Gov. Jay Nixon has appointed Dennis C. Eckold of Kansas City as an associate circuit judge of the Sixth Circuit in Platte County. Eckold will fill the vacancy created by the governor’s appointment in January of Gary D. Witt to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District. In a related development, the Judicial Commission will meet this week to nominate another three-member panel as candidates to replace Judge Daniel Czamanske, who has been forced to step down due to the state’s mandatory retirement age.
After a cold, rainy and hard day’s work getting set up, severe storms in the forecast put a halt to the Culpepper and Merriweather Circus on Monday. The circus was scheduled to put on two shows Monday evening in an open lot near the Northland Career Center in Platte City.
Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser, who is planning a city-wide town hall meeting next week to promote his Schools First initiative, hosted a roundtable news conference with a few weekly publications in his office on Monday morning. Funkhouser said that he hopes to gain support of parents, teachers, administrators, neighbors and even students at his upcoming town hall meeting to begin a program of urban renewal by focusing city funds and improvement strategies on the areas closest to schools.