Inflation rises to 3.8%, driven by energy prices

As Jase Woita launched a curveball into the right field bullpen to start the game, Mizzou looked like they might continue to stay hot in Southeastern Conference play after taking two of three against Vanderbilt. That hope was slowly and mercilessly dissipated in a masterful display of pitching by Dylan Volantis, as No. 6 Texas defeated Mizzou 6-3.

Following the bomb by Woita to begin the game, Volantis kept the Tigers off the board over seven innings.

Donovan Jordan led off the second inning with a hit before stealing second. He was the only Tiger hitter besides Woita to pick up a hit off the six-foot-six sophomore. In his first three innings of work, Volantis struck out eight batters.

A sacrifice fly by leadoff hitter Aiden Robbins tied the game 1-1 earlier in the third. Mizzou pitcher Josh McDevitt left the bases loaded in the inning, allowing just one run over his three frames of work.

Volantis continued to frustrate the Tigers’ lineup, sitting them down 1-2-3 in the fourth. Dane Bjorn came into pitch for Mizzou, walking the first batter he faced on a full count. He recovered with his glove, fielding three ground balls and tossing them to Woita at first to retire the side before any damage could be dealt.

Eric Maisonete was hit by a pitch in the fifth, becoming the first baserunner for the Tigers since Jordan’s single. He advanced immediately on a wild pitch in another lapse of control by Volantis.

With a runner in scoring position and one out, the Tigers had an opportunity to take the lead. But Volantis shut down the rally with a pair of swinging strikeouts by Jamal George and Woita.

Bjorn got into trouble in the fifth when he started the inning by issuing a walk to Robbins. Carson Tinney laced a single past a diving Kam Durnin, moving Robbins to third base. Ethan Mendoza picked up the second sacrifice fly for the Longhorns in the game, giving them a 2-1 lead.

The Longhorns added two runs on a homer from Casey Borba, pulling Bjorn from the game in favor of Eli Skidmore. Bjorn was credited with the loss in 2⅔ innings, allowing three earned runs on three hits and walking four. However he struck out three batters.

With two outs in the inning, Donovan Jordan dropped a fly ball to put Carsen Tinney on second. He scored on a single by Anthony Pack, giving the Longhorns a 5-1 lead.

Volantis left the game after seven innings of work, picking up 11 strikeouts. The home run to Woita was just the second he has allowed all season and first at home.

The Tigers rallied in the eighth against Haiden Leffew, with back-to-back doubles by George and Woita. Kam Durnin and Mateo Serna each singled to score another run, cutting the Tigers’ deficit to 5-3. But the rally ended on a fielder’s choice from Jordan.

Texas added one final insurance run on a solo home run by Tinney in the bottom half of the eighth. Sam Cozart sat down the Tigers in order in the top of the ninth, securing a 6-3 victory in the series opener.

“They just played better baseball than we did,” Missouri coach Kerrick Jackson said.

Mizzou (23-27, 6-21 SEC) will get an opportunity to even the Series against the Longhorns at 6:30 p.m. Friday in Austin, Texas. Brady Kehlenbrink will take the mound against Texas’ Luke Harrison.

A longtime basketball rivalry could return next season as Mizzou men's basketball is finalizing an agreement to play Saint Louis on Nov. 6 at Enterprise Center, according to multiple reports. The matchup would mark the first meeting between the in-state programs in 25 seasons. Missouri won the last matchup 69-67 Dec. 3, 2001.

No official announcement has been made, but the neutral-site contest would feature two teams coming off NCAA Tournament appearances after strong 2025-26 seasons.

Missouri finished 20-13 overall and 10-8 in Southeastern Conference play under coach Dennis Gates, entering the NCAA Tournament berth as a No. 10 seed. The Tigers fell to Miami (FL) 80-66 in the first round at the same arena this matchup is rumored to be played at. The Tigers dropped three straight games entering March Madness.

Saint Louis put together one of the best seasons in recent program history, finishing 29-6 overall and 15-3 in Atlantic 10 Conference play under second-year coach Josh Schertz. The Billikens won the A-10 regular-season title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after beating Georgia 102-77. The Billikens lost to the national champion Michigan squad 95-72.

The potential matchup would also continue Gates’ push to strengthen Missouri’s nonconference schedule, as the NCAA Tournament expands to 76 teams next season. Gates has repeatedly emphasized the importance of improving strength of schedule to maximize postseason opportunities.

The game would likely draw a large crowd to the 18,000-seat arena, home of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, despite being labeled a neutral-site contest. The Tigers have played at the arena every year since it opened in 1994 in the Braggin' Rights contest against Illinois. 

Both Missouri and Saint Louis are projected among the nation’s top teams entering next season, with each appearing inside CBS Sports Jon Rothstein’s preseason top 31 rankings.

A renewal of the rivalry would give college basketball fans in Missouri one of the state’s biggest matchups in more than two decades.

Mizzou track and field’s Valentina Barrios secured the conference title in the women’s javelin in the SEC Outdoor Championships on Thursday in Auburn, Alabama.

Barrios, the program record holder, left no doubt in her season-best throw, clearing the Hutsell Rosen Track Facility record with a mark of 191 feet, 3 inches. She topped the former facility benchmark by over 10 feet.

“Valentina battled hard today, as did our entire group,” Mizzou coach Brett Halter said in a press release. “She demonstrated elite competitive integrity working on her technique throughout the competition to be sure she came away with the win.”

The defending national champion’s mark also boosted her to No. 3 nationally. Barrios is also the first javelin athlete to take home an SEC title and the second in program history to earn a conference title since Cindy Kiser recorded a 137-1 at the 1977 Big 8 Outdoor Conference Championships.

The Tigers recorded two other top 10 finishes in the women’s javelin, too, as Skylar Ciccolini (182-2) and Morgan Cannon (158-1) finished fourth and 10th, respectively.

In the men’s hammer throw, Sam Innes recorded a personal best with a throw of 235-1 to take second. His effort was only 10 inches shy of the program record held by Chris Rohr.

“Terrific performance by Sam today,” Halter said. “He trusted his training and was able to put pressure on the field early in the competition.”

The Tigers continue contention in the conference championships Friday with field events beginning at 3:30 p.m. and track events starting at 5:15 p.m.

Three Missouri softball players earned spots on the NFCA All-Midwest Team on Thursday. Freshman Abby Carr was awarded second team honors, while senior Cierra Harrison and junior Stefania Abruscato were named to the third team.

Carr earned the spot in the utility/pitcher category, as the two-way player led the team in ERA (2.92), saves (5), slugging percentage (.573), home runs (12) and RBI (44). Carr posted a .293 batting average and 22 extra-base hits as one of the Tigers' most dangerous hitters.

On the mound, Carr ranked first in the SEC and sixth in the nation with five saves, four of which came in SEC play. Her performances earned her SEC Freshman of the Week and Softball America Freshman Star of the Week recognition in late March.

Harrison earned her first postseason award in her final season at Missouri. As the No. 1 option for the Tigers, Harrison ended the year with a 3.36 ERA, a 10-10 record and a team-leading 1.25 WHIP. In SEC play, she posted a 2.98 ERA and held conference opponents to a .244 batting average.

Harrison threw five complete games and three shutouts, including a complete game shutout against No. 22/20 LSU in which she allowed just four hits in a 1-0 victory. She also recorded her second career no-hitter against SIUE in the five inning victory.

In her first full season as the primary catcher, Abruscato also earned her first career NFCA All-Midwest nod. Abruscato finished second on the team in batting average (.329), RBI (36) and on-base percentage (.421). She also tied for third on the team with nine home runs and led the roster with 16 multi-hit games.

(The Center Square) – Lawmakers held another hearing on sanctuary policies Thursday, one of a series coinciding with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts and a nationwide crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This time, the House of Representatives subcommittee focused on Fairfax County, Virginia.

Just 30 minutes outside of Washington, D.C., Fairfax County is Virginia’s most populous county, with more than 1.1 million residents. The county borders one of the most diverse counties in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report, and is itself notably diverse, with more than 30% of its population born outside of the U.S.

Its commonwealth’s attorney and sheriff testified before the House committee Thursday, as the locality promotes non-compliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers.

Another witness who testified Thursday was Cheryl Minter, mother of the deceased Stephanie Minter, a 41-year-old single mother killed at a Fairfax County bus stop in February.

Abdul Jalloh, an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone, has been charged with her murder.  

Jalloh is one of three illegal immigrants on trial for an alleged 2026 murder in Fairfax County, and as of early April, the Department of Homeland Security reported “illegal aliens have allegedly committed 75% of all murders in the far-left county” in 2026, as there had been four alleged murders at the time. 

Jalloh had been arrested more than 30 times before being charged with fatally stabbing Minter, according to DHS.

“His criminal history includes more than 30 arrests for charges of rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing, larceny, firing a weapon, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and pick pocketing,” reads a DHS press release following Jalloh’s February arrest.

But via its Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy adopted in 2021, Fairfax County is one of a number of localities across the country, in addition to 17 states and Washington, D.C., that seeks to protect people who have immigrated to the U.S. illegally from deportation, according to advocacy group the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger also signed an executive directive earlier this year effectively repealing an executive action by former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin that called for Virginia localities’ compliance with ICE. 

Lawmakers questioning Stephen Descano, the Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney, contended that it was Fairfax’s so-called sanctuary policies that repeatedly allowed Jalloh back on the street.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said that Jalloh had been arrested more than 15 times from Jan. 2023 to Feb. 2026, that Descano had “dismissed almost all of these charges” and Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid had been instrumental in Jalloh's evasion of ICE.

Jalloh concerned the Fairfax County Police Department – which operates in the county in addition to the sheriff’s department – enough that it issued a warning to Descano, according to Van Drew.

“The Fairfax County Police Department became so alarmed at these decisions that they took the extraordinary step of warning Descano that Jalloh had stabbed multiple people, sexually assaulted at least one woman, and committed numerous other criminal offenses," he said.

"The police then issued this grim prophecy: It is not a question of if, but rather when, he will maliciously wound – or worse – again,” Van Drew added.

In a particularly tense moment during the hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, questioned Descano over a statement Jordan said had been on Descano’s campaign website for six years, but was taken down not long after the House committee reached out to Descano to testify before Congress.

The exchange involved the case of a 23-year-old Salvadoran national and Fairfax County resident named Marvin Fernando Morales-Ortez, who was charged in late December with second degree murder.

Jordan quoted Descano as having said on his website that his office would “take immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions.” 

“Immigration consequences were certainly part of the game here.. with Mr. Morales-Ortez,” Jordan said.

Video footage had shown Ortez fleeing the home of a man who appeared to have been shot to death, and Ortez was also charged with possession of a firearm.

Ortez had been released from jail the day before and had previously been charged with various crimes, including a first-degree murder charge in 2021, but Descano’s office had not prosecuted him, according to Washington, D.C., ABC affiliate WJLA. 

Descano said that Jordan was misrepresenting his policies by quoting the “campaign statement that was made before” he became the commonwealth’s attorney.

“Why’d you change your website?” Jordan asked.

Descano responded, "Because I could not believe that people were so obtuse that they could not realize what the difference between a campaign statement and an actual office policy is."

(The Center Square) - Advocates called on lawmakers to redesign the United States’ tax system on Thursday in order to address the rising national debt.

The national debt surpassed $39 trillion in March 2026, the highest ever recorded in United States history.

A group of financial advocates spoke to members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee in a roundtable on Thursday about ways to reduce the national debt.

Joshua Rauh, a senior economics fellow at the Hoover Institution, said the federal government’s biggest drivers in spending are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

He said those three programs accounted for 49% of $7 trillion the government spent in fiscal year 2025. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that figure will rise to 58% by 2035.

“Congress should strengthen anti-fraud incentives, especially in Medicaid,” Rauh said. “States have to be held accountable for misspending federal money.”

William Beach, executive director of Fiscal Lab on Capitol Hill, applauded the Oversight Committee’s efforts to target fraud and wasteful spending over the last year. He also called on Congress to display greater unity in passing legislation to stimulate greater economic development.

“Find a few small things, get those on the books and say we’re intent on bringing that deficit down from six percent to something between three and four percent,” Beach said.

Rauh recommended the federal government distance itself further from state budgetary problems. He suggested Congress condition federal tax exemptions on adherence to certain pension funding standards.

“That should be paired with an explicit no-bailout provision of public pension plans to help protect the federal budget from state budgetary challenges,” Rauh said.

Doug Hultz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, said Congress should work to slow the growth of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He said these programs are set to outpace revenue growth, unless Congress implements major tax reforms.

“You’re going to have to do some sort of major tax reform to grow as quickly as possible and raise the revenue that we need,” Hultz-Eakin said.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., pushed back on the advocates' calls for lower spending on social safety net programs. Instead, she suggested cutting wasteful spending from agencies like the Department of War.

The Department of War has failed every audit of its finances since 2018. Tlaib said that should raise red flags for lawmakers to push more responsibility on the agency.

“I think there is a culture that’s been there that I feel like leaves our service members aside,” Tlaib said. “It’s not our residents. It’s these contractors, it’s the healthcare industry that benefits the most from it being broken.”

Rep. Bill Higgins, R-La., said the best way to solve the national debt crisis is to incentivize economic growth. He also said Congress should seek to eliminate deficit spending.

“We're a wealthy nation, we can sell 20-year treasury bonds,” Higgins said. “I think if we balance the budget, we’re within a few decades of being in the clear.”

The advocates also called for an overhaul of the country’s tax system. They said simplifying the tax code could also be a way to balance the government’s budget deficit.

“The cost of compliance with the federal tax is estimated at half a trillion dollars, so there’s potentially a lot of savings that they had there to improve it,” Hultz-Eakin said.

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that women can continue to access abortion drugs through the mail without making an in-person doctor's visit, while a lawsuit continues against the practice. 

Justices on the high court graned two emergency requests from Danco Laboratories and GenProBio, two makers of the abortion drug mifepristone. 

The manufacturers challenged a ruling in Lousiana that upheld the state's ban on prescribing abortion drugs without an in-person doctor's visit. In 2023, the Biden administration finalized a rule to allow the drugs to be obtained without an in-person visit. 

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the majority's decision. Alito said the litigation limits a state's ability to make determinations on abortion, as granted in the high court's 2022 decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion. 

"Louisiana’s efforts have been thwarted by certain medical providers, private organizations, and States that abhor laws like Louisiana’s and seek to undermine their enforcement," Alito wrote. 

Thomas said allowing abortion drugs to be prescribed without an in-person doctors visit is a crime. 

"[Danco Laboratories] cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes," Thomas wrote in his dissent. 

In 2023, approximately two-thirds of all abortions in the United States were through medications. 

As the case plays out, access to the abortion drug is expected to be uninterrupted until into next year. The high court could be petitioned again to rule on the merits of the lawsuit after litigation begins. 

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Department of Justice has created a new task force to fight healthcare fraud in three Western states.

The West Coast healthcare Fraud Strike Force will focus on California, Arizona and Nevada.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the DOJ’s Fraud Division said data shows the states have seen a “significant and accelerating increase in healthcare fraud.”

“The Fraud Division is committed to bringing that same relentless, data-driven prosecutorial force to bear across every corner of this region, making unmistakably clear that no scheme is too sophisticated, no network too large or small, and no fraudster too distant to escape federal accountability,” McDonald noted.

Scott Lampert, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ acting deputy inspector general for investigations, said “emerging threats” across Arizona, California and Nevada are “targeting billions of taxpayer dollars from federal healthcare programs.”

“Many of these schemes are driven by sham operations designed to appear legitimate while exploiting patients and inflating claims through increasingly sophisticated methods,” he added.

Timothy Courchaine, U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona, said, “Federal law enforcement and the United States Attorney’s Office have disrupted fraud schemes worth over a billion dollars of taxpayer money" in the state.

Courchaine said the mission of the task force is to “ensure Americans who need critical services are not used as pawns to make bad actors rich.”

“Through excellent investigations, trial work and seizures of ill-gotten gains, the District of Arizona will continue safeguarding those services,”  he added.

Attorney General Kris Mayes told The Center Square via email that “Arizona has been on the front lines of fighting Medicaid fraud for the past several years, and we welcome the federal government’s help in combatting this problem.”

She highlighted a 2023 case where $2.5 billion of taxpayer money was stolen from the state’s Medicaid program by directing Native Americans to unlicensed or fraudulent sober living homes that then billed the state for inadequate services or services that never occurred.  

The state recovered only $125 million, or 5% of the $2.5 billion in taxpayers’ money lost to the fraud scheme, according to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.

Last year, Mayes announced a $6 million grant program to help tribal nations affected by the healthcare fraud scheme.  

Since 2023, the Democratic attorney general said her office has “indicted 166 individuals and entities, and recovered or seized more than $139 million in cash and assets.”

“We are not done. To anyone committing healthcare fraud in Arizona: We will find you, and we will hold you accountable," she noted.

In June 2025, Farrukh Jarar Ali, the owner of a Pakistan-based company, was charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, as well as wire fraud and money laundering after allegedly billing around $650 million to Arizona’s Medicaid program through at least 41 substance abuse treatment clinics in the state.

Six months later, Arizonans Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King were sentenced to 15.5 years and 14 years in prison, respectively, for causing more than $1.2 billion of false or fraudulent Medicare and health insurance claims for medically unnecessary wound grafts, the DOJ said.

Gehrke and King submitted these false claims between November 2022 and May 2024, the DOJ noted.

In California, Silicon Valley is “ground zero for technology-driven healthcare fraud schemes that seek to cheat taxpayer-funded programs like Medicare,” according to Craig Missakian, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California.

To illustrate, last year a Silicon Valley-based digital health company saw its CEO, Ruthia He, and its clinical president, David Brody, convicted of carrying out a scheme involving more than $100 million in healthcare fraud that distributed Adderall over the internet.

In April, the California Department of Justice charged 21 suspects for allegedly defrauding the state’s Medicaid program of $267 million through a hospice fraud scheme.

Also last month, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford charged two Nevadans, Lawrence Carter and Leasa Carter, with allegedly defrauding Nevada’s Medicaid program of at least $2 billion.

“These charges reflect a serious breach of trust and an alleged scheme that exploited both Medicaid and vulnerable individuals,” said Ford.

“Our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit works every day to uncover this kind of misconduct and ensure those responsible are brought to justice," the Democratic attorney general said.

The Center Square reached out to Ford’s office for further comments, but did not receive a response before press time.

A bench trial for former Mizzou football coach Gary Pinkel is scheduled Monday before Judge Michael Gilley in Camden County Circuit Court.

Pinkel, 74, is facing the loss of his driver's license after being stopped by a state trooper in July on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Resolution of the case has been delayed for 10 months of legal procedure while Pinkel has retained possession of his license.

He was stopped July 7 near Camdenton at the Lake of the Ozarks   and held briefly before being released.

According to court documents, Pinkel refused to submit to a chemical test that would determine his blood alcohol content.

Under Missouri law, refusal of an alcohol or drug test will result in the suspension of driving privileges for one year.

Two days after the stop, Pinkel’s attorney submitted a motion to stay the revocation of his license until the court delivers a ruling. Gilley granted the stay on July 11.

An initial hearing was held Sept. 25 and another hearing held Nov. 20, but it was rescheduled for Jan. 26 and postponed again until March 30.  During that hearing, the May 18 bench trial was scheduled. 

The stay on the revocation of Pinkel’s license has remained in effect throughout the rescheduling.

In 2011, Pinkel faced a DWI charge after he was pulled over just before the final home game of the season against Texas Tech. He admitted to drinking two “jumbo” glasses of wine after failing multiple field sobriety tests, according to Missourian coverage.

He pleaded guilty Nov. 18 and was put on two years' probation. He resigned as football coach at the end of the 2015 season after a lymphoma diagnosis. 

Pinkel coached the Tigers from 2001 through 2015, bringing the team to 10 bowl games in 15 years and winning six. He is “the winningest coach in school history,” according to the MU Tigers website. He was voted the 2014 SEC Coach of the Year by fellow league coaches.

WASHINGTON — Montana Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and Washington Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) went to Beijing ahead of this trip for conversations regarding pulse crops, potatoes, apples and the Boeing deal, laying the groundwork for this trip ahead of the President Donald Trump's arrival.

Senator Daines sat down with NonStop Local Thursday for his take on the trip so far. The senator has extensive experience in China, having been instrumental in Procter & Gamble’s Chinese division before running for office.

"I use that experience now to help promote our American agenda as we were negotiating with the Chinese," Senator Daines said. "It was remarkable. I met with the premier last week. In fact, at that same great hall where we've seen all the images of President Trump and President Xi Jinping, that's exactly where I was last Thursday."

The delegation met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi for discussions focused on expanding market access for American products. That will also be a focal point of President Trump's visit.

“The bottom line is I think we're going to see some really nice deals come out for, I call it the three B's, Boeing, beef and beans,” Senator Daines said.

Boeing operates a facility in Helena, Montana and has its headquarters in Everett, Washington. CEO of Boeing Kelly Ortberg is joining the president for this trip and it’s believed a sizable deal for the Washington based aerospace company, which has plants in Moses Lake and Helena, could be made.

Boeing and China are in conversations about around 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777x widebody jetliners. Multiple outlets have reported that the President is expected to potentially make that announcement of the deal on the trip.

"There's a lot of reason why the United States and China have to keep dialogue going forward to have a stable relationship," Senator Daines said. "Clearly, last year was a tough year in the relationship. The tariffs went to 145%. There wasn't much cooperation"

Senator Daines believes this trip is an important part in lowering the temperature between the two powers.

"I'm very proud of what's happened here in the last 24 hours," Daines said. "I think this summit's gone very well. Both leaders are saying the right things. We just have to make sure it turns into action here for next steps."

This is the senator's eighth visit in an official capacity. The senator made headlines when on one of those trips he took a cooler full of beef to Chinese officials.

"It was Fred Wacker steaks from Miles City that I gave to the premier of China and now we have access to that market," Senator Daines said in February 2025.

The senator said that the face-to-face visits make an impact and help with accountability. 

“I told the Chinese officials last week, including the premier, that if you're going to want to keep seeing U.S. senators coming to China and having these discussions, we've got to see action results,” Senator Daines said, “It's got to be not just a bunch of talk. We've got to see results. And I'm seeing that."

Daines also said a deal on opening China up to American beef exports is "all but done."

"That's the second largest beef export market in the world, and the Chinese shut it off last March when we got in that big trade fight. "Senator Daines said. "They were unwilling to open it back up until I went there last week and told them, we've got to have this opened up and (I) wanted to tee that up certainly for President Trump and his team. So they are listening. It's 1.4 billion consumers there in China."

But the senator said these trips have changed over time. The posture from the Chinese is different, which he said could lead to real progress.

"Over the years, oftentimes I'd go into these meetings (and) the Chinese government would be spending most of their time talking at us," Sen. Daines said. "This time, they said, we want to hear from you. So, we were able to lay out our concerns, what we want to see from China. And that was a shift, I think, in tone that I've seen from prior visits.”

On the heels of that and with the president's arrival—we now watch for details of these deals to potentially be released and what they could mean for American producers.

"I had some text messages last night directly from Ambassador Perdue, who's on the ground there for the United States," Senator Daines said. "Things are going very well. And there's a spirit of cooperation. And that's a good thing. Look, the relationship is far from perfect, but we're in a lot better place now than we were certainly a year ago."