Forum Flashbacks: Dec. 17 – Dec. 23

FORUM FILE PHOTO
FIVE YEARS AGO: BEARCATS WIN FIFTH NATIONAL TITLE – The Northwest Missouri State University team (15-0) finished its perfect season Saturday with the program’s fifth Division II national championship, surpassing Grand Valley State for the most ever for an active Division II program. The Bearcats defeated Shepherd, 34-7, at Sporting Park behind another outstanding defensive effort that saw the Rams muster just 97 yards of total offense.

25 years ago

• A northwest Missouri farmer accused of starving hundreds of hogs to death has been convicted of 100 misdemeanor counts.
  A Gentry County jury on Friday found Daryl Larson guilty of 50 counts of animal abuse and 50 counts of improper disposal of dead animals.
  Larson was charged after authorities found the dead and starving swine at a hog-confinement facility south of Craig in extreme northwest Missouri. Estimates of the number of dead hogs ranged from several hundred to 2,000.
  The jury recommended 60-day jail sentences for each of the first 15 animal abuse charges and a fine for the rest of the charges.
• What greater gift can be given by a father to his son than life?
  This is what Gregg Paxton, Maryville, gave to his son, Chris, 20, who had been stricken when about five years old with nephritis, a kidney disease.
  Chris had been in and out of St. Luke’s Hospital, Kansas City, many times until he reached the time when the transplant would have to take place, as his condition began to worsen. … It was then that his father decided to be the donor after everything proved compatible.

15 years ago

• Just a few days before a holiday centered on giving, Skidmore residents on Friday gathered to honor someone who was taken away.
  Friends and family of Bobbie Jo Stinnett came together in Skidmore’s uptown park during a one-year anniversary remembrance service for Stinnett, who was murdered on Dec. 16, 2004. Only a few blocks away from where the murder took place, community members held candles throughout the ceremony to honor Stinnett.
  “I spent hours trying to come up with just the right thing to say tonight,” said Cheryl Huston, a friend of Stinnett’s mother Becky Harper and one of the event’s organizers.
  “But nothing that I say up here is going to do the one thing that would make Becky feel better, and that is to give her back Bobbie Jo.”
• A board responsible for the financing of state projects gave conditional approval Tuesday for a center at Northwest Missouri State University to grow plants genetically altered to produce medicines.
  After deciding not to discuss the issue in November, the Missouri Development Finance Board unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday signaling its intent to support the project.
  The resolution states the board believes plant science is important to the state’s economy and would support a loan to fund the project after the Legislature passes a resolution affirming its support for the planned research center and the center gets initial approval for a federal grant.
  The development would bring California-based Ventria Bioscience to Maryville to grow rice containing human genes for growing proteins to treat ailments such as diarrhea and dehydration. The president of the Maryville campus, Dean Hubbard, joined Ventria’s board of directors in January.

5 years ago

• After 13 years, the Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce is pulling the plug on the Chamber Country Classic Marathon. Chamber Executive Jordyn Swalley said Tuesday that a number of circumstances conspired to make last summer’s 26-mile footrace, which also included a half-marathon and 5- and 10-K events, the final competition.
  Probably the biggest factor in the marathon’s demise was the decision by local businessman Matt Gaarder to step down as the event’s main organizer. Gaarder, who owns Rapid Elite, a downtown ink and toner business that recently expanded into retail printing, copying, and shipping, has been the race’s leading spirit since it was founded back in 2003. But, Swalley said, with his business expanding and new responsibilities as president of the Maryville Downtown Improvement Organization, Gaarder has decided it is time to move on to other things.