News Staff

New director hired for the Kirksville Area Chamber of Commerce. Marie Murphree gets the job. She’ll move to the Chamber from Truman State where she has been Director of Development and Planned Giving.

Today (Wednesday, March 8th) is the deadline to register to vote in the April 4th municipal elections — if you’re not already a registered voter.

In Kirksville, the election will decide two seats on city council, plus voters decide whether to pay a 3% sales tax on recreational pot sold in Kirksville. And there’s another 3% pot tax on the ballot for Adair county.

Again, Wednesday is the deadline to register.

Local gas prices remain higher than most of the state. AAA says the statewide average in Missouri is $2.99 a gallon — down 14-cents in the last month. But, in Adair county, gas still $3.09 a gallon. In Sullivan county still $3.19 a gallon.

A pay increase for those who care for veterans in Missouri. Starting this month, those who provide care to vets in Missouri Veterans Homes get an 8.7% pay hike — plus a one time payment of more than $900.

These pay increases are seen as critical in helping to retain and recruit care givers at the state’s seven veteran’s homes.

Kirksville Parks and Recreation says you can start signing-up for Tiny Tykes Soccer. It’s a four-week program, for children kids 3 through 5, to be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting April 11th. Registration is $30 per child.

In his annual state of the city address, Kirksville Mayor Zac Burden talked about street work and parks and rec. He also hopes voters will show up at the polls in April and approve that 3% city tax on pot. That vote is set for April 4th…along with other local elections.

Gas prices coming down in Missouri — but not locally. AAA says the statewide average is
3-bucks a gallon — down a nickel in a week.

But in Adair county, we are still at $3.09 and Sullivan county at $3.23 a gallon, which cents higher than much of the state

The American Civil Liberties Union now suing the state over a new law that says sexually explicit books cannot be in schools in Missouri. The ACLU contends that the law violates the rights of students and librarians.

The suit says that since the law went into effect, about 300 books have been prohibited in school libraries.

New prosecuting attorney in Sullivan county. Jane Dunn of Chillicothe was appointed to the job by a judge.

Normally, prosecutors are elected. But nobody ran for the job in the last election. Dunn will serve as the new Sullivan County prosecutor until another election — that is, if somebody signs-up to run.

The state attorney general is calling for a St. Louis prosecutor resign. Andrew Bailey says if Kim Gardner doesn’t quit today he will get the ball rolling to remove her.

He says Gardner failed to protect the public in the case of a driver caused a wreck in which a girl lost both of her legs.

The attorney general says the driver was out on bond — even though he had violated the conditions of his bond more 50 times. Bailey says the driver should have been behind bars not behind the wheel. And he blames Kim Gardner for that.