A coming change will affect hundreds of thousands of Missourians, and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill believes too few of her constituents understand it.

Elena Helmerick turned 24 on a stretch of state-maintained pavement east of St. Joseph. To celebrate, she ran six hours.

The "yikes" number appears to be 180. That's where Republicans in the U.S. House fear their membership total could fall in the November elections. This scenario got plenty of attention in Washington on Wednesday.

Kay Barnes spent the last 366 days traveling the 6th Congressional District and gauging the mood of its residents. She claims one thing is missing from her discoveries. “I have not encountered a single person who has said that he or she is better off now than seven or eight years ago,” the Democrat said. “Certainly, the problems seem to have increased.” That’s the ongoing mantra of the Barnes campaign, which began on a St. Joseph lawn a year ago Wednesday. She wants to unseat four-term incumbent Sam Graves, a Tarkio Republican.

If oil is America’s addiction, the crack houses are located in places named Bryan Mound, West Hackberry and Bayou Choctaw.

Tea leaves get a good reading these days when it comes to the 2008 congressional elections. Political observers are trying to interpret what certain special elections around the county might say about the landscape come November. The latest supposed indicator comes Tuesday. INCLUDES WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE.

Maybe nothing went right for you last week.

The sign reads “Welcome to Bethlehem.” The name of the town, birthplace of Jesus, translates to “house of bread.” All that happens around this sign seems to meet a mission.

In the grand scheme of hare-brained ideas, the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman offered a doozy over the weekend. He suggested presidential candidates level with the American people. Tell me, have you heard anything so outrageous?

ATCHISON, Kan. — Beginning in 1996, Jim Ryun got elected as a Kansas congressman five times. In November 2006, he lost.