Beloved baseball wife was Ozarks native Carmen Berra, the wife of baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra, died Friday at the age of 85. She died from complications from a recent stroke. The Berras were married 65 years. The two met in St. Louis in 1948, when he had just completed his first season with the New York Yankees. Carmen was a waitress at a popular St. Louis restaurant. Yogi Berra was ...

Forest Service offers vets opportunity to get back to work USDA Mark Twain National Forest is offering military veterans an internship out of the Ava/Cassville/Willow Springs Ranger District in Ava, Missouri. The field-going internship is available through VetsWork AmeriCorps beginning April 7, 2014. The selected intern will support Mark Twain National Forest employees in a variety of jobs. Skills needed include use of hand tools and power tools; map reading; public speaking and supervisory experience. Each selected ...

Red Cross disaster efforts get $10,000 boost A local bank is pitching in to help local people recover from disaster. Empire Bank and Central Trust donated $10,00 to the relief agency's efforts. In the first two months of 2014, the American Red Cross reports more than 500 people were affected by disaster in southern Missouri. This is an increase of more than 90% over last year for this same time period. Providing money ...

Donation Station begins for Big Brothers, Big Sisters BBBSO kick-starts its Donation Station project by hosting a donation drive Saturday. Individuals can stop by Battlefield Lanes on Saturday, March 8 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to donate clothing and small, non-breakable household items. Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks (BBBSO) Donation Station project officially begins on Saturday, March 15 as the agency’s Donation Station bins will be strategically placed in parking lots ...

Firefighters taking tax campaign door-to-door The Southern Missouri Professional Firefighters Association IAFF 152 will go door-to-door Sunday asking voters to VOTE NO on City of Springfield Question 1, the upcoming Public Safety Tax renewal. Voters will have to VOTE NO to continue the tax. The public safety tax funds the pension system for Springfield Police Officers and Firefighters. In 2009, voters passed a ¾ cent sales tax to help fund the pension ...

Governor approves funding for homeless, domestic violence programs The state will pick up where the federal government left off in helping provide services for the homeless and families affected by domestic violence. Gov. Jay Nixon announced that Missouri homeless service providers, including emergency and domestic violence shelters, will receive $1.3 million to help bridge a gap caused by reductions in federal funding. The new funding will be provided by the Missouri Housing Development ...

Kansas City-area spelling bee finally ends
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A marathon spelling bee between two Kansas City-area students who exhausted the initial word list last month ended after 29 more rounds Saturday when the eventual runner-up stumbled over the word "stifling."

Gunfire keeps monitors from Crimea as Russia ups threats
Simferopol (Ukraine) (AFP) - Pro-Kremlin militia fired warning shots as unarmed foreign observers tried to enter Crimea on Saturday while Russia stepped up its standoff with the West over Ukraine by threatening to keep Washington from checking on its nuclear arms. The dangerous escalation in the Black Sea peninsula that Russia effectively seized last week saw 40 gunmen in balaclavas and military fatigues fire shots above a convoy with 54 civilian and military observers from 29 countries of the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It was the third successive day that the OSCE buses attempted to enter the tension-wracked peninsula to check on the frozen conflict that has pitted overpowered Ukrainian troops against Russian forces and Kremlin-backed militias. Ukraine's border guards service added to the tinderbox atmosphere by reporting that one of its light patrol planes came under fire from "extremists" in the same area but was unscathed.

Central Europeans want U.S. gas to cut dependence on Russia
By Jan Lopatka PRAGUE (Reuters) - Four central European countries have asked the U.S. Congress to make it easier for them to import natural gas from the United States and reduce their dependence on supplies from Russia, the Czech Foreign Ministry said on Saturday. The Visegrad 4 group including Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia is looking to diversify supplies to eliminate the danger Russia could use its control of gas and oil flows to exert political pressure on the former Soviet satellite states. Supplies were briefly disrupted in 2009 during a dispute between Russia and Ukraine, through which much of the Russian gas is piped, and central Europeans fear they could be under threat again due to an escalation of tensions between Russia and the West over Russia's seizure of Crimea.

Sheila MacRae of 'The Honeymooners' dies at 92
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. (AP) — Sheila MacRae starred on the Broadway stage and in films, yet it was her small-screen role as the tolerant and brassy wife of a Brooklyn bus driver for which she is most remembered.

NBA suspends Mayo 1-game for punch
NEW YORK (AP) — Milwaukee Bucks guard O.J. Mayo has been suspended one game for punching New Orleans Pelicans center Greg Stiemsma in the throat.