• Texas County’s unemployment rate decreased to 6.4 percent in September, reports the Missouri Department of Economic Development.
The rate dropped 1.2 percent points from the previous month. In south-central Missouri region, the average was 6.3.
The county’s civilian work force was 9,604 with 614 unemployed.
Area counties and their unemployment rates were: Douglas, 8.5; Howell, 6; Shannon, 6.7; and Wright, 6.5.
• U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited Wednesday at nearby Fort Leonard Wood.
• The Texas County Dutch Oven Cookers will host a Veterans Day event in Houston for veterans, law enforcement, firemen and first responders.
The event is 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Houston Rural Fire Department fire station on Walnut Street.
Cast iron cuisine will be served.
Donations from its various demonstrations pay for the group’s activities.
• U.S. Rep. Jason Smith announced that Salem’s VA Clinic will increase its hours, days and staffing with a goal to cover five full days a week. A petition circulated in the region had about 5,700 signatures.
• An interesting article in the most recent Springfield Business Journal describes the marriage of Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar with the Cox-Health as one of a shift in financing of healthcare.
CoxHealth CEO Steve Edwards says a double whammy of the Affordable Care Act and the lack of a healthcare exchange in Missouri provided the motivation. “The way the Affordable Care Act came out, it was assumed everyone would go on. Because we are taxed, the money goes to Washington, D.C., and we should get it back. But our state said we don’t want it,” Edwards said. “The original Affordable Care Act said that we don’t need disproportionate share payments anymore because all of the hospitals will have expanded Medicaid. Well, the states that didn’t expand it, they are still cutting disproportionate shares. So, we are kind of hit twice.”
The result was lost billions in revenue to the state, he said.