News

The USDA has chosen two new areas in Missouri to participate in a program promoting biomass energy crops.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the program will pay farmers to plant giant miscanthus, a perennial grass that can be used for energy production.

St. Louis police say stepped-up patrols and a change in patrol tactics have brought a recent upward trend in burglaries back down.

Overall, burglaries are up in the city 11 percent since last year, driven by a large jump in the theft of material that can be sold for scrap, like copper pipes.

A House panel has approved $1 billion in emergency money to repair levees and other flood control projects damaged by the devastating flooding along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen said billions of dollars more will be needed once full Army Corps of Engineers estimates are in for repairing breached levees and other flood control projects damaged by this year's devastating storms and floods.

In the wake of “Weiner-gate,” in which Congressman Anthony Weiner has acknowledged exchanging sexually suggestive messages and photos through Twitter, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill says the scandal will not change the way she uses social media.

St. Charles County Executive Vetoes Smoking Ban Proposal

St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann has blocked a countywide smoking ban proposal from going on the November 2012 ballot. Ehlmann said Tuesday that he vetoed the bill because it would have unfairly exempted casinos, cigar bars and certain hotel rooms.

The council in the St. Louis-area county voted 4-2 in favor of putting the ban on the ballot, with one opponent absent. It would take five votes to override the veto.