As of Christmas Eve, all 710 families that applied for assistance were helped through the Adopt-a-Family Christmas program.
According to AFL-CIO Executive Director Penny Adams, an additional 25 families that did not apply were also helped.
Each year, the program matches up needy families with donors, who supply Christmas gifts in a number of ways.
Adams said the agency will be closed to the public until January 3rd but their phones will be answered at (816) 364-1131.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A minister from Kansas City, Kansas, is soaring to the top of the gospel music charts after a chance encounter at a national worship event with a national gospel performer.
Bishop Cortez Vaughn is the founder and senior pastor of Faith City Church in Kansas City, Kansas. His song “You Deserve It” spent more than 20 weeks topping gospel music charts and caught the attention of gospel icons and choirs worldwide, the Kansas City Star reported.
The song’s popularity grew after Vaughn’s performance of it last year caught the attention of JJ Hairston, a national recording gospel artist. Hairston invited Vaugh to travel to Washington, D.C., to record the song. He and his accompanying choir decided not only to add “You Deserve It” to their upcoming album but to name the album itself after the song.
“I guess he knew he had something,” said Vaugh, who is listed as a “featured” performer on the single.
“You Deserve It” was rewarded earlier this month with a Grammy Award nomination for best gospel performance/song. The song also helped Vaughn land a record deal with Tyscot Records.
“No way I could have predicted this,” said Vaughn, 39. “I’m still in awe.”
Vaughn said he first wrote “You Deserve It” in 2014 during a worship experience at a North Carolina church. Fellow music ministers David Bloom of North Carolina and Demond Reed of Texas helped Vaughn write the song.
Vaughn said he’s working on his own recorded version of “You Deserve It” that will have a different twist to it from the single with Hairston.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – The following is a listing of general highway maintenance and construction work in the Northwest Missouri region planned for the week of Dec. 25 – 31 from the Missouri Department of Transportation. In addition to the work listed below, there may be pothole patching, shoulder work, bridge maintenance, brush cutting, guardrail repairs and other road work conducted throughout the region. Many of these will be moving operations and could include lane closures with delays. All scheduled maintenance and construction projects are subject to change.
MoDOT will halt temporary lane closures throughout the state to accommodate an increase in traffic due to the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays. Most temporary lane closures will be removed by noon on Friday, Dec. 22, and will resume Tuesday morning, Dec. 26. For the New Year’s Day holiday lane closures will be removed by noon on Friday, Dec. 29 and will resume Tuesday morning, Jan. 2. Some long-term lane and road closures may remain in place.
MoDOT reminds the public to stay alert, watch for road work, buckle up, slow down, and drive with extreme caution through work zones and in changing weather conditions.
For more information about a project, please contact MoDOT at 1-888-ASK-MoDOT (888-275-6636) or visit modot.org/northwest. You can also follow MoDOT’s Northwest Missouri District on Twitter @ModotNorthwest and on Facebook.
Atchison County
Buchanan County
Carroll County
Chariton County
Daviess County
Harrison County
Linn County
Livingston County
Mercer County
ST. LOUIS (AP) – A new proposal could tie 10 percent of currently dwindling state dollars to how well Missouri colleges produce graduates and keep costs down.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that performance funding has been around for several years but was only tied to new money for higher education. The funding method was moot this year when there was no new money to give out.
A 10 percent tie would mean that nearly $42 million could be on the line for the University of Missouri System.
The proposal is expected to come up for a Jan. 2 vote by the Coordinating Board for Higher Education. The board will also likely vote to ask the governor to fund higher education at the same level as this year.
By MOLLY HADFIELD
Topeka— You might think it would be hard to find a home for two old Sun Bears. When the Topeka Zoo and Conservation Center saw that they were available, it was a perfect fit for an empty habitat. A few days before Christmas, the two Sun Bears named HoHo and Cupcake arrived at their new home at the Topeka Zoo.
Both the male bear HoHo and the female bear Cupcake are 28 years old and are an unrelated breeding pair that have lived together since they were about two years old. Of the two, HoHo has the more extroverted personality and is the more adventurous when it comes to climbing.
HoHo and Cupcake are going to live in the former gorilla habitat at the zoo. “The space will be perfect for the two bears,” said Zoo Director Brendan Wiley. “The staff that work in that space are well accustomed to working with geriatric animals and we are all thrilled to welcome HoHo and Cupcake into our family.”
HoHo and Cupcake will begin a 30 day quarantine period today. The Topeka Zoo will post updates on its social media as the bears get accustomed to their new home. Due to the construction around the Discovering Apes building, it might be a few months before zoo guests are able to see the bears. When the time does come for their public debut, you can be sure that a party will be planned and of course Hostess will be on the guest list.
Sun Bears are the smallest species of bear. They have really long tongues and long claws that they use for foraging. They are native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The U.S. Attorney based in Kansas City says he will hire a new assistant U.S. attorney to help combat violent crime in the Kansas City area.
The office announced Friday that the new position is part of a federal program to hire 40 assistant U.S. attorneys in 27 districts to reduce violent crime.
The Western District of Missouri has been designated as a Public Safety Partnership Diagnostic Site to work with local law enforcement on public safety and violence reduction. Eight districts nationwide received the designation.
The partnership allows cities to consult with and receive training, technical assistance and resources from the Justice Department to improve local violence reduction efforts.
Kansas City, Mo. – Missouri birders are getting a winter treat. Snowy owls are being spotted in the state and throughout the Midwest. But the visit from this owl species from the Arctic is not good news for the birds, as likely a food shortage in their natural habitat has pushed them farther south than usual, experts say.
“This is an irruption likely tied to a drop in the lemming population in the Arctic this summer and fall,” said Mark Robbins, an ornithologist at the University of Kansas who also works with Audubon Christmas Bird Counts in Missouri.
The maps on eBird, a cooperative online effort by birders and researchers to track sightings for all species, shows several snowy owls have been seen across north Missouri and a few in central and southern Missouri. Snowy owls are among the largest owls and named for their white coloration. Adult males are mostly white. Females and younger owls can have black barring as well as white. Snowy owls can have wingspans topping four feet. Harry Potter’s owl was a snowy owl.
A male snowy owl arrived at the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary near the Mississippi River north of St. Louis on Nov. 9, said Ken Buchholz, director for the Audubon Center at Riverlands. A female appeared during the Thanksgiving holiday week. A snowy owl was spotted at Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge on the western side of the state in recent weeks.
Snowy owls last appeared in Missouri and Kansas in noticeable numbers during the winter of 2011-2012. The majority of those where age could be determined were young birds, according to a scientific paper on the irruption that Robbins helped compile. In the 2011-2012 irruption, experts found and examined some owls that died. Most owls examined were emaciated, suggesting they were having difficulty finding prey for food in unfamiliar habitat.
People are urged to minimize disturbance of the snowy owls, as they are already stressed due to food shortage in their normal winter habitat.
These tundra dwellers normally feed on lemmings, ptarmingan, and waterfowl. They especially rely on lemmings. When lemming populations are high, snowy owl populations rise. The owls move south when lemming populations crash. In Missouri, they prefer grasslands as habitat and may eat rodents, rabbits, squirrels, waterfowl, and other birds.
For information about owl sightings and birding, visit eBird at ebird.org.
To learn more about snowy owls and their visits to Missouri, click here.
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – The Missouri State Fire Marshal and local authorities in Independence are investigating after two people were found dead at the scene of a fire.
#IndepFire Brief Update – Civilian casualty found at scene of Pitcher Rd fire. State Fire Marshal en route. Fire cause and scene remain under investigation. Further information will be provided when available.
— City of Independence (@CityOfIndepMO) December 24, 2017
The blaze broke out Saturday evening in an unoccupied building in the Kansas City suburb. Firefighters found the bodies. Names of the victims have not been released.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
BY MADELINE FOX
Osawatomie State Hospital is again eligible for millions of dollars in federal Medicare payments after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recertified its acute care center.
The state psychiatric hospital lost its certification in December 2015 after the reported rape of an employee exposed security concerns and staffing shortages. A subsequent inspection in May 2017 revealed problems with sanitation, infection control and fire safety.
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, which oversees the state’s psychiatric hospitals, has been working to decrease staff vacancy levels at Osawatomie and Larned state hospitals in recent years. Osawatomie now has a 16.7 percent staff vacancy rate, down from as high as 32 percent.
“This is a big leap for us from where we started, and it’s really good news for all the hard work folks at Osawatomie did,” KDADS secretary Tim Keck said Tuesday.
Recertification of the Adair Acute Care Center, a 60-bed section of the hospital that serves patients who need a more intensive level of care, allows Osawatomie to bill for care provided to patients covered by Medicare. Those federal payments had averaged about $1 million per month.
“I’m incredibly pleased that the work to restore Osawatomie Hospital’s participation in the Medicare program has paid off so clearly,” Gov. Sam Brownback said in a Tuesday news release about the hospital’s recertification. “The determination and effort the staff put toward successful recertification shows the commitment level the State of Kansas has to vulnerable people who need help.”
Keck said KDADS still has more work to do on Osawatomie, including a push during the upcoming legislative session to privatize operations and build new facilities.
Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox.
The Friends of the St. Joseph Animal Shelter have been working to find a new location for the animal shelter and have a promising option under consideration.
St. Joseph City Manager Bruce Woody said a few years ago, it was brought up that a larger and better located new facility is needed. Woody said the Friends have spent a lot of time planning a new shelter and looking at locations to move from the current Stockyards Expressway location.
Woody said after a lot of looking, a location in Mitchell Woods Business Park is under consideration.
“Bayer owned a series of individual lots as well as larger properties, it was previously under operation including two buildings that they were using for production facilities,” Woody said. “They have since sold that property, so they put all of that property up for redevelopment as well as two existing buildings up for sale. They’ve priced it very attractively but it’s layout and format actually is very conducive to what we would need for an animal shelter.”
Woody said a resolution will go before the council asking if they support the location at 5909 Corporate Drive as the goal for the relocation of the animal shelter.
“If we get a majority support of council… it will make a pronouncement to the general public that the council supports that and that’s important for two reasons,” Woody said. “The Friends of the Animal Shelter is going to be doing some fundraising because they’re coming up with about a million and a half worth of the total project budget and to fundraise they need to be sure and show potential donors that they have the city’s support and city match money as well. On the city side, we’re proposing that the city’s match money be funded through the next Capital Improvements Program, the half cent sales tax.”
The resolution will go before the council on January 2nd.
