Stories from Friday, August 12, 2011

Civil War commanders often used whatever methods were handy and on Sept. 20, 1861, at Lexington, the Missouri State Guard employed bales of hemp soaked in the Missouri River. The First Battle of Lexington, or "Battle of the Hemp Bales," was actually a siege as 12,500 men commanded by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price drove north Sept. 11 after winning the battles of Wilson's Creek near Springfield and Dry Wood Creek south of Deerfield...

When new teachers arrive in the Nevada R-5 school district they are not just dumped into a classroom with 20 or 25 students and left on their own to learn the fine points of becoming a good teacher or what resources are available for them and the policies of the district...

The Nevada City Council will be conducting a public hearing and considering on the first reading of a special ordinance setting the city's property tax rate for 2011 during a meeting at 7 p.m., Monday, in the Public Safety Building, 120 S. Ash Street. The meeting was rescheduled from Tuesday to Monday because of the fall Nevada High School Meet the Players night on Tuesday...

Several Vernon County emergency personnel responded when a one-vehicle accident occurred at about 9:45 a.m., Thursday, at the intersection of Route Z and Katy Track Road, a mile southwest of Richards. The crash happened when Randell D. Cooper, 22, of Richards, driving a northbound 1996 Jeep Cherokee, traveled off the east side of the roadway, over-corrected and then traveled off the west side of the roadway and overturned, according to a report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol. ...

One of several balloons launched July 29 by the students at Bright Beginnings Preschool, Nevada, was discovered in a field near Moundville several hours later. Like his classmates, 5-year-old Colin Hale launched his balloon -- along with a note telling whomever finds it where the balloon had come from to let them know if it was found -- and watched the balloon float away to the west. ...

BRONAUGH -- Citizens' eagerness for the completion of a $1.1 million water system has transmuted to dismay and anger since the new water turned out a daunting brew that few want to drink or even shower in. "This is what we're living with," said Tim Millman Tuesday, holding two containers of odiferous gray water drawn from a lawn faucet at his brother Henry's...