CON V ERGING CA MPUS & COMMU NIT Y
NORTHWEST MISSOURIAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2025
MARYVILLE, MISSOURI
NWMISSOURINEWS.COM
VOL. 114, NO. 4
@THEMISSOURIAN
Turning Point USA chapter brought to Northwest by student RAIEA SALERNO News Reporter | @Raiea_Salerno
NATHAN NODA PHOTO EDITOR
The Pub, located at 414 N. Main St., changed its minimum age from 21 years old to 19 years old Oct. 1. The change was encouraged to bring in more customers and compete with nearby bars, and will require 19 to 20-year-olds to wear a wristband and pay a $5 cover.
The Pub now open to 19-year-olds
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ANNA BAILEY News Editor | @AmBailey16
he Pub, previously only open for those who are 21 years old and over, opened its doors to anyone who is 19 years and above beginning Oct. 1. There are now only two bars in Maryville that are restricted to those who can legally drink. The Pub Co-Owner Doug Meyer said lowering the age has been years in the making. He said the owners waited to make the final decision until after the fall semester began. “It’s come up several times over the last couple of years, but we’ve been talking about it pretty hard since about July,” Meyer said. “It’s not so much that it’s a bunch of 19 and 20-year-olds coming in. It’s a bunch of people that are 21 or 22 years old, and they might have one or two friends with them that are under 21.” Meyer said he recognized that many of the existing customers of The Pub were hoping the bar would stay as it was. He said it is important
to stay competitive with the other three bars in Maryville that are open to 19-year-olds. The Pub bartender Zac Behrens said he knows allowing more people to come in will benefit the business. He said he hopes adjusting will not change the environment of the bar. “I just don’t want it to lose the culture of The Pub,” Behrens said. “I don’t want it to become a freshman bar.” Behrens said the first week with the new age restrictions, there have not yet been many people below 21 years old coming in. He said typically, if anyone who is 19-20 years old visits, they are with a group of friends, and most of them are not underage. To accommodate the change, anyone who comes into The Pub who is legal to drink will receive a wristband. Meyer said all alcoholic drinks will also be served in glass cups, while anyone underage will receive a plastic cup. “For 19 and 20-year-olds, on Wednesday through Saturday, we’re doing a $5 cover, but they get free pop and free lemonade; whatever comes out of the gun for that $5, but that’s
served in a plastic glass,” Meyer said. “That just kind of helps the bartenders know that, ‘Hey, they’re coming up with plastic glass; they must be under 21,’ or ‘Coming up with the glass, they have a wristband, they’re over 21.’” Meyer said allowing customers who are 1920 years old to come in comes with concern of underage drinking. “The big issue always is fake ID,” Meyer said. “So we’re going to add one more door guy/ bouncer on our busier nights. So just making sure we always have somebody at the door to check IDs, and then just kind of check to make sure nobody came in that was underage.” Behrens described The Pub as being different from some of the other bars in town. “It’s a sit-down dive bar,” Behrens said. “It’s glass cups. You’ve got bar lights and stuff in here. It’s not, you know, sticky floors, 50 million people waiting in line for a drink…Everyone can come in here and watch a baseball game, watch the playoffs, watch football, and you don’t have to worry about bumping into 50 million, like, freshmen.”
A chapter of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization founded by political activist Charlie Kirk, its former CEO, might soon form at Northwest. Turning Point USA’s purpose is to guide citizens to engage within their community and to restore traditional American values like family and patriotism, according to Turning Point USA’s website. Kirk commonly debated topics such as gay marriage, abortion and transgender identities on college campuses as part of the organization’s mission, according to BBC. Northwest sophomore Claudia Lux submitted a request to Turning Point USA to start a chapter at Northwest shortly after hearing news of Kirk’s assassination Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University. She said she was unsure of what would happen to people like her after hearing of his assassination. “We all share the same values,” Lux said. “I feel like when he was struck, it affected more than just me; it affected a community.” The Northwest chapter had its initial informational meeting Sept. 22 in the B.D. Owens Library, with around seven interested members in attendance. It plans to become official later this semester after finalizing its constitution and bylaws. It also needs a faculty adviser, a full roster of leadership positions and a minimum of 10 general members. The chapter must follow University organization guidelines and Turning Point USA chapter policies. Lux said her father didn’t want her to put her name behind the Northwest chapter after she mentioned she was starting one on campus. She said it felt right for her community to start one.
SEE CHAPTER | A4
Annual protest against abortion held on National Day of Prayer HANNAH CLAYWELL Editor-in-Chief | @Hannah_9504
North Main Street was quiet, but a large gathering of protesters were spreading a message. A silent protest against abortion was held throughout Maryville from First Street to Fifth Street Oct. 5. The National Day of Prayer sparked this annual protest across the country, specifically referring to the Life Chain. The Life Chain includes a code of conduct that expresses the goals of the gathering and rules that those participating follow. Maryville City Councilman John McBride said this silent prayer and protest happens on the first Sunday every October. “There’s a lot of different states that have passed anti-abortion laws, and there are some that haven’t,” McBride said. “Missouri kind of went one way and then went the other way. But it’s (the protest) just to kind of keep God at the focus of it, his desire to see all life that he’s created.” In the 2024 election, Missouri residents voted to legalize abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022. However, in May, the Missouri Supreme Court stopped all abortions. There is a
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1914.
trial scheduled for 2026 to go over the constitutionality of the restrictions. McBride said the group of protesters was one of the biggest that had gathered in the past several years. He said there were groups from different churches around Nodaway County in attendance. Community member and protester Jenny Dirks said the group hopes to promote adoption and other alternatives to abortion. “We just want to promote just that abortion is wrong, biblically; and we want to encourage young ladies who have maybe had an abortion that there is restoration and forgiveness, and God loves them,” Jenny Dirks said. Mariah Dirks, another protester, said she has been protesting against abortion since she was about nine years old. “My parents started it here in Maryville a long time ago, before I was born, so I was just kind of brought into it from a young age,” Mariah Dirks said. She said it means a lot to her to protest with her childhood friends, and having a larger group made it easier.
SEE PROTEST | A4
ALLI DUARTE COPY EDITOR
Protesters Nancy Drake and Joe Drake stand with signs along North Main Street during the Life Chain anti-abortion silent protest Oct. 5.
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