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 ...

Missouri Lottery transfers $22.6 million to state treasury More than $22.6 million was transferred Friday to public education from monies generated by Missouri Lottery ticket sales. The monthly transfer, based on February sales, is $22,641,027, and it brings the total sent to education during the current fiscal year to more than $199.9 million. Since Missouri Lottery sales started in 1986, the Lottery has generated more than $4.7 billion for the state and public education. ...

Hartzler files for re-election to Congress U.S. Representative Vicky Hartzler filed paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office for re-election to a third term from the 4th district. "The American people deserve a government that works for them, not against them," Hartzler said in a statement. "Washington too often encroaches on their freedoms, over regulates their businesses, and wastes their hard earned money. I feel honored to fight for the hardworking families ...

Secretary of State seeks input on petitions Secretary of State Jason Kander announced that his office has received three initiative petitions amending Chapter 149 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, and the initiative petitions are now open for public comment. Petitions 2014-124, 2014-125 and 2014-126 were submitted by Khristine Heisinger. Missourians can provide public comment at http://www.sos.mo.gov/comment. The 15-day public comment period allows Missourians to offer their observations on the submitted proposal online, ...

Former first lady, daughters coming to Marshfield in April Former first lady Laura Bush will be the featured speaker at Marshfield's Cherry Blossom Festival on April 24. Mrs. Bush will speak at the dinner that evening. Her daughters, Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager will also attend. The 2014 Cherry Blossom Festival is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Gone with the Wind and the careers of two extraordinary ladies, Olivia de Havilland and Alicia ...

Malaysian plane still missing; questions over false IDs
By Anuradha Raghu and Nguyen Phuong Linh KUALA LUMPUR/HANOI (Reuters) - A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew went missing off the Vietnamese coast on Saturday and was presumed to have crashed. There were no reports of bad weather and no sign why the Boeing 777-200ER would have vanished from radar screens about an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. The Italian foreign ministry said in Rome that an Italian was listed on the flight's manifest although no national from the country was on board. The passenger list provided by the airline includes Luigi Maraldi, 37, an Italian citizen.

Mother of Italian listed on Malaysia plane says passport stolen
The mother of an Italian falsely listed as a passenger on a missing Malaysia Airlines flight said her son's passport had been lost, presumed stolen, in Phuket in 2013. "He lost his passport in Thailand, and he reported it to the authorities... Maybe the one who stole it came to a bad end, we don't know, they have to investigate," Renata Lucchi, the mother of 37-year-old Luigi Maraldi, told Reuters. An Austrian man falsely listed as a passenger had also had his passport stolen.

Combined king Eaton left gasping in heptathlon title defence
Sopot (Poland) (AFP) - US combined events master Ashton Eaton was left gasping for air after cruelly failing to better his own world record when retaining his world indoor heptathlon title on Saturday. Eaton, whose Canadian wife Brianne Thiesen Eaton won silver in the women's pentathlon on Friday, was overnight leader after the first four events (60m - 6.66sec, long jump - 7.78m, shot put - 14.88m, high jump - 2.06m). Leading from the front, Eaton pushed himself all the way, roared on by a capacity crowd at the Ergo Arena in the Polish Baltic Sea resort of Sopot. But he left himself needing to run a final 200 metres in 28 seconds, something that fell 1.18sec beyond an athlete who is also the current world and Olympic decathlon champion and world record holder.

Cardinals sign Carpenter to rich six-year deal
St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter has signed a six-year contract extension, the Major League Baseball team announced Saturday, in a deal worth $52 million. The contract runs through the 2019 season and gives the Cardinals an option for the 2020 campaign on the 28-year-old American, who helped the Cardinals win the 2011 World Series in his rookie year. Carpenter led Major League Baseball with 199 hits, 126 runs and 55 doubles last season and this year the All-Star makes a fielding position switch from playing at second base to guarding third. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement that insures Matt will remain a Cardinal on a long-term basis," said Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt.

Ailing Tymoshenko may get back operation in Berlin
BERLIN (AP) — Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's former prime minister, has begun medical treatment at Berlin's Charite hospital, but the doctors caring for her said Saturday it's too soon to say how long the treatment will take and what lasting damage the 53-year-old might have from three slipped discs she suffered while in prison.