- University of Missouri Curators have scheduled a virtual meeting this morning to discuss a likely tuition increase at the four-campus system. The video teleconference comes in advance of a late January meeting in Columbia where the curators are expected to approve the system's first tuition increase in three years. School officials have said they hope to keep the increase below 10 percent. Tuition for the coming academic year is typically set in the spring. But university leaders want an early start because Missouri law requires a waiver from the state to raise tuition beyond the Consumer Price Index inflation rate. Students who live in Missouri and take a standard 15 credit course load pay $3,684 in tuition each semester. A 9 percent increase would translate into a $332 boost per semester.
- St. Louis police are investigating the accidental shooting of a three-year-old boy. Police say the toddler was critically wounded when he accidentally shot himself in the head. St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports the boy underwent surgery Thursday afternoon at St. Louis Children's Hospital. Police believe the boy was with his mother and an infant sibling at their north St. Louis home when he somehow got his hands on a loaded gun. They say he accidentally shot himself and was found lying on a bed. The mother ran to get the father at the neighbor's house and they raced the toddler to the hospital, flagging down paramedics on the way. The toddler remains in critical condition.
- The Belleville News Democrat is reporting that lawyers for Christopher Coleman are asking for a delay in the February 15 trial to allow Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to make a decision on a bill that would abolish the death penalty in the state. Coleman is accused of killing his wife and sons in their Columbia, Ill. home in May 2009. He faces a possible death sentence if convicted.
Morning headlines: UM tuition hike, accidental shooting leaves STL toddler critical, Coleman requests trial delay
