The president’s proposed budget would cut funding for four Community Action Partnership programs that benefit low income families in St. Joseph.

“All of our major programs except for Head Start, I think, are either set to be drastically cut or completely eliminated,” said Executive Director Whitney Lanning, of the Community Action Partnership of Greater St. Joseph.

She said the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, is set to be eliminated. The weatherization program is also set to be eliminated.  In fact, the grant money that sets CAP as a community action agency could be cut.

“The Community Development Block Grant funds are scheduled to be completely eliminated,” Lanning said.

She said if the proposed budget were to go through as it stood Thursday, thousands of people in northwest Missouri would be impacted. CAP St. Joe aided 1,500 low income individuals who applied for utility assistance last year through its LIHEAP program.

“80 percent of the people who utilize it, utilize it one time in their lifetime,” Lanning said.  “It’s a program that you can only use one time a year and the primary people who use it are the elderly and the disabled.  These are people who are on fixed incomes and are very vulnerable to poverty and things that poverty causes,” she said. “When we’re talking about that program completely going away you’re literally going to have elderly or disabled people living in homes with no heat.”

The proposed budget would eliminate Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding which Lanning said will have an impact in many areas.  She points to small towns without the tax revenues for new water lines or streets.  With the help of CDBG funding and local matches, Maysville got new water lines, Osborn received a new waste water plant, and new streets are planned in Stewartsville.  CAP just got the opportunity to create two new Head Start centers for preschool services in Cameron and Savannah.

Also on the chopping block, $500,000 in  Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) funding which Lanning said goes to meet needs throughout their service area of Andrew, Buchanan, Clinton and DeKalb counties.  The cut will impact St. Joseph residents struggling to pay their sewer bills.

“There was a real issue with low income individuals getting their water turned off because they were past due on the sewer payments,” Lanning said, “and so there were people going without water.  There were kids going to the schools having to take showers at the schools and having to fill up water bottles and take them home.”

“A year and a half ago we were able to create that sewer assistance program and we spend about $3,000-to-$4,000, sometimes $5,000 a month just on people who are low income, elderly, disabled, people who have children, young children in their home, just to make sure their water stays on,” she said.

She said CAP St. Joe isn’t just providing hand-outs to people, as is often the stigma.

“The way our culture, our society, has started talking about the poor, it’s not very favorable,” Lanning said.  “It’s almost as if low-income people have done something wrong and deserve to be low income and that’s just not the case.  There aren’t that many living wage jobs, and we do have system issues. but completely eliminating them, at least to me, is not the answer.”

“These communities need to know there’s going to be a dramatic, significant change.  It’s going to be much more difficult than it already is,” she said.

If the budget passes as proposed, CAP St. Joe would lose up to $6 million – 99 percent of the agency’s funding.  She said they receive some funding from the United Way to help with water assistance as well as rent and mortgage assistance.  But she said they could lose the funding to employ the people who administer those funds.

At this point, Lanning suggests writing to lawmakers.

“Working with your legislators, working with your city council people, at all levels of government to say ‘we think this is important and we want it to stay,’ I think is the best advice that I can give,” Lanning said.

(News release)- A home health care worker has been accused of stealing a patient’s hydrocodone tablets and substituting them with acetaminophen tablets.

Kerrina Elliott, 43, of Smithville Missouri, has been charged in Platte County with stealing, elderly abuse, and possession of methamphetamine.

Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said the charges were filed on March 14, 2017 following an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations and the Platte County Sheriff’s Department.

According to court documents, authorities were contacted in January when caregivers of a 95-year-old woman noticed that her hydrocodone tablets had been replaced with 500 mg acetaminophen tablets.

The elderly woman is receiving hospice services and requires constant care.  Caregivers become concerned when the woman became ill when given her medications.

On February 16, an FDA investigator installed a hidden camera in the woman’s kitchen with the approval of her caregiver. On March 1, the caregiver contacted investigators to report that four hydrocodone tablets prescribed to the woman were missing from a locked prescription box in the kitchen.

Investigators determined Elliott worked at the woman’s residence during this time frame but would have no reason to access the locked prescription box. Elliott was not to administer medications under her work contract; instead, her job duties consisted of cleaning, personal care, cooking, and laundry services.  However, video footage allegedly shows Elliott accessing the locked prescription box twice in a secretive manner.

On March 13, Platte County deputies stopped Elliott for traffic violations.  She consented to a search of her vehicle.  Deputies found a small bag of crystal substance and a hollow pen inside her purse. A field test of the crystal substance allegedly indicated it was methamphetamine.

Because prosecutors have charged Elliott as a prior and persistent felony offender, she faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the stealing and possession charges. She faces up to a year in jail for elder abuse.  She remains in custody in the Platte County Detention Center in lieu of a $25,000 cash bond.

The case against Elliott is being prosecuted by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Miranda Loesch.

The charges against Elliott are merely allegations, and she is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

A local business is hiring to fill 400 additional permanent jobs at its St. Joseph location.

Alorica, a customer service solutions business announced the job openings Tuesday.  Ken Muche, Alorica Dir. of Global Public Relations said the additional jobs are due to more business from a current client.(correction)

“Alorica is the largest provider of customer service to the U.S. market in the world,” Muche said. “With 100,000 employees and more than 102 offices in the United States we are expanding, we are growing and right here in St. Joseph we are adding 400 jobs.  Everything from vendor relations, to customer relations to trainers, supervisor jobs, etc.”

Muche said the positions offer a competitive salary.

“If I actually gave a number today then tomorrow the competition would come out and offer 10 cents more. So I can’t do that.  But I can tell you that it is competitive, there is a benefit plan in place as well,” Muche said. “These are not seasonal.  They’re also not temporary. These are new incremental, permanent jobs.  The client has come to us and said, ‘Hey, you’ve done some good work here, we would like to give you more of our business.’ They are a huge business themselves, they have a lot of customers that need help and so we’re expanding to meet the demand.”

Alorica currently employees more than 570 people at its St. Joseph office located at 4315 Pickett Road. Muche said people looking for a job need to stop by and apply in person.

“It’s a variety of different things that we’re looking for. Engaging people, people who like to help other people, or maybe you’re a good writer and you like engaging people that way. We’re looking for people who like helping others,” Muche said. “If you like helping people and interacting with folks and making a difference that way we want you on team Alorica.”

For more information on open positions at Alorica, CLICK HERE.

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The Savannah Police Department is warning residents of a woman entering businesses allegedly trying to collect money for permits.

According to a post on social media Friday, police have received calls about a woman going to a business claiming she is an official with the County and that the establishment owes a $25 permit fee that needs to be paid in cash. 

Police said, the Andrew County Health Department, Andrew County, or City of Savannah will not collect money on site, and do not have anyone going around to collect. 

Anyone who comes into contact with this person is asked to call dispatch at 816-324-4114.

The Chillicothe Police Department is investigating after an area resident reported losing thousands in a Craig’s List scam.

A woman on Friday reported she had been scammed out of $2,500. Officer Michael Smith said the victim was attempting to purchase a vehicle off of Craig’s List. The woman was told to pay for the vehicle by purchasing Walmart gift cards and providing the seller with the card numbers and their PIN. After doing so, the victim said the seller stopped communicating and she learned that the money had been removed from the card.

Officer Smith said they come across this type of scam often.

“We see it more often then not. The most unfortunate thing is we see sometimes they target the elderly,” Smith said. “When you’re making a purchase online to somebody that you’ve never seen or talked to before or if there’s not a phone number or something that you can contact them on we would advise you to probably stay clear of that seller.”

He urges people to use caution when dealing with purchases over the internet. He said another common scam he encounters comes from buyers online.

“The individuals will contact you about purchasing something from you. They will say, ‘Okay I’ll send you a check,’ and they’ll send you a check in the mail. You’ll get a check, let’s say if you’re selling something for $500 then they’ll give you a check for $3,000. When you receive that check and you call them they’ll say ‘Yeah I’m going to send someone pick that item up for me will you just give the rest of that money to them?'” Smith said. “That check is usually a fraudulent check and the bank doesn’t find out about it for a day or two and then that person is out the money and has to pay the bank back that money.”

Smith said it’s best to use caution when dealing with buying and selling online.

“Unfortunately a lot of those are targeting towards the elderly. We’ve gotten pretty good with some of the local businesses where if they see an individual come in and pick up a gift card for an unusual amount usually their employees will start asking questions to maybe make sure it’s a legit reason they’re picking up these cards,” Smith said. “Sometimes we get calls from business at that time letting us know, ‘Hey you might want to come down here. We tried to talk to them and you might just come down here and let them know what’s going on.'”

He said, when in doubt to call authorities first.

“If you even have the slightest gut feeling that things aren’t right feel free to contact your local law enforcement and explain the situation with them. They’d be glad to take the time to explain to you or maybe look into it a little bit more,” Smith said. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Residents are trying to pick up after a tornado leveled homes, took down power lines, lifted furniture and uprooted trees in Clinton County.

A tornado touched down Monday night between 7:15 and 7:46 p.m.  The National Weather Service has determined the strength of the tornado as an EF-2 with the peak wind at 132 miles per hour.  The tornado traveled from Smithville to Lathrop, a path of 18.7 miles. Julie Adolphson, Meteorologist in charge with the NWS of Pleasant Hill said a team was deployed Tuesday morning to assess the damage.

“Our path looks like just south of Trimble and moving towards the northeast, south of Plattsburg, and just on the southern edge of Lathrop and towards the northeast of Lathrop where it looks like that’s where it ended near Missouri 110,” Adolphson said. “I have to go through and compare the reports we received from spotters along with the survey team.”

No fatalities were reported. Adolphson said the strongest part of the tornado appears to have hit the areas of southwest McComas Ln. and southwest State Highway J.

Matt and Adrian Gaines said they were home at the time the tornado hit in the area of southwest State Highway J.

“It was one of the worst experiences of my whole life,” Adrian said. “I’m learning from first-hand experience the suffering and the pain of losing everything.  But I have great gratitude, and I’d say the humility of being alive, and my partner being alive and our dog being alive.  The material things are gone but the things that can never be replaced are here.”

Matt said he was standing on the front porch of their home watching the lightning when he heard a roar.

“I knew it was bad.  I grabbed my partner and we went into the basement,” Matt said.

“It sounds like a train at first,”Adrian said. “Five minutes before our house blew away we went down to the basement.”

Their home was demolished. Matt said their gun safe fell in front of them in the basement and he believes it saved their lives by creating a barrier.

Rick Bashor, acting Public Information Officer for Clinton County Emergency Management Response said during the storm officials received a report of two people with minor injuries that were transported by ambulance to a hospital for treatment. Bashor said two other people also received minor injuries from the storm and were transported by private vehicle for treatment.

In addition to debris and damage to buildings, Bashor said there was also a large power outage in the Lathrop and Plattsburg area.

“Emergency management has been in contact with the power companies and they’re trying to restore it as soon as possible,” Bashor said. “The earliest they’re saying is midday today into tomorrow before they can get power back.”

The Red Cross of Northwest Missouri deployed volunteers Tuesday morning to assist Clinton County residents in the clean up. Karla Long, Red Cross Emergency Services Dir. said preliminary information they received indicated between 25 to  50 homes were impacted during the storm.

“We’ve got trash bags, and boxes, snacks, water, shovels, rakes, gloves and we’ll be going into the affected area and if anybody needs any of that product we just distribute it out free of charge for them to be able to start that clean-up process,” Long said. “Those teams will be going out and will be reporting back to us later today what we’re actually seeing in the field.”