New charges were filed Wednesday against a 31-year-old Gower man accused of taking his kids at gunpoint in an escalating child-custody dispute.
Jason George will be held without bond pending a Friday court appearance in Buchanan County on one class-b felony count of burglary in the first degree.
Investigators say he entered the home of the mother Donna McGlothlin on February 23, pulled a firearm and took the two girls. George was arrested in Clinton County and the two girls, ages 10 and 13, were recovered safely. George is charged in Clinton County with child abuse or neglect.
Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins says the range of punishment for the burglary charge is a minimum of five years to a maximum of 15 years in the Department of Corrections.
Mr George is scheduled to appear in Buchanan County Associate Circuit Court Friday morning.
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, issued the following statement today ahead of Thursday’s scheduled vote on new Internet regulations proposed by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler:
“The most troubling fact about the FCC’s unprecedented expansion of regulatory authority is the profound lack of transparency. The FCC has never made the 332 pages of new rules public and now we have learned at least one Commissioner has requested an eleventh-hour change to the proposal. Congress and the American people deserve to know what the rules entail. A recent survey showed that 85 percent of Americans believe the FCC should either delay the vote until the full plan is made public or oppose any new regulations. On an issue of such importance to American consumers, the economy, and the future of the Internet this is unacceptable.
“Congress stands ready to work with the Administration on crafting commonsense net neutrality legislation, but the President is pushing the FCC to move forward. We know all too well how damaging the ‘we have to pass it so you can find out what is in it’ approach can be. By choosing this path, the FCC will leave Congress with no choice but to consider all options to scrutinize these rules. Just as the FCC believes Internet service providers should be held accountable for their network management practices, I believe the FCC should be held accountable for its potential interference in an Internet marketplace that has served Americans so
A St Joseph man was sentenced to serve nearly six years in federal prison for trying to kill the informant who told authorities about his plans to bring cocaine to St Joseph.
Justin M. Hill, 21 pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of an informant. In a release, US Attorney Tammy Dickinson said the informant had told agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that Hill was bringing powder cocaine from Kansas City, Mo., to St. Joseph.
Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers attempted to stop Hill, who while fleeing from them tossed two ounces of cocaine out of his vehicle. Hill was stopped and arrested, but troopers could not find the tossed cocaine.
On multiple occasions following the stop, law enforcement officers saw Hill searching in that area. When asked what he was looking for, Hill told them he was looking for a lost ring.
On Sept. 5, 2013, law enforcement officers found the cocaine in brush about seven or eight feet from the roadway.
On Aug. 30, 2013, Justin Hill rammed a Chevy Suburban into the confidential informant’s vehicle, near 21st and Messanie streets, then got out fired six shots at the informant.
U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs ordered Mr Hill to serve five years and 11 months in federal prison without parole.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has rejected a bill to give the state’s Medicaid program more control over costly mental health drugs.
The vote Wednesday was 25-15 against the bill. Senators who opposed it said they are concerned about mentally ill participants in the Medicaid program not getting the drugs they need. Medicaid provides health care for the needy and disabled.
The bill would repeal a 2002 law that prohibits Medicaid from controlling prescriptions of mental health drugs with preferred drug lists, prior authorization requirements or other methods.
Supporters of the bill said it would protect mentally ill participants from being over-medicated with drugs that can have dangerous side effects.
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration was pushing the measure because it believes the state could save $16 million a year on drugs.
Gallup is out with a new poll showing falling uninsured rates in every state but one: Kansas. Although not statistically significant, the Sunflower State’s 1.9 point increase makes it the only state in the country to witness an uptick. In 2013, 12.5 percent of the state’s residents lacked health insurance; in 2014, that percentage had risen to 14.4 percent, according to the
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index results released Tuesday. Kansas is one of more than 30 states that opted not to set up its own state exchange, or health insurance marketplace, under Obamacare. And it’s one of 22 states that have declined to expand Medicaid.
As Gallup notes, of the 11 states with the greatest reductions, 10 both expanded Medicaid and set up a state-based exchange.
Only Montana, tied for 10th, did not. Missouri, which also did not establish its own exchange or expand Medicaid, saw its uninsured rate drop from 15.2 percent to 13.4 percent, a 1.8 point drop, according to Gallup. Some Kansas officials were skeptical back in August when the last Gallup results were released.
Those results showed the adult uninsured rate in Kansas had risen by 5.1 percentage points in mid-2014. They noted that while Kansas didn’t expand Medicaid eligibility, enrollment had increased because of the so-called woodwork effect – previously eligible people signing up as a result of the publicity about getting health insurance.
Linda Sheppard, a senior policy analyst at the Kansas Health Institute in Topeka and a former director of health care policy at the Kansas Insurance Department, is among those who remain skeptical of the latest results. The Kansas Health Institute is the parent organization of the editorially independent KHI News Service, one of Heartland Health Monitor’s reporting partners.
“We had new people in the marketplace, several thousand people were added to the Medicaid rolls, and we knew that the (insurance) companies had been allowed to maintain those transitional plans in place and a large number of people kept those plans,” she says.
She allows, however, that the uninsured rate in Kansas could have gone up, noting that there are no data on people who have dropped coverage. “If this is happening for economic reasons because there are, for example, small employers who have discontinued offering their employees coverage, certainly there would definitely be people who lost coverage,” Sheppard says.
“And maybe at the time that these (Gallup) phone calls were made, they had not gotten a new job or had missed the opportunity to go onto the marketplace or had chosen not to do that.” While the decrease in Missouri’s uninsured rate was within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent, Missouri Hospital Association spokesman David Dillon attributed the drop squarely to Obamacare. “
Last year we saw over 150,000 Missourians get coverage through the federal marketplace. This year the number is anticipated to be 250,000. That is a big chunk of the uninsured in this area,” he says.
“There were between 800,000 and 900,000 uninsured (in Missouri) before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, and now we’re seeing the marketplace as an effective tool in helping subsidize lower income people who haven’t been able historically to afford to buy insurance themselves, or who were ineligible for Medicaid because Missouri’s rate for Medicaid is very low.”
In Missouri, Medicaid eligibility for the non-disabled is limited to non-elderly adults with dependent children whose incomes don’t exceed 19 percent of the federal poverty level.
In Kansas, Medicaid eligibility is limited to non-elderly adults with dependent children who make no more than 32 percent of the federal poverty level, annually $7,770 for a family of four. About 300,000 low-income Missourians would gain coverage ifMedicaid eligibility were expanded to 138 percent of the poverty level, as envisioned under Obamacare.
In Kansas, expansion would extend coverage to an estimated 151,000 people. Gallup notes that states that chose to expand Medicaid and establish their own exchanges witnessed significantly greater drops in their uninsured rates than states that did neither.
Nationwide, the uninsured rate fell 3.5 points, to 13.8 percent from 17.3 percent, between 2013 and 2014, Gallup says – the lowest point in seven years. Reducing the number of people without health insurance was one of the chief aims of the Affordable Care Act – and by that yardstick, despite its continuing unpopularity as measured by polls, it appears to be succeeding. Arkansas and Kentucky recorded the biggest drops, according to Gallup – 11.1 points and 9.8 points, respectively.
And for the seventh straight year, Texas had the highest uninsured rate at 24.4 percent. That’s actually lower than the 27 percent it had in 2013 and the lowest rate to date for Texas, according to Gallup. The Gallup results were based on phone interviews with a random sample of 178,072 adults in 2013 and 176,702 adults in 2014.
Dan Margolies is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Transportation is in the early stages of developing a hub where freight could be transferred between the highways and railroads.
An advisory committee is discussing specifics for a “transload shipping center.” John Maddox, freight and rail manager for the transportation department, says the committee will develop criteria for the facility in the next six to nine months, including financial considerations.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports after requirements are determined, a list of potential sites will be determined, followed by preliminary engineering work. The agency doesn’t have a timeline for completing the project.
Transportation Secretary Mike King said in a news release a transload facility would save customers money on transportation costs.
Author Rikki Cason (pictured above), formerly of St. Joseph, Mo., recently published her first book, “The Princess and the Locket.” This is the first book in the Princess Trilogy that tells the magical tale of Aleigh Denallen, as she faces the fears of growing up, discovering love and finding herself along the way.
Aleigh is joined in the story by characters such as Drew Davihouse, prince of Itolian; Bones Michaelson, Aleigh’s eccentric best friend and Vald Denallen, her estranged father, who passed on a magical gift she never wanted.
This series is perfect for young adult, teenage readers.
Cason was born and raised in St. Joseph, graduating from Benton High School and Missouri Western State University. She now resides in Western New York, where she is pursuing a career in journalism. Many of her family and friends still reside in St. Joseph and Kansas City.
Cason first began working on the trilogy at the age of 17, as a way of dealing with her own insecurities of growing up and facing the unknown. Though set in a fictional world, Cason first drew inspiration for Ongoosem and some of the characters in the trilogy from her family, friends and surroundings at the time.
“I began writing the first book when I had just graduated from high school, so a lot of the topics, scenes and issues Aleigh faces are based off things that I was dealing with at that point in my life, but altered to fit into a fantasy world,” Cason said. “Then, as I got older, and I made changes and added on to the story, it became more about what I thought the character of Aleigh would be facing at that point in her life. Once the initial story was done, it was easy to expand the story of the girl and her prince.”
More than 10 years from when the story first took shape, Cason is happy to be sharing the tale of Aleigh and Drew with the public for the first time.
“’The Princess and the Locket’ first began as a children’s book,” she said. “It started out as a story that rhymed. There are actually still a couple sentences in the book that I kept from the original story, that do still rhyme. After writing the children’s story, I realized that I had a lot more to tell on this topic, so it developed into a novel. Then I realized I wasn’t done after one and there should be three. Like most stories in this genre, there is also room for additional stories or a prequel.”
The second book in the series, “The Princess and the Ticking Clock” will be released this summer. The third book, “The Princess and a Ring of Destiny” will be released in early 2016.
For more information about the trilogy or Cason visit www.princesstrilogy.com or follow the Princess Trilogy on Facebook. “The Princess and the Locket” can be purchased through CreateSpace or Amazon.
Cason will also be visiting her hometown next weekend, where she will have a booth at the UCP Chili Challenge at the Civic Arena. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cason will be selling her book, signing copies and answering questions upstairs in the vendor area.
AGENCY, Mo. – Roy L. Hazelwood, 77, went home to be with the Lord on Wednesday, February 25, 2015.
He was born November 22, 1937 in Gentry, Mo.
Roy married Rena Johnson on November 22, 1958. She survives of the home.
Roy was a graduate of Stanberry High School class of 55. He worked for 39 1/2 years at Wire Rope before retiring in 2002. He was a member of the Agency United Methodist Church in Agency, Missouri.
He enjoyed fishing, especially with his brother-in-law, Paul and hunting with his friend Jim.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Woodrow and Uva (Lemley) Hazelwood.
Survivors also include children, Pamela Barnes (Mike) and Todd Hazelwood (Lisa); grandchildren, Micah and Jessamyn Barnes and Stone Hazelwood; great-grandchild, Cameron Weingartner; two sisters, Audrey Lowary (Paul) and Carolyn Lytton (Bobby); several nieces and nephews; and aunt, Opal Whittington.
Farewell Services 10 a.m., Friday, Meierhoffer Funeral Home & Crematory. Interment Old Brick Cemetery, Albany, Mo. The family will gather with friends one hour prior to the service. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Agency United Methodist Church or The Old Brick Cemetery in Albany. Online guest book and obituary at www.meierhoffer.com.
ST. JOSEPH – Patricia “Patty” Colleen Keith, 80, passed away Monday, February 23, 2015 in Mosaic Life Care.
She was born January 16, 1935 in St. Joseph, daughter of Marie and Miles Easter. She attended the Jones Elementary School and the DeKalb High School. She married Buddy Keith on January 22, 1955 and they shared 60 years of marriage together.
She worked at Wal-Mart for 17 years and was also a Hairdresser. She loved helping people in need, she enjoyed volunteering at God’s Mountain, the Southside Food Kitchen, she loved Sunday School, playing the Skip-bo card game, mushroom hunting, and country music, but most especially she loved spending time with her family and her precious grandchildren. She was a member of the Faith United Baptist.
Patty was preceded in death by father, Miles Easter; mother, Marie Easter; step-mother, Opal Easter; son, Gregory Van Keith; step-brother, Jim Kiger; two sisters, Joyce Dragoo and Beverly Ardrey; and step-sister Leona Huntsman.
Survivors include, husband, Buddy L. Keith of the home; three sons, Kenneth (Melanie) Keith of St. Joseph, Dennis (Elizabeth) Keith of Agency, and Randy (Meribeth) Keith of St. Joseph; two daughters, Amy (Shawn) Casey of Kansas City, Mo., and Carrie (Erick) Adams of St. Joseph; two nieces, Ruby (Ronald) Wood, and Lola Maertens-Dragoo; two step-brothers, Dean (Irene) Kiger of St. Joseph, and Vic (Diane) Kiger of California; and her sister, Joan (Gene) Crockett of Dekalb, Mo.; 12 grandchildren, Rachel, Amanda, Heather, Jesse, Devin, Trevor, Brittany, Katie, Dylan, Matt, Alexis, and Eli; seven great-grandchildren, David, Austin, Rafe, Lane, Carter, Huxley, and Braden.
Funeral services will be conducted at 10 a.m., on Friday, February 27, at Faith United Baptist, with Rev. James Kerns officiating, The family will receive friends from 5 to 8 p.m., on Thursday at the Rupp Funeral Home. The Interment will be at the Armstrong Cemetery Rushville, Mo. Memorials are requested to the Faith United Baptist Church. Online condolence and obituary at www.ruppfuneral.com.
A St Joseph man was sentenced Wednesday to serve 15-years in prison for sexually molesting a girl under the age of 12.
Last month, a Buchanan County jury found Clyde Ellis, 47, guilty on one count of statutory sodomy and one count of child molestation. The panel found Ellis not guilty on a second sodomy charge.
On Wednesday, Judge Patrick Robb ordered Mr Ellis to serve 15 years for the sodomy charge and five years for child molestation, to be served concurrently.
