• Around town: There will be another round of asphalt work in Houston. A road will be paved at the city’s wastewater treatment plant and parking lots at the Durham Co. at the Houston Industrial Park….The city is working to extend a water line to two new retail developments south of Miller’s Grill on South U.S. 63 — one is a sporting goods store and the other a flea market.
• It’s hard not to forget the flood of political TV commercials before the Nov. 8 election. So how much was spent? By Nov. 8, local TV stations in the state had sold $124 million in political ads this year, according to a recent study. That doesn’t factor in ads run on local cable channels. In the Missouri governor’s race, there were 95,000 ads that appeared on the airwaves.
• A marvel of technology during last week’s manhunt: Monday night a Herald video was shot on an iPhone and edited from the field and it was sent to the office by editor Jeff McNiell to be placed on the newspaper’s website. By the next night, the manhunt video was used on the national evening broadcast of ABC News.
• Missouri shoppers will find the price for most items used to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving Day meal slightly lower from 2015, Missouri Farm Bureau says. For 31 years, it has tracked food prices for a traditional Thanksgiving Day meal to feed 10 people. This includes a 16-pound turkey, stuffing, cranberries, peas, relish tray, sweet potatoes, brown-and-serve rolls, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and beverages of milk and coffee.
Volunteer shoppers collected prices at local stores across Missouri to determine pricing for this year’s holiday meal. They found a meal for 10 people averaged $50.46 this year, or $5.05 per person. Compared to 2015 prices for the same items, this amounts to an overall decrease of $1.46, or about 15 cents per person. Nationwide the average price totaled $49.87, or $4.99 per person.
• This week’s newspaper includes Thanksgiving stories from area students. Some will bring a chuckle.