About 10 years ago, my family received a gift from a friend: a small book and three ornaments. The book described traditions from around the world involving ornaments at Christmas. Our family immediately fell in love with the story of the German families who hide a pickle in their tree and on Christmas morning the one who finds the pickle gets a special surprise from Santa. What we quickly found out is "finding the pickle" is much more fun than any prize. Before we ever got to Christmas morning, the kids had played hide-and-seek with the pickle multiple times each day. And thus, our new tradition began. My kids are now 13 and 16 and as we were trimming

POPLAR BLUFF - I am proud and excited that Mid Continent Nail Corporation, a division of Mid Continent Steel & Wire, has just announced an expansion in the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park. The expansion includes nearly $5 million in new capital investment and the addition of 91 full time jobs. Mid Continent Nail Corporation began business in 1987 under the ownership of David and Doug Libla. Mid Continent Nail is the largest bulk pallet nail manufacturer in the United States and is the largest supplier of nails to the wooden pallet and crating industry with customers throughout the U.S. and Canada. Libla Industries, Inc., dba Mid Continent Nail was purchased by Deacero USA, Inc. in February 2012. I am very

POPLAR BLUFF - As was reported in the SEMO TIMES today, the City's grant writer, Raynesha Hudnell, has secured two grants totaling $424,750 for city projects: $400k to connect city parks, and nearly $25k for Home Repair Opportunity (HERO) Program. Let's go back to early September when former councilwoman Susan McVey grandstanded during a council meeting questioning City Manager Kaplan, "How do you justify hiring a grant writer?"  And then in the DAR a few days later she was boldly quoted, "The grant writer's position was not in this year's budget. It was not advertised and it was not offered to a capable local person." Had the city not hired their own grant writer, one can first assume we'd never had gotten these funds. After

Last week the House made important progress on an issue I have been fighting since I got to Washington – protecting our farmers and landowners from intrusive federal regulations. Since I have been in office, the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers have been scheming to take away our property rights. We know this from their actions. First, they proposed the National Blueway designation for the White River Watershed that would have created “buffer zones” keeping farmers from using their land. Then they proposed the incredibly damaging “Waters of the United States” rule that threatens to regulate every drop of water on our property. It could also require federal inspectors to approve how farmers and landowners use every collection

Jennifer Hood, the Administrative Assistant for Three Rivers College’s Career Education and Workforce Development department, has been named as Vice President of the Missouri Association for Customized Training (MACT). Hood, who was elected as Secretary of MACT in 2013, was promoted as part of the regular cycle of officer appointments for the organization. “I’m honored to have this opportunity to represent Three Rivers and Southeast Missouri as an officer,” said Hood, who helps set up and coordinate all of Three Rivers’ workforce training programs. “MACT is an outstanding group of professionals, and their work really helps keep Missouri’s economy growing and driving forward.” Three Rivers has helped to administer and provide training for dozens of state grant funded training programs

The EMS and Paramedic programs at Three Rivers College have been awarded a renewal of their five-year certificate of accreditation from the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services in Jefferson City after a site visit to the college’s facilities. The award completes part of the requirements necessary for the fledgling program to become fully accredited. “We’re very proud of this accomplishment, and what it means for the program,” said Tami Cunningham, EMS Coordinator for the college. “We now have only one step left to complete for full accreditation. It’s been a long process, but we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.” Cunningham has been in the process of completing the accreditation requirements for the Paramedic and EMS