Today's Feature

Rejected Bid for Banking Services.

Members of City Council voted down an ordinance accepting Southwest Missouri Bank’s bid for banking services for the City by request of Mayor Kenneth Johnson at the Council meeting on Tuesday.

There had been some debate about the bids when they were presented to Council by Finance/Personnel Committee Chair Ron Wells. Wells told the council that one of the bids had arrived after the deadline to be considered. Council members discussed their options which included rejecting all bids and beginning the process again, but were concerned that interest rates would raise in the time it would take to resubmit. Council decided to approve the bid from S.M.B.

At Tuesday’s meeting Mayor Johnson told Council that he had been contacted by a representative from S.M.B. who had urged him to not accept their bid but to accept a bid from U.S. Bank instead. The mayor asked council to vote against the bid from S.M.B. It was rejected without opposition.

A first reading was heard of an ordinance authorizing the Mayor to enter into an agreement with U.S. Bank for banking services for the City.

He was pullin’ his trailer the other day after it had been loaned a couple a times recently. As he was approachin’ a turn off, he flipped on his turn signal and noticed the trailer tires screechin’. Screech, screech, screech. Apparently some one had reworked his trailer wirin’ harness so when my friend put on his turn signal, it applied the trailer brakes with each blink.

My dad didn’t like to loan tools. He’d be more likely to take his tools and do the job himself. He figured at least he’d get ‘em back and in as good a shape. He didn’t mind helpin’ folks out, as long as they didn’t start expectin’ it.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

Guest Author: Dr. Alan Clark

A Victory for Missouri’s Children

On May 11, 2005, the Missouri Senate passed SB 74, which will ban the neurotoxin Thimerosal in children under 3 and pregnant women receiving routine vaccinations. The final version of the bill did not include upper age limits of 14 years as initially proposed, but the parents, physicians and educators who fought for this bill are pleased to have this initial legislation to build upon. Senator John Loudon, the bill’s sponsor, was successful in convincing his colleagues to consider raising this age limit next year along with a symposium on mercury and neurodevelopmental disorders (such as autism, Asperger’s and ADHD) later this summer.

Thimerosal (49% ethyl mercury), was added to vaccines without formal toxicity studies. Many believe the accelerated vaccine schedule in 1990 caused an epidemic of autism spectrum disorders due to this enormous load of injected mercury. Today, 1 out of 166 children have full blown autism compared to 1 in 1000 in the early 1980’s. Recent research has documented that a subset of children do not have the capacity to adequately detoxify mercury at the levels used in the vaccination schedules of the 1990’s.

Thimerosal was phased out of most childhood vaccines by 2003. This new law – banning mercury in pregnant women and children 3 and under – will primarily target the high levels of mercury that are still in most flu shots. More information on this issue is available at http://www.NoMercury.org.

Alan Clark, M.D.

www.NoMercury.org

artCentral

Spring light and color infuses shows at artCentral

Come over to artCentral this Sunday afternoon, May 15, from 2–4pm, to enjoy two great shows by members of artCentral. In the Main Gallery is Theresa Rankin’s luscious painting exhibit "Interior Moments." Theresa is a MidWest Gathering of Artists participant, and this exhibit is certain to please those who appreciate her easy style of realism.

Born in Hollywood, California, Theresa Rankin knew she wanted to be an artist at the ripe young age of six. Formal lessons in art came later during her college years at the University of Hawaii and Leeward College, with additional instruction gleaned from workshops taken from master painters and teachers over the years. However, for the last five years this Galena, Kansas resident has settled down and focused on the development of her own artistic style of oil painting, where dramatic contrast and gestural brushwork become orchid petals, shiny silver tableware, sunlight along a river bank, or whatever else the artist decides to portray.

However, what prompts Theresa to pursue an image is seeing something and "… the feeling that sticks that I just can’t seem to get it out of my mind," relates the Artist. "There is that element of time, the transient moment, that gives the work a nostalgic or sentimental mood."

Concurrently, several members of artCentral are showing an interesting array of floral artworks in the "Bouquet" show upstairs in the Members Gallery, just in time to celebrate this lovely spring. The artists will be present. Both shows continue through May 22.