The weather looks quiet today with highs in the low to mid 40s. However, this holiday weekend there will be a couple possible weather threats. The first will come on Friday morning when there will be the chance for a wintry mix in the form of freezing drizzle or light snow north of Interstate 70. By the afternoon, temperatures will warm above freezing with just drizzle or light rain possible. On Christmas, a very strong storm system will move through the area. Storms may be capable of damaging winds across eastern Kansas and extreme western Missouri. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Partly sunny, with a high near 44. West northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the afternoon.
Tonight: A chance of snow, mainly after 2 a.m. Cloudy, with a low around 32. Calm wind becoming south southeast 5 to 8 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Friday: Areas of drizzle, snow, freezing drizzle, and sleet before 10 a.m., then areas of drizzle, snow, and sleet between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., then areas of drizzle after 11 a.m. Cloudy, with a high near 39. South southeast wind 9 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 26. South southwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming calm after midnight.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 44. Calm wind becoming southeast 5 to 8 mph in the morning.
Saturday Night: Areas of drizzle before midnight, then a chance of showers after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 39. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Christmas Day: Showers likely. Cloudy, with a high near 60. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Sunday Night: A chance of showers before midnight. Partly cloudy, with a low around 31. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 37.
Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 19.
Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 37.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 26.
The grand prize Shop St. Joseph winning ticket number 0363520 has been claimed.
A check presentation will be at 9 a.m. at Sears in the East Hills Shopping Center.
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The Dec. 21 winning number for the Shop St. Joseph Holiday Program is:
0363520
The shopper with the winning ticket has 24 hours to come forward to claim the $10,000 prize. Shoppers are urged to keep their tickets because if the winner hasn’t come forward by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 22, another number will be announced. This process will continue at 5 p.m. until a winner comes forward with the correct ticket. Exclusions include Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.
“This is the first time in the history of our program that a winning ticket wasn’t brought forward on the first day,” said Natalie Redmond, Vice President of Membership for the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce. “This is why it’s so important to keep and check your tickets. You never know when someone else might miss their opportunity to win $10,000 because they didn’t keep their tickets.”
Merchants distributed more than 1.2 million tickets this year.
“It makes sense that not all of those tickets will be checked when the announcement is made,” Redmond said. “We have been fortunate in years past to always have been able to award the grand prize right away.”
The winner MUST call the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce at (816) 232-4461 during business hours or (816) 261-3610 after business hours to arrange a time to verify the ticket. He or she MUST come to the Chamber office at 3003 Frederick Ave. before 5 p.m.Thursday to claim the prize. The person with the winning ticket should come to the Chamber to have the ticket verified, not a member of the media. Media members cannot verify a winning ticket.
The winner must be 18 or older. Proof of age, Social Security number, home address and place of employment (if applicable) is required to claim the prize. Chamber of Commerce staff, Chamber officers and their immediate family members (dependents living at the same address) are not eligible to win the grand prize. Participating business owners, managers and employees are eligible to win, with the exception of tickets distributed through their own place of business (including other participating locations).
The winner will be responsible for any applicable taxes.
One winning number per each second-chance prize were also drawn. Those numbers will be announced after the grand prize ticket has been verified.
Two certified public accountants worked with Chamber staff to provide oversight of the program. Roughly 1.2 million tickets were distributed this year through the 110 participating merchants. This is up from 96 merchants in 2015.
This is the 10th year for the local holiday shopping program. The program’s goal is to keep holiday spending in the local economy, so sales tax collected goes back into helping St. Joseph and Buchanan County projects.
The AFL-CIO Community Service said Wednesday it still has 123 families or 449 individuals in need of help this Christmas through its Adopt-A-Family program.
“At this point, we have started calling the majority of these families and inviting them to shop in our gift room. Many of these remaining families are blended families. Families with younger kids, teens, adult children and senior parents all in the same household. These are always are most challenging to get adopted,” said Penny Adams, Ex. Dir with the AFL-CIO. “With the teens and adults we never seem to have enough items in our gift room. When we do not have a sufficient number of gifts available, we give the family Kmart gift cards. At least they can go shop and get a couple things for their family.”
Adams said right now, they are going out on a limb and giving out gift cards before they actually have the funds.
“If you can help with a monetary donation, that would be a true blessing. The gift cards are $50 each. Donations of any denomination would be gladly accepted,” she said. “You can drop your donations off at our office, 1203 North 6th. You can call us and we can accept your debit or credit card information by phone, 364-1131. You can go to our website and make a donation at helpmenow.org or you can mail us a check to 1203 North 6h. Whatever way works best for you.”
The agency’s goal is to provide for everyone who needs assistance during the holiday season.
“We can only reach this goal with your help,” Adams said. “You can be someone’s Christmas blessing this year. Through your willingness these last few families don’t have to feel abandoned and uncared for this Christmas season.”
A Kansas City man faces another felony charge after allegedly bolting from a police car on his way to the Platte County Jail. Cody R. Mitchell and his girlfriend were arrested after a massive manhunt Tuesday night.
Multiple law enforcement agencies took part in the effort to recapture the suspect. The Platte County Sheriff’s Office says Cody R. Mitchell, 25, escaped from a police car while he was being transported by the Weatherby Lake Police Department to the Platte County Detention Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
After a three and a half hour search, Mr. Mitchell was located in a vehicle with his girlfriend, Kathryn B. Bruce-Reaves. After a brief low speed pursuit in the area of Houston Lake, Missouri, Mr. Mitchell and Ms. Bruce-Reaves were arrested by Platte County Sheriff’s deputies at 10:35 p.m. Both Mr. Mitchell and Ms. Bruce-Reaves were arrested.
Mitchell was charged with a class-d felony count of escape from custody while under arrest for a felony. A judge set bail at $25,000. Bruce-Reaves is charged with a class-a misdemeanor count of escape from custody. Bail was set at $5,000.
Mr. Mitchell was originally arrested by the Weatherby Lake Police Department during a traffic stop for an outstanding warrant from Phelps County, Missouri.
The Platte County Sheriff’s Office and the Weatherby Lake Police Department wish to thank the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, the Platte City Police Department, the Kansas City Police Department, the Platte Woods Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol for their assistance during the manhunt.
A northeast Kansas sheriff is warning residents of a new scam circulating the area claiming to raise funds for President-Elect Trump.
Brown County Sheriff John Merchant said the sheriff’s office has received several reports of county residents being contacted over the phone by an individual trying to collect money to help fund President-Elect Donald Trump.
“In many cases when we have scam reports the caller has a heavy accent. In this case all reports said the caller has no accent whatsoever,” Merchant said. “They visit with these folks ahead of time and everything else and then they switch to politics and when it’s found out that these folks have voted for Donald Trump then they try to say how a donation would be appreciated to keep things going.”
Merchant said so far, in all cases reported the residents have hung up and have not fallen victim to the phone scam. Also, so far Merchant said the alleged scammers have not called back.
“This is evidently a scam and we’re reminding everybody not to give out any personal information,” Merchant said. “Once they get your account numbers and everything like that they can clean you out of all your hard earned money.”
Merchant said so far in the reports the phone number from the scammer has been unavailable.
“I appreciate that residents inform us of these types of calls so we can give the public a heads up,” Merchant said.
Residents in Troy, Kansas can resume using their water service without restrictions, after three days under a boil order brought on by a water main break.
In a text alert at 11:16am Wednesday, officials announced the boil order had been lifted.
New number drawn CLICK HERE.
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(Update 3:52 p.m.) – Shortly before 4 p.m. the winning ticket had still not been claimed. Kristi Bailey with the St. Joseph Chamber said they anticipate posting another number around 5 p.m. If they Chamber released a second grand prize number it would be the first time in the program’s 10 year history.
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Photo by Nadia Thacker
The winning ticket is still out there in the Shop St. Joseph Program.
The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce said it’s asking everyone to check their tickets. The winning ticket number 0815080 came from JCPenney.
Even if you didn’t shop at JCPenney, shoppers are strongly encouraged to keep their tickets because if a winning ticket is not brought forward by 5 p.m. today another randomly drawn number will be announced.
This process will continue at 5 p.m. on until a winner comes forward with the correct ticket. Exclusions include Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.
The winner MUST call the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce at (816) 232-4461 during business hours or (816) 261-3610 after business hours to arrange a time to verify the ticket. He or she MUST come to the Chamber office at 3003 Frederick Ave. before 5 p.m. Wednesday to claim the prize. The person with the winning ticket should come to the Chamber to have the ticket verified, not a member of the media. Media members cannot verify a winning ticket.
The winner must be 18 or older. Proof of age, Social Security number, home address and place of employment (if applicable) is required to claim the prize. Chamber of Commerce staff, Chamber officers and their immediate family members (dependents living at the same address) are not eligible to win the grand prize. Participating business owners, managers and employees are eligible to win, with the exception of tickets distributed through their own place of business (including other participating locations). The winner will be responsible for any applicable taxes.
One winning number per each second-chance prize were also drawn today. Those numbers will be announced after the grand prize ticket has been verified.
Two certified public accountants worked with Chamber staff to provide oversight of the program. Roughly 1.2 million tickets were distributed this year through the 110 participating merchants. This is up from 96 merchants in 2015.
This is the 10th year for the local holiday shopping program. The program’s goal is to keep holiday spending in the local economy, so sales tax collected goes back into helping St. Joseph and Buchanan County projects.
The Missouri River at Weston Bend State ParkAttendance at Missouri State Parks set a new record this year. More than 20 million people visited state parks in 2016, a goal set by the governor seven years ago when he set out to reverse a decade-long decline in attendance.
“Missourians recognize the natural treasures we have in our state parks, and again supported the renewal of the Parks, Soil and Water sales tax with its highest margin ever just last month,” Gov. Nixon said.
“In turn, we’ve not only invested millions of dollars to maintain our parks and enhance the experiences of visitors, we’ve expanded our park system at the same time other states are closing or even selling their state parks. And as always, there’s no admission fee to enter and enjoy Missouri State Parks.”
Weston Bend State Park was among those singled out by the governor’s announcement as having significant attendance gains. The number of visitors to the park in Platte County jumped from 181,000 last year to 236,000 in 2016.
Here are the other parks listed with significant attendance gains:
§ Castlewood State Park, which has had over 775,000 visitors (up from 660,000 in 2015)
§ Dr. Edmund A. Babler State Park, which has had more than 675,000 visitors (up from 298,000)
§ Elephant Rocks State Park, which has had over 345,000 visitors (up from 300,000)
§ Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park, which has had over 365,000 visitors (up from 318,000)
§ Long Branch State Park, which has had over 442,000 visitors (up from 395,000)
§ Mastodon State Historic Site, which has had over 553,000 visitors (up from 480,000)
§ Onondaga Cave State Park, which has had over 315,000 visitors (up from 254,000)
§ Sam A. Baker State Park, which has had over 1,264,000 visitors (up from 1,097,000)
§ St. Francois State Park, which has had over 294,000 visitors (up from 265,000)
§ St. Joe State Park, which has had over 629,000 visitors (up from 579,000)
§ Table Rock State Park, which has had over 1,224,000 visitors (up from 1,033,000)
§ Trail of Tears State Park, which has had over 152,000 visitors (up from 105,000)
§ Washington State Park, which has had over 271,000 visitors (up from 214,000)
§ Watkins Mill State Park & State Historic Site, which has had 493,000 visitors (up from 454,000)
§ Weston Bend State Park, which has had 236,000 visitors (up from 181,000)
In July, Gov. Nixon dedicated Echo Bluff State Park in Shannon County. The new park has not only brought in more than 300,000 visitors during its first five months of operation, it has also become a driver of the local economy, through the construction jobs at the park site before it opened as well as the dozens of jobs needed to staff the park.
On Dec. 10, the Governor opened 47.5 miles of trail between Pleasant Hill and Windsor along the Rock Island spur of the Katy Trail State Park, enabling hikers and bicyclists to travel cross-state from the Kansas City area all the way to the St. Louis area along the world-renowned Katy Trail. Just last week, Gov. Nixon also announced that Missouri is adding three new state parks: Bryant Creek State Park in Douglas County, Eleven Point State Park in Oregon County, and Ozark Mountain State Park in Taney County. With the addition of those parks, there will be 91 Missouri state parks and historic sites.
Missouri trails and state parks are important drivers of tourism and economic activity; earlier this month, Gov. Nixon announced that the number of visitors to Missouri hit an all-time record of 41.7 million. An economic impact study found that visitors to state parks produced an overall economic impact of $1.02 billion and supported more than 14,000 Missouri jobs.
Gov. Nixon has also made a significant investment in the existing state parks and historic sites that make up the park system. During fiscal years 2014 and 2015, approximately $18 million was invested in improving and maintaining facilities in the park system. An additional $10 million in investments in improvements to state parks and historic sites throughout Missouri is currently being made through a strategic bond issuance, made possible by the state’s strong fiscal discipline.
This fall, Missouri voters overwhelming reapproved Missouri’s Parks, Soils and Water sales tax by its highest margin ever, with 80 percent of voters supporting the initiative. Missouri’s Parks, Soils and Water sales tax is the primary source of funding for Missouri’s nationally acclaimed state parks and historic sites.
A counterfeit $100 bill has showed up in the St. Joseph Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign.
“At first glance it looked real, until a closer view revealed Asian type markings, and then I realized it was printed on paper and not cloth as is done with real currency. It is a great disappointment,” said Major Abe Tamayo with the Salvation Army.
The agency said the bill will be turned into the Saint Joseph Police Department.
“In a time of real need we receive phony money,” Tamayo said. “We are at 50 percent of our $349,000 goal, with our campaign running through mid-January. Kettles are out through Christmas Eve at 5 p.m.”
Capt. Jeff Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Department said currently police have not seen a major influx of counterfeit bills but that are still some cases out there. He said in this type of situation a report will be made and detectives will investigate. They also report counterfeit bills to the Secret Service.
“They can take the bill sometimes and the Secret Service can possibly track it back to something that they’re investigating,” Wilson said.”
However he said, in this instance investigating the bill could be difficult if it was dropped in a Kettle.
A Kansas City, Kan., man was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years for taking part in an armed robbery at a Stillwell bank and leading police on a high speed chase with a child in his car.
Beall said Gary Jordan, 40, pleaded guilty earlier to one count of bank robbery, one count of brandishing a firearm during a robbery and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction.
In his plea, Jordan admitted that on March 9, 2016, he and co-defendant Jacob L. Smith, 19, Kansas City, Kan., were armed with handguns when they entered the First National Bank at 7460 W. 199th Street in Stilwell, Kan. They held tellers at gunpoint before fleeing with cash stuffed in a backpack. Jordan took the wheel of the getaway car.
During the next 25 minutes, the robbers were pursued by the Kansas Highway Patrol, the Leawood Police Department and other law enforcement agencies as they fled across the Kansas/Missouri state line. During the chase, Smith fired at officers six times from the car. After the car overturned on a sharp turn, the defendants were arrested. Throughout the chase, co-defendant Danille Morris, 27, Kansas City, Kan., and her 19-month-old child were in the car. She is set for sentencing Jan. 26. Jacob Smith is set for sentencing Jan. 17.
The weather looks quiet today with highs in the low to mid 40s. However, this holiday weekend there will be a couple possible weather threats. The first will come on Friday morning when there will be the chance for a wintry mix in the form of freezing drizzle or light snow north of Interstate 70. By the afternoon, temperatures will warm above freezing with just drizzle or light rain possible. On Christmas, a very strong storm system will move through the area. Storms may be capable of damaging winds across eastern Kansas and extreme western Missouri. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
