Funding hard to find for repairs to Boone County private dams

Wednesday’s story about the Welch Lake earthen dam just outside Columbia’s city limits that is in need of some costly repairs was a follow up to a story I wrote a couple of months ago.
The dam’s been in disrepair for about a decade, but the dam’s owner, Danny Miller, said he doesn’t have the estimated [...]

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Finding a loophole

I want to point you to Mike Martin’s The Columbia Heart Beat blog to read this article he published a little while ago.
“The Columbia City Council has voted to question Boone County assessor Tom Schauwecker about large property tax breaks his office provides developers that appear unjustified at best; egregious at worst. The breaks appear [...]

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Pinkel inks $2.3 million annual salary

UM System Board of Curators unanimously approved MU football coach Gary Pinkel’s new contract that will pay him $2.3 million a year for seven years.
ESPN reported last week that a $2.5 million annual salary deal was in the works.
Pinkel negotiated a contract last year to the tune of $1.85 million per year through 2012.
More details [...]

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Pile on the dire economic news

Bad news on the doorstep…
Dana Corp. announced it will lay off 50 workers at its Columbia plant. The factory makes axles and other parts for Nissan, Ford and General Motors.
MU announced guidelines on its hiring freeze, including that the freeze will apply to graduate teaching assistants and student staff. MU Chancellor Brady Deaton outlined criteria [...]

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Deaton clarifies UM System hiring freeze conditions at MU

The UM System-wide hiring freeze will not apply to fully-funded grant and contract positions, fully-endowed positions or work study student positions at MU, Chancellor Brady Deaton said in a e-mail Tuesday.
No other positions will be filled unless the department can meet seven criteria showing sufficient need for the position. High-level administrators will have final say [...]

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Pinkel’s payday

The Associated Press reports that MU football coach Gary Pinkel cemented a new contract Monday. ESPN reported late last week that Pinkel’s deal included an annual salary of $2.5 million.
No official details of the offer have been released by MU. The contract awaits approval by the UM Board of Curators, who meet Tuesday.
Pinkel’s contract was [...]

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Judge continues murder trial of one charged in Bentley slaying

COLUMBIA — The murder trial of one of the five men charged in the June 10 slaying of a Columbia man was continued Monday in Boone County Circuit Court.
Quillan E. Jacobs, 17, is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and armed criminal action in connection with the slaying of 22-year-old Nathaniel Bentley.
Boone County Circuit Judge [...]

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Editor answers readers’ concerns over ‘Dating Chase’

If you picked up a copy of our Nov. 7 Missourian or read our Web site centerpiece that day, you know we prominently displayed a story on Chase Daniel’s girlfriend, Blaire Vandiver. This sparked a lengthy, meandering string of comments on our Web site with both praise and criticism of the story’s placement.
The extreme interest [...]

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Blunt’s aide raised concerns about deleting e-mails before firing

An analysis of over 60,000 pages of documents released by Gov. Matt Blunt’s office following a legal settlement with some new outlets in the state shows that an aide to governor was fired after raising concerns about the deletion of e-mails.
Click here for more.

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Tickets will be hard to come-by for Big 12 Championship

With the Missouri Tigers wrapping up a Big 12 North title with a 52-20 win over Iowa State, it appears many fans immediately rushed to Ticketmaster to claim seats for the conference championship on Dec. 6 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
As of 9 a.m this morning, the only contiguous pair of seats were $55 [...]

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