Overheard

Springfield native Brad Pitt and his girlfriend, actress Angelina Jolie, will donate a messenger bag and four handbags for Handbags for Hope, a Sept. 20 charity auction at Highland Springs Country Club benefiting Boys & Girls Town of Missouri.

Organizers say they also have handbags from Angela Bassett, Sally Field, Lee Meriwether, Michael Learned and Patti Page; they are working to arrange others. Local celebrities are contributing bags as well.

More than 100 handbags are expected to be on hand for the auction, in its second year. The event begins at 10:30 a.m.; cost to attend is $35.

For more information, contact Handbags for Hope chairwoman Judy Gibson at jgibson141@mchsi.com.

MSSU Retirement

Missouri Southern State University President Julio León has announced his retirement, but did not release a timeline for his departure. León has served as president of the Joplin university since December 1982. MSSU’s Board of Governors immediately named Terri Agee as acting president. The school will conduct a national search and officials hope to name a new president by fall 2008.

During his tenure as president, León has overseen the expansion of MSSU’s campus, its acquisition of a statewide international mission and its transition to university status. León began his MSSU career in 1969 as an assistant professor of business administration. He rose through the faculty ranks and was named dean of the school of business in 1976. He was named interim president in July 1982 before being designated the university’s third president since becoming a four-year institution.

Raised in Iquique, Chile, León earned his undergraduate degree in English at the University of Santiago, Chile, before attending Odessa (Texas) College and Oklahoma Baptist University. He received his master’s of business administration from the University of North Texas in 1968 and his doctorate in business administration from the University of Arkansas in 1973.

July Jobs

While employment in July dropped by 2,600 jobs, Missouri maintained its June level at 2.7 million nonfarm, seasonally adjusted jobs, according to the Department of Economic Development. Economists at the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center partly attribute the dip in employment to the well-publicized nationwide problems in the housing sector finally reaching Missouri. Local government and the trade, transportation and utilities sectors also showed decreases.

Missouri’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in July, compared to 4.6 percent nationwide, the DED reported. Several sectors experienced employment gains in Missouri: administrative and support services (2,300); educational and health services (1,600); manufacturing (1,500); and accommodation and food services industries (1,300). Missouri has created 83,900 jobs since January 2005.