The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a possible abduction and assault, and is asking the public for help. Few details have been released.
The victim reportedly told authorities a bag had been placed over his head and he was taken to a residence in St. Joseph. Late Thursday, while the victim was being transported, the suspect (s) were involved in a a car crash.
Deputy Sarah Hardin says the victim was found in the vicinity of the Sunbridge Conservation Area. Anyone with information is asked to call the Tips Hotline at 816.238.TIPS, or 816.238.8477.
The Saint Joseph-Buchanan County Health Department has received 120 additional doses of flu vaccine. It’s for qualified residents 18 to 64 years of age who are not pregnant. The department also has flu vaccine for children who qualify for the Vaccines For Children program. The three-strain shots are available while supplies last.
Officials say large numbers of confirmed flu cases have been confirmed in Northwest Missouri. The highest numbers are in the 5 to 14 year age group and the 25 to 49 year age group. If you haven’t had a flu shot yet, the health department is urging you to protect yourself and your family and get one.
(AP) – Missouri could carry out executions with firing squads under legislation proposed in the House.
The state currently puts inmates to death with injections of lethal drugs, although existing law also permits use of lethal gas – the method by which 39 people were executed from 1938 to 1965.
The House bill adds an option of executions by firing squads consisting of five law enforcement officers chosen by the state corrections director.
Missouri’s next execution is scheduled for Jan. 29.
The state recently switched from three-drug to single-drug lethal injections after pharmaceutical companies stopped selling the three drugs to prisons. It’s unclear where Missouri obtains the single drug, and there have been demands to halt executions until the source is revealed.
Bipartisan legislation backed by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill to boost oversight in how the government conducts background investigations received approval from the U.S. House of Representatives.
McCaskill’s bill-cosponsored by Senator Jon Tester of Montana, and Republican Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin-improves oversight of the security clearance process by empowering the Office of Personnel Management’s Office of Inspector General to use resources from its Revolving Fund to audit and investigate contractors that conduct background checks of government employees and contractors. The background investigations are used by government agencies to determine who should be granted access to sensitive and/or classified information.
“It’s nothing short of a national security threat that these background checks aren’t being conducted with the care needed,” said McCaskill, a former State Auditor and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight. “The ability to conduct a basic audit is a good first step toward reforming the security clearance process, and making sure that we can trust those with access to our country’s secrets and secure facilities.”
The bipartisan bill is a product of a recent joint Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing led by McCaskill and Tester which revealed that the contractor who conducted Snowden’s background check is under investigation. At the June hearing, witnesses testified that a lack of oversight and information sharing threatened the security of classified information.
McCaskill also sent a bipartisan letter to Government Accountability Office Comptroller General Gene Dodaro requesting that the agency examine the security clearance process and report how various federal agencies can streamline and improve clearance investigations.
NWS Drought Map- 1-16-14 (Click for a closer look)
Several winter storms brought snowfall to the region during the past 30 days. However, precipitation amounts generally remain near or slightly below average. As a result, there has been little change to the ongoing drought conditions in the area. Abnormally dry (D0) conditions continue across much of eastern Kansas and western Missouri. The moderate drought area across northern Missouri remains unchanged.
Abnormally Dry (D0) – Portions of west central, central and northwestern Missouri and eastern Kansas:
In Kansas: A part of or all of Doniphan, Atchison, Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson, Miami, and Linn.
Moderate Drought (D1) – Portions of northern Missouri north of the Missouri river.
In Missouri: A part of or all of Atchison, Nodaway, Harrison, mercer, worth, Putnam, Schuyler, Chariton, Carroll, Ray, DeKalb, Daviess, Caldwell, Livingston, Grundy, Linn, Sullivan, Macon, Adair, Gentry and Clinton.
(AP) — A group of international military officers will visit Topeka next month to learn about Kansas history and see state government in operation.
The 47 officers come from 40 countries. They’re taking advanced military courses at the Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.
The Kansas National Guard will play host to the officers on Feb. 6. Their schedule in Topeka includes a presentation by state Court of Appeals Chief Judge Thomas Malone at the Kansas Judicial Center.
They’ll also visit the Statehouse to meet Gov. Sam Brownback and tour the House and Senate chambers.
Illustrator Brad Sneed talks with Horace Mann students about the process he uses to design and illustrate children’s books. Sneed’s visit to Northwest was part of a collaborative learning project involving Horace Mann students, faculty and Northwest education majors. (Photos by Darren Whitley/University Relations)
Students at Northwest Missouri State University and its Horace Mann Laboratory School this week received a glimpse into how the illustrations they find in some of their favorite children’s book are created.
Brad Sneed, an illustrator based in Prairie Village, Kan., visited Northwest as part of a collaborative learning effort coordinated by Horace Mann Art Instructor Erin Oehler and Vicki Seeger, who retired last year as a faculty member in Northwest’s Department of Professional Education.
Horace Mann fourth graders are working on a writing and illustration project with Oehler as well as Northwest faculty and education majors. In March, the students and their instructors also will attend the Children’s Literature Festival in Warrensburg, where Oehler met Sneed last year.
Sneed presented Wednesday to all Horace Mann students during four separate sessions, which Northwest students majoring in elementary education and art education also attended.
Growing up on a farm in rural Kansas, Sneed told the students, he often lost himself in his imagination. He built forts, looked for critters and dreamed of one day being a cowboy or a football player. He also loved to draw and paint and soon realized he could maybe make a living as an illustrator.
Sneed earned a degree in illustration from Kansas University and then set off to New York in an attempt to catch the eyes of picture book editors and art directors.
Not long after returning home to Kansas, Sneed received a call from an editor who was looking for someone to produce illustrations for a new book about a grandfather “with a large belly and a big voice who loves to sing.” The story, “Grandpa’s Song” by Tony Johnston, published in 1991, was the first book with illustrations credited to Sneed.
His career is now 25 years old and he has completed nearly 30 book illustrations.
“I love that I can go to work and spend all day drawing and painting,” Sneed said. “I love telling a story visually with pictures.”
In addition to sharing the story of how he became an illustrator of children’s books, Sneed talked through his process – from the raw doodles he creates for story boards to assembling a practice book with polished sketches to completing the water color paintings that appear in the finished book. Sneed said his illustration process for one book typically lasts six to nine months.
Sneed also read one of his illustrated books for the students, drew sketches for the children and signed books for a small number of children who brought their own copies of his work to the sessions.
Oehler said she hoped Sneed’s story helped students understand that practicing art can be a viable profession. She added that professional opportunities in creative fields are increasing.
“Everything takes practice, but to do something well you have to have a purpose and art is in everything,” Oehler said. “We see it in the books we read, the clothes we wear. It’s pervasive in our culture.”
The Horace Mann Laboratory School, located on the Northwest campus, is an innovative program that provides clinical experience for pre-service teachers and a diverse and interactive learning environment for children. Housed in Everett Brown Hall, the laboratory school serves about 130 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Early childhood classes for children age 3 through pre-kindergarten are offered in the Phyllis and Richard Leet Center for Children and Families in Brown Hall.
(AP) – A coalition backing a proposed constitutional amendment about farming has raised more than $200,000 for a Missouri ballot campaign.
Voters will decide in November whether to approve an amendment to the Missouri Constitution guaranteeing the right to “engage in farming and ranching.”
The measure was referred to the ballot by lawmakers.
It’s being supported by a coalition called Missouri Farmers Care. The organization reported raising almost $200,000 from October to December and had nearly $229,000 in the bank as it began 2014.
The farming rights amendment will appear on the ballot as Constitutional Amendment 1.
(AP) — A panel of Food and Drug Administration experts again opposed expanding use of Johnson & Johnson’s blood thinner Xarelto to reduce dangerous blood clots in a new group of patients, those with acute coronary artery disease.
The FDA panel on Thursday voted unanimously against broader use of the pill, saying too much information is missing from company studies to accurately gauge Xarelto’s benefit. The same panel also voted against broader approval in 2012.
The FDA, which is not required to follow the panel’s advice, has also twice rejected J&J’s request to approve Xarelto for preventing life-threatening blood clots in patients with acute coronary artery disease.
J&J already markets the pill for several patient groups, including those with an irregular heartbeat and those undergoing hip or knee replacement surgery.
(AP) – Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones will give the official Republican response to Gov. Jay Nixon’s State of the State address next week. St. Joseph Post and Eagle Radio 680 KFEQ will broadcast the Nixon’s speech live on Tuesday evening.
Jones, of Eureka, will pre-record his remarks before the Democratic governor delivers his speech on Tuesday.
Jones also delivered the official Republican response to Nixon’s address last year, criticizing the governor’s ultimately unsuccessful call to expand the state’s Medicaid system.
Nixon has indicated he will ask lawmakers again this year to expand the health care program for about 300,000 Missourians.
Jones was elected to the House in 2006 and became speaker in 2013. He is considering a bid for statewide office in 2016.
The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a possible abduction and assault, and is asking the public for help. Few details have been released.
