Post Staff – Page 623 – St. Joseph Post Archive

Private arts university receives anonymous gift of $25,000,000

Posted on August 21, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Art Institute has received an anonymous $25 million donation.

KCAI says in a release that the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation presented the $25 million donation to the school this week.

Debbie Wilkerson, president and CEO of the foundation, says the $25 million donation comes from a donor “who has the highest confidence” in the institute.

Tony Jones, interim president of KCAI, calls the donation “transformative” and says it will allow KCAI to continue to support its students and faculty.

The institute says $14 million of the donation is for a general endowment, $5 million will be for campus improvements and $6 million will go toward student scholarships, endowed professorships and visiting professors.

The art institute is a private, independent four-year college of art and design.

Warm and Sunny Friday ahead

Posted on August 20, 2015August 21, 2015

Friday
Sunny, with a high near 82. South wind 6 to 13 mph.

Friday Night
Partly cloudy, with a low around 66. South southeast wind 7 to 9 mph.

Saturday
A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. South wind 8 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Saturday Night
Showers and thunderstorms likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 63. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

Sunday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 75.

Sunday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 51.

Monday
Sunny, with a high near 78.

Monday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 56.

Tuesday
Sunny, with a high near 81.

Tuesday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 62.

Wednesday
Sunny, with a high near 85.

Second suspect charged with first-degree murder in Richard Berry slaying

Posted on August 20, 2015August 21, 2015

A second suspect in the murder of Richard Berry now faces much stiffer charges after rejecting a possible plea bargain.

Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins filed an amended three-count complaint against Primalton Peterson of St Joseph, including one count of first-degree murder. That charge includes an alternative count of second-degree murder. Peterson now also faces one count of abandonment of a corpse and one count of armed criminal action.

The victim’s body was recovered from the Third Fork of the Platte River

Three people were initially charged with second degree murder for what was described as an attempted drug robbery. Also charged were Kelli Hoard and Sean Liechti.

Investigators put together a timeline of the events leading to the fatal stabbing through statements from the defendants, informant’s information, and telephone records. In a court affidavit a detective says the three suspects took the victim to an area near the 10000 block of SE Saxton Road in Buchanan County on April 25. Investigators say Ms Hoard stabbed the victim repeatedly. Then, according to the affidavit, Mr Peterson handed Ms Hoard a second knife, and she then allegedly continued to stab the victim multiple times.

Prosecutors believe Mr Peterson and Mr Liechti then threw the body over the side of a bridge and into the river.

After waiving his preliminary hearing on the new complaint, Mr Peterson was scheduled for a jury trial January 26. A pretrial conference is planned January 21.

Last week, Mr Scroggins upgraded the charges against Ms Hoard as well. She now faces the same three counts as Mr Peterson and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing next month.

Mr Liechti is due back in court for a trial setting September 10, after a preliminary hearing in May. So far, he’s still facing the original second-degree murder charge.

Two hurt in Gentry County crash

Posted on August 20, 2015August 21, 2015

A semi passing a passenger vehicle on a Gentry County road Thursday clipped the front of the car with the back of the trailer, sending it off the highway and into a creek bottom.

Two elderly women in the car were hospitalized with moderate injuries.

The crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol says Marcus Sommers of Maysville was attempting to pass the Dodge Stratus along Route-A, nine miles south of Albany, at 10:43am. The trailer struck the left front of the Stratus, sending it off the road, into an embankment and the creek bottom.

Sommers, 22, was not hurt, and was released at the scene.

The report identifies the other driver as Mary C. Barger, 95, of Albany, Mo. Her passenger was identified as Ann L. Halstead, 85, also of Albany. Both were transported by ambulance to Gentry County Hospital.

Restitution for consumer victims of timeshare sales in Branson

Posted on August 20, 2015

Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorney General Chris Koster announced Thursday that Welk Resort Sales, Inc., a California corporation that sells timeshares in Branson, has entered into an agreement to pay $18,000 in restitution to Missouri consumers who purchased timeshares from Welk. This money will be refunded to 15 Missouri consumer victims. In addition, any agreement between these consumers and Welk has been terminated.

The Attorney General’s Office had received consumer complaints about Welk, including being misled about the benefits from their timeshare ownership and how they could use, cancel or sell their timeshares.

Under the agreement, Welk will be required to ensure that its employees are complying with the laws of the state of Missouri, including the assurance that consumers are getting everything that they pay for, and that there are no material misrepresentations being made.

Failure to meet the terms of this agreement could result in further legal action being taken by the Attorney General’s Office.

“Timeshare purchases are a big investment on the part of consumers, who trust that they are being treated fairly by the sellers,” Koster said. “I am pleased that we were able to obtain restitution for consumers and release them from unwanted contracts.”

Meat scam has Maryville authorities investigating

Posted on August 20, 2015

The Maryville Department of Public Safety is asking citizens for any information on a door to door meat salesman in connection with a possible fraud scheme.

According to MDPS several citizens purchased meat from a salesman and were defrauded after they paid for their meat purchase with a credit card, debit card, EBT card, or any other means where they provided the salesman their personal information including but not limited to Social Security Number, Driver’s License Number, Date of Birth, etc.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Maryville DPS at 660-562-3209.

Missouri Conservation Commission approves changes to deer regulations

Posted on August 20, 2015

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Conservation Commission set season dates and limits for the 2016-2017 fall deer season and gave initial approval to several deer-hunting regulation changes proposed by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) at the Commission’s Aug. 19 meeting in Jefferson City.

Approved changes to fall deer season structure for 2016-2017 include:

Maintain current timing of the November portion and reduce the length from 11 to 9 days.
Expand the late youth portion to three days beginning the first Friday after Thanksgiving.
Reduce the length of the antlerless portion from 12 to 3 days and begin on the first Friday in December.
Eliminate the urban zones portion.
Proposed regulation changes to fall deer season structure for 2016-2017 include:

Allow crossbows as a legal method during the archery deer and turkey seasons.
Allow the use of crossbows during the fall firearms turkey season.
Reduce the limit of antlered deer from 3 to 2 during the combined archery and firearms deer hunting season, with no more than one antlered deer taken during the firearms deer hunting season.
Remove the hunting method exemption requirement related to crossbows.
Missouri’s rule-making process includes a 30-day public comment period. Comments related to the proposed regulation changes can be submitted online to the Conservation Department from Oct. 2-31 at mdc.mo.gov/node/24141.

New surface treatment scheduled for US Route 36 in St. Joseph

Posted on August 20, 2015

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – A new surface treatment is being applied to westbound U.S. Route 36 at the s-curve bridge near 10th Street in St. Joseph.

Contractors working with the Missouri Department of Transportation blasted the existing surface of the roadway and are now applying a High Friction Surface Treatment. The product being used is very temperature-dependent and the contractor is taking advantage of the cooler weather to complete the project as early as tomorrow. Crews will now be working 24 hours a day until the project is complete.

This type of treatment is supposed to give drivers a better grip on the road in adverse conditions, such as rain and snow, which will help reduce the number of incidents that could be related to friction. This section of roadway was chosen for the treatment due to the high number of crashes on the curves of this elevated portion of U.S. Route 36.

One lane of U.S. Route 36 westbound will remain open during the work. Residents in the area may experience slightly elevated noise levels during the work, which was originally scheduled for five working days.

Driver arrested after crash in Clinton County sends three to the hospital

Posted on August 20, 2015August 20, 2015

The Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested a motorist after a crash in Clinton County Wednesday evening sent three people to the hospital.

According crash report an SUV driven by Darren Gustin, 27 of Lathrop crested a hill in the middle of the road on Southeast 240th Street around 7:21 p.m. and collided with a pickup truck in oncoming traffic. The SUV left the road and overturned. The truck also left the road, injuring two occupants identified as Jerry Jones, 55 of Plattsburg and Jessy Jones, 27 of Lathrop.

All three were transported to Liberty Hospital with moderate injuries.

Gustin was arrested. The Patrol’s arrest report lists possible charges of DWI, Careless and Imprudent Driving, and two counts of 2nd Degree Assault.

St. Joseph Chamber warns of scam

Posted on August 20, 2015

The Saint Joseph Chamber of Commerce warns that someone tried to obtain business information by impersonating a member of the Chamber staff.

The Chamber recently sent out a letter and verification form for the annual directory, but staff IS NOT calling members requesting information at this time.

If you receive such a call, the Chamber says a real staff person would be able to repeat back information about your business that the Chamber has on file, a scammer would not be able to do that.

The Chamber says people or companies sometimes try to impersonate the Chamber in an effort to sell a product, usually a map or guide of some kind.

The Chamber is not producing a City Map for 2016. It is producing a membership directory, but calls about that will only come from contracted ad salesman, Jeff Nieman.