SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)--In Arizona, the budget has grown so gloomy that lawmakers are considering mortgaging Capitol buildings. In Michigan, state officials dealing with the nation's highest unemployment rate are slashing spending on schools and health care.

Matt Hohensee, a new manager at Family Video in Warrensburg, is originally from Wisconsin but took the job here after realizing he didn't want to sit behind a desk for the rest of his life.

WARRENSBURG, Mo.--Since the end of June, Family Video has been under new management here, and the crew at the 218 E. Culton St. store thinks Matt Hohensee, 25, has been just the person for the job.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP)--With many shoppers planning to scale back this holiday season, businesses in St. Joseph are giving people a reason to spend their dollars locally--a chance to win $10,000.

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.--An age of technology and innovation has caused many businesses once thought an integral part of society to fade away into the not-so-distant memory of older generations.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Faced with high health insurance costs, a North Carolina brokerage passed the buck on to its employees, a Texas public relations firm switched from group insurance to stipends, and a Missouri travel agency let its workers walk away instead paying for insurance.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) -- Tristesse Jones will probably never drive a tractor or guide a combine through rows of soybeans at harvest time.