Beginning Monday, the Northwest Parkway and Karnes Road Improvements Project will begin.

According to a press release from the City of St. Joseph, this infrastructure project is funded through the Capital Improvements Program (CIP) half-cent sales tax in the amount of $2.6 million dollars. The project will realign Karnes Road through Northwest Parkway to eliminate Karnes intersecting at St. Joseph Avenue.

A detour will be in place that can be traveled in either direction on Lovers Lane at Gene Field to Miller Road traveling north to Cook Road. Cook Road would be followed west to St. Joseph Avenue.

It is anticipated that the closure and detour will last until fall 2018.

Creating Valentines for veterans will be the purpose of a crafting event next week at the Downtown Library in St. Joseph.

Katey Girard is the Young Adult Librarian at the Downtown Library and said the annual crafting event gives students ages 12-18 the opportunity to make Valentines that will be delivered to the Cameron Veterans Home.

“I think it’s a good way for students to give back to people who sacrificed a lot for us… and I think it’ll mean a lot to people who might not get Valentines otherwise,” Girard said.

The Valentines for Veterans crafting party will begin at 4 p.m. on Monday at the Downtown Library and Girard said art supplies will be provided for as many Valentines as volunteers want to make.

According to Girard they are planning to make around 200 Valentines.

For more information, contact the library at (816) 232-7729.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A St. Joseph woman was sentenced in federal court Tuesday for her role in a $1.5 million tax fraud scheme as well as for individual tax fraud.

Timothy A. Garrison, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that Dawn Langlais (formerly Ankrom-Brown), 60, of St. Joseph, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to 18 months in federal prison without parole.

On July 7, 2017, Langlais pleaded guilty to failing to pay over employee payroll taxes to the IRS. Her daughter, her sister, and her sister’s husband have also pleaded guilty.

Langlais helped her sister and co-defendant Dinorah Lynn Stoll-Weaver, 50, of St. Joseph, operate Homeward Bound Health Services, Inc., a home health provider located in St. Joseph, from 2001 through early 2010. Stoll-Weaver was the owner of Homeward Bound. In 2010, Homeward Bound’s name was changed to Silver Linings, Inc., and nominee owners were put in place who signed the checks but made no business decisions. Stoll-Weaver and Langlais continued to operate Silver Linings until it closed in 2013.

Homeward Bound and Silver Linings withheld and collected federal income taxes, Social Security taxes, and Medicare taxes from employees and then kept those withheld taxes instead of paying them over to the IRS. The total criminal tax loss attributed to Homeward Bound and Silver Linings for failure to pay employment taxes due and owing from 2001 to 2012 is $1,459,727.

Homeward Bound and Silver Linings also withheld from employee paychecks and kept child support payments, employee IRA contributions, and medical and dental insurance payments. The theft of these payments had negative collateral consequences for their employees.

Langlais and Stoll-Weaver admitted they received income from Homeward Bound and Silver Linings, which they failed to report on their individual federal income tax forms, and as a result, underpaid their federal income taxes. Langlais willfully failed to make an income tax return or pay personal income taxes from 2010 to 2012, for a total personal tax loss of $56,860.

Stoll-Weaver employed her husband, co-defendant Thad Weaver, 46, of St. Joseph, and Langlais employed her daughter, co-defendant Jennifer Sturgis, 39, of St. Joseph, at Homeward Bound and Silver Linings. They also employed other relatives at the business.

Stoll-Weaver also pleaded guilty to failing to pay over employee payroll taxes to the IRS. Weaver and Sturgis each pleaded guilty to making false statements on a tax return. Weaver and Sturgis admitted they received income from Homeward Bound and Silver Linings, which they failed to report on their individual federal income tax forms, and as a result, underpaid their federal income taxes.

Weaver and Stoll-Weaver were married and filed individual income tax returns for 2010 through 2012; Stoll-Weaver filed a separate return in 2009. Their combined unreported income was at least $257,827. Weaver’s total personal tax loss was at least $27,488. Stoll-Weaver’s personal tax loss was $34,264.

Sturgis willfully failed to make an income tax return or pay personal income taxes from 2007 to 2012, for a total personal tax loss of $148,347, including relevant conduct.

Additionally, from 2009 to 2012, Stoll-Weaver, Weaver and Sturgis each claimed personal federal income tax refunds, knowing that Homeward Bound and Silver Linings had not paid any income taxes to the IRS.

Weaver and Sturgis were each sentenced to five years of probation; Stoll-Weaver awaits sentencing.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen D. Mahoney. It was investigated by IRS – Criminal Investigation.

The St. Joseph Police Department recently made the switch to a new crime reporting system that has the potential to benefit the department and community.

The St. Joseph Police Department announced they are one of 38 law enforcement agencies in the state to have demonstrated the ability to report Missouri Incident Base Reporting System data.

Previously, the department has used summary reporting or Uniform Crime Reporting, a system developed in the 1920s to collect national crime data. Supervisor Dawn Hill with the department is the Assistant to the Public Safety Network Administrator. Hill said the Missouri Incident Base Reporting System (MIBRS) is a significant change in how data is collected, the detail of the data and the research capability.

“Missouri Incident Base Reporting looks at 49 different offenses. So, when we’re looking at an incident, it looks at all offenses that are involved. It also focuses on details of that incident which can be really important when you’re looking at crime trends or different crime data,” Hill said. “Things that it includes… the date, time and location of an incident. The race, the sex, the age of your victim and your offender, the relationship between your victim and offender, weapons, drug usage, details of property loss or injuries in a victim. You can see where all of these things would be really beneficial when you are looking at this type of data and trying to determine how crime is affecting our communities.”

Hill said the system will help the department work with similar jurisdictions and neighboring communities to find solutions and solve common problems.

Although it was not mandated until 2021, Hill said the police department recently obtained the MIBRS certification, which comes from criteria set by the state of Missouri and the FBI. Hill adds the St. Joseph Police Department was the first in the state to make the switch and successfully implement the software changes for the reporting system.

Online registration for the 2018 Pony Express Baseball season is open for individuals and teams in all divisions.

In-person registration will be available at an event hosted by Dicks Sporting Goods in St. Joseph from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, February 17th, and again March 3rd.

For more information, click here or visit Pony Express Baseball on Facebook.

The political science program at Missouri Western State University is sponsoring two candidate forums in advance of the St. Joseph Municipal Primary Election.

According to a press release, candidates for mayor and city council districts I and V have been invited to the forum at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30, and at-large council candidates have been invited to the forum at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1. Both will be held in room 102 of the Hearnes Center on the Missouri Western campus, and are free and open to the public.

Each candidate will be permitted two-minute opening and closing statements. The forum organizers will ask their own questions, as well as questions solicited from the audience.

The primary election ballot on Feb. 6 will include five candidates for St. Joseph mayor, ten candidates for three at-large council seats, and three candidates each for city council in district I and district V. The other three council districts do not have a contested primary.

Forums are also scheduled for March 27 and 29, before the city’s general election.

For more information, contact Dr. Jon Euchner at (816) 271-4358 or by e-mail at [email protected].

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – The following is a listing of general highway maintenance and construction work in the Northwest Missouri region planned for the week of Dec. 29 – Feb. 4 from the Missouri Department of Transportation. In addition to the work listed below, there may be pothole patching, shoulder work, bridge maintenance, striping, brush cutting, guardrail repairs and other road work conducted throughout the region. Many of these will be moving operations and could include lane closures with delays. All scheduled maintenance and construction projects are subject to change.

MoDOT reminds the public to stay alert, watch for road work, buckle up, slow down, and drive with extreme caution through work zones and in changing weather conditions.

For more information about a project, please contact MoDOT at 1-888-ASK-MoDOT (888-275-6636) or visit modot.org/northwest. You can also follow MoDOT’s Northwest Missouri District on Twitter @ModotNorthwest and on Facebook.

Andrew County

• U.S. Route 71 – Pothole patching from the city limits of Maryville (Nodaway County) to Route B, Jan. 30 – Feb. 2

Daviess County

• Route KK – CLOSED for a culvert replacement from 120th Street to the end of state maintenance, Jan. 29 – Feb. 1, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

Gentry County

• U.S. Route 169 – Bridge maintenance at the Middle Fork Grand River Bridge, Jan. 29 – Feb. 2

Linn County

• Route B – CLOSED for a culvert replacement from Route 5 to Route Y, Jan. 30, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Livingston County

• Route CC – CLOSED for a culvert replacement from County Road 257 to County Road 259, Jan. 31, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Nodaway County

• U.S. Route 136 – Shoulder work from the One Hundred and Two River Bridge to the Platte River Bridge, Jan. 29 – 31
• Route 113 – CLOSED for a culvert replacement from U.S. Route 136 to 210th Street, Jan. 30, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
• U.S. Route 71 – Pothole patching from the city limits of Maryville to Route B (Andrew County), Jan. 30 – Feb. 2
• Route 113 – CLOSED for a culvert replacement from 240th Street to 260th Street, Jan. 31, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.