By Steve Bell
Kansas City, MO – The University of Missouri has released a partial timeline on the death of football player Aaron O'Neal, who collapsed on the practice field but was taken to team offices before being sent to a hospital. The report says O'Neal was able to walk to the locker room with assistance after his initial collapse, and contradicts a trainer who in a 9-1-1 call said he was brought to team offices in the back of a pickup truck. However it does not say when O'Neal first became unconscious, or who attended to him during the time he was in the locker room. It does indicate that it was at least 29 minutes from his collapse till the 9-1-1 call from team offices.
Friday's Kansas City youth violence summit drew about 250 participants. City and police officials joined community members, teens, and representatives of organizations that work with young people. The goal was to inventory existing programs and work develop strategies to combat the problem. The city put out a request for proposals for new, non-traditional youth programs. UMKC's Center for Economic Information is working on a collaborative research project to track the problem.
Two weeks into a new fiscal year, the state of Missouri has had to tap reserves for $200 million to make payments to public schools. The financial situation is similar to last July, but at that time Governor Bob Holden withheld $250 million in spending, much of it from education. Current Governor Matt Blunt's main campaign promise was that he would never withhold school money.