The Pleasant Hill High School crowns Jessica Darby (center) its 2010matwarming queen in ceremonies prior to the Rooster-Odessa Bulldog wrestlingmatch last Thursday evening. Jessica was crowned by 2009matwarming queen Brittlee’ Clark (left) and was escorted by Rooster wrestler Devon Snow (right). Jessica is a senior at the Pleasant Hill High School this year. Appropriately, Jessica was also on the high school wrestling team until she was sidelined with an injury over the summer. Senior class candidates for 2010 matwarming queen were Katie Graham and Kelli Hemmelberg. Carli Phillips was the junior class attendant, Jordan Coates was the sophomore class attendant and Sheyanna Thompson was the freshman class attendant. Prior to the crowning, students in grades K-4 demonstrated cheerleading skills they had learned from high school cheerleaders earlier in the month.

(Times photos by F. KIRK POWELL)

The Missouri Department of Transportation will receive a $31 million grant from the federal government as part of a national initiative to create a high speed rail system.
  The grant, provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), will be distributed through the U.S. Department of Transportation.
  Announcement of the grant was made last week by U.S. Congressman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Missouri Governor Jay Nixon.
  Designed to greatly improve rail service acrossMissouri between Kansas City and St. Louis, the grant will provide funding for railroad projects in Cass, Cole, Johnson, and Pettis Counties.
  Locally, the grant will fund completion of preliminary engineering and environmental analysis for connecting existing sidings between Lee’s Summit and Pleasant Hill and laying a second track along the main line to allow higher operating speeds.
  The grant will also finance preliminary engineering and environmental analysis for removal of a grade crossing at Strasburg and replacing it with a grade separation to improve service reliability.
  The project also calls for preliminary engineering and environmental analysis for construction of a 2-mile long siding at Kingsville close to the public crossing to improve on-time performance.
  The funding announced last Thursday is part of $8 billion in grants to aid 13 rail corridors in 31 states. Some say the rail-building program could rival the interstate highway system begun in the Eisenhower era in terms of what it means for travel.
  “You really can't underestimate how extraordinary this moment is,'' Governor Nixon said at a news conference at the Amtrak station in St. Louis.• Officials said the announcement is especially good for St. Louis which sits 300 miles from Chicago and 250 miles from Kansas City.
  But while Democrats in Congress generally back the rail improvements, some Republicans are skeptical.
  “The message the Administration gave me on plans to spend stimulus dollars was that Congress wrote them a blank check, no oversight necessary,'' U.S. Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.) said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press. “`I hope after his renewed commitment to transparency in his State of the Union Address, the President will start by shining sunlight on the $8 billion he's spending on high-speed rail.''
  The $1.1 billion project will pay for construction of track, signal, station and rolling stock improvements to enable trains running three of the five daily round trips between Chicago and St. Louis to travel up to 110 mph. The trip now takes about six hours by train.With the improvements, it is expected to take less than four hours.
  The $31 million grant in Missouri will fund expansion of existing railroad bridges and universal crossovers, and pay for improved grade crossings.
  Perhaps most importantly, it will allow for construction of a bridge that will carry a second rail line across the Osage River in mid-Missouri, eliminating an unpredictable bottleneck that occurs when Amtrak trains must yield to allow freight trains to pass.
  Missouri Department of Transportation director Pete Rahn said the improvements will mean that Amtrak trains will be able to speed up, but more importantly, they'll reach their destinations on time more consistently. “People will not take the train if they can't be assured they'll get to where they want to be on time,'' Rahn said.
  No timetable was announced, but Edward Montgomery, executive director of the White House Council on Automotive Communities and Workers, said high-speed rail projects in Europe have taken years, sometimes decades.
  Montgomery said the grants will not only help rail commuters but also help the environment by inducing people to ride the train instead of drive, and create thousands of new jobs around the nation.
  Nixon and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn were among eight Midwestern governors that lobbied hard for highspeed rail in the region.
  The $8 billion rail package is part of $64 billion in the federal stimulus legislation for roads, bridges, rail and transit. It's part of an overall $787 billion economic stimulus spending package.
  “We must look to the future and the economic potential of high speed rail through Missouri,” Congressman Skelton said. “Investments in our infrastructure like these are necessary for future economic development, especially.”
  “This substantial spending fromthe stimulus forMissouri will prepare our rail lines for high-speed rail which will provide faster rail service acrossMissouri,” Senator McCaskill said. “It represents a boon for our local and regional economy, helping to create jobs and move goods, services and people across the Midwest.”—The Associated Press contributed to this article.