Leggett & Platt schedules fourth quarter conference call

Carthage-based Fortune 500 company Leggett & Platt issued the following news release announcing the fourth quarter earnings call:

Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (NYSE: LEG), a diversified manufacturer of engineered products serving several major markets, will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss fourth quarter results on Wednesday, February 4, 2009, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (8:00 a.m. Central Time).

This call will be webcast by Thomson Financial and can be accessed from the Investor Relations section of Leggett's website at www.leggett.com.

Former Lamar High School home ec teacher dead at 64

One of the most traumatic things that can happen at a school when someone who is an everyday presence is suddenly there no more.

For Lamar High School students, it happened in 1984 when home economics teacher Carol Dobbins was injured in an automobile accident. The accident marked the end of her teaching career and forced her to be under professional care for the last quarter of a century.

Mrs. Dobbins died Thursday at age 64 at the Joplin Health and Rehabilitation Center.
Obituary information can be found at this link.

KKOW dominates Pittsburg fall Arbitron ratings

Country station KKOW-FM dominated Pittsburg's Fall Arbitron ratings with a 22.6 share, up from 20.2 in the spring book. The station had more than three times as many listeners as its nearest competitor, Zimmer's KSYN, Kissin' 92, at 7.3. The Joplin station improved from its third place, 6.7 showing in the spring.

KKOW-FM's sister station from the American Media Investments stable, KKOW-AM, with its Classic County format, dropped from second at 6.9 to 4.5.

The remainder of the top 10:

3. (tied with KKOW-AM) KXML, Carthage, 4.5
5. KIXQ, Zimmer, 4.0
5. KNEM-FM/KNMO FM, Nevada 4.0
7. KOMB-FM/KMDO-AM, Fort Scott, 2.9
8. KZBI-FM, 2.8
8. KIKS-FM, Iola, 2.8
10.KJMK-FM, Zimmer, 2.3
10.KJML-FM, FFD Holdings, 2.3
10. KSEK-FM 2.3

Gannett stock drops 56 cents

Gannett, owner of the Springfield News-Leader, saw its stock drop 56 cents to $6.77 per share Thursday.

Saga Communications stock dropped 22 cents to $1.15 per share. Saga owns KOAM and KJFX in the Joplin/Pittsburg market.

Nexstar Broadcasting stock closed at 72 cents per share, the same as it was on Wednesday. Nexstar owns KSNF in Joplin and KSFX in Springfield and is de facto owner of KODE in Joplin and KOLR in Springfield.

Sinquefield has fifth lobbyist prowling Jefferson City

Billionaire educational voucher supporter Rex Sinquefield now has five lobbyists roaming the halls of the state capitol, and the powerful Brown Lobby Firm has another one to represent its clients.

Missouri Ethics Commission documents indicate Nathan Boone registered Thursday night to join Brown, former Rep. Carl Bearden, Mark Tucker, and David Michael Jackson as lobbyists for Sinquefield.

Boone also registered to lobby for a number of other clients Thursday, including Astellas Pharma U.S. Inc, AT&T, Heyltex, K12, Metro Heart Group of St. Louis, Mid America Medical Affiliates, Missouri Attractions Association, Missouri Society of Anesthesiologists, Missourians for a Better Economy, Pelopidas, St. Louis Science Center Foundation, Cheap Cheap, American Academy of Dermatology Association, American Petroleum Institute, and the Brown Lobby Firm itself.

Ethics Commission records indicate Boone registered as a lobbyist Jan. 13. These are the first clients he has listed.

Speaker of the House: I can't be bought

Speaker of the House Ron Richard, R-Joplin, who backs a new Ameren UE nuclear plant as part of his jobs plan, tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Ameren's big bucks have nothing whatsoever to do with the support he and others are giving the company's project:

House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, has indicated that repealing the CWIP ban is part of his job-generation agenda, even though Ameren is still two years from making a firm decision and construction work probably wouldn't begin until a year or two after that.

Richard, however, bristled at the thought that Ameren was using its financial might to get its way. The company's political action committee and various executives contributed more than $300,000 to Missouri lawmakers in the most recent election cycle after a couple of years of very little political giving.

"I don't care if they give me a dollar or a million dollars," Richard said. "If you can't take their money and eat their chicken and say no, you've got no business being around here."

And let's make it absolutely clear, to be fair to Rep. Richard, he has not received one dollar or a million dollars from Ameren UE. However, he did receive a $7,500 contribution from the Ameren Oct. 14, another $7,500 contribution on Oct. 27, and he had already received a maximum $325 contribution Aug. 12 before contribution limits were rescinded.

Ethics Commission reports do not mention anything about their chicken.

House Majority Floor Leader receives $110,000 from Missouri Leadership Committee

House Majority Floor Leader Steven Tilley, R-Perryville, received two contributions totaling $110,000 from the Missouri Leadership Committee, according to 48-hour reports filed Wednesday with the Missouri Ethics Commission.

The Farmington-based committee, which has former Rep. Tom Burcham as its treasurer, contributed $10,000 Jan. 19, and $100,000 two days later, according to the reports.

GateHouse Illinois paper cuts five from newsroom

The Peoria Illinois Journal Star, a GateHouse Media newspaper, fired five newsroom employees, according to a report on WEEK in Peoria:

The head of the newspaper guild at the Peoria Journal Star tells News 25 that there were five layoffs in the newsroom Thursday and six others in the building in the past 24 hours.
The stock of the Journal Star's owner GateHouse Media has been in freefall and the company has been de–listed from the New York Stock Exchange.

Ellefsen trial date delayed

The trial of Carthage brothers Brian and Mark Ellefsen on charges of defrauding the federal government, originally scheduled for Feb. 9, has been pushed back until at least April 27, following a 15-minute session today in federal court in Springfield.

The Ellefsens were indicted in April 2007 for tax fraud. Their arrests were part of an ongoing federal investigation of the Aegis Company of Palos Hills, Ill. Aegis officials were indicted in April 2004 and charged with defrauding the U. S. Government of more than $68 million.

In a May 30, 2007 court filing, the Ellefsens' attorney noted the indictment "is linked to a nationwide Internal Revenue Service/U. S. Department of Justice project aimed both civilly and criminally at the Aegis Business Trust System, the Aegis Company, its promoters, attorneys, accountants and purchasers/investors."

The scope of the investigation was noted in the Department of Justice news release from April 2004:

Six of the defendants allegedly participated in a nearly decade-long conspiracy to market and sell sham domestic and foreign trusts through The Aegis Company, based in suburban Palos Hills, to some 650 wealthy taxpayer clients throughout the United States to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in income, resulting in a tax loss to the United States of at least $68 million, making the case one of the largest of its kind. Following a lengthy undercover investigation by IRS agents, code-named "Operation Trust Me" and the seizure of roughly 1.5 million documents, computer files and related materials, a federal grand jury in Chicago today returned a 51-count indictment against six of the defendants.

The federal indictment said Brian Ellefsen used diverted funds to "pay for cash withdrawals and charges made on the offshore credit card, payments for (his) personal expenses, payments on loans owned by (him), expenditures for the construction of (his) family home, and expenditures for the purchase of another residence located on Table Rock Lake, Missouri."

The Ellefsens misled the accounting firm preparing their income tax returns, according to the indictments, causing false income tax returns to be filed.

What are those idiots at the top level of GateHouse Media thinking?

When GateHouse Media officials decided to file a lawsuit against the New York Times for adding links, headlines, and the first sentence or two of stories from GateHouse papers, many of us were wondering, "What are those idiots thinking?"

Thousands of people who would probably not seek out the GateHouse papers are being directed to their sites, which obviously increases traffic, and should therefore increase money.

The GateHouse lawsuit also threatens other news aggregators, and even bloggers who often send traffic to GateHouse Media articles.

According to an article published by Nieman Journalism Lab, it appears that even GateHouse Media's top internet guru, Howard Owens, does not think much of the lawsuit, and the Times, in its response say GateHouse is doing the same thing with the Batavian, its first all-internet publication.

The story provides fascinating insight into a ridiculous lawsuit filed by a company that filed suit and then had to tell its own internet publications to stop doing the same thing it claimed was costing it money when done by the Times.

Now that takes a lot of nerve.