Stories from Friday, February 1, 2008

Fair warning on a wintery Friday: This entire column deals with politics. Feel free to skip it and go straight to the crossword puzzle if you've had your fill of campaign bluster. I understand. In recent days I've taken quite a number of calls from other ink-stained scriveners who want to talk about the presidential race and Missouri's newly charged sprint to the governor's mansion...

Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Missouri newspapers: Jan. 29 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on Bellefontaine Habilitation Center: Protecting the severely disabled Missourians who live at Bellefontaine Habilitation Center shouldn't be a game of hot potato, but sometimes it resembles one...

The Nevada Red Sox American Legion program will be holding try-outs for their 2008 teams on Saturday, Feb. 9, at the Nevada Middle School starting a 1 p.m. The workouts will be moved to Lyons Stadium if weather permits. Any interested baseball player who lives in Vernon County or attends school in the Hume or Rich Hill school districts and was 19 years old or younger on Jan. 1, 2008 is welcome to try-out for the Nevada Red Sox teams...

A major snowstorm forecast for much of the southern half of Missouri made for some slick roads in Vernon County, with less than two inches of accumulation in Nevada, but dumped up to five inches in far southwestern and south-central Missouri and snarled traffic in St. Louis, keeping road crews busy Thursday and closing schools early as more was forecast into the night...

A Nevada woman agreed to accept an Alford plea in Vernon County Circuit Court to a class C felony of theft. On Thursday, 50-year-old Debra Gilmore was accused of stealing $2,307 worth of Missouri State Lottery tickets from her employer, between the dates of July 1 and Aug. 2, 2006...

The Internal Revenue Service began full operations for processing 2007 tax returns from most taxpayers on Monday, Jan. 14. Most taxpayers can file their tax return anytime before the April 15 deadline, but some will have to wait a few weeks. Taxpayers who use five forms related to the Alternative Minimum Tax legislation have to wait until the IRS completes the reprogramming of its systems for the new law, said IRS spokesman Michael Devine. ...

An early morning electrical problem shut down production at Daylight Donuts early Thursday morning. Owner Christie Sloniker said that the cook discovered the problem when she came in to prepare for the mornings work when a cord caught fire. Sloniker said there was no damage to anything else but an electrician would check the outlets and everything over before using the equipment...

WASHINGTON, D.C. --U.S. Senator Kit Bond recently sat down with Missouri reporters to outline his priorities for the upcoming year. Bond talked about his goals to keep America safe, strengthen the economy, improve access to health care for families and better the treatment of our men and women in military...