CHESTERFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A former Chesterfield pediatric clinic administrator has been sentenced to five years’ probation.
York -photo courtesy St. Louis Post-Dispatch
44-year-old Becky Ann York was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to receiving stolen property and fraudulent use of a credit device.
York was the office administrator for the St. Louis Pediatric Associates. Prosecutors said that between January 2015 and November 2016, she made more than $100,000 in purchases on a credit card she opened in the company’s name and used money from the clinic’s checking account to pay for those purchases.
Prosecutors also said she was paid more than $14,000 by canceling withholdings from her paychecks while the clinic covered her health insurance premiums.
Prosecutors say she has reimbursed the clinic $55,000 and must pay back the rest over five years..
Umm…scratch that…the record at St. Joseph and current temperature is 100 degrees this hour!! this also make it the 3rd warmest May day for St Joseph all time.
St. Joseph Transit will start running a new route on Saturdays beginning June 2nd.
The addition of the new #21 South route will double the frequency of bus service to the south side of the city on Saturdays.
The current Saturday service includes Routes #11 through #18 leaving the downtown transit station every two hours on the odd hours, providing outbound bus service for the entire city every other hour (See Map 1 below). Routes #19 East and #20 leave downtown every two hours on the even hours (See Map 2 below).
Beginning on June 2nd, Routes #11 through #18 will stay the same. Routes #19, #20 and the new #21 route will leave downtown on the even hours (See Map 3 below).
According to a press release, #21 South is a combination of the three routes: #16 Industrial Park, #17 Stockyards and #18 King Hill routes. It connect numerous residential areas with the stockyards, south Walmart and downtown. At the downtown transit station, it connects with the #19 East and #20 North routes which go to the mall, the hospital, grocery stores and more.
The new service is made possible with a federal grant that supports improving transportation options for seniors and people with disabilities. Funding for one year has been secured and requires no additional local match from the city.
More information and schedules are available on the transit website stjoetransit.info or by calling (816) 233-6700.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sam Brownback appears relaxed, looser and more convivial as he settles into his ambassador’s job, miles both geographically and emotionally from where he was during his final, difficult months as Kansas’ governor.
Brownback during a television interview with Mike Huckabee earlier this month
When Brownback left the governor’s office in January, the two-term conservative Republican left behind low approval ratings, ire from fellow Republicans over the state’s fiscal problems and an order from the Kansas Supreme Court to increase spending on public schools.
Five months later, a visibly relaxed Brownback was back in his element. He was making jokey sports analogies, ribbing former aide and U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, boasting about his anti-abortion record in Kansas and asking the faithful for their prayers.
He spoke at the recent National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., his new home. As soon as he’d been introduced in his new role as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, he wasted no time in drawing laughter from the audience.
“She forgot to mention my favorite title, though: Grandpa!” he said. “We have three grandchildren; five children, we’re expecting 25 grandchildren and my favorite child will be whoever has the most grandchildren.”
He said in an interview after the speech that he hasn’t been following political developments in Kansas very closely. That includes the governor’s race, where Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer, his former lieutenant governor, is in tough contest to keep the office.
Brownback said his wife had moved to Washington to be with him. That’s a change from when he served 16 years in Congress before being elected governor in 2010 and he commuted between Washington and Kansas. The couple doesn’t return to Kansas a lot, he said.
“I hear from friends,” Brownback said, “but I’m focused here.”
Brownback’s new job has sent him all over the world.
He’s been to Turkey and Bangladesh and is headed to Nigeria soon, documenting religious persecution for the State Department. He recently had lunch with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and his new boss, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to discuss religious freedom with the president of Uzbekistan.
And the State Department will soon release an annual report on religious freedom around the world, produced by Brownback’s office.
Brownback, a Catholic known for his strong faith, said he loves his new job as ambassador for religious freedom.
“It is the protection of the pure, noble beautiful,” he said in his speech. “It is why we need your prayers because religious freedom is under attack all over the world.”
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missourians who are moving outdoors as the weather should keep their eyes open for snakes.
Sam Stewart, a naturalist with the Runge Nature Center in Jefferson City, says people may believe they are seeing more snakes this year but that’s not necessarily true.
Stewart says because of the long winter and a short spring, snakes are emerging from hibernation all at once, rather than over several weeks as they normally would.
KRCG-TV reports there are 49 species and sub-species of snakes in Missouri and only six are venomous. The most common is the copperhead.
Stewart says the best thing to do if you see a snake is to back up slowly. He says most animals, including snakes, will bite only if they are harassed.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Children and Families is monitoring a foster care contractor that has kept children in offices overnight due to a shortage of beds.
CREDIT FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
The department announced the added oversight of KVC Health Systems on Wednesday after hearing concerns.
A department email says it’s aware of the difficulty the state’s contractors have in children’s placement, “and we continue to work with them to minimize the time youth spend in offices.”
KVC spokeswoman Jenny Kutz says the contractor is working to place children in foster homes. She says no children have been kept in KVC offices since May 18.
Child welfare advocates and lawmakers have scrutinized the department for the past year after discovering the lack of beds and missing foster care children.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The ACLU of Missouri is suing the Independence School District on behalf of a senior banned from graduation for listing his high school for sale on Craigslist as a prank.
American Civil Liberties Union officials say that 18-year-old Kylan Scheele’s free speech rights were violated when he was suspended for three days and denied participation in Saturday’s graduation ceremony at the Truman High School.
The Kansas City Star reports the lawsuit was filed in federal court in Kansas City on Friday seeking an injunction allowing Scheele to attend his graduation ceremony.
The district declined to change its decision, saying in a statement the advertisement created a “substantial and material disruption” to the educational environment.
Scheele says the punishment did not meet the actions
Top Democrats in the Kansas House and Senate will request investigations into the use of no-bid state contracts, but the proposals will need the approval of some Republican lawmakers to advance.
The Kansas Department of Revenue used a no-bid process, called prior authorization, to award a multi-million dollar contract that outsourced some information technology services earlier this spring.
A Wichita Eagle story found the no-bid process had been used more than 1,000 times since 2011.
“This is about the public’s right to know how their money’s being spent, how their most confidential and private information is being protected and to ensure that state government runs the way it’s supposed to,” Ward said.
Democratic lawmakers are calling for an investigation into no-bid state contracts. Rep. Jim Ward- photo Kansas News Service
Another top Democrat, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, said he’ll request an audit of the contracting process. That proposal would need the approval of the Legislature’s audit committee, or at least the Republican chairman of the committee, if it’s deemed to be a small audit.
The probe would “see whether they’re, number one, legal, and number two, if they’re at all appropriate or ethical,” Hensley said.
A spokesperson for Republican Senate President Susan Wagle said she couldn’t be reached to comment on the proposals. Republican House Speaker Ron Ryckman’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Revenue Secretary Sam Williams defended the process this week in a newspaper column, saying it made sense to use a no-bid contract to ink a deal with software provider CGI because the agency already had a relationship with the company.
“Starting from scratch and building a completely new system would have cost taxpayers significantly more,” Williams said.
He said the Eagle story found more than 1,000 instances of no-bid contracts being used, but open-bid contracts were used almost 6,000 times.
Williams said the agency had followed all applicable rules when using the no-bid process.
“Prior authorization is a legitimate state procurement process defined in statute for this very type of circumstance,” Williams said.
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for KPR a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.
PETTIS COUNTY — One person died in an accident just before 6p.m. Friday in Pettis County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Dodge Ram driven by Tammy M. Garrett-Butler, 49, Excelsior Springs, was southbound on U.S. 65 just north of Violet Road.
The driver overcorrected while changing lanes and the pickup started to skid. The pickup traveled off the road, impacted a ditch, went airborne and came to rest on its top.
A passenger in the pickup David A. Butler, 53, was transported to Bothwell Hospital where he died. The driver was not injured. Both were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.
