Two Joplin area state representatives have been assigned committee chairmanships by Speaker of the House Rod Jetton. Rep. Steve Hunter, R-Carl Junction, will be chairman of the Workforce Development and Workplace Safety Committee, and Rep. Ron Richard, R-Joplin, will head the Job Creation and Economic Development Committee.
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More information about the complaint filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission about former Missouri State Representative and Enron lobbyist Roy Cagle, first mentioned in The Turner Report, will run in an article in tomorrow's Joplin Globe.
Cagle reportedly says the complaint has no merit and involves a bureaucratic snafu. The complaint alleges that Cagle did not register as a lobbyist for all of the companies he represented. Cagle says he did, but that he no longer serves as a lobbyist for the organization in question.
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Nothing used to irritate me more than the annual press release sent out by Missouri Southern State College (it was college at the time) announcing that tuition rates were going up. Each year, year after year, the news release would come, always accompanied by the announcement that the college's tuition rates were still the lowest in the state of Missouri.
The good news is that MSSU did not raise its tuition rates this year. The better news is that college students may receive some added protection against this insidious practice of annual tuition increases that far surpass the rate of inflation.
The first reading of a bill submitted by 14th District Missouri State Representative Joe Smith, R-St. Charles was held today. Smith's bill would freeze tuition rates for state undergraduates from the time they enter college until they graduate.
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An April 24, 2006, trial date has been set for the Diamond R-4 School District's lawsuit against Edison Schools, according to documents filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
The two sides in the dispute have a July 15 deadline for discovery, the documents said.
School district officials claim they should not have to pay Edison $88,000 of the fee the company is charging for operating Diamond's summer school in 2002. This apparently is the only time a school district has gone to court to question Edison's bills. The company, under its summer school unit Newton Learning, operates summer school for the Sarcoxie, East Newton, and McDonald County school districts in southwest Missouri and have made considerable money for those districts.
Newton Learning provides the curriculum and hires the teachers, usually from within the district, and pays them. Newton also provides materials, which the school districts are allowed to keep.
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The man with the $10 million dollar teeth, Martin Anthony Eck, will be questioned Friday, Jan. 28, by lawyers representing Jasper County Sheriff Archie Dunn and the Jasper County Commission, according to a document filed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Eck brought a $10 million lawsuit against the county claiming he was deprived of his dental care while he was in the Jasper County Jail. The questioning will take place at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, where Eck is serving time after pleading guilty to child molestation.
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The promotion of an inexperienced reporter to an anchor position at Nexstar's KSFX-TV (formerly KDEB) in Springfield continues to be the subject of much speculation in the Ron Davis blog out of Springfield. Rachel Aram had her first night at the anchor desk at KSFX after spending only three months at KSFX's partner station, KOLR of Mission Broadcasting (the two stations have the same arrangement as KODE and KSNF have in the Joplin market. Other, more experienced KOLR personnel were bypassed to promote Ms. Aram, posters on the Davis blog said.
Apparently, she has interesting eating habits. According to her bio on the KOLR website, Ms. Aram, who grew up in Springfield, is proud of the fact that she has "two motivating, nourishing parents."
I hope she meant nurturing.
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A celebration of the publication of Carthage native John Hall's book, "Mickey Mantle: Before the Glory," was planned during a meeting earlier this week at Missouri Southern State University. Members of the old minor league teams, the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids, Joplin Miners, and Independence Yankees will be recognized during the festivities.
After a meeting attended by Hall, Judy Stiles and Bill Hunt of MSSU's KGCS-TV, Mike McAfee, director of the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Mike Greninger, executive director of the Joplin Sports Authority, the dates of April 15 and 16 were selected and a preliminary agenda was announced.
A mixer will be held 6 p.m. April 15, at the host motel, which will be announced later. Lunch is tentatively planned for 12 noon April 16 at Joe Becker Stadium. Former area minor league baseball players, many of whom played with Mickey Mantle, will be announced during the Missouri Southern-Missouri Western doubleheader that afternoon.
A catered banquet will be held at 6 p.m. at the Joplin Sports Hall of Fame in Schifferdecker Park. Hall says a "special speaker" will be at the event and notes "the speaker will be special."
Exact figures will be announced later, but Hall says the registration fee will likely be in the $25 to $30 range.
More information later.
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The industry magazine TV Business Review has come down squarely on Nexstar's side in its continuing battle with Cox and Cable One over payment for airing the programming of Nexstar stations.
In today's edition, the magazine editors noted, "TVBR stands with Nexstar to help educate television executives on the high importance of fighting now for this financial improvement by the cable MSOs or by 2006 it will be too late and the winds of Naples, Fla., will be at your back."
Nexstar COO Duane Lammers told the magazine he was not surprised by the negative public reaction against his company, but he said he and other Nexstar executives have spent "long hours" talking to customers by telephone and explaining their position and he thinks the conversations are beginning to have a positive effect.
The San Angelo Texas Standard-Times supported Cox Communications against Nexstar, in an editorial accusing Nexstar of being greedy. "Nexstar's demands aren't reasonable," the Standard-Times editorial said. The newspaper criticized the San Angelo stations for their out-of-town ownership, which struck some as odd since Cox Communications is also an out-of-town business and the Standard-Times itself is run by an out-of-town company, E. W. Scripps.
The next big deadline locally comes a week from Monday when Nexstar plans to order Cox to take KODE and KSNF off its cable franchises in Lamar and Carthage.
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Former Lamar High School Principal John Garton will retire from education at the end of the current school year. Garton has been serving as part-time superintendent in the Miller R-2 School District while that district hires a new leader.
Tonight's Carthage Press article by Kaylea Hutson indicates Anthony Rossetti, currently principal at Columbian Elementary School in Carthage will be the new superintendent.
Garton, a Miller native, also served time as an interim superintendent in the Jasper R-5 School District.