COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – The University of Missouri’s flagship campus will eliminate 185 jobs as part of an effort to cut into a $49 million budget shortfall.
The job reductions are among several moves to balance the budget for the Columbia campus for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The university says most of the cuts involve unfilled positions. Thirty employees will be laid off.
University leaders cite two key factors: Stagnant state appropriations and a continuing battle to get enrollment back to where it was before racial protests in the fall of 2015.
Preliminary figures indicate freshman enrollment is expected to rise 14 percent this fall compared to last year. But the expected 4,600-member freshman class still falls well short of the peak of 2015, when 6,200 students entered.
KANSAS CITY – A Colorado man was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday after traveling to Kansas City to meet an undercover FBI agent, whom he believed to be a mother with her 7-year-old daughter, for sex, according to the United States Attorney’s office.
Mausner -photo Wyandotte Co.
Ryan Edward Mausner, 42, of Basalt, Colo., was charged in a two-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City
Tuesday’s indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed against Mausner on May 25, 2018.
The federal indictment charges Mausner with one count of attempting to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, and one count of traveling across state lines with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, Mausner was actually communicating (via the Kik messaging application and texts) with an undercover FBI agent, who portrayed a single mother with a 5-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. Mausner allegedly engaged the undercover agent in several private chat sessions in which he said he wanted to engage in sexual activity with the mother and daughter.
In the course of these chats, the affidavit says, Mausner made numerous sexually suggestive or overtly sexually explicit comments including BDSM terminology about the mother and daughter.
Mausner traveled from Denver, Colo., to Kansas City on May 25, 2018, and arrived at Kansas City International Airport at about 5 p.m.
The charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.
The City of St. Joseph Health Department Animal Control and Rescue division is seeking public input on a proposed ordinance before it is presented to the members of the City Council.
The ordinance, titled “Unlawful Restraint of a Dog,” has been deemed necessary by Animal Control and Rescue officers’ field observations and statements made by concerned citizens.
As previously reported, several St. Joseph residents spoke at a city council meeting in January to urge council members to consider regulations on tethering pets. The residents voiced concerns about pets being left outside for long periods of time in extreme temperatures without proper shelter, the need for regulation of tethering and enforcement of regulation and the need for animal safety education.
According to a press release from the City of St. Joseph Health Department, the language presented in the survey is exactly as it has been written to be presented to City Council. It has been broken into sections for the public to more easily comment on the document. The survey should take participants 10 to 20 minutes to complete and will be available for public comment through Sunday, July 1.
Those who wish to participate, but do not have electronic access can take the survey at the City of St. Joseph Health Department at 904 South 10th Street between 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or at the Animal Control and Rescue Shelter at 701 Lake Avenue.
Survey responses will be collected and the ordinance reviewed and possibly amended after the public comment period closes. The ordinance will then be submitted to City Council for consideration.
Scene of Wednesday’s fatal fire photo courtesy KYTV
LEBANON, Mo. (AP) – A dispatcher is describing the desperate efforts to save five children who were killed in a southern Missouri mobile house fire as “heart-wrenching.”
Lori Embry says a firefighter’s voice was breaking with emotion Wednesday morning as he described over the radio being unable to open a window to the home in the town of Lebanon. The Laclede County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher said the firefighter, who was the first to arrive, could see a mother and a baby. The woman was flown from the scene, but crews couldn’t reach the baby or other children in time.
Family friend Kim Henry friend says the surviving woman is the mother of two of the children who died. The other three were nephews. Their names haven’t been released.
Hailey Hochanadel, 21, Olathe, died in the early hours of May 19 after the boat struck a rock bluff on the Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Twenty-three-year-old Joseph LeMark and 24-year-old Daniel Lewis both of Overland Park also died. Ashley Lamb, 22, a senior at Kansas State University remains hospitalized from injuries in the crash.
The family says charitable fund will go towards causes that Hailey was passionate about including anti bullying and the mentally disabled, according to the GoFundMe page.
First responders working the fatal accident -photo courtesy Missouri State Highway Patrol
The crash happened before 2 a.m. May 19 throwing Hochanedel, LeMark and 22-year-old Hayden Frazier and into the water, according to the MSHP. All five people involved were friends who graduated from high school in Olathe.
The weather pattern is expected to remain unchanged the next few days. This will lead to a continuation of the warm temperatures with highs in the upper 80s to lower 90s as well as the chance for thunderstorms each day through Saturday. With the warm and unstable air in place there will be the chance for some of the storms to be strong with isolated severe storms possible. The main threat will be for gusty to damaging winds with hail a lesser threat. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 4 p.m. Partly sunny, with a high near 90. Light south wind increasing to 5 to 9 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tonight: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 70. South southeast wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Friday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1 p.m. Partly sunny, with a high near 91. Heat index values as high as 95. South wind 7 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Friday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 1 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 70. South wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Saturday: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1 p.m. Partly sunny, with a high near 92. South wind 5 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Saturday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 69. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Sunday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1 p.m. Mostly sunny, with a high near 91. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 71.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 91.
Monday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1 a.m. Partly cloudy, with a low around 68. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 89.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 66.
Authorities have released the name of a man killed and another man injured in the crash of two trains in northwestern Arizona.
Mohave County Sheriff’s officials say a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway train collided Tuesday afternoon with a Herzog Railroad Services train pushing maintenance equipment in a remote canyon near Truxton 103 miles (166 kilometers) west of Flagstaff.
Sheriff’s officials say 63-year-old Walter Erickson of Lenexa, Kansas, was pronounced dead at the scene.
They say another Herzog employee — 26-year-old Matthew Thompson of Salem, Missouri — was airlifted to a Nevada hospital with serious injuries and is listed in stable condition.
Authorities say all occupants of the BNSF train were accounted for and no other injuries were reported.
Emergency crews on the scene of the train crash photo courtesy Hualapai Nation Police Department
BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent says the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash, which left the BNSF freight train with significant front-end damage and derailed several cars on the Herzog train.
____
A fatal collision between two BNSF Railway trains on the freight railroad’s tracks in northwestern Arizona forced Amtrak to use charter buses to carry train passengers between Flagstaff and Los Angeles.
The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said one person was killed and another injured in the wreck, which occurred Tuesday near Truxton, Arizona, which is 103 miles (166 kilometers) west of Flagstaff.
No identities were released, and BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent declined to say whether the people killed or injured in the wreck in rural Mohave County were BNSF employees.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said Wednesday the busing of passengers on the passenger railroad’s Southwest Chief route between Chicago and Los Angeles will continue until BNSF reopens its tracks at the wreck site.
___
9:20 a.m.
BNSF Railway says its southern mainline between Southern California and Chicago remained shut down Wednesday in northwestern Arizona because of a two-train collision in which one person was killed and another injured.
No identities were released and BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent declined to say whether the people killed or injured in the wreck near Tuesday in rural Mohave County were employees.
She also declined to provide any information about the circumstances of the wreck but said one locomotive was left derailed but upright and that two cars also were derailed.
Kent said the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident. An NTSB spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for information.
The wreck occurred near Truxton, which is 103 miles (166 kilometers) west of Flagstaff.
___
7:10 a.m.
Authorities say one person was killed and a second injured when two freight trains collided on BNSF Railway tracks in northwestern Arizona.
A BNSF spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for information but the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office says the collision occurred Tuesday near the small community of Truxton and that deputies reported that one train derailed and that the other had “significant damage.”
The Sheriff’s Office said the National Transportation Safety Board was notified of the wreck and is “involved in the investigations.”
An NTSB spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for information, and sheriff’s spokeswoman Anita Mortensen said no information is available about the people who were killed or injured and circumstances of the wreck.
Truxton is 103 miles (166 kilometers) west of Flagstaff.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The Latest on former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (all times local):
The Missouri House committee that had been investigating former Gov. Eric Greitens has dropped an attempt to get records related to a nonprofit group that supported him.
A Cole County judge had scheduled a hearing Thursday on whether to still enforce a House subpoena for records from Greitens’ campaign and a pro-Greitens group called A New Missouri in light of his resignation last Friday.
But that hearing was canceled after a House attorney notified the judge Wednesday that it’s withdrawing its request to enforce the subpoena.
The House panel had sought records related to any coordination between Greitens, his campaign and the nonprofit, as well as media advertising records from the nonprofit.
A New Missouri is a social welfare nonprofit that is not required by federal rules to disclose
LAFAYETTE COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 3p.m. Wednesday in Lafayette County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2011 Mack truck driven by David A. Seward, 47, Odessa, was westbound on Interstate 70 at Bates City.
The truck rear-ended a 2016 Kenworth semi driven by Timothy E. Meier, 61, Topeka.
Seward was pronounced dead at the scene. Meier was not injured. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri’s former Republican Gov. Eric Greitens before resigning pardoned five people and commuted the sentences of four prisoners.
Those freed or pardoned included women who allegedly suffered abuse and men Greitens says were wrongly convicted. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann says the prisoners were released Friday, the same day Greitens commuted their sentences to time served.
Among those released were Rodney Lincoln, who was convicted of manslaughter for the 1982 killing of a St. Louis woman. Lincoln has maintained his innocence.
Greitens pardoned people including Stacey Lannert, who spent 18 years in prison for killing her father when she was 18. Prosecutors argued she wanted his money, but she’s said her father sexually abused her for years.
Pardons restore rights but don’t expunge criminal records.
