News

The 43rd Annual Heritage Festival and Craft Show has been canceled because of COVID-19 concerns, according to a Monday news release from Columbia Parks and Recreation.

The event had been planned for Sept. 19-20 at Nifong Park. This event is one of the department's largest events, held in partnership with many historical and cultural groups, according to the release.

This event, where traditional artisans can present lost arts, usually attracts around 15,000 people and has handmade craft vendors and food trucks, according to the release.

Central Pantry will reduce its operating hours in order to continue its drive-through service during the pandemic.

The new schedule for Central Pantry starting Tuesday is:

• 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.
• 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays.
• 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays.

The pantry changed its distribution model to drive-through option in March in response to COVID-19, according to its news release.

Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon expects about 30% of the county’s 114,000 registered voters to cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary election.

There are a total of 61 candidates seeking their party’s nominations for 19 different offices ranging from county positions to statewide offices and the 4th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Voters also will cast ballots on Amendment 2, which asks whether they want to expand Medicaid in the state.

Lennon is predicting the election will lure just less than one in three registered voters.

Health departments in at least 50 Missouri counties have not received any money from the federal government even though the state received hundreds of millions of dollars in early May. The Kansas City Star says local public health agencies across the state are trying to ramp up testing and contact tracing but say their hands are tied because the state has not delivered any federal aid. The money was given to their local county commissions instead and in many places have held up the money. Gov.

Recent coronavirus outbreaks at Missouri correctional facilities are prompting some advocates for prison inmates to urge the state to require face coverings for staff. The Missouri Department of Corrections reported Monday that 539 prisoners and 122 staff members across the state have tested positive for COVID-19. The majority of those cases have occurred in recent weeks at four facilities — 354 of the 539 cases are considered “active." Hedy Harden, chairwoman of Missouri CURE, a St.

Boone County reported 61 new positive COVID-19 cases Saturday, a daily record. The county also reported its fourth death from the virus Friday.

The fourth death was an individual in the over-80 age group, the Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services Department said Friday.

Boone County has now reported 1,235 total COVID-19 cases, 224 of which are active, according to the county’s dashboard. Three are currently hospitalized, and 512 people are quarantining because of exposure.

A former assistant state attorney general and a former federal prosecutor are vying in Tuesday's Democratic primary for a chance to take on GOP incumbent Attorney General Eric Schmitt in the general election.

The Democratic candidates are 32-year-old Elad Gross and 36-year-old Rich Finneran. Gross served under former Attorney General Chris Koster and led an effort to determine who bankrolled former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens' nonprofit group. Finneran was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District in Missouri for seven years.

Newly released documents indicate Navy officials were reluctant to reinstate former Navy SEAL and Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens in 2019 until Vice President Mike Pence’s office appeared to intervene.

Here’s what you need to know to cast a ballot in Tuesday’s primary election.

Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Boone County Clerk’s website has information about polling place locations and a quick search to find a voter’s specific site. Voters need to take some form of identification — a voter ID card, a driver’s license or state-issued ID — with them to the polls.

Voters can change their address online at the Boone County Clerk’s website — even on election day.

MU Health Care will be closing its drive-thru testing site near the Mizzou Softball Stadium, merging drive-thru testing operations into the Mizzou North location starting Monday.

The original testing location opened March 18 and operated in the Mizzou Softball Stadium parking lot. The second and soon to be only location at Mizzou North opened July 13 in response to an increased demand for COVID testing, according to a news release from MU Health Care.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley says he'll only vote to confirm U.S. Supreme Court nominees who say the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide was wrong. Hawley during a Thursday speech on the Senate floor said the decision is among of the worst miscarriages of justice in U.S. history. He compared it to the 1857 Dred Scott decision that declared African Americans couldn’t be citizens. Hawley says he'll only vote for Supreme Court nominees who disavow the abortion decision on the record and before they're nominated.

UM System President Mun Choi, in response to mathematics education scholars from around the country, last week affirmed MU leaders’ decision to remove Kathryn Chval as dean of the College of Education.

A letter calling for Chval to be reinstated as dean, signed by 61 professors and academic leaders in her field of study, also requested a review of “broader concerns about campus climate at MU” and cited an “authoritarian approach” by top campus leaders.

Protesters have been arrested and pepper-sprayed after demonstrating outside the Missouri Governor's Mansion. KRCG-TV reports St. Louis protesters on Thursday gathered in Jefferson City to speak out against a crime bill Gov. Mike Parson recently signed. Protesters say the law is too harsh on individuals. The protesters were blocking the driveway of the Governor's Mansion and then laid down in the street in front of the mansion. The television station reports that police told protesters they would be arrested if they didn't get out of the street.

Missouri will be staying home and in the Southeast this fall, as the Southeastern Conference announced Thursday that it will officially be adopting a 10-game conference-only schedule for the 2020 season, the conference announced Thursday.

The move also means the season will begin three weeks later, making Sept. 26 the official kickoff date for the SEC slate, with the conference championship game also being pushed from Dec. 5 to Dec. 19. Each school will also have one midseason bye week as well as a bye Dec. 12, the week before the title game.

The number of people in Boone County who have filled out and returned the 2020 census is lagging behind the 2010 response rate.

Boone County officials reported Tuesday what the census calls a "self-response rate" of 65.4%, according to United States Census 2020.

Back in 2010, the response rate in Boone County was 70% prior to the start of door-to-door efforts by census-takers, said Marilyn Sanders, the regional director of the Chicago Regional Census Center.

There's no question that Medicaid expansion would provide more health care to adults, but there is heated debate about of whether the state can afford it.

Advocates predict socioeconomic benefits based on what other states experienced after expanding; others aren't sold on expansion. Some lawmakers and others are concerned that even 10% will strain the state's already pared-down budget.