The Joint Committee on Education will have its initial discussion on the Foundation Formula, through which Missouri public schools are funded, during an 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8 meeting. State Senator Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, serves on the committee.
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Finally, a member of this area's House of Representatives contingent will have a voice on education matters. On Thursday, Rep. Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, was appointed to a special committee on education funding.
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Third quarter financial results for La-Z-Boy Inc will be reported after the closing of trading on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Feb. 8.
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The Associated Press reports that Governor Matt Blunt criticized a $20 million judgment against tobacco company Brown & Williamson, citing it as an example of the need for reform in Missouri's court systems.
Unmentioned in the article is Blunt's conflict of interest in matters regarding the tobacco industry, which has been hit hard by lawsuits during the past several years. Blunt's brother and his stepmother are both lobbyists for the Phillip Morris company.
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The Carthage Press reports that Nexstar Broadcasting COO Duane Lammers will be in Joplin Tuesday, Feb. 8, to film a 30-minute special in which he will talk about the history of cable television and talk about the situation currently going on in this area with the issue of rebroadcasting rights.
It would be nice if the program were taped by Nexstar's advertising department and did not involve any of KODE or KSNF's news personnel, since I am sure this program is not going to be providing a balanced view of the issue.
At least that's the way it will be if Nexstar follows the pattern it has already established. A similar program was shown in the San Angelo, Texas, area earlier this evening and not only served as a half-hour advertisement for Nexstar, but also for Echostar/Dish Network.
I am sure KODE and KSNF viewers in this area would prefer to be watching reruns of "Seinfeld" and "Friends" at that time.
Lammers told The Press the special "will urge people to drop cable in favor of the Dish Network." It will air at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, on both stations.
The Press article also indicated that Nexstar may go to court to settle its dispute with Cox Communications, which is continuing to air the two Joplin stations on its services in Carthage and Lamar through a legal maneuver that puts the stations in Cox's Kansas region, which has another year to go on its contract with Nexstar.
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Arkansas Business reports that Beverly Enterprises of Fort Smith which owns a skilled nursing facility in Anderson, has filed a letter with the Securities and Exchange Commission rejecting a proposed takeover attempt by Formation Capital.
The letter follows a Jan. 27 letter in which Beverly President and CEO criticized Formation Capital CEO Arnold Whitman for "acting in bad faith" during the takeover attempt. Formation filed documents with the SEC last week indicating it had offered Beverly $11.50 per share for the company or $1.2 billion for its nursing homes. Formation already owns eight percent of Beverly.
In response, Beverly adopted a shareholder rights plan to guard against the takeover.
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The popularity of former KODE anchor Malorie Maddox continues. Over the past several weeks more than 50 people have reached The Turner Report by entering Ms. Maddox' name into a search engine, slightly more than double the next most widely used search term "Nexstar."
Other search terms that have been used more than 10 times include: Cox Communications, Cable One, O'Sullivan Industries, Robert Parker, Edward Meerwald, and Ron Doerge.
During the past few days, Joplin teen Travis Wyrick, who is charged with felony leaving the scene of an accident in connection with the hit-and-run death of Joplin High School senior Jamison Alexander, has been the subject of several searches.
The most popular search engine for people looking for the Turner Report has been Google, followed by Yahoo, MSN, Netscape, Alta Vista, Hotbot, and Webcrawler.
The most popular link to this blog has been from Lamarmo.com, followed by Wildcat Central and Neosho Forums.