Missouri

U.S. Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri won the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, a vulnerable incumbent whose seat is key to GOPhopes for taking control of the chamber. A six-term congressman, Akin edged out former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman and businessman John Brunner in a tight race that divided tea party activists. But Akin may have gotten the key boost from an unlikely figure: McCaskill. Preferring to square off against a candidate with his own record in Washington, McCaskill helped generate enthusiasm for Akin when she aired an ad branding him “Missouri's true conservative.” Akin had been endorsed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Republican voters in Missouri will decide Tuesday on a candidate to face first-term Sen. Claire McCaskill, an embattled Democrat whose seat could help the GOP take control of the Senate in November. There is no clear front-runner in the three-way primary, but polls show each with an advantage over McCaskill, who is considered the most endangered Democratic senator facing reelection. Tea party activists, emboldened by an upset victory in a Texas primary last week, see the Show Me State as the next arena to display the movement's political might, but failed to coalesce around one candidate.

CLEVELAND, Mo. - Sarah Palin has made Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Sarah Steelman the latest member of her surprisingly successful "mama grizzly" pack, appearing at a Friday night campaign event at a berry farm here in the drought-bleached countryside about an hour's drive south of Kansas City. "These days, many in a lot of GOP primaries, they're running on that platform [of strong conservatism] ... they want you to believe that they perhaps have a record of conservative values, conservative effort," Palin, wearing a blue Superman T-shirt from the Steelman campaign, told a crowd of a couple of hundred in mid-90s heat.

When Matt Meyers got home from work Friday afternoon in the small town of Edgerton, Mo., just north of Kansas City, he immediately knew something was wrong. His fiancée, Britny Haarup, 19, and her sister, Ashley Key, 22, who had been staying at the house, were both gone. His 6-month-old and 18-month-old daughters were there alone, and a truck and some guns were missing. On Sunday night, a weekend-long search for the missing women ended with the discovery of their bodies on a farm -- and a gruesome confession that has prompted prosecutors to file first-degree murder charges against the man arrested in the case.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Out in the sun-scrubbed farmland that stretches over most of western Missouri, there's a little town called Rich Hill known for its Fourth of July celebrations - “famous for the Fourth,” as they say there. Well, Rich Hill could get famous for something else: a peanut-butter banana pie on a Hammond Pretzel crust that auctioned for $3,100 on Friday. The winner: Jerry Mumma, a 75-year-old farmer who grows soy, wheat and corn. The baker? His 18-year-old granddaughter, Jara Mumma.

Have a hankering for barbecue? American Airlines has a $232 round-trip airfare from Orange County's John Wayne Airport to Kansas City, Mo. The 14-day advance purchase fare, which includes all taxes and fees, is offered Aug. 24 of this year through May 31, 2013, but is subject to availability. Info: American Airlines , (800) 433-7300   Source: Airfarewatchdog

The Ku Klux Klan's reputation may be dirty, but it apparently likes clean highways. After the Georgia Department of Transportation rejected a local KKK chapter's Adopt-A-Highway application this week amid outrage from social activists, the group's leader cried foul and sought the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We just want to clean up the doggone road," Harley Hanson, 34, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (His official title: exalted cyclops of the Realm of Georgia.)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. --  Rush Limbaugh is in the Hall of Famous Missourians. The question now may be whether he'll stay there. On Monday, Limbaugh was inducted into the hall in a secret ceremony that wasn't advertised, that was closed to the public and that was guarded by armed State Highway Patrol members. "He may say things that strike a nerve," Republican House Speaker Steven Tilley later told the Kansas City Star. "But that doesn't undo everything he's accomplished in his career, and it doesn't provide a reasonable excuse why he shouldn't be honored by his home state for his many accomplishments.

Rush Limbaugh may have lost sponsors, been condemned by feminist groups and overall widely criticized for calling a Georgetown law school student a "slut," but the conservative radio host will be honored in his home state with a bronze bust in the Missouri Capitol. Limbaugh, who was born in Missouri, will be inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians, along with Dred Scott, an African American slave who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom in 1857, leading to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that slaves were "property.

As clean-up from deadly tornadoes in the Midwest and South continued Thursday, a second storm system that could generate more twisters in the same hard-hit areas is predicted to hit overnight.  According to the latest projections by the National Weather Service, more storms are expected to move into the region, including southern Illinois, beginning after midnight Thursday and continuing through Friday. The severe storms will bring rain and hail and the weather service warned of chances of more tornadoes.