—Accent on 'hype': For 20 years, the Missouri Department of Transportation, unable to convince the Legislature to spend several billion dollars rebuilding Interstate 70 as a toll road between St. Louis and Kansas City, has turned its attention to an equally daunting alternative: a Hyperloop.

MoDOT is part of a consortium of universities, business groups and tech firms looking for $1.5 million to study moving people and freight across the state at 600 miles an hour. Passengers and freight ride in pods inside tubes, suspended by magnetic levitation and whisked along by linear induction motors.

In theory it works just fine; a test track has been set up in the Nevada desert, and lots of states have been competing for the prototype. We doubt the idea could get past the trucking lobby in Jefferson City, but if it can get us to Arthur Bryant's Barbecue in Kansas City in 30 minutes, we're in.

—Loesching out: The National Rifle Association was eerily silent in the wake of Sunday night's slaughter in Las Vegas. But on Monday, after the American College of Physicians called for a ban on automatic and semiautomatic weapons as a public health hazard, the special assistant to NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre swung into action.

"Right after we ban pools, cars, cigarettes, alcohol, hands feet & fists. Lives lost due to these constitute an epidemic," tweeted local girl made good and professional mean person Dana Loesch.

An epidemic of hands and feet? It was the sort of bitter non sequitur Loesch has been known for since launching her career as a right-wing provocateur in St. Louis some nine years ago. We knew her as the Post-Dispatch "Mamalogues" columnist. Now she hosts a radio show from Dallas and is Wayne LaPierre's authorized spokesman. A guy shoots 580-plus people and she sees feet and fists as the problem. It's a living.

—Love in the time of granola: The Beatles were wrong. Love is not all you need. Southwest Airlines and Subaru might have to rethink the use of "love" in their ad campaigns. And the Nashoba Brook Bakery absolutely will have to stop listing love with oats, nuts and seeds among the ingredients in its granola. The Food and Drug Administration has told Nashoba that love is not an ingredient.

In a terse letter Tuesday, the FDA wrote: "Your Nashoba Granola label lists ingredient 'Love.' Ingredients required to be declared on the label or labeling of food must be listed by their common or usual name. 'Love' is not a common or usual name of an ingredient, and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of the ingredient."

In case you've forgotten, the FDA is now under the direction of President Donald Trump, who has never listed love as one of his ingredients.

—Free speech isn't free: President Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., is scheduled to speak at the University of North Texas in Denton on Oct. 24 but has decided to ban members of the news media from covering it. The university says this is common, but at least one previous speech in the university's Kuehne Speakers Series, by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, allowed for news media coverage.

Sorry, not this time. Trump Jr. reportedly is being paid $100,000 for the engagement. His topic: freedom of speech.

—It's good to be Grand: It's official. South Grand is grand. The boulevard was designated this week as one of five "great streets" and 15 "great places" in America by the American Planning Association.

What makes a great street is planning, says the national organization. South Grand's walkability, cultural diversity, mix of retail, international restaurants and housing make it an ideal neighborhood for urban living. It also manages to balance all forms of transportation and is close to Tower Grove Park.

Great streets create a sense of place. They can stimulate economic activity and energize a community. South Grand has always reminded us of the High Street that can be found in neighborhoods across Britain or Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. Lincoln Avenue was also designated as one of America's five "great streets" this year.

—Senator from TAMKO: Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, R-Joplin, can't seem to do enough for Joplin roofing magnate David Humphreys, head of TAMKO Building Products. After Richard sponsored legislation to benefit the company, Humphreys contributed $100,000 to him. The measure went nowhere, but critics said it was a glaring example of pay-to-play politics.

More recently, The Kansas City Star reported that Richard let Paul Mouton, a lobbyist for Humphreys, park in his reserved spot in the Capitol garage 32 times. Rep. Mark Ellebracht, D-Liberty, wants Humphreys to be fined the maximum of $10,000 for each time the spot was used.

Mouton already was fined $2,000 for not registering as Humphreys' lobbyist the past two years. He will only have to pay $200 if he abides by the state's lobbying laws for the next two years.

Humphreys is a GOP megadonor who, along with his relatives, spent $14 million on GOP candidates during the 2016 election cycle. A $320,000 fine won't empty the multimillionaire's coffers, but it might teach him some respect for the state's ethics laws.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH