A St. Joseph man and woman have pleaded guilty in federal court to their roles in a more than $5 million conspiracy to provide bogus IDs to illegal immigrants via the St Joseph License Office.

Jessica M. Gonzalez, 21, of St. Joseph, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012, to the charge contained in a Jan. 10, 2012, federal indictment.

Her brother, Stephen E. Vanvacter, 25, also of St. Joseph, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Aug. 31, 2012.

By pleading guilty, Gonzalez and Vanvacter admitted they participated in a conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, to unlawfully produce identification documents, to unlawfully transfer another person’s identification and to commit Social Security fraud.

Their sisters and co-defendants, Sara M. Gonzalez, 21, and Christina Michelle Gonzalez, 24, both of St. Joseph, have pleaded guilty to the same charge.

State Auditor Tom Schweich gave the Missouri Governor’s office a rating of “fair” after an audit.

According to the report, Gov. Nixon continues to ignore advice given to him by state auditors of both political parties regarding operating costs for personnel and what were termed wasteful travel expenses. Nixon spent more than $602,000 on travel expenses paid for by the taxpayers for himself and his staff.

The report is also critical of the governor’s paying for his office’s expenses from appropriations to other agencies. Schweich says the governor’s office would have spent more than its appropriation in each of the three fiscal years audited had other agencies not picked up the tab.

Gov. Nixon is a Democrat. Schweich is a Republican.

Here are more findings from the audit report released Wednesday.

Fourteen agencies funded all or part of the salaries for several employees of the governor’s office for a total of $770,000, and the Office of Administration (OA) paid $32,000 to compensate an “advisor on education” to the governor. OA employees do not separately account for and report the time spent performing tasks for the governor’s office and mansion.

In the first 30 months of the current administration’s tenure, employees of the governor’s office flew 334 days on state planes, costing approximately $565,000, 96 percent of which was paid by various state agencies. State agencies also paid approximately $37,000 for other travel expenses for employees of the governor’s office and various other operating expenses of the governor’s office totaling approximately $406,000. This situation has been noted in previous reports from Auditor Schweich and his Democrat predecessor.

The governor’s office does not evaluate whether commercial flights would be more economical than state planes for out-of-state trips. Flight costs for 19 out-of-state flights totaled approximately $92,800, which included $15,630 for wait time costs and $8,570 for pilot expense. The governor’s office could have saved approximately $15,500 if individuals had flown commercial flights on two trips to Washington D.C.

Hotel charges exceeded recommended rates per state policy, meal charges exceeded per diem rates, and airline tickets were not purchased at least 21 days before the flight. One employee, domiciled in St. Louis, stayed at a hotel in Jefferson City approximately 150 nights at a cost of almost $12,000 when more economic alternatives existed.

To view the complete report, Citizens Summary and audit rating scale, click here.

The Northwest Medical Center in Albany is among eleven rural Missouri hospitals set to receive grants from the state to upgrade their broadband Internet access. Governor Jay Nixon on Wednesday announced $262 thousand in grants from the MoBroadbandNow initiative.

Northwest Medical Center will use its grant of up to $25 thousand to increase broadband Internet access to and from its four rural health clinics. The hospital will provide $5,000 in matching funds for the project.

Eleven rural hospitals throughout Missouri will soon be able to provide improved telemedicine care for their patients, thanks to the grants. The Governor made the announcement in Dexter at Missouri Southern Healthcare, one of the recipients of a Rural Hospital Broadband Connection grant, where he was joined by local healthcare leaders and by officials from the MoBroadbandNow program.

“One of the very real benefits of improved broadband service in rural Missouri is in telemedicine – connecting Missourians and their physicians with specialists many miles away who can look at high-resolution images and receive other vital information on a real-time basis to help doctors treat those patients,” Gov. Nixon said. “Expanded broadband accessibility between healthcare providers will mean access to quicker and more specialized care that is often life-saving for patients.”

In addition to the hospitals in Albany and Dexter, Gov. Nixon also announced nine other grants for rural health facilities across Missouri.

Food-service workers in St Joe could soon be required to take a food-handler course and acquire a permit.

The St Joseph Health Department hopes to ensure food-service workers have a basic knowledge of food safety and proper handling practices. They’ll offer a food-handler course, which will include an examination. Candidates who score 70% or higher on the exam will be issued a food-handlers permit card good for two years.

The ten dollar fee will cover the cost of the application, the course and the card, which will be specific to the worker in the event he or she changes jobs.

A public comment meeting to provide additional information and receive feedback on the proposal will be held on Thursday, September 6, 2012 from 5:00-6:30PM, in the City Council Chambers, Room 301 of City Hall at 1100 Frederick Ave, St. Joseph, MO 64501.

Action Star Chuck Norris has released a video with what he calls a dire warning for America.

Norris says he is warning the country that re-electing president Barack Obama will bring the nation “1,000 years of darkness.”

He appears in the video with his wife Gena, who quotes Former President Ronald Reagan in the video.

Norris had backed candidate hopeful Newt Gingrich while slamming Republican candidate Mitt Romney for being a “flip-flopper.”  He later offered his support to Romney after Gingrich dropped out of the race.  Watch the video below.

Second Harvest Community Food Bank is changing the name of its on-site pantry, and in the process changing the way it serves the community.

 

They will renovate the pantry to look more like a grocery store.  They’ll continue to offer food at no cost to those quo qualify, but will soon offer the entire community access to fresh, affordable food, using multiple forms of payment, including cash, debit cards, SNAP food-stamp cards, and WIC benefits.

Officials say they will call it “Fresh Start, Your Community Market,” which will serve as a nonprofit grocery store and will be open six days a week, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.  Construction on the new look is expected to begin by the end of this month.

The goal of Fresh Start is to close the meal gap by expanding food access in a dignified way. Fresh Start is Second Harvest’s social enterprise endeavor and assists us in building-hunger free communities.

“The transition of Harvest House to Fresh Start will not only improve services to our community friends in need but it will be the national launch of a new model in sustainable, customer centric hunger relief,” said David Davenport, Second Harvest, CEO.  “When it comes to addressing the growing challenge of access to healthy food, Fresh Start changes the entire dynamic. Fresh Start changes everything.”

Community members who have a household income of less than 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines will have access to nutritious food at no cost through the Fresh Picks program. Additionally, the entire community will be able to access fresh food at affordable pricing.

Fresh Start will also offer a 10 week Empowerment Program that will train individuals in retail best practices. Trainees will go through a one-week internship with a local store. At the completion of the program, Fresh Start graduates will be placed into employment in a retail setting.

For more information about Fresh Start online, go to www.ourcommunityfoodbank.org/freshstart or call them at 816.364.FOOD.

Another Red Cross volunteer from our area is heading to the Gulf Coast to help the victims of Hurricane Isaac. Bill King of Stewartsville is on his way to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to help out at a disaster relief warehouse.

King becomes the 14th volunteer from the Midland Empire Chapter to be deployed to the Gulf Coast. Chapter officials say that on Sunday night, about 660 people stayed in 18 Red Cross shelters in Louisiana and Mississippi.

“I am so proud of our local disaster responders”, states Karla Long, Emergency Services Director. “They, like everyone else, saw the need along the Gulf Coast and have dropped everything to go help.” Disaster responders make a 14 day commitment when they deploy.

At this time, nearly 3,000 Red Cross disaster workers have responded to the Gulf and are providing emotional support, food, water and supplies like clean-up and personal hygiene items, coolers, shovels, rakes, tarps, gloves and masks to families affected.

They need your help. Red Cross relief services for Isaac could cost as much as tens of millions of dollars and those costs are growing by the hour.

To donate, people can visit www.redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767), text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation, or stop by the local office at 401 N 12th Street in St. Joseph.