ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Work to replace the southbound bridge deck on Interstate 29 over the Nodaway River continues.
On Monday, April 2nd, contractors from Emery Sapp and Sons, working with the Missouri Department of Transportation, plan to begin construction of crossover lanes in the median just north and south of the bridge, located between mile markers 66 and 67. During crossover construction, which is planned to continue through April 13, one lane in each direction of I-29 will be closed.
The crossover lanes are necessary, as traffic will be moved head to head in the northbound lanes while the contractors replace the old bridge deck in the southbound lanes. This allows contractors to safely complete their work without closing the road and detouring southbound traffic several miles around the project. The traffic pattern switch is planned for mid-April immediately after crossover construction is complete and will continue to the end of August.
All schedules are weather dependent and subject to change.
The Nodaway River Bridge was built at the border of Holt and Andrew counties in 1966. For perspective on the age of the bridge, that same year “Batman” and “Star Trek” debuted on television, a NASA spacecraft orbited the moon for the first time, Pampers created the first disposable diaper, miniskirts were in fashion, and Ronald Reagan began his political career in California.
A lot has changed since then, including the amount of cars on the bridge. Today more than 6,000 cars and trucks make their way across the span each day, adding to the wear and tear on the bridge’s surface, also known as the bridge deck.
For more information about this and other MoDOT projects, call 1-888-ASK-MODOT (888-275-6636) or visit modot.org/northwest and view the online Traveler Information Map. In addition, MoDOT provides updated information on Twitter @MoDOTNorthwest and Facebook.
LADUE, Mo. (AP) – A 79-year-old man accused of fatally stabbing his wife has been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial in the case.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Robert Britt was found incompetent Wednesday to stand trial on second-degree murder for the July 3 death of 76-year-old Georgia Britt at the couple’s home in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue. They had been married for 54 years.
St. Louis County prosecuting attorney spokesman Ed Magee says Britt will be transferred to the custody of the Missouri Department of Mental Health and will be re-evaluated after six-months.
Police say Britt told his brother and officers that he had stabbed his wife in the neck.
Georgia Britt was a retired anthropology and archaeology professor. Robert Britt was a lawyer and former special assistant county counselor.
Northwest Missouri State University’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts will present the musical version of Footloose next week.
Dr. Brian Lanier with Northwest is the musical director and conductor of the production which is based on the hit movie from 1984.
Lanier said Footloose tells the the story of Ren, who, with his mother, moves from Chicago to a small farming town where there’s a ban on dancing that was instituted by the local preacher.
“What we find out in the story is that everyone… (is) dealing with issues in their lives, kind of like all of us are today, and I think that’s one of the things that makes this story so relevant,” Lanier said. “What we see through the exposure of the story is how these people are extraordinary in that they are ordinary but everyone is coping with some issue. Through the story itself and through the music and through the acting, we find people that develop more love and a sense of forgiveness and for one another and for the past and basically forgiving themselves.”
Lanier said there will, of course, be dancing. The Northwest production is choreographed by Marla Heeler with the Dance Arts Center in St. Joseph.
Footloose will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on April 5th, 6th and 7th at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts on the Northwest Campus.
Tickets may be purchased at the cashiering office, located on the first floor of the Administration Building on the Northwest Campus. Tickets can also be purchase at the door beginning one hour before the show. For more information, click here.
SYRACUSE, Kan. (AP) — Immigrants working on a remote Kansas ranch toil long days in a type of servitude to work off loans from the company for the cost of smuggling them into the country, according to five people who worked there.
There are no holidays, health insurance benefits or overtime pay at Fullmer Cattle Co., which raises calves for dairies in four states. The immigrants must buy their own safety gear such as goggles.
Google satellite image of the Cattle Company property
One worker spent eight months cleaning out calf pens, laying down cement and doing other construction work. Esteban Cornejo, a Mexican citizen who is in the U.S. illegally, left Kansas in November after paying off debt, which he figures was nearly $7,000.
The pay stub Cornejo shared with The Associated Press shows he worked 182.5 hours at $10 an hour over two weeks — an average of 15 hours a day with Sundays off. His pay was $1,828.34 before taxes. Also deducted was a $1,300 “cash advance repayment” that he said was a company loan for bringing him into the country.
His take-home pay was $207.46, the pay stub shows, or just over $1 an hour working at Fullmer Auto Co. Texas LLC, which does business as Fullmer Cattle.
“It is like slavery what they do to those poor people,” said Rachel Tovar, another former worker who spoke to The Associated Press.
Tovar said she was interviewed recently by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, who asked about the company’s Kansas employment practices, but ICE declined to say if it is investigating.
Dean Ryan, the company’s attorney, said in an email that the allegations “are simply not true.”
“There was no smuggler’s fee and has never been,” Ryan wrote, adding that there are “plenty of people willing to work in western Kansas without having to ‘import’ them.”
Ryan said company policy is to give pay advances to workers who have no credit. He said those loans are made so employees can purchase a vehicle or put a down payment on a home.
President Donald Trump’s administration has cracked down on immigrants living in the country illegally. But it has said less about the companies that employ them, let alone a company accused of using smugglers to bring workers to the United States.
The plight of the Kansas workers also highlights the exploitation that immigrants face when a company forces them to pay off debt with work, a practice called “debt peonage.”
Under federal law, employers do not have to pay overtime to agricultural workers. Erik Nicholson, national vice president for the United Farm Workers union, said it is not unusual for employers to recruit immigrant farmworkers. Some employers use kickback schemes, although deducting from paychecks is “pretty brazen.”
Arturo Tovar is Rachel’s husband and a Mexican citizen who lived illegally in the U.S. and was a Fullmer manager for 11 years. He said the smuggling process worked like this: When the company needed workers, Arturo asked employees if they knew someone who wanted to work in the United States. The company gave him the phone number of the “coyote,” or smuggler, in Piedras Niegras, Mexico, to make the arrangements.
The company would give Arturo Tovar a check, which he would cash. A partial payment was made to the smuggler upfront and the rest when the immigrant reached San Antonio or Houston, where the immigrant would be picked up. If law enforcement asked questions about the cash, the employee was instructed to say it was for used cars the company bought at Texas auctions.
Rachel Tovar, a U.S.-born citizen, said that once the loan to bring an immigrant into the country was almost paid, the company often sold used vehicles to employees in what she believes was an effort to keep them in debt.
Arturo Tovar voluntarily left the country in lieu of deportation after pleading guilty last year to misdemeanor theft stemming from what the couple says was a false company accusation after he was hurt on the job. The company contends the Tovars have an agenda and lack credibility.
But another former employee told AP that Fullmer also loaned him money for the coyote to smuggle someone. AP is not naming the ex-worker out of concern for that person’s safety.
A fifth ex-worker confirmed the general accounts of those who allowed their names to be used but asked for anonymity because that person also has safety concerns.
Fullmer Cattle’s calf-feeding operation is outside of Syracuse, a farming community of 1,800 about 16 miles from the Colorado border. Former workers say some employees live in company-owned trailers at the ranch or a nearby property, for which the company deducts rent.
The company says it raises tens of thousands of Holstein calves for 18 dairies from Texas, Kansas, Colorado and South Dakota. Newborn calves are taken away from milk cows and sent to Fullmer to be bottle-raised and weaned. The heifers are sent back as milk cow replacements, while the bulls are sent to feedlots to be fattened for slaughter. Among the benefits Fullmer Cattle touts to customers on its website is “lower labor costs.”
The Kansas ranch offered owner Que Fullmer a fresh start following a 1998 immigration raid at his Chino, California, ranch where authorities found workers in what a California labor official described as “economic slavery.” The Kansas ranch also offered Fullmer a chance to rebuild after bankruptcies cost him the bulk of his operations in Muleshoe, Texas.
Fullmer pleaded guilty in 1999 in California federal court to a felony count of harboring and concealing immigrants in the country illegally. He was sentenced to six months of home detention, a $10,000 fine and ordered to perform 500 hours of community service, court records show.
In December, he was charged with illegally casting election ballots in both Colorado and Kansas in 2016. The registered Republican is accused of voting more than once and other violations. The case is pending in Kansas.
As a result of Fullmer’s past immigration-related conviction, the lawyer for the company said in an email that it takes “extra care” not to hire workers who are in the country illegally.
One of the biggest fundraisers of the year for the Friends of the St. Joseph Animal Shelter is coming up next weekend.
Whitney Zoghby with the Friends of the Animal Shelter said runners and walkers and their dogs are invited to the event.
“I’d say a majority of the people that participate are walkers and they bring their dog along with them or multiple dogs with them so it’s a lot of fun because, sort of like 101 Dalmatians, where you see the owner and the dog they bring along, the personalities, all the different breeds and sizes,” Zoghby said. “Everybody walks or runs from the ice arena area all the way up to Bartlett Park and then back down along the sidewalk.”
Zoghby said the Run/Walk for the Paws 5K usually raises about $15,000 and this year’s funds will be going toward the Wags to Wishes Capital Campaign.
“Friends of the Shelter is currently fundraising to purchase and renovate a building that we’re going to be putting the St. Joseph Animal Shelter. It’s 5909 Corporate Drive… and it’s just a great building that we’re really excited about the potential for,” Zoghby said. “It’s much larger than our current shelter with over two acres of space, so lots of room to expand and make it exactly what our community needs and our shelter animals deserve.”
The Run/Walk for the Paws 5K will start at 9 a.m. on April 7th, in the parking lot across from Bode Ice Arena.
Registration is available online through April 4th or in-person registration is available an hour before the race.
For more details about race day activities, go to the Run/Walk for the Paws Facebook page.
GEARY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an attempted murder and searching for three suspects.
Earlier, Police identified Jeremy Garza as a suspect. He has been questioned and is no longer a suspect. Police did release a photograph of an unidentified suspect.
Cody Breedern-Photo JCPDFabre-photo JCPD
Just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday, police responded to report of a gunshot at a motel in the 1900 Block of Lacy Drive in Junction City, according to a media release.
Police found Trenton Penn, 19, Minneapolis, Kansas with a gunshot wound. He was flown to a Topeka hospital for treatment.
An investigation revealed the shooting occurred during a fight at the motel room, according to the release.
Jeremy Breeden- photo JCPD
Police arrested 19-year-old Morgan Fabre of Manhattan on requested charges of conspiracy to commit pre-meditated first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated battery, aggravated assault and criminal threat. She is being held without bond.
Police are searching for three suspects who should be considered armed and dangerous. Cody Breeden, 24; Jeremy Breeden, 28; and and the unidentified suspect are all from Abilene, according to police.
photo JC PD
Anyone with information is asked to contact Junction City Police or a web tip at GearyCrimeStoppers.com
EMPORIA — An Emporia State University professor has been placed on administrative leave after a campus newspaper reported about the findings of a sexual harassment investigation.
University President Allison Garrett sent an email Wednesday to students, faculty and staff, saying that psychology professor Dr. Brian Schrader was the subject of an investigation following a case of “significant community interest.” The letter provided no details.
Dr. Brian Schrader -photo courtesy Emporia State University
The student newspaper, The Bulletin, reported in February that a student reported that the professor tried to kiss her in May 2017 after taking her into a private room.
The student provided the paper more than 150 pages of correspondence with administrative officials and official documents. The final summary of the investigation said there was a “preponderance of evidence” that the professor violated the university’s sexual conduct policy.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – About 300 Missouri seniors and people with disabilities have lost in-home care services following a budget cut last year.
Department of Health and Senior Services spokeswoman Sara O’Connor in a Friday email said 303 people have been cut from those services. She says another roughly 950 have either died, moved, moved to a nursing home or no longer need services.
Funding cuts last year triggered more stringent eligibility requirements for aid for the elderly and disabled. Republican Gov. Eric Greitens vetoed a bill that would have prevented cuts, and lawmakers have not yet agreed on another funding source.
According to O’Connor about 3,500 who had been at risk of losing services still are getting in-home care, and another 2,700 people have not yet had their eligibility reassessed.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An independent reviewer has backed the validity of a study that found improving Kansas’ public schools could cost an additional $2 billion a year.
Jesse Levin, a principal researcher at the American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C., told a joint meeting of the House and Senate K-12 budget committees Thursday that the study conducted by Texas A&M University professor Lori Taylor and Jason Willis, director at the San Francisco-based nonprofit education research agency WestEd, was “fairly cutting-edge and done very, very well.”
Lawmakers hired Levin to conduct a peer review of the study, which found that Kansas would need to spend an additional $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion a year on education to boost its high school graduation rate to 95 percent and raise significant numbers of students up to grade level or college readiness on statewide reading and math tests.
Legislators are facing a Kansas Supreme Court mandate to increase spending on public schools. When the results of the study were released earlier this month, they sent shockwaves through the Statehouse, especially among conservatives who quickly dismissed the findings.
Levin said he initially was troubled that Taylor and Willis recommended an increase that was vastly higher than that of a study done in 2006 amid another school finance lawsuit. At that time, the Legislative Division of Post Audit, or LPA, found the state needed to add roughly $399 million in new spending.
However, Levin said the LPA study was based on the cost of providing services that schools are legally required to provide, while the Taylor study looked at the cost of achieving certain educational outcomes like raising the graduation rate and improving test scores. He also said that he believes the LPA study recommended less than it should have, but that both studies indicate the state needs to allocate significantly more money to public education.
On Wednesday, the night before Levin’s review was released, the House K-12 Education Budget Committee passed out a new funding plan that would phase in only about $522 million in additional money for schools over the next five years. Lawmakers are under a deadline to pass a new funding plan before their scheduled adjournment next week for a break. That’s because the Kansas Supreme Court has said the state must file briefs with the court no later than April 30, detailing what lawmakers did to pass a funding plan that will meet constitutional muster.
After briefing lawmakers, Levin told reporters that he thinks the court should take the new study into account when it next reviews the case.
“It seems like a solid study to me after reviewing it,” he said.
The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of Greater St. Joseph are joining together to start a visioning process.
According to a press release, the two are partnering to lead the community, business and non-profits through the process to determine what residents want St. Joseph’s future to look like and what steps need to be taken to achieve that future.
President and CEO of the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce Patt Lilly said the Chamber and United Way had an initial meeting this week to begin “foresight planning.”
“It’s really a planning process that focuses on what the future looks like. If you take data and the trends that are supported by the data, what would those trends tell you if certain things happen over the next 20 years in St. Joseph.” Lilly said. “I think, for us in St. Joseph, it’s really a matter of saying, ‘How do we take our community to that next level?’ How do we become the kind of place that people want to move to whether it’s to live here, to work here, whatever the case may be. How do we become that community that, I think, most of us believe we can be but we just simply haven’t put forward a plan that brings us all together as various entities and as a community to work toward that future.”
Lilly said the process will last through the next several months and will be lead by Rebecca Ryan, a nationally recognized economist and futurist with Next Generation Consulting.
“I’m excited about the opportunity because, at the end of the day, we’re salesmen at the Chamber. From an economic development standpoint, we’re trying to sell the community, not only to the companies that are here… but also new companies that may be looking at us, why do they want to invest here, why do they want to create jobs here. So in that context, we have to be the kind of community where people want to live,” Lilly said. “What we will come out with is not necessarily a shopping list, if you will… but a very concrete vision for the future and the things that need to occur to get us to that future over the next 20 years, and that will take the resources of the entire community.”
The Chamber and United Way held an initial meeting this week and the plan is to hold many other small group meetings. Additional public input is planned throughout the spring and summer.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Work to replace the southbound bridge deck on Interstate 29 over the Nodaway River continues.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – About 300 Missouri seniors and people with disabilities have lost in-home care services following a budget cut last year.
