Stan Unruh – Page 910 – St. Joseph Post Archive

Missouri Western man gets new command assignment

Posted on October 19, 2013

U.S. Air Force Col. Ralph Schwader, vice commander of the Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing, will assume command of the Wing in January 2014.

Maj. Gen. Steve Danner, adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard, announced today Col. Ralph L. Schwader will assume command of the St. Joseph-based 139th Airlift Wing in January.

A change of command ceremony for Schwader and outgoing commander, Col. Michael Pankau, is scheduled for January, Danner said.

“I’m very pleased to have an officer with Col. Schwader’s proven track record of character and experience at the helm of the 139th,” Danner said. “He will build on the great work done by his predecessor and fellow Veteran, Col. Michael Pankau.”

Schwader, an experienced C-130 pilot who has flown 6,277 flight hours, said he is ready to take command.

“I am very honored to be selected by Maj. Gen. Danner as the next wing commander of the 139th Airlift Wing,” Schwader said. “Col. Mike Pankau has done an outstanding job leading this organization over the past three years during some significant challenges that included numerous combat deployments of 139th personnel. He leaves the wing secure on a great path for the future. I am very proud to be part of the 139th Airlift Wing and look forward to leading this team of combat-tested men and women veterans into the future.”

Pankau, the current wing commander, said the wing will continue to flourish under Schwader’s leadership.

“With the leadership team in place at the wing coupled with the best community support enjoyed by any military organization, I believe future mission expansion is guaranteed,” Pankau said.

Danner called Schwader a “seasoned Veteran,” citing his experiences supporting combat operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Schwader served as a deployed commander for the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He later served as deputy operations group commander of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, which was responsible for eight squadrons and one flight.

Schwader has also support operations and exercises including Volant Oak, Coronet Oak, Southern Watch, Provide Hope, Provide Comfort, Joint Forge, Uphold Democracy and Noble Eagle.

Schwader’s history with the Missouri Air National Guard and the St. Joseph community spans a lifetime. He is a 1986 graduate of Missouri Western University, and received his commission through the Air National Guard in 1987. After attending pilot training, Schwader got his first assignment with the 139th Airlift Wing in 1990.

Since then, Schwader has served in a number of capacities including aircraft commander, chief of standardization/evaluation, director of operations for the 180th Airlift Squadron, commander of the 180th Airlift Squadron, commander of the 139th Operations Group and, most recently, vice commander of the 139th Airlift Wing.

Schwader has 324 combat flight hours and 175 combat support hours. Schwader is a highly-decorated officer whose military awards include the Meritorious Service Medal with two devices, the Air Medal with four devices, the Aerial Achievement Medal with two devices, the Air Force Commendation Medal with one device, the Air Force Achievement Medal, the Air Force Combat Action Medal and the NATO Medal.

The St. Joseph native becomes the eleventh commander of the unit that traces its start to a small group of Airmen who fought World War II in the skies over Europe. Pankau said he is proud to have been a part of that history.

“Working with the best of the best, the men and women of the 139th Airlift Wing, has been a fantastic experience,” Pankau said. “I wouldn’t change one moment of the last three decades with this unit. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I am proud of my service and look forward to the next chapter of my life.”

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please visit www.moguard.com and our social media sites: www.facebook.com/Missouri.National.Guard; www.twitter.com/Missouri_NG; www.youtube.com/MoNationalGuard; www.myspace.com/missouri_ng; www.flickr.com/photos/missouriguard; www.blog.moguard.com

2013 National Small Farm Trade Show and Conference just days away

Posted on October 19, 2013October 17, 2013

The National Small Farm Trade Show & Conference is the largest annual small farm show in the United States. Come to the show and bring a friend. The 60,000 sq ft exhibition hall features 100+ vendors as part of the event with seminars, three-hour short courses and talks in the Farmers’ Forum, demonstrations, exhibits, association meetings and more.

The conference again features money making farmers communicating their methods to fellow farmers.

Ideas and information on income opportunities for the family farm will be presented in our seminars and short courses. Both traditional and alternative farming enterprises are covered for full- and part-time farmers, ranchers, gardners and landowners. It is a perfect opportunity to visit one-on-one with the exhibitors and other small acerage owners. Even non-farmers enjoy the animals and Trade Show.
Farmers’ Round Table:
Friday, November 1, 2013
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Meat Goats, headed by Jeff Yearington, Lincoln University Extension.
12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. — Small Herd Beef Cattle, headed by Lincoln University S.A.R.E.
2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. — Seed Saving, headed by Art Davidson of Baker Creek Seeds
4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. — The Importance of Vitamin K, headed by Weston A Price Foundation

Saturday, November 2, 2013
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. — Market Gardening, headed by Samantha Wiseman.
12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. — General Poultry Management, headed by Phillip Peak, Westfork Hatchery.
2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. — Organization and Management of Farmer’s Markets, headed by Mrs. Dale Davis, Warren County Extension.
4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. — TBA

Seminars:
Friday, November 1, 2013
9:00 a.m. — Introduction by Ron Macher
9:45 a.m. — Keynote Address by Dr. Robert L. Kinkead D.V.M.
10:30 a.m. — Dr. J. Pinero, Lincoln University, ‘Trap Cropping for Effective Pest Management of Key Insect Pests’
11:45 a.m. — Patrick Byers; Opportunities with Fruit Trees
1:00 p.m. — Roger & Beth Matson, Never Ending Harvest: Fall, Winter and Spring Produce Production
2:15 p.m. — Tim Reinbott, Bradford Research Center (UMC); Cover Crops
3:30 p.m. — Dr. Robert L. Kinkead D.V.M.; Mistakes I’ve Made
4:45 p.m. — To Be Announced (TBA)

Saturday, November 2, 2013
9:00 a.m. — Greg Judy, Author, Grazing Management Practices to Weather a Summer Drought
10:15 a.m. — Tim Banek, Missouri Department of Conservation; Problem Invasive Plant Species and How You Can Help
11:30 a.m. — Doug Peterson, (outside demonstration), Soil Health Demonstration with Rainfall Runoff Simulator
12:45 p.m. — Tim Reinbott, Bradford Research Center (UMC); Bring a Soil Sample from Your Farm for Carbon Level Testing
1:30 p.m. — Greg Judy, Watering and Fencing Techniques (demo in pavilion)
2:00 p.m. — (inside demonstration), The Basics of Soil Health
3:15 p.m. — Kelly Klober, Author; Breeding a Chicken Flock for Sustainablility (hands on demo at the poultry exhibition)

Short Courses:
Friday, November 1, 2013
10:30 a.m. — Small Ruminant Raising – Part 1 , Todd Higgins, Lincoln Univ.
1:45 p.m. — Chicken Processing, Kevin Backes

Saturday, November 2, 2013
8:30 a.m. — Small Ruminant Raising – Part 2, Todd Higgins, Lincoln Univ.
11:30 p.m. — Chicken Processing, Kevin Backes (same as Friday)
2:30 p.m. — Cover Crops, Todd Higgins, Lincoln University
For more information on the Trade Show, call at 573.687.3525

Arrest in Planned Parenthood arson attempt

Posted on October 18, 2013

(AP) — A Joplin man is charged with trying to set fire to the roof a Planned Parenthood clinic in the city.

The U.S. Justice Department said 30-year-old Jedediah Stout was arrested Friday and charged with attempted arson. He was held pending a federal court appearance Monday in Springfield.

The one-story clinic — which does not perform abortions — sustained minor damage the night of Oct. 4 when someone threw a backpack containing a bottle of clear liquid on the roof and lit an attached rope that hung to the ground. An identical attempt the previous night had failed.

FBI agents traced the backpack to a Wal-Mart store, where video showed Stout buying a backpack and rope Oct. 1.

Stout did not have a lawyer Friday and does not have a listed phone number.

Girl in the rape case writes 1st-person account

Posted on October 18, 2013October 18, 2013

(AP) The Missouri teen who says she was raped by an older boy at her high school and left passed out on her porch wrote in an online woman’s magazine that the

incident sent her into a spiral and she twice tried to commit suicide.

Daisy Coleman, who was 14 when she says a 17-year-old Maryville High School student plied her with alcohol and had sex with her while she was incapacitated, told her story in a first-person article posted Friday on xojane.com. In the article, she wrote about how she and her friend, a 13-year-old, were picked up at her house on Jan. 8, 2012, by the 17-year-old, who she says sexually assaulted her in his basement after she drank a clear liquid he provided her.

“Then it was like I fell into a dark abyss,” she wrote. “No light anywhere. Just dark, dense silence _ and cold. That’s all I could ever remember from that night.”

Mandy Stadtmiller, deputy editor for the website, said she asked Daisy, now 16, to provide the first-person account after reading about her story.

“I thought the article was heartbreaking and very powerful in its innocence, and in its shattered innocence,” Stadtmiller said.

The case has generated new attention and an outpouring of responses on social media following a Kansas City Star investigation describing how Nodaway County prosecutor Robert Rice dismissed felony charges against the 17-year-old and another teen boy accused of recording the incident on his cellphone. The Colemans also spoke out earlier this summer to Kansas City radio station KCUR.

On Wednesday, Rice announced he was asking a court to appoint a special prosecutor to examine the evidence and decide whether charges are warranted.

The Associated Press does not generally name victims of sexual assault but is naming the Colemans because they have been granting public interviews about the case. The AP is not naming the accused boys because there are no active charges against them. Melinda Coleman didn’t immediately respond to requests Friday seeking comment about the online article.

In the xojane.com article, Daisy said the reason she chose to talk publicly is because she refuses “to be a victim of cruelty any longer.”

“I not only survived, I didn’t give up. I’ve been told that a special prosecutor is going to reopen the case now. This is a victory, not just for me, but for every girl,” she wrote.

Maryville rape media storm grows (AUDIO)

Posted on October 18, 2013October 18, 2013

Daisy, the teen at the center of the controversy

The allegations that a northwest Missouri teenager was sexually assaulted by some boys at a party in 2012 has received renewed attention across the nation over the past week after results of a seven-month investigation were published.

Nodaway County Prosecuting Attorney Bob Rice, who originally said there was no criminal offense to prosecute, is now asking the court to appoint a special prosecutor in the case.

This audio below is from a radio interview conducted on a Maryville student radio station in 2012, as this story was just beginning to unfold.

Nodaway County officials say the case against the boys fell apart because the girl and her mother would not cooperate with the investigation. The girl and her mother deny this.

I-70 accident backs up Friday traffic

Posted on October 18, 2013October 18, 2013

5p.m. An additional multiple car accident east bound on I-70 has tied up traffic in the area. No word on injuries at this hour.

4:30 p.m. Traffic should return to normal soon. The Kansas Highway Patrol told the Post that the overturned semi was now upright and was in the process of being removed from the scene.

East bound I-70 traffic is backed up for more than a mile from an injury accident at I-70 near Paxico, west of Topeka involving an overturned semi truck.

I-70 accident Friday afternoon has traffic backed up for miles

Traffic backup on I-70 east on Friday afternoon

The Kanas Highway Patrol has lanes closed and is

Traffic back up from the Friday accident

asking drivers for patience as they work in cold wet condition.

Stay tuned to Eagle Radio and Check the Post for more information as it becomes available.

New use of federal powers in case against Missouri businesses

Posted on October 18, 2013

(AP) U.S. attorneys announced indictments Friday against four additional central Missouri businesses and nine people accused of selling synthetic marijuana in what some defense attorneys described as a relatively new use of federal prosecutorial powers.
The indictments take aim at products that often are marketed as incense but that prosecutors contend are intended to be used as a marijuana equivalent. Although the mixtures are not specifically banned, prosecutors are citing a federal law that allows charges for products containing chemicals that are similar to controlled substances.

Two Columbia businessmen pleaded not guilty Thursday to a similar indictment alleging a $2 million conspiracy to sell synthetic marijuana. A Springfield woman pleaded guilty to a similar $1.3 million synthetic marijuana case in July.
Federal prosecutors also have been pursing synthetic marijuana cases in other parts of the U.S., most notably winning the conviction of a Minnesota man last week on 51 of the 55 charges he faced.
The products often include plant materials that have been sprayed or mixed with chemical compounds that are difficult for authorities to regulate because of the constantly changing formulas used in the mixtures.

The Missouri indictments announced Friday actually were handed down earlier this month under seal, but a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said they weren’t previously disclosed because of the partial federal government shutdown.
Some defense attorneys have questioned whether federal authorities should be targeting businesses for selling products not explicitly banned by federal law.
“My client had every product that he brought into his store tested by an independent laboratory, and it was always found to be negative of any of the chemical formations that have been designated as not being legal,” said Bret Rich, an attorney for defendant Charles Austin Jr. and the Puff N Snuff stores that Austin operates in Eldon and Camdenton.
“He’s tried to do everything he can to try to stay within the law,” Rich said.
Austin, 61, of St. Charles, has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.
Others named in the indictment include the Columbia businesses Dynamic Scents and Order Refill; Mozark Products in Jefferson City; siblings Mathew Hawkins, 38, Patrick Hawkins, 31, and Molly Carmichael, 36, all of Columbia; Alexander McMillin, 29, of Columbia; Kent Holtz, 42, of Kaiser; Chadwick Schlicht, 43, of Osage Beach; Scott Hanson, 47, of Versailles; and Thomas McCormack, 28, of Jefferson City.
The three siblings are the children of John Hawkins, 51, of Columbia, whose separate indictment with Kevin Bay on synthetic marijuana charges was publicly released Thursday by U.S. attorneys. Bay and Hawkins operate the Bocomo Bay retail store in Columbia and have both pleaded not guilty.
McMillin, Hawkins and his family are represented by Columbia attorney Dan Viets, who had said Thursday that he plans to challenge federal assertions that the products are illegal.
An attorney for Schlicht said his client pleaded not guilty during a court appearance Friday.
Attorneys for the other defendants did not immediately return telephone messages Friday.

Court of Appeals rules on stockholders meeting

Posted on October 18, 2013

(AP) — The Kansas Court of Appeals says MGP Ingredients in Atchison can have a stockholders meeting, which had been delayed for months by a fight between the company’s board members.

The appeals court this week lifted a stay it had placed on the stockholders meeting, effective next Tuesday. The appeals court placed the stay on the meeting so it could consider the case.

Six MGP board members and the company’s CEO, Tim Newkirk, have delayed the stockholders’ meeting as they try to sell at least part of the company.

Two other board members, Cloud Cray Jr. and Karen Seaberg, who have ties to the company’s founders, want to remove Newkirk and replace two board members. They say selling the company would not be in stockholders’ best interests.

Professor Rouch Update

Posted on October 18, 2013

After an arraignment on felony drug charges, professor Matt Rouch will no longer be teaching at Northwest Missouri State University. Provost Doug Dunham

announced this week that the 57 year old Maryville resident has resigned.

Rouch’s problems began with a Facebook message sent from his account. It started by saying he was always optimistic at the start of the school year, but “by October, I’ll be wanting to get up to the top of the bell tower with a high powered rifle — with a good scope, and probably a gatling gun as well.”

Missouri Sheriff pleads in harassment case

Posted on October 18, 2013

A Missouri sheriff has pleaded not guilty to charges that he harassed and stalked a woman.

27-year-old Osage County Sheriff Michael Dixon pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of tampering with a vehicle and to four misdemeanors.

Authorities allege Dixon stalked and harassed a woman identified only as CM. She alleged that Dixon placed a flashlight against her in a sexually suggestive way after she had reported a crime. Dixon also allegedly drove way with a four-wheeler belonging to the woman’s fiance.

Dixon’s attorney, Travis Noble, requested a preliminary hearing that will be scheduled after the Missouri Supreme Court appoints a different special judge to hear it. The sheriff was ordered to be finger-printed for the case.