Within a week, the heat wave will have run its course and we’ll surely have a little rain. Then we can get moving again in the wonderful Ozarks outdoors and watch the greens become gold, orange and red.
Here are some links for outdoor activities Read the rest of this entry
It’s nothing new that a New York Times columnist would write about Missourians with a tone of good-natured condescension. That’s how Gail Collins approaches many topics. But did she make her points about why Missourians voted the way they did on August 3, 2010?
In today’s editorial, “Show Me Your Insiders,” Collins’s first point is that Missourians are “crazy Read the rest of this entry
Barker’s horse bolted through an open gate on Matchett’s farm and ran onto the highway. A car hit the horse, then careened into Gromer’s car, injuring Gromer, who filed a lawsuit in Butler County, Missouri.
Gromer settled with the other driver and Barker before the trial. Then Gromer convinced a jury that Matchett should be at least partly responsible. He owned the farm with the open gate where Barker boarded his horse.
Missouri’s Stock Law, section 270.101 RSMo, makes a person whose livestock gets onto a highway responsible for Read the rest of this entry
The disputes between growers (of cattle, hogs and poultry), the small number of purchasers (packers) and the USDA dwarfs the Shirley Sherrod affair in economic importance, especially in the Ozarks.
While the character assassination and redemption of Shirley Sherrod was essentially contrived by and blown up by the media, the real economic tensions between those who raise animals and those who buy them and convert the meat into consumer products has reached a point at which Congress in the 2008 Farm Bill asked the USDA to propose regulations to address several problems.
The problems arise out of the unequal Read the rest of this entry
Cliff Sain’s excellent report on Branson Landing in the July 18 Springfield News-Leader contains statements that illustrate some of the dilemmas faced by developers and local governments when planning a large project.
Branson’s aldermen (none of whom were in office when the Branson Landing project was approved for construction) have chosen to take $1.4 million from the city’s general fund and $1.2 million from the city’s transportation fund Read the rest of this entry
As Missouri’s public roads have been straightened, many odd kinks of roadway are left over, along with triangles of land between the old roads and the new roads. As we drive, we see these pieces of the old roads, sometimes serving as frontage roads along divided highways. In some cases, such as in McCullough v. Doss and Allen, the triangle on the west side of the new road was sold to McCullough, even though they might have been able to claim that at least the west half of the abandoned right-of-way of the old public road was theirs. Here’s an image from the Stone County Assessor’s maps:
The State of Missouri built Highway 39 in the mid-1950s, mainly along an old public road. At the point shown in the image, the severe dogleg Read the rest of this entry
On January 3, 2010, I posted a glum summary of published economic reports from Federal Reserve Banks in Kansas City and St. Louis and other sources from the metro areas that surround the Ozarks. My rough guess is that the economic activity in the Ozarks is primarily generated by the surrounding metro areas, which create demand for goods and services produced in the Ozarks, an idea that looks something like: Read the rest of this entry
Homeowner associations (HOAs) are given responsibility by recorded subdivision and condominium documents for maintaining, insuring and operating private communities’ common properties, such as streets, drinking water systems, sewer collection and treatment systems, and recreation facilities.
With many developers having abandoned projects before the HOA is operated by residents, the residents and other lot or unit owners (such as lenders that have foreclosed) are often faced with HOAs that cannot properly Read the rest of this entry
This summer, people around the country will be seeing the movie version of Daniel Woodrell’s 2006 novel, “Winter’s Bone.” They’ll wonder if the movie shows life in the Ozarks as it really is. The movie was filmed in Taney and Christian counties in Southwest Missouri, during the winter of 2009. You can see the trailer and read a synopsis of the plot.
This movie, with its glowing reviews and big success at the Sundance Film Festival, raises a couple of interesting questions: Read the rest of this entry
You know the story. The City of Branson gives a great deal to a private business to create an attraction on the Taneycomo lakefront. A few years later, the City doesn’t think the deal is working well for the City. The political winds have changed. Now there’s a lawsuit. Here’s how it went down, more than a half-century ago.
Jim Owen–not to be confused with the singer–played a major role in putting Branson on the tourism map. A consummate promoter of float fishing on the James and White rivers and tourism and commerce in the Branson area, he was unstoppable. Born in Webster County, Missouri (east of Springfield), he came to Branson in 1933, already experienced with public relations.
Soon Jim had built a movie theatre and started a float fishing business that got national attention and was also a banker and farmer. Some fine person posted this promotional silent film of one of his trips (11 minutes long) Read the rest of this entry
Ozarks Law & Economy 