Skilled scribe Tom Uhlenbrock is ankling the Post-Dispatch to work for  Gov. Jay Nixon to promote Missouri tourism.  It all began when he was sent to the daily’s education team and that was it. He clocked out. Kudos to the guv for recognizing a great guy for a great job.

When former KSDK, Channel 5 reporter/anchor Jasmine Huda told her bosses that she has made “other arrangements” when her contract expired last month, could she have been referring to arch-rival KMOV, Channel 4?  Huda ankled the Gannett station shortly after bosses tried to sweeten their original “best and final offer.”  Local newsrooms are nattering that Channel 4’s canny Allen Cohen plans to add the personable Huda to a new lineup that will eventually be shared with news-less KDNL-TV, Channel 30. Meanwhile, the bean counters at 5 are looking for ways to replace video shot from their now-grounded chopper.

Donald Trump’s new Trump Network has landed in our town with a bang, that promises to fill pockets of distributors with more than $10,000 a-month income, according to a gaggle of reps from the Boston-based firm, who were meeting with Creve Coeur Mayor Harold L. Dielmann.  Dielmann, 80, has become the company’s “independent marketer” here. Trump Network will sell health and wellness products to individuals, whom they hope will become distributors.  They only have to pay $500 for each kit.  They receive a $100 bonus  for each customer the maketers lure.  Weight-loss, children’s healthy snacks, skin care and a full-line of environmentally-safe kitchen products are among Trump Network’s offerings.  The columnist  was told, “You’re getting this before the Wall Street Journal, Oprah Winfrey, Jay Leno, “The  View”  and Howard Stern. (Well, fan my brow!)

The Trump Networkees are looking forward to Trump’s appearance at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace in May, when the company will be officially launched.

Our town’s Charles Cella,  prez of Oaklawn Park racetrack in Hot Springs, Ark., will increase the purse of the April 3 Grade I Apple Blossom to $5 million, providing that champs Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta both start.  Cella calls it “one of the most important moments at Oaklawn and in Arkansas sports.”  Owners of both Rachel Alexandra (a three year-old filly, owned by Jess Jackson) and Zenyatta, a mare, owned by the Jerry Mosses) both showed enthusiasm for bringing their champions to Oaklawn for the famed Racing Festival of the South. Both of the horses have raced in Arkansas as a launching pad to future successes.  The $5 million purse will be the largest for a filly and mare race in the history of North American thoroughbred racing.  The historically contested race will be extended to a mile-and-one-eighth instead of a mile-and-one-sixteenth. Incidentally,Cella and his sons own Southern Real Estate & Financial Co., which includes beaucoups properties in downtown St. Louis and in Ladue. They also created the award-winning restaurant, Truffles.

“Not just mass graves, but some corpses are being tossed with garbage in landfills,” sighed former cop Robert Lowery, Jr., who has just returned from Haiti. Lowery, son of Florissant Mayor Robert Lowery, serves as exec director of the Alexandria,Va.,-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He continued, “It’s horrific.  So many missing children have been abandoned by their parents.  Some children are taken in trucks by foreign, sexual predators.”  Lowery said he worked there with John Walsh of “America’s Most Wanted” fame, whom Lowery said “is a true champ.”  “Our strength is unifying the kids with their parents – they must be cared for first.” Lowery calls O’Fallon, Mo., his home, where his wife, Heidi, and their three children have lived.

Contracts have expired at KSDK, Channel 5 with news reporters Ann Rubin and Mike Garrity. Hot and heavy negotiations are underway as we chat.  BTW, that reminds us that before television, nobody knew what a headache, colon or sinus looked  like.  Also, no one could fathom that some day on the tube we’d see how hemorrhoids or yeast infections could be treated or that a gecko and cavemen would tell us how to save money on insurance.

Time was, every St. Louis household collected rainwater in barrels – but the containers eventually went the way of buggy whips.  They are, however, back again, especially in affluent west St. Louis county and the trendy Central West End where they have been purchased from websites for more than $100 each.  Now, MSD plans to get in on the trend offering discount-priced rain barrels through its billing department to MSD customers “current on their sewer bills.”  Delinquents and non-MSD customers need not apply for the $65 barrels. . .

Needlepoint has become hotter than ever, according to tycoon Dennis Jones, whose wife, Judy is involved with the Needlepoint Clubhouse in the Plaza Shops on New Ballas Road with Linda Aboussie, Judy Harper and Linda Bryant.  The craft has brought together four generations of Pearce-Jones-Franz girls.  They’re also offering the first Judaic catalog of designs in our town.  That news was offered by Dennis, who was cornered t’other day by Chris Pauli of Crown Investment Partners, who said his fund was up 36 percent in ‘09. Sun-drenched Jones had just returned from an 18-day voyage on his yacht with Dr. Alan Londe, Sandy Tucker, Tom and Eleanor Berra and Bert and Eileen Wise.  Meanwhile, you can send congrats to Dennis and Judy Jones on their past-half-century of wedded bliss.