News

  This week CoMo Explained investigates the legend of Columbia's underground tunnels.

A last-minute move by Missouri lawmakers could make it easier for a Chinese conglomerate to buy one of the biggest pork producers in the U.S.

Legislators agreed on their final day of work in May to remove a ban on foreign ownership of agricultural land in Missouri. That change sets a foreign ownership limit at 1 percent of the state's agricultural land, subject to approval by the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill says she is supporting a super political action committee encouraging Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for president in 2016.

McCaskill is the first sitting member of Congress to endorse the group, called Ready for Hillary.

The organization does not have official ties to the former secretary of state but it's trying to lay the foundation for another Clinton campaign.

University of Missouri system’s Board of Curators recently voted to expand employee’s insurance coverage to unmarried couples including partners of the same sex. Members of the LGBT community and University officials are talking about the change.

Harry Tyrer is a professor and faculty council member at MU. Tyrer says this benefit change will keep the MU system competitive in recruiting and retaining staff members.

“It’s more inclusive and it will increase the number of people who will see the University of Missouri as a great place to work at,” Tryer says.

The Columbia Police Department is continuing to investigate a shooting in downtown Columbia Saturday night.  Shortly after midnight on Saturday morning, three young men were shot near the intersection of 10th Street and Broadway.  While the incident has some concerned about the safety of Columbia’s downtown area, a video of the shooting captured by a bystander has sparked a reaction from many residents.

The University of Missouri’s Research Reactor has successfully completed its annual drill.

The reactor staff worked with public-safety and health professionals yesterday to simulate a scenario involving a small fire and radiation exposure to two individuals.  The police and fire departments participate in the drill every other year.

People running short of money could have a new alternative for getting some quick cash under legislation pending before Democratic Governor Jay Nixon.

The bill would make it profitable for Missouri-based banks to offer short-term cash advances, similar to payday loans.

Some nationally chartered banks already offer the short-term loans with fees of about $50 on a $500 loan. Missouri law had allowed such loans, but the Missouri Bankers Association says that few banks offered them because the law set the maximum fee too low.

The multi-billion dollar makeover of the greater downtown Kansas City area over the past decade was intended in part to draw businesses, but census figures show the area has lost nearly 20 percent of its private employees in that period.

Indeed, the Kansas City Star reports that U.S. Census data from 2001 to 2011 show that greater downtown lost more than 16,000 jobs.

A leadership competition is brewing within the Republican caucus that has controlled the Missouri House for the past decade.

Caleb Jones, of California, Mo., said Monday he is running for House speaker. That top leadership post also is being sought by current House Majority Leader John Diehl, of St. Louis County.

Republicans now hold a veto-proof majority in the House. Current House Speaker Tim Jones is barred by term limits from seeking re-election in November 2014 to the House.