INSIDE

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 2013 SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI NEWS-LEADER.COM A GANNETT COMPANY

Examining counties health

Christian County is ranked fifth-healthiest in state; Greene County is ranked 45th
Pomegranate-glazed ham steak,
arugula salad and quiche. VALERIE

By Sarah Okeson
SOKESON@NEWS-LEADER.COM

MOSLEY/NEWS-LEADER

A modern twist
on Easter brunch
This week we have a modern
take on a classic Easter or spring
brunch. Check out recipes for
pomegranate glazed ham steak;
arugula salad with pecans, berries,
goat cheese and pomegranateorange dressing; and caramelized
onion and prosciutto quiche. Each
dish is fairly easy to prepare, as is
Juliana Goodwins take on carrot
cake. Taste, 1C

Winter may be back on

Thursday with snow

Christian County is one of

the healthiest counties in Missouri, according to new national rankings.
The county ranked fifth in
the state, the only county in
southwest Missouri to be in-

cluded among the top ten

counties. The rankings are
done by the Population Health
Institute at the University of
Wisconsin and the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation in
Princeton, N.J.
We make health very important, said Lou Lapaglia,
the presiding commissioner

for Christian County.

Christian County far outperformed its neighbors. Greene
County is No. 45, Stone County
52 and Taney County 72. The
rankings are calculated by
looking at how long people live
and what their health is. The
researchers looked at education, poverty, numbers of doc-

MSUs new center

open for business

Today may officially be the first

day of spring, but the National
Weather Service has posted a
winter storm watch in effect from
Thursday morning through Friday
morning. Accumulations of five to
nine inches of snow are possible,
the National Weather Service
reports. Ozarks, 1B

By Deirdre Shesgreen

someone who will state the

companys name when answering the phone when she
and her one employee are
out.
Faucetts company, engage5w, helps clients use social media to tell the story of
their businesses. It is one of
six that since Friday have
moved into the 1930 building.
In prior lives, the structure
was a U.S. Postal mail-handling facility and then was
the turkey processing site
for Willow Brook Foods. The
turkeys were dead on arrival, killed elsewhere. What
was once the smoke room

WASHINGTON Rep. Billy

Long has been a champion of
trimming federal spending.
Now, hes trying to cut something else: his own girth.
The Springfield Republican
says hes lost more than 20
pounds by following the socalled 8-hour diet a popular
new regimen that promises you
can eat whatever you want, as
long as you confine your
munching to eight hours per
day.
Long started on the diet last
summer,
after
meeting
David
Zinczenko, a former editor of
Mens
Health
magazine who authored a best-selling book promoting the plan. It
calls for inter- Billy
mittent fasting Long
by limiting
meals to an 8-hour window, then
not eating anything for the other 16 hours.
After hearing Zinczenkos
pitch, I said, That kind of fits
my lifestyle, Long said. Im
not the type that can eat carrots
and celery and do some real
whacked-out diet, where you
try and lose 10 pounds a week.
The 57-year-old congressman said he was north of 300
pounds when he started the
diet last summer. It just got to
where it was hard to get up out
of a chair, he said.
He also looked at his 88-yearold father, who is now confined
to a wheelchair after never
fully recovering from knee surgery, and realized he was headed toward the same fate if he
didnt act.
Just seeing him now, his

See CENTER, Page 4A

See LONG, Page 4A

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Peek inside area homes

VOL. 123, NO. 79

2013, NEWS-LEADER

Nation/World
Opinion
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Real Estate
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Weather
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Precipitation: 20%
$1 DAILY

New tenants are moving in

as construction is
completed at MSU's Robert
W. Plaster Center for Free
Enterprise and Business
Development. VALERIE
MOSLEY/NEWS-LEADER

The Robert W. Plaster

Center is 40,000 square
feet. VALERIE
MOSLEY/NEWS-LEADER

Take a look inside great local

homes by checking out our Home
of the Week galleries. A new one is
posted every Wednesday. Check out
the latest home at OzarksSpaces.com.
Designers: Take part in our Home
of the Week series when you recommend a home youve worked on.
Anyone who knows a home worth
profiling should contact Sony Hocklander at shocklander@news-leader.com or Ryan Slight at
rslight@news-leader.com. Please
have contact information for the
homeowner. Homes for sale are not
eligible.

7D
9A
7D
4C
2C
2C
7A
7D
10D
2C
1B
10D

Long
looks to
drop 80
pounds
DSHESGREEN@GANNETT.COM

Ozarks Food Harvest will receive $1 million from the Missouri

Foundation for Health over the
next two years. The award is part
of a $4 million effort by the foundation to provide food to Missouri
residents. Ozarks, 1B

Automotive
Business
Classified
Comics
Crossword
Dear Abby
Deaths
Employment
Garage sales
Heloise
Lottery
Merchandise

See COUNTY, Page 4A

Lawmaker says hes lost

20 so far by following
a popular 8-hour diet

Ozarks Food Harvest to

receive $1 million grant

Index

tors and factors like smoking

and obesity.
Christian County scored
better than average for Missouri in areas such as children
in poverty, the high school
graduation rate and the death
rate for motor vehicle crashes.

Tenants begin moving into business incubator

By Steve Pokin
SPOKIN@NEWS-LEADER.COM

Monday was move-in day

for Claire Faucett, a small
business owner who decided
to lease 200
square feet inside Missouri
State Universitys Robert
W. Plaster Center for Free Enterprise
and
Business DeClaire
velopment.
She
had Faucett
been running
her business from her home
and was excited to be one of
the centers first tenants in

WATCH: Scan
this code to get
a look inside
MSUs new
Robert W.
Plaster Center
for Free Enterprise and Business
Development

whats called the efactory

business incubator.
We got our keys to get
into the place, and our parking permits, Faucett said.
She chose the center for the
reasonable rent of $15 per
square foot, she said, and for
the on-site support MSU
gives to new, small businesses. She also appreciates that
the rent includes having

Prayer vigil held for teen who died in crash

By Cliff Sain and Steve Pokin
CSAIN@NEWS-LEADER.COM
SPOKIN@NEWS-LEADER.COM

Hundreds gathered at a prayer vigil Tuesday for a Republic

High School student who died in
a Monday night car wreck.
Garrett Blotter, a 16-year-old
sophomore at Republic High
School, died Monday night in a
one-car crash near Miller Park
in Republic. His passenger, a fellow student, was critically injured.
Desmond Roy, also a 16-yearold sophomore at the high

school, was in critical but stable

condition Tuesday, according to
Josey McPhail, a spokeswoman
for
the
high
school.
Tuesdays vigil
was just one of
several
times
friends pulled together to remember Blotter.
Its
been
tough, said friend Garrett
and football team- Blotter
mate Blake Fanning. But were getting through
it together.

Another teammate, Jake

Smith, was impressed by the
towns reaction.
Its amazing how one person
can bring a whole school, a whole
community, together, he said.
It shows you what kind of guy
he was.
McPhail said teams of counselors were at the high school
Tuesday to talk to students who
wished to do so.
Dan Updegrave, a youth pastor in Republic, said several pastors in the community were also
offering support for students
dealing with the loss of a class-

mate.
(The students) just cant believe it, he said. They cant believe something like this could
happen.
Sgt. Jason Pace, of the Missouri Highway Patrol, said the
crash is still under investigation,
but he said a preliminary investigation indicates the car was exceeding the speed limit, which is
30 miles per hour on the narrow,
hilly road in southeast Republic.
Both teens played football at
the high school. The death ocSee CRASH, Page 4A