Missouri

BROOKFIELD - The Missouri Department of Conservation (DOC) has increased the amount it will reimburse the City of Brookfield for a project that will provide a new courtesy dock, adjoining boat ramp, and restrooms on the west side of City Lake.

As originally proposed, the City would put $60,000 up front for the project and be completely reimbursed at the conclusion of construction.

Now, due to projected cost overruns, the City will provide about $80,000 up front, which will be fully reimbursed by DOC.

The Brookfield City Council approved an amendment to increase expenditures in the 2007-2008 budget to $80,000 Tuesday evening.

(Read the full post about ‘City approves additional funds for dock’…)

LINN COUNTY - Driver distractions have been used as a pretext for one recent piece of state legislation and could provide the basis for another one next year.

When a bill banning roadside memorials narrowly got through the Missouri House of Representatives last February, its sponsor, Rep. Bill Deeken (R), appears to have rallied support from the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD).

While the primary provision in Senate Bill 881, now known as David's Law, is the sale of state-approved signs to immediate family members of drunk driving victims, it also prohibits anyone but designated MoDOT employees from erecting such signs.

(Read the full post about ‘Legislation banning roadside memorials passes; dialing while driving could be next’…)

TechTree:  Mozilla Urges Users to Download Firefox

Really?  What would really be news is if Microsoft urged users to download Firefox.

CNS:  Iran Slams US Policy in Middle East; Calls for ‘Change’

David Axelrod writing speeches for Obamadinejad?

Time:  Are Ahmadinejad’s Days Numbered?

Becuase there’s a school of thought in the State Department that he’ll live forever.

CNS:  US Can’t Say If Mexico Has Prosecuted Killers of 128 Americans

Because the disposition of criminal cases in Mexico isn’t even a fuzzy art, much less an exact science.

Sydney Morning Herald:  Am I the new Pauline Hanson?

(Read the full post about ‘Fun With Goons With 11-Letter Last Names’…)

Politico:

Bob Dole yesterday sent a scalding email to Scott McClellan, excoriating the former White House spokesman as a “miserable creature” who greedily betrayed his former patron for a fast buck.

In an extraordinary message obtained and authenticated by Politico, Dole uses his trademark biting wit to portray McClellan as a classic Washington opportunist.

“There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues,” Dole wrote in a message sent yesterday morning.

(Read the full post about ‘Bob Dole Looks In Mirror’…)

San Diego Union-Tribune:  51 percent [of Californians] support same-sex marriage The other 49% didn’t know how to answer the question because the pollster asked it in English. NPI:  Hire ex-con in Philly, get $10K annual tax credit Worth your while only if the ex-con employee makes off with less than $10,000 of your assets. CNS:  McClellan’s Book Intended to ‘Change Washington for the Better’ He came to Washington to do good and will wind up doing very well indeed. Malkin:  Big Nanny Baltimore wages war on cheap cigars If it will be fought with the same acuity as Baltimore’s war on crime, then the cigars have nothing to fear. (Read the full post about ‘Fun With Vlad’…)

P-D :

OAKVILLE — The street was lined with cars. Someone splashed in the pool. Every now and then a basketball sailed into the street. Noise echoed a block away.

Something was definitely up at the Noblitt home.

Behind a high wooden fence, more than a hundred high schoolers lounged around. Just about everyone held one of those ubiquitous red cups. A teen stood on the deck taking cash from folks as they arrived.

But this was no wild summer keg party. It was actually a charity event. A two-on-two basketball tournament. For children in Africa.

Come again?

Let’s back up.

(Read the full post about ‘They Woke Up Early For Uganda’…)

The Political Cesspool’s blog is now James Edwards’s personal blog.  As a reminder, TPC returns this Sunday, from 4 to 7 PM.

Mayor Slay:

In 2007, Anheuser-Busch had the following impacts on the City’s budget:

Employees: 5,033
Payroll taxes: $2,016,266
Earnings taxes: $3,483,833
Real property taxes: $5,939,434
Personal property taxes: $1,545,453

And those will be the exact number of employees that will keep their jobs, and the exact number of tax dollars the city treasury will continue to receive, according to the promises that InBev and the pro-buyout shylocks at A-B will make in order to grease the political skids to make this merger happen.  And those will be the exact number of employees that will lose their jobs, and the exact number of tax dollars that the city treasury will no longer receive, when those promises are broken.

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• Connecting some dots

AP:

NEW YORK (AP) — A construction crane collapsed Friday on New York’s Upper East Side, smashing into a 23-story apartment building as it fell to the ground, killing two construction workers and seriously injuring another.

It was the second deadly crane accident in 2 1/2 months and the latest of several construction mishaps in the city, which recently shook up its Buildings Department and beefed up inspections.

“What has happened is unacceptable and intolerable.

(Read the full post about ‘Of Cranes and Guns’…)

LCL Photo by CHRIS HOUSTON, Staff Writer - Frank Buckles, the last living American veteran of World War I, paused to shake hands with Ragan Hubbard during his visit to the John J. Pershing Boyhood Home on Memorial Day. One-hundred years separates the years of their births as Ragan is seven and Mr. Buckles is 107. Pushing Buckles’ wheelchair is his daughter, Susannah Flanagan. LINN COUNTY - Monday, Kenny Almond was one of several local veterans who mourned the passing of patriotism. (Read the full post about ‘Memorial Day ceremony to honor World War I Veteran held at Pershing Boyhood Home’…)