ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP-- A massive blast at a production plant in St. Joseph rocked part of the city but initial reports were that everyone at the plant escaped injury.

WARRENSBURG, Mo. --Numerous empty chairs seem to be a common sight in classrooms this fall. Have students already hit the mid-semester slump? Or is illness and fear of flu and H1N1 the cause for vacant classrooms?

WARRENSBURG, Mo.-- Maj. Joe Ely, commander of the 1863rd
Medical Detachment, U.S. Army Reserves, will present “Army Preventive Medicine in Operation Iraqi Freedom 08-09” at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, in the Nahm Auditorium in the W.C. Morris Science Building at UCM.

WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- Johnson County Community Health Services (JCCHS) has expanded this Wednesday’s H1N1 Vaccination Walk-In Clinic hours and will be focusing this week’s priority groups toward protecting children.

WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- Warrensburg R-VI School District will offer a three-, four- and five-year-old developmental screening the evenings of Nov. 10 and 12 from 4 to 6 p.m. and the morning of Nov. 13, 8:30-11:00 a.m., at the Parents As Teachers Center, located at Reese Education Center, 301 W. Market (Corner of Market and Warren Streets).

CENTERVIEW, Mo.--“Look how beautiful it is out there. See how the reds come out in those ones when the sun hits them. Just beautiful! It’s getting more and more beautiful every minute.”

Art Ozias of Breezy Hill Farms was right. The scene was beautiful. From his kitchen window that spanned the length of the wall, you could see the pasture, which covers Ozias’ land, and the cows, about 20 visible, grazing in the pasture, hides reflecting their red and gray colors, while the shades from hovering clouds moved swiftly across the land.

WARRENSBURG, Mo. (AP)-- By most measures, Aaron Podolefsky's nearly five-year tenure as University of Central Missouri president has been a success.

Enrollment is up, and so is the school's graduation rate. Podolefsky steered the school through a name change and successfully lobbied for more state and federal money. His achievements have made Podolefsky a desirable candidate to lead other, larger universities.

But the university's Board of Governors recently voted not to renew his contract, which expires in June, without giving an explanation. A board statement praising the outgoing president's contributions only further muddled the matter.

WARRENSBURG, Mo.--The damp and chilly October air didn’t stop seven members of Johnson County Right to Life and the UCM Catholic Campus Ministry from meeting outside Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri Friday morning.

WASHINGTON AP)--Federal authorities have seized the suspected Fort Hood shooter's computer and are looking for clues that may have led to the military massacre on Thursday that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded.

A U.S. law enforcement official said that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's apartment in Killeen, Texas, was searched early Friday. It was not immediately known if FBI agents found anything suspicious on Hasan's computer files. A military official said investigators also are sifting through materials Hasan carried with him during the shooting incident and evidence left in his vehicle, which was found parked at the base.

SATELLITE BEACH, Fla. (AP)--No bars or razor wire hold former Florida inmate No. 082629. Instead, William Dillon sits on furniture the color of ripe lemons, surrounded by cheerful animal statues and blooming plants, a prisoner no longer after 27 years.