News

A proposal to cut state funding to higher education would be devastating, according to MU Chancellor Brady Deaton.

Speaking on KBIA’s Intersection, Deaton said the 12.5% cut to MU’s budget would set the university’s state funding back to 1997 levels, despite having increased student enrollment by 50% in the time since. He says this would come on top of an already low record of state funding to higher education, with Missouri ranking lowest in terms of per capita funding among southeastern states.

Watch the show and join the conversation on the Intersection website.

A new University of Missouri research park in south Columbia is struggling to find tenants.

Inspectors with the Army Corps of Engineers are performing daily inspections of the area where the Birds Point levee was intentionally breached in May.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is coming to Missouri to give a speech about jobs and the economy.

Two of Missouri's three Republican senatorial candidates are expected to meet in a debate in Branson.

U.S. Rep. Todd Akin and former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman both have committed to participate in Monday night's debate. The third candidate — St. Louis businessman John Brunner — is not planning to attend.

All three Republicans are seeking to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill in the November elections.

Monday's debate is to be held at the Branson High School Auditorium, which has room for several hundred people.

Demolition has begun on a Joplin hospital that took a direct hit from a deadly May 22nd tornado.

The Joplin Globe reported that about 1,000 people turned out Sunday for a ceremony at the shell of the once-bustling St. John's Mercy Hospital. Speakers talked about the history of the hospital before a wrecking ball ceremonially smacked the side of the building a few times. From there, the crowd went to a groundbreaking ceremony for the new structure. It is being built at a site three miles away.

Legislation to make Missouri a "right-to-work" state is again coming up in state Senate.

A senate panel last week endorsed two bills that would make it a misdemeanor to require workers to pay union fees as a condition of employment.

One of the two proposals, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer, would go before voters if it passes the Legislature. The other would go to the governor's desk.

Recruiting doctors to small towns is a chronic problem. Most places try to lure a physician by rolling out the red carpet with a big salary, a home on a golf course or other cushy perks.

Not so in Ashland, Kan., population 855, where the CEO of a tiny hospital is building a reverse recruitment model based on remote access and problems commonly found in third-world countries.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is in Missouri touting President Obama’s job creation plans, laid out this week in his state of the union address. This comes as the agriculture department faces a shrinking budget.