Today's Feature

Water Quality in Southwest Missouri Benefits from $10 Million Award.

News release

U.S. Senators Kit Bond and Jim Talent have announced a $10 million federal water quality award last week that will fund a major water quality initiative for Southwest Missouri for the next five years.

The mission of the Southwest Missouri Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) is to improve and protect water quality while enhancing economic development for municipalities, agriculture and tourism.

The WQIP in Southwest Missouri is a collaborative partnership designed to gain knowledge, monitor waters, collect data, work with stakeholders to test solutions, and implement results to clean the region’s water.

This project will include portions of the following watersheds: Table Rock Lake, James River, Bull Shoals, Sac River, Spring River and the Elk River.

According to Drew Holt, a University of Missouri Extension water quality specialist, who works with the Elk River Watershed Improvement Association and the Shoal Creek Watershed Improvement Group, this new funding provides opportunities for more testing as well as more education and outreach programs to demonstrate effective water quality practices.

"This project will involve the University of Missouri Extension as a member of the advisory committee representing the Elk River and Shoal Creek watershed groups. The University of Missouri Extension will also serve on the technical committee," said Holt.

University of Missouri Extension improves people’s lives with education and research from the four campuses of the University of Missouri System. All extension programs focus on the identified high-priority needs of people throughout the state. Each county extension center, with oversight by locally elected and appointed citizens, is your local link to these unbiased resources and programs.

I don’t know if standin’ in a parkin’ spot to save it for someone is legal or not. If not, I recently conspired with another unwitting participant in an unlawful act. ‘Course in the duration of the crime we had a nice chat about the weather and other typical street talk.

Now I’m assumin’ that if a vehicle had really wanted to posses our space, we would have had little choice but to vacate. My intention (I can’t speculate on my partner in crime’s state of mind) was to politely request that other parkin’ space hunters look for better ground. In this instance the vehicle needin’ the space was a repairman’s truck loaded with necessary equipment for his trade. I felt the perpetration of this conspiracy was well intended. But we all know what street is paved with good intentions.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

McCune- Brooks Hospital

To Your Good Health
By Paul G. Donohue M.D.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: There are a couple of yellowish bands on my eyelids. I thought they might be grime, so I tried wiping them off, but they didn’t budge. They are deep in the skin. What are they? How can you get rid of them? — W.C.

ANSWER: They are likely xanthelasmas (ZANN-thul-AS-mahs). They are deposits of fat and cholesterol in the skin, and they are often signs of high total cholesterol, high LDL cholesterol or low HDL cholesterol. Sometimes they are unrelated to cholesterol in any of its forms, and they just appear out of the blue.

They are also seen in liver disease and diabetes.

Next time you are in a crowd, take a survey of people’s eyelids. You’ll find that many are sporting one or more xanthelasmas.

If you have never had your cholesterol checked, do so.

Xanthelasmas can be surgically removed, and it is not radical surgery. New ones, however, can pop up.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am 67 and have osteoporosis. A friend tells me not to drink caffeine. She claims it blocks calcium from getting to bones. Have you heard this? — K.J.

ANSWER: Caffeine has a slight effect on calcium absorption, so slight it does not produce or worsen osteoporosis.