safely McCain (36 EVs): Alabama (9) Idaho (4) Kentucky (8) Oklahoma (7) Utah (5) Wyoming (3) Likely McCain (132): Alaska (3) Arkansas (6) Arizona (10) Georgia (15) Indiana (11) Kansas (6) Louisiana (9) Mississippi (6) Nebraska (5) South Carolina (8) South Dakota (3) Tennessee (11) Texas (34) West Virginia (5) Leans McCain (59): Florida (27) Missouri (11) Montana (3) North Carolina (15) North Dakota (3) This gives a total of 227 EVs, leaving McCain 43 EVs shy of the Presidency. Key States for McCain: 1.) Ohio (20 EVs) - Always a key battleground....

BREAKING NEWS: Anheuser-Busch and InBev have completed a deal at $70 per share, which will create a new company to be named Anheuser-Busch InBev. Anheuser will get two seats on the combined board.

In trying to reconcile Obama's flip flop about Iraq (first saying he'd listen to commanders on the ground, followed by saying he'd give the Joint Chiefs a new mission to get us out in 16 months [which is strange wording and reflects his lack of understanding about their role]), Sen. Claire McCaskill has this exact quote: "it would be irresponsible for a Commander in Chief to set in stone a date." Holy bjesus. THAT WAS THE DEMOCRATS' POLICY FOR OVER A YEAR!!!!! They tried to include that language in funding bills! Obama had a firm withdrawal deadline!!!!! On the night...

The verbal gymnastics of Barack Obama and his surrogates on Iraq is just mind-numbing! Today on Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw zeroed in on Obama surrogate Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and clearly demonstrated how contorted Obama's shifting positions on an Iraq Withdrawal have become. Listen to this exchange . . . (see video) You can tell that Brokaw is disbelieving of the fact that Obama is actually continuing to say pompously that he will "call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff on his first day in office" and "give them a new mission." That mission being - Get our...

Anheuser-Busch's (BUD) stock closed up over $5 at $66.50 on Friday and is trading at $67.00 after-hours. This price suggests the market is nearly certain that InBev will buy BUD at the rumored $70/share, and it may even incorporate the expectation of an additional price increase: given the political scrutiny this deal will receive, a 5% gap between the trading price and deal price is small. In other news, InBev's potential purchase of BUD is reverberating through St. Louis and the country...and folks aren't happy about it: Jordan Moore took the news that his beloved Budweiser could soon fall into...

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt signed into law today legislation that will make it harder for illegal aliens living in the state to receive benefits and harder to find jobs. The new legislations requires all public employers to use the E-Verify system to verify the legality of a potential employee and requires and individual to prove their citizenship status before receiving state benefits such as food stamps and housing. The bill also punishes those localities that adopt policies to not cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Missouri joins Arizona, Oklahoma, and Georgia in instituting state-wide anti-illegal immigration laws. So far, the laws...

President Bush has often spoken about education reform as a civil rights issue. So we're not entirely surprised to see civil rights groups now defending the No Child Left Behind law against attempts to gut its most effective provisions. Last month, Representative Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican, introduced the NCLB Recess Until Reauthorization Act, which would essentially suspend the law's accountability provisions but not the funding. Under Mr. Graves's bill, schools would no longer have to file progress reports that expose achievement gaps between kids of different races, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. Since NCLB passed in 2002, minority parents in...

SPRINGFIELD -- The Greene County sheriff fired a correctional officer who was charged this week with misusing his position for personal gain. A detective says Steven Donovan used a computer system that he didn't have clearance to use -- to clear his name. Donovan is charged with misuse of official information by a public servant. That’s a misdemeanor that could get him up to a year in a county jail if he’s convicted or pleads guilty. The detective says Donovan admits he cleared a warrant for his own arrest from Phelps County on a statewide computer system known as MULES...

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Missouri shows John McCain attracting 47% of the vote while Barack Obama earns 42%. A month ago, the candidates were essentially even. That survey was conducted the night that Obama clinched the Democratic Presidential nomination. McCain had the advantage in earlier surveys. When leaners are included in the current survey, McCain leads Obama 50% to 45%. Leaners are survey participants who initially indicate no preference for either major candidate but indicate that they are leaning towards either McCain or Obama. Including leaners, McCain is supported by 93% of Missouri Republicans and enjoys a...

Drawing the sharpest distinctions yet between himself and the man he hopes to replace, Sen. John McCain said Tuesday his presidency would focus on climate change issues, reducing federal spending, closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center and eliminating torture by the U.S. government. In a meeting with the Tribune-Review's editorial board, McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said "spending got out of control" under the Bush administration. He blamed Congress for pushing spending and the administration for failing to halt it.

Christian groups are appealing a federal judge's ruling that bars the Gideons from distributing Bibles to students of the South Iron Missouri School District. The South Iron School District allows off-campus organizations to distribute literature to students before and after school, and during other non-instructional times such as lunch breaks. But the American Civil Liberties Union sued, saying the Gideons should not be allowed to hand out Bibles because of their religious nature. U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry agreed. "In fact, the federal judge said...the ACLU must be able to have the say-so over whether religious literature can be distributed...

U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, one of two Republicans running for governor, sent out an e-release this morning challenging rival “Sarah Steelman’s newfound commitment to repeal the state’s renewable fuel directive…� Hulshof’s campaign contended that Steelman’s call to eliminate Missouri’s ethanol mandate could hike gas prices at a time when Missouri’s are the cheapest in the nation. (Many experts tie Missouri’s low price, in part, to our lower gas taxes.)

ST. LOUIS Sen. Barack Obama declared Saturday to a roaring crowd of religious African-Americans at the America's Center that they should have no doubt of his commitment to his Christian faith, his nation or his political principles. In an address filled with religious and patriotic imagery, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president told delegates attending a national conference here of the African Methodist Episcopal Church that his career and his life revolved around his belief that "I won't be fulfilling the Lord's Will unless I'm doing the Lord's work.'' That commitment would continue to influence his performance and his politics...

Veteran radio talker Darla Jaye, who just celebrated her third anniversary as the host of "The Darla Jaye Show show weekdays from 9-11 a.m. on KMBZ-980, will be moving her show to the evenings. SHE WILL REPLACE SYNDICATED TALKER MARK LEVIN. Jaye's new show, "980 Live With Darla Jaye," will be expanded to three hours and run from 7-10 p.m. Her current producer, Brian Mallicoat, will move with her to the new time slot. Jaye will be on vacation until her show commences July 14. Syndicated talk show host Glenn Beck will be inserted into the 9-11 a.m. slot vacated...

Chicago, IL (AHN) - Eight deaths in Illinois and Missouri are being linked to a 28-year old man sighted near the border of the two states. The Illinois State Police called Nicholas Sheley of Sterling "a person of interest". Sheley is armed, dangerous and has a $25,000 prize money on his head. He has been linked to at least five of the homicides, including four people whose corpse were discovered in an apartment at Rock Falls.

Sen. Barack Obama did patriotism yesterday, today it is faith and by the end of the day both speeches will have been done in back-to-back states that swing: Missouri and Ohio. The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator plans to go to Zanesville, located in eastern Ohio, to visit a church program that provides food and clothing assistance to those in need.

A brief has been filed in a federal appeals court asking the justices to overturn a judge who ordered a school district specifically to ban the Bible in its policy regarding the distribution of literature to students. WND reported just a week ago when a federal judge declared unconstitutional a Florida law that was used to prevent Gideons from handing out Bibles to students on public property near schools.Now comes another dispute, this one in Missouri and pursued by Liberty Counsel in its request to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. It wants the court to...

Archbishop Raymond Burke St. Louis, Jun 27, 2008 / 10:50 am (CNA).- Today the Holy Father appointed Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.  The archbishop, one of the leading experts of Canon law in the United States will leave the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri to take up his new post in Rome near the end of August. The appointment came on the same day that Pope Benedict named Cardinal Agostino Vallini, current prefect of the Supreme Tribunal, as the vicar general for the Diocese of Rome - the highest diocesan...

A new SurveyUSA poll shows John McCain taking a decent lead in one battleground state: Missouri. The numbers: McCain 50%, Obama 43%, with a ±4.3% margin of error. Three weeks ago, Obama had a statistically insignificant lead of 45%-43%. The race here has a very stark gender gap: Men go for McCain 60%-36%, and women for Obama 50%-41%. This state has 11 electoral votes, and has voted for the winner in every presidential election over the last 100 years except for 1956.

A new SurveyUSA poll shows John McCain taking a lead in the battleground state of Missouri. The numbers: McCain 50%, Obama 43%, with a ±4.3% margin of error. Three weeks ago, Obama had a statistically insignificant lead of 45%-43%. The race here has a very stark gender gap: Men go for McCain 60%-36%, and women for Obama 50%-41%. This state has 11 electoral votes, and has voted for the winner in every presidential election over the last 100 years except for 1956.

Legislation moving toward House debate would slash six judges from the St. Louis Circuit Court, while adding new judges to courts in the St. Louis County, Kansas City and Springfield areas.Rep. Bryan Stevenson, R-Webb City and a lawyer, said state resources must be allocated efficiently, and some courts desperately need more judges. He pointed to a special legislative committee report along with a state report conducted by the National Center of State Courts that found St. Louis has more judges than it needs. Stevenson said the studies and other judges have indicated St. Louis has more than it needs and...

What residents were hoping they could avoid has happened in St. Charles. As feared, part of the Elm Point Levee has burst and water is rushing through right now at a rapid pace. Authorities say that the levee burst in two spots around 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday. One of those holes is reportedly the size of a football field. Several homes and businesses in the area are now flooded. Officials say that residents in that area voluntarily evacuated before the breach.    Google map link

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2008 – Missouri is the latest Midwestern state to see increasing numbers of National Guard citizen-soldiers and –airmen on duty in the face of the region’s worst flooding in 15 years. “Our priority is to protect the lives of Missouri’s residents and their property,” Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt said during a visit to flood-affected areas with National Guard officials. “Then we will focus on recovery efforts.” “As Missourians continue to face the rising waters of the Mississippi, their Missouri National Guard stands beside them in the fight,” Army Maj. Gen. King Sidwell, the state’s adjutant general, said....

Union leaders representing InBev workers in Brazil, Canada and Europe have a simple message for Anheuser-Busch employees if InBev takes control of the St. Louis-based brewery: Watch out. "They should worry, because the production is going to be concentrated and the work force reduced," says Siderlei Oliveira, president of Brazil's 1.2 million-member food workers union, citing a reduction in Brazil's brewery workers to 13,000 from 23,000 since the 1990s. "This is the strategy that they have." In Canada, labor-management relations are "starting to thaw after a significant period of turmoil" marked by years of strikes, lockouts, changes in work rules,...

A young man got caught in the river's rage while trying to recover more of his folks belongings. He died in those merciless waters. At the rate the river was moving, it boggles the mind that his body could be recovered. Yet instead of being swept away, he was found relatively close by. God was hanging onto him for his family's sake. Perfect strangers were driving up to people's houses and would just start loading belongings. No questions asked, just pitching in. Getting people and parts of their life to safety. God was the matchmaker, giving people that could help...

OAKVILLE, Iowa -- Southeastern Iowa and other parts of the Midwest filled sandbags in anticipation of the Mississippi River's wrath Tuesday as the rest of Iowa began the slow move from protection to cleanup. The federal government predicts that 27 levees could potentially overflow along the river if the weather forecast is on the mark and a massive sandbagging effort fails to raise the level of the levees, according to a map obtained Monday by the Associated Press.

The Senate confirmed three district court nominees today: Mark Davis of Virginia and Stephen Limbaugh and David Kays of Missouri. Sen. McConnell took the opportunity to chastise the Democrats about their obstruction of circuit nominees and to again make good on his pledge to slow down the Senate until the obstruction is eased. From McConnell’s office: Although the Majority fulfilled their commitment from last week to confirm three more District Court nominees today …, Leader McConnell did not feel these actions were sufficient in light of the continued lack of circuit court confirmations. … Therefore, Leader McConnell invoked the two-hour...

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2008 – More than 600 National Guard members in Illinois and Missouri are continuing sandbagging operations along the Mississippi River today in an effort to thwart the flood waters that are subsiding in Iowa. Soldiers from 1138th Transportation Company, based at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., fill sandbags June 15, 2008, in Clarksville, Mo., an area expected to get more flood water this week. Photo by Gary Stevens, Missouri National Guard  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Illinois and Missouri rivers flow into the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. Flooding on those rivers is not...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - The Cedar River poured over its banks Thursday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 homes, causing a railroad bridge to collapse and leaving cars underwater on downtown streets. Officials estimated that 100 blocks were underwater in Cedar Rapids, where several days of preparation could not hold back the rain-swollen river. Rescuers had to use boats to reach many stranded residents, and people could be seen dragging suitcases up closed highway exit ramps to escape the water. "We're just kind of at God's mercy right now, so hopefully people that never prayed before this, it...

Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev wooed Anheuser-Busch on Thursday, vowing to respect its St. Louis heritage and not close any US breweries if it accepts a 46-billion-dollar (30-billion-euro) takeover bid. InBev, which already owns leading brands such as Stella Artois, Beck's, Leffe and Brahma, offered 65 dollars a share for Anheuser-Busch on Wednesday, seeking to build an unrivalled global brewer. Even though the St. Louis, Missouri-based company said it would "review the merits" of the takeover, InBev faces stiff opposition from local politicians and beer lovers, who were quick to attack the takeover. The success of the takeover offer will ultimately...

Excerpt - Anheuser-Busch Inc. confirmed it has received an unsolicited $65 per share offer from Belgian brewer InBev to buy the iconic American brewer. With more than 713 million shares outstanding, the bid is valued at more than $46.3 billion. Anheuser-Busch's board of directors will evaluate the proposal and make its decision to InBev's proposal in due course. The brewer of Budweiser and Bud Light said that its board of directors will act in the best interests of the company's stockholders. Anheuser-Busch is the dominant domestic competitor of Miller Brewing Co., of Milwaukee. ~ snip ~

Drivers Seek Mileage Boost From Hydrogen, Oxygen BubblesBy TIM KNAUSS   Steve Kushnir's 'Hydrogen Hurricane' is an equipment package he sells that uses a car's electricity to make hydrogen and improve the way the engine burns gas. (Photo By Frank Ordonez)     [Liverpool, NY] -- Stephen Kushnir's 7-year-old Chevrolet Prizm used to get 35 miles per gallon on the highway. Not bad, but Kushnir thought he could do better. A month ago Kushnir, a middle school technology teacher in Liverpool, N.Y., popped the hood and installed a gas-saving gizmo he had purchased over the Internet. He got it from...

Bush v. Carter Pittsburgh Tribune-Review By Salena Zito What's good for the goose is just as good for the gander. Presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama loves to frame presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain as the baton carrier of Bush's third term. John McCain, not to be outdone in the branding department, shoots back this evening in an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, concerning whose third term he believes that Obama is representing. Here is part of the transcript: Williams: Is it going to be tough to run with an incumbent party for the White House, given this economic...

For the last 44 years, Kelleher has run for office 16 times and lost 15. His only taste of victory came in 1971, when he was elected a delegate to Montana’s Constitutional Convention. There, he helped replace the state’s century-old territorial constitution with one of the most progressive governing documents in the nation. Kelleher’s political passion then, as now, is unique - and largely unpopular: He wants to replace the U.S. Senate, House and presidency with a parliament. Under a parliamentary system, citizens vote for parties, not individual candidates. The party with the most votes selects a prime minister, who...

For nearly a decade, Angela Hills of Columbia has been known to her fans as Angie Daniels, a Harlequin romance novelist who writes about strong, sexy women and the men who love them. This time, Hills is her own heroine. In March, the 40-year-old fulfilled a longtime dream when she graduated from Air Force Basic Military Training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, becoming the oldest person ever to complete the program. Airman 1st Class Angela Hills, posing at the Joint Force Headquarters in Jefferson City, at 40 became the oldest graduate from Air Force Basic Military Training. In...

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Missouri shows that Barack Obama and John McCain are essentially even if the race for the Show-Me State’s Electoral College votes. Obama currently attracts 43% of the vote while McCain earns 42%. This survey was conducted Tuesday night, the night that Obama clinched the Democratic nomination.

On his own, Obama leads McCain by 2 points, within the margin of sampling error, in Missouri. When running mates are added to the mix, McCain takes the lead with any of Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, or Chuck Hagel … unless Obama chooses John Edwards...

As the summer beer-drinking season gets ready to kick into gear, reports are swirling that Anheuser-Busch could be the target of a buyout attempt by Belgian-based (but Brazilian-run) InBev in a deal that could put the sole remaining big-cap American brewer into foreign hands. Stagnant domestic growth has kept shares of Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc, the largest U.S. brewer by volume -- and No. 3 globally, behind conglomerates SABMiller and InBev -- in the doldrums for several years. Content with a dominant stateside market share of nearly 50%, the St. Louis-based company was slow to innovate, catching on late to a...

Come November, voters will decide on more than half a million federal, state and local officeholders and ballot initiatives. Ninety-nine percent of these decisions will matter less than will the five civil rights initiatives that might be on the ballots in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri. If the initiatives qualify for those states' ballots, all probably will pass. But the initiatives must surmount ferocious opposition from defenders of racial preferences, such as the politicians who administer and benefit from Missouri's racial spoils system. The crux of the Missouri Civil Rights Initiative (MoCRI) would amend that state's constitution to say:...

A Nixa woman accused of stealing more than $25,000 from her former employer over a two-year period was bound over to Christian County Circuit Court May 21 and scheduled for a June 6 arraignment. Sandra J. Martin, 42, will appear in front of Judge Mark Orr on one count of a class B felony for stealing from her dentist employer. She was originally slated for a bench trial May 21 in Christian County Associate Court, but instead waived her preliminary hearing and was bound over to circuit court. Martin was arrested Dec. 19, 2007, after her employer, Nixa dentist Michael...

BUTLER, Mo. -- A western Missouri car dealership is offering a free handgun with the purchase of a vehicle. Car buyers at Max Motors in Butler have a choice -- a $250 coupon for either a gun or gasoline. Dealer owner Walt Moore said that so far, most buyers have chosen the gun coupon, adding that he suggests they opt for a semiautomatic model because they hold more rounds. *snip* Moore said, "Down here we all believe in God, guts and guns."