​The meth-law debate continues to boil.

In Southeast Missouri, long known as a hotbed of meth labs, crimes related to the illicit stimulant have dropped since many cities began requiring a prescription to purchase pseudoephedrine, a primary ingredient in meth, the Southeast Missourian reports today.

The report is based on data from the Missouri Highway Patrol. The author cites Franklin County narcotics investigator Jason Grellner, who has made a name for himself by barnstorming Missouri on a quest to lobby legislators into enacting new prescription drug laws that would require prescriptions to purchase pseudoephedrine-based ingredients like Sudafed and Claritin D at local pharmacies.

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courtesy Citizens Commission on Human Rights of St. Louis

Be careful, it'll kill you!

​Psychiatry buffs rejoice and praise Xenu! The "state-of-the-art international touring exhibit" Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, sponsored by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights is returning to Missouri for the first time since its appearance at the Jamestown Mall three years ago! You can catch it this Monday and Tuesday (February 6 and 7) in the rotunda of the state capitol in Jefferson City (?!) before it moves to the Griot Museum of Black History and Culture in the St. Louis Place neighborhood in north city.

Should you choose to accept this mission, what will you learn? Well, since the Citizens Commission on Human Rights was co-founded by the Church of Scientology (along with, curiously, Thomas Szasz, described in press materials as Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus from the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse), you can bet it's nothing good.

And you'd be right.

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​NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was on Costas Tonight: Live From the Superbowl last night discussing the possibility of a team relocating to Los Angeles, and the Ginger Hammer now seems much more partial to adding new teams to the mix rather than relocating teams. Sayeth the Rog to Costas:

"Really, we want to keep our teams where they are, and that's the dilemma because not only do we have to get the stadium in L.A., then we have to get the team."

Does this give St. Louis the upper hand in the ongoing negotiations concerning Edward Jones Dome upgrades?

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Killer could face lethal injection.

​A jury yesterday recommended the death penalty for Vernell Loggins Jr., a trucker from suburban St. Louis who captured headlines in 2009 when his girlfriend's dismembered body was found outside the Pacific apartment complex where the two lived.

A maintenance worker discovered the headless corpse of Stephanie Fields under bags of ice in a trash can that had been glued shut. Her head was later discovered in the Meramec River. Other body parts were discovered in a nearby woods.
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Somewhere out there Harry Caray is tipping his cups in appreciation.

​Good news, sports fans. The glory days of baseball broadcasting -- when a commentator could be forgiven for a bit of misbehavin' -- are alive and well.

Why's that? Because this week Fox Sports Midwest announced it will retain Cardinals play-by-play broadcaster Dan McLaughlin for the 2012 season. Last fall, Daily RFT opined that McLaughlin's career in St. Louis was finito after he was charged for his second DWI in just over a year's time.

We felt even more confident about that prediction when the embarrassing details of McLaughlin's arrests came out a few weeks later. When pulled over in August 2010 for the first DUI, McLaughlin was allegedly so shitfaced he'd wet his pants. When he crashed his car in the second DWI in September 2011, McLaughlin was apparently too drunk to unlock the car door and lied to the officer that he lived just a few blocks away and could safely drive home if she let him go.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, our speculation of the death of Dan McLaughlin's career was greatly exaggerated. 
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​Never doubt man's ability to adapt -- especially if the adaptation allows him to see naked ladies. Dick Snow, owner of Bazooka's strip club in Kansas City, has finagled his way around Missouri's law that prohibits anyone from being fully nude in a strip club.(It seems so crazy when you see it in print, no? Where else would you go to find nude people?).

Bazooka's dancers are all in compliance with the law in person; dancers have their hoo-ha's and whatnots covered at all times. But while they're dancing so demurely, large video screens on either side of the stage show pre-recorded footage of the same dancer buck naked. According to Snow, the videos are legal. The Kansas City Police Department concurs, but some of the law's architects disagree -- particularly Philip Crosby, executive director of the American Family Association of Kansas and Missouri.
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I have heard songs by Rebecca Black, Tito Jackson and Rascal Flatts, and I can say without hyperbole that this Mizzou rally song is a million times worse than all of those things combined.

It's not just the inane beat and sing-song lyrics, nor is it the dancing -- oh, Lord, the dancing. No, it's the absolutely wretched acting during the song's introduction that sinks this right from the get-go. The Lonely Island guys have elevated awkward lip synch and self-conscious gestures to an art form, but the guy in the white #24 jersey makes Just 2 Guyz look like Earth Wind and Fire.

Not surprisingly, KU has already responded with a devastating rebuttal.
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(c) Topps Inc 2012

Rally Squirrel, with Skip Schumaker (left)

​The previously mocked Skip Schumaker Rally Squirrel baseball card from Topps is successfully being sold for $255 on eBay. The actual Skip Schumaker card from the same series is going for $1, with a $2 charge for shipping and handling. Also, it seems you can return the real Skip card if you don't like it, but most Rally Squirrel card sellers seem to have a strict "no takebacks" policy.

And as for Mr. Pujols' new-look Angels card, you can pick that up for $127.50 if you act quickly. Point, Rally Squirrel.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is not impressed by our grade in Physics.

​The Thomas B. Fordham Institute for Advancing Educational Excellence just released its comprehensive State of State Science Standards 2012 report, which grades each state on how it teaches science to students, and Missouri ranked in the top twenty. Sadly that's no better than a C grade, as the Fordham report shows that the quality of science education in our schools continues to erode nationwide.

There are some bright spots in Missouri's report card (pdf warning). We scored a six out of possible seven in Life Science education, and we achieved a respectable five out of seven in both Earth & Space Science and Scientific Inquiry & Methodology. However, we do ourselves no favors with a dismal two out of seven in Chemistry, and we scored a deplorable big fat zero in Physics.
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​Mark Daniel Obrien, 40, has been charged with statutory sodomy, child molestation, possession of child pornography and child abuse in conjunction with two boys younger than ten. Both boys were in Obrien's custody as foster children at the time of the alleged crimes.

Obrien, of Republic, Missouri, had been active in the foster parent program for close to a decade, but is not an active parent at this time. He had protective custody of 50 children during those ten years -- all of them boys.

The two victims told adults about the abuse after leaving Obrien's care, independently of each other. The Republic Police Department probable cause statements also note:

"(The boy) also stated that Mark had anal sex with him on multiple occasions and would videotape these acts with his video recorder."

Police did find child pornography on Obrien's computer.