Kansas City Star

When President Barack Obama came into office, many people (this writer included), expected him to mothball the nation's missile defense program, much as President Bill Clinton had done. During his campaign, Obama gave lip service to the concept but promised to slice funding for "unproven" systems.

Putting it that way was clever. It made him sound reasonable and moderate. But his phrasing hinted at a Catch-22, because the only way any such system can be "proven" is to test it, and that requires money. Many feared that under this administration, the "unproven" would always remain so.

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Steve Green rounded a bend on the Wakarusa River and slowed his boat as he approached a clearing on the bank that had been turned into a makeshift fishing camp.

"Welcome to 'Survivor, Kansas,' " he said with a laugh, referring to the popular television series. "This is going to be our base camp tonight."

With a campfire already blazing, Green's friends, Mark Wotipka and Mark Anfinson, were busy readying fishing rods.

A food table had been set up, comfortable recliner lawn chairs were arranged behind the rod holders, and steaks sizzled on the grill.

SEDALIA, Mo. -- A quarter to half-mile wide tornado struck Sedalia early this afternoon, crumpling a trailer park, damaging homes and businesses and injuring 15 to 25 people.

Authorities said initial sweeps through the damaged area indicate that everyone is accounted for.

JOPLIN, Mo. -- St. John's Regional Medical Center, the hospital ravaged by the Joplin tornado, will be rebuilt, officials said Wednesday.

In the meantime, patients have been transported to other facilities and a makeshift clinic is being operated at Joplin Memorial Hall.

JOPLIN, Mo. -- The death toll from Sunday's tornado has risen to 122, making it the eighth-deadliest tornado in U.S. history, the National Weather Service said.

The Joplin twister was upgraded to EF-5, the strongest category on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds exceeding 200 mph. The storm was apparently a "multi-vortex" tornado, with two or more small and intense centers of rotation orbiting the larger funnel, a rare occurrence.

When the bass fishing gets tough at Lake of the Ozarks, Keith Enloe often uses a little finesse to get the fish to bite.

Consider a recent weekday. When a cold front affected the bite, Enloe turned to an old trick.

He dropped down to spinning gear and light line, then went to a Zoom trick worm on a standup head. He started crawling that small plastic worm over baseball-sized rock adjacent to a spawning bank and found immediate success.

He and a fishing partner, Jim Divincen, ended up catching nine keepers in three hours, one of them 4 1/2 pounds.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- An activist group on Wednesday urged the Jackson County, Mo., prosecutor to launch a grand jury investigation into what it called priest sex crimes and cover-ups in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri.