(News release) ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — The U.S. Navy Blue Angels demonstration team announced last week they will be part of the Sound of Speed Air Show and Open House Aug. 25 and 26, 2018.

The announcement was made during the annual International Council of Air Shows convention in Las Vegas where the Blue Angels released their 2017 and 2018 schedule.

“The air show planning team has been working diligently these last few months and are very excited to support the Navy’s premiere demo team for the community’s 2018 Sound of Speed Air Show and Open House,” said Abe Forney, the airport manager at Rosecrans Memorial Airport.

Air show officials began planning the 2018 show as soon as this year’s air show ended. Capt. Mark Gaines, who acted as the deputy director for this year’s air show says the military jet demonstration teams are on a two year planning cycle and requests must be made two years in advance.

“It’s an opportunity to showcase aviation in the military,” said Gaines. “But it’s also a chance for us to open the base and let folks see what we do.”

The Blue Angels have performed in Missouri the past few years with an air show in St. Louis in 2016 and Kansas City in 2015. Their most recent appearance in St. Joseph was 2010.

The Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing is comprised of approximately 1,100 citizen-Airmen from local communities throughout the region. The unit operates the C-130H Hercules cargo aircraft and has a dual mission to the state of Missouri and the federal government. Rosecrans Air National Guard Base is located at Rosecrans Memorial Airport, St. Joseph, Mo.

Troopers with the Missouri State Highway Patrol plan to take part in a special operation starting Friday in northwest Missouri.

Captain James E. McDonald, commanding officer of Troop H, St. Joseph, said that Troop H officers will be participating in the C.A.R.E. Lifesaver weekend from December 16, 2016, through December 19, 2016. During that time frame, enforcement will be increased in an effort to stop motorists from driving impaired this holiday season and to reduce injury and deaths caused by impaired drivers.

“The holiday season is a time to celebrate with friends and family,” Captain McDonald said. “If those celebrations include alcohol be sure to have a sober designated driver. No one should have to endure losing a loved one during the holiday season.”

State Auditor Nicole Galloway traveled to St. Joseph Tuesday to tout new legislation aimed at making it easier to audit, prosecute and get repayment from public officials who engage in fraud, theft and misconduct.

Galloway joined Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins announcing Senate Bill 176, which was prefiled in the General Assembly by Springfield Republican Sen. Bob Dixon. Galloway said the current law has no teeth, from enforcement to collection.

She said the Auditor’s Office has identified a lot of official misconduct, including here in the St. Joseph School District. The ill-gotten funds statewide total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars…

She listed a “portfolio” of audits in which they’ve seen official misconduct.

“We have seen a court clerk down Carl Junction steal tens of thousands of dollars,” Galloway said. “There was a Wright County collector that manipulated tax records to benefit her and her family. Those are just a few examples that we have found over the past couple of years since I have taken office.”

The bill would allow judges to order restitution, which Prosecutor Scroggins said makes it easier to collect.

“It clearly gives the court the authority to order restitution in these kinds of cases,” Scroggins said, “and it has a process in place wherein we can collect that in the same way that we would any of the other civil judgments we might be currently collecting, and it can be returned to the public.”

Scroggins said the decision was made early on during the local school district investigation to let the FBI take the reins, not because they are better investigators, but because they have better laws at their disposal.

Scroggins the new law would have helped local authorities during the controversy, which wound up in the hands of federal investigators.

“We did not have at that time, do not have at this time actually, very good laws on the books as to, clearly, how that can be investigaged, and clearly how that can be prosecuted,” Scroggins said. “So, the decision was made early on in that investigation to turn it over to federal authorities because their laws were better.”

The law allows local prosecutors and law enforcement officials to request the help of the auditors office, something that Galloway said is not always available now.

“This legislation will allow local prosecuting attorneys another tool, in order to hold these folks accountable to the public dollars that they have abused and sometimes lined their pockets with,” she said.

“My hope is that this will move forward swiftly because it has bipartisan support. This is a good government accountability bill, and so, if we did make it through the legislative process it would take effect in August of 2017.”

A Chillicothe man is facing charges after a nearly year-long auto theft investigation and a police chase in northwest Missouri.

Gregory Simpson, 31 was charged Sunday in Livingston County with a felony for tampering with a motor vehicle stemming from an incident that allegedly took place in January, and a felony for resisting arrest stemming from an incident that allegedly took place Saturday.

According to the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office, on Sat., Dec. 10, an auto theft investigation which began January 31, 2016 on Old Highway 190 resulted in an arrest.

The office said the suspect who stole this vehicle allegedly damaged a different yard in rural Livingston County and made way into Daviess County. At one point the yet unknown and unreported stolen vehicle was involved in a chase with another county agency and then the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The suspect eluded the officers and subsequently ditched the pickup in a remote area near Kearney, MO.

Several days later the vehicle was located and LCSO staff responded to process the pickup. The search of that vehicle resulted in trace evidence being collected and sent to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab for DNA testing. Late last week the LCSO received lab confirmation and identity of the suspect.

On December 10 the LCSO arrested Gregory Allen Simpson, 31, Independence at a rural Livingston County address for alleged Auto Theft. Later Simpson allegedly attempted to flee the LCSO staff on foot and was again apprehended.

Simpson is being held on $25,000 bail in the Davies/Dekalb Regional Jail.

Sheriff Steve Cox said the LCSO is continuing with assisting Daviess County Sheriff, the MSHP, Clinton County Sheriff, and others regarding possible information for incident reports they have open.

A teenager charged as an adult with murder for the death of Kaytlin Root appeared in court Tuesday. Amanda Donna Bennett, along with co-defendant Sebastian Dowell, are charged with luring the 17-year-old Root to Krug Park, rendering her unconscious, and then stabbing her to death. Her body was found by a runner along a trail at the park October 16.

If convicted of the second-degree murder charge Bennett could face a penalty of 10 to 30 years or life imprisonment.

She would not be eligible for parole until 85 percent of any sentence ordered has been served.

Bennett remains in custody after a judge set bail at $250,000. Associate Circuit Judge Rebecca Spencer scheduled the case for a preliminary hearing docket this Friday. As we reported, Dowell is being held without bail awaiting his next court appearance in February.