The St. Joseph School District has been presented with another subpoena in connection with an FBI investigation.

According to the district, the Superintendent’s Office received a subpoena late last night to produce records from the St. Joseph School District to the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

The request is for documents relating to former employees of the district.

It’s the sixth request for information so far. The last subpoena request was in August.

Superintendent Dr. Robert Newhart will address the media at 3pm today in the Board of Edcuation room at 925 Felix Street.

The St. Joseph School District said it continues to fully cooperate with the investigation.

Police are looking for a man who robbed the City Star convenience store at gunpoint early Tuesday morning in Maryville.

According to Maryville Public Safety the armed robbery was reported around 1:30 a.m. at the City Star located at Main and Torrance.

The man was described as a black male, 5’6” – 6’0” wearing dark colored hoodie with white or silver sides, dark sweat pants or wind pants, a white bandanna mask and armed with a handgun, possibly semi-auto.

He reportedly approached the store on foot from the west and fled the same direction. He took off with an undisclosed amount of cash from register and small amount of merchandise.

Anyone with information that may be helpful in this investigation is asked to contact Maryville Public Safety at 660-562-3209.

(November 9, 2015)—The Internal Revenue Service released their findings from the recent audit of the St. Joseph School District completed in July.
“The district, overall, did well during this audit process. The findings are minimal and the fees assessed are marginal with the amount of documents reviewed. We will look at amending any policies or procedures that will prevent these issues from happening in the future and use this as a learning opportunity,” said Dr. Robert Newhart, Superintendent.

The district will agree to the payment of additional taxes owed in 2013 of $15,460.68 and in 2014 of $11,789.16. The total amount is $27,249.84. Reasons include:

• Six employees that Medicare taxes were not withheld in 2013 ($9827.06)
• Five employees whose Medicare taxes were not withheld in 2014 ($7255.38)
• Three employees that were paid through accounts payable and not through payroll
($797.63)
• Thirty-two vehicles taken home by staff on a nightly basis without proper documentation-
2013 ($4836.16)
• Thirty vehicles taken home by staff on a nightly basis without proper documentation-
2014 ($4533.90)
*(Due to rounding from the IRS, the amount is off by $.29)
A separate penalty fee from the IRS also included:
• Eleven W-9’s that were incorrectly filed or provided to the payee ($2200)
In June 2015, the Superintendent’s Office received a letter from the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, to examine federal tax returns for the 2013 calendar year. The EDUCATING EACH CHILD FOR SUCCESS examination of documents took place July 21-24, 2015.

The request was to examine, among other documents:
1. Completed Authorization and Declaration form.
2. Organizational Chart for calendar year 2013 including identification of principal executives.
3. Minutes of the meetings of the School Board for calendar year 2013.
4. Audited financial statements covering calendar year 2013.
5. Independent auditor letters to management and internal auditor reports to management relating
to calendar year 2013.
6. Chart of Accounts including a description of each account in use during calendar year
2013.
7. Copies of all employment contracts including, but not limited to, individual executive officer
contracts and union contracts in effect during calendar year 2013.
8. Copies of all termination agreements.
CLICK HERE to see a copy of the report.

Today
Sunny, with a high near 61. East southeast wind 5 to 9 mph becoming south in the morning.

Tonight
Mostly clear, with a low around 39. Southeast wind around 7 mph.

Tuesday
Partly sunny, with a high near 64. South southeast wind 7 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Tuesday Night
Areas of drizzle and thunderstorms after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 55. South wind 10 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Veterans Day
Showers and thunderstorms likely. Cloudy, with a high near 63. Breezy, with a south southeast wind 14 to 24 mph becoming west southwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

Wednesday Night
A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 39. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Thursday
Sunny, with a high near 56.

Thursday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 32.

Friday
Sunny, with a high near 51.

Friday Night
Clear, with a low around 31.

Saturday
Sunny, with a high near 59.

Saturday Night
Mostly clear, with a low around 39.

Sunday
Sunny, with a high near 61.

(correction: brunch held Thursday not on Veteran’s day)

Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department is holding a brunch in honor of those who have served in public safety or in the military.

“It’s an event to honor public service employees and veterans throughout the community,” said Colonel Bill Puett with the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department. “To say thank you in connection with Veteran’s Day. Everybody is welcome.”

A brunch will be catered and served from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the Law Enforcement Center in Downtown St. Joseph. The brunch will be held in the training room of the LEC located at 501 Faraon St.

“We want community members.  This is not something that we just want to have our folks in the building. We want veterans from the community, former, current, we want them to come in and sit down and have a meal on us,” Puett said. “Different members of the staff are going to be working and serving a meal.”

The department is invited members who serve or who have served in Public Safety (law enforcement, emergency communications, fire, ems, hazardous materials, and corrections) or any branch of the United States Armed Forces. It’s the first year for the event but Puett said they hope to make it a yearly one.

“Hopefully begin a long tradition in our community to honor those who have served at home or abroad,” Puett said.

There is no cost for the event, the bill is being covered by the Sheriff’s Office.

“They’ve line up quite a bit of food,” Puett said. “This event is simply to recognize, and say thank you, to those for their service.”

There’s a new art gallery in St Joseph. You might be surprised when you find out where it is. It’s contents may startle you as well.

For now it’s called “The Dooley Room,” named after Dooley Lawrence, the Northwest Missouri artist who recently opened the facility. It’s in the East Hills Mall, across the food court from J.C. Penneys.

“I want to blur the lines between public, retail and personal-studio space,” Mr. Lawrence says, pointing to a large offering of ceramic works created over several years alongside some new paintings that he’s still working on. He says the public has been enthusiastic.

“You walk by this room, you look in here. It’s a big museum space. It just pops” he said in an interview.

“With that back wall and this whole open gallery, people interested in the visual thing going on are walking in the door and going ‘this is cool, who are you?'”

Future plans include possible musical performances in the gallery, but, technically Lawrence is still moving in.

“I’ll continue moving in, probably through the holidays,” he says.

What he’s moved in so far is impressive, including huge soft Maple planks serving as benches, but which Lawrence says would serve very well as sculpture, wall paintings, or other kinds of furniture. He burnishes the 20-foot planks with a grinder. The soft-maple lumber comes from Northwest Missouri river bottoms, via a sawmill in Dekalb, Mo.

Also on display are a series of new paintings rendered on artists’ drop cloths. Mr. Lawrence says he’s still working on many of these, including the mammoth piece that fills that back wall of the gallery.

Lawrence believes his space will serve as a “gap” to which mall-goers can go to leave behind the big box stores, the Coke machines, and the food.

“This is actually what I think a mall is. I think I’m just opening up my space, preserving a kind of cave. And, I’m the cave painter. Come on into the cave and let’s look at the walls together!”

Hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 2-9 p.m. through the end of the year. He says if things work out he’ll negotiate with the mall to stay a little longer.

A St. Joseph man will be featured this week on an Animal Planet series that showcases people who discover parasites, tiny terrors and creepy crawlers lurking in their bodies.

Chris Motsinger, who found worms crawling through his lungs will appear on MONSTERS INSIDE ME, Nov. 12 at 9 p.m.   The episode is called, “Worms Are Eating My Lungs.”

The episode talks about how after playing basketball Chris starting feeling cramps.

“I came out on the couch and relaxed and I noticed there was like a bubbling sensation in the back of my shoulder-blade,” Chris said. “It was like a gurgling sound I felt like I could almost hear it if I moved a certain way. My initial thought was there’s a hole in my lung my mind was racing trying to figure out what it was,” Chris said near the beginning of the show.

Dr. Scott Folk an Infectious Disease Specialist with Mosaic Life Care is also featured on the show.

“Chris had a parasitic infection,” Dr. Folk said in the show.

Chris talks about the worms.

“It was inside my lung, tearing it to pieces,” Chris said.

The “Worms are Eating My Lungs” episode will air Thursday, Nov. 12 on Animal Planet.  The show will also feature several other people dealing with rare parasites and terrors.

 

Meth, thousands in cash and several stolen weapons were seized during a Buchanan County Drug Strike Force operation Thursday in St. Joseph.

According to the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department investigators from the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force and the Regional Special Response Team searched a home in the 1800 block of Mulberry St. in St. Joseph around 9 a.m. Thursday.

Two people were arrested at the home and more than 40 grams of methamphetamine with a street value of $4,000 was seized. Investigators also seized $60,000 in cash and several weapons from the residence.

Authorities said some of the weapons seized had previously been reported stolen.

“Long-term investigation, working with other agencies, developing information, just good long hard investigating work,” said Colonel Bill Puett with the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Dept.  “Any amount of methamphetamine we can get off the street is a benefit for the community.”

One of the suspects was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and for outstanding arrest warrants. Two other subjects were also arrested for outstanding arrest warrants.

The Saint Joseph Police Department obtained a second search warrant for the residence to search for stolen property.

The case has been referred to the Buchanan County Prosecutor’s Office for consideration of charges.