A central Missouri coroner says a police chief who was found dead in his home earlier this week had been shot.
Randolph County Coroner Gerald Luntsford said Friday that Huntsville Police Chief William Stuck died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
The 64-year-old chief was found dead around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Huntsville home he shared with a daughter.
Luntsford says it’s not known who fired the shot. He says that Stuck was getting ready to go to work at the time, adding that “nothing adds up.”
Sheriff Mark Nichols declined to release any details while his department and the Missouri Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control continue to investigate.
Stuck was president of the Missouri Federation of Police Chiefs.
(AP) A head-on collision in central Missouri has left two people dead and a third hospitalized.
The crash happened at 7 a.m. Friday near the Boone County town of Hallsville, about 13 miles north of Columbia.
The Highway Patrol says a car driven by 21-year-old Richard M. Vanboening of Mexico, Mo., was northbound on Missouri 21 when it crossed the center line and struck a pickup driven by 46-year-old Timmy Bowne of Centralia.
Authorities said Bowne and 22-year-old Victoria Singleton were pronounced dead at the scene. Singleton, also of Mexico, was a passenger in Vanboening’s car. Vanboening was taken to University Hospital in Columbia with what the patrol said were serious injuries.
(AP) — The Kansas City Royals have given general manager Dayton Moore a two-year contract extension through the 2016 season after the team had its best record in more than 20 years.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Moore joined the Royals in 2006, taking over a franchise that had become a laughingstock. But he rebuilt a depleted farm system, and his work has begun to pay off. Several homegrown players contributed to an 86-76 season this past year.
The Royals rewarded manager Ned Yost with a two-year extension in October, which meant that for the past couple months he’d been working on a longer contract than his boss.
Moore had said all along he wasn’t worried about getting a new deal
(AP) – Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is calling state lawmakers back to the Capitol to consider incentives aimed at attracting a massive Boeing Co. production facility to the state.
Officials are hoping to entice Boeing to produce its 777X passenger jet in Missouri. Several other states also have been discussing trying to land the project, and Boeing hopes to make a decision early next year.
Nixon called the special legislative session Friday. It will start Monday, Dec. 2, which is about a month before lawmakers convene their regular session on Jan. 8.
Boeing is already one of Missouri’s largest employers, with about 15,000 people including thousands of machinists in the St. Louis area.
12:noon update (AP) A 30-inch natural gas pipeline has ruptured in a rural area in western Missouri causing an explosion and fire that could be seen for several miles. No injuries were reported, authorities said Friday.
The Pettis County Sheriff’s Department said the pipeline, owned by Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Co., ruptured shortly before midnight Thursday outside Hughesville, about 75 miles east of Kansas City. The rupture and explosion set fire to several hog barns, farm outbuildings, equipment and hay bales, Pettis County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Egbert said.
“It was out in the field so there was not a whole lot around that area, which is a really good thing,” Egbert said.
The sheriff’s department said fewer than a dozen residents within three miles of the explosion were evacuated but were allowed back into their homes before dawn. Egbert said the pipeline has been shut down and that crews are working Friday to repair the line.
Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond said the explosion could be seen 12 miles away.
“I was just about to go to bed when I heard a boom. It didn’t sound right so I stepped outside and could see the glow from the fire,” Bond said. “There was a big fireball.” He said the fire at the pipeline burned itself out about two and half hours later after company representatives shut the pipeline down.
Crews from several area fire departments responded to the scene.
Panhandle Energy spokeswoman Vicki Anderson Granado also said in a statement no injuries were reported and the company has rerouted gas from the area so deliveries wouldn’t be affected.
“We are working with the local emergency responders to make sure the needs of any of those who were impacted are taken care of,” the statement said.
Granado said it was unclear how long the investigation into what caused the rupture would take.
“This is a thorough process and as you know takes time,” Granado said in an email.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said it’s working with state and local officials to gather more information about the rupture.
Another Panhandle Eastern pipeline ruptured in August 2008 in Cooper County, causing about $1 million in damages, according to a PHMSA report.
5 a.m. A natural gas pipeline exploded in Houstonia, Missouri in Pettis County just after midnight. The fireball could reportedly be seen over 30 miles away. Officials with the Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company say that the fire is now out and nobody was injured. Some families in the area were evacuated as a precaution. An investigation on what caused the blast is underway.
(AP) — Federal regulators have fined a former bank branch manager and banned him from the business.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued the order against Daniel Skalberg effective Oct. 31 but didn’t make the actions public until Friday.
Daniel Skalberg was president of Pinnacle Bank’s Madison branch from 1996 to 2010. He agreed to a $25,000 fine and the stipulation that he not work in banking again. He admitted no wrongdoing, however.
Skalberg had been accused of an improper loan scheme involving a Madison vehicle dealer from 2006 to 2010. The FDIC says the scheme cost the bank around $400,000.
There was no answer Friday at a phone listing in the area for a Daniel Skalberg.
(AP) Two people have been killed in a rollover crash in Kansas City.
Authorities closed the northbound lanes of U.S. 71 while the they investigated the accident, which occurred early Friday.
The names of the two people killed in the crash haven’t been released. A third person in the vehicle was also injured and transported to an area hospital. Check St. Joseph Post for more information as it becomes available.
(AP) – A 43-year-old Adair County man has been killed in a tractor rollover accident in northern Missouri. Richard Dale Johnson died after he became pinned underneath a tractor he had been operating on Tuesday. The Adair County Sheriff’s Office says Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sheriff Robert Hardwick said it appeared the tractor slid sideways before overturning and pinning Johnson.
(AP) — Amtrak officials say a rail line is in need of additional funding in order to keep passenger service moving through southwest Kansas at a profitable speed.
Amtrak needs to have the track maintained at a proper level so trains can move quickly and keep passenger service on time.
The track is owned by BNSF Railway and is used by Amtrak for about four passenger trains a day, including two runs by the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles. BNSF is willing to maintain the tracks to allow freight trains to travel at 30 mph, but not the 79-mph that Amtrak wants to maintain for passenger trains.
Amtrak has approached Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico about funding the $100 million for repairs.
