ASHCROFT SETS RECORD WITH SEVENTH COURT APPOINTMENT

~JEFF CITY JOURNAL

The wheels are now being set in motion for Gov. John Ashcroft to write a new paragraph in state history books by becoming the first executive to name all seven members of the Missouri Supreme Court. The list of the three nominees chosen by the Missouri Appellate Judicial Commission has been forwarded to the executive office as the next-to-last step is started: background checks on the nominees by state Highway Patrol officers.

The three nominees for the seat left vacant in April by the mandatory age retirement of Judge Albert L. Rendlen are Circuit Judge Robert G. Dowd Jr. of St. Louis, M.U. Law School Professor Carl Howard Esbeck of Columbia, and Circuit Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. of Cape Girardeau.

The governor has 60 days to select one member of the panel of nominees to fill the vacancy. If he should fail to do so, the Constitution empowers the appellate commission to make the appointment.

One of the features of previous Ashcroft appointments to appellate posts has been the relatively young age of the candidates and this latest panel is no exception. Dowd is 41, Esbeck is 43 and Limbaugh is 40, which means regardless of who is chosen, the nominee could serve some 30 years on the court before mandatory retirement at 70.

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STATE SLIPPAGE: One of the nation's leading economic forecasting companies predicts ~Missouri will fare poorly in creating new employment opportun~ities for its citizens over the next five years. As a matter of fact, a DRI/McGraw-Hill survey places Missouri at the bottom of the list among the 50 states for projected non-farm job growth between now and 1996. The survey predicts some of the state's high-salaried aircraft and defense jobs will be lost to areas where such production will be maintained in the next few years, while noting that many middle-range jobs will be lost when more and more companies move their operations to Mexico and other foreign countries.

Missouri lost 13,000 industrial jobs in 1991, but despite this Gov. Ashcroft's FY 1993 budget predicts the addition of 35,000 new jobs in the state in 1992. That would be a growth rate of 1.4 percent, which would exceed the expected national average of something less than 1.2 percent.

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AIDS ADVANCE: Even as the Missouri Department of Health was winning a national award for its efforts to locate and monitor services for AIDS victims, the number of cases in the state continued to increase. The agency says 4,273 Missourians have now been diagnosed as having the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Health officials estimate there are between 6,000 and 7,000 who are currently unaware of being HIV positive.

The number of infected homosexuals and drug abusers has remained relatively constant during the past year, while the totals for infected straight men and women have increased at an alarming rate. Officials say it is now the state's heterosexual population that is now at greatest risk.

Only 28 AIDS cases were reported and identified just 8 years ago, and that number slowly increased by 1987 to 239 cases. In 1991, the state could account for 655 confirmed cases, and 220 have already been reported during the first four months of this year. Health department officials note that AIDS is no longer confined to the urban areas, as increasing numbers are reported among heterosexuals, both male and female, in outstate Missouri.

A DOH staff member says it's now possible to find at least one AIDS patient in most hospitals across the state.

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MIDDLE MISSOURI: If you're an average wage earner in Missouri, you received $17,842 last year according to figures just released by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The per capita wage in the state represented an increase of 2.1 percent over the previous year. Missouri ranked 25th among the 50 states in this category.

Among our neighboring states, the average wage was $20,824 in Illinois, $18,511 in Kansas, $17,505 in Iowa and $14,753 in Arkansas. The national average wage was $19,082.

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SAFETY STATISTIC: A detailed study of 1991 traffic deaths by the Missouri Highway Patrol has produced this startling statistic: 67 percent of the highway traffic deaths last year could have been prevented had seat belts been used. That statistic ought to be enough to convince Missourians to buckle up every time they get in an automobile.