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Kansas City News Today Kansas City Front Page is a weekly news publication spotlighting attractions, jobs, events, business and hotels in Kansas City. |
KANSAS CITY NEWS TODAY - Monday, February 1, 2010 
by Betty Moore, SLFP.com ST. LOUIS, MO, (slfp.com), February 1, 2010 - On Thursday, January 28, the Gateway Multimodal Transportation Center in downtown St. Louis was the setting for a long-anticipated major announcement of the future of high-speed rail between Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City. The new federal grant will invest over $1, billion in new rail technology for Missouri and Illinois. The grants, which are part of the Recovery Act and include $1.2 billion to build a high-speed rail line between St. Louis and Chicago, and $31 million to make substantial improvements that will dramatically improve commuter services are the result of months of cooperation between the Missouri and Illinois Congressional delegations and state officials. See related story: $1.2 Billion Funds Chicago to St. Louis Corridor Project "The major focus is getting these dollars from Washington as quickly as we can and spending them in our region," stated Governor Jay Nixon. "There are some bottlenecks along the way. We have places where it squeezes down to one track and there are still some crossovers that stop traffic into it. That means that trains have to slow down." Governor noted that as the speed increases along with reliability, it is expected that the ridership will also increase on Amtrak. "When you don't have the delays, you will be able to move people one way and freight another way at the same time." "Today is a good day for the country and a great day for Missouri," continued the Governor. "It is the beginning of a process. Because of this grant, we expect Missouri to be positioned at the front of the line for additional dollars." White House Executive Director for Auto Communities and Workers Dr. Ed Montgomery said that President's Obama top priority was about jobs. He stated that President Obama pushed the Recovery Act with the support of Congress and was now calling for a jobs bill that will get Americans back to work. Noting that while progress has been made and job loss is less than 1 percent, Montgomery acknowledged that an unemployment rate of 9.5% in Missouri was unacceptable. He stated that investments will be made in small business, working families and infrastructure. "This project is the beginning of a high-speed passenger rail system of the building of a high-speed rail system through the Midwest to connect Missouri and other states." Montgomery stated these projects in St. Louis are a win-win for the environment, for Missourians traveling back and forth across the state and for Americans getting jobs. "These funds are not only expected to created jobs upfront and have positive economic impact, they lay the groundwork for a nationwide infrastructure of improvement that will spur economic growth for decades to come." Missouri Receives Millions for High-Speed Rail Projects KANSAS CITY, MO, (kansascityfrontpage.com), February 1, 2010 - On Thursday, Missouri was awarded $31 million for high-speed rail projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In a release, Brian Weiler, director of Multimodal Operations at the Missouri Department of Transportation, said they were very pleased. "This is the best news we could have hoped for given the extreme competition for rail funding. We are excited to have funding for additional projects that will support jobs and carry on the momentum of building a faster and more reliable passenger and freight train service in Missouri and a stronger rail corridor across the Midwest." The recovery act funding will be used for three shovel-ready projects that will support approximately 190 direct jobs:
Missouri's success was part of a larger Midwest regional effort that, as a whole, captured $2.6 billion of the $8 billion in ARRA funds available for high-speed rail corridor improvements. The state consortium, known as the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, is involved in an ongoing effort to develop and expand access to an improved passenger rail system in the Midwest. Besides Missouri, other participating states are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Nebraska and Wisconsin. Missouri School District to Grade its Own Food Options KANSAS CITY, MO, (kansascityfrontpage.com), February 1, 2010 - Eating right is about to become much easier for the students in the Independence School District, located in Independence, Missouri. Starting this fall, all the district's high and middle schools will "grade" all foods offered in their cafeterias and vending machines using the NuVal Nutritional Scoring System, which ranks all foods on a scale of 1 to 100. Under the NuVal scale, the higher a food's score, the more nutritious that food is overall. Typically, NuVal scores are provided on supermarket shelves; this marks the first time they will be used in schools. "By bringing NuVal to schools in an effort to improve the students' diets and health, we're addressing one of the nation's top public health priorities," said Dr. David Katz, one of the creators of the NuVal system and director of the Yale Prevention Research Center. "NuVal is intended to make everyone a nutrition expert, but without the heavy lifting. Students in the Independence schools will know at a glance which choices are more nutritious. We are hoping they will use that knowledge to make the best possible choices, and improve their health." Located East of Kansas City, the Independence School District contains four middle schools and four high schools, and more than 7,000 students attend classes there each day. Superintendent Dr. Jim Hinson said his schools are adopting NuVal as a response to the dire statistics of the country's declining health. "The trends you hear about, they're alarming," he said. "We're noticing it ourselves each year in our own schools - it's clear that students need support in learning to eat healthier. "By using the NuVal scores, we're hoping that students will get a better idea about what they're putting into their bodies, and they'll have the nutritional knowledge necessary to help them live a long and healthy life," he said. "We want to do everything we can to improve their understanding of the foods they eat and how it affects them." "I commend and admire Dr. Hinson for including the health of his students as a priority, along with their academic development. Ultimately, each supports the other, and hopefully every superintendent will someday understand that," said Dr. Katz. NuVal Scores are based on a sophisticated algorithm that takes more than 30 different nutrients and nutrition factors into account when developing a Score. The system was created by Dr. Katz and a team of a dozen health and nutrition experts over a two-year period. The system, which was developed independently of food industry interests, was recently endorsed by the American College of Preventive Medicine. NuVal Scores will be presented in a trademarked blue double-hexagon design and will be found on display for all foods served at the schools, from School vending machine products to cafeteria a la cart items. "Sixty percent of our kids stay after school," Hinson said. "It's our responsibility to not only provide healthy snacks, but to give them nutritional guidance about those snacks as well."   The Kansas City Front Page is owned and maintained by the Moore Design Group for the sole purpose of disseminating news and information about the Metropolitan Kansas City area. Text or graphics may not be copied, rewritten or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission. For more information, contact editor@slfp.com All rights reserved world wide © 2007 - 2010 Moore Design Group. |
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