Sierra Dudley (2) celebrates with other members

Mizzou softball welcomed three new commitments in the Class of 2028 on Sunday.

Brooke Edevold, a third baseman and utility player from Huffman, Texas, officially committed to Mizzou that day. Edevold is a top performer who plays with Impact Gold, and she is ready for her new home in Columbia.

Catcher and first baseman Ella Fleming also committed to Mizzou. Fleming is ranked in the top 110 in Florida for her abilities as fielder and is from Mount Dora, Florida.

The final of three commitments was right-handed pitcher Maisey McCarty from Lincoln, Nebraska. McCarty plays for Lincoln Southwest and closed out last year's season with an ERA of 1.13, alongside 22 wins.

These three new commits join two athletes who announced their intentions to join the Mizzou softball program earlier in the month.

Keke Jordan of Boyd-Buchanan School in Tallahassee, Tennessee, officially announced her commitment to Mizzou on Sept. 3. Jordan claimed a 2026 District MVP Award, and she is known for her abilities as a catcher and infielder.

The other commit, Jaeda Tucker, is a left-handed pitcher from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Tucker has a varsity ERA of 1.37 and 275 strikeouts under her belt. She announced her commitment on Sept. 4.

With these new commitments, the Tigers have gained athletes who may make their appearances known on and off the field in a couple of years.

Mizzou track and field announced that it is renaming its indoor track Monday. Alumnus Thomas P. Botts and his wife, Libbie Rice, made a donation to name it after his grandfather, legendary Mizzou track and field coach Tom Botts.

“This is what makes philanthropy in college athletics so meaningful," Athletic Director Laird Veatch said. "Tom, Libbie and their children, Tom and Camillle, are honoring Tom’s grandfather's extraordinary legacy while making an investment in the future of Mizzou student-athletes. Coach Botts helped establish a championship standard at Missouri, and now generations of Tigers will train and compete on a track bearing his name. We are incredibly grateful to Tom and Libbie for their generosity, belief in Mizzou and commitment to ensuring his Coach Botts’ legacy continues to inspire.”

Botts guided the Tigers from 1947-1972, helping Mizzou earn a spot at eight conference championships and the 1965 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championship. He coached five individual national champions, 23 All-Americans, 96 conference champions and two U.S. Olympians.

Botts was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1977, the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in 1979 and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1983. Additionally, he joined the inaugural induction class into the University of Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 1990.

The former Mizzou coach was born in 1904 on a farm near Mexico, and he attended Westminster College in Fulton. Before graduating in 1927, he competed as a hurdler. He passed away in 1999 at the age of 94.

“Coach Botts set a standard for excellence that continues to define what Mizzou track and field is all about,” Mizzou track and field coach Brett Halter said. “His legacy isn't just measured in championships and All-Americans — it's measured in the lives he impacted and the values he instilled in his athletes. That value-based leadership is what’s most impressionable on the men he coached. We are incredibly grateful to Tom Botts for this meaningful investment and for giving our student-athletes a place where they can compete every day under the name of one of the greatest coaches in Mizzou history.”

Mizzou is set to hold a naming dedication, which the public can attend, on Oct. 9 at the Hearnes Center.

Viekka Viskari shot a tournament-best 5-under 66 in Round 2 of the Canadian Collegiate Invitational, powering Mizzou men's golf to fifth place Monday.

Viskari recorded four birdies and an eagle, only bogeying the 17th hole. His -5 was the best by any individual golfer in Round 2, moving him into a tie at ninth place with a -3 tournament score.

As a team, Mizzou sits comfortably in fifth place among the 13 teams with a score of +10. Santa Clara sits ahead of the Tigers in fourth with a +2, while Rutgers trails MU by five strokes.

With one round to play, the Tigers will look to carry on momentum from the second day. The MU golfers will round out their Canadian Collegiate Invitational competition starting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Columbia College men's soccer defeats the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma

Columbia College men’s soccer moved to 5-1 after defeating the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma 1-0.

Sophomore forward Parker Rainwater, assisted by senior midfielder Joshua Peterson, scored the only goal of the game during the fifth minute. Junior goalkeeper Ricardo Fischbach recorded two saves.

Columbia will face No. 13 John Brown University at 5 p.m. Saturday at Alumni Field in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

CC women’s soccer match ends in draw

Columbia College women’s soccer tied 1-1 with the University of Arts and Sciences of Oklahoma, marking the second tie of the season.

The Drovers scored the first goal during the 48th minute, right before halftime. The Cougars tied the game in the 79th minute with senior defender Ayanna Clark scoring her first goal of the season.

Junior goalkeeper Charlie Williams helped prevent the team's loss with three saves in the game, bringing the overall record to 5-1-2.

No. 21 Columbia will face No. 16 John Brown University on Saturday at Alumni Field in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

Columbia College men's and women's golf compete in tournament

CC men's golf ended the first day of the MVC Fall Invitational in third with a 3-under 277. The team scored 8-over par during Round 1 but 11-under during Round 2.

The women ended the first day in first place with a +93. They ended the first round with a +50 and +43 par during the second round.

Columbia college men and women's golf will continue to compete in the MVC fall invitational starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected for now the Trump administration's order to place restrictions on the U.S. Postal Service's processing of mail-in voting. 

Justices on the high court rejected an executive order from President Donald Trump that required the USPS to verify individuals are eligible to vote before sending mail-in ballots. States would also be required to have a uniform barcode on mail-in ballot envelopes to verify eligibility to vote in the election. 

A group of 23 states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration. Lawyers for the states argued the order was unconstitional and would create chaos ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

"In some States, unrebutted evidence establishes that compliance with USPS’ rule would be impossible ahead of the midterms, meaning that millions of voters would be unable to vote by mail and some would not be able to vote at all," lawyers for the states wrote in a brief to the high court. 

Lawyers for the Trump administration said the order changed little about the process for mail-in voting and would be able to be implemented across the country. 

"It imposes only modest requirements on the use of the federal postal system—it does not regulate state administration of elections," lawyers for the Trump administration wrote. 

Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin have already sent out some mail-in ballots to voters that did not comply wtih the order. Across the country, states are required to send out absentee ballots for military and overseas voters by Saturday.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented to the high court's majority decision.

The high court's decision is one of several looming legal challenges over orders the Trump adminsitration has pursued to change voting in the midterm elections. 

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule on Monday that repeals Biden-era carbon emission limits on fossil-fuel-fired power plants, drawing criticism from congressional Democrats who contend the change shifts billions of dollars in climate costs onto taxpayers.

The rule completely repeals the 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which mandated that coal and new gas-fired power plants capture 90% of their smokestack emissions or face shut down. The Trump administration says the rule will eliminate more than $300 billion in industry compliance costs, although immediate legal challenges are expected from environmental groups and blue states.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the rollback alongside Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright during a joint press conference at the G20 Energy Abundance meeting in Houston Monday, Reuters reported. "Today, we are reversing an unworkable mandate and restoring the regulatory efficiency required to ensure the long-term reliability of our nation's power grid," said Zeldin.

Zeldin told ABC News the Biden-era pollution rules were designed to “suffocate our economy in order to protect the environment” with the intent to regulate the coal industry “out of existence.”

In February, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized its rescission of the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding, which had provided the baseline legal authority to regulate carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act. This allowed the administration to cut vehicle tailpipe standards earlier this year.

Current EPA officials contend the carbon emissions of U.S. coal and gas-fired power plants do not contribute significantly to global climate change.

“The fossil fuel-captured EPA’s decision to end its regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants is a tragic and expensive mistake,” said U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “In refusing to address this national crisis, EPA is shifting the costs of climate change onto every family in America.”

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association said in a statement that repealing the rule was necessary “to preserve affordable and reliable electricity.” 

"We appreciate the administration’s action today to roll back portions of the Biden-era power plant greenhouse gas rule, which is unlawful, unrealistic and unachievable," the rural electric cooperative said.

The pollution limits were harming America’s electric grid by forcing critical existing power plants into early retirement and severely restricting the operation of new natural gas plants, the association said.

“As demand for electricity skyrockets, America’s electric grid needs every available electron. While today’s action is a major step and allows electric co-ops to continue operating their existing power plants, Biden-era limits on new natural gas plants remain in place," according to the rural electric association.

(The Center Square) – The Iranian proxy, Houthis, based in Yemen, threatens to derail progress in the Middle East as the group continues to threaten passage between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as President Donald Trump maintains the U.S. holds the cards with Iran.

With oil prices continuing to rise, Trump says “oil is flowing through the Hormuz Strait,” just as the Houthis threaten the security of Bab el-Maneb, the passage between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia was forced to close a vital east-west pipeline after drone attacks damaged the pipeline.

Despite the president maintaining the U.S. has complete control over the strait, the worsening situation in Saudi Arabia and Yemen appears to be surging gas prices in the U.S.

The national average Monday afternoon has soared more than 15 cents over the weeks, rising from $4.15 to $4.31, and nearly a quarter over the last month, from an average of $4.07, according to AAA.

While the U.S. hasn’t committed to any military force against the Houthis, multiple reports indicate the U.S. did offer intelligence on the militant group.

With action relatively quiet on the Iranian front recently, the president has argued in the last week that he expects the conflict to wrap up around the time of the midterm elections, adding that Iran may wait until after the elections to strike a deal.

On Monday, Trump claimed that Iran is eager to make a deal, but that the U.S. maintains control.

“The failing nation of Iran wants to make a deal, quickly and badly. I will determine whether or not the U.S.A. will choose to engage – the concept of which we are open to,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

In a separate post, the president says the rest of the world should reimburse the U.S. for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, arguing that it is being done to the benefit of other countries.

The Pentagon says it has spent nearly $40 billion on military operations in Iran, though many independent analyses estimate the true amount is at least double, since the conflict began Feb. 28.

(The Center Square) - Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Mary Peltola sharply disagreed on policies related to Alaska fisheries over the weekend, in the first debate between the two candidates running for Alaska’s hotly contested Senate seat.

Alaska shipped more than $2.5 billion in domestic seafood exports abroad in 2025, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office. However, Sullivan and Peltola both said the industry has struggled in recent years for different reasons.

Sullivan said competition from Russia and China has stifled Alaska’s fishing industry and weakened competition. He touted his work to ban Russian seafood imports in the U.S. and efforts to block Chinese imports.

The incumbent senator also touted his work to establish the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Seafood in April, a federal entity responsible for funding and infrastructure of U.S. producers and supply chains. He also claimed responsibility for $600 million in trade relief for Alaska fishermen and $100 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s ocean acidification program.

Sullivan, who is running for a third U.S. Senate term, slammed Peltola for not getting legislation passed during her slightly more than two-year stint in Congress.

“Our fishermen deserve relentless focus and action, not just talk,” Sullivan said. “In two terms in Congress, she did not have one bill signed into law, I had 63 signed into law in two terms.”

Peltola acknowledged she was in the minority during her stint in Congress due to Republicans having greater numbers in the legislative chamber. 

Peltola blamed the cuts to federal programs in the Trump administration for the fishing industry’s loss of revenue. She blamed the U.S. military conflict in Iran for high gas prices that make it more expensive to operate commercial fishing ships.

“Dan Sullivan has voted for this war in Iran over 10 times,” Peltola said in reference to Sullivan’s rejection of the War Powers Resolutions to curb President Donald Trump’s military authority in Iran. “We should not be going to Washington, D.C., to fight for one party or another, we should be fighting for our fishermen.”

Peltola also slammed the Trump administration’s cuts to federal agencies through the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency. Alaska lost 1,607 federal jobs in 2025 due to cuts from the Trump administration, amounting to nearly $36.5 million lost in annual revenue, analysts said.

She called on Congress to appropriate funds for NOAA and return to a regular government funding schedule. Pelota warned that funding NOAA is essential for fishermen in Alaska to obtain accurate weather forecasts and analysis.

“These are our federal allies,” Peltola said. “We are flying blind without the surveys and research that NOAA does. We need to enshrine that agency and make sure that they have recurring funds.”

Peltola also slammed Sullivan’s work to establish the USDA Seafood Office. She said the agency focuses more on farming fish than catching them in the wild.

Sullivan defended the seafood office during the debate. He said the office has brought together seafood farmers to push for loans and insurance policies in support of their businesses.

“They’ve been outside the USDA, they’re now inside the door, the door is open,” Sullivan said. “It is a tremendous opportunity, it’s something I’ve worked on through three different successive administrations and we got it done.”

Sullivan touted his work to ban seafood harvested in Russia from being sold in the U.S., part of an effort to support Alaskan fishermen. He touted continued work to fight against Chinese fishermen and “unsustainable environmental practices.”

The incumbent senator said high gas and diesel prices from the conflict with Iran could be solved by investing more resources into Alaskan energy. He pointed to Peltola’s alignment with the Biden administration, preventing future oil and gas pipelines from being built in the state.

“My opponent would ally herself with the anti-Alaska energy groups in Congress who will do what they always do, shut down Alaska energy, and that would be really horrible for all Alaskans, including our fishermen,” Sullivan said.

The debate comes as Alaska voters enter the final stretch of the midterm election cycle. The Cook Political Report ranks Alaska’s U.S. Senate race among six “toss up” elections throughout the country, which means either candidate has a chance of winning the race.

Absentee ballots for military and overseas voters will begin to be sent out on Sept. 19. Early in-person voting goes from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1. Polls are open on Election Day in Alaska from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

(The Center Square) – A Texas congressman wants federal budget scorekeepers to show taxpayers the interest costs buried in every spending bill. He has proposed it in every Congress since 2019 without success.

U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, has reintroduced the Cost Estimates Improvement Act. It would require the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation to include the cost of servicing the public debt in their official estimates of legislation.

When Congress passes a bill that adds to the deficit, the government borrows to cover it and pays interest on that borrowing for years. Official cost estimates generally leave those interest payments out, so the price tag lawmakers see and cite understates what a bill actually costs taxpayers.

The federal government ran a $2 trillion deficit in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2026, and net interest on the public debt topped $1 trillion over the same period, according to the CBO. Those interest payments alone work out to more than $6,400 for each of the roughly 162.8 million individual income tax returns the IRS processed in fiscal 2025.

Cloud has introduced the measure in every Congress since 2019, six times in all, and it has never become law. His furthest advance came in May 2024, when the House Budget Committee voted 17-7 to send an earlier version to the floor, where it stalled. He filed the current language in February 2025, then reintroduced it nearly word-for-word this month.

Cloud rolled out the original 2025 bill with a press release and media appearances. He reintroduced it this month without issuing a news release on his website. His office did not respond to questions about why he refiled the bill, whether he has commitments to move it, or whether he has raised it with House budget leaders or the CBO.

The CBO has already priced the idea. When Cloud's 2024 version cleared the House Budget Committee, the office estimated it would cost essentially nothing, no effect on the deficit and only a negligible administrative expense. Adding debt-service costs to its reports, the CBO said, would take "few additional resources."

That version applied only to certain bills approved by a committee, about 100 to 120 estimates a year. The existing bill drops that limit, covering any estimate CBO prepares under the relevant section of the budget law.

Leaving interest out can sharply understate a bill's cost, said Jessica Riedl, a budget and tax fellow at the Brookings Institution. Depending on interest rates, she told The Center Square, debt-service costs can add 25% to the 10-year price of legislation. The 2025 tax-cut law alone, she estimated, will carry about $800 billion in added interest costs over a decade.

Riedl said there is no strong case against the change, noting that CBO already relies on economic assumptions to score the rest of a bill. The harder question, she said, is political: whether Congress should then have to offset those interest costs the way it offsets other new spending.

"Many lawmakers surely won't want that additional requirement," she said.

(The Center Square) – With artificial intelligence becoming a political flashpoint as midterm elections loom, congressional Republicans and Democrats are split over the best approach to AI policy.

Some Republicans are following the lead of President Donald Trump, who on Monday berated the very idea of AI guardrails and dubbed nationwide backlash against data centers a “conspiracy.”

“The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China.”

U.S. House Science Committee Republicans echoed the sentiment in a Monday social media post, highlighting their ongoing investigation into “potential foreign influence behind organized opposition to U.S. AI data center development.”

“As America works to maintain its leadership in AI, we must ensure foreign interests are not working to undermine the energy infrastructure needed to power it,” they added. Reps. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., and Brian Babin, R-Texas, who head the committee, both reposted the message.

A few Republicans — such as Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas; who is leaving Congress in January, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; — have expressed caution over the rapid advancement of AI. But most seem more concerned about potentially overregulating the technology and favor an industry-first approach.

“We all have a sense of urgency to create guardrails around the technology,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., posted on social media Sunday night. “The key is designing the guardrails carefully, in a way that prevents any harm from AI —while also preserving American innovation and our national security by keeping our edge over China and other international competitors.”

Johnson reiterated his position to reporters Monday, adding that “The reflex of legislative bodies is to cover things up with red tape.”

By contrast, many congressional Democrats have become even more vocal about the environmental, constitutional, and economic threats AI poses, arguing that voluntary pledges from tech giants to “self-regulate”

Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., argued that recent voluntary pledges from tech giants to “self-regulate” do not “meet this moment,” urging Congress on Monday to “act this week to meet the rapidly developing threat landscape posed by AI.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters Monday that “the explosive growth of artificial intelligence…requires decisive congressional action immediately.”

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., criticized Trump’s post and also called on Johnson to keep the chamber in session, rather than letting House members leave Thursday for the rest of September.

“Trump calls warnings about AI a ‘SICK conspiracy.’ Researchers are warning that the risks are real,” Walkinshaw wrote on social media platform X. “Speaker Johnson must keep the House in session so we can advance bipartisan AI safeguards to keep it aligned with America’s interests. Congress cannot take a six-week break from this.”

(The Center Square) — New York Democrats are leading federal lawsuits challenging a move by President Donald Trump to make it harder for lawful immigrants to receive green cards or visas.

One lawsuit, filed Monday by New York Attorney Letitia James in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, asks a judge to invalidate a proposed rule change by the Trump administration that would give immigration agents more authority to deny green cards or visas to lawful immigrants on the basis of being a “public charge” — or someone who is likely to depend on government support. 

“Hardworking families should not be forced to go without the support they need because they fear asking for assistance will get them deported," James, a Democrat, said in a statement. "This rule preys on that fear and counts on families forfeiting food assistance, health care coverage, and other public benefits to which they are legally entitled."

The attorneys' general lawsuit was filed alongside a separate legal challenge by a coalition of cities led by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who claimed the new public charge rule "seeks to push immigrant families away from the programs that have kept people fed and healthy for decades. 

"New Yorkers will be afraid to see a doctor or ask for help they are legally entitled to," the democratic socialist said in remarks Monday. "That fear will not stop at the families that the federal government is targeting. Families who remain fully eligible for benefits will feel a chilling effect, and all New Yorkers will pay for it." 

In a statement to The Center Square, the Department of Homeland Security panned the legal challenge as an "ideological contortion required by left-wing leaders to justify their defrauding of the American taxpayer at the hands of illegal criminals." 

"Let’s get this straight, sanctuary states are terrified they will lose federal funds because hundreds of thousands of illegals and noncitizens might remove themselves from American welfare programs," a DHS spokesperson said. "We’re shaking in our boots over this supposedly terrible outcome."

"DHS has heard for months from the trusted journalists at CNN and others that illegal aliens weren’t using these very same welfare programs," the spokesperson said. "So, which is it?"

Under federal law, immigrants applying for permanent residency or legal status are already required to show that they are not likely to become a public charge.

In July, DHS announced that it would rescind a 2022 Biden-era regulation narrowing how immigration officers apply a long-standing "public charge" test — a screening tool used to determine whether applicants are likely to rely on government support. Those benefits can include food stamps, Medicaid and even housing assistance, according to USCIS officials. 

The changes were to go into effect Friday. 

The Trump administration said the rule change seeks to reaffirm the requirement of "self-reliance, protecting public resources and ending policies that encouraged dependency on the backs of hard-working American taxpayers." 

"Under President Trump, USCIS is restoring the basic principle that immigrants must be able to support themselves," DHS said in a recent statement.