JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – A southwest Missouri woman whose son fell from a window has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in a felony child abuse case.
The Joplin Globe reports that 24-year-old Sarena Taylor pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree child endangerment. She’s also been assigned to a court treatment program as recommended in her plea agreement.
Court records show that investigators responded April 3 to a Joplin apartment, where two children were seen leaning out an open second-story window. An affidavit says investigators told Taylor to secure the window and not to leave her 3-year-old and 5-year-old unattended.
Police were called again two days later when the 3-year-old fell from the living room window and was left with scrapes and bruises. The affidavit says Taylor admitted she didn’t secure the window and left the children unattended.
With the St. Joseph School District still working on balancing the 2018-2019 budget, more decisions were made at Monday night’s Board of Education meeting.
One decision included approving a reallocation of preschool funds.
Board member Kappy Hodges said the decision had to do partly with an anticipated shortcoming in Title I funding from the federal government for next year.
“That would mean that we have to make do with less Title I money for the school district and we use it for, not just the K through 8 classes with schools and students that qualify for the Title 1 funding, but also for the preschools at this time,” Hodges said. “There have been some schools that have qualified now as Title I schools, so they need to be covered with services also. So we’re having to make the money that we have, which is likely going to be a little less, cover extra schools too and that puts us in a bad situation for trying to stretch it across everything. So administration has recommended that we pare back the preschool offerings.”
School District Superintendent Dr. Robert Newhart said the recommendation was to pare down to 13.
“Nobody is going to argue the importance of preschool if we can get it funded. Our primary responsibility is our K-8 programs, we’re actually going to be serving, now, a little over 900 more students than what we would with the preschool allocations at the K-8 level,” Newhart said. “But somewhere here along the line, the district and the community has got to decide how important is the preschool, we believe it is very important, but you have to have funding for it. It would have been a tune of approximately three-quarters of a million dollars to locally fund it to keep it as is.”
Hodges, was one of two who voted no.
“In my opinion, we should have gone ahead and tried to do it anyway and found space in some way,” Hodges said. “The benefits to educating the children, especially in a city where you have a very large population of people who qualify for free and reduced lunch and have that lower socioeconomic level, those kids frequently need a little extra help before they enter kindergarten. I totally understand the situation that the administration presented, I just really wanted to see that continue for the kids I thought would lose out.”
Hodges adds that the Title I funding hasn’t been fully determined yet, so there’s a possibility to add back in some preschools in the future.
Other decisions made Monday night included rearranging within the Parents as Teachers program. The Board also voted to cap funding for the program to save the district $100,000.
Pay-to-play is another item that is part of the budget discussions. According to Dr. Newhart, the district spends approximately $1 million a year on Missouri State High School Activities Association events and sports and fine arts.
“The idea is, to basically help support that, is to ask the families – the parents and the students – to help contribute to offset that cost and to what amount is what is being debated right now by the Board of Education,” Newhart said.
The Board tabled the pay-to-play decision at the meeting and Newhart said administration was asked to come back with additional supporting figures.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A man is suing a Wichita vaping shop after he says a spare battery for his e-cigarette exploded in his pants pocket.
Daniel Anderson filed a lawsuit Feb. 6 in Sedgwick County against Big E’s Vapor Shop.
The lawsuit alleges Anderson was carrying the lithium ion battery, his car keys and coins in his pants pocket in February 2016. The touching metal items caused a short to the outside of the battery, which then overheated and exploded.
The suit says Anderson had chemical and thermal burns to his left leg and hands from the explosion.
Anderson says the shop should’ve known the battery’s defect and failed to warn customers.
Big E’s owners said last week the company has seen the lawsuit but declined to comment.
Members of the bomb squad on the scene-photo courtesy KCTV
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – Independence police say a suspicious package found at an apartment complex was an improvised explosive device.
The package was found Monday evening at the Independence Ridge Apartment complex. It was made of consumer-grade fireworks and shrapnel.
Police spokesman John Syme says no one lived in the apartment where the device was located.
The department’s explosives unit removed and destroyed the device.
One apartment building was evacuated and residents of the surrounding apartment buildings were asked to stay inside while the device was removed. They returned to their apartments about five hours after the device was found.
A suspect is in custody after a bank robbery in Platte County Tuesday afternoon.
According to the Kansas City Division of the FBI, a robbery was reported around noon at the U.S. Bank at 400 West Frank St. in Edgerton.
Following a vehicle pursuit by area law enforcement, an individual matching the suspect’s description from the robbery was taken into custody within an hour of the robbery in the area of 33rd and Jackson in Kansas City. The suspect reportedly got out of the vehicle and following a short foot chase, was taken into custody.
Kansas schools already have the freedom to arm their teachers. Gov. Jeff Colyer says now bonuses for teachers who pack weapons might be in order.
Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer thinks bonuses to teachers who carry weapons might help prevent school shootings, but that it’s ultimately up to local districts. FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Yet the governor also said that local school districts should make the call, embracing those options that they think make the most sense to prevent school shootings.
“It’s not just a gun control issue,” Colyer said at an event in Washington, D.C., last week. “It’s not just a mental health issue. It’s not just the building itself. This is a multi-point situation.”
His comments came in the wake of the school shooting that left 17 dead in Parkland, Fla., early this month — and the debates that have followed.
In an interview with NPR on Monday, Colyer appeared to back legislation pending in Topeka that would lower the age for the concealed carry of a firearm to 18, down from 21.
“If you’re old enough to serve in the U.S. military,” he told NPR’s Ari Shapiro, “then I think having that Second Amendment right should not be denied to you.”
President Donald Trump has, for the moment, seemed to give a little on his hard-line stance against gun control.
He’s said his administration may unilaterally outlaw bump stocks that can make a semi-automatic rifle fire multiple rounds of ammunition almost like a fully automatic weapon. And Trump has suggested he may side against the National Rifle Association in raising the legal age for purchasing a rifle to 21, from the current level of 18.
The president has also talked about the possibility of arming teachers and other school workers to discourage, or more quickly subdue, potential school shooters.
Colyer said that bonuses for armed teachers might be a good idea for local districts to consider. School districts in Kansas already have the authority to arm their school faculties.
“This is not something that we have championed as a universally good idea,” said Mark Tallman, the associate executive director for advocacy and communications for the Kansas Association of School Boards. “We have recognized that the law allows it,” he said.
But districts have balked, in part because the companies that provide them liability insurance see too much risk.
EMC Insurance Companies covers most districts in the state. It has said that arming employees creates a “heightened liability.”
“One of the underwriting guidelines we follow for schools is that any onsite armed security should be provided by uniformed, qualified law enforcement officers,” the company said in an emailed statement.
The carrier said it won’t cover school districts where “non-security personnel” are allowed handguns.
“There certainly are issues of liability that I know our staff would encourage school districts to be very careful about,” said Tallman.
KASB has not heard of any school districts allowing its employees to be armed.
Stephan Bisaha is an education reporter for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @SteveBisaha.
FORSYTH, Mo. (AP) – A southwest Missouri man has agreed to a plea deal in the shooting death of his friend.
Nineteen-year-old Tristan Carr, of Forsyth, entered an Alford plea Monday to second-degree murder and armed criminal action charges in the October 2016 killing of 18-year-old Eric Summerfield. The plea means Carr admits no guilt but agrees prosecutors have evidence for a conviction. Carr initially had been charged with first-degree murder.
Carr offered conflicting accounts. Prosecutors said in a news release that Carr told the 911 dispatcher he accidentally shot Summerfield while playing with a gun. He told investigators he shot his friend out of fear because he was unable to tell who was approaching the door.
Sentencing is set for May 24. It will be capped at 20 years under the plea deal.
Mosaic Life Care announced it has received the Healthgrades 2018 America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award.
According to a press release, this places Mosaic Life Care at St. Joseph in the top 1% of more than 4,500 hospitals assessed nationwide, for its consistent, year-over- year clinical performance as measured by Healthgrades. Healthgrades is an online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. Mosaic Life Care is the only hospital in the state of Missouri that received the America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award.
“For years, we’ve been working on better processes, better culture, better leadership and, of course, a better approach to quality, which is why being honored as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals for 2018 is great news for Mosaic Life Care,” says Mark Laney, MD, CEO of Mosaic Life Care. “It’s even better news for our patients. It means they have received high quality, amazing care from a team of physicians, nurses and
caregivers who are committed to placing the needs of the patient first.”
Mosaic Life Care is also a recipient of the 2018 Cranial Neurosurgery Excellence Award™ as well as Five-Star Distinctions in Treatment of Heart Attack, Pacemaker Procedures, Hip Fracture Treatment, Spinal Fusion Surgery, Cranial Neurosurgery, Treatment of Pneumonia, Colorectal Surgeries, Treatment of Sepsis, Treatment of Pulmonary Embolism and Treatment of Respiratory Failure.
To learn more about how Healthgrades determines America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award™ recipients, visit healthgrades.com/quality.
Today’s forecast remains warm with increasing clouds and a chance for thunderstorms by this evening. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Mostly sunny, with a high near 67. Breezy, with a south wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph.
Tonight: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before midnight, then a chance of drizzle and thunderstorms between midnight and 3 a.m., then a chance of drizzle after 3 a.m. Cloudy, with a low around 42. South wind 5 to 13 mph becoming north northeast after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Wednesday: A chance of drizzle before noon, then a chance of showers after noon. Cloudy, with a high near 54. East northeast wind 5 to 8 mph becoming north in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Wednesday Night: A chance of showers before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 32. North northwest wind 9 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 49. North northwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 25.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 53.
Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 35.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 59.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 41.
Sunday: A chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 56. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Sunday Night: Rain and snow likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 36. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Monday: A chance of rain and snow. Partly sunny, with a high near 46. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
