All across the state, fire safety awareness is being raised during Fire Prevention Week. The focus of this year’s campaign is preventing the leading causes of home fires – cooking, faulty heating and electrical equipment and smoking.

Old dock foam has been an eyesore and a problem on Lake of the Ozarks for many years.
As the old foam deteriorates over time, it breaks apart and floats off downstream, where it becomes somebody else’s problem – a problem to the people who have to see it and a problem to the homeowner who has to haul it off the lakefront and then dispose of it.

I am James Hodshon, the Democratic candidate for 1st District commissioner of Camden County. I currently live in Linn Creek and work at Culver’s Restaurant in Osage Beach.

I first ran for office because I cared. I am not only a resident; I am also a mother, a business woman and a taxpayer.
I have worked hard to deal with the challenges facing our county. I have brought education, integrity and experience to this office.

We were pleased to bring you news of a new way to help share in Missouri’s bounty by financially supporting the Share the Harvest program.
That program is already sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Federation of Missouri. But they could use your help as well. Here’s why.

I’ve taken umbrage with some people who fault the homeowners who have taken out mortgages through a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac program for the current financial mess the country is in.
I am one of those people.

An estimated 35.1 million Americans live in “food insecure” households, meaning that at some time during the previous year they were unable to obtain or were uncertain of having enough food to fulfill their basic needs.
Consequently, many of those people seek aid from federal sources including the Food Stamp Program.

On Monday the U.S. House of Representatives did what would have made all the sense in the world, if time were not of the essence, which is defeat a flawed $700 billion-plus bailout of America’s financial sector.

Unfortunately, with major banks failing - the latest and nation’s fourth largest, Wachovia, got swallowed up by Citigroup in a government-arranged-and-backed sale on Monday following Wachovia’s near collapse - and an angry public that could turn into a panicked one at any moment, our elected representatives in Washington, D.C. do not have the luxury of time. One of the great lessons of the Great Depression was that Uncle Sam did not intervene quickly enough to forestall a run on the banks.

Missing lakefront mile-marker signs are going to be replaced through a collaboration between the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 30-05 and the Laurie Elks Lodge No. 2705. Many of the signs the groups erected in 2004 have been knocked down by careless construction crews or otherwise simply disappeared from sight on the lake.

We’re disturbed at the hostility boiling over in the Northwest Fire Protection District.
We were equally disturbed and disappointed by new board member’ Wendell Parrish’s harsh, poignant appraisal of the situation during last week’s meeting.

A lot of work and planning went into this weekend’s Offshore Super Series boat racing event for one very good reason – it benefits us all.

We have survived election cycles in the past. But this one has been like no other in the modern history of elections in the U.S. 
The barrage of continuous and pervasive left wing/socialist attacks on Republican candidates, especially McCain–Palin has been over the top by anyone’s standards.  Let us not forget the grotesque amount of hubris in pandering to the extreme Left of the Democratic Party.

As I sat here listening to the President tonight, I couldn’t help wonder what in the world got us in this mess and where were the people who were supposed to be on watch.
It boils down to one simple point -  greed, greed, greed.  As a nation we had already said that we would not bail out our automotive industry, but now we are going to bail out fat cats on Wall Street.

We’re glad to see Lake Ozark moving forward with a plan to get trash receptacles off the historic Strip.
While any place that draws a large number of visitors is always going to have trash issues and a need for public disposal, we see no reason for private trash bins to dot the landscape when a few will do.

Back in early June I wrote a column about about my old beater Dodge pickup truck and related some of my affections for it.
I bring it up again to conclude the matter. I finally finished getting it running again earlier this month and sold it last week (minus the front bumper).
You’d be surprised how many calls you’ll get for a $500 truck!