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In the wake of bombings at the Boston Marathon and flooding closer to home, Missouri Governor Nixon was in St. Charles Thursday morning for the State Emergency Management Agency's annual conference. 

Speaking in front of hundreds of emergency responders at the St. Charles Convention Center, Governor Nixon called on the Missouri Senate to reverse their recent budget cuts to public safety and homeland security funding. The Senate's 2014 budget slashes federal funds in half to about $21 million dollars. Nixon said the funds are crucial to those in need.

"These folks needs these assets," Nixon said. "We need to make sure we have response capacity. This is not political and this should not be controversial." 

Nixon said that without vital federal emergency funds, the state's response to recent flooding and even possible homeland security threats would not be up to speed.

"I do not know why the Senate left it our of their budget, but we need to fix it," Nixon said. 

People looking to get rid of leftover prescription medications can drop them off at several locations across the listening area today. The City of St. Louis is teaming up with the St. Louis College of Pharmacy and the DEA to arrange the drop-offs. The DEA says keeping unused or expired medications around the house is not a good idea, because abusers of prescriptions meds often search for them in medicine cabinets of friends and family. Tossing medication in the trash or flushing them down the toilet is also not recommended. For a complete list of locations to drop off unused and expired medications, visit our website at KTRS.com. 

Walgreens disposal sites:

4218 Lindell, St. Louis, MO 63108; 

3822 S. Kingshighway, St. Louis, MO 63109; 

1530 Lafayette, St. Louis, MO 63104; and 

3720 N. Kingshighway, St. Louis, MO 63115 

Creve Coeur-based Monsanto has announced that it will create nearly 700 jobs with a massive expansion project. The plant-science giant says it will spend over $400 million to improve it's Chesterfield research center. With the expansion, Monsanto says they will bring high-paying, high-tech jobs to the St. Louis area. The expansion will include new green houses, laboratories, and office space. The state of Missouri will help finance over $31 million of the project, if the company succeeds in creating 675 jobs. Construction is expected to begin in August with a completion date sometime in 2017.