Region/state digest 02/14/05

Bollinger County holding flu vaccine clinic

The Bollinger County Health Department will hold a flu clinic from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday. About 350 free doses of the flu vaccine are available to anyone. For more information, call (573) 238-2817.

East St. Louis fires 30 auxiliary police officers

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. -- More than half of East St. Louis' 58 auxiliary police officers have been fired after background checks uncovered a range of problems, from traffic tickets to misdemeanor criminal offenses. The 30 unpaid, volunteer officers were ordered to turn in their badges and identification cards, acting police chief Marion Hubbard said Saturday. Officials also are conducting background checks on the department's 65 regular police officers to ensure all have high school diplomas or the general equivalency diploma and no criminal offenses or major misdemeanors in their background, Hubbard said. It has been a turbulent month for the department. Former police chief Ron Matthews resigned earlier this month after being arrested on charges that he obstructed an FBI investigation.

Airport sees first upsurge in numbers since 9-11

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City International Airport has experienced its first annual upsurge in passenger numbers since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks decimated the airline industry. More than 9.7 million passengers departed from or arrived at KCI last year, up 3.9 percent from 2003, according to the Kansas City Aviation Department. Before the terrorist attacks, KCI was on track to top its record of 11.9 million passengers that was set in 2000. But the attacks sent passenger traffic plunging nearly 15 percent in 2002. That carried into 2003 after the July 2002 fall of the airport's second-busiest carrier, Vanguard Airlines. Officials at KCI believe the latest numbers mark an end to the airport's worst passenger-count setback since the demise of Eastern and Braniff airlines in the late 1980s.

-- From staff, wire reports