(correction: brunch held Thursday not on Veteran’s day)

Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department is holding a brunch in honor of those who have served in public safety or in the military.

“It’s an event to honor public service employees and veterans throughout the community,” said Colonel Bill Puett with the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department. “To say thank you in connection with Veteran’s Day. Everybody is welcome.”

A brunch will be catered and served from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the Law Enforcement Center in Downtown St. Joseph. The brunch will be held in the training room of the LEC located at 501 Faraon St.

“We want community members.  This is not something that we just want to have our folks in the building. We want veterans from the community, former, current, we want them to come in and sit down and have a meal on us,” Puett said. “Different members of the staff are going to be working and serving a meal.”

The department is invited members who serve or who have served in Public Safety (law enforcement, emergency communications, fire, ems, hazardous materials, and corrections) or any branch of the United States Armed Forces. It’s the first year for the event but Puett said they hope to make it a yearly one.

“Hopefully begin a long tradition in our community to honor those who have served at home or abroad,” Puett said.

There is no cost for the event, the bill is being covered by the Sheriff’s Office.

“They’ve line up quite a bit of food,” Puett said. “This event is simply to recognize, and say thank you, to those for their service.”

A St. Joseph man will be featured this week on an Animal Planet series that showcases people who discover parasites, tiny terrors and creepy crawlers lurking in their bodies.

Chris Motsinger, who found worms crawling through his lungs will appear on MONSTERS INSIDE ME, Nov. 12 at 9 p.m.   The episode is called, “Worms Are Eating My Lungs.”

The episode talks about how after playing basketball Chris starting feeling cramps.

“I came out on the couch and relaxed and I noticed there was like a bubbling sensation in the back of my shoulder-blade,” Chris said. “It was like a gurgling sound I felt like I could almost hear it if I moved a certain way. My initial thought was there’s a hole in my lung my mind was racing trying to figure out what it was,” Chris said near the beginning of the show.

Dr. Scott Folk an Infectious Disease Specialist with Mosaic Life Care is also featured on the show.

“Chris had a parasitic infection,” Dr. Folk said in the show.

Chris talks about the worms.

“It was inside my lung, tearing it to pieces,” Chris said.

The “Worms are Eating My Lungs” episode will air Thursday, Nov. 12 on Animal Planet.  The show will also feature several other people dealing with rare parasites and terrors.

 

Meth, thousands in cash and several stolen weapons were seized during a Buchanan County Drug Strike Force operation Thursday in St. Joseph.

According to the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department investigators from the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force and the Regional Special Response Team searched a home in the 1800 block of Mulberry St. in St. Joseph around 9 a.m. Thursday.

Two people were arrested at the home and more than 40 grams of methamphetamine with a street value of $4,000 was seized. Investigators also seized $60,000 in cash and several weapons from the residence.

Authorities said some of the weapons seized had previously been reported stolen.

“Long-term investigation, working with other agencies, developing information, just good long hard investigating work,” said Colonel Bill Puett with the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Dept.  “Any amount of methamphetamine we can get off the street is a benefit for the community.”

One of the suspects was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and for outstanding arrest warrants. Two other subjects were also arrested for outstanding arrest warrants.

The Saint Joseph Police Department obtained a second search warrant for the residence to search for stolen property.

The case has been referred to the Buchanan County Prosecutor’s Office for consideration of charges.

A northeast Kansas man is heading to Houston Texas to offer aid after tornadoes and sever thunderstorms slammed the area over the weekend.

“There’s a lot of flooding, there’s going to be a lot of devastation,” said Greg Borske, a Red Cross Volunteer of Northwest Missouri who lives in Elwood, Kan. “More people out of their homes.”

More than 100 people spent Sunday night in the Red Cross and community shelters in Texas. Red Cross workers are also providing meals, distributing relief supplies and meeting one-on-one with people to assist them in getting the help they need.

Borske said he’s going to make sure Red Cross staff are also taken care of.

“Looking at the well-being of the staff, make sure they don’t overwork themselves,” he said.

Borske first started volunteering with the Red Cross in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. He’s a Vietnam Vet and said his training has helped him respond in a disaster situation.

“After I got out I wanted to be a nurse and they wouldn’t let me be a nurse,” Borske said. “I became an EMT. I became a nurse at about 38.”

The latest severe weather comes on the heels of flooding which occurred recently in Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Patricia. The Red Cross has been helping people since the flooding began. That includes opening a total of 24 shelters with more than 650 overnight stays providing more than 7,000 meals and snacks and distributing more than 1,890 relief supplies.

For information on how to volunteer with the Northwest Missouri Chapter of the Red Cross call (816) 232-8439. Donations can be dropped off or mailed to the Northwest Missouri Chapter at 401 N. 12th St. St. Joseph, Mo. 64501.

Police broke up a Halloween party in St. Joseph last week and issued nearly 60 tickets for underage drinking.

The St. Joseph Police Department said officers were called to the 2500 block of Olive St. just before 1 a.m.

“It came in as a citizen complaint,” Sgt. Larry Stobbs with SJPD said. “College kids lived there, there were like three or four that lived there and they had about 100 people over there.”

Stobbs said it took about three hours to process all of the kids through the breath tests and issuing summons.

“The best thing for us to do is get them closed down and get them all taken care of and get them a safe ride home because if you just sent two cops there and they scatter that crowd then you have 50 or 60 underage kids getting into cars and heading down the road and they could get into a wreck,” Stobbs said.

Police had to have an ambulance come by to check on three people.

“One of the was completely passed out in the basement, the other two kept nodding off and puking, probably had fairly high alcohol contents,” Stobbs said.

He said four officers with the Midland Empire Alcohol Task Force and two uniformed officers responded to the scene. Stobbs said the minors were turned over to sober adults.

A 19-year-old was killed and an elderly man seriously injured in a crash Wednesday morning in Savannah.

Joshua Spears of Savannah was pronounced deceased at Mosaic Life Care around 10:47 a.m. Wednesday after a two-vehicle crash on Business 71 and 5 St.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Spears was westbound in a 2005 Cadillac STS and Norman Johnson, 70 of Savannah was eastbound in a 1997 Ford F150 just after 10 a.m.  The Patrol said Spears’s vehicle crossed the center line and hit Jonson’s vehicle head-on.  Spears’ vehicle came to rest facing south on its wheels, Johnson’s facing east off the southside of the roadway.

Both were taken by ambulance to Mosaic Life Care for treatment.  Johnson was taken with serious injuries, Spears was pronounced deceased.

 

UPDATE: A man was seriously injured after a motorcycle accident Wednesday afternoon on N. Belt Highway in St. Joseph.

According to Sgt. Chris McBane with the St. Joseph Police Department the driver of the motorcycle, James Deyarmon, 55 of St. Joseph was taken to the hospital with what was initially reported as serious to life-threatening injuries. As of 3 p.m. McBane said the driver’s injuries were deemed non life-threatening.

McBane said Deyarmon was driving his Harley Davidson motorcycle northbound in the right-hand lane of the Belt Highway around 1 p.m. when a Pontiac G6, driven by a 71-year-old Kansas City, Kansas man, pulled out from the Anderson Ford parking lot in front of the motorcycle causing the crash.  The motorcycle driver was thrown from his vehicle.

Police shutdown the northbound lanes of the Belt Highway in the 1900 block in front of Anderson Ford for around an hour.

McBane said the case is being submitted to the prosecutor’s office.