Two parents in Andrew County are facing numerous felony charges after four children were found walking along a highway earlier this week.

Jenna and Brian Eaton of Rosendale are each charged with four felonies of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and four felonies for abuse or neglect of a child.

According to court documents, on Wednesday shortly after 7:30 p.m. the Andrew County Sheriff’s Office was notified of four kids walking on 48 highway with blankets.

“The caller stated he will follow the kids.  He located them at the River Bridge on 48 hwy west of Rosendale.  He picked them up and waited at the Rosendale Post Office,” said Deputy Robert Elam with the sheriff’s department.

The children allegedly told the deputy Jenna had been drinking and was in bed when their step-father, Brian kicked them out of the house and told them not to come back. Brian also admitted to drinking that evening in court documents.

“He locked them down stairs with a gate and a large piece of plywood.  He stated it was because they steal food,” said Elam. “Jenna Eaton allowed the children to be locked down stairs.”

Jenna allegedly said she knew the area where she and her husband forced the children to live was bad but that she let Brian handle that.

Brian and Jenna are each being held on $30,000 bail in the Andrew County Jail.  A court date was not yet listed on online documents.

The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department is warning residents about a new scam circulating involving warrants for missing jury duty.

According to a news release, the sheriff’s department has received information that scammers are calling Buchanan County citizens stating that the citizen has a warrant for missing Jury duty. The citizen is then instructed that they will have to pay a fine immediately to a member of the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department. The citizen is instructed that they have to stay on the phone and immediately pay the fine at suite 200.

The department said the scammers are using phone numbers belonging to the sheriff’s department for the caller ID and names of members of the department.

“THIS IS A SCAM. The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department will NEVER contact you by phone to come in and pay a fine. The department will also never call you and ask you to pay a fine over the phone. The location being given to pay the fine at is not a real location at the department,” said Deputy Sarah Hardin with the sheriff’s department.

Residents are being advised to never give out their personal information over the phone to a caller advising they are from the sheriff’s department or to give their debit or credit card information over the phone.

“Citizens should always verify the number calling them by calling back to the department and requesting the member of the department by name,” Hardin said.

The president’s proposed budget would cut funding for four Community Action Partnership programs that benefit low income families in St. Joseph.

“All of our major programs except for Head Start, I think, are either set to be drastically cut or completely eliminated,” said Executive Director Whitney Lanning, of the Community Action Partnership of Greater St. Joseph.

She said the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, is set to be eliminated. The weatherization program is also set to be eliminated.  In fact, the grant money that sets CAP as a community action agency could be cut.

“The Community Development Block Grant funds are scheduled to be completely eliminated,” Lanning said.

She said if the proposed budget were to go through as it stood Thursday, thousands of people in northwest Missouri would be impacted. CAP St. Joe aided 1,500 low income individuals who applied for utility assistance last year through its LIHEAP program.

“80 percent of the people who utilize it, utilize it one time in their lifetime,” Lanning said.  “It’s a program that you can only use one time a year and the primary people who use it are the elderly and the disabled.  These are people who are on fixed incomes and are very vulnerable to poverty and things that poverty causes,” she said. “When we’re talking about that program completely going away you’re literally going to have elderly or disabled people living in homes with no heat.”

The proposed budget would eliminate Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding which Lanning said will have an impact in many areas.  She points to small towns without the tax revenues for new water lines or streets.  With the help of CDBG funding and local matches, Maysville got new water lines, Osborn received a new waste water plant, and new streets are planned in Stewartsville.  CAP just got the opportunity to create two new Head Start centers for preschool services in Cameron and Savannah.

Also on the chopping block, $500,000 in  Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) funding which Lanning said goes to meet needs throughout their service area of Andrew, Buchanan, Clinton and DeKalb counties.  The cut will impact St. Joseph residents struggling to pay their sewer bills.

“There was a real issue with low income individuals getting their water turned off because they were past due on the sewer payments,” Lanning said, “and so there were people going without water.  There were kids going to the schools having to take showers at the schools and having to fill up water bottles and take them home.”

“A year and a half ago we were able to create that sewer assistance program and we spend about $3,000-to-$4,000, sometimes $5,000 a month just on people who are low income, elderly, disabled, people who have children, young children in their home, just to make sure their water stays on,” she said.

She said CAP St. Joe isn’t just providing hand-outs to people, as is often the stigma.

“The way our culture, our society, has started talking about the poor, it’s not very favorable,” Lanning said.  “It’s almost as if low-income people have done something wrong and deserve to be low income and that’s just not the case.  There aren’t that many living wage jobs, and we do have system issues. but completely eliminating them, at least to me, is not the answer.”

“These communities need to know there’s going to be a dramatic, significant change.  It’s going to be much more difficult than it already is,” she said.

If the budget passes as proposed, CAP St. Joe would lose up to $6 million – 99 percent of the agency’s funding.  She said they receive some funding from the United Way to help with water assistance as well as rent and mortgage assistance.  But she said they could lose the funding to employ the people who administer those funds.

At this point, Lanning suggests writing to lawmakers.

“Working with your legislators, working with your city council people, at all levels of government to say ‘we think this is important and we want it to stay,’ I think is the best advice that I can give,” Lanning said.

Law enforcement officials are touting an upcoming course for the public to gain hands-on experience on how the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office and the St. Joseph Police Department operate.

Each year the departments team-up for a Joint Citizens Law Enforcement Academy.  Around 3o community members can participate in the eight-week course.

Police Chief Chris Connally said there’s no charge to attend.  However, participants have to be 18 or older and pass a background check.

“You get into things like crime scene investigations and some of the tools that we have and some of the realities that may not coincide with what you see on TV. Things like on TV they get DNA back immediately, we don’t get it back immediately.  Even if it’s a homicide, it’s months,” Connally said. “It’s a great opportunity to interact, it’s two-way communication.”

The academy starts April 11 and runs through May 30.  Classes meet on Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.  Anyone wanting to sign-up should contact Sgt. Roy Hoskins at (816) 236-1473 or Evidence Specialist Valerie Pasley at (816) 236-8894.

The Missouri Department of Conservation plans to host bird bingo later this month in St. Joseph.

The event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 28 at the MDC’s Northwest Regional Office at 701 James McCarthy Drive on the campus of Missouri Western State University. The activity is open to all ages.

MDC Naturalist Jada Tressler will lead bird bingo, and she’ll have binoculars and birding tips for attendees. The conservation said the outdoor activity involves watching birds of different colors that visit the office’s bird feeders. Those who spot the right combination of colors can be the first to yell “bingo.” Registration is not necessary for this walk-in program.

For more information about bird bingo, call 816-271-3100. For information about birding in Missouri, visit http://on.mo.gov/2lUli6b.

(News release)- A home health care worker has been accused of stealing a patient’s hydrocodone tablets and substituting them with acetaminophen tablets.

Kerrina Elliott, 43, of Smithville Missouri, has been charged in Platte County with stealing, elderly abuse, and possession of methamphetamine.

Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said the charges were filed on March 14, 2017 following an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations and the Platte County Sheriff’s Department.

According to court documents, authorities were contacted in January when caregivers of a 95-year-old woman noticed that her hydrocodone tablets had been replaced with 500 mg acetaminophen tablets.

The elderly woman is receiving hospice services and requires constant care.  Caregivers become concerned when the woman became ill when given her medications.

On February 16, an FDA investigator installed a hidden camera in the woman’s kitchen with the approval of her caregiver. On March 1, the caregiver contacted investigators to report that four hydrocodone tablets prescribed to the woman were missing from a locked prescription box in the kitchen.

Investigators determined Elliott worked at the woman’s residence during this time frame but would have no reason to access the locked prescription box. Elliott was not to administer medications under her work contract; instead, her job duties consisted of cleaning, personal care, cooking, and laundry services.  However, video footage allegedly shows Elliott accessing the locked prescription box twice in a secretive manner.

On March 13, Platte County deputies stopped Elliott for traffic violations.  She consented to a search of her vehicle.  Deputies found a small bag of crystal substance and a hollow pen inside her purse. A field test of the crystal substance allegedly indicated it was methamphetamine.

Because prosecutors have charged Elliott as a prior and persistent felony offender, she faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the stealing and possession charges. She faces up to a year in jail for elder abuse.  She remains in custody in the Platte County Detention Center in lieu of a $25,000 cash bond.

The case against Elliott is being prosecuted by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Miranda Loesch.

The charges against Elliott are merely allegations, and she is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

A local business is hiring to fill 400 additional permanent jobs at its St. Joseph location.

Alorica, a customer service solutions business announced the job openings Tuesday.  Ken Muche, Alorica Dir. of Global Public Relations said the additional jobs are due to more business from a current client.(correction)

“Alorica is the largest provider of customer service to the U.S. market in the world,” Muche said. “With 100,000 employees and more than 102 offices in the United States we are expanding, we are growing and right here in St. Joseph we are adding 400 jobs.  Everything from vendor relations, to customer relations to trainers, supervisor jobs, etc.”

Muche said the positions offer a competitive salary.

“If I actually gave a number today then tomorrow the competition would come out and offer 10 cents more. So I can’t do that.  But I can tell you that it is competitive, there is a benefit plan in place as well,” Muche said. “These are not seasonal.  They’re also not temporary. These are new incremental, permanent jobs.  The client has come to us and said, ‘Hey, you’ve done some good work here, we would like to give you more of our business.’ They are a huge business themselves, they have a lot of customers that need help and so we’re expanding to meet the demand.”

Alorica currently employees more than 570 people at its St. Joseph office located at 4315 Pickett Road. Muche said people looking for a job need to stop by and apply in person.

“It’s a variety of different things that we’re looking for. Engaging people, people who like to help other people, or maybe you’re a good writer and you like engaging people that way. We’re looking for people who like helping others,” Muche said. “If you like helping people and interacting with folks and making a difference that way we want you on team Alorica.”

For more information on open positions at Alorica, CLICK HERE.