Jennifer Moore

In this month's episode of Engaging the Community, we speak with Missouri State University President Clif Smart on the trailblazing Bear POWER Program.  It provides a full college experience to students with developmental or intellectual disabilities, preparing them for the workforce and a life of independence.   

Jon Mooney, assistant director with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, took to the podium Tuesday at a press conference at Fire Station Number 5 in Springfield.

“To those who have already been vaccinated, you can be a health care champion,” he said.

Wendy Crase wasn’t necessarily against getting a Covid vaccine.  The 39-year-old West Plains resident says she just didn’t think it was urgent. She had planned to look into it before making a decision. Then came the body aches, cough, and upset stomach.

She tested positive for COVID-19. That was just over a month ago, in late May. She was measuring her oxygen saturation level at home. When it dipped to a dangerously low level, she sought treatment at Ozarks Healthcare, the hospital in West Plains.
 

Beer still flows from the tap at Wages Brewing Company in West Plains, along with ciders, lagers, and kombucha. The brewery’s slogan, “The middle of nowhere never tasted so good,” invites patrons to sit in the company’s taproom and enjoy food, drink, and live music on the weekends.

But around this time last year, Wages Brewing was in crisis as COVID ripped through the Ozarks. Owner and bartender Phil Wages says business dried up almost overnight as patrons scared of catching the virus stopped going out.

Krista Pinner of Springfield began house hunting in June of last year. She was looking for somewhere to accommodate her young family. Her previous experience in selling a house had taken the better part of a year. But this time around, things were completely different when she and her husband listed their home for sale last summer.

“It sold within 18 hours, sight unseen," Pinner says. The offer came in from a couple that lives out of state and hadn’t event sent someone to see it.”

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with giant food companies Nestlé and Cargill by throwing out a lawsuit that claimed they knowingly bought cocoa beans from farms in Africa that used child slave labor. Those companies had been sued by a group of six citizens of Mali who said they were forced to work as children on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast.  Askinosie Chocolate, based in Springfield, Missouri, was an amicus party to the case and one of 18 small and mid-sized chocolate and cocoa companies that had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would rule differently.

In this segment of our monthly program with Missouri State University President Clif Smart, KSMU's Jennifer Moore asks what the university plans to do with the estimated $44 million it's set to receive under the latest round of federal pandemic recovery funding.

Listen to the program by clicking the "Play" icon below.

The Ozarks Public Broadcasting family is grieving the loss of one person who helped shape us. 

Missy Shelton Belote, longtime political reporter and former news director at KSMU, died this week in her home state of Tennessee after a battle with ovarian cancer.

KSMU's Jennifer Moore has this audio remembrance from some members of our team.

In this segment of our monthly program, Engaging the Community, MSU President Clif Smart talks with KSMU's Jennifer Moore about how the summer and fall semesters will be impacted by the ongoing pandemic. Smart also gives an updates on student recruitment both domestically and abroad. 

You can hear the program by clicking the "Play" icon below.

In this month's Engaging the Community, KSMU's Jennifer Moore talks with MSU President Clif Smart about the university's winning football season and what that means for a wider community.

For the first time in over 30 years, Missouri State University’s football team is making headlines for winning. As of Saturday, with a win over Youngstown State at home, the Bears earned their share as the Missouri Valley Football conference champions.