November 21, 2009
Ken Newton - Senior Reporter/Columnist
Steelman won't run for Senate
Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009
Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009
Friday, Sept. 11, 2009
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009
Brothers spin similar tales
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009
Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009
Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009
Monday, Sept. 7, 2009
Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009
Cycling crew knows no stranger
Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009
Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009
Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009
Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009
Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009
Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009
Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009
Friday, Aug. 21, 2009
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Vision continues for Maryville family
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009
Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Veteran witnessed atomic tests
Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009
Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009
Friday, Aug. 7, 2009
Friday, Aug. 7, 2009
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009
Group sad to see school close
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009
Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Monday, Aug. 3, 2009
Shop treats well all who come in
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Science remains driving force of space exploration
Sunday, July 19, 2009
A generation looks back on a flashbulb memory
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
The Associated Press reported Wednesday morning that Sarah Steelman has decided not to run for the Republican nomination for Missouri's U.S. Senate seat in 2010.
Animal health bill passes after some debateWednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
Few things happen easily in Congress these days, and a resolution mentioning St. Joseph generated a brisk discussion in the U.S. House on Tuesday.
Money and the mouth in CongressTuesday, Sept. 15, 2009
Most mornings, my breakfast consists of something made of oats.
Life now leaves only duel of wordsSunday, Sept. 13, 2009
Patronage politics led to a grim moment for Gen. William A. White. He took a gunshot over a postmastership.
Federal Notes: Legislators express views on Obama's health-care speechFriday, Sept. 11, 2009
The opportunity exists for across-the-aisle cooperation in crafting health-care reform, Sen. Sam Brownback believes. But the Kansas lawmaker says certain conditions must be met.
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009
Word spread on Thursday morning that the political opponent of Rep. Joe Wilson raised big money immediately after the South Carolina congressman heckled President Obama in the U.S. House chamber.
Brothers spin similar tales
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009
Eugene Willett rubs it in like any older brother would. Rick Willett accepts taunts with a younger sibling’s good nature.
They work a short sidewalk apart, in different buildings of the Tri-County School District. Eugene teaches in the newer structure.
“Rick is happy that he doesn’t have air-conditioning,” big brother says. “I’m happy that I do.”
Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009
A traveling troupe advocating defeat of federal health-care legislation punctuated its St. Joseph stop Tuesday with a bit of cell-phone activism. Carl Bearden of the Patients First bus tour asked supporters at the afternoon event to use their cell phones to dial Sen. Claire McCaskill’s Kansas City office. When anyone got an answer, the group shouted, “Hands off my health care. Thank you.”
An ability to change the subjectTuesday, Sept. 8, 2009
World historians always tag the United States as a young country. Chronologically, they have a point.
Congress returns after an angry AugustMonday, Sept. 7, 2009
An angry August bleeds into a factious fall as members of Congress return to Washington this week, their ears ringing and their agendas overflowing.
Town-hall clamor occupied much of lawmakers’ district work periods, and constituents let them have it on matters ranging from health-care reform, cap-and-trade energy legislation and federal spending.
As representatives and senators resume their capital activities Tuesday, congressional approval ratings stand at 29 percent, according to Real Clear Politics, a Web site that aggregates polling data from several national organizations.
Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009
Once, long ago, I had a scary in-law.
Cycling crew knows no stranger
Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009
Don’t let the acronym fool you. It reads like Defense Department shorthand.
RAGBRAI. Maybe a missile system.
Actually, participants say, it’s a gathering of 10,000 best friends. Bob and Cindy Neidinger hated missing it this summer.
Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration takes justifiable pride in the presentation of data it collects.
St. Joseph goes local in gearing up for censusSunday, Aug. 30, 2009
To carry out a constitutionally decreed program, government prefers a moment in the background.
Those forming St. Joseph’s plans for a full population count in the 2010 census believe citizen-to-citizen education will produce the best results.
Not that the federal government has ceded its decennial obligation. The Census Bureau has printed 120 million questionnaires in its mandated chore of counting everyone living in the United States.
But government involvement remains part of the issue.
Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009
New Yorkers have a reputation for rudeness. My visits to their city never bore that out.
Farmer writes in defense of rural AmericaThursday, Aug. 27, 2009
Blake Hurst admits having a chip on his shoulder. He admits hearing rural-aimed condescension in words people probably don’t recognize as such.
Most times, he rolls his eyes at the slights, then recounts them for a laugh.
An Internet critic of Mr. Hurst’s writings on Middle America doubts his vocation because the essay places him on an airplane. How can he be a farmer and out flying around the country?
Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009
Tributes began pouring in Wednesday morning as people awoke to the news that Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy had died of brain cancer. Called the "liberal lion" of the Senate, Mr. Kennedy had a name that elicited different responses in the Midwest than it did on the national stage.
Economic news provides another 'yikes!' momentTuesday, Aug. 25, 2009
The United States has grown accustomed to "yikes!" economic moments in the recent past, but Tuesday's news provided shock and awe beyond the ordinary.
A social discussion of socialismTuesday, Aug. 25, 2009
Brilliance resides in simplicity. Those things that revolutionized human existence have something in common ... an ease of understanding.
Graves hears unease at town-hall meetingsTuesday, Aug. 25, 2009
Congressman Sam Graves checked in with a restless electorate Monday afternoon, the attendees at four town-hall meetings posing mostly agreeable questions but exhibiting genuine “what’s-with-Washington” concern.
Ice cream carries tune of coercionSunday, Aug. 23, 2009
Regulation stood not long ago as the dirty word of American governance. Too much federal interference, too little freedom.
Ad campaign casts heroes and villains on energy votesFriday, Aug. 21, 2009
If money and politics play a too-prevalent role in the passage of federal legislation, a national environmental group wants to add heroism and villainy to the mix.
Jenkins critical of reformThursday, Aug. 20, 2009
TROY, Kan. — Washington took a beating in a pair of town hall meetings hosted Wednesday afternoon by Kansas Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, and the lawmaker delivered many of the blows.
Vision continues for Maryville family
Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
Holly Phillips laughs in remembering the horse-trailer weekends and her role in the enterprise.
Her son, John, showed pleasure horses at events throughout the Midwest. Her husband, Ed, drove the entourage of family and equine. Mrs. Phillips referred to herself as “clean-up girl.”
Every weekend, the Phillips parents and kids set off for Columbia or Sedalia or St. Louis, at least once yearly for the youth nationals in Oklahoma. Friends joked that, so often gone, they needed no house in Maryville.
Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009
When the six-month report card on the economic stimulus has mocking quotation marks around the word "stimulus," one might anticipate low grades.
Can can-do be extended, but larger?Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009
St. Joseph celebrates the 17th annual Ruby Days this weekend. Well, it could have gone that way.
Hearnes instrumental in Western’s birthTuesday, Aug. 18, 2009
Most higher education institutions make libraries the centerpiece of campus learning. At Missouri Western State University, officials named the library building after Warren E. Hearnes.
Fitting, Rob Crouse believes.
Mr. Crouse, a Mound City native and Hearnes biographer, marvels at the former governor’s commitment to Missouri education. And Northwest Missourians on Monday praised Mr. Hearnes, who died late Sunday night, for his kept promise that made Missouri Western a four-year college.
Mr. Hearnes, who passed away in his hometown of Charleston, Mo., was 86.
Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009
Pythons seem God’s own masters of nonverbal communication. They say plenty without saying anything.
Report says premiums outpace paychecksFriday, Aug. 14, 2009
The nation's health-care debate, with the shouting at town-hall meetings and political rhetoric emerging from all corners, has local impacts. In Missouri's case, a report released on Friday says, premiums for job-based health insurance have increased at a rate nearly four times greater than workers' earnings this decade.
Veteran witnessed atomic tests
Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009
Guys from the civilian companies wore the tags. Maybe a few military officers, too.
But Loys Grove got no tag, nor instruction that the small warning device might signal radioactivity in his midst. In the burgeoning nuclear age, safety information packed a small payload.
So the Kansan found himself in the Marshall Islands, in an aircraft control tower looking over the Pacific waters as the United States tested an atomic bomb. The detonation took place in the sky near Enewetak Atoll in 1948.
Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009
Kansas lawmakers fighting against the possible relocation of terrorist detainees to Fort Leavenworth celebrated Monday the help of a key Democratic leader on military matters.
Light fades on school tax issueTuesday, Aug. 11, 2009
Fading light left a lavender sky a few days last month. A volcano in the Pacific Ocean gets credit for the hue.
U.S. steals the lesson of ‘clunkers’Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009
Gennady Yanayev put me a bad way. Crazy Russian.
Area senators split on confirmationFriday, Aug. 7, 2009
Senators from Missouri and Kansas delivered a bi-state split Thursday in their votes on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Senators use ‘hold’ to get attention on detaineesFriday, Aug. 7, 2009
Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback want a parliamentary stranglehold to force the Obama administration to answer questions about a possible transfer of terrorist detainees to their state.
Story chronicles trip of Brown County veteransThursday, Aug. 6, 2009
The Washington Post had an article in Thursday's edition chronicling the trip of Brown County World War II veterans to the nation's capital.
Group sad to see school close
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009
Forgive Betty Oxford for idyllic memories of Neely Elementary School. Boys there played marbles while girls played jacks, and students knew one another from the immediate neighborhood before entering a classroom.
Once, a representative of the Duncan Yo-Yo company showed up for a demonstration. Betty won a prize that day.
Teachers handled large class sizes with aplomb. The two sixth grades that left the school in 1938 had at least 40 students apiece.
Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009
U.S. Sen. Kit Bond's announcement of his support for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor proved thorough and rich with historical context. It also proved completely objectionable to Buchanan County Republican leaders.
Report gives snapshot of region's uninsuredTuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
As leaders in the nation's capital maneuver with health-care reform, a federal agency has provided a snapshot of the nation's uninsured.
Secession and anger of our timesTuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
Nothing much daunts a Texan. The storm surge from Hurricane Ike carved up Gulf of Mexico coastlines last September and, in one case, deposited a huge apparatus from an offshore oil rig onto the beach of Mustang Island.
Detainee transfer opposition renewedTuesday, Aug. 4, 2009
U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback called efforts to move terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay a “very expensive publicity stunt,” reflexing against leaked plans positing Fort Leavenworth as a possible relocation site.
Mr. Brownback, U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins and a room full of Leavenworth residents gathered in that community Monday morning to continue their not-in-my-backyard campaign related to the Cuban detention facility closing.
“This is a bad idea on an artificial, hurry-up timeline,” Mr. Brownback said.
Monday, Aug. 3, 2009
U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback called efforts to move terrorist detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a "very expensive publicity stunt," reflexing against leaked plans making Fort Leavenworth a possible relocation site.
Shop treats well all who come in
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Bearcats look down on Gary Greeley as he sets aside a razor and begins work with scissors, his snips efficient and his conversation unbroken.
Talk turns to this cool July morning, but it could be about the spottiness of area corn crops or the prospects of the Northwest Missouri State football team, which plays within public-address earshot of the barber shop.
The subject matters little, but the relationships count. Customers come through the door, past the barber pole revolving in red, white and blue, for a consistency of service and a few words to take with them into a day.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The newspaper publisher in the small town where I grew up went by the nickname “Three Eye,” or so I thought. It led a youngster to believe him a mutant.
Buchanan Co. benefited as federal outlays grewFriday, July 24, 2009
George W. Bush stood on a St. Louis stage in 2000 and conceded Democratic presidential opponent Al Gore would top him in one category.
“If this were a spending contest, I would come in second,” the future president said during that debate. “I readily admit I’m not going to grow the size of the federal government like he is.”
History will never know about the comparison, but government spending certainly grew during the Bush years, says a report released Thursday. And the amount of federal dollars flowing into Buchanan County accelerated during the period.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
What are the common conceptions in these parts about voting? That Middle America values its chance to cast a ballot, and that older Americans head to the polls more often than young ones. Both are true, according to a report released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Leadership and lessons of a streamTuesday, July 21, 2009
Slow and steady, my father taught me, fishing pole in his hand and lighted Winston in his mouth.
Many words that speak to not muchSunday, July 19, 2009
Come on, a little professional admiration, if you please. A craftsman must respect another able practitioner of the craft.
Science remains driving force of space exploration
Sunday, July 19, 2009
No man ever looked so heroic stepping off a ladder.
Neil Armstrong remains a fixture of collective memory and imagination, an American in bulky gear frozen forever in murky black and white.
His words, with electronic crackle from roughly 238,000 miles overhead, have the staying power of that visual. Few denied, among the half-billion people watching on television worldwide, it was “a giant leap for mankind.”
A generation looks back on a flashbulb memory
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Cindy Pickerel, a new mother, looked up at the moon. She figured her husband, Mark, deployed by the Air Force to Korea, would look at the moon that day. The prospect made her feel closer to him.
Under the July sky, the St. Joseph woman mused over this connection. Everywhere else, the world unified itself with the day’s news: A human left this planet to walk on another.
Nothing seemed impossible that night, 40 years ago Monday.
Mrs. Pickerel held Tara, her 4-month-old daughter. She prayed for the astronauts, a world away, and her husband, half a world.
JOB SEARCH
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