Kristofor Husted

On January 1st, 10 states, including Missouri, are scheduled to raise the minimum wage. Missouri’s minimum wage will jump up by 10 cents to $7.35 per hour. And, the pay increases could provide a nice bump in the state’s economy.

The minimum-wage increase comes after state voters approved a 2006 proposition to keep the minimum wage at a rate matching the growing cost of living.

Columbia City Council is considering an ordinance that would put a temporary abeyance on demolition permits in downtown Columbia. This comes on the heels of a petition to demolish the oldest building downtown. KBIA’s Ryan Famuliner has a report on the zoning classification the council is looking at.

Regional news coverage from the KBIA newsroom, including:

• Memorial service at MU for Newtown tragedy
• Extra police patrols at school campuses
• UM System civil lawsuit over release of course syllabi

Over the next four weeks, Business Beat will be airing the remaining pieces of the Harvest Public Media series called America’s Big Beef: An Industry In Transition.

To kick off the series, we have to go back 150 years when Abraham Lincoln established the land-grant colleges where research could be done to help the common man. But Peggy Lowe of Harvest Public Media reports that today public colleges in the top five beef-producing states are now often working for big business.

In recent months, a fairly severe drought and a slowly recovering economy have thrown food businesses for a loop.

Coming up we’ll listen in on a conversation Abbie Fentress Swanson had with President Barack Obama’s top agriculture guy about the looming dip in corn exports. But first, some businesses have been able to weather the storm better than others. Jennifer Davidson has this report about one successful shop in West Plains.

Now, things aren’t so peachy for everyone in the food industry. Clearly.

Sequestration, or the automatic across-the-board funding cuts set to kick in nationwide at the beginning of 2013, will tally nearly $110 billion dollars in cuts over the next nine years. The cuts are meant to alleviate the trillion dollar deficit. Congressional Republicans and Democrats are currently facing a stalemate on a solution to the severe fiscal cuts sequestration calls for while still fixing the deficit. KBIA’s Kristofor Husted reports that millions of dollars are at stake for the University of Missouri System.

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, many people have begun to deck the halls, gorge on delectable dishes, and send out greeting cards. Well, that last one might become trickier for some rural residents soon. That’s because the United States Postal Service is moving ahead to reduce the hours of thousands of post offices across the country.  Jennifer Davidson has this report from a rural Ozarks community.

New housing figures for Columbia are showing that the number of homes sold so far in 2012 has already surpassed the yearly total from the year 2011. Thanks to the 117 homes sold in October, this year’s tally of sold homes has already bested that 2011 amount by more than 100. The Columbia Board of Realtors says that 1,629 homes have been sold between January and October.

Now that it’s Thanksgiving, the eating season has begun. Coming up we’ll take a look at how the U.S. helps feed the world, but first, let’s take a look in our own back yard. The local food banks, pantries, shelters and soup kitchens have picked up in business. KBIA’s Ben Mahnken reports that volunteerism and donations are up this year.

Regional news coverage from the KBIA newsroom, including:

• Missouri forms bipartisan group to urge Congress to work together to solve fiscal issues
• MU professor dies in car accident
• Columbia City Council to hear parking permit pitch