(News release)– The United States Department of Education has awarded Northwest Missouri State University’s TRIO program funding that will allow it to continue for another five years.

The funding for the program is approved through 2022. The Northwest TRIO program will receive $368,829 annually through the competitive grant, which totals roughly $1.84 million during the five-year period.

TRIO is a federally recognized educational outreach program designed for students with disadvantaged backgrounds. It serves as an umbrella organization for Northwest programs consisting of Student Support Services, Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math and Science. TRIO programs provide valuable, supportive services to students from poor and working families to successfully enter college and earn degrees.

Since 1986, Northwest TRIO programs have promoted educational opportunities while assisting students in their personal journey of earning a higher education degree. The partnerships TRIO has within the Northwest campus community assist with addressing the unique needs of academically capable individuals who are first-generation students and come from families with limited income.

“Upward Bound’s pre-college planning framework assists its students in embracing more intensive academic performance habits to help their transition to post-secondary education,” Northwest TRIO Director Cassie Tavorn said. “This funding makes a very real and positive difference in the lives of our future decision-makers.”

The grant will allow Northwest’s TRIO program to serve 80 students when the new grant cycle begins Sept. 1.

The summer programs help students bridge the gap between high school and college while providing an environment for them to experience college life and independent living. The programs assist students with enhancing their academic, social, leadership and cultural competency skills to become forward thinkers in education.

Patrons of the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art have two new exhibits to check-out this weekend.

The Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art and the St. Joseph Friends of the Shelter have partnered on an exhibition that focuses on animals. The “Beauty of Our Beasts” celebrates furry, scaled, and feathered friends.  According to a press release, a call for artwork was made to the general public with no requirements made regarding the artist’s age simply that they create a masterpiece of their best friend, their pet. The exhibition does include 99 works of art from 70 artists, including 37 students from St. Paul Lutheran School. Five states are represented: Arkansas, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, and New York.

There are 43 works for sale with proceeds to be divided between AKMA and the Friends of the Shelter. This display of small artworks of pets of all kinds will be on display from June 9-October 8, 2017 at the AKMA.

A second exhibit, The Restless Regionalist: The Art of Joe Jones will debut Sunday at the Museum.

According to a news release, around sixty works by Joseph John Jones (1909-1963) from the Moffett Collection will tell the story of a radical artist who beat the odds of a rough childhood in St. Louis to be counted as a nationally-important American artist. Jones is known for politically-charged pieces addressing social injustices such as Klu Klux Klan lynchings and workers’ strikes, agitating in his own artistic way for social reforms as a deeply committed member of the American Communist Party. Even as a child of ten years, Jones had run-ins with local St. Louis police, and spent time in a youth detention facility before running away from home to California and getting arrested again for vagrancy. Poverty was a constant companion throughout the artists’s life and in consequence Jones could never afford instruction so was largely self-taught. His political philosophies were also gained through independent reading and thought. Steeped in Karl Marx’s Das Kapital and Communist Manifesto, Jones became a leader in what became known as “Marxart,” featuring depictions of workers of the world uniting and achieving a better society for themselves. The artist’s sense of regional ties is expressed through gritty scenes of American life in the Heartland countryside as well as in urban settings included in this exhibition. Supplemental works by close friends such as Henry Varnum Poor (1887-1970) and colleagues.

The exhibition will be on display through September 10th.

The City of St. Joseph Parks Department recently received some financial help to plant trees at Hyde Park.

Scott Koch, Horticulturist with the Parks Department said the Missouri Department of Conservation awarded the department $2,972.

“We applied last June for this grant in order to replace some of the trees we were removing down at Hyde Park down by the ball field complex which we were renovating,” Koch said. “This spring we were able to plant 10 Oak Trees and 10 Maples that were about six foot tall trees.”

According to a news release from the MDC, more than $380,000 was awarded to Missouri Communities through its 2016 TRIM grant.

An illegal immigrant was sentenced to four years in prison Friday for a head-on crash March 19 that sent another motorist to the hospital with serious injuries. Carlos Hernandez-Hernandez pleaded guilty through an interpreter to one count of DWI involving a crash with serious injury, a class-d felony.

Prosecutors say the defendant has been ordered extradited at least twice, is under a hold by ICE for deportation now, and faces criminal charges elsewhere for illegal reentry after deportation. Circuit Judge Patrick Robb sentenced the defendant to four years in the Dept. of Corrections.

During the plea hearing, Hernandez-Hernandez admitted driving a red Buick across the center line and crashing into another vehicle near the crossing of Missouri Route A and Route O, south of St. Joseph. Charging documents say he showed a blood-alcohol reading of .112% from a Portable Breath Test at the scene.

The other driver, a 53-year-old woman from the Faucett area, is recovering from extensive injuries. Court documents list two broken leg bones, five broken ribs and a lacerated calf that required surgery. Law enforcement reports listed many more injuries, including several lacerations and a punctured lung.

A man was seriously hurt in a crash Tuesday night in Holt County.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Dustin Barrett, 23 of Bellevue, Neb. was driving a 2014 Nissan Versa northbound on I-29 around 9:30 p.m. when his vehicle traveled off of the west side of the northbound lane and into the median. Barrett’s vehicle’s undercarriage hit the ground, then the vehicle went into the southbound lanes of I-29, off of the road and rolled over.

Barrett was taken by ambulance to Mosaic Life Care for treatment of what was described as a serious injury. He was reported to be wearing a seat belt.

A St. Joseph man is now facing a charge of possession of child pornography after his computer was seized two years ago.

Anthony Kromko, 45 was charged Wednesday in Buchanan County with a felony of possession of child pornography.

According to court documents, in February of 2015 officers with the St. Joseph Police Department responded to a home in the 1700 block of Green Valley Road after witnesses said they had observed what they believed to be child porn on Kromko’s computer.

“After a forensic examination of the device more than 1,300 images were located on the device of prepubescent juvenile females,” said Det. Frank Till with the St. Joseph Police Department. “19 of those images have been confirmed as known child pornography through a nationwide child pornography database.”

Kromko is being held on $25,000 cash only bail in the Buchanan County Jail.  He’s due in court June 13 for an arraignment.