Wednesday, January 27, 2010 n s erv ing the community since 1908 n Join the conversation at ColumbiaMissourian.

com n 50 cents

Boone City campaign aims to

County
among
make it easy to be green
Despite population growth, Columbia recycled far less in 2009 than in
2008, prompting city officials to launch a campaign promoting recycling.
best
for kids Columbia’s
campaign MORE PEOPLE, BUT
LESS RECYCLING
A statewide to promote Although the number of

report says recycling households in Columbia is

growing, the amount of waste

child poverty focuses recycled, total and per person, is

decreasing.

and teen births on more CURBSIDE RECYCLING

Citywide total, in tons

are on the rise. effective 5,000 tons

By Kelly Brdicka ways of 4000

and Kourtney Geers
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com recycling 3000
Every day in Missouri in
2008, 255,953 children lived and aims to Photos and photo illustrations by JOEL KOWSKY/Missourian
Brandon Hergins and Rob Hulett shovel recyclables onto a conveyor belt on
in poverty; 31 teens left high
school without graduating,
and 25 girls — ages 15 to 19
encourage Tuesday at the Material Recovery Center located at the Columbia Sanitary
Landfill. The Material Recovery Center receives an average of five to six
2000

— gave birth, according to

the Citizens for Missouri’s
more city truckloads of recycled goods that are collected curbside in Columbia every day. 1000

Children’s 17th edition of the

Kids Count.
residents to 2007 2008 2009
The report was published
in the 2009 Missouri Data recycle. NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS
Book, which was released
Page 6A
32,000
Wednesday and compiles
information from more than 31,000
30 organizations and cov- 30,000
ers issues important to the 2007 2008 2009
welfare of children includ-
ing economic security, early RECYCLING PER PERSON*
education, health, child pro- Pounds per person
tection and juvenile justice.
150

“The teenage 140

pregnancy trend is 130

increasing,
120
and dropout rates No. 2 plastics No. 1 plastics 2007 2008 2009

are increasing as well, are typi- can be found *According to U.S. Census Bureau, average
Columbia household is 2.26 persons
cally found in soft drink
and we are worried in household and water
Source: RICHARD WIEMAN, COLUMBIA
SOLID WASTE UTILITY MANAGER
that these things cleaner bottles, food
are related,” bottles, milk trays and MISSOURIAN
jugs and juice disposable
Tracy Greever-Rice bottles. cups.
Associate Director for Community and
Economic Devolopment at the Office of
Social and Economic Data Analysis

“We want elected officials

to be aware of how children
are faring, so they can take
action,” said Emily Schwar-
tze, director of Kids Count
and communications for Citi-
zens for Missouri’s Children.
The 2009 edition of the
book says that child poverty
increased from 15.3 percent
in 2000 to 18.3 percent in
2008. Adult unemployment
for the same window of time
also rose from 5.8 to 6.1 per-
cent.
“We are starting to see the
impact of the recession in
data this year,” said Tracy
Greever-Rice, associate
director for community and
economic development at the
Office of Social and Econom-
ic Data Analysis.
This latest publication,
using 2008 data, was the first
Please see kids, page 6A
General assembly considers ethics bill
Four bills have been proposed in hopes of strengthening politicians’ ethics.
By Michael Bushnell
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com
JEFFERSON CITY —
There is bipartisan support in
both chambers of Missouri’s
General Assembly for at least
some aspects of major change
to the state’s ethics laws.
Ethics has been a hot topic
in Missouri politics this year,
in part because of several
ethics violations that landed
legislators in legal trouble.
The legislature heard in
committees Tuesday four bills
that would alter ethics law.
Ban lobbyist gifts
A bill from Rep. Rachel
Bringer, a Democrat from
Palmyra, would make Mis-
souri the fourth state to ban
legislators from receiving
any gifts from registered
lobbyists, according to the
National Conference of State
Legislatures.
Campaign donation
limits
Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat,
said in his State of the State
speech that he supports limits
on campaign donations.
Another bill from Bringer
would cap contributions for
statewide office at $1,250 per
person, half that for state
Senate races, and a quar-
ter for state House contests.
Rep. Gary Dusenberg, R-Blue
Springs, filed a similar bill
with the caps set a bit higher.
Dusenberg’s bill was called
too relaxed, and some Demo-
crats said Bringer’s legisla-
tion would be too much of a
change from the current sys-
tem, which places no limits on
lobbyist gifts. Ethics Commit-
tee Chairman Kevin Wilson,
R-Neosho, said the wording
was so strict it would prohibit
every interaction between
lobbyists and legislators.
“I know the intent, but
somebody pointed out that the
way this is written, a lobby-
ist couldn’t even hand you a
piece of paper,” Wilson said.
“I think whatever comes out
of this bill will have to be
reworded.”
Ethics investigation
obstruction
Legislation sponsored by
Rep. Tim Flook, R-Liberty,
would make obstructing an
ethics investigation a felony.
Co-sponsor Jason Kander,
D-Kansas City, was the only
speaker Tuesday to mention
former Sen. Jeff Smith, D-St.
Louis, by name on Tuesday.
Other officials referred to
“the actions of a small few”
as being the impetus for any
ethics proposals.
Smith and former Rep.
Steve Brown, D-Clayton, were
convicted of felonies in fed-
eral court for lying to the FBI
about their role in distribut-
ing fliers that attacked Russ
Carnahan during Smith’s race
against him in the 2004 Dem-
ocratic primary for Congress.
Smith is currently serving a
year-long prison term.
Kander said had they lied
to state investigators instead
of the FBI, it would not have
been a crime.
“That is a loophole you can
drive a truck through,” Kan-
der said. “Before this, we have
created an incentive to lie to
investigators, because it’s not
Please see ethics, page 6A

State of medicare corrections Index

the Union A bill sponsored by Norma Cham- Sen. Kurt Schaefer is a Republi- Abby 7A
pion, R-Springfield, and introduced can. A story on page 1A Tuesday
Live Chat to the Senate committee Tuesday misstated his party affiliation.
Calendar
Classified
2A
5B
Join the Missourian for could mean tougher regulations Comics 7A
State of the Union cov- for companies that sell Medicare.
Life Stories 8A
erage. Go to Colum- The two-part bill could bring Lottery 2A
biaMissourian.com refunds to seniors as well as
tonight for live cover- adopt new guidelines for selling Today’s Nation
Opinion
4A
5A
age and discussion
of President Barack
Medicare. Page 3A weather Sports 1B
Obama’s State of the Today: Mostly cloudy with a Sudoku 6B
Ecologist Naomi Stevens/Missourian

Charles Dharapak
Union address, which
begins at 8 p.m. local This week MU hosts ecologist
chance of rain and snow.
Temp: 39° Yoga tax World 4A

The Associated Press time. For a preview of Nalini Nadkarni, who wants to Tonight: Mostly Local yoga studios are gathering Our 102nd year/#97
what he’ll be discuss- make rainforest preservation cool cloudy. 2 sections
Temp: 17° signatures in an attempt to alter a 16 pages
ing in his speech, see for youth.
page 4A. Page 2A Missouri law that forces yoga studios
Nadkarni has even gone as far
as to design a Barbie doll show- to charge a 4 percent entertainment
casing her efforts. tax on each purchase.
Page 3A Page 3A 6 54051 90850 3
 Standard body copy
10 (9 on 10 FG medium)
1 Chatter chatter chatter chatter
Page 6A — WEDNESDAY, January 27, 2010
chatter chatter chatter chatter
10 Note: (7 on 8 FG Book Italic)
Source(s): LIST IN ALL CAPS
(7 on 8 FG Book Italic)
YOURNAME/Missourian
(7 on 8 FG demi/medium)
KEY/LEGEND
(7 on 8 FG Book Italic)
(7 on 8 FG Book Italic)
Solid (1.0)
Solid (0.5)
Solid (0.3)
Dotted (0.6)
BROADWAY
MAPLEWOOD DR.
PROVIDENCE RD.
CT.
RT
O
SH
City MAP AREA
U.S. Xx County
XXXX ST.
Brandon Hergins and Rob HulettS Tshovel
A T E recyclables
STATE onto a conveyor belt on Tuesday at the
Material Recovery Center located
Lake
at theO C E A N / S E A / M T N . Landfill. The Material Recovery
Columbia Sanitary
Center receives an average of five to six truckloads of recycled goods that are collected
curbside in Columbia every day.
Campaign aims to
Hartsburg
Jefferson
City
bolster recycling
Lake effect
Lake effect
By Anne Christnovich education and awareness,
news@ColumbiaMissourian.com kicked off this month.
1 / 2 MILE
Folks in charge of the city’s The campaign will focus
recycling efforts have made a particular attention
000 00 on edu-
0 apartment complexes on a
New Year’s resolution to gain cating the public on accept-
weight. They hope, that is, able materials 000to recycle.
00 0 offers a “where to recycle”
to increase the total amount Most paper products
000 00
and
0
of recyclables collected from glass can be recycled, but the
homes at the curbside by 5 Columbia recycling
EEE facility
EE E on using the city-issued blue
percent. only processes No. 1 and No.
Although Columbia’s popu- 2 Site
plastics. Examples would be
of Xxxx
lation has continued to grow, two-liter bottles or laundry
residential recycling has detergent containers. Plastics
not grown in recent years, labeled as No. 3 through No.
according to the Public Works 7Pointer
include PVC pipe, Pyrex,
Department. Estimates show most
PointerTupperware, shrink
that only about 28 percent of
Columbia residents recycle. Pointer
Data from the Solid Waste “Ninety-eight to 99
TOPIC: I am a label
Division for calendar years percent of people
cleverly contained
2008 and 2009 show recycling
per household decreased by that recycle want to
directly in the text.
almost 12 pounds per person.
In 2008, the city collected
do the right thing,
666 tons more recyclable (but) if they put a
material than it did in 2009.
Another problem is that lot of material in the
the amount of contaminants blue bag that is not
found among recyclables has
steadily increased. Contami- recyclable, collectors
nants are materials such as
Styrofoam and certain plas-
see it, and they are
tics that the Columbia recy- just going to throw
cling center cannot process.
Separating contaminants it away because
slows the recycling process XXXX they can’t get the
XXX XXX XXX
for employees and costs
enough to make covering Xxxxxx recyclables out.”
00 00 00
expenses at the recycling Xxxxxx RicharD 00 00Wieman 00
facility impossible, said Solid waste000
utility manager
Richard Wieman, solid waste TOTAL 000 000
utility manager.
0,000 wrap, Styrofoam, bottle caps
“Ninety-eight to 99 percent
of people that recycle want and Heidelburg cups. 0,000
to do the right thing, (but) 0,000
if “Different programs do
they put a lot of material in different things,” Weiman
the blue bag that is not recy- said. For example, a con-
0,000 sumer might buy a computer
clable, collectors see it, and
they are just going to throw that the manufacturer says
it away because they can’t is recyclable, but Columbia’s
0,000
get the recyclables out,” Wie- program doesn’t deal with
man said. electronic waste. “So, I think
The Public Works Depart- really it’s about understand-
0000 ’00 ’00 ’00 ’00
ment has hired Pure, a Colum- ing and getting the informa-
bia advertising agency, to tion out.”
help residents sort out ways Along with an effort to
to recycle more often and improve curbside recycling,
effectively. The mixed-media the city and Pure are trying to
Name: 00.0%
project, aimed at increasing boost awareness of recycling
Name:
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00.0%
Name: 00.0%
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00.0%
precision work
MU sophomore Josh Hendren goes through the process of sequencing the DNA
of white grub specimens Tuesday in the MU Agricultural Building. By sequencing
the white grub’s DNA, Hendren will be able to identify the specimen, which could
help farmers with pesky beetle problems. “By sequencing the DNA, you can say
this is the type of beetle you have, which would give farmers a better advantage
in taking care of it,” Hendren said.
000
JOEL KOWSKY/Missourian
Hartsburg
Jefferson
City
N dents enrolled in free and
00 MILES
options for apartment dwell-
ers. The city makes recycling
containers available to most
rotating basis. Columbia also
guide on its Web site.
There will also be a focus
bags. Because not every-
one chooses to recycle and
the bags themselves are not
recyclable, the city stopped
delivering them to residents
to reduce waste and cost.
Instead, the city now sends
vouchers to homes, allowing
residents to pick up blue bags
for free at several Columbia
locations.
Wieman said the Solid
Waste Division also plans a
pilot program involving reus-
able plastic recycling bins
later in the year. While the
program has already been
approved, the division is
seeking City Council approv-
al to try the bins on Fri-
day recycling routes north
of Interstate 70. The experi-
ment would include 1,800
homes.
The recycling campaign
plans to engage residents
using traditional media
such as television, radio and
newspaper ads but also will
tap into social media such
as Twitter and Facebook to
reach key demographics.
More than 49,000 Colum-
bians use Facebook actively,
according to a news release
from the Solid Waste Divi-
sion. The Facebook page,
“Columbia Recycles,” has
been gaining fans by the
day.
Erica Pefferman, vice
president of Pure, said one of
the messages the campaign
is trying to convey is that
recycling is easy.
“I think people expect it to
be complicated,” Pefferman
said. But as the newest TV
ad suggests, “even a Jayhawk
can do it.”
CAITLYN EMMETT/Missourian
Columbia Missourian
Kids:
KID-UNFRIENDLY RECESSION
Although Boone County has risen in the overall rankings of kid-friendly
County
Missouri counties, it hasn’t escaped the impact of the economic recession.
Boone County poverty rates, umemployment rates and number of children
enrolled in free or reduced price lunches have risen in the past year. Boone
County is still faring better than Missouri as a whole.
Boone County Missouri
low in
CHILDREN IN POVERTY* CHILDREN UNDER 6 IN
Percentage of children POVERTY*
Percentage of children
20 25
teen
18.3% 22%
20
15
15
births
10
10
5
5
CONTINUED from page 1A
reflection of a full year of eco- 0
2000 2007
0
2000 2007
nomic recession as it affects
*Kids Count uses census data when determining poverty rates. The 2007 data comes
Missouri. “We expected to from a Census Bureau estimate for 2007.
see an increase in poverty
and unemployment,” Schwar- ADULT UNEMPLOYMENT
tze said. Percentage of adults
The organization looks at
8
10 key factors when review-
ing data and uses six to deter-
mine a composite rank for 7 6.1%
the well-being of children for
each county. Factors consid-
6
ered include: number of stu-
4.3%
discount lunch programs, 5
births to mothers without
high school diplomas, infant 4
mortality rates, out-of-home
placement entries, annual
high school dropouts and 3
births to teens ages 15 to 19.
Missouri, as a whole, saw 2
worsening trends in the 2000 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08
increased number of students
receiving free and discount
CHILDREN ENROLLED IN FREE OR REDUCED PRICE LUNCH
lunch, infants with low birth Percentage of children
weights and high school drop-
outs. 50
“The teenage pregnancy
trend is increasing, and drop- 42%
out rates are increasing as
well, and we are worried that
these things are related,”
40
Greever-Rice said.
Although Boone County is 31.5%
ranked 10th in the state out of
114 counties and the city of St.
30
Louis, it is particularly strug-
gling in three areas. There
were increases in the num-
ber of students who qualify
for free and discount lunch, 20
births to mothers without high 2000 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08
school diplomas and births to
teens ages 15 to 19. Source: MOKIDS.ORG
The Columbia area contrib- LINDSAY COCHRUM/Missourian
utes a large portion of the
Boone County data, according to happen together, but it’s “These reports are good
to Greever-Rice.
Boone County’s worst rank-
unfortunate,” Greever-Rice bellwethers; they provide a
said. good place to start determin-
ing (69th) is for high school
Citizens for Missouri’s Chil- ing problems,” Greever-Rice
dropout rates; its best ranking
(ninth) is for births to teens dren serves as an advocate for said. “Once a community
ages 15 to 19. children’s well-being, and the sees information like this, it
A trend in one area might book includes suggestions for becomes impetus for a com-
improving conditions for chil-
be closely tied to another as a munity to figure out what is
result of correlating factors — dren statewide. Every state
really going on and act on it.”
child poverty and adult unem- conducts a Kids Count, draw-
ployment, for example. ing from state, private and Missourian reporter Alix Wiggins
“We expect all these things other funding. contributed to this report.
TOP 10 MISSOURI COUNTIES
KIDS COUNT gives each county in Missouri an overall ranking for child-friendliness based on how its
statistics compare to other counties. These are the top 10 counties for 2009, along with their
rankings in 2008 and five of the outcome measures used to calculate the ranking.
STUDENTS BIRTHS TO
INFANT BIRTHS TO
OVERALL ENROLLED IN MORTALITY MOTHERS ANNUAL
HIGH SCHOOL TEENS, AGES
RANKING IN FREE OR WITHOUT
2008 REDUCED (PER 1,000
H.S. DIPLOMA DROPOUTS 15-19
LIVE BIRTHS) (PER 1,000)
LUNCH
1 Osage 6 452 3 11 11 4
2 St. Charles 1 8,322 129 360 402 251
3 Platte 2 2,921 21 83 122 65
4 Andrew 7 796 3 16 14 15
5 Worth 4 193 0 1 3 1
6 Clinton 16 1,063 6 23 32 19
7 Atchison 3 387 0 7 8 7
8 Mercer 41 253 1 6 2 1
9 Clay 12 9,794 84 351 366 264
10 Boone 15 6,637 63 228 219 172
Source: MOKIDS.ORG JASHIN LIN/Missourian
Ethics: Provision would establish
yearly income reports for staffers
CONTINUED from page 1A Yearly income reports “In the era of term limits,
a serious crime to impede an for staffers most people would argue that
the ability to influence legisla-
ethics investigation.” The lone ethics bill heard in
tion rests not only on elected
Kander emphasized that he the Senate Rules Committee
officials, but with the staff,”
thinks ethics reform should be would establish an indepen-
Shields said. “There are staff-
the primary focus of the state dent commission to file and ers who are more influential
legislative session because it investigate ethics complaints and familiar with lobbyists
will have a domino effect on against officials. than some legislators.”
how all bills are influenced. The bill, filed by Senate Pres- The bill would create an inde-
“I know this might seem like
just another issue, but to me
ident Pro Tem Charlie Shields,
R-St. Joseph, also would
pendent commission that could
file ethics complaints on its
it is the issue for one reason,” require all General Assembly own, which seemed to get sup-
Kander said. “This affects staff members to file yearly port from the two Democrats
how everything else is done in income reports like legislators on the Senate committee. Sen.
this body.” and candidates do. Tim Green, D-Spanish Lakes,
Wilson said the ethics com- Shields said this provision, said it would be a dramatic
mittee would combine all which was met with skepticism improvement over the current
three House bills into one, to by Democrats, was necessary system, which requires an out-
be introduced at a later date. because Missouri limits leg- side party to file a complaint
He said he hoped to begin the islators to serving just eight before an investigation can
process next week. years in each house. begin.