The Missouri House has formally rejected the Senate version of the state budget, setting the stage for final negotiations over the state’s spending plan for next year.

The President of the Meramec campus of the St. Louis Community College has resigned.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Chancellor Myrtle Dorsey announced in a letter to faculty and students Monday that she had accepted the resignation of Meramec President George Wasson. The resignation is effective immediately.

A motion by Patriot Coal to cut health benefits for 10,000 retired miners was heard Monday in a federal bankruptcy court in St. Louis.

More than 1,500 protesters, many with the United Mine Workers of America, rallied in downtown to draw attention to the case.

The UMWA is angry with Patriot for asking a federal bankruptcy judge to allow it to shed about $1.6 billion in liabilities.

But they also direct their anger at Peabody Energy, which spun off Patriot in 2007.

A Missouri Senate Committee has passed legislation that puts restrictions on the use of abortion-inducing drugs. 

The bill would require the prescribing doctor to be physically present whenever a patient takes RU-486 or any other medication designed to terminate a pregnancy.  Supporters say it’s designed to prevent so-called “web-cam abortions,” in which a doctor at another location instructs the patient on taking the medicine.

Susan Klein of Missouri Right to Life testified in favor of the bill before the vote.

The U.S. Department of Defense says one of four Air Force members killed in a weekend plane crash in Afghanistan was a pilot who had been stationed at Scott Air Force Base in southwestern Illinois.

The department says 28-year-old Capt. Brandon Cyr of Woodbridge, Va., died in Saturday's crash of an Air Force MC-12 aircraft.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. The Pentagon says there were no reports of enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash.

Updated April 29, 7:30 p.m.

With the Mississippi River below 33 feet, MSD says it no longer has to use the pumps, and the flow of untreated wastewater into the river has stopped. The temporary pumps will remain in place.

Updated April 29, 4 p.m.

MSD officials say that with the Mississippi River dropping, the flow of untreated sewage has slowed to 16 million gallons a day. Crews continue to work on installing two temporary pumps to replace the ones that failed. The cause of the failure is still under investigation.

Illness is an unfortunate part of the human condition.  At one time or another all of us come to know a friend or relative who is sick.

How should we react?  What should we do?  Should we visit? How long should the visit be?

Host Don Marsh talked with Letty Cottin Pogrebin about these issues and more.  Pogrebin is the author of How to be a Friend to a Friend Who’s Sick.  She says illness is friendship’s proving ground.

Arch City Radio Hour 009:

Last To Show First To Go / "When We Are Up"

Grace Basement / "The Way To Be"

Interview and live performance with Grace Basement's Kevin Buckley, accompanied by Ian Walsh

Dots Not Feathers Performance and Interview from Arch City Radio Hour #8