Things I'm Thinking About, January 14

Here a few of the things I'm thinking about-

Where is the Joplin Globe?- The  Turner Report broke the story Monday morning that former Royal Heights Principal Larry Masters had filed a lawsuit against Joplin R-8 Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer, claiming that her lies cost him his job. Since that time, all four Joplin area television stations have covered the story and I received a call from KZRG a few minutes ago seeking some information. So far, the lawsuit has not been mentioned in the Joplin Globe, as far as I can determine. It is not an exaggeration to say that most people with any knowledge of the situation have known for the past several months that my stories about the Joplin School District have been accurate. Over the next several weeks, with this lawsuit and others that I am sure will follow, as well as wide-ranging state and federal investigations into the operations of the school, it is going to be almost impossible for the Joplin Globe to pretend that nothing is wrong in C. J. Huff's kingdom. Of course, the Globe could do what it did when Bruce Speck was in charge at Missouri Southern State University when it wrote nothing critical about him for years, then the minute he was gone offered an editorial saying that we must never let anything like the Speck Administration ever happen again.

Where Does the Business Community Stand? One of the generally agreed upon evaluations of this year's Joplin City Council and Joplin R-8 School Board races is that the business community will support the status quo. That is not what I am hearing and the filing of the Joplin Progress Committee's first quarterly report with the Missouri Ethics Commission Saturday backs up that view. While there are a few prominent business names on the list, many of those who agree with the philosophy espoused on the website that city council and school board members should not have anything to do with day-to-day operations, appear to be CEOs of various hospitals or publicly traded companies and while these people have every right to play a role in Joplin politics, their opinions are not necessarily indicative of how the business community feels. I am still hearing it is wide open and there is serious concern about the operation of both the city and the school.

More Mike Shannon- As a St. Louis Cardinals fan for more than a half-century, no news could make me happier than to hear that Mike Shannon, a Cardinal broadcaster for the past 42 years and the voice of the Cardinals since the death of Jack Buck (the best baseball announcer ever as far as I am concerned0 in 2002, has signed a multi-year contract to continue, though he will be calling only a few road games this year. When Shannon is gone, TV announcers Al Hrabosky and/or Rick Horton will work with John Rooney, while another Cardinal great and teammate of Shannon's in the '60s, Tim McCarver, will work in the Fox Sports Midwest booth. Pitchers and catchers report next month.