TUSCUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri State Highway Patrol says a 75-year-old Kansas City man drowned after he fell into the Osage River in central Missouri.
The patrol says Larry J. Pennington lost his balance Wednesday evening when he was moving gear around in his boat and fell overboard near the Osage River Bridge in Miller County.
His boat was docked at the time and he was not wearing a life vest.
Pennington was pulled from the water and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Police in Kansas City, Kansas, say a man shocked by an officer’s stun gun has died at a hospital.
Police said officers were summoned Wednesday afternoon to a report of man behaving strangely at the parking lot of a Family Dollar store. They say the man turned combative when paramedics tried to treat him. That’s when police say an officer used a stun gun on the man while trying to subdue him.
The cause of the man’s death was not immediately clear, and the matter is being investigated.
The name of the man involved in the confrontation wasn’t immediately released.
DETROIT (AP) — Automakers and governments are releasing the models covered by a massive expansion of a Takata air bag recall announced last week.
Some models have been posted by the Canadian government, including nearly 705,000 Honda models including the Civic, Accord and CR-V dating to 2001.
Millions of Takata air bag inflators can explode with too much force, spewing metal shrapnel into drivers or passengers. Six people have been killed and more than 100 injured due to the problem.
Last week the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that Takata agreed to double the number of inflators it recalled to 33.8 million. But the makes and models were not available. The increase made it the largest auto recall in U.S. history, according to the agency.
BELLMAWR, N.J. (AP) — A Missouri man has been arrested in New Jersey for allegedly kidnapping and sexually assaulting his estranged girlfriend.
The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office says Jose Amaya-Vasquez was arrested early Tuesday morning at the Super 8 Motel in Bellmawr.
Authorities say Amaya-Vasquez kidnapped the mother of his child at knifepoint in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday. He’s accused of sexually assaulting the victim at a vacant house in Missouri, a motel in Ohio and a motel in Bellmawr. Authorities say the couple’s 2-year-old daughter was with them. They believe Amaya-Vasquez was heading to New York City.
He faces kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and other charges.
Authorities have notified U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Amaya-Vasquez is believed to be from Honduras and is living in the United States without proper documentation.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The board of the National Military Heritage Museum in St. Joseph has fired the museum’s director and two part-time staffers, citing financial concerns.
Supporters of the museum agreed Jacob Miroke made many improvements in his one year at the museum, which is dedicated to honoring the nation’s military. Attendance more than doubled since he began working at the museum.
But board secretary Mary McCune said the museum couldn’t afford Miroke’s $1,200 monthly salary as it struggles to pay bills.
Alvan Ellis is Vice President of the Board and said if they can’t figure out a way to raise money they may have to close the museum.
“We have money going out but no money coming in,” Ellis said. “Right now we’re hoping to stay open as long as we can. Hopefully we can make it through the summer.”
Last month the museum only saw around 195 visitors.
Ellis said the board is going to try to come up with some way to raise funds. But without money coming in as of Friday the museum will operate solely on volunteer efforts.
Ellis said they are going to try to continue to operate the museum on its regular schedule.
“We’re going to try to keep it 10-4 Monday to Friday,” he said. “Saturday we’re not sure yet if we’re going to be open on Saturdays or not.”
He said volunteers are needed.
(AP with St. Joseph Post contributions)
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A group has been formed to review the Missouri House’s intern policy after the former speaker admitted to exchanging sexually suggestive texts with an intern.
House Speaker Todd Richardson of Poplar Bluff said Wednesday that the working group is vetting current policy. He said members of the House clerk’s staff, legislative researchers, lawmakers and others will compare that with other states’ policies.
Richardson also asked the group to reach out to Missouri universities with internship programs at the Capitol for feedback.
Former House Speaker John Diehl resigned the last day of session May 15 after admitting to texting a 19-year-old intern. Richardson was elected that day to replace Diehl.
Richardson said a review of the current policy would be one of his top priorities after the session ended.
EMMETT, Kan. (AP) —Walter Byers, the first executive director of the NCAA who spent 36 years leading and shaping the organization, has died. He was 93.
Byers died Tuesday at his home in Emmett, Kansas when a urinary tract infection spread into his bloodstream, his son Fritz said Wednesday.
A main part of Byers’ job when he started as NCAA executive director in 1951 was to help the schools maintain strict control of all revenues the athletes generated. He helped invent the now widely used term “student-athlete,” which he said was intended to disguise the fact that players had become de facto professionals.
He led the way in dealing with television as a main source of income and was a big proponent of having the NCAA oversee women’s athletics as well.
Byers was 29 years old when he was hired by the NCAA. The offices opened in Kansas City, Missouri, with five employees. When he retired in 1987, the NCAA had about 150 full-time employees and its membership had grown from 381 schools to 1,003.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 13-year-old boy has been arrested by Wichita police on suspicion of sexually assaulting eight children.
Wichita media outlets report said the victims range from ages 2 to 9. Wichita Police Department spokesman Lieutenant James Espinoza said police were called to a local hospital Tuesday night, where a woman told police her 9-year-old had been sexually assaulted by a 13-year-old male.
Espinoza said that police learned over several hours that there were allegedly seven more victims that included boys and girls.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A southeast Missouri man faces federal fraud charges linked to what prosecutors say was his practicing of law even though he wasn’t a licensed attorney.
A grand jury in St. Louis has indicted 50-year-old James Michael Arnold of Sikeston on five felony counts of mail fraud. He’s also charged with three counts of failure to file tax returns and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Federal prosecutors say Arnold graduated from law school at the University of Missouri in Kansas City in 1992. But he never passed the Missouri Bar Examination and was never licensed to practice law in Missouri.
Authorities say that over a four-year span to January 2014, he defrauded more than $350,000 as an illegal attorney.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Texas woman was sentenced to five years in federal prison for defrauding a Kansas couple in an adoption scheme.
Thirty-five-year-old Chrystal Marie Rippey, of Marshall, Texas, was sentenced Tuesday for two counts of wire fraud.
Federal prosecutors say Rippey admitted that she took $22,225 from a Shawnee, Kansas, couple who believed she was pregnant with twins and who wanted to adopt the children.
The money was intended to pay for Rippey’s living expenses.
Prosecutors say the transactions were based on Rippey’s false statements that she was pregnant and wanted to put her twins up for adoption.
