Terminal Illness  Twenty minutes from downtown, the $300 million
MidAmerica Airport is ready and waiting for business -- any
business. Trouble is, Lambert is killing its chances of
attracting commercial traffic.  Pennekamp explains that the
county's attempts to market MidAmerica were actually successful
to a certain extent, but because of the nature of business
negotiations, specifics couldn't be released to the public at
the time. And they still can't. "They have been in ongoing
conversations with some major carriers, and there has been some
interest expressed," Pennekamp says. "One of the problems that
you run into is that these conversations need to be kept
confidential, for obvious reasons."  As for why the talks didn't
produce any tenants, Pennekamp says it was probably better that
they didn't, in light of what they were asking.  "I've been
aware of various regional carriers who have approached
MidAmerica who have wanted to operate there but have also wanted
things like major incentives," Pennekamp says.