With little hoopla the Missouri legislature began the Second Regular Session of the 94th General Assembly last week in Jefferson City. I suppose all of the attention has been focused on the presidential side of politics and since many of us can only take politics in small doses this news story just didn't get a lot of attention.

I like to go in and see what bills have been filed when the session opens. There are usually several that peak my interest and often not because those particular bills necessarily represent good government. I will have to say that, at least to this point, there seem to be less quirky bills filed. However, it is early and I have a lot of faith in the ability of that Jeff City bunch to rise to the occasion.

There are a few bills that caught my attention.

Rep. Bob Nance from Excelsior Springs has filed a bill to designate the morel mushroom as the official state mushroom. I've checked and don't believe this is the smoking variety, so HB 1416 will probably pass.

Just last year the state did away with its ticket scalping law. If Rep. Ray Salva from Sugar Creek has his way, that practice will become illegal again.

Rep. Gayle Kingery from Poplar Bluff wants to shorten the school week to four days if the local school board votes to do so. The total number of hours remains the same at 1,044 but the year would shorten from 174 days to 142. Interesting, because this is really going against the discussion to have students in school more days and more hours.

Rep. Theodore Hoskins from Berkeley wants to reduce the number of license plates for all motor vehicles from two to one.

Rep. Joe Smith isn't out to make any friends from the younger set, but then again they can't vote, by raising the driving age from 16 to 18 years of age and from 15 to 17 for an instruction permit.

One of the best bills introduced, in my opinion, comes from Rep. Terry Swinger of Caruthersville. HB 1547 would prohibit automated telephone solicitations for political campaigns to individuals on the state's Do Not Call list. Let's hope this one gets a thumbs-up from the legislature. On a side note, Dr. Swinger has also co-sponsored three other bills.

Sen.. Tom Dempsey from St. Charles wants to ban drivers from talking on their cell phones. That will get a lot of discussion.

Sen. Rob Mayer has been busy, filing five bills that include renaming a portion of Highway 84 from I-55 into Caruthersville for Spc.l Rickey L. Bell, the Caruthersville native who died last year in Iraq.

As of Friday Rep. Tom Todd's House of Representatives webpage indicates that he has not yet filed any bills for this session.

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Scary

Without thinking I put myself in a rather precarious situation last week. It was time to get a haircut and while sitting in the barber's chair the conversation turned to politics. Obviously that surprises no one who knows Ron Harris.

However, I made the mistake of disagreeing with Ron when he was only about halfway finished cutting what's left of my hair.

Travis Galyean was sitting waiting his turn under the clippers and immediately recognized the predicament I was in. Travis came to my rescue and changed the topic of the conversation to horses, a hobby both Travis and Ron enjoy.

Of course, Travis may have only been looking out for himself. Knowing he was going to be in the chair next Travis probably wanted to make sure Ron's blood pressure had receded a bit before he climbed in.

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National celeb

There were a couple of close plays in the college football national championship game last Monday evening that required officials to take another look. The crew of officials working the game was from the Big 12 conference and part of that crew included replay official Terry Turlington who was up in the booth.

Terry made the correct call(s) when his help was solicited, at least according to the people I've talked to, but then again I haven't run across any Ohio State fans since that game.

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From the mailbag

Hadley Ford, the retired cotton farmer from Hornersville, dropped me a line from beautiful downtown Springfield. I haven't heard from Mr. Ford in a while and it was good to get his holiday greetings.

Mr. Ford's missive was inspired by something he had read in the DDD about Mrs. H.C. Cook, also of Hornersville, visiting friends in St. Louis. (This was obviously one of our unofficial, but much appreciated historian Vivian Helton's submissions).

The lady in questions was a classmate of Mr. Ford's along about the fifth or sixth grade. The Cook family was associated with the Sinclair Oil Company at the time.

In his letter, Mr. Ford made mention of something I had never heard before when he talked about a couple of infamous visitors to Hornersville.

Mr. Ford mentioned that Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow paid a "visit to our ol' hometown one dark, stormy night many years ago." Now that's all he said about the bank robbers, but I have never heard that before.

I'm curious as to whether or not anyone else happens to recall that event.

Bud Hunt is the publisher of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.