Four people were injured when a car hit a building and a phone pole early this morning in Saint Joseph. Police say the car was headed south at high speed in the 700 block of South 22nd Street when it left the pavement at 2:24 am, hit a concrete storage building, and struck a phone pole. All four of the occupants were taken to Heartland by ambulance, and officials say one had life-threatening injuries. The accident is still under investigation.

History shares the spotlight with agriculture at this year’s Missouri State Fair which opened Thursday in Sedalia. Director Michael Wolfe says one of the highlights is a “110-year Wall Through the Decades,” a 48-foot wall of photographs showing what the Fair looked like in years passed compared to today. This year’s theme is “Then and Wow,” a reference to changes over the years.

As usual the Missouri State Fair includes headliner entertainment, agricultural exhibition and judging, a carnival, thousands of fair-goers, and an unlimited supply of funnel cakes. The fair runs through August 19. Here’s more information about the Missouri State Fair.

 

St Joe firefighters responded to a car fire early Thursday morning, and as it turns out, the car was stolen. Firefighters and St Joseph Police responded to an alley near 13th and Highly shortly before 5:30 am.

A neighbor reported “something on fire,” and while talking with dispatchers, the flaming car exploded.

Several minor explosions followed (see video).

Authorities now believe the car was stolen from a residence several miles away in north St Joseph, where the owner left the keys in the ignition.  There were no injuries.

A reported fish kill at Lake Contrary in St Joseph is being investigated by the Conservation Department.

In an announcement Thursday, the department claimed an estimated 20,000 fish have died at the lake due to a lack of oxygen brought on from this summers drought.

Most of the fish that have died are the invasive carp, according to Scott Ryan, MDC Regional fisheries supervisor.

The lake is a shallow oxbow lake formed by the changing Missouri River channel.  Fish started gasping for air several weeks ago, Ryan said.

The 215 acre lake has not been subject to flooding since the 1950’s.  Floods can scour old channels, like Lake Contrary, back to deeper depths, according to the Conservation Department.  Silt is continually making the lake shallower.

The more shallow water combined with low water levels and hot temperatures make lakes more prone to fish kills.

It’s one of several fish kills reported this summer as the drought lingers.

 

For years he has been the spokesman for the St Joseph Police Department.  On Friday Captain Kevin Castle is retiring from the department and will take up similar duties for Heartland Regional Medical Center.

In an e-mail to media contacts Thursday Castle said he would spend some time with the next PIO, “to relieve any fears he/she may have coming in.”

” I speak with some of you as much daily as I do my wife, and I consider many of you as friends as much as work contacts, ” Castle said.

Castle’s last day will be Friday, August 10.

 

St Joseph Police are warning area businesses about a scam that has been around for awhile, but recently resurfaced.

Captain Kevin Castle tells us they took a report from R&W Tow and Recovery about the scam.

The owner of the company said he received an email the day before with an advertisement from a company calling itself ‘Eagle Marketing Group’.

(NOT to be confused with Eagle Communications, the parent company of St Joe Post and  radio stations K-Jo 105.5/Q Country 92.7/680 KFEQ/ESPN 1550)

The e-mail ad said it was selling tv spots, and later that day a man with out-of-state license plates came to the business with a poster of the advertisement.  Castle says the man had an invoice and was attempting to collect money for selling the ads.

Other businesses in past years have been approached in a similar manner, according to Castle.

“The businesses on the ads have not authorized the use of their names, ” Castle said in the advisory, “and the advertising spots are not believed to exist. ”

“In past instances, business who ‘purchased’ the ads, learned their checks were quickly cashed and the subjects selling them had left town.  “

Some milk products made at the Shatto Dairy in northwest Missouri are under a recall announced this week.

Test results from Wednesday showed levels of residual phosphatase higher than the standards allowed for Grade A pasteurized milk.

In conjunction with the Shatto Milk Board, The Department of Agriculture and Health and Senior Services announced the recall from the products made at the dairy in Osborn, Mo.

Potentially unpasteurized milk can contain harmful pathogens which could lead to illness, according to the Department of Agriculture.  If you have a recalled product, you are asked to return it or discard it.  The milk products may have been sold in both Missouri and Kansas.

Operations at Shatto Dairy is temporary suspended pending an investigation from the State Milk Board.

The recalled milk is packaged in glass bottles of varying sizes and labeled Grade “A.” Recalled products include:

Whole Milk, unflavored half gallon code date: Aug 19

2% Milk, unflavored pint code date: Aug 19

1% Milk, unflavored quart code date: Aug 20

Skim Milk, unflavored quart code date: Aug 19

Half and Half pint code date: Aug 19

Whole Milk, Cotton Candy flavor pint code date: Aug 20

Cream pint code date: Aug 17

 

A Trenton, Missouri woman got some good news on her 21st birthday Wednesday, a deferral that will allow her to remain in the U.S.

Lauren Gray has lived here since her British parents arrived on a visa when she was 4 years old.

U.S. authorities said when she turned 21 she would no longer be eligible to remain in the United States on her parents visa.

Senator Claire McCaskill said Wednesday that federal authorities granted a two-year deferral that can be renewed.   Gray also is to receive a work permit.

Gray told reporters she is elated.   She graduated in dance at Stephens College in Columbia in May and hopes eventually to go to California.

In Doniphan County court Wednesday, two former officials accused of crimes appeared before a judge.

A former officer in Elwood and Wathena, Brian Vincent, pleaded no contest to charges he made concealed video recordings of underage girls either nude or undressing.

Vincent will be sentenced September 12 on one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of using a concealed camera to eavesdrop.

A former deputy city clerk in Elwood, Leanna Bell will serve 30 days in jail for pocketing court and police fines.

Bell pleaded no contest in July. A judge on Wednesday suspended a sentence of 14-months, but ordered Bell to pay back the money and served 30 days shock time.

All the bluster of yesterday’s thunderstorms did not result in much moisture in most area rain gauges.  The official measurements for Saint Joseph showed a total of .24 of an inch of rain from events that started early Wednesday morning and included a brief sprinkle this morning.