Work with the Missouri School of Journalism
While a student at the Missouri School of Journalism, I worked as a multimedia reporter covering mid-Missouri. Below are examples of the work I and my classmates worked on together.
Bringing dying cemeteries back to life
Bette Keene Scavone’s family helped build Columbia.
Generations of her family built St. Clair Hall at Columbia College, one of the walls of Jesse Hall at MU, and even the Chancellor’s Residence on the Francis Quadrangle. But times change and Columbia has grown. Many of those family members are buried in a family plot right in front of a plant that manufactures Oscar Mayer hot dogs.
Many small family cemeteries across mid-Missouri age and decay until their memories and monuments are lost or nearly forgotten. No one comes back to visit or preserve the resting place. But some guardian angels are working to reverse the process, to preserve a time gone by contained in the confines of these tombs.
Missouri River sees a return of barge traffic
Barges moving down the Missouri River were once common sight, but competition from trucks and trains caused barges to fall out of favor. But now, as ground transportation is reaching the limits of its capacity, some farmers are looking to the nation’s waterways to get their products to market.
Officials at the Missouri Department of Transportation are expecting to see about a 27 percent increase in the number of tons shipped via barge in the state by 2030.
The increase is part of a bigger upward trend in the amount of freight that is shipped across the state, Bryan Ross, the waterways and freight manager at MoDOT, explained. But with shipping on highways and railways almost at capacity, Ross said he is looking towards Missouri’s waterways to provide a solution.
Survival of volunteer fire departments threatened by rising cost of insurance
Volunteer firefighters race head-on into danger everyday. But they’re now facing a new type of danger. Increasing costs for workers’ compensation insurance are forcing fire chiefs across mid-Missouri to cut corners, whether that be their number of volunteers or the quality of their equipment.
Larry Curtis, the fire chief of the Millersburg Fire Protection District, said he’s had to get by with what he has, but it isn’t enough.
“We have a tanker that’s 20 years old and it broke down on their fire today, normally it runs well for us, but that’s the problem with getting older equipment,” he said.
Curtis said he broke down and bought a newer rescue squad vehicle a year and a half ago because the one he had been using became too expensive to maintain and he couldn’t rely on it.
Even though workers’ compensation insurance is one of the biggest costs for these departments, Bryan Kunze, the fire chief of the Howard County Fire Protection District, said he couldn’t ask his volunteers to go out without it. But with the price increasing, the money has to come from somewhere.
Mail-order pharmacies have become a new competitor for local pharmacies
Health insurance companies have pushed their patients towards having their prescriptions filled by mail-order. They’re often cheaper, offering customers three months worth of drugs for the price of two.
But pharmacist and owner of Kinkead Pharmacy Mike Kinkead said it has come at a cost.
“The frustration for customers is when we look at them and say ‘Hey, you have to use mail-order, your insurance company will not allow us to fill your prescription anymore,” Kinkead said. “You either have to go to one of these chains or go to mail-order, and we don’t have a choice.”
Kinkead’s father opened up the pharmacy in the 1960s. It’s been a family-run business ever since, but the intricacies of the business have changed. Kinkead said it’s difficult to turn away customers he’s worked with his entire life, but that that’s now the nature of the business.