Don’t miss the GOP Primary Senatorial Debate Monday, June 11th at Lindenwood University. It takes place at 7:30pm in the Bezemes Family Theater in the J. Scheidegger Center For The Arts and will be moderated by FM 97.1′s Jamie Allman and Dana Loesch included on the panel. Rep. Todd Akin, Sarah Steelman, and John Brunner will debate all the big issues as they vie for the Republican nomination. The event will be broadcasted live on 97.1 and video streaming will be accessible online. No admission fee.

When: Monday, June 11 at 7:30pm

Where: 2300 West Clay St., St. Charles, MO 63301

RESERVE YOUR TICKETS at (636) 949-4433. Seating is not guaranteed unless reservations are made.

Tonight Ron Paul suspended his campaign. Presumably he is also on his way to dropping out.

The supporter base of Paul will not be easily won over by the grand old party. They wanted a grand new party or some kind of revival at the very least. Ironic that Paul was the senior candidate and managed to engage so many in the caucus process and the Republican Party in general all over the country. The doctor drew passionate crowds in record numbers.

Well what about that supporter base? Some claim they’ll all stay home and not vote in November! Maybe they will.

Perhaps our president just caused his own supporters to all stay home in November with his remarks on gay marriage.

Assuming the fans of Paul will not pick up their toys and go home, there might be a goldmine of volunteers available for Republicans who don’t swoon over Romney like he is a true conservative.

The Rally for Common Sense on Saturday, May 19th, will feature dynamic speakers like Herman Cain and Dr. Gina Loudon. The event is 10 am till 6 pm near Jefferson City. Attention, tickets are only available online.

Saturday evening will be an opportunity to meet some great candidates. This is a fundraiser for Rep. Paul Curtman but a time to visit with people like Rep. Shane Schoeller, Ed Martin, Ann Wagner, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, John Brunner, Bill Randles, and Cole McNary! About 200 tickets sold already and table capacity may be nearing the limit. Reserve your seat soon. Contact is Annette 314-223-2823 or teddynet@sbcglobal.net.

Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is on the decline in America.

For fear of offending someone? This brings back an old memory. I went to see a friend years ago, when his kids were still in grade school. As they came through the room, he stopped them and introduced them to me. When he asked the first one, “Have you met Mr. Vaughn?” I looked at him and said, “Jeff, that’s way too formal for me. Tell them to call me Tim.”

He looked me straight in the eye and said, “This is my house, and in my house, they’ll call you Mr. Vaughn.” He was teaching his kids respect. And anyone that entered his house had to abide by his rules. And a great lesson he taught them. They’ve grown up to be wonderful young adults.

My point here is simply that this is America. This is OUR house. Our FAMILY. “We The People” should NEVER be offended at reciting or hearing the Pledge of Allegiance. As far as offending anyone else is concerned, I think they need to be reminded that they’re in OUR house, and while here they’ll abide by OUR rules. And in OUR house we should say the Pledge in every classroom every day of the week.

We don’t any longer, of course, and I think we’ve forgotten somewhere along the way that this is OUR house! We should respect that and be proud of it. And let others know of our respect and pride. And if they’re offended…..?????

We’ll politely show them the door!

PLEASE VOTE IN THE PRIMARY TOMORROW! Help to get others to the polls too, after you go over the ballot with them. If you’re unsure about the candidates, do some checking. Not a bad idea to not give an incumbent your vote unless you believe they deserve it!

A September 2011 report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch below is just one example of why local government is more than happy to keep the average citizen uninformed.

How can we be a watchdog of all the public funding and decision making? We can’t but all of us can do our part. Eileen Tyrrell has Rockwood School District covered.

________________________________________________

Glenn Construction Co. has had a long, profitable – and unusual – relationship with the Rockwood School District.

For the last two decades, Rockwood – one of Missouri’s largest school districts – has contracted with the small construction management company for more than $15.6 million in work.

Each time voters in Rockwood have approved bonds for new buildings or renovations, Glenn Construction has taken a cut of those funds. In exchange, the Eureka-based company helps plan and oversees the district’s construction-related projects.

For the last 14 years, Rockwood has used only Glenn in that management role.

“We’re kind of a unique story in the longevity, and I’m very proud of that,” said company owner Jim Glenn. He says Rockwood provides 98 percent of his company’s work.

That relationship is so close that Rockwood, has, for years, not only provided the company with school district office space for its work in the district, but Glenn cites the address of the district-owned, rent-free property as its corporate headquarters and principal place of business when seeking work from other school districts.

And it’s so close, that Glenn’s project coordinator – a liaison between the company and the district for bond issue projects – is none other than Steve Smith, president of the Rockwood School Board.

Rockwood resident Eileen Tyrrell said that she attended two candidate forums in the spring, when Smith was running for his board seat, and that the issue of his employment never came up. Nor does Smith cite his position with Glenn on the district’s website, instead referencing his 23 years as a law school associate dean at St. Louis University.

“It’s just too big of a conflict … way too big,” said Tyrrell, one of the founders of Rockwood Stakeholders for Real Solutions, a recently formed residents group.

In recent months, district residents have expressed displeasure with the board and Superintendent Bruce Borchers after the hiring of two of his former colleagues from Minnesota as consultants at a rate of $1,800 a day each. Borchers’ colleagues were later named two of the district’s top administrators.

Smith was board president when Rockwood first hired Glenn, in 1991. Glenn hired Smith in 2004. Smith stresses that he has not simultaneously been on the board and employed by Glenn when the board has signed contracts with the firm. He says that his leadership of the board has no role in the district’s decision to continue contracting with Glenn and that he has abstained from voting on Glenn-related matters.

“I understand the concern,” Smith said. “But the law anticipates that conflicts will happen, it provides a way for dealing with them, and I believe I have followed that pretty religiously.”

The rest of the School Board, meanwhile, has approved contracts that have been increasingly lucrative for Glenn.

While the district’s projects have varied in size and Glenn’s responsibilities have expanded over the years, Glenn’s fees have climbed from about $221,000 following a 1991 bond issue to a high of $3.7 million from a 2008 bond issue.

Over the years, Glenn has adjusted how its fees are determined. In the last decade, those fees have been based on an escalating percentage of total construction program-related costs. In 2001, Glenn charged 4.6 percent; in 2008, the fees jumped to 7 percent, where they now stand.

Even after the board signs contracts with Glenn, the company’s meter has continued to rack up fees due to additional projects. Since 2004, the district has paid Glenn $1.1 million in additional fees for managing board-approved projects added after contracts were signed, according to district records.

The district says most of that money came from Rockwood’s building fund and bond issue savings.

All the while, Glenn Construction hasn’t had to worry much about competition.

LITTLE COMPETITION

Rockwood has sought proposals from other project management companies only three times since 1995, despite securing voter approval for eight bond issues worth millions of dollars in that span.

District spokeswoman Kim Cranston said the board has chosen in recent years to negotiate agreements with Glenn rather than seek other proposals.

“Over the years, Rockwood school boards and district administrators have reviewed the fees charged by Glenn Construction Company and determined them to be fair, reasonable and competitive,” Cranston said in an email.

The School Board and district selection committees had the opportunity to compare Glenn’s fees with those of others in 2000 and 2009, when the district accepted proposals from other firms – but didn’t.

The Post-Dispatch requested copies of documents submitted by Glenn’s competitors in those two years but was told that Assistant Superintendent Dennis Griffith, who served on both selection committees, destroyed the records detailing proposed fees.

The documents were destroyed “because these companies don’t want their fees being shared, as the fees are specific to the specific project(s),” Cranston explained in an email.

But according to documents obtained elsewhere by the Post-Dispatch, at least one of the two companies that bid in 2000 proposed lower fees than Glenn.

Construction Contract Service Group, of Chesterfield, offered to oversee a $38.5 million bond issue the next year for $965,000.

Glenn’s fees, meanwhile, ultimately brought the firm more than $1.3 million.

Some competitors of Glenn’s say Rockwood’s infrequent requests for proposals are empty gestures intended to make it look as though the district would consider someone else. And that appears to keep bidders at bay.

For example, neither of the companies that bid in 2000 did so again in 2009, when just three companies submitted proposals.

“We just made a business decision that it wasn’t worth our while,” said Construction Contract Service Group President Craig Lindquist. “We had no expectation that they were going to change program managers, so we chose not to expend the time, effort and money in proposing.”

Steve Smith at a Rockwood School Board meeting last fall

A LONG HISTORY

Rockwood officials say their loyalty to Glenn Construction is merited.

“I have worked with other construction management companies, and (Glenn is) the first one that delivers on time, understands what a deadline means … and understands we’re educating kids and that when school starts, you gotta be done,” said School Board Vice President Janet Strate. “It’s almost personal to Mr. Glenn.”

Glenn touts his firm’s successes in working for Rockwood. “We’ve delivered in every single case,” he said. “Our competitors have a pretty tough road to beat us.”

For the last two decades, the Rockwood board has put a bond issue before voters about every other year. Since 1991, voters have approved nine of 11 bond issues totaling $408.4 million. The result has been a steady stream of construction and millions of dollars in work for Glenn.

The company was tapped to monitor construction expenditures stemming from a $65 million bond issue in 1991 that involved constructing four school buildings and renovating 23 others. The agreement resulted in payments totaling about $221,000 over three years for Glenn.

At the time, Steve Smith was the Rockwood board president and in his first of three stints on the board.

“We’ve been handed a serious bit of trust by the voters in this district,” Smith said, according to a Post-Dispatch article at the time. “I want to know that $65 million is being well-spent.”

About five years later, Glenn and another company were hired to manage the district’s construction projects. The move followed the district’s 1995 request for qualifications – an invitation for project management firms to compete to oversee the district’s 1996 bond issue projects.

Not until 2000 would the district issue another request for proposals. By then, Glenn’s relationship with Rockwood had become exclusive. Glenn signed on as the district’s sole program manager in 1998 and has maintained that role, uninterrupted.

Jim Glenn says that his rates are negotiated and that they have risen as Rockwood’s bond issue work has become more complex and widespread.

“It depends on the number of different projects there are and the number of different contracts that are developed out of the projects,” Glenn said.

Prior bond issues have involved multiple work sites and projects as the district has responded to significant growth. But Glenn says more recent projects include additions and renovations that are more labor intensive from a program manager’s perspective.

“We have enjoyed a very long tenure and a wonderful tenure with Rockwood, and I have to tell you I consider that a real source of pride, both personally and corporate-wide,” Glenn said. “We truly know the Rockwood School District.”

The feeling appears to be mutual.

As Rockwood has signed contracts with Glenn over the last decade, it has included carry-over provisions that describe “additional and related projects,” bridging a role for Glenn in future bond-related undertakings.

Each of Glenn’s five contracts with the district since 2001 read: “Such projects may be considered a second phase of the projects being pursued under this agreement, and thus the program management services which may be required for such later phase are ongoing in nature.”

OTHER APPROACHES

Other school districts in the St. Louis region also have hired project management firms for two or more projects, but they aren’t nearly as loyal to those firms as Rockwood is to Glenn.

Several districts said they seek competitive proposals before choosing a project manager. State law requires that kind of scrutiny, some school district officials say.

Amid that open competition, Glenn Construction has lost out to rival firms.

For example, in late 2008, the Francis Howell School District decided to seek proposals from firms to provide construction management services related to a $78.5 million bond issue.

Glenn Construction submitted the highest bid – $2.5 million – among the six bidders. That was about 3½ times higher than the winning bid of $714,152, from Ben Hur Construction.

Francis Howell’s chief financial officer, Kevin Supple, said he was initially nervous about Ben Hur’s low bid, “but their service has been tremendous.”

Similarly, when the Clayton School District asked for proposals for construction management regarding its $51 million bond issue in 2009, Glenn produced the highest bid of four companies that submitted them. Glenn proposed $2.7 million. The winner, SM Wilson, bid $2.2 million.

School districts handle the administration and oversight of bond-related construction differently.

Some districts – such as Parkway – rely mostly, if not exclusively, on district employees to oversee such work. Other districts turn to outside firms or consultants with hourly rates.

Districts often pay a percentage of construction-related costs for such services.

Comparing fees among school districts can be difficult because districts have different approaches and particular needs.

But in some area districts, fees paid to construction management firms are as low as 2 percent, compared with the 7 percent Glenn charges Rockwood.

Jim Glenn says he offers Rockwood a broader range of services than what many other companies provide. And he said by the time other districts are billed, the lower percentages quoted by other firms end up being much higher. That’s because the lower percentages often don’t include fees for trailers, trucks, some wages and other fees.

Glenn says upward of 60 different Rockwood board members over time have evidently been so pleased with his firm that none has voted against a contract with Glenn Construction.

“They’ve all thought they were getting good value,” he said. “The reason we’ve been around a long time is because what we’ve done is what the community likes and what the board likes.”

LEGAL INTERPRETATIONS

Glenn describes his “core business” as construction management in documents submitted to other school districts: “Construction management is our first choice of doing business with our clients,” a 2010 Glenn proposal reads. Despite that, Glenn says his company’s role in Rockwood is more expansive.

Contracts with Rockwood refer to Glenn as the district’s program manager – a term that Glenn says encompasses managing all things bond issue-related from inception to completion, from deciding what projects to pursue, to suggesting which architects to hire, to handing over a new building’s keys.

“We understand that project, we understand it from when it was a concept,” he said. “From the very beginning.”

The distinction Rockwood and Glenn make between program and construction management is key to their arrangement.

State law requires that governmental bodies advertise and solicit proposals before contracting for construction management services and that the number of proposals not be restricted.

Officials at other area school districts say they seek proposals and compare fees when looking to hire construction managers, per state law. Several school districts have provided the Post-Dispatch with documents detailing that process, including summaries of the fees competitors propose in pursuing construction management contracts.

But because Glenn and Rockwood both label Glenn’s services program management, the district considers Glenn’s role a “professional service, similar to the service a law firm provides to a school district,” according to Cranston. “School districts typically don’t put out (requests for proposals) every year for legal services.”

Matt Menghini, a lawyer who was involved in consulting on the 1993 statute that defines construction management and the rules public entities must follow in obtaining such services, agrees that program management is a professional service. But so is construction management and a range of other related labels, and all are still covered by the statute, he says.

Menghini says the statute was written broadly so that it would define a group of people involved in construction projects who aren’t general contractors. Those services include – but are not limited to – advising architects and engineers, making budget estimates, preparing schedules and coordinating the work of all contractors.

“There are people in the industry who like to call themselves program managers or scheduling managers or whatever,” Menghini said. “You can call it anything you want, but if it falls within that definition (of construction management), that is what it is.”

Susan Goldammer, a lawyer with the Missouri School Boards’ Association, said she tells school boards to review the statute’s definition of construction management to determine whether services they’re seeking fall under the statute.

“One of the biggest penalties that school districts face is lack of public trust and also the trust of district vendors,” Goldammer said. “Construction is very competitive and frequently a local kind of service, and the school districts that don’t follow the laws to a T frequently find themselves in a bad PR situation and sometimes subject to a lawsuit if they select a construction manager and don’t follow the rules.”

Menghini said that the statute is less clear regarding just when districts should seek proposals, but that if a public entity hires someone after reviewing proposals and then continues working with that firm when new projects arise without soliciting proposals, that’s likely violating the intent of the law.

Borchers, Rockwood’s superintendent, said in an email Friday that the board’s process in securing program management services would be “open and transparent” in the future.

“As the superintendent, it is my responsibility to work with the Board on ways we can improve this procedure and process,” he said. “I have already begun reviewing this with them.”

A SATISFIED BOARD

Rockwood’s allegiance to Glenn was evident in 2009, the last time district officials took a look at possible competitors.

The district advertised for proposals on a website and received responses from three firms.

A selection committee including Assistant Superintendent Griffith and the district’s chief financial officer examined the qualifications of each and chose Glenn as their recommendation to the School Board. They did so without examining whether Glenn’s competitors offered lower fees. Such information was in envelopes, unopened and later destroyed.

When Griffith presented the recommendation to the board, he extolled the merits of Glenn Construction, saying the firm had great knowledge of the district and a strong relationship with district officials .

The bidding process, he said, presented alternatives, but not ones the board should consider just yet.

“If Glenn Construction retires, we have some people in the wings, I think, who could be a very good fit for us,” Griffith said.

The board approved the recommendation unanimously with little discussion of costs. One board member asked how Glenn’s fees compared with their past fees.

“Exactly the same,” Griffith responded.

No one asked whether the other companies were cheaper.

The completed contract, like many before it, set the stage for a continuing relationship with Glenn – this time for a possible 2012 bond issue.

(link to article)

Quite possibly one of the best commentaries on the growing tolerance of entitlement attitudes in our culture. Whether or not you like what Rush said, Mr. Demar gives pause. Editorial below found at Godfather Politics.

Dear Rush:

I know you apologized for calling 30-year-old Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute.” The language was certainly over the top. I know what you were  thinking. Sometimes people need to be hit over the head with a 2×4 before  something sinks in.

Before the watching world Ms. Fluke told us that she was sleeping around. Promiscuity and sex before marriage were once considered social taboos. No one  denied that people engaged in these types of sexual encounters, but such women  were generally looked down upon. I can remember people saying, “It’s OK to have  sex with these types of girls, but they’re not the ones you bring home to your  parents and eventually marry.”

Like you, I have reminded people that the larger issue is not about contraception. I just read a Christian Science Monitor article that continues to perpetuate the lie that conservatives want to deny women contraceptives. We don’t. We just don’t want to have our money taken from  us to pay for them. If Ms. Fluke wants to engage in promiscuous sex, then she  should pay for it. I don’t want to be an unwilling accomplice to her immorality and stupidity.

I’ve gotten to the point in my life that I would be willing to pay for contraceptive devices for women like Ms. Fluke if they promise never to have children. The thought of them breeding is disturbing.

I’ve read that a number of companies have withdrawn their advertising from  the show. The online backup service Carbonite is one of them. Here’s what CEO David Friend said in a written statement:

“No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this  courageous and well-intentioned young lady.”

Can you believe this? He calls Ms. Fluke’s testimony about her self-professed promiscuity “courageous.” Am I to assume that Mr. Friend would not rebuke his own daughters for sleeping around and broadcasting it to the world? What a shame.

I found that two mattress companies – Sleep Train and Sleep Number – pulled  their ads from the show.

My wife and I had just purchased a Sleep Number bed. When I heard about the company’s cancellation of its advertising, we cancelled our order and went with a competitor. I was very nice to the person taking my call. No yelling or expletives. He told me that they were keeping track of the responses. He then asked if I would like to leave a comment. I did.

My message was simple. Sleep Number had every right to complain and pull its  advertising, and I had every right to cancel my order. That’s what makes America great. The issue, I said, was not about contraception but freedom. I did not appreciate the government forcing me to pay for someone else’s immoral behavior.

I liked the way you brought in liberal hypocrisy. We know it’s pandemic, but  liberals never acknowledge it, and if they did, would never do anything about it. This was my favorite: “Will President Obama now give back the $1 million that Bill Maher just gave his super PAC?  You want to get some of the tapes that Bill Maher has called Sarah Palin the ‘c’ word over and over again?”

Just like Bill Clinton made oral sex acceptable to middle school students, now other young girls will  argue that it’s OK to be promiscuous. Even President Obama supports Sandra Fluke. I shudder to think what our nation will be like in 20 years – if it’s still here.

You’re sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door. Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers. At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way.

With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun. You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it. In the darkness, you make out two shadows. One holds something that looks like a crowbar.When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire.

The blast knocks both thugs to the floor. One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and lurches outside.

As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you’re in trouble.

In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them useless. Yours was never registered. Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died. They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal Possession of a Firearm.

When you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plea the case down to manslaughter. “What kind of sentence will I get?” you ask. “Only ten-to-twelve years,” he replies, as if that’s nothing. “Behave yourself, and you’ll be out in seven.”

The next day, the shooting is the lead story in the local newspaper. Somehow, you’re portrayed as an eccentric vigilante while the two men you shot are represented as choirboys. Their friends and relatives can’t find an unkind word to say about them.. Buried deep down in the article, authorities acknowledge that both “victims” have been arrested numerous times.

But the next day’s headline says it all: “Lovable Rogue Son Didn’t Deserve to Die.” The thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin Hood-type pranksters.. As the days wear on, the story takes wings. The national media picks it up, then the international media. The surviving burglar has become a folk hero. Your attorney says the thief is preparing to sue you, and he’ll probably win.

The media publishes reports that your home has been burglarized several times in the past and that you’ve been critical of local police for their lack of effort in apprehending the suspects. After the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared next time. The District Attorney uses this to allege that you were lying in wait for the burglars.

A few months later, you go to trial. The charges haven’t been reduced, as your lawyer had so confidently predicted. When you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works against you. Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful man. It doesn’t take long for the jury to convict you of all charges. The judge sentences you to life in prison.

This case really happened. On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk , England , killed one burglar and wounded a second. In April 2000, he was convicted and is now serving a life term.

How did it become a crime to defend one’s own life in the once great British Empire? It started with the Pistols Act of 1903. This seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who had a license. The Firearms Act of 1920 expanded licensing to include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns.

Later laws passed in 1953 and 1967 outlawed the carrying of any weapon by private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns. Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerford mass shooting in 1987. Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed man with a Kalashnikov rifle, walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw. When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead. The British public, already de-sensitized by eighty years of “gun control”, demanded even tougher restrictions. (The seizure of all privately-owned handguns was the objective even though Ryan used a rifle.)

Nine years later in Dunblane, Scotland, Thomas Hamilton used a semi-automatic weapon to murder 16 children and a teacher at a public school. For many years, the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally unstable, or worse, criminals. Now the press had a real kook with which to beat up law-abiding gun owners. Day after day, week after week, the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a total ban on all handguns. The Dunblane Inquiry, just a few months later, sealed the fate of the few sidearms still owned by private citizens.

During the years in which the British government incrementally took away most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to armed self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism. Authorities refused to grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming self-defense was no longer considered a reason to own a gun. Citizens who shot burglars or robbers or rapists were charged while the real criminals were released.

Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying, “We cannot have people take the law into their own hands.” All of Martin’s neighbors had been robbed numerous times, and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences. Martin himself, a collector of antiques, had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by burglars.

At the conclusion of the Dunblane Inquiry, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities. Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law. The few who didn’t were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn’t comply. Police later bragged that they’d taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens.

How did the authorities know who had handguns? The guns had been registered and licensed. Kind of like cars. Sound familiar?

Wake up, America. This is why our Founding Fathers put the Second Amendment in our Constitution.

“…It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” –Samuel Adams

Remember: When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Editor’s Note: As you read a 2009 update on the case, keep in mind how public sympathy would typically be different had the home held a mother and young baby. So then, why is one man’s life less valuable than a mother/baby? Note the “journalist’s” use of the word vigilante in the title. Vigilante: “One who takes or advocates the taking of law enforcement into one’s own hands.” The protection of one’s life and home– inside that home– qualifies as the action of a vigilante? Hopefully not in America!

*Mark Muller is an avid hunter and owns multiple businesses, including Max Motors, an auto dealership south of Kansas City. Muller drew national attention defending gun rights during this compelling CNN interview. Muller is also featured in a new book, “God, Guns & Guts,” by Ben Phillipi. (Until the official website is finished, the book’s Facebook page is staying current.)

A proposal to build an oil pipeline across the state gained the support of Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon.

The governor joined with officials from Shelby County Tuesday to voice his support for the project.

The Flanagan South Pipeline, proposed by Enbridge Inc. in Calgary, Alberta, would run around 600 miles from Flanagan, Illinois, Cushing, Oklahoma, crossing 11 counties in the Show-Me State.

The pipeline would follow the existing Spearhead Pipeline System.

“Major investments in domestic pipelines create skilled construction jobs, support community growth and ensure reliable access to North American energy,” Nixon said in a prepared statement.

Enbridge is conducting a binding open season to recruit potential customers to participate in the pipeline project. The energy delivery company is also conducting civil and environmental surveys.

The potential investment, along the entire pipeline, could total $1.9 billion.

Pending regulatory approval, plans call for construction to begin in the middle of next year.

(Go to original article)