Five people have won a 4-pack of general admission tickets to BaconFest 2015 with the St. Joseph Post.

 

The winners of the random drawing are Justin Hollis, Darren Roberts, Valerie Banks, Cassidy Ellis, and Shirley Cook.

BaconFest 2015 will take place Saturday, Sept. 26 at the St. Joseph Civic Arena from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

This year’s theme is Pork Wars: The Bacon Awakens. Participants will be able to try numerous bacon creations from appetizers, to entrees to desserts, take part or watch a bacon eating contest and various other activities.

Tickets can be purchased at all four Apple Market Grocery Stores in St. Joseph and Savannah, Atchison Chamber of Commerce, Student Body in Maryville, Merz Farm Equipment in Falls City, Nebraska, Eagle Communications (KKJO, KSJQ, KFEQ and KESJ) in St. Joseph or online at http://stjoseph.bigdealsmedia.net/

A report released Friday shows Mosaic Life Care is using dollars wiser while maintaining high-quality care.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued its 2014 quality and financial performance results Friday.  Mosaic said the report shows that more Medicare Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have continued to generate financial savings while improving the quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries by fostering greater collaboration between doctors, hospitals, and health care providers.

Mosaic Life Care is one of the ACOs that generated shared savings.

“This is our second year of successfully achieving savings for the Medicare program,” says Mark Laney, MD, Mosaic Life Care CEO. “That’s great, but we were even more pleased to learn that we are second in the nation for quality, which means we are generating savings while providing some of the most excellent care available.”

In 2014, 20 Pioneer and 333 Shared Savings Program ACOs generated more than $411 million in savings, which includes all ACOs savings and losses.

Medicare ACOs are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together voluntarily to provide coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients. Mosaic said the goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically ill, get the right care at the right time, while avoiding unnecessary duplication of services and preventing medical errors. When an ACO exceeds quality and financial thresholds – demonstrating achievement of high-quality care and wiser spending of health care dollars – it is able to share in the savings generated for Medicare.

 

 

The City of St. Joseph is recognizing one couple’s generosity after they left millions to local charities.

A celebration of Mildred and Milton Huffman will be held Wednesday, Sept. 16 at 11 a.m. at St. Joseph City Hall in the Council Chambers.

Trustee of the Huffman Estate, Richard Lee, will be announcing the Huffman’s wishes and distributing checks totaling over $5 million dollars to local charities. Mayor Bill Falkner will be making a proclamation recognizing the significance of the gifts.

The Mildred and Milton Huffman left almost their entire estate as a legacy of philanthropy for Northwest Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Huffman were life-long residence of Northwest Missouri, first in Winston, MO and then in St. Joseph. Mr. Huffman passed away in May of 2007. Mrs. Huffman passed away in October of 2014 and was well known for her very generous gifts to charities and her volunteer work at the Joyce Ray Patterson Senior Center.

MARYVILLE, Mo. –Students will now have the opportunity to major in criminology and criminal justice at Northwest Missouri State University.

The school’s Board of Regents approved the new program during its regular meeting Thursday.

The new multi-disciplinary bachelor’s degree program, which begins in fall 2016, will focus on the study of crimes and systems in place while offering emphasis areas of the adult system, juvenile system and diversity. Instruction will involve faculty in the areas of history, political science, sociology, psychology and geography.

Presenting the curriculum proposal to the Board, Northwest Provost Dr. Timothy Mottet said criminology has been identified by Northwest as a program that supports its strategic planning, and demand for the program among prospective students is high. Northwest’s advisement staff also places criminal justice among the top three majors for which they receive inquiries, Mottet said.

Northwest will create 11 courses for the program on topics such as the history of terrorism, crime and punishment, probation and parole, evidence and investigation, and victimization. Additionally, the Board of Regents approved the addition of an assistant professor in criminology to develop and teach courses within the new degree program.

Mottet said Northwest’s criminology and criminal justice program will differ from those at other regional universities in that it will prepare graduates for a broad range of careers in local, state and federal agencies such as police departments, border patrol or the Transportation Security Administration. Graduates of the program will have the knowledge base to work as police officers, investigators, crime analysts, correctional officers or security intelligence as well as lawyers.

Other key drivers to launch the program, Mottet said, include the demand by students already studying criminal justice as an academic minor at Northwest. That program is growing rapidly and 95 percent of the 75 students enrolled indicated they would prefer to major in criminal justice.

Furthermore, the ACT National Student Database indicated, through a survey of 2014 high school graduates in Northwest’s four-state region, 5 percent of ACT test-takers scoring between 18 and 36 had an interest in criminal justice.

 

After a very public year and a half as Chief Financial Officer of the St Joseph School District, Beau Musser says he’s looking forward to getting out of the public spotlight.

“I’ve lived an incredibly public life for the last year and a half,” Musser says in an interview.

“I am looking forward to not having that public life.

“It’s not something that I was ever looking forward to, and the way it happened, it certainly wasn’t pleasant. So I am looking forward to not being in the public spotlight all the time.”

The school district announced his departure on Thursday, effective next month.

The district went through some dramatic changes during Mr Musser’s tenure. It was his persistent questions that led to revelations the district had misspent millions of dollars for decades. The Missouri State Auditor released an eye-opening report earlier this year, in which the district received a rating of “poor.” Top administrators have been fired, and a former superintendent resigned his seat on the school board.

“It was a wild ride for me,” Musser said. “The job has just changed.”

“I’m not really utilizing my skill set in a way that provides me satisfaction with the work that I’m doing on a day-to-day basis, and so, at this point in my career, I think, without a doubt, my skill set will be very much better served in the private sector.”

Musser says his connection with the school district is changing, but not going away.

“You know I’ve got a daughter who’s five and a son who is two and a half. My daughter will be starting kindergarten next year in the St Joseph School District. My son will be starting a few years behind her.”

“I’m vested in this community, my kids will go to school here, and I want the best for our local school district.”

Musser has not said where he’ll be working next, but he assures us it will be in the private sector, and he says over time “it will become obvious” where he’s working.

A well-known businessman in St Joseph won the auction on eBay for a controversial painting put up for sale by the St Joseph School District. Kendall Randolph of Sunshine Electronic Display Corp and the Hi Ho Bar & Grill was able to buy the Thomas Kinkade painting for $4,400.

But that was not the high bid. The highest bid was five thousand dollars. But that turned out to be a “fake bid.”

“The high bidder did not respond to our invoices for payment, we had to turn then to the second bidder,” said Beau Musser, the Chief Financial Officer of the St Joseph School District.

“Since it appears that the first bid was a fake bid, or not a real bid, we then went back to the next highest bid that Kendall was against. And, that’s how he ended up buying it for $4,400.”

Mr Randolph did not return several calls for comment, but numerous sources say he intends to hang the painting in the Hi Ho Bar & Grill, 1817 Frederick.

The painting, “The City by the Bay: Sunset on Fisherman’s Wharf,” was originally purchased for an executive office, but was identified in the Missouri State Auditor’s report as an item that “appears unreasonable and/or does not appear to benefit the school district.”

It cost the district $1,500.