KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — General Motors says it will build a new vehicle at its plant in Kansas City, Kansas.
The General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Susan McSpadden for Chevrolet)
The company said Monday it will build the Cadillac XT4 crossover sport utility vehicle at its Fairfax Assembly & Stamping Plant.
GM spokeswoman Mary Padilla says the announcement means the plant will keep about 500 jobs. The assembly plant currently employs 2,235, including about 2,000 hourly workers, making the Chevy Malibu.
The company is spending $265 million to prepare to manufacture the vehicle.
Fairfax lost its third shift last fall after sales of the Malibu slumped. It had employed about 3,000 with the three shifts.
Best of Show. Chandeh by Derek Dillard of Park Hill South High School. Photo courtesy Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art.
The Regional High School Art Exhibition opened over the weekend at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art with artwork on display from high schools in Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas.
Artworks are divided into nine categories based on media and/or technique. According to a press release, after a panel jury selection, First, Second, and Third Place, plus Honorable Mentions were awarded in each category. Over 170 artworks from 20 schools are displayed in the exhibit. Artists, their families and the general public were on hand as awards were presented.
The exhibit runs through March 18th at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art at 2818 Frederick Ave. in St. Joseph.
The following is the list of winners by category:
Category I: PAINTING
1st Place: Derek Dillard, Chandeh, Park Hill South High School
2nd Place: Bailee Belding, Crystal Cavern, Savannah High School
3rd Place(tie): Lauren Dalton, Self-Portrait, Gallatin RV High School
3rd Place(tie): Parker Duran, Self-Portrait, Park Hill High School
Honorable Mention: Allison Stanton, Crab, Savannah High School
Category II: DRAWING MONOCHROMATIC
1st Place (tie): Megan Busby, Suffrage, East Buchanan High School
1st Place (tie): Hannah Jennings, Kitchen Prep, Lathrop High School
2nd Place (tie): Paige Harberts, Water Self-Portrait, Park Hill High School
2nd Place (tie): Nicole Bowman, Fractured Self-Portrait, Plattsburg High School
3rd Place: Shayna Strahm, Untitled, Sabetha High School
Honorable Mention: Jonathan Whorten, Mt. Rushmore, Maur Hill Mount Academy
Honorable Mention: Sophia Martin, Water Self-Portrait, Park Hill High School
Category III: DRAWING MULTI-COLOR
1st Place: Mavis Ding, Self- Portrait, Maur Hill Mount Academy
2nd Place: Katy Young, Strelitzia & Chirithy, Central High School
3rd Place: Seth Dunfield, The Understandably Beautiful Death of…., Park Hill South High School
Honorable Mention: Maggie Beckett, Hide and Seek, Lathrop High School
Category IV: PRINTMAKING
1st Place: Sista Cisneros, Exotic, Riverside High School
2nd Place: Jack Caudle, The Orchestra, Maur Hill Mount Academy
3rd Place: Grace Pietsch, Encounter, Maur Hill Mount Academy
Honorable Mention: Libby McFerrin, City Views, Maur Hill Mount Academy
Category V: PHOTOGRAPHY
1st Place: Shane McCullough, Vine Ladies Dancing, Park Hill South High School
2nd Place: Casey Elias, Lost in the Moment, Maur Hill Mount Academy
3rd Place: Jai Gaddie, Industrial Tidings, Lafayette High School
Honorable Mention: Shar Whitten, David, Lafayette High School
Category VI: 2-D MIXED MEDIA
1st Place (tie): Macy Ricklefs, Love in the Dark, Riverside High School
1st Place(tie): Kenzie Meyer, Untitled, Sabetha High School
2nd Place (tie): Chey Fugua, Joy, Lathrop High School
2nd Place (tie): Cole Peterson, Mask Commotion, Savannah High School
3rd Place (tie): Rowan Wilson, Plugged In, Park Hill South High School
3rd Place(tie): Brittany Grable, Me and My Beau, Riverside High School
Honorable Mention: Mana Nishioka, Self-Portrait, Benton High School
Honorable Mention: Parker Duran, Self-Portrait, Park Hill High School
Honorable Mention: Rileigh Veale, Sugar Skull Inspired, Savannah High School
Category VII: CERAMICS
1st Place (tie): Kate Eischens, Mother Earth, Park Hill South High School
1st Place (tie): Kaitlyn Fane, Willy, Park Hill High School
2nd Place: Jessica Huntley, Leaf Pot, Park Hill South High School
3rd Place: Jillian Garrett, Sgraffito Vessel, Park Hill South High School
Honorable Mention: Sabrina Lane, Teapot, Park Hill High School
Category VIII: THREE-DIMENSIONAL
1st Place: Nathan Richter, Harambe, Riverside High School
2nd Place: Sadie Bembrick, Spiky, Riverside High School
3rd Place: Peyton Stith, Knowledge is Beautiful, Trenton Senior High School
Honorable Mention: Kallie Hawkins, Tyranny, Riverside High School
Category IX: ALTERNATIVE
1st Place: Audrey Cline, Primp and Prime, Park Hill South High School
2nd Place: Lilly Vertin, Perfidious Mind, Riverside High School
3rd Place: Ashley Bolek, Kansas City Skyline, Park Hill High School
Honorable Mention: Madeline Mueller, A.C., Park Hill South High School
Honorable Mention: Kaitlyn Barnett, Duality, Park Hill High School
Honorable Mention: Mary Ruth Nauman, Untitled, Union Star R2 High School
REPUBLIC, Mo. (AP) – Police have arrested a 13-year-old Missouri boy accused of threatening to shoot up a school with an AK-47 in a video posted on social media.
The Springfield News-Leader reports that police in Republic say the boy was taken to a juvenile detention center early Sunday on suspicion of making a terrorist threat.
The Republic Police Department released a statement saying police seized guns and other evidence from the juvenile’s home. Police say the investigation is ongoing.
The boy’s arrest came four days after a shooting at a Florida high school left 17 people dead.
Police say the threatening video was originally sent to another person Friday night but wasn’t reported to authorities until Saturday evening.
The department stressed the importance of “immediately” reporting threats so law enforcement can quickly investigate.
Since its inception over a decade ago, the Department of Homeland Security has had authority over the $1.25 billion National Bio and Agro-defense Facility, or NBAF, under construction on the campus of Kansas State University.
Diseases that pose a threat to livestock will be studied at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility under construction in Manhattan, Kan. HARVEST PUBLIC MEDIA
The 2019 federal budget released this week proposes transferring authority over the facility to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The transfer wouldn’t happen until the facility operational, scheduled for 2022. But officials say the USDA will work closely with DHS long before the lab opens.
“USDA would begin (staffing) up the operations of NBAF by learning how to operate the facility during the commissioning process, purchasing equipment and hiring employees,” DHS spokesman John Verrico said in an email.
NBAF is to replace the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center in the Long Island Sound. For over half a century, the lab was operated by USDA for the study of foreign animal diseases. It was the only place in the country with a large-animal bio-containment facility capable of studying live foot-and-mouth disease virus, which is highly contagious among cattle and sheep. The labs at NBAF will expand research on foot-and-mouth and have the capacity to do experiments on large numbers of livestock at one time.
In 2002, with the passage of the Homeland Security Act, authority of the lab at Plum Island was transferred to the newly- formed DHS.
Lawmakers and some officials are saying it’s too early to know the impact of placing the Plum Island’s replacement back under the oversight of USDA.
U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, whose district includes NBAF, sits on the House Agriculture and Science and Technology committees. He said he’s focused on making sure the facility is built on schedule and has adequate funding.
“While the proposal to move operational control to USDA is new, we have always expected USDA to play a major role in the research underway at the facility,” Marshall said in an email.
But one scientist who’s been intimately involved with biosecurity research says it’s a mistake to move the Level 4 bio-containment lab away from Homeland Security.
Daniel Gerstein oversaw operations at Plum Island while it was under DHS. He says Homeland Security and agriculture officials had a strong working relationship — even developing the first licensed foot-and-mouth vaccine.
But prioritizing homeland security in animal disease research may be more important today than ever, he says.
“If you had some sort of deliberate attack, you’d certainly want to have your Department of Homeland Security involved.”
Laura Ziegler is a community engagement reporter and producer with KUCR a partner in the Kansas News Service. Reach her via Twitter @laurazig
An opportunity for creative people, inventors and entrepreneurs to get together is coming up next weekend.
This will be the first year of the Big Muddy Mini Maker Faire in St. Joseph.
According to Maker Faire Chair Sandra Pettit Weber, maker faires are held all over the world.
“It’s really an exciting movement connecting ingenuity, creativeness and they’re billed as the greatest show on earth,” Weber said. “They’re part science fair, part county fair and part something new. If you think of the fair’s of the early 1800s where they spelled the old-fashioned version, ‘f-a-i-r-e,’ it’s kind of a blend of all of that, but it connects to the maker movement, really hitting people’s ingenuity, the ‘do-it-yourself-ers.’”
Weber said the Maker Faire will include crafters, educators, engineers, drones, computers, robotics and more. Approximately 30 makers will be at the Maker Faire including the Kansas Bee Company and the Missouri School of Blacksmithing. There will also be a human-powered hamster wheel that allows participants to make their own custom frozen beverage with no electricity.
The Big Muddy Mini Maker Faire will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 3rd, at the Restoration Natatorium at North Second and Francis Streets in St. Joseph.
The Maker Faire is also in need of volunteers. For more information, contact Sandra Pettit Weber at (816) 271- 7571 or click here.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – A lawsuit filed last week alleges a Kansas City school allowed a violent felon to pick up a 14-year-old student, who was taken to a motel and raped.
The now 21-year-old plaintiff is suing Kansas City Public Schools, a former Lincoln College Preparatory Academy principal and a school attendance secretary.
The Kansas City Star reports the girl was in class in May 2010 when Roy Andrews told the school her parents wanted him to pick her up.
The complaint says the school ignored its own policies and allowed the girl to leave with Andrews. He previously served time for murder and wasn’t authorized to pick up the girl.
He’s serving an 18 years sentence after being linked in 2012 to 1990 sexual assault of a woman and her 11-year-old daughter.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas top political officials are supporting a fund-raising effort by a leading anti-abortion group to amend the Kansas Constitution to make it clear the constitution doesn’t protect the right to abortion.
Gov. Jeff Colyer and five of six members of the Kansas congressional delegation, all Republicans, helped Kansans for Life kick off the $2 million fund-raising effort during the weekend.
The Kansas Supreme Court is currently considering whether the state constitution offers the same guarantee of a right to abortion found in the U.S. Constitution. Anti-abortion advocates are concerned the court will rule in favor of abortion rights, which is prompting the campaign for a separate constitutional amendment.
The only member of the delegation not supporting Saturday’s event was Sen. Jerry Moran, who was ill with the flu.
NIANGUA, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri man has been charged in the shooting death of a man whose body was found in the middle of a southwest Missouri road.
The Springfield News-Leader reports that Michael Wicker, of Mansfield, is jailed on $500,000 bond on charges of second-degree murder, armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse. No information is listed in online court records.
Court records say Wicker was taken into custody after claiming to have killed a man named Justin Waterson, who had moved into the residence where Wicker was staying without asking.
Wicker told authorities Waterson started hitting him when he told Waterson he wouldn’t take part in a plan to kill a woman. Wicker says the confrontation led to the deadly weekend shooting on a road in the town of Niangua.
Drizzle, and a few thunderstorms, spread north into Missouri and eastern Kansas overnight as the strong and gusty south wind brought moisture north from the Gulf. These same southerly winds will help lift temperatures well above normal for most of Missouri and eastern Kansas today, also helping to keep scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms percolating across the region today. But, tonight a cold front will settle into the far northwest corner of Missouri, which will result in accumulating freezing rain across far northwest Missouri and northern Kansas overnight into Tuesday. Accumulations of up to two tenths of an inch of ice will be possible in the advisory area tonight. Areas to the south of the advisory are expected to remain above freezing tonight. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Washington’s Birthday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Patchy fog between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Otherwise, cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 41 by 4 p.m. Southwest wind 8 to 15 mph becoming north northwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Tonight: Showers and thunderstorms. Low around 35. North wind 7 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Tuesday: Showers likely, mainly before 11 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 30 by 5 p.m. North northwest wind 11 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 16. North wind 13 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.
Wednesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 32. North wind 10 to 13 mph.
Wednesday Night: A chance of snow showers before 5 a.m, then a chance of snow showers and freezing rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 22. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Thursday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 38.
Thursday Night: A chance of rain showers before 9 p.m, then a chance of rain and snow showers between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., then a chance of snow showers after 10 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 30. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Friday: A chance of showers after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Friday Night: A chance of rain showers, mixing with snow after 11 p.m., then gradually ending. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 32. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Saturday: A chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 48. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
Saturday Night: Rain and snow showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 32. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Sunday: A chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 51. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
ODESSA, Mo. (AP) – An 80-year-old Missouri man who was convicted of abusing two young girls faces a possible life sentence.
The Missouri Attorney General’s office says Arthur Sanders, of Odessa, was convicted Feb. 8 of 11 counts of child molestation and sodomy for sexually abusing the girls while he was their after-school caretaker.
He was arrested after one of the girls went to a school counselor after five years of abuse.
During his trial, a previous victim said Sanders also abused her in the early 1980s but that she was encouraged by family to stay quiet.
