JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri agency is warning merchants and consumers that bottles from a central Missouri winery pose a risk of exploding.

The Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control said Thursday that the issue came to its attention during a routine inspection, when a wine bottle from Casa de Loco in Eldon exploded. The agency learned from retailers — all in Missouri — of additional explosions.

What’s causing the explosions is unclear but anyone possessing a bottle should put it somewhere to minimize damage.

A phone message left with Casa de Loco was not immediately returned.

Missouri health investigators also are looking into potential health and sanitation violations at the winery.

The wines are sold under six names: Applesauced, Bellini Gold, Coming in Hot, Kona Lover Port, OCD, and Peachy Thoughts.

CRAWFORD COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 12:30p.m. Thursday in Crawford County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Freightliner semi driven by Matthew D. Krechel, 35, St. Charles, was northbound on Highway 19 just south of the Highway 8 Junction.

The semi crossed the center line and struck a 2008 Buick Lacrosse driven by Hester Sanders, 77, Steelville.

Creve Coeur Air Evac Ambulance transported Sanders to Mercy Hospital where she died. Krechel was not injured.

Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.

BOWLING GREEN, Mo. (AP) — A man who has served 15 years in prison for the 2001 killing of a Missouri sports editor is challenging his imprisonment.

Charles Erickson pleaded guilty in 2004 in the death of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt. He told police he had “dream-like” memories of helping Ryan Ferguson rob Heitholt before he was killed.

Ferguson’s conviction and life sentence were vacated in November 2013.

The Daily Tribune reports attorneys for Erickson filed a petition this month in Pike County seeking his freedom. They argue Erickson’s confession and guilty plea don’t prevent him from seeking relief from the sentence.

The state argued that Erickson has repeatedly confessed to the crime both before and after his conviction.

There is no timetable for the judge to issue a ruling.

SRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Springfield man whose blood-alcohol level measured three times the legal limit after he hit a parked car has been charged an eighth time with driving while intoxicated.

A warrant was requested Tuesday for 56-year-old Steven Marrs, who was charged last week with DWI as a habitual offender. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

Prosecutors say he has been racking up DWI convictions since 1983. The latest charge was filed after a witness reported seeing Marrs drive over several curbs before hitting the parked car as he attempted to park his sport utility vehicle in August at an apartment complex.

Prosecutors say that because Marrs is considered a “prior and persistent felony offender,” he faces 10 years to life in prison.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Worlds of Fun amusement park banned nine people after fights last weekend involving crowds of young people.

More than five law enforcement agencies went to the park Saturday night after an off-duty Clay County sheriff’s deputy called for help.

Police estimated up to 300 teenagers were involved but Worlds of Fun officials have said fewer people were involved in the fights, while many others were bystanders.

Worlds of Fun spokesman Chris Foshee said the nine people banned from the park were minors.

No one was arrested but a citation was issued to a 17-year-old who is believed to be the instigator of the fights.

Foshee said the cause of the disturbance is unknown.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — While Gov. Mike Parson’s administration points to Missouri’s improving economy as a reason up to 70,000 people dropped off the state’s Medicaid rolls last year, advocates for recipients say problems with the new renewal system for applicants is causing part of the decline.

The new system adopted last spring by the Department of Social Services automatically renews a low rate of recipients and has problems accessing data, the advocates say. That contributed to an estimated 70,000 people dropping from the state’s Medicaid rolls last year, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported . In the first three months of this year, the department said more than 12,000 more people, including 9,500 additional children, no longer have Medicaid coverage.

 

Joel Ferber, director of advocacy for the Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, said that creates a worst-case scenario where recipients never receive a Medicaid application and then find out they’ve been dropped despite already reporting their income to the state.

“Every child that has needed our help has been eligible for Medicaid or CHIP,” Ferber said. “They only lost coverage because their parents were unable to get over the unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles.”

St. Louis University law professor Sidney Watson said the likely outcome of violating federal Medicaid regulations would be the state receiving a letter from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services instructing the state to fix the problem by a certain time.

“The intent behind those regulations was to assure that when information was available to the state, and it is available to the state, they just have to make the computer system work,” Watson said. “There are federal matching funds to create those computer systems to keep them up-to-date. It’s a matter of will.”

Missouri’s renewal program also funnels patients with no income through the manual renewal process even though they clearly qualify for Medicaid. The renewal system for several months was not programmed to allow individuals to consent to the state accessing the recipients’ federal income tax information.

The problems meant MoHealthNet had fewer ways to access patient income information, meaning it had less ability to automatically renew patients.

Department of Social Services said in a statement that the agency plans to build a new tracking system that integrates SNAP with Medicaid eligibility. It is also working with federal officials to find ways to automatically renew Medicaid eligibility reliably through federal data.

The agency said Missouri automatically renewed about 11 percent of Medicaid recipients in recent months. That state is among the bottom 10 states that automatically renew less than a quarter of Medicaid recipients, according to a nationwide report conducted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.