A large donation from the Saint Joseph Petroleum Company Fastgas stations will go towards the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign.

According to the Salvation Army, Fastgas stations collected .3 cents on every gallon sold the week before Christmas with customers help to raise $4,342.89. Friday, representatives from the gas company will present a check for the amount to Major Abe Tamayo.

The gift increases the donations made to The Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign from $275,710 to $280,052.89, 79 percent of its $349,000.00 goal for 2016.

“It is a most welcome and appreciated gift,” Tamayo said. “We here at The Salvation Army extend our thanks to the owners, staff and customers to Saint Joe Petroleum Fast Gas Company, this gift will help many throughout 2017.”

Tamayo said the Salvation Army provides shelter for one-third of the total Saint Joseph homeless population, its Family Thrift Store and Corps Community Center, warming and cooling stations and other services to the Saint Joseph community.

Missouri Western State University has already seen a record number of applications this academic year.

According to Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management and Retention Dr. Paul Orscheln, the university has surpassed 4,300 applications, breaking a record of 4,056 from 2007-2008.

“Obviously, our ultimate success will be measured in the fall by how many students we enroll, but before you can enroll you need to apply and be admitted – one hundred percent of prospective students who don’t apply, don’t enroll,” Dr. Orscheln said. “We are putting Missouri Western in position to meet its freshman enrollment goals.”

To assist with communicating to prospective students, Missouri Western last year contracted with Royall and Company to provide an expanded pool of prospective students who would be a good fit for the university. Missouri Western is communicating with more high school seniors for fall 2017 enrollment and with sophomores and juniors for enrollment in subsequent years. Royall and Company also helped streamline the application process.

“We’ve seen healthy increases both locally and in the Kansas City area, which speaks to our affordability and the quality of our academic programs,” Dr. Orscheln said. “These increases aren’t just in the raw number of applicants, but also in the quality of applicants; we are seeing students with higher ACT scores applying to Missouri Western.”

The earlier opportunity for students to apply for financial aid has also been beneficial. The U.S. Department of Education this year made the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) available in October, rather than in January as in years past.

Mosaic Life Care has been recognized with the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence. 

According to a press release, this is the sixth year Mosaic has received the award and it is one of only three hospitals in Missouri to receive the award from Healthgrades. In total, 258 hospitals were recognized as facilities performing in the top 5 percent nationwide based on risk-adjusted clinical outcomes for dozens of common procedures and conditions. 

“The clinical excellence award is really about our caregivers and the outstanding quality-focused care they provide,” says Mark Laney, MD, CEO of Mosaic Life Care. “It is evident in their attention to detail, their patient interactions and these outcomes.” 

Healthgrades bases the award on inpatient data for mortality and complications pulled from CMS’ Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) database, as well as inpatient data on appendectomy and bariatric surgery reported by the 18 states that provide all-payer state data. Healthgrades pulled MedPAR data for 2013 through 2015; the state data were available from only 2012 to 2014. Healthgrades adjusts the data for patient demographics and clinical risk factors. It then gives the Distinguished Hospital Award to hospitals that are “among the top 5 percent in the nation that deliver high-quality care across at least 21 of 32 common inpatient conditions and procedures.” 

Overall, Healthgrades says nearly 160,000 lives could have been saved if all hospitals performed at the same level as those that received an award.

Mosaic also received awards for areas including Pulmonary Care Excellence, General Surgery Excellence, America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Critical Care and America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care Award.

The St. Joseph Police Department is warning area residents about a phone scam circulating in which the scammer records your agreement then demands payment for unwanted purchases.

“People call and ask ‘If you can hear me okay?’ or ‘Can you hear me now?’; kind of like the old commercial to make it seem like maybe there’s a bad connection,” said Sgt. Roy Hoskins, Crime Prevention Officer with the St. Joseph Police Department. “Then when you say ‘Yes’ they record that and later use it as a form of consent in agreeing to a product or a service.”

He said they use the recording to claim you signed up for something and then bill you.

“Make sure you don’t answer any questions from someone you don’t recognize,” Hoskins said. “If it’s something out of state or out of the area you don’t recognize it or you aren’t expecting that call, a lot of times I don’t even answer it.”

The Better Business Bureau on Monday, issued an alert regarding the old scam with a new twist.  It said historically the scam has been directed towards business but BBB has been hearing the phone reported from consumers.  Hoskins said as of yet, the St. Joseph Police Department has not heard of anyone locally that has been impacted by the scam.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we got something like that around here,” Hoskins said. “The scammers are always trying to stay a step ahead of us.  Specifically with technology we’re always trying to catch up to what they’re doing and figure out how to defeat that type of scam.”

Hoskins said the best thing to do is to not answer the phone if you don’t know the number and never answer questions if you are unsure who you are dealing with.

For more information on the scam CLICK HERE to read the warning from BBB.

The immigration order signed last week by President Trump prompted a large protest at Kansas City International Airport, but has not had much of an impact here in St. Joseph.

At the Islamic Center of St. Joseph, someone left a flower bouquet at the front door. On the center’s Facebook page, they posted a photograph of the bouquet, and the following thank you:

“This evening, we came for congregational prayer at the mosque and we found this flower bouquet at the front door. Thank you to whoever did this neighborly act!”

At Missouri Western State University, officials report concern but no direct impact from the President’s order. The order bans the citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries—Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen—from entering the U.S. on any visa category.

Missouri Western’s Assistant Director of PR and Marketing Kent Heier says there are currently no students enrolled at the university who are from one of those seven countries. But Heier says they are hearing of concerns expressed by students from other countries.

“There’s concern about the possible impact on the ability of our students to travel,” Heier said. “I think there’s also a broader concern about what this means in terms of how the United States is welcoming people from elsewhere.”

“I think the formal stand that we are taking is that we welcome and encourage all of our students, including those students who come from overseas, and we will do everything we can to help them navigate this current environment.”