A two-vehicle crash in Clinton County Tuesday evening sent two people to the hospital.

The crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol says Angela Baker, 44, of Cowgill, Missouri, was driving along Missouri-116 highway at about 6:30pm Tuesday when she lost control of her SUV.

The vehicle left the right side of the roadway, returned and crossed both lanes of the highway and hit a vehicle in oncoming traffic.

Baker’s SUV overturned off the left side of the road. The other vehicle left the roadway and went over an embankment.

Baker and her passenger, 39-year-old Steven Canals of Cowgill, were transported to Liberty Hospital with moderate injuries. The other driver, Tony Hufft of Polo, Missouri, was not injured.

Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a father and son in northern Missouri were indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday for their roles in a conspiracy to defraud farmers in 10 states of nearly $862,000.

Mark Henry, Sr., 50, of Cameron, Mo., and his son, Mark Henry, Jr., 28, of Lucerne, Mo., were charged in a 15-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo.

According to the indictment, the Henrys represented themselves as farmers and advertised on Craigslist and other places to sell hay to farmers throughout the United States who were experiencing drought conditions between January 2010 and October 2012. They sold more than $3.2 million of hay, which was advertised as “excellent brome, orchard and timothy hay . . . big heavy bales.” According to the indictment, however, most of the hay consisted of weeds, sticks, bushes, small trees, briars, thistles and woody stems; some of it was moldy and of very poor feed quality.

Today’s indictment also alleges that the Henrys purposely shorted farmers and failed to provide all or a portion of the hay to their customers in Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Wyoming and New Mexico. They allegedly demanded farmers prepay for the hay and failed to refund the prepayment to farmers who did not receive hay or who received poor quality hay. The Henrys also allegedly failed to pay for hay they had purchased from other farmers for resale.

In one incident cited by the indictment, a customer from Colorado prepaid $5,000 for 60 bales of hay. On Aug. 11, 2012, she arrived at a field and began testing the bales as they were being loaded.  Because some bales tested for high moisture content, they were set aside. Mark Henry, Sr., arrived at the field, the indictment says, and began to yell at them. He told her she could not pick and choose what bales she wanted. He told her, if you take one; you take them all. She told Henry, Sr. the bales she set aside would mold, but he responded he was not going to put up with them picking and choosing the bales and ordered them off his property. She asked for her money back, but he told her he did not have his checkbook with him and his son was in Columbia, Mo. The customer’s son told Henry, Sr., they were not leaving until they got their hay bales or their money back. Henry, Sr. allegedly went to his pickup and obtained a claw hammer and advanced towards the son, threatening to bash his head in.  They got into their trucks and left without loading the 60 bales she purchased.

Another victim from New Mexico signed a contract for 6,000 bales and wired $195,000 for 3,000 bales in advance. The customer received 90 bales of very poor quality hay, according to the indictment, for a total loss of $195,975 (including trucking and other expenses).

The hay hauling was advertised at $2.50 per load mile to deliver the hay, which was much less than normally charged. According to the indictment, however, those farmers who contracted with the Henrys to haul the hay were charged almost 40 percent more than the advertised price, and the Henrys failed to pay two trucking companies for the hauling: Glaser Trucking Service ($53,400) and Action Transit Company ($4,400), even though the money was collected from the farmers.

In addition, the indictment says, the Henrys advertised the sale of cattle on Craigslist between December 2012 and February 2013. The cattle were advertised as “front pasture” young cows, from the age of four to six. According to the indictment, however, most of the cows were much older and worth less than younger cows. The Henrys sold 389 head of cattle to farmers from Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa for approximately $538,700. The indictment alleges that approximately $59,700 was fraudulent because the cows were much older and worth less than charged.

According to the indictment, a licensed veterinarian examined 221 of the cows and determined that the age and/or condition of 199 cows was misrepresented. The majority of the cows were worth less than the price charged, the indictment says. The price on the majority of the cows allegedly was overinflated approximately $300 to $400 each.

In addition to the conspiracy, the Henrys are charged together in seven counts of wire fraud and seven counts of mail fraud.

Tuesday’s indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require both defendants to forfeit to the government any property obtained as a result of the alleged violations, including a money judgment of $861,932.

Dickinson cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Pansing Brown. It was investigated by the FBI, the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control, the Putnam County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department and the Putnam County, Mo., Prosecutor’s Office.

MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State University announced Tuesday it has been ranked among the top 10 universities in the nation in the results of the 2015 Campus Conservation Nationals for its efforts in energy reduction.

This makes the second time in three years that the University has earned the distinction.

“Campus Conservation Nationals shows how college students are pioneering efforts to create a more sustainable future, starting with their campuses,” said Hannah Debelius, the students program lead at the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council, which partners with Lucid, the Alliance to Save Energy and the National Wildlife Federation to organize the contest. “These students demonstrate the importance of making small daily changes to save energy and water. The results are remarkable, and every student and institution that participated should be proud of this accomplishment.”

Northwest saved 65,706 kilowatt-hours, averted 123,593 pounds of carbon dioxide and saved $3,942 during the four-week competition. That is the equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions from nine passenger vehicles, CO2 emissions from 5,089 gallons of gasoline and CO2 emissions from electricity use in four homes for a year. The totals are based on the energy-savings of Northwest residence halls Hudson-Perrin, Dieterich, Franken, Millikan, South Complex, Roberta and Tower Suites.

In conjunction with Campus Conservation Nationals, Northwest residence halls also competed in a campus-sponsored contest, “Flip the Switch Reduce Your Pawprint,” to win funding toward new equipment for their buildings. That contest resulted in savings of $3,942 and 65,706 kilowatt-hours of electricity with a greenhouse gas avoidance equal to burning 48,866 pounds of coal. Hudson-Perrin, the reigning champion for the past three years, won the campus competition by reducing its energy usage by 31 percent.

 

The 2015 Campus Conservation Nationals competition involved 125 colleges and universities and saved the schools more than $290,000 in electricity and water while reducing greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 182 homes off the grid for a year. During five years of the competition, participants have saved 6 million kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to averting more than 9 million pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere.

 

Health care providers in Northwest Missouri are not surprised by a report from the American Heart Association that patients in rural areas get quicker care waiting for an ambulance than by driving themselves to the hospital.

“Especially with patients that have chest pain or something related to a heart attack,” said Brooke Boland with Buchanan County Emergency Service. “The concept that we just transport people to the hospital, that we pick them up and basically are just providing a taxi service is not true. We actually start providing care the minute we arrive on scene to the patients.”

Dr. Robert Grant with Mosaic Life Care says it’s important that heart patients be evaluated by well-trained personnel who can start lifesaving in the field.  He said EMS can send an EKG directly to the hospital or doctor.

“If a person is having a heart attack out in a rural area and provided we have cellphone coverage they can send an EKG that alerts me,” Grant said. “It kind of gives you a little bit of a heads up of what kinds of things you will expect in route or what you see when you get to the emergency room.  When we get our tables prepared for the procedure things that we might normally have set out like a temporary pace maker things like that, all that is available.”

Dr. Grant said he remembers cases in which calling rather than driving saved a life.

“One of them is a 26-year-old gentleman who lives just over the river,” Grant said. “EMS was there, they applied an AED offered deliberation, put him back into a normal rhythm and then we were able to reestablish flow in the artery.  That young gentleman would have died had they started off across the river.”

He said he also remembers an opposite outcome in a patient driven to the hospital. The man was driving on 36 highway to work in Saint Joseph when he began having serious chest pain.

“As he turned off to come to Mosaic, at that time it was Heartland there on the off ramp arrested and his son-in-law drove him at that point in time to the hospital and he did not make it,” Grant said.

Dr. Grant says you improve the odds in your favor when you contact EMS and activate a system that is there for a purpose.

The American Heart Association study found that 52 percent of severe heart attack patients in rural areas drove themselves or were driven to the hospital. But patients who called 911 got to the hospital faster and received lifesaving care quicker.

 

A St. Joseph father has been charged with endangering his two children.

34-year-old Jerrid Felts of St. Joseph has been charged with a second degree misdemeanor for Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

According to court documents, on Sunday Felts left his two children in a vehicle unsupervised in the Kovacs parking lot located at 2202 Frederick Ave to run inside the store.  While he was gone, the vehicle was knocked out of gear and rolled about 30 feet with the children inside.  It ended up crashing into another parked vehicle in the lot.

“The children were able to place the vehicle in neutral,” said Det. Briana Mendell with the St. Joseph Police Department in the statement. “The vehicle rolled with the children inside.”

Records show Felts has prior convictions for burglary, receiving stolen property and theft.

“Felts has four prior arrests for failure to appear and was booked in for a failure to appear warrant at the time of the arrest,” Mendell said.

Bail has been set at $5,000 cash or surety.  An arraignment is scheduled for Friday.

 

 

An 87-year-old St Joseph woman suffered serious injuries Monday afternoon in a crash south of St Joe along US-169 highway.

According to the crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Virginia Halter failed to yield the right of way at County Road 95 and rammed into a pickup truck on the highway.

Ms Halter was flown by helicopter ambulance to Mosaic Life Care for treatment of serious injuries. The other driver, Kahl Masoner, 17, of Dekalb was treated Mosaic Life Care for minor injuries.

A motorcyclist trying to pass three vehicles on a Daviess County road crashed the bike and suffered serious injuries Monday afternoon.

Christpher Cameron, 19, of Gallatin was transported by helicopter ambulance to the Truman Medical Center for treatment of serious injuries.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the accident happened on Otter Avenue west of Gallatin at shortly before 4pm Monday.  The Honda left the roadway and ejected the driver.

A 23-year-old Maryville man has been arrested after being charged earlier this year with five counts of Possession of Child Pornography.

Garrett Warfield was charged March 2, 2015 with five felony counts of possession of child pornography.  He had been a student at Northwest Missouri State University.

“We believe he dropped out of school in January,” said Emily Barnett, Dispatcher with the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office.

A tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, based in Platte County to start investigating Warfield.  That’s according to Jerin Almond with the Platte County Sheriff’s Office.

Warfield was arrested by the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Dept. Friday, June 5 around 11 a.m. at his Maryville home located in the 2500 block of Aurora Ave.

He is currently being held on $100,000 bond cash or surety.

An arraignment is set for Tuesday at 9 a.m. in Nodaway County.

(Story corrected, charged in March not January)

The City of St Joseph Health Department invites you to see the newly renovated Patee Market Health Center at 904 South 10th Street. On Wednesday afternoon, the facility will be open for tours conducted by the Health Department and the Social Welfare Board.

Crews finished work on the project earlier this year. Renovations include fresh paint in nearly all areas of the building, flooring updates, base trim and chair rail replacement, new wall covering, updated millwork, sections of the roof and soffit repairs, and the enclosure of two internal work spaces.

The process was paid for with CIP funding and general funds allocated while establishing the 2014-15 budget. E. L. Crawford was the general contractor.

The City of St. Joseph Health Department opens its doors to the public for tours of the building and to promote health and wellness programs available to our community. Light refreshments will be provided. All are welcome on Wednesday, June 10th from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at Patee Market Health Center, 904 South 10th Street, St. Joseph, Missouri.

Health Department officials announced some changes to their typical routine to prepare for the open house. The department, and the Social Welfare Board, will be closed from 1-5pm Tuesday afternoon, with services resuming at 8am Wednesday. All offices will close at 3pm Wednesday for final preparations for the open house.