KBIA

A University of Missouri researcher is one of only a dozen recipients of this year’s National Medal of Science, announced by President Barack Obama Thursday.

Frederick Hawthorne is the director of the International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine at MU, and will be receiving the nation’s highest honor for scientists.The University says the Institute “was created largely to facilitate Hawthorne’s research” with the chemical element Boron.  

Janet Saidi contributed reporting from Columbia, Mo.

The number of people killed on Missouri roads is expected to be up slightly in 2012 compared with 2011.

The Missouri Department of Transportation says:

• 806 motorists have died so far this year, compared with 786 last year - about a 2.5 percent increase.
• That reverses five years of declines.
• As recently as 2006, more than 1,000 people were killed along the state's roads and highways.

Updated 4:30 p.m. with copy from KBIA's Ryan Famuliner.

A bipartisan group of Missouri leaders is trying to put pressure on Congress to address the national debt – and says tens of thousands of Missouri jobs are at stake.

Illinois to offer programs for those affected by drought

Gov. Pat Quinn says Illinois will offer an array of debt restructuring and loan programs to farmers and ranchers affected by the drought. He visited a family farm in the southern Illinois area Monday, where much of the corn crop is wilting.

Quinn says the state has also launched a website to help.

Hot forecast brings heat advisory

The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for the St. Louis area.

The advisory is in effect starting at noon on Thursday, and extending to at least 7 p.m. on Saturday. And the forecast from the National Weather Service shows why.