LAW TO KEEP TELEMARKETERS AT BAY

Sam Johnson hopes Missouri's new "No Call" law will keep annoying telemarketers at bay and save him the trouble of hanging up on them.

"It's a bother," said Johnson, 78, who jumped at the chance to sign up for Missouri's No Call list.

Attorney General Jay Nixon personally signed up Johnson on a laptop computer during a Monday visit to the Cape Girardeau Senior Center. Johnson was one of several senior citizens to sign up.

A new state law prohibits most telemarketers from calling households on the list.

Missourians can register their home phone numbers on the list, which the attorney general's office will manage and enforce.

Enforcement of the new law doesn't take effect until July 1, but Nixon's office opened registration a week ago.

In that week, more than 120,000 Missourians signed up. By the end of this week, Nixon expects more than 225,000 people will have registered.

Telemarketers buy list

There is no cost to register. Under the law, telemarketers who do business in Missouri must pay $25 every three months for the latest list. The law doesn't apply to business phone numbers.

Nixon expects to send the lists to more than 1,000 telemarketers. The money raised from the list fee will go into the state's general revenue fund and can be spent as the Legislature sees fit.

Nixon said his office will send out orange cards with pre-paid postage so Missourians can report violators.

There are some loopholes in the law, but Nixon vows to work to eliminate them in the next legislative session.

The law allows some telemarketers to call consumers even if they are on the No Call list. Those telemarketers include phone companies. "The Legislature caved into the phone companies," Nixon said.

Grace Hoover of Cape Girardeau welcomed the new law but wished the no call ban included telephone companies such as MCI and Sprint, which regularly try to sell her phone service.

Herb Morie of Scott City, Mo., was quick to put his home phone on the No Call list.

"People have better things to do with their time than listen to these yahoos," Morie said.

Susan McClanahan runs the Cape Girardeau Senior Center on Clark Street. She didn't hesitate to sign up.

McClanahan said the law helps all Missourians, not just the elderly, adding that she has been bothered by repeated calls from telemarketers interrupting dinner with her family. "It's an aggravation," she said.

WANT ON THE LIST?

WHO: Missourians who want to place their home telephone number or numbers on the "No Call" list.

HOW: Contact the attorney general's office to register. Call toll-free 866-NO CALL1 or click on the Web at www.moago.org