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Law Enforcement Will Crack Down on Drunk Drivers
ST. LOUIS, MO, (SLFP.com), August 8, 2010 - New Missouri DWI legislation will crack down on drunk drivers and make Missouri roads safer. This year's You Drink & Drive, You Lose campaign will take place Friday, August 20 through Labor Day, September 6, 2010.
Law enforcement will participate in statewide sobriety checkpoints and DWI saturation patrols enforcing Missouri's DWI laws and keeping impaired drivers off the road. At the same time, advertising messages will remind drivers of the consequences of impaired driving.
One hundred and ninety-five law enforcement agencies participated in the 2009 "You Drink & Drive, You Lose." campaign from August 21 to September 7 and issued 909 DWI violations.
The new DWI law which goes into effect August 28 will:
- Increase jail time for repeat DWI offenders and those with higher blood alcohol levels;
- Move more cases from municipal courts to state courts, where penalties can be tougher;
- Mandate better record-keeping for DWI cases so that repeat offenders can be properly tracked; and
- Offer offenders opportunities to participate in a DWI court program that incorporates treatment and close monitoring instead of going to jail.
"This is a huge step in the fight against impaired driving," said Leanna Depue, MoDOT Director of Highway Safety. "The new law will keep drunk drivers off Missouri roads and save innocent lives."
Missouri Awarded $24.7 Million to Provide Food Assistance Needy
ST. LOUIS, MO, (SLFP.com), August 8, 2010 - Missouri has been awarded almost $25 million in assistance to Missouri food banks, food pantries, and programs that provide support to low-income children and seniors.
In a release, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said, "Children, families and seniors will benefit from this timely funding as Missourians continue to recover from the economic downturn. Many Missouri food banks and food pantries saw their shelves stripped bare as more working families struggled and donations dwindled. This will help children and working families that still need assistance."
The $24,696,922 in federal assistance comes from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.
The Missouri Association of Food Banks, a network of six food banks that provide hunger relief in every county in the state and the city of St. Louis, will use approximately half the funds to serve more than 1,700 hunger relief agencies and food pantries statewide.
The Missouri Association of Food Banks members are:
- Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri in Columbia
- Harvesters Community Food Network in Kansas City
- Southeast Missouri Food Bank in Cape Girardeau
- St. Louis Area Food Bank
- Ozarks Food Harvest in Springfield
- Second Harvest Community Food Bank in St. Joseph
The food banks will further leverage the award by increasing participation in Missouri's Share the Harvest program, which provides access to venison donated by Missouri hunters and processors. Gov. Nixon has made additional tools available to help expand the Share the Harvest program in the future by increasing the number of participating processors.
"This is an excellent way to make these dollars stretch even further and help more folks in need," said Gov. Nixon. "Last year during deer season, Missouri hunters and meat processors stepped up to the plate to assist their fellow Missourians. This will help ensure even more of their neighbors benefit from their generosity."
The remaining portion of the grant funds will be used to provide support to low-income families through the state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
Majority of Families Plan to Spend Less on Back-to-School Shopping
ST. LOUIS, MO, (PRNewswire-FirstCall), August 8, 2010 - Six-in-ten American families with children at home (62 percent) say they plan to spend less this year than last or nothing at all on back-to-school shopping, according to the RBC Consumer Outlook Index.
Although most families are cutting back, nine percent say they actually plan to spend more and 29 percent say they will spend about the same this year as last year on back-to-school items.
Despite a planned reduction in back-to-school spending, a barometer of consumer sentiment, consumer confidence as measured by the RBC Consumer Outlook Index rebounded this month, increasing to 63.9, compared to 47.2 in July. The improvement in the Index is driven primarily by less negative sentiment about job security and future economic prospects, rather than any sudden optimism.
"The pull-back in back-to-school shopping is a true sign of the times," said Tom Porcelli, U.S. Market economist at RBC Capital Markets. "The economic recovery has been slow and uneven leading to diminished expectations for many Americans. As they adjust to living in this new economic reality, consumers continue to remain very cautious when it comes to personal spending."
While this month's index shows consumers' interest in investing in real estate is edging up, they are not at all sure about the fate of the housing market. Asked how they expect the prices of homes for sale in their neighborhood will change in the next year, 32 percent said they would increase, 37 percent said they would stay the same and 31 percent said they would decrease.
Despite ongoing job losses, relative confidence in personal job security showed signs of improvement this month. Forty-three percent of consumers say it is unlikely that someone they know will lose their job in the next six months, significantly better than the 35 percent saying that in July. However, the number of consumers actually experiencing job loss in their immediate circle was 53 percent this month, basically unchanged from July's 52 percent.
The survey also found that consumers continue to be concerned about the soundness of the market and are increasingly wary about investing. This month, 40 percent of consumers say that this is a bad time to invest in the stock market, compared to 34 percent in July. However, the share who say it is a good time to invest in the market remained unchanged from last month at 16 percent.
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