Two drivers were seriously injured in a crash Friday afternoon in Country Club.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, at 4:25 p.m., 52-year-old Ginger A. Ellis of Country Club was driving a Chevrolet Tahoe north on Business 71 in Country Club. An Oldsmobile Alero, driven by 66-year-old Richard P. Warner of New Hampton, was crossing Business 71 from Emerald Lane and failed to yield. The Tahoe hit the Alero on the driver’s side and both vehicles traveled off the west side of the road into the southbound lanes.
Both drivers were transported to Mosaic Life Care for treatment of serious injuries.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – A police chase in suburban Kansas City ended with four people dead, four seriously injured and a driver charged with murder.
First responders on the scene of the deadly chase, crash –photo courtesy KCTV
On Friday, police in Independence tried to pull over a Jeep, which fled into Kansas City and crashed into another car at an intersection.
Police say car passengers 29-year-old Aaron Daniel and 28-year-old Shawn Johnson of Kansas City were killed, plus a third person whose name hasn’t been released.
Police say a 27-year-old woman in the Jeep also died. Three others in the Jeep and another person in the car were seriously injured.
The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office says 24-year-old Victoria Brown, of Kansas City, is suspected of being the Jeep’s driver and has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder.
MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State University and its School of Computer Science and Information Systems will host a coding workshop later this month.
According to a press release, the workshop, titled “Putting the Fun in CS Fundamentals: A Coding Workshop for the (Very) Busy School Teacher” takes place June 18-19 and 25-26.
The free workshop, which is open to teachers and students, will cover coding, website creation, micro:bits and other aspects of computer science. The workshop is an opportunity to prepare students and teachers for the 21st century workforce.
Each day provides a hands-on introduction to a new technology, an opportunity to work through exercises pertinent to students, and the chance to develop lesson plans and test them by teaching to peers.
Three tracks are being offered.
A beginning track does not require background knowledge and teaches the basics. A gentle introduction from experienced professionals on Scratch, micro:bits, web development and Hour of Code is included.
An advanced track is targeted for participants with experience or attendance at past workshops. An immersive introduction to Python, a novice-friendly programming language, will be the highlight.
The code.org track is geared toward K-5 teachers and includes beginning track topics, but focuses on code.org. Code.org has free, updated activities and resources for teaching computer science to lower grade levels.
One to two credit hours are available for graduate students at Northwest and a professional development certificate is available online.
For more information, contact Beccy Baldwin at baldwin@nwmissouri.edu or (660) 562-1995 or Michael Rogers at michael@nwmissouri.edu or (309) 825-6454. Registration is available online.
ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri woman already under state investigation for child neglect has been jailed after her 1-year-old daughter tested positive for methamphetamine.
Patterson -photo St. Charles County PD
35-year-old Jessica Patterson of St. Charles County is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. She is jailed on $20,000 cash-only bond.
The 1-year-old was hospitalized but has been released. All five of Patterson’s children are in state custody.
Patterson called 911 about 2 a.m. Monday after her daughter had a seizure. Testing at St. Louis Children’s Hospital revealed meth.
Patterson has been under investigation by the Missouri Department of Social Services three times since mid-May, once after she was found passed out in a vehicle while her 3-year-old son wandered a Home Depot parking lot.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Thousands of people in the Kansas City area found themselves without power following strong overnight storms that knocked down trees and power lines.
Kansas City Power & Light reported 80,000 customers without power at 8 a.m. Saturday. By 10 a.m., 50,000 customers were still without power. The utility said it expected some outages to “last all day.”
Most of outages were reported in Kansas City, Lee’s Summit, Grandview, Liberty and Blue Springs. On the Kansas side of the Missouri River, outages covered Kansas City, Overland Park and Olathe.
Strong storms before dawn Saturday brought strong winds that not only knocked down trees and power lines, but some power poles, too, causing traffic delays.
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – A suburban Kansas City man has been found guilty of stabbing his wife to death as their three children hid in the house.
Roldan-Marron-photo Jackson Co.
A Jackson County jury on Thursday convicted Vincente Roldan-Marron of first-degree murder in the January death of Yadira Gomez at their Independence home.
The Kansas City Star reports the couple’s oldest son testified that he hid his two siblings in the basement when his parents were fighting then hid behind a couch. From there, he said he saw his father retrieve a knife to kill Gomez.
The knife was one of four Roldan-Marron used to stab his wife 13 times.
Roldan-Marron was arrested after his son told his teacher the next day. Gomez’s grandparents are now caring for the children.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – Nearly four years after protests in Ferguson raised concerns about racial profiling of blacks in Missouri, a report from the state attorney general shows that African-American drivers are 85 percent more likely to be pulled over than whites – the highest level in the 18 years the state has compiled data.
Attorney General Josh Hawley on Friday released his office’s annual Vehicle Stops Report. The “disparity index” comparing traffic stops among races showed a 10 percentage point jump from last year, when blacks were 75 percent more likely than whites to be stopped.
John Gaskin of the St. Louis County chapter of the NAACP says the numbers are further evidence of why many blacks are hesitant to travel and do business in Missouri.
The Missouri Department of Conservation’s (MDC) FreeFishing Days provide an opportunity to get hooked on fishing.
During FreeFishing Days June 9th and 10th, anyone may fish in the Show-Me State without having to buy a fishing permit, trout permit, or trout park daily tag.
According to an MDC press release, aside from not needing permits, other fishing regulations remain in effect, such as limits on size and number of fish an angler may keep. Special permits may still be required at some county, city, or private fishing areas. Trespass laws remain in effect on private property.
FreeFishing Days encourages people to sample the state’s abundant fishing opportunities. Missouri has more than a million acres of surface water, and most of it provides great fishing. More than 200 different fish species are found in Missouri, with more than 20 of them being game fish for the state’s more than 1.1 million anglers.
For information on Missouri fishing regulations, fish identification, and more, click here.
For extensive information on getting started fishing, identifying fish species, finding places to fish, regulations, and more, visit MDC online at huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/fishing.
MDC’s free MO Fishing mobile app helps anglers find the best places to fish in Missouri, access regulation information, identify fish by species, and more. Anglers can also buy, store, and show fishing permits right on their mobile devices. MO Fishing is available for download through Google Play for Android devices or the App Store for Apple devices.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas is suing the Shawnee Mission School District for allegedly violating students’ free speech rights.
Shawnee Mission North junior Grace Altenhofen says she saw an associate principal take a camera from a student’s hand at their walkout. Altenhofen and others are at the center of an ACLU lawsuit against the district. photo by ANDREA TUDHOPE
Students complained in April after administrators in several schools allegedly censored students during the nationwide walkouts protesting gun violence. Among other incidents, students said a Hocker Grove principal pushed a student for mentioning school shootings in a speech and an administrator at Shawnee Mission North confiscated a student journalist’s camera.
At a SMSD board meeting in May, interim Superintendent Kenny Southwick provided an update on his investigation into the matter. He said he’d been conducting one-on-one interviews with students and parents and promised to bring First Amendment training to the summer administrator retreat.
“Our understanding was that their investigation would lead to a corrective action plan, an acknowledgement that rights were violated, and, if appropriate, discipline for certain staff and employees,” said Lauren Bonds, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas.
Bonds said what happened instead is concerning. According to her clients, she said Southwick has used one-on-one meetings to “retroactively justify some of the actions and conduct at the walkout.”
Furthermore, Bonds said, Southwick has allegedly taken a position on behalf of the district that students’ rights under the First Amendment and the Kansas Student Publications Act were not violated.
“I don’t see a lot of value in administrator training if they’re going to say everything they did was in accord with the constitution,” Bonds said.
Bonds said she’s not surprised by how the matter has been handled.
“We have raised a number of First Amendment concerns — whether on behalf of employees, parents — with the district that have been largely ignored or dismissed,” Bonds told KCUR.
The lawsuit filed Thursday aims to ensure that in the future, students will be allowed their rights to free speech and free press without risk of retaliation or discipline. It also seeks money damages from the district.
In a written statement, district spokesperson Shawna Samuel said though the district cannot comment on pending legal matters, SMSD “has been and continues to be in communication with the ACLU, who is representing the three students, about its concerns regarding student speech.” And, that it has “successfully resolved most parent and student concerns.”
The state’s two current contractors — KVC Kansas in the Kansas City metro and eastern region, and St. Francis Community Services in Wichita and the western region — have been managing foster care and services aimed at keeping struggling families together.
The Department for Children and Families opened the application for a new child welfare grant system Thursday. It allows DCF to have more oversight of grantees than the old contract system, and separates foster care and family preservation services. SCOTT CANON / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Under the new grant structure, no one agency will handle both in the same region, and DCF will have closer oversight over how state dollars are used than under the old contract system.
Family preservation services will be divided across the four current regions: East, West, Kansas City and Wichita. Foster care will be split into eight smaller areas.
DCF also says the new grants will allow family preservation to be more tailored, with services lasting anywhere from six weeks to 12 months. Contractors and child welfare workers have expressed frustration with the current one-size-fits-all approach that limits agencies’ caseloads and keeps families on a one-year timeline.
Kansas privatized its foster care system in 1997 after a lawsuit revealed widespread problems and bad outcomes for children. Since then, the state has directly contracted with several agencies for foster care and family preservation, which in turn subcontract some services.
Now separating family preservation and foster care will “eliminate perceived conflicts of interest,” DCF said in a news release.
Christie Appelhanz, executive director of the Children’s Alliance of Kansas, which DCF contracts to provide training to foster families, said the new structure could be a step in the right direction.
“The reason we privatized child welfare was for innovation and healthy competition,” she said. “With additional contractors, I think we will better get to that point for kids and families.”
It might, she said, also level the playing field for smaller providers. Providers that couldn’t compete with agencies handling all child welfare services in a region before could now make a play for state grants to manage just family preservation, or just foster care, in that area.
KVC spokeswoman Jenny Kutz said the agency is considering DCF’s new request for proposals, but can’t yet speak to which regions and services they will apply to manage, if any. KVC has been a contractor for DCF since the agency privatized foster care 20 years ago.
Janis Friesen, spokeswoman for the other current contractor, St. Francis, said it won’t be releasing any information about its proposals before submitting them to DCF, citing the competitive nature of the bidding process.
“We have a long history of serving the State and its children and families, and we hope to continue doing that wherever possible,” she said in an email.
One “elephant in the room,” as Appelhanz described it, is whether more faith-based organizations will throw their hats into the ring for the state grants after the legislature passed a controversial bill allowing adoption and foster care subcontractors to turn away families who don’t fit with their religious beliefs.
DCF Secretary Gina Meier-Hummel and Gov. Jeff Colyer said the new law would keep religious providers in Kansas and attract additional providers not yet operating in the state.
Opponents of the religious exemption questioned its timing, as it came up for debate in the same year DCF’s child welfare contracts were expiring.
“I do have concerns about the timing of this [bill], that it may impact which providers receive consideration for contracts,” Joni Hiatt, director of the advocacy organization Foster Adopt Connect in Kansas, said ahead of the final vote on the measure last month.
DCF’s new request for child welfare proposals specifically requires that grantees serve everyone referred for services, regardless of “race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin or ancestry.”
DCF said it will also be soliciting bids for a single electronic system to match kids with foster homes and store records for youth in care statewide.
Currently, each provider has its own system, making it difficult for the state to have accurate data on where there are available beds.
Hiatt with Foster Adopt Connect called the plans for a central placement system a “huge step forward,” saying in an email that it will, “remove the financial incentive for the agencies to only place children in their own licensed homes for monetary reasons.”
Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox.
Two drivers were seriously injured in a crash Friday afternoon in Country Club.
