St. Joseph’s coworking space will begin offering learning opportunities for businesses, entrepreneurs and more.

CoJoe, the coworking space for entrepreneurs, freelancers,  start-ups and remote workers will offer two educational meetings this month starting with one this week called “How to Take Your Business to the Next Level.”

Kristie Arthur is Director of Workforce Development with the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce.

Arthur said the event will feature local small business entrepreneurs Jason Chase, Sarah DeGarmo and Justin Copeland speaking on how they got started and when they decided it was time to scale their businesses.

“Oftentimes, you get going in your business and you get busy but you don’t know when is the right time to hire employees or contract with someone to help do some of the work, which could take your business to another level or deciding if you just need to stay in the same spot,” Arthur said. “So I think that they’ll just talk about when they decided to add staff to be able to bring on new business and what that looks like for a small business and how to get them started.”

That event will take place from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Thursday at CoJoe, located at 518 Felix.

Later this month, CoJoe will partner with Strategic Impact to offer a half day workshop called HIRE Impact. Arthur said the workshop will provide tips on hiring, engaging and retaining employees.

That workshop will take place from 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, April 17.

For more information, contact CoJoe at (816) 364-4115 or visit their Facebook page.

An investigation that began after a body was found March 19th in St. Joseph has been turned over to the Kansas City Police Department.

As previously reported, a body, identified as 28-year-old Tyler Duane Young of St. Joseph was found March 19th at 200 W. Nebraska Ave. abandoned in a vehicle. According to Capt. Jeff Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Department, autopsy results confirmed that Young’s death was the result of gunshot wounds.

As the investigation continued, it was discovered that Young was shot when he was in the Kansas City area. The case was turned over to the police department there and St. Joseph Police Department detectives will continue to work with them on the case.

(UPDATE 11 a.m.) Police have identified the man who died after a shooting Sunday on Lafayette Street.

St. Joseph Police identified the man as 24-year-old Lorenzo L. Lucas.

According to Capt. Jeff Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Department, the incident is being investigated as a homicide.

No arrests have been made at this time.

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A man is dead after a shooting Sunday evening on Lafayette Street in St. Joseph.

According to the St. Joseph Police Department, a man in his mid-20s died after a shooting at 7 p.m. in the 2700 block of Lafayette.

According to Sgt. Steve McClintick, there are no suspects in custody at this time and the shooting is still under investigation.  

The Junior League of St. Joseph will be providing an opportunity for community members to discuss issues and ask questions at their annual “Wine About Public Issues” event.

Junior League Public Issues Chairperson Teresa Shirrell said the Junior League is an organization of women that does volunteer work around the community and gives back through events and more. Shirrell said women and children are the primary focus of the Junior League and they put on various programs including Cinderella’s Closet.

Shirrell said “Wine About Public Issues” will feature a panel of five guests including Judge Rebecca Spencer, Missouri Western State University Political Science Professor Dr. Melinda Kovacs, Tiger’s Den Business Owner Brian Meyers, InterServ Associate Director of Operations Randy Sharp and Webster School Principal Dr. Michele Thomason.

“We wanted to get a variety of individuals… we sent out surveys within our organization asking people what are their concerns, what do they see that they would like to improve in St. Joe, so that’s what kind of made up our panelists,” Shirrell said. “The School Board election is a big thing, having a business in St. Joe for it to succeed, mental health is a huge concern in our society and then, of course, crime, and all the elections, and that’s how we kind of made up our panel.”

Shirrell said the event gives area residents the opportunity to be involved in the community and discuss the issues in a relaxed social atmosphere.

“Everybody should be educated and be aware of what’s going on in our community and in society and this is their community and they should know what’s going on in the schools… just to ask any concerns they might have in the local government,” Shirrell said. “They live here, they should be aware of what’s going on and get their questions answered.”

The Wine About Public Issues event takes place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 27, at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art. There will be a cash bar and light appetizers provided.

For more information click here or go to the Junior League Facebook page.

In honor of Women’s History month, the St. Joseph Museums will present a history program this week on several local women.

St. Joseph Museums Curator of Collections Sarah Elder said she will be presenting on a selection of 15 women who have contributed to local, state or international history.

“There’s educators, there are musicians, geologists, there are painters… there’s one, maybe two that are notorious for what they did and that’s all I’m going to say about that,” Elder said. “We have a physician’s surgeon, nurses, just a lot of things and a lot of what makes some of these women very unique is that they were doing these things at a time when women weren’t working outside the home.”

Elder said she’s presented the program several times over the years and she first started putting it together with the help of a book found in the reference library at the museum, “Who’s Who in St. Joseph of 1929.”

“When I was asked to do this program, the internet was available but wasn’t quite as extensive… so I was relying on books and newspapers. I started with that ‘Who’s Who of St. Joseph of 1929′ and found some pictures, found information and that led me to some dates, then I was able to go to the St. Joseph Public Library and use the newspapers on microfilm and… kind of fleshed out the stories a little bit,” Elder said. “As time has gone by, as the internet has gotten more vast and has gotten more resources and been able to find out a little bit more, I’ve been able to update and add more about these individuals to the program.”

The program, “St. Joseph Women” takes place at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the St. Joseph Museum at 3406 Frederick Avenue. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, click here.

St. Joseph Police are investigating after an explosive device was found on a resident’s front porch early Sunday.

According to Sgt. Steve McClintick with the St. Joseph Police Department, shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday, a caller in the 1600 block of Olive Street reported hearing a small explosion and seeing a burst of light. Officers found a homemade device on the front porch of a house and discovered the explosion reported was due to a smaller device that appeared to be in place to ignite a larger explosive device. The larger device on the front porch did not explode.

Out of precaution, two houses in the area were evacuated. The device was rendered safe and there were no injuries or property damage.

Sgt. McClintick said there are no suspects at this time and detectives are still investigating.

The northwest Missouri Red Cross has kicked off their annual fundraising drive.

Executive Director of the American Red Cross of Northwest Missouri Angie Springs said the Heroes Campaign runs through April.

“We recruit anywhere from 60 to 100 Heroes and Heroes Teams that set out during the month of March and April to raise money for the Northwest Missouri Chapter,” Springs said. “This is the only local non-disaster driven fundraiser that we utilize every year so it’s very vital to our services.”

Springs said the annual fundraising drive is important to the services the Red Cross provides in northwest Missouri.

“It goes to help provide that support for us to be immediate responders during times of disaster, so when there’s a single-family house fire at 2 a.m. on Christmas morning, we’re able to be there,” Springs said. “It also helps us provide our vital services to Armed Forces where we are the direct link between service members and their families. It also enables us to teach lifesaving CPR and First Aid as well as collect vital blood units that are needed coast to coast across the nation and right here in our communities.”

Springs said the overall goal this year is to raise $150,000. To donate or find out more information, click here.

What started out as a school assembly Wednesday morning, ended in hugs and tears of happiness for two Mark Twain Elementary School students.

Army Sgt. First Class Lesley Slade recently returned to the United States after being gone for about nine months on her fifth deployment in Iraq. However, Slade and her husband did not tell their daughters when she would be back in town.

A school assembly was held Wednesday morning and various guests including local police officers talked about the subject of respect to a gym full of students. Lesley Slade hid backstage for most of the assembly before walking out to surprise her daughters Ashley, 10, and Maleah, 11.

“It was really hard to keep a secret from my girls because I always like to tell them everything,” Slade said. “I wanted to surprise them, especially since I knew I was coming back when they were still in school, so I wanted them to feel like they were as happy as I was and that they could share it with the whole entire school.”

Maleah, who was emotional when she saw her mom, said she had no idea her mom was back in town.

“Whenever she goes into deployment, I always get super sad because she’s going to be gone for awhile, and whenever she comes back I always get super happy.”

Slade said she hopes that was her last deployment. She added they are planning a family trip to Disneyland when school is out for the summer.

St. Joseph Police are investigating after multiple shots fired calls overnight.

As previously reported, the first incident took place in the North Belt Walmart parking lot Wednesday night.

According to Sgt. Brad Kerns, several calls came in around 7:40 p.m. reporting shots fired. Officers found several shell casings and vehicles in the the parking lot that had been hit. No one was injured.

Police are still investigating and reviewing surveillance footage.

At 1:45 a.m. Thursday, shots fired were reported in the 400 block of East Colorado Avenue. According to Sgt. Wayne Byrom, officers recovered shell casings and a house was hit by gunfire. No one was injured.

Just a few minutes later at 1:53 a.m., shots fired were reported in the 1100 block of Powell Street. No injuries were reported but a house was hit and officers found shell casings. Police are still investigating and Sgt. Byrom said they don’t know yet if the incidents are related.