After months of exercise and diet, stress reduction and encouragement from friends, we’re about to learn who will be named St Joe’s biggest losers.

It’s been 12 weeks since individuals and teams began working to improve their health and shed some pounds in the process.

The participants of the Pound Plunge will celebrate completing the program on Wednesday. We’ll also learn who wins by losing the most!

Pound Plunge Celebration
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
East Hills Mall
3702 Frederick, St. Joseph, MO
5:30 p.m.

The Kansas Supreme Court will hear a pair of cases at Hiawatha High School next week.

It’s part of the court’s efforts to familiarize Kansans with the work of the high court.

The court will go into session from 6:30 until 8 p.m. on April 12th at the high school at 600 Red Hawk Drive in Hiawatha. Justices will hear arguments in the appeal of a man convicted of murder in Wyandotte County, and from attorneys hoping to clarify damages in a lawsuit involving a rock quarry in Atchison County.

The high court has now released the appeals they will be considering in Hiawatha, the State of Kansas v. Luther Johnson and Willis L. Armstrong and Stephanie J. Prohaska v. Bromley Quarry & Asphalt, Inc., et al.

Find the docket and more information here.

A Lake Elementary School student will dance at Justin Bieber’s Kansas City concert Wednesday at the Sprint Center.

Payton Dixon is one of four area students chosen to dance at the concert.  The St. Joseph School District said as part of Bieber’s Purpose Tour, he will have four local dancers join him on stage in each city in which he performs. Dixon was one of thousands of students who submitted audition tapes locally.

The dancers have learned choreography for a portion of the song. Before the show, they will practice with Bieber’s choreographer, then perform the piece on stage with Bieber. During the rest of the song they will dance freestyle, and Bieber will introduce the dancers to the audience after the song is completed.

Dixon, aged twelve, is a sixth grader at Lake Contrary Elementary. She studies dance at Darcee’s School of Dance.

“Payton worked so hard to get a shot at her dream and her passion,” said Payton’s mother Rachell Dixon. . “This concert is her shot. She grabbed ahold of it and ran with it, and she’s so excited about the possibility of being on stage and getting to show young kids what they can do. She wants to inspire young people – she wants them to see that their dreams are possible, if they work hard and take the opportunities that come up. It’s very gratifying as a parent and her father and I are very proud of her.”

According to the Missouri Lottery a 65-year-old St. Joseph woman has won the first $1 million prize on the Missouri Lottery’s new “$300,000,000 Golden Ticket” Scratchers game.

Beatrice “Bea” Stuck, 65, said she bought the ticket at Trex Mart, 614 N. Walnut St. in Cameron, during the first week of March. She decided she wanted to share the prize with her three sisters, and it took a while to get them all together.

“We all grew up without having a whole lot,” Stuck explained as to why she was sharing. “My dad’s a disabled vet, so we didn’t have very much.”

Stuck is sharing her good fortune with: Cecil Hawkins, 59, of Topeka, Kan.; Joyce Chance, 64, of St. Joseph; and Elizabeth Ruth, 70, of St. Joseph.

Stuck said this windfall will help her “breathe a little easier in retirement.” She said a couple of them plan to give a little money to their kids, and some sisters have mentioned that they plan to save some money and pay some bills with it. Stuck and her husband, Steven, also plan to travel.

“The one thing we said was that we were going to Charleston, S.C., after I retire in July,” Stuck said. “Now I am more at ease about going.”

A DeKalb man has been charged in Buchanan County after allegedly speeding on US 59, passing vehicles on the shoulder, driving into oncoming traffic then into a field, up an embankment and nearly 10 feet into the air.

Jeffery Carpenter, 40 is charged with a felony for resisting a lawful stop stemming from an incident that took place Sunday on US 59  south of Missouri 752 around 6 p.m.

According to court documents, Cpl. R. Dudeck with the Missouri State Highway Patrol clocked a vehicle going around 87 miles per hour on US 59 Sunday and activated his emergency signals.

“I noticed Carpenter sped up and failed to yield to my emergency vehicle,” Dudeck said.

He said he witnessed the defendant passing several vehicles on the shoulder at a high rate of speed and then drive his vehicle into the left lane into oncoming traffic and off the roadway into an adjacent field just north of SW Contrary Creek Road

“Large embankment that Carpenter drove the vehicle over and it became airborne, approximately 8 to 10 feet in the air,” Dudeck said. “Placing everyone in the vehicle at risk of serious physical injury or death.”

Dudeck said the vehicle became disabled in the field near the intersection of SW Contrary Creek Road and Bluff Road SW.

Two passengers were taken into custody.  Dudeck said Carpenter was arrested around 6:23 p.m. Sunday laying down in some tall grass without further incident.

Carpenter is currently being held on $5,000 bail.  An arraignment is set for Friday.

A St. Joseph man accused of trying to set a vehicle on fire is being held without bail.

Joseph Finch, 28 was charged Wednesday in Buchanan County with a felony for knowingly burning.  Finch made his first court appearance Friday by video conference from the Buchanan County Jail.

According to court documents, Finch was seen by a witness on March 23 in the 600 block of N. 23rd St. just before 11 p.m. throwing a plastic bottle filled with gasoline which was lit on fire at a parked vehicle.

“He lit plastic bottles full of gas onto someone’s property,” said Det. Ogdahl with the St. Joseph Police Department. “He threw two gas filled bottles at his vehicle to try and set it on fire.”

A counsel status hearing is set for Friday, April 8.  A Preliminary Hearing has been scheduled for April 22.

The St. Joseph Fire Department canceled open burning Monday.

At 1:45 p.m. a Nixle alert was sent out to cancel open burning for the rest of the day.

Monday, marked the first day for open burning in St. Joseph for spring 2016. Open burning dates have been approved through Sunday, April 24 unless otherwise posted.

Doniphan County also issued a Burn Ban until further notice early Monday morning.