(Missourinet) – A northeast Missouri woman has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for child molestation and statutory sodomy.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster (D) announced Monday that Melinda Tillitt, 39, of Shelbina, has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for five counts of first degree statutory sodomy and one count of child molestation.

Koster says Tillitt sexually abused two female children in her household by engaging in deviate sexual intercourse, and, at times, held the victims under water to compel compliance.

Koster has released a statement, which says: “It is unimaginable that a parent would so betray the trust of her children. The long sentence gives them a measure of security that they will not be hurt by her again.”

Koster says Shelbina Police investigated the case, after the victims told a trusted church member.

Shelby County Prosecutor Jordan Force tried the case, with the assistance of the Attorney General’s office. The case was heard on a change of venue by a Macon County jury. Macon County Circuit Judge Rick Tucker sentenced Melinda Tillitt.

Tillitt’s husband, Kevin, is charged with rape and sodomy in the case. His trial is scheduled to begin in May 2017 in Adair County in Kirksville, on a change of venue.

(Missourinet) – The Christmas trees placed at the Missouri governor’s mansion this holiday season will be from Bud Perrin of Independence in western Missouri and from Pea Ridge Forest near Hermann in mid-Missouri.

The trees will arrive at the Governor’s Mansion on Monday, November 28.

The outside tree is a 30-foot eastern red cedar donated by Perrin from his yard. The trees for the inside of the mansion are all white pines from Pea Ridge Forest, a Christmas tree farm and wholesale nursery. There will be an 18-foot tree for the staircase, a 10-foot tree for the back porch, and six 7-foot trees throughout the first floor of the mansion.

The annual lighting of the trees at the governor’s mansion will take place at 6:15 p.m. on Friday, December 2. The public is invited to attend the lighting and tour the decorated mansion. Tours will last until 9 p.m. and will be held again on Saturday, December 3 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

During the tours, visitors will have the opportunity to view decorations in several rooms of the historic brick building, which has been the home of Missouri governors since 1871. Volunteer docents will be on hand to help describe historical features throughout the mansion.

Area choirs will provide music during the lighting ceremony and the tours.

The choir from Boonville High School will sing outside before the lighting ceremony, and then inside from 6:45 p.m. to 7:05 p.m. Other choirs performing inside the Mansion on December 2 include those from Blair Oaks High School (6:15 p.m. – 6:40 p.m.), Fulton High School (7:10 p.m. – 7:35 p.m.), California High School (7:40 p.m. – 8:05 p.m.), Helias Catholic High School (8:10 p.m. – 8:35 p.m.) and Jefferson City High School (8:40 p.m. – 9:05 p.m.).

On Saturday, choirs performing inside the Mansion include those from Sacred Heart School in Sedalia (2 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.) and Simonsen Ninth Grade in Jefferson City (2:35 p.m. – 3:05 p.m.).

The Missouri governor’s mansion is located at 100 Madison Street. For the candlelight tours, visitors must enter the mansion through the front gate on Madison Street.

(Missourinet) – An environmental group wants lawmakers to address vacancies within a state panel in the upcoming session.

The Missouri Air Conservation Commission, which is charged with carrying out the Clean Air Act, has two unoccupied seats.

John Hickey with the Missouri Sierra Club contends those spots need to be filled with people from two areas which currently have no representation – Kansas City and St. Louis.

“If you look at a map of the counties in Missouri that fail to meet the EPA air quality standards, they are all in St. Louis and Kansas City.”

The counties that are in non-compliance for ozone and Sulphur Dioxide are Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles and St. Louis in metro St. Louis, along with Jackson in metro Kansas City.

The Air Conservation Commission oversees compliance with federal air quality requirements.  It currently has five members representing labor, agriculture, industry and the general public.  A closer look at membership may reveal some inconsistencies.

Gary Pendergrass, the commission chairman, is listed as representing the general public.  He’s employed by GEO Engineers, where he works on capturing and storing carbon dioxide generated by coal-burning power plants.

Board member Jack Baker is listed as representing agriculture.  He works for the Association of Missouri Electrical Cooperatives, a group representing utilities which operate at least two coal fire power plants.  Emissions from coal fired plants are a major contributor of greenhouse gases which are complicating the St. Louis and Kansas City area counties from complying with the air quality standards.

Another commission member, vice chairman David Zimmermann, represents labor. The address of his employer, Sheet Metal Workers, is in St. Louis.  However, he lives in Crystal City, which is 35 miles from the city center of St. Louis.

Hickey, with the Missouri Sierra Club, thinks the identification of representation of those serving on the Air Conservation Commission is misleading.

He says residents in two major metro areas which have no representation are suffering.

“How is that fair that Missourians who pay their taxes, who have to breathe the worst air in the state, don’t have any say-so in making sure that the clean air act is effectively enforced.”

The clean air standards are administered through the Clean Air Act, which was created by Congress in 1963.

Members of the Air Conservation Commission are appointed for four year terms by the governor, and are approved by the state Senate.  It’s a state panel under the Department of Natural Resources.

(Missourinet) – A St. Louis company has developed a mobile app, called TraffickCam, that lets people upload hotel room photos to help law enforcement find sex trafficking victims being advertised online.

Social action organization Exchange Initiative created the app in conjunction with researchers at Washington University in St. Louis. Exchange Initiative Development Director Kimberly Ritter says hotels are common venues where traffickers exploit their victims.

“Law enforcement is now beta testing the ability to drag and drop the photo of a victim and this data point recognition now will pull the most probable hotel room that victim is in,” says Ritter.

According to national statistics, more than 40% of sexual human trafficking occurs inside hotels and motels.

The app asks users to take four photos of their hotel room, typically one in every corner of the room and one of the bathroom. Ritter says patterns in the carpeting, furniture, window views and room accessories are matched against a database of submitted images to help law enforcement figure out what hotel the photo might have been taken in.

Early testing was successful with the app being 85% accurate in identifying the right hotel within the top 20 potential matches.

According to Ark of Hope for Children, about 300,000 Americans under 18 are lured into the commercial sex trade each year. The Exchange Initiative says
human trafficking is a $32 billion-a-year industry – becoming the second most profitable industry in the world after drug trafficking.

“I have seen the girls and the boys come off of the streets and come out of the life. No person should be sold for sex and I will do everything I can to end this for as long as I have to do it,” says Ritter.

About 93,000 people have downloaded TraffickCam and 1.6 million pictures are in the database. It does not collect any personal information.

The Exchange Initiative hopes to release the app for use by law enforcement in February.

(Missourinet) – The Missouri Children’s Division’s website shows the standard rate provided to a family caring for a foster child varies on the child’s age and needs. About 13,000 Missouri children are in foster care and they are spread out among fewer than 6,000 homes. Val Toskin of St. Louis says her family is given about $400 a month to care for the foster child they’ve had for about 18 months. She is also given a $150 per year clothing allowance for the child.

Toskin says there are loopholes that result in extra financial responsibilities for her family. They live in a school district that’s state licensed but not state contracted. She says that means the Children’s Division can’t reimburse her for aftercare services.

“We’re paying out of our pocket $300 a month for aftercare services because there is no other care services available in our neighborhood. The Children’s Division tried to find some but they couldn’t,” says Toskin.

Their foster child is over the age to qualify for a diaper allowance. The child has grasped potty training, but sometimes wears a diaper at night. That’s another expense the Toskins must incur.

She says a lot of services exist, but they are not always available.

“For example, we were able to qualify her for trauma therapy, but she’s been on the waiting list for more than six months because her insurance is only taken by certain places and it’s a specialized service for her age,” says Toskin.

Toskin praises the caseworker assigned to her foster child and says the Children’s Division makes an honest effort. She sought the Division’s help to put the child in a special art class. Toskin says the child, who is nearly six years old, is very artistic. The Division was able to help find someone cover the cost of the class.

Toskin and her husband both grew up in families that fostered children. She and her husband have two children of their own. They have become attached and have grown to love the girl they’ve been caring for all these months. She says they are committed to fostering, despite the extra responsibilities.

“I think that sometimes kids are moved around because they’re costing more to the foster family than what they can afford. It’s not bad people. It’s just that I don’t always think that it’s going to be a costly thing to their family.”

Toskin says her family is making choices together. During a recent vacation to Florida, their foster child was given the experience some kids only dream of. Toskin’s children asked if they could go to Disney World. Paying for five family members to go to Disney World wasn’t in the budget. The Toskin men suggested the Toskin women go.

“That was the choice that the kids made. They wanted her to experience it because they thought she might not ever get the chance otherwise,” says Toskin.

Toskin says the experience of fostering has been a lot of joy but also a lot of worry for the child’s future. She says she’s seen growth in her children that she might not have otherwise seen.

“You live through incredible moments. It’s all made us better people. She’s made us better people,” says Toskin.

Toskin and her husband aren’t in a position to adopt the child because of their age, but she says as long as the child is with them, she will be a part of their family.

(Missourinet) – Tech gifts like drones are creating a buzz this holiday season.

Kansas City Drone Company CEO Casey Adams says there are thousands of models that range in price from $100 to $3,000.

“Every ten minutes there’s a new drone manufacturer or a new copycat from Bangladesh or China or some place,” says Adams. “Everybody’s obsessed with them. It’s hard to explain. There’s a weird craze about drones.”

Models range from basic to fancy.

“Think of like an autopilot on a plane. You just sort of punch in your GPS destination and the plane takes you over in that area and you have to land it. That’s a type of autonomous function that a lot of drones come with. Nowadays, companies like DJI are coming out with drones with all kinds of capabilities, sense and avoid systems so they don’t run into things,” says Adams.

Some can find their way back to you if you lose communication. Others allow the cameras to be switched out and video to be played back on your phone.

Adams says drones must follow FAA regulations, like stay away from crowds of people, airports and hospitals.

“Hospitals, a lot of them, have helipads. You never know when some injured kid is flying into Children’s Mercy Hospital and you’re flying your drone right near the hospital. Now they can’t land it because they see your drone buzzing around,” says Adams.

Many drones must be registered with the FAA for a small fee and they can’t go within five miles of an airport or above 400 feet.

For a complete list of FAA regulations, click here.

(Missourinet) – An exercise and nutrition specialist from the Show Me State has suggestions for avoiding weight gain during the holidays.

Distractions such as travel and family obligations can present road blocks to physical activity. But University of Missouri associate professor Steve Ball contends you can find time to exercise, even during events such as Black Friday.

“Don’t fight for the closest spot,” said Ball.  “Do yourself a favor and just park in the back of the parking lot.  Lots of times you’ll beat people inside anyway, and you’ll get a few steps in.  Over the long haul, these types of things can add up and make a difference.”

Ball says it’s also possible to avoid weight gain by paying attention to calories you take in and the calories you burn off.  He thinks it’s important to remember that some exercise is always better than none while more is better than some, and too much exercise is difficult to get.

He thinks it’s important to avoid being sedentary, especially during the holidays.  Ball says you can keep your fitness goals on track by finding ways to exercise during the holiday season.  He notes exercise regimens can easily unravel due to holiday distractions.

“It can be a good excuse to just avoid exercise altogether.  If you miss one day, you miss two, you miss a week or two weeks, that can lead the whole program going down the drain.”

Ball says it’s important to realize that barriers exist to exercise over the holidays.  He recommends planning in advance for a walk, run or workout in between family obligations.

According to Ball, there are dangers to using the holidays as a way to take a break from an exercise schedule.

“When you go back to the gym eventually, it’s going to be much harder to get back to the level of fitness where you are right now, versus if you were just to get back in there on Monday and start back with your exercise program, you’d be better off in the long run.”

Ball serves as the state fitness specialist for the MU Extension and is a nationally recognized expert on the subject.

(Missourinet) – A former University of Missouri employee has been sentenced to four years in federal prison, for embezzling $781,000 from the school over a 13-year period.

Federal prosecutors say 55-year-old Carla Rathmann of Mount Vernon used the embezzled money to gamble at casinos, to purchase expensive cars, to take vacations around the world, and to remodel her home and buy a hot tub. She also bought “high-end appliances”, according to prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors say she worked for the University of Missouri, as a Southwest Research Center administrative officer in Mount Vernon.  Her responsibilities included paying bills, payroll and various accounting duties.

Rathmann pleaded guilty in June to one count of mail fraud and one count of credit card fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s office says Rathmann embezzled the money by submitting fake and fraudulent invoices and bills to the University.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol and the FBI were involved in the criminal investigation into Ms. Rathmann.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says the University “was instrumental” in detecting the fraud, initiating the investigation and assisting law enforcement. Federal prosecutors say she was fired from her position in September 2015.

The Southwest Research Center, which was established in 1959, addresses agricultural concerns of local area industries with research and education projects.

An internal audit investigation conducted by the UM System in June found that Rathmann’s embezzlement was a contributing factor to the Southwest Research Center’s $1 million deficit between fiscal years 2006 and 2014. The June audit investigation says that deficit “was also a key factor in the closure of the SWRC dairy operations.”

(Missourinet) – Two Texas County jail employees have been fired after an inmate accused in a killing escaped.

Daniel Campbell ran out through an open door after a correctional officer let him out of his cell to use the phone on Nov. 14. The door was open at the time while some construction work was being done at the facility. Texas County sheriff James Sigman says proper protocol was not followed.

The inmate, who is accused in the October shooting death of Billy Bishop of Licking, was found the next day after an intense manhunt.