News

Columbia city officials are still discussing options for shoring up a projected one-million-dollar shortfall in the city’s transit budget.

The University of Missouri’s out-of-state applications outnumbered in-state applications for the first time in the school’s history. Vice Provost for Enrollment Manager Ann Korschgen said the recent rise is thanks to an increased recruitment the country, as well as the school's reputation.

It’s been eight months since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released massive amounts of reservoir water from locations north of the Missouri River. Those reservoirs were filled to the brim with historic rainwater and melted snow that accumulated over a long winter of inclement weather across the Midwest.

Most of that released water poured over valuable farmland and residential areas in northwest Missouri. The resulting financial and family devastation has opened up a huge Missouri-style feud that will likely last as long as it will take the flooded land to return to normal.

Boone County and the City of Columbia are using a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to study storm-water runoff into Bear Creek, north of I-70. A task force will focus on reducing pollutants, which flow directly into the creek, untreated.  

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on opposition forces is escalating. Six straight days of heavy bombardment has left hundreds dead in Homs.

Two days after promising a decrease to higher education cuts, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon met with university presidents in Jefferson City.

As part of the national settlement with the five biggest mortgage service banks, amid allegations of mass loan abuse and fraud, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has started looking for home owners to take payments.

The Missouri House has passed legislation that would require voters to show photo identification at the polls. 

The Thursday vote split exactly along party lines.

Democrats hammered away at Republicans’ arguments that the bill would combat voter fraud, saying there hasn’t been a documented case of voter fraud in decades – and that the bill does nothing to deal with voter registration fraud.  GOP House Member Todd Richardson of Poplar Bluff disagreed.

On February 2, the non-profit organization Missouri River Relief will host the Wild and Scenic film festival at the Blue Note in Columbia. Festival-goers can expect to see a variety of environmental and adventure films. One of those films, Big Muddy Clean Sweep, documents the organization’s trek across the state, cleaning the Missouri River aboard a barge.

Steve Schnarr is the program manager for Missouri River relief. We spoke to him about what it was like traveling across the state, his own connection to the Missouri River and what people could expect at the festival.