State News

A rural Missouri sheriff and two deputies are jailed and facing charges accusing them of helping a man in a parental kidnapping plot. Officers with the Missouri State Highway Patrol on Thursday arrested Iron County Sheriff Jeff Burkett, deputies Matthew Cozad and Chase Bresnahan, and the father of the child, Donald Gaston. All four face multiple charges and were jailed Friday in neighboring Washington County...

ST. LOUIS -- The elected prosecutor in St. Louis, under intense criticism after a visiting teenage athlete lost her legs in a crash blamed on a man who remained free from jail despite multiple bond violations, is accusing Missouri's attorney general of seeking her ouster for political gain...

ST. LOUIS -- Doug Whitney inherited the same gene mutation that gave Alzheimer's disease to his mother, brother and generations of other relatives by the unusually young age of 50. Yet he's a healthy 73, his mind still sharp. Somehow, the Washington state man escaped his genetic fate...

ST. CHARLES. Mo. -- A suburban St. Louis man has been convicted of shooting an Amazon delivery truck driver during a dispute over a disabled parking spot. Larry Thomlison, 70, of St. Charles was found guilty Monday of first- degree assault and armed criminal action in the March 2019 shooting of 21-year-old Jaylen Walker, who was paralyzed from the waist down, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

HERMANN, Mo. -- A man accused of fatally shooting one officer and wounding another at a small-town Missouri convenience store was charged Tuesday with murder and four other crimes. Prosecutors charged 35-year-old Kenneth Lee Simpson of St. Louis County with first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, first-degree assault and unlawful possession of a firearm. A judge ordered him held without bond...

HERMANN, Mo. — The search for the man suspected of killing one small-town Missouri police officer and badly injuring another ended Monday after police fired tear gas into the home, and arrested the man when he came outside. The shooting happened about 9:30 p.m. ...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri law banning local police from enforcing federal gun laws remains in effect as a lawsuit against it is appealed. U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes last week struck down the law as an unconstitutional overstep by the state on the federal government. After Missouri's Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey appealed, Wimes ruled the law can remain in effect until an appeals court takes up the case...

ST. LOUIS — Bulldozers took down what was left of a once-busy homeless encampment along the Mississippi River and near the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, ending nearly a year of debate over what to do about it. While some homeless advocates say the camp should have been left alone, business owners and others cited concerns about increasing drug use and crime, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An 85-year-old suburban Kansas City man convicted of killing an attorney is not competent to move forward with sentencing, a judge has ruled. David Jungerman will be committed to the Missouri Department of Mental Health, and his competency will be reevaluated in six months following the ruling on Friday, KCTV-TV reported...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri voters could decide whether to restore abortion rights in the state if constitutional amendments made public Thursday make it to the 2024 ballot. The proposals would amend the Missouri Constitution to protect abortion rights and pregnant women, as well as access to birth control...

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. -- Two Southwest Missouri women are charged with second-degree murder in the death of a 5-year-old girl at their home, police said. The Waynesville police department said in a news release that one of the girl's siblings told a school resource officer Tuesday that he had seen her unconscious and unresponsive at their home that morning...

FOLEY, Mo. -- A rural Missouri man killed his wife and her father before fatally shooting himself, authorities said. Four children were in the home at the time of the incident but were unharmed. The shooting happened around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday near Foley, a town of 160 residents about 50 miles northwest of St. Louis, authorities said. Lincoln County deputies responding to a call from one of the children found a woman and two men with gunshot wounds...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City has reached a settlement with one of the gun dealers it accused in a lawsuit of contributing to surging violence in the region by ignoring evidence firearms were being sold illegally. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a statement Wednesday the settlement is "an important step in reducing the flow of illegal guns into our city."...

LIBERTY, Mo. -- A jury found UPS Inc. must pay a Missouri family $75 million, after a company driver with a known history of drug abuse collided with a pregnant woman's car, causing her baby to be born with permanent brain damage. In May 2018, Steven Ray Miller was driving a UPS truck and ran a red light, hitting a car driven by Jodi Pannell, who was 13 weeks pregnant, according to trial testimony...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri law banning local police from enforcing federal gun laws is unconstitutional and void, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes ruled the 2021 law is preempted by the federal government under the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Sixteen former students at a now closed Christian boarding school in Southwest Missouri have settled lawsuits alleging they were abused at the school. The settlement amounts for the lawsuits against the former Agape Baptist Church were not disclosed, The Kansas City Star reported Tuesday. The church ran the school near Stockton in Cedar County...

ST. LOUIS — Three Republican-led states Monday pulled out of a bipartisan effort among states to ensure accurate voter lists, undermining a system with a demonstrated record of combating voter fraud. The moves, encouraged by former President Donald Trump, are the latest indication of how conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential outcome continue to ripple throughout the Republican Party and upend long-established traditions in how the country administers elections...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — New mothers in Missouri could gain Medicaid health care coverage for up to a year under legislation passed Thursday by the state Senate, part of a national movement of expanded care that began during the coronavirus pandemic. The bill also would extend coverage to those who have miscarriages or abortions necessary to save their lives. ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri patients won't be charged a copay for a second mammogram to diagnose breast cancer or another illness under a bill the state House approved Thursday. The GOP-led chamber voted 126-29 to send the measure to the Senate. Some female lawmakers noted most of those opposed are men...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri House voted Thursday to ban entities from China and four other perceived adversarial countries from purchasing land in the state, citing a need to protect farms from the possibility of falling under hostile control...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers argued Wednesday over a bill that would ban most LGBTQ education subjects for all grades in the state's public schools. The proposal is modeled after a Florida education law passed last year, touted by supporters as protecting "parent's rights" and dubbed by opponents as a "Don't Say Gay" law...

ST. LOUIS — The former star of St. Louis-based television reality show "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for arranging the shooting death of his nephew to collect a life insurance payment. James "Tim" Norman did not speak on his own behalf at the sentencing hearing in the March 2016 killing of his 21-year-old nephew, Andre Montgomery Jr. Both men had starred in the long-running OWN reality show about the family's soul food business in the St. Louis area...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday set a June execution date for a man convicted of killing two Missouri jailers during a botched attempt to free a friend. Michael Andrew Tisius is scheduled to be executed June 6 at the state prison in Bonne Terre for the shooting deaths of Randolph County jailers Jason Acton and Leon Egley...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Survivors of a deadly school shooting in St. Louis shared art, music and stories about gun violence Tuesday at the Missouri Capitol while advocating for lawmakers to act. "We want to hear the specific actions you are taking to prevent tragedies like this one from happening again in our state and our country," 17-year-old Bryanna Love told reporters. "We — all of us — deserve more than empty promises. We deserve action."...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri Republicans who want the state to take over prosecutions of violent crimes in St. Louis sharply criticized the city's embattled prosecutor Monday after a teenage volleyball player from Tennessee lost her legs in a crash caused by a speeding driver facing felony charges...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A former state lawmaker was sentenced Tuesday to six years and three months in federal prison for fraud schemes committed while she ran several medical clinics in Southwest Missouri. Tricia Derges, a Republican from Nixa, was also ordered to pay $500,600 in restitution, federal prosecutors said...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and two state library associations are suing over a new state law banning sexually explicit material from schools, saying it violates the rights of librarians and students. The lawsuit filed Thursday contends the Republican-backed law, which took effect in August, has caused Missouri school districts to remove hundreds of books from their shelves...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — An organization that provides services for troubled youth and foster children in Missouri has agreed to pay a $1.8 million fine and to implement several compliance measures after admitting it made false claims about the services it provided, federal and state officials said Friday...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Missouri prosecutor plans to seek the death penalty against a man charged with fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her 13-year-old son in a New Year's Eve 2020 attack that left two other children injured. Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson said in a legal filing that he intends to prove 31-year-old Brandon King killed to avoid arrest, that the crimes targeted potential witnesses and were particularly brutal. ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Legislation considered Wednesday in a Missouri state Senate committee would bolster the state's abortion ban. Republican Sen. Mike Moon's measure would add a line to the Missouri Constitution that states: "Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion."...

ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis prosecutor decried efforts to oust her from office Thursday and defended herself from blame after a teenage volleyball player from Tennessee lost both her legs in a vehicle crash police say was caused by a speeding driver facing felony charges...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri state workers are in line to get an 8.7% pay raise under a bill approved Wednesday by state lawmakers. The Republican-led Senate sent a bill authorizing the pay hike to Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who asked for the cost-of-living adjustment during his January State of the State address...

ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Zoo officials say they are working to find a way to keep an Andean bear named Ben inside his enclosure after he escaped Thursday for the second time this month. The bear was outside for less than an hour and was found only about 100 feet away from his habitat, zoo officials said in a statement. The 4-year-old bear, who weighs about 300 pounds, was tranquilized and returned to the enclosure...

ST. LOUIS — As he languished in a Missouri prison for nearly three decades, Lamar Johnson never stopped fighting to prove his innocence, even when it meant doing much of the legal work himself. Last week, a St. Louis judge overturned Johnson's murder conviction and ordered him freed. ...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas City firefighter who agreed to plead guilty to charges arising from a collision that killed three people was sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation. Dominic Biscari, 22, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree involuntary manslaughter shortly after the charges were filed, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office...

Associated Press LOWRY CITY, Mo. (AP) -- At Truman Lake Manor in rural Missouri, every day begins the same way for every employee entering the nursing home's doors -- with a swab up the nose, a swirl of testing solution and a brief wait to see whether a thin red line appears indicating a positive COVID-19 case...