A used car salesman in Imperial, Missouri pleaded guilty Monday to three tax charges and admitted hiding more than $300,000 in sales commissions from the IRS. Donald Benck was primarily compensated for his sales job at a used car lot through commissions. Benck admitted that starting in 2014, he recruited acquaintances to receive the commissions […]
U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Monday sentenced a man from Hannibal who was caught with stolen firearms to five years and three months in prison. Hannibal police and the Ralls County Sheriff’s Office were investigating the theft of firearms when they located Ronald Allen on Dec. 24, 2020, in a home in Hannibal. […]
U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Monday sentenced a man involved in two carjackings and the theft of a gun after a shooting to 15 years in prison. Jeremiah Couch, 32, pleaded guilty in April to two carjacking charges, a charge of possession of a stolen firearm and a charge of being a felon […]
President Biden has approved Governor Mike Parson’s request for a major disaster declaration. Parson’s request is in response to recent historic flooding in the St. Louis region. Two people were killed and more than 750 homes and 131 businesses have major flood damage in the City of St. Louis, as well as St. Louis, St. […]
A man from Missouri pleaded guilty on Monday to a murder-for-hire charge and a drug conspiracy charge and admitted trying to have a man who owed him more than $100,000 killed. Kevin Cunningham, 36, of St. Louis, pleaded guilty Monday in front of U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig to the murder-for-hire charge. He pleaded […]
A man from Missouri admitted threatening to blow up a St. Louis synagogue in 2021. Cody Steven Rush of St. Louis admitted calling the St. Louis office of the FBI on Nov. 5, 2021, and saying, “I’m going to blow up a church.” Rush gave his name and identified his target as the Central Reform […]
The Missouri State Fair begins this Thursday in west-central Missouri’s Sedalia. Director Mark Wolfe says about 331,000 people attended last year’s fair and he hopes this year’s will be another great attendance year. About 5,000 students exhibit at the fair each year, bringing in roughly 16,000 entries. Funding in this year’s state budget […]
Children in Missouri are facing unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression – that’s according to the 2022 Kids Count Data Book, released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The report finds mental health is a concern across the country, as kids felt the pressures from COVID-19. Nationally, nearly 12% of children had anxiety or depression, […]
(Missouri Independent) – Missouri’s top Democratic lawmakers have yet to receive a formal response to letters urging governors in Kansas and Illinois to help pay for abortions for out-of-state Medicaid patients, though a Kansas lawmaker said it is highly unlikely given Republican dominance of the state’s legislature. In letters sent Wednesday and first reported by the […]
U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Friday sentenced a man who was caught with child pornography for a second time to 10 years in prison. Johnny Lee Hesse, now 41, pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of child pornography in 2013 and was sentenced to nearly five years in prison, followed by 20 […]
U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk on Friday sentenced a St. Louis County man to five years and four months in prison for traveling to Springfield, Ill. in 2019 to have sex with a 15-year-old. Wesley Kimble, now 25, will also be on supervised release for life. Kimble met the 15-year-old via an online dating […]
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports a Trenton resident was arrested early Sunday in Grundy County on a Clinton County felony warrant. 43-year-old Gregory Baecht is accused of damage to private property. Baecht was being held at the Grundy County Law Enforcement Center. A St. Joseph resident was arrested late Saturday afternoon in DeKalb County. […]
Three people from Missouri died when the car they were in collided with a semi-truck in Minnesota. The Minnesota State Patrol says the crash happened just before Six pm Thursday near the town of Willmar, about 100 miles west of Minneapolis. Troopers say a car driven by 41-year-old Justin Ecker of Lee Summitt […]
Some Missourians may be looking forward to the cooler seasons of fall and winter– but the new edition of the Farmers’ Almanac predicts a *very* cold winter ahead. Editor Peter Geiger says the winter forecast map carries just five words floating the Midwest: “Hibernation Zone, Glacial, Snow-Filled.” Geiger says the publication is calling for an […]
Missouri’s annual Back-To-School sales tax holiday is underway through Sunday. That means shoppers won’t be required to pay the state sales tax of 4.2-percent for certain back-to-school buys such as school supplies, computers, clothing, and other qualifying items. Local sales tax may still apply. Jeremy LeFaver, with the left-leaning group called the Missouri Budget Project, […]
The latest monthly reports from State Auditor Nicole Galloway detailing the state government’s use of federal stimulus dollars intended for the COVID-19 response show Missouri received $7.92 billion between April 2020 and March 2022. As the state’s financial watchdog, the State Auditor’s Office has issued reports since June 2020 examining Missouri government’s distribution and spending […]
U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber on Thursday sentenced a St. Louis man who robbed two cell phone stores in 2019 to 16 years and eight months in prison. Deangelo Winston, 43, of Jennings, has also become notorious in local jails for misconduct, attacking inmates and guards, making improvised weapons, throwing urine and feces, and […]
A Missouri man on Thursday admitted bilking investors out of at least $1.1 million with false claims of lucrative contracts with a Texas airport. From Sept. 2, 2020, through at least Nov. 16, 2021, Harish Sunkara of Fenton, falsely told potential investors that he had won contracts with the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Sunkara’s […]
A Missouri man has been sentenced in federal court for his role in a conspiracy that converted large amounts of liquid methamphetamine into crystal methamphetamine at a rented house near George Melcher Elementary School in Kansas City, Mo. Ruben Ortiz-Vieyra, 43, of Kansas City, a lawful permanent resident of the United States from Mexico, was […]
A corrections officer at the Jefferson City Correctional Center and his wife have been indicted by a federal grand jury on additional charges related to video recording their sexual assault of a child victim and other child pornography offenses. Paul Emerson Schofield, 33, and his wife, Sara Ellen Schofield, 29, both of Jefferson City, were […]
