Today's Feature

Public Works Meeting.

The City Council Public Works committee will meet this afternoon at 5:00 p.m. in the Public Works Department building, 623 E. 7th. Items on the agenda include the discussion of bid openings for the demolition of a structure at 1017 S. River Street and the replacement of a storm water pump at Centennial and Grand Ave. Items in their first reading include the consideration of vacating 11th Street from the alley east to Prospect Ave.

This will be the first Public Works committee meeting since the retirement of former Street Commissioner Tom Shelley.

Republican Headquarters Open in Carthage.

News release

Due to unusually high demand, Jasper County Republicans have opened a satellite office in the county to distribute Republican election materials. The new office is in Suite 3 of the Professional Building at 221 W. Fourth St. directly behind the Carthage Post Office. The hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. The phone number is 417-237-0803. This office has a full line of campaign materials for the November election including yard signs, bumper stickers, buttons, T-shirts for John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the Missouri statewide Republican ticket including Kenny Hulshof for Governor.

The main Republican office is in Joplin at the Concorde Plaza, 2639 E 32nd. St. in Suite 3 where the phone is 417-782-7710. Over 1500 McCain/Palin yard signs have been given out in less than two weeks exhausting the current supply. More signs are expected in by October 9. All other candidates’ signs and many other McCain/Palin materials are available including the very popular "Read My LIPSTICK" buttons and stickers.

Mornin'
There is prob’ly not a more accurate classic quotation than one from "Cool Hand Luke." Most will know what it is without being told. But for those youngsters that happen ta be readin’ it is "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

Nothin’ causes more problems, litigation, and divorces than a failure to understand what’s really goin’ on.

Now the character in the movie didn’t mean that ever’one was gonna sit down and discuss what was botherin’ ‘em of course. What he was sayin’ was folks just weren’t payin’ attention to what he was sayin’. I’ve heard its always a good idea ta have the person you’re talkin’ to repeat what you’ve said just ta make sure they understand. ‘Course, there’s always time ta fix what there wasn’t time ta do right the first time.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

To Your Good Health
By Paul G. Donohue, M.D.

Hiccups Are No Joking Matter

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have a friend who has nonstop hiccups. He has been under the care of several doctors, but no one can help him. What causes hiccups? Is there a cure? He has them so bad he refuses to go out in public. -- C.M.

ANSWER: Hiccups are the involuntary contractions of the diaphragm muscle -- the horizontal muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen. It’s the principal breathing muscle. What brings on the contractions often isn’t known, but sometimes it is a hidden condition that irritates the diaphragm or the vagus or phrenic nerves.

Your friend doesn’t have ordinary hiccups, the kind that last from minutes to hours and usually come from a distended stomach or one filled with gas from carbonated beverages. He has persistent, intractable hiccups, ones that last for months, even years. For his kind of hiccups, obscure causes have to be investigated -- things like an abscess beneath the diaphragm and things that irritate the vagus or phrenic nerves. The search is arduous and includes lab tests, X-rays and scans.

Cures do exist for prolonged hiccupping. Medicines can sometimes stop them. Chlorpromazine, orally or infused into a vein, is one of them, as is metoclopramide. Seizure medicines also have had some success in suppressing hiccups.

A number of invasive techniques can be used when medicines fail. The phrenic nerve -- the nerve that serves the diaphragm -- can be blocked or crushed. An implantable breathing pacemaker that controls the diaphragm by sending nerve messages through the phrenic nerve is another way to end intractable hiccups.