An Amazonia man is being held without bail accused of making threatening videos with a firearm outside an Andrew County school.

In a news release, Sheriff Bryan Atkins says Tyler Thompson, 18, and an unnamed juvenile, were observed making videos with a cell phone in front of North Andrew School near Rosendale on September 15.

The video shows the two suspects with a semi automatic pistol while sitting in their vehicle. During the videotaping, comments of threats toward the school were made to include shooting up this school, according to the news release. The video was then allegedly uploaded to Snap Chat and the internet for others to view.

On early morning, Friday, September 16, this video was reported to Andrew County Sheriff officials. Andrew County Sheriff and deputies responded to the North Andrew School immediately. Upon notifying school officials, it was found that neither of the suspects were students of the school. The school area was checked and found to be safe and secure.

The juvenile suspect was identified by Sheriff’s officials. Atkins says both Mr. Thompson and the juvenile were found at a residence in Fillmore, Mo. where they were taken into custody at 12:26 pm. The weapon involved was found in the same vehicle that was at the school the day before when the video was made.

Mr. Thompson was held for investigation and then charged. He is currently in Andrew County Jail being held without bond. The juvenile suspect was taken to Juvenile Detention and turned over to juvenile authorities for processing and possible charges.

Missouri Western State University has been notified by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that the agency is conducting a proactive compliance review of Missouri Western’s athletic programs. The purpose of this review is to determine whether the university is in compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in programs and activities receiving financial assistance from the federal government.

OCR conducts periodic, proactive compliance reviews as part of its standard operating procedure. Missouri Western was selected for the review based on publicly available data; according to OCR, the review is not based on a complaint, and is also not an indication that a federal violation exists. Key issues that will be reviewed are whether Missouri Western provides equal opportunity and comparable financial assistance to male and female athletes.

“We are working closely with the assigned reviewer to provide OCR with all requested information, and we welcome the opportunity to examine gender equity in our athletic programs,” said Dr. Robert Vartabedian, Missouri Western’s president. “We are strongly committed to providing equal opportunities to all of our students, and believe this process can only strengthen that commitment.”

Missouri Western will be working this fall to submit a response to OCR’s 18-question data request, including a list of all intercollegiate athletic teams, the number of participants of each sex, scholarship opportunities, and more. OCR has not set a timeline for the completion of the review.

(News Release)

The St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce will host its 44th annual New Executives Luncheon on Sept. 20, 2016, honoring 76 new members to the executive level of the St. Joseph business community.

One qualifies as a Chamber member new executive if, since Sept. 1, 2015, they transferred or relocated to a management position in St. Joseph, were promoted to management from a non-management position within the company, or joined the company’s management team as a new hire after previously working elsewhere in a non-management capacity.

Col. Ralph Schwader, Commander of the 139^th Airlift Wing of the Missouri Air National Guard, will be the keynote speaker.

The luncheon event will be held at Missouri Western State University’s Fulkerson Center, at 11:30 a.m. It is presented by the St. Joseph Regional Association of Realtors.

(News Release)

The 23rd R. Dan Boulware Convocation on Critical Issues featuring political commentator Cokie Roberts can now be viewed online at www.missouriwestern.edu/convocation/. It is also being broadcast on MWtv, channel 12 on Suddenlink in St. Joseph.

The Sept. 13 presentation by Roberts, a commentator for ABC News and NPR, was titled “Insider’s View of the 2016 Presidential Election

“It was always going to be a close race, because the country is deeply divided,” Roberts told an audience of more than 3,000 people. “There are very few people ‘in the middle’ or undecided enough to be swayed.”

The Convocation will be broadcast on MWtv at noon on Tuesday and Thursday, Sept. 20, 22, 27 and 29, and at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 25.

A DVD copy is also available for viewing in the Missouri Western Library.

(News Release)

St. Joseph Building and Trades is sponsoring a golf tournament this Saturday at Duncan Hills in Savannah. They are donating all the proceeds to AFL/CIO Community Services. About 88 golfers are expected.

The event will feature a hole-in-one contest with Hawaiian vacations offered as prizes.

The four-man scramble begins with an 8am shotgun start Saturday morning. The event is being held at the Duncan Hills Golf Course at 400 E. Duncan St. in Savannah.

MOUND CITY, Mo. – Route 113 in Holt County is scheduled for a sealing project on Tuesday.

Local crews from the Missouri Department of Transportation will close one lane of Route 113 between U.S. Route 59 and County Road 170 from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., weather permitting. During the project motorists will be guided through the work zone by a pilot car.

MoDOT encourages all motorists to slow down, buckle up, eliminate distractions and drive safely to ensure everyone is able to Arrive Alive.

For more information on this and other MoDOT projects, call 1-888-ASK-MODOT (888-275-6636) or visit modot.org/northwest.

St. Joseph, Mo. – Live multimedia performances that are a part of the Walter Cronkite Memorial at Missouri Western State University will travel to New York and Washington, D.C. for performances this month.

According to a news release from Missouri Western, the special engagements are in honor of the centennial of the legendary newsman’s birth in St. Joseph on Nov. 4, 1916.

“And That’s the Way It Is,” a 90-minute trilogy, will be performed for invited guests, including members of Cronkite’s family, at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Lincoln Center’s Stanley Kaplan Penthouse in New York. “Cronkite,” a 25-minute show, will be performed at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Newseum in Washington.

“We have taken the show on the road twice already this year, and I’m gratified that the performances have been very well received,” said Dr. Robert Vartabedian, Missouri Western’s president. “The hard work and extraordinary talent of our cast and crew will reach a larger audience with these performances in New York, where Walter Cronkite lived for much of his life, and Washington, where he covered many historic events. I’m also pleased that we’ll be able to take a group of students from our journalism program and student government to Washington to see the performance, the remarkable Newseum and the other sights of our nation’s capital.”

Missouri Western dedicated the Walter Cronkite Memorial in 2013, on what would have been the longtime CBS anchor’s 97th birthday. The memorial is a 6,000-square-foot museum featuring video kiosks, memorabilia, interpretive displays and a replica of the newsroom from which Cronkite broadcast the CBS Evening News.

As a part of the memorial, three live performances have been developed. The shows combine video, still photographs, music and live actors. They are each between 20 and 25 minutes long and can be performed separately or as a trilogy titled “And That’s the Way It Is.”

• “Harry & Walter: Missouri’s Native Sons” explores the parallel lives of President Harry S. Truman and Walter Cronkite. Starring Ken Remmert as Truman and Jim Korinke as Cronkite.
• “King & Cronkite” features the words of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and the reflections of Cronkite on the civil rights movement. Starring Walter Coppage as King and Korinke as Cronkite.
• “Cronkite” is based on an interview of Cronkite on CNN’s “Larry King Live” one year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Cronkite reflects on that event and other events he covered during his career. Starring Korinke as Cronkite.

The shows were conceived and written by Dr. Vartabedian. “Cronkite” is directed by Dr. Bob Willenbrink, founding dean of Missouri Western’s School of Fine Arts. “Harry & Walter” and “King & Cronkite” are directed by Dr. Vartabedian. Tara Stoll is the multi-media producer and director. Jake Kelly is the technical director. Ryan Menley is music supervisor.

The trilogy will be performed for a private audience on Cronkite’s 100th birthday, Friday, Nov. 4, in the Kemper Recital Hall, adjacent to the memorial inside Spratt Hall at Missouri Western. Videos of the trilogy will be shown during a public open house the following day, Saturday, Nov. 5.

Guitars, fiddles and food donations come together during Bluegrass Battles Hunger this weekend. 

Admission to the event is a can of food or cash donation for the Second Harvest Community Food Bank in St. Joseph. 

“All the fundraising and efforts that go toward putting this concert together really bring a great community festival for the community to enjoy and to bring another activity to downtown, (which), all summer long, is just thriving with great music entertainment,” Chad Higdon with Second Harvest said. “The nice part about this is that anything that’s really leftover, is donated back to the food bank to help individuals that are struggling with food insecurity.”

Higdon said the idea for the 7th annual event began as part of a Leadership St. Joseph project. 

“This group really gravitated toward the idea and from there we formed a new non-profit organization and started raising funds and all the legal fun stuff that you had to do,” Higdon said. “In the end, we put together an event and brought some people in and you had a new group of people who were interested in supporting something like this because they also knew something wasn’t taking place like that. It’s just had a lot of energy and a lot of interest and it’s really grown (and) I never thought we’d be here after seven years, this is fantastic.”

Seth Campbell plays the upright bass as part of Julian Davis and the Hay-Burners, a group that’s appeared on America’s Got Talent and will be performing at Bluegrass Battles Hunger. 

“Talking from an artist’s point of view, the people that are running this really have shown a genuine interest in bluegrass music and showing great bluegrass bands and presenting that to our town,” Campbell said. “I think everybody just wants to help spread the love of bluegrass and a lot of people don’t really think about what bluegrass really is, they might dismiss it and think, ‘Oh, it’s just hillbilly music, a bunch of guys with banjos on porches,’ but you actually find a lot of beauty in it and I think that’s why the artists do this. (Event organizers) pick out bands locally, also some from Kansas City and some from as far away as Portland, Oregon, they get a good spread.”

The weekend kicks off at 8:30 p.m. on Friday at Coleman Hawkins Park at Felix Street Square in St. Joseph. A Kid’s Jam session takes place at 1 p.m. on Saturday and performances begin at 3 p.m.

Through the past six years of Bluegrass Battles Hunger, over $11,000 has been raised and 4,800 pounds of food donated to Second Harvest. 

For more information and the full schedule of band performances, click here.