Don Marsh

The 2013 Missouri legislative session is now in the books.

While legislators are no longer assembled in Jefferson City, the impacts of what did and did not get done will continue into the coming months.

The Republican controlled House and Senate put gun rights and taxes high on their agenda and perennial issues such as abortion and voter photo IDs came up.

Democratic Governor Jay Nixon has already vetoed some legislation and more vetoes are possible.

The legacy of African Americans who have made contributions in Missouri is highlighted in a new book written by retired local educators John and Sylvia Wright.

The name of the book is Extraordinary Black Missourians: Pioneers, Leaders, Performers, Athletes, & Other Notables Who’ve Made History.

Many of the people highlighted in the book such as Dred Scott, Langston Hughes and Scott Joplin are well-known.  Others such as concert pianist Blind Boone and teacher and entomologist Charles Henry Turner are not as well known.

More than a million students nationwide are homeless.

Children who lack a permanent or stable household is an important yet, perhaps, overlooked issue and that’s true in the St. Louis area where several thousand students do not have a permanent home.

Hundreds of thousands of American workers are paid the minimum wage.  It’s $7.25 nationally and $7.35 in St. Louis.  While the perception may be that minimum and low wage jobs are mostly held by teens, the vast majority, 75 percent, are adults over the age of 20.

Recent local news reports have highlighted protests by minimum wage earners.  They are demanding that their pay be nearly doubled.  The campaign is called “St. Louis Can’t Survive on $7.35.”

UC Berkeley Journalism Professor Michael Pollan has devoted a good deal of his career to examining the food we eat in today’s society and the hazards of much of it.  Four of his books are New York Times Bestsellers and have received many other accolades: Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World.