Evan Bookbinder has some good news and some bad news for those looking for relief from the heat.

The letter from Republican election judge Paul Bennett (”Election judge admits ballot error,” Sept. 12) rebutting charges in the Aug. 30 front-page article “Pettis GOP files complaint” should have been published on the front page, where it would have been seen by the same group of readers (headline skimmers) who saw the first story.

There is good and bad news for Whiteman Air Force Base in the Air Force realignment proposal released last week.

The inauguration won't just be celebrated in Washington. Check back here for views from mid-Missouri on the historic event.

Obama said he will sign the Freedom of Choice Act as soon as he is president. When they get that ratified there will be no way to get rid of abortion.

The Sedalia City Council received good news about the upcoming Fiscal Year 2014 budget during its meeting Monday night.

Foundation problems that forced the Sedalia Public Library to close in late August may be worse than previously thought.

The Democrat welcomed a new business reporter last week.

Last week, the official chronicler of business cycles, the abundantly cautious National Bureau of Economic Research, said it was not yet ready to pronounce the recession over. But the American consumer is.

COLUMBIA — Huey Lewis and the News will perform at 7 p.m. Sept. 14 in Jesse Auditorium on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia.

A reader called on Thursday morning and chewed me out something fierce. She wanted to know why there were no reports in The Democrat until that morning about the fire that destroyed Calhoun High School very early the previous Saturday morning.

Maybe if I had been drinking heavily.

The Blackwater Community West End Theatre has come up with a different style of entertainment for Saturday and Nov. 10. Scouring the old Blackwater News, years 1900 to 1913, members came up with true happenings in and around Blackwater. T.M. Horne was the editor and he “told it like it was.” He took issue with the expense the village incurred by authorizing the local blacksmith (also chairman of the board) to build the double-bunk jail cell without soliciting bids.

The old saying states that “ignorance is bliss.” The problem is that kind of bliss is just a feeble cocoon to hide from reality and responsibility.

I remember chuckling years ago when I saw the headline: “More people die than are born.” That, of course, is impossible (over the long run). Now I’m seeing reports that could be headlined: “More news is consumed than produced.”

The Bon Nouvel (Good News) four-person scramble golf tournament will be at noon April 16 in Clinton.

169 senior airmen from Whiteman Air Force Base were recently selected the rank of staff sergeant during the 10E5 promotion release Thursday.

What were the top local news stories of 2009? We are asking readers to send us their selections for inclusion with The Democrat newsroom's list, to be published Jan. 3. Pick your Top 10 and send it to us at editor@sedaliademocrat.com. Deadline for submissions is Wednesday, Dec. 30.

When you are in the business of producing a fresh newspaper every day, it is easy to lose track of everything that made headlines over the course of a year. Sure, some issues and events stand out in your memory, but other significant occurrences are not as readily recalled.

The Monday, Feb. 23, 1914, and Tuesday, Feb. 23, 1914, issues of The Sedalia Democrat primarily reported events around the town.

Elections, the economy and storm shelters all led the news of Pettis County in 2008.