The Mumbai that Dr. Prakash Patel knows is peaceful and full of people with “no gripes.” Dr. Patel, a gastroentologist at Heartland Health, returns to India once a year. He studied medicine in Mumbai, where his wife’s family still resides. His vacation timing couldn’t have been better recently. He left Mumbai a week ago today, just 24 hours before gunmen began a shooting spree that killed more than 170. Dr. Patel has stayed in the Taj Mahal Hotel, the scene of much of the violence. He was supposed to have lunch there on Nov. 23, the Sunday before he left India.

After 12 years in the shadow of an NCAA Division II collegiate football powerhouse, it’s finally Spoofhound time.
Northwest Missouri State University’s Bearcat fans will no doubt lend moral support to their boys this Saturday as they compete in a quarterfinal game 800 miles away in Abilene, Texas, but the physical support will likely follow the Maryville High School Spoofhounds to St. Louis as they compete for the Class 2 championship at the Edward Jones Dome.
Some families, such as the Farlows, are split on the decision. Nancy Farlow and her daughter, a freshman at Maryville High School, will travel to St. Louis. The preliminary plan is for her son and husband to follow the Bearcats to Texas.

WESTON, Mo. — “Stewie” and “Turkulese” rested droopy-eyed in their new home Tuesday, weary from a long day of pardons and ceremonies at the governor’s mansion.

The economy has claimed one of the United States’ largest professional cycling events. But it appears to be business as usual for the Tour of Missouri.
Not even the un-retirement of seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong could save the Tour de Georgia, whose organizers recently canceled the 2009 race because of a lack of sponsor support.
The Tour of Missouri, a seven-day stage event, which started in St. Joseph this year, brought more than 100 elite athletes, including many Tour de France participants, to Missouri’s roadways. The seven-day event generated an estimated $30 million in tourism dollars last year. St. Joseph officials hope to bring the event back in 2009, along with some of that revenue.

Travel during the Thanksgiving holiday will drop for the first time in six years due to the economic downturn and fewer airline flights, the auto club AAA predicts.
But for the most part, it’s business as usual in St. Joseph.
Bob Cotter, owner of Cotter Travel, said if it weren’t for discounted airfares, his business for the Thanksgiving holiday would have been down compared to last year.

A proposed performing arts high school, based in Kansas City, most likely won’t find a sponsor in a regional university.

MARYVILLE, Mo. — Having survived one of the deadliest hotel fires in the United States, where he witnessed the death of several victims, Dr. Grady Bray came out of it with a way to help people deal with crisis.

A statewide smoking education program is hitting four more Northwest Missouri counties.

The onus of having been a pioneer requires that you spend your retirement recounting your career.
Jean Jennings Bartik, 83, a computer programming pioneer, knows this all too well.
“I have a lot of people who want to talk to me,” Ms. Bartik said from her home in New Jersey. “The problem with all of it is, they don’t understand it.”

MARYVILLE, Mo. — Witnessing a translucent human being as a little boy has a way of leaving a permanent imprint.
Jason Offutt wasn’t traumatized by the brown-haired kid wearing a flannel shirt that he saw through in his home in Orrick, Mo., as a pre-teen. It spurred an interest that he’s turned into a book, a popular blog, a newspaper column and now a 300-level journalism class.
The journalism instructor at Northwest Missouri State University is continually finding ways to teach his students how to research, interview and write news stories. As a former newspaper reporter, photographer and editor, Mr. Offutt knows the tedium that comes with covering bureaucratic powwows. So he’s offering an outlet to students that allows them to hone their reporting skills while exploring a quirky and fun subject.