(AP) – Hundreds of people who have developmental disabilities could begin receiving publicly funded services as Missouri officials tackle a waiting list for in-home services that now stands at almost 1,400 people.

Gov. Jay Nixon is proposing nearly $24 million for in-home services for people who qualify for Medicaid that officials say would cover 970 people. The Department of Mental Health says about 500 people would remain on the waiting list that several years ago stood at more than 2,000 people.

Other states also have waiting lists for the services. The waits can lead to financial challenges and psychological strain

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — One of two scientists from China accused of stealing trade secrets from a Kansas research facility hasn’t been able to make bond because a bank wouldn’t give his wife a loan.

A federal grand jury indicted Weiqiang Zhang and Wengui Yan in December on conspiracy to steal trade secrets and theft of trade secrets. They’re accused of stealing rice seeds from Ventria Bioscience’s facility in Junction City, where Zhang worked. Yan worked at a federal rice research center in Arkansas.

A judge in Kansas signed orders Jan. 31 allowing their release on $50,000 appearance bonds. It’s unclear if Yan has been released.

Zhang remains in custody. A motion filed Friday shows a bank denied Zhang’s wife’s loan request on their Kansas home because of concerns over Zhang’s creditworthiness.

 

On Friday Governor Jay Nixon sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell regarding the National Parks Service’s proposed General Management Plan for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

“These spring-fed Ozark Rivers have been enjoyed for many years by visitors from throughout the United States, and I support efforts to ensure that they will continue to be enjoyed for decades to come,” Gov. Nixon writes. “Proposed Alternative B appears to outline the most reasonable approach to accomplishing this goal, but the NPS must incorporate flexibility into any plan it implements.”

A Kansas man died in a crash with a dump truck on Friday in Linn County.

According to the Kansas Highway Patrol sixty-four year old Roy Bright of Pleasanton was driving a 2013 Freightliner Dump Truck northbound on Scott Road when he hit a1998 Infiniti Q45 driven by fifty-eight year old Steven Nickelson of Mound City. Nickelson was stopped, at a stop sign, at the intersection of K52 and Scott Road.

The truck driver did not see oncoming traffic, proceeded north through the intersection and hit the car in the westbound lane of K52. The car came to a stop in the north ditch.
Nickelson died at the scene. Bright was not injured.

(AP) – A teachers’ union is suggesting a plan for Missouri education officials considering how to address struggling school districts.

Missouri chapters of the American Federation of Teachers submitted the plan Friday. It calls for accrediting individual schools with more outside monitoring, plus intervention for schools facing the most difficulties. Educators, parents and the public would develop an improvement plan at each struggling school.

The schools also would form a “district within a district” and report to a director within the district’s administration responsible for improving those schools. The director would report to the superintendent. Struggling elementary schools and those feeding into struggling secondary schools would offer full-day prekindergarten.

The union calls its proposal the “Missouri Plan for School Improvement” and says it includes ideas from other education organizations.

(AP) – A Missouri Senate committee will hear testimony next week on a proposed constitutional amendment protecting schools from budget cuts made by the governor.

Gov. Jay Nixon has the power to control the rate at which appropriations are spent and to cut spending when revenues are below the estimates on which the state budget is based.

The proposed amendment would exclude spending through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from the governor’s budget-trimming authority.

The Senate Appropriations Committee plans a hearing Monday on the proposal from Republican Sen. Ryan Silvey, of Kansas City. If it clears the Legislature, the proposed constitutional amendment would need approval by voters on a statewide ballot.

(AP) – A 30-year-old Chicago man has been given two life sentences for raping and sodomizing a southwest Missouri university student in 2009.

A Greene County judge on Friday also ordered Charlie K. West to serve 15 years for kidnapping the woman.

West was convicted in October following a trial at which the Missouri State University student testified about being grabbed by a stranger on a Springfield street in June 2009.

The woman said the man dragged her to a secluded spot, then raped her before running away.

A DNA profile helped investigators from several agencies locate West in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2012. He claimed he had never met the woman, but later said they were acquainted and had consensual sex while he was living in Springfield.

7 p.m. GLADSTONE, Mo. (AP) — Students at a suburban Kansas City elementary school have been reunited with their parents after gunshots fired from a nearby home prompted a lockdown at their school.

Gladstone Police Capt. Ken Buck says the shooting didn’t involve Linden West Elementary School, but it was locked down as a precaution after shots were reported around 1 p.m. Friday.

Buck says the pupils left the building around 4:30 p.m. and taken by bus to a different school, where their parents picked them up.

Dozens of law enforcement officers surrounded the nearby house for several hours. The police chief said the man inside surrendered peacefully around 6 p.m. after his parents helped negotiate an end to the standoff.

No details about the man or the reasons for the gunfire were immediately released.

 

 

5:20 update The children have been released from the school and moved to nearby Antioch Middle School so they can safely return home with  parents.

 4 p.m. GLADSTONE, Mo. (AP) — An elementary school in the Kansas City suburb of Gladstone has been locked down after police reported hearing gunshots nearby, possibly at an area home.

Kansas City police responded around 1:15 p.m. Friday to help Gladstone officers search the area. Police closed some streets, and about 1:25 p.m. they heard more shots they believed came from a nearby home.

Police surrounded a house shortly before 3 p.m. It’s unclear whether anyone was shot.

Parents at the elementary school were notified of the lockdown by email and message alerts sent by North Kansas City School District officials.

District spokeswoman Mary Jo Burton says the students were being kept in the building until police and district security tell them it’s safe to leave.

 

(AP) – New filings in a class action lawsuit challenging Missouri’s treatment of convicted sex offenders seek the release from custody of more than 200 men in the program.

The legal challenge to the Missouri Department of Mental Health claims its Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services program is mismanaged, overcrowded and essentially a prison disguised as a mental hospital.

The program was created to treat sex offenders who complete prison sentences but are deemed unsafe to be released. They are held indefinitely as mental health patients at secure facilities in Farmington and Fulton.

Since the program was started 14 years ago, no one has successfully completed treatment. The suit was first filed in 2009. Missouri is among 20 states with similar treatment programs.