MoDOT had scheduled their contractor to shut down one of the westbound lanes this evening into tomorrow morning so the westbound bridge could be restriped into four lanes.

Instead, Friday night at 6 in the evening one westbound lane of the bridge will be closed while crews remove the existing stripe and place lane markers. Then on Saturday crews will stripe the new lines on the westound bridge.

After that work is completed on Sunday morning, all eastbound and westbound traffic will be shifted to the four lane westbound bridge.

The configuration will be in place until the week of October 4^th when the eastbound bridge will be opened with added connectors to the new expressway.

Under state law, wireless companies can obtain a waiver and exempt themselves from public service commission rules regarding call quality.

In response to complaints, the Missouri Public Service Commission is opening a case to gather information.  The release from the commission says their staff is receiving an increasing number of complaints about quality of phone service.  Staff will try to determine if quality issues exist due to lack of proper testing, preventative maintenance, and the timely replacement of facilities, since most, if not all, companies were granted waivers from regulation under the state law.

Log psc.mo.gov to file a complaint or provide the MPSC with information.  You can also mail comments to the MPSC at post office box 360, Jefferson City, Missouri, 65102.

The MPSC says this is not a contested case so no action will be taken against mobile providers.

uranium

Missourians who handled material for nuclear weapons for the 20 years following World War 2 may be eligible for special federal compensation. 

On Tuesday the U.S. Department of Labor expanded the compensation program to include people that worked at the Lambert Airport waste storage site for at least 250 days between January 3^rd of 1947 and November 2^nd of 1971.

Mallinckrodt Chemical Company refined uranium at several sites including a St. Louis location, with most all of the waste being dumped at the airport site.

Ex-plant workers are eligible for $150,000 and payment of medical expenses if they have been diagnosed with one of twenty-two different types of cancer and meet other criteria.

The incident happened at about 12:30 on Route Y, 200 feet west of Fawn Meadows Road.

Thirty-five year old Scott Woolfolk was driving his 1999 Chevy east on the road talking on the phone when the vehicle went off the right side of the road.  Woolfolk overcorrected and the vehicle went off the left side of the road and overturned.

The Kaiser man was wearing his seat belt and refused treatment at the scene.

Sunway Gaming is out of the running for the state’s only available casino license. 

The gaming company was one of five that had submitted applications for the license which came available after the President Casino in St. Louis closed.  Sunway’s application for a facility in Sugar Creek near Kansas City was ruled incomplete.

The Missouri Gaming Commission has released the four remaining companies public disclosure forms. Paragon Gaming out of Las Vegas has proposed a $407 million casino in Sugar Creek. Jim Koman of Casino Celebration has proposed building a $157 million casino near the Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis. North County Development is proposing a $350 million dollar casino in Spanish Lake.  And Isle of Capri-Cape Girardeau, a part of the St. Louis-based gaming company Isle of Capri Casinos Inc., is proposing a $125 million dollar facility in Cape Girardeau.

Public hearings are scheduled for the end of the month in Cape Girardeau, St. Louis, and kansas city.  The gaming commission should have a single recommendation from staff by the end of the year.

Lisa peterson and her family own about 6 acres of land on Panoramic Road.  She says the deer are simply not afraid anymore.

"The deer continually damage the shrubbery, flowers, and the vegetables that I have planted," Peterson said, "as well as leaving feces in the grass and on the concrete driveway."

"They nearly jump through a plate glass window in my backyard trying to get across."

"Nothing scares them away."

Peterson says her problem has gradually increased over the years with the two original deer now multiplying into six.  The Camdenton resident decided to first contact the Missouri Department of Conservation.

“Jim Braithwaite, the control officer of the missouri conservation, came and looked at my acreage there and he stated that he could get some hunters that would be safe and secure to do a controlled kill. From a tree stand down because of the arrows."

The control officer said peterson would have to check with the city which she did last night at their board meeting.  The city denied the request based on current codes which do not allow hunting.

Peterson says the city needs to consider an urban hunting policy like Osage Beach and a no feeding ordinance.

“We need to educate people that we cannot feed the deer and that you cannot, as the deer population grows, it’s just going to become more and more damage for everybody."

"The cars have to slow down. They’ve been hit where the deer actually runs into the car, not the car into the deer."

The city board debated the issue from several angles inclduing allowing the department of conservation exclusive hunting rights on peterson’s property.  The Panoramic resident plans to bring the conservation control officer back to the next city meeting.

The cemetery is located on 229 acres off on Interstate 44 on Highway H.  The land was donated by the U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center and Fort Leonard Wood.

The current buildings and gravesites occupy only 25 acres of the 229 acre site with plans to build on the entire acreage over the next 25 to 30 years.  Currently the cemetery includes an administration building, maintenance facility, a committal shelter for conducting interment services, and a wall for cremation interment.

The construction on the property was funded by a $7.5 million dollar federal grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

There are several people scheduled to speak at the ceremony which happens Monday at 1 o’clock.  Representative Ike Skelton, Fort Leonard Wood Commanding General Major General David E. Quantock, Veterans Affairs Cemetery Grants Service Director Frank Salvas, and Waynesville Mayor Cliff Hammock.

The incident happened at about 4:30 on Missouri 133, two and a half miles north of Richland.

Seventeen-year old Travis Gan was driving his 2007 Chevy Cobalt around a curve when the Cobalt slid in some loose gravel and struck several trees.  Gan was not wearing his seat belt and was fatally injured.

This is the 18^th death in 2010 for Highway Patrol Troop I.

Weather permitting, McAninch Corporation will shut down one lane of the westbound bridge Thursday evening from 6 in the evening to six in the morning.  While the lane is closed, McAninch will stripe the westbound bridge, laying out four nine foot ten inch lanes.

Once the striping is finished early Friday morning all traffic on Highway 54 will be shifted to the westbound bridge with the configuration in place about 25 days.

While the eastbound bridge is closed, McAninch will build tie in connectors from the eastbound bridge to the new expressway.

MoDOT says rain may change the scheduled shift.

The Missouri State Water Patrol says 53 year old David Gray of Edwards was out on his 1959 Runabout with three friends, 35 year old Chad Eversole of Cumberland, iowa, and 52 year old Daniel Craig and 46 year old Donald Johnson Junior of Lansing, Kansas.

The Runabout was traveling at the 65 Mile Mark about 8:30 Monday night when the men decided to stop the boat and urinate off the side.  Three of the men went to the same side of the boat, causing water to come up over the gunwale, swamping the boat. The men swam for the shore. Johnson went under during the swim and did not resurface.

The Ivy Bend Fire Department recovered Johnson’s body Monday night about 10:15 floating in about 30 feet of water.

This is the fourth death on the water since this past Saturday.