Missourinet

Today we said goodbye to David Sprague. He's heading east to find adventure in Boston. David will definitely be missed. He is a talented sports guy but he's also a great friend that helped bring a lot of humor into the newsroom. Since he will be covering (and possibly rooting for) new teams, we wanted to make sure David didn't forget his old team here at the Missourinet. So, we gave him this "Missourinet" helmet signed by all the staff. We hope he will display it proudly in his new Beantown pad. Good luck pal.

Target date for MSHP Crash Reports

The Missouri State Highway Patrol is shooting for July 10, 2006, to begin posting crash (they don't like the term "accident") reports on their website. Sounds like they've got things pretty much ready to go but want to test the new system internally for a few weeks and then get through the 4th of July weekend before rolling out the new service.

A couple of changes to what you've been seeing: Date of Birth will be replaced with age; and reports will be online for 29 days.

MSHP taking over crash reports

We were recently informed by the Missouri State Highway Patrol that they will begin posting their crash reports to the MSHP website. This means it will no longer be necessary --or practical-- for The Missourinet to maintain our crash reports page. We don't have a lot of information to share at this point, but there will probably be a news release from MSHP and we'll post that. We're not even sure when all this happens but probably in June or July. We plan to keep our premium service, Crash Reports dB, online until current subscriptions expire. That will be about a year from now. We're not accepting new subscriptions.

Before we began posting crash reports to our website, the only way to get a report was to call your local troop headquarters and have the dispatcher read it to you. Or request that a report be mailed (or faxed?) to you.

Last month, our crash reports site generated almost one million page view and was used by approximately 40,000 unique visitors. It has proven to be a valuable and useful service, just as we knew it would. And it has been a free service since the beginning. Even after we began offering an premium subscription service a few years ago, we continued to offer the basic service at no charge.

We're delighted the Missouri State Highway Patrol has decided to offer these reports on their website. It is our hope and expectation the new service will be even better than we've been able to provide.

What do these items have in common?

• Christopher Garbacz (Professor of Economics at Mizzou) business card
• 15 yards of Butler dental floss
• Iodized salt packet
• Free medium drink coupon from Hardees (Expiration date Sept. 1996)
• Cut-up American Express card
• 3-cent postage stamp
• Children’s Miracle Network pledge card (dated June 1989)
• Unused “I voted” sticker
• Illinois & Baltic Ave stickers from McDonald’s Monopoly game

A) Worst-case survival game pieces; B) Things McGyver needs to make a bomb; C) Things found in Missourinet News Director Bob Priddy’s desk after he cleaned it out in preparation for the renovation of the Missourinet newsroom.

Admittedly, this is an inside joke that means zip unless you know Bob and have seen his desk. Bob Priddy replies:

Any good archaeologist is able to take disparate remains of a culture and weave them into a coherent description of the people who once inhabited an area. The archaeologist is able to determine the approximate age of the inhabitant, the diet, the religious beliefs, and the society of his time. You did not include paper clips, which also were found in abundance and which are a valuable clue. The number of artifacts is also important, but since the site as been disturbed and the paper clips have been removed, an important piece of information will forever be open to speculation. I shall give you a few clews, however, about the person who lived there.

He was a carnivore who did not like bland diets but who took excellent care of his incisors so he could properly tear at the meat that was part of his diet. The latest artifact located is dated September, 1996, indicating that he moved from the area or perhaps died shortly after that (did you check for burial sites?). He loved children, worshipped the God John Maynard Keynes, and felt plastic was Satan’s tool for a corrupt society. Now, you may build the story from there, based on the evidence you have found.