By Alisa Nelson (Missourinet) – The Highway Patrol has confirmed a body was pulled from the Missouri River Tuesday.

The description matched that of a person reported to have been seen in the river Monday night wearing a life vest and floating south of Rocheport, but investigators say the male body is too decomposed to provide an identity.

The person was pulled from the water near the Noren access in Jefferson City.

The Highway Patrol along with the Boone County Fire Protection District led the search. After 2 1/2 hours Monday evening, authorities had to suspend the search due to poor river conditions and an incoming storm. Searchers resumed the effort Tuesday. Captain John Hotz with the Highway Patrol told Missourinet the river waters are very high and moving swiftly.

“A person can get hung up on a tree or those types of things. There are a lot of challenges there to that, but we do have marine operations troopers who are very experienced in searching those waters,” said Hotz.

He said they take reports seriously and do everything they can to exhaust all possibilities to try and locate a victim.

A hiker on the Katy Trail reported the incident Monday evening.

By Kyle Loethen (Missourinet) -Graduates from Washington University in St. Louis are developing a “smart pillow.”

What started out as part of a senior project became a business, a sleep optimization system called Chrona. Chrona is a thin memory foam pad embedded with pressure sensors and tiny speakers that slips into a pillowcase. It uses a smartphone to track sleep patterns and plays different frequency sounds to improve the quality of sleep.

Zimin Hang said the initial idea came to him in high school, but Chrona wasn’t developed until his senior year of college.

“The business actually got started at the beginning of senior year of undergraduate when we were able to connect with the engineering department and actually try to create something tangible,” said Hang. “The Ultradia team is composed of nine members total and seven of which have graduated from Wash U.”
Ultradia has been in business for about a year and is getting a patent on the technology. Last week, the company received nearly $100-thousand dollars through a KickStarter campaign to develop and test the ‘smart pillow’ technology.

Hang said after he graduated in 2014, he co-founded Ultradia with fellow Washington University alum Ben Bronsther.

“Then we were really able to really focus on building the business and getting it to the stage where we could obtain funding whether that’s through KickStarter or private channels,” said Hang. “And we did have a prototype, we did have partners in the medical school to help us validate the technology.”

Hang said there are many long term benefits to improving deep sleep.

“If you can synchronize deep sleep and create a deeper state of sleep, then it translates to more restorative sleep and better memory consolidation,” said Hang. “There’s actually studies coming out now showing a connection between losing deep sleep and then developing mental illnesses, you know, five, ten years down the road, illnesses like Alzheimer’s and dementia, and there’s so many different things that start to happen when you start losing out on deep sleep,”

Hang said there aren’t many studies or products that make use of sound during sleep.

“There’s a lot of products that track sleep, track fitness, track all kinds of stuff, we’re going a step beyond that by creating an active system that actively improves your sleep,” said Hang. “We want to add to the existing literature of this specific methodology, acoustic entrainment, to really push forward this field of sleep research because it is currently a relatively new field.”

The Chorna crew is currently testing the product, with goals for its expansion.

“This isn’t just a product, it’s an entire process to really unlock and understand the intricacies of sleep and conveying our findings to the public,” said Zang.

By Mike Lear (Missourinet) -A new tool is online for those who want to research people who spent time in Missouri’s historic state prison.

The Secretary of State’s office has added to its other online, searchable databases, records from the Missouri State Penitentiary. So far that includes the register of prisoners from the prison’s opening in 1836 through 1931.

“In addition to that there are a lot of mug shots and other kind of secondary and tertiary records that we’re going to add to this as well,” State Archivist John Dougan told Missourinet. “Right now there are just a handful of the mug shots from before 1928.”

Dougan says the search is very popular with genealogists, as well as those who just want to research some of the historic figures who did time at MSP, including Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd; John Reno, who led the gang that carried out the first train robbery in the U.S.; and famed socialist and prison reformer Kate Richards O’Hare.
Those who search for family members could learn interesting details about them.

“It will tell them the name, the age, the county, the crime that was committed, and you can also filter by when they were in the penitentiary,” said Dougan. “It lists the next of kin, so that helps you decide whether it’s your relative or someone else by the same name, it says whether they escaped and whether they were recaptured, and one of my personal favorites is it has a marks and scars column that lists all the tattoos and the scars and the broken bones and things like that.”

For example, this reporter could learn whether he is related to Fred Lear, who spent more than a year and a half at MSP starting in July, 1926, for “giving hooch, moonshine,

corn whiskey away.” This was Lear’s second term at MSP. Records list the name of his father, where his father was from, that he worked as a painter, and other information that when plugged into other archives, could help determine whether there was any connection.

Some records will also tell what cell block or blocks an individual was held in, whether he or she escaped from MSP or perhaps died there, and the mug shots that exist are being added to the database.

“Sometimes if they were there for a long time period, there are actually multiple mug shots in their file where maybe they were there when they were first incarcerated, and then 15 or 20 years later there’s a mug shot of them while they’re still there, or maybe they’re back.”

When combined with other archives the Secretary of State’s office and others provide, Dougan says researchers could be led to a great deal of information.

“Prison registers will give you an inkling that you need to look in this county for a criminal court proceeding, or for newspapers about whatever may have placed the individual into the state penitentiary,” said Dougan. “It gives you clues to a lot of different record series that we have online.”

Dougan thanks the volunteers who are scanning and uploading the prison records into the database. He says it could eventually include records through the MSP’s closure in 2004.

“That’s going to be probably a long process. You have to remember that Missouri State Penitentiary was one of the largest prisons in the United States … you’re talking about a significant number of inmates,” said Dougan. “The database right now is 62,000-plus inmates but I think in the more modern period, you’re going to be talking about a database that’s two or three, maybe even four times as large as what we have for this earlier period.”

Missouri State Penitentiary has gained national and international attention in recent years as a tourist attraction. Its popularity in that regard continues to grow, in part because of some of the television shows that have filmed there in recent years including Ghost Hunters, American Pickers, Who Do You Think You Are, and Ghost Adventures.

The prison, located in Jefferson City, was the oldest in operation west of the Mississippi when it closed in September, 2004.

CLICK HERE to try the database.

BULL SHOALS LAKE (TANEY COUNTY, Mo.) – Lawrence Dillman of Rockaway Beach, Mo. became the most recent record-breaking angler in Missouri when he hooked a giant striped bass on Bull Shoals Lake using a rod and reel.

The new “pole and line” record striped bass caught by Dillman on May 21 weighed 65 pounds, 2 ounces with a length of 49 ¾ inches and a girth of 36 inches. Dillman used 20-pound test line and a chub minnow to catch the behemoth.

“I fought the giant for over 45 minutes until I got him to shallow water,” Dillman said. “I then bear hugged the fish and got it out of the water on to the bank.”

The new giant broke the previous pole and line state-record striped bass of 60 pounds, 9 ounces caught on Bull Shoals Lake in 2011.

Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) staff verified the record-weight fish using a certified scale at the MDC Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery in Taney County.

“Once the fish was on the line, I knew I had a decent one, but I didn’t at all think it was a striped bass,” Dillman said. “I thought it was a spoonbill or something else. But when I got him to the bank I knew I had something amazing!”

The longtime angler said the fish is now at Bass Pro in Springfield getting mounted.

Dillman said he fishes every day and he doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon. “I’ve caught bigger fish in the ocean, but this fish is the biggest fresh-water fish I have ever caught.”

Missouri state-record fish are recognized in two categories: pole-and-line and alternative methods. Alternative methods include: throwlines, trotlines, limb lines, bank lines, jug lines, spearfishing, snagging, snaring, gigging, grabbing, archery, and atlatl.

By Kyle Loethen (Missourinet) – An effort to let victims of human trafficking hide their addresses fell short in the session that just ended, but its sponsor will bring it back next year.

State Senator Gina Walsh (D-St. Louis County) proposed to add human trafficking survivors to Missouri’s “Safe at Home” program, so they could have a substitute mailing address to make it harder for their assailants to find them. Walsh said she will try to push her legislation through earlier next session.

“I want to try and get it over to the House sooner and maybe get it to the governor’s desk before we reach that point where we’re talking about nothing but the budget in the last couple weeks of session,” said Walsh. “We need to do anything we can to assist the victims of these heinous crimes, even if it’s just as simple as giving them a safe place for their mail to go.”

Walsh said human trafficking has become a growing problem in Missouri due to its central location in the United States.

“It’s a big problem, we’re connected to major highways that run east west across the state,” said Walsh. “A lot of the hotels right at the end of that highway 70 corridor, 270 and 70 in the St. Louis area have had issues there.”

Walsh said it’s important to remember that human trafficking affects both men and women.

“Of course it’s more prevalent with women than it is men, but men can become victims of these crimes as well, and we need to protect all our citizens,” said Walsh.

By Alisa Nelson (Missourinet) – A Congressional Medal of Honor will be awarded next week to Missourian Elsie Shemin-Roth’s father. The late Sgt. William Shemin will be recognized for acts of heroism during World War I when he led his entire platoon to safety.

It’s been nearly a century after his heroic efforts and Shemin-Roth told Missourinet her father was a true American hero.

“He went out on three different occasions to rescue wounded comrades. He was able to bring three back,” said Shemin-Roth.

Missouri Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer jumped through several hoops in Washington to make sure Shemin was given the nation’s highest military honor. Luetkemeyer said Shemin did the responsible thing.

“He tried to rescue his fellow soldiers and did it under extreme duress. To me, he’s an inspiration,” said Luetkemeyer.

Shemin-Roth said anti-Semitism towards American Jewish soldiers during her father’s time delayed this honor. In 2002, Shemin-Roth saw an article about a congressional review taking place for Jewish military who felt anti-Semitism played a role in the medals they did or did not receive. That’s when Shemin-Roth began her mission to make sure her father received the Medal of Honor.

“Tears come to my eyes when I hear that. I mean, look what he did. Does anti-Semitism come to that point when a kid goes above and beyond?”

Shemin-Roth and 64 of her family members will make the trip for the ceremony on June 2 in Washington D.C.

By Mike Lear (Missourinet) – Outside the State Capitol is a memorial to those who have fought in the wars the United States has been in since Missouri became a state in 1821, through the memorial’s dedication in 1991. Jefferson City dentist J.C. Standlee launched an effort to extend it to include the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

“We have a generation of young men and women who have sacrificed and served our country and our state when they were asked, and I just think it’s important that they have some place to honor them,” Standlee told Missourinet.”

There’s a problem, though. When the memorial was designed, room wasn’t left for additional granite obelisks to be added.

“They’ve got the eight obelisks lined up in a row there, but there’s really no place else to put the two that we need for Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Standlee. “The design challenge there is going to be how do we include two more memorials, to more of the obelisks, and not take away from what is there currently.”

The focus now is on raising more than $10,000 to draft a design, so supporters can come up with an estimate and begin raising money toward the expansion. Legislators are being asked to donate toward the cost of that design.

Standlee said while everyone hopes there will be no more wars to add, the new design will likely leave room for expansion.

“We should probably look to the future and maybe design it in a way that 100 years from now, those memorials can be added to it a little more easily than what we’re trying to do now,” said Standlee.

By Mike Lear (Missourinet) – Economic sanctions could target Missouri, as well as the other 49 states, if the U.S. doesn’t lift the requirement that meat be labeled according to the country it came from.

The World Trade Organization has for the fourth time ruled against the United States’ Country of Origin Labeling program (COOL), saying it discriminates against Mexican and Canadian livestock. The United States is out of appeals, and now Canadian General Consul Roy Norton says Canada is preparing to ask the Organization for permission to enact tariffs on its imports from the U.S.

“It’s not Canada’s objective or desire to retaliate against any product coming from the United States – Missouri, or any other state – to Canada. We love Missouri products,” said Norton. “But we feel that, having one four times in the court of law and nothing having happened so far on this, we have no choice but to signal a willingness to retaliate. When the WTO tells us, probably by September, what the dollar value of our losses has been, we will then have the final authority, as it were, to retaliate, if the United States hasn’t acted in the interim.”

Canada has identified about $60-million dollars’ worth of Missouri products it imports that could face tariffs. Top targets are cereals, which represent $25-million in exports a year; iron or steel grinding balls, the export of which are valued at $14-million; and baked goods including bread and cakes, worth $13-million.

Mexico’s market for Missouri goods is more than twice as large as Canada’s, and it’s also considering tariffs.

Legislation is moving in Washington to eliminate the labeling program. This week it cleared the House Agriculture Committee. Three members of Missouri’s Congressional

Delegation; Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (R, MO-4) and Congressmen Sam Graves (R, MO-6) and Billy Long (R, MO-7), are sponsors of that bill.

Hartzler, after voting in favor of the bill with a majority of the committee’s members, issued a statement in which she called COOL a “troublesome” law.

“I have heard many times from the producers and livestock owners in Missouri of the negative effects of this provision,” wrote Hartzler. “The truth is the COOL program amounts to nothing more than a government mandated marketing program that does not provide any real value to producers or consumers.”
Supporters of COOL say the U.S. has a right to implement the labeling program and say Canada and other countries’ opposition is based on American consumers’ preference for U.S. products. They argue the WTO shouldn’t be allowed to decide U.S. food policy.

COOL backers also say labeling is a food safety issue, noting that a cow recently tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a degenerative neurological disease in cattle. It is the first such case in Canada since 2011. Norton argues COOL has nothing to do with food safety.

“The argument is made, but without any factual basis,” he told Missourinet.

By Kyle Loethen (Missourinet) – One Missouri lawmaker wants you to cook outside this weekend in a continuing protest of a federal study of backyard barbecue grills.

Missouri State Senator Eric Schmitt (R- Glendale) said he will continue his social media campaign against the Environmental Protection Agency’s support for the design and testing of emissions-reducing grill technology. Schmitt received national attention by starting the hash tag “pork steak rebellion” on Twitter while encouraging people to grill outdoors as a sign of protest.

“It was something that I thought was important to move forward and it’s sort of emblematic of an agency that is out of control,” said Schmitt. “Hopefully people, as they light up the grill this weekend, will keep the rebellion alive.”

Schmitt said the EPA’s $15-thousand study has continued to move forward and he is worried it could lead to the regulation of backyard grills.

“The money has been allocated and they’re looking at a catalytic converter for propane grills, like a double filtration system, I mean it sounds bizarre, but it’s actually true,” said Schmitt. “I guarantee if you did a poll of Americans of whether or not a bunch of un-elected bureaucrats have any business telling you what kind of grill you can have in your backyard it would probably be an overwhelming majority of folks that think they have no business doing that.”

Schmitt had filed a resolution to discourage the EPA from regulating the use of individual propane gas barbecue grills, but it did not pass through the Missouri legislature.

“From St. Louis to Kansas City, and all places in between, we take our barbeque pretty seriously, and so I think it was our opportunity to say don’t mess with our grills,” said Schmitt. “We filed it relatively late in the sense that this thing didn’t pop up until we started the social media movement on it, but at the end of the day whether the resolution passed or it didn’t, I thought we certainly brought some attention to it nationally.”

Schmitt said he will be grilling pork steaks this weekend.