Month: November 2025

News-Press NOW

By: Darren Doyle

ANDREW COUNTY, Mo. (KQTV) — When it comes to the Holidays, those in need are not just in the bigger communities, but also in the smaller ones.

The Andrew County Ministries group is back again with their Adopt-a-Family program. Currently, around 54 families and seniors in need have signed up for assistance. 

The organization said 40 families have been adopted, leaving 14 opportunities for the community to provide a better holiday for those in need.

Individuals looking to help the Andrew County Ministries can donate items such as food for holiday dinners, household items, clothes or toys for children. 

For one of the leaders of this program, Pastor Terry Weaver, helping provide a better holiday is more than just giving back.

“I think that time when they come in to register is just a safe moment for them to tell their story. Especially right now, with the need for food and the question of “am I going to pay my bills or am I going to buy food?” said Weaver. “‘I don’t have anything to give my children this year,’ to hear those stories. I’m a pastor, so there’s a lot of praying when they want it. Sharing that moment with them and knowing that they’ve come to a place where they can be safe and get help. “

Anyone wishing to adopt a family or a senior in need is encouraged to call 816-408-0450.

Registration is open until Dec. 5 for families and seniors in Andrew County who need assistance.

More information on the Andrew County Ministries can be found by visiting their website www.andrewcountyministries.com.

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Carter Ostermiller

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) — Thanksgiving is the time of year to be surrounded by family and friends at the dinner table for a feast. A day that isn’t the same without staples like turkey and sides containing produce.

The St. Joseph Second Harvest Community Food Bank is taking the initiative to make sure the community is fed for the holiday.

Thursday marked the 15th Annual Turkey Day that the food bank has hosted, in which registered community members receive a turkey day box containing food for Thanksgiving.

“We’re expecting about 750 people. That’s how many we registered…As you can see by the line of cars, you can just really tell that the need is absolutely there,” said Second Harvest Marketing Manager Mackenzie Bally.

For the past fifteen years, the food bank has been supplying food for families during Thanksgiving.

“You know, I got four kids, so, you know, it helps feed them,” said Richard Swadley, one of Second Harvest’s recipients.

Turkey Day is all about the community coming together to lend a hand to those in need. The Stroud family was eager to once again participate this year.

“It’s to help the community. We have been doing this for, I don’t know, ten years, I would say so. This is just an annual event that our team loves to do, to give back to the community,” said Ashley Stroud, a volunteer.

With all the food being donated, there isn’t any worry about any leftovers going to waste for the holiday. According to Bally, all leftover food will be donated to local schools.

“Every once in a while, there will be a handful of turkeys that don’t get picked up, and those will go to our campus cupboard for them, which are pantries within the middle high school and college campuses,” said Bally.

The holiday season is an overall good reminder about what matters most: being surrounded by family and friends with a meal.

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Patrick Holleron

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — The busiest time of year for U.S. shoppers is right around the corner as concerns linger about prices at the checkout line.

From big market metropolitans to smaller cities like St. Joseph, the annual holiday season will once again bring crowds of shoppers in search of the ideal item; however, shoppers are likely to see a new wrinkle added to the holiday shopping equation this year, in the form of tariffs.

Since returning to the Oval Office, the Trump Administration has imposed numerous emergency tariffs on multiple U.S. trading partners. This includes countries such as China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

Shopping data from Mastercard shows some of the popular items seeing an uptick in tariff rates and price increases, including video games and consoles, which have risen by 10%, as well as chocolate (5.2%) and clothing (25.4%). Shoppers are also likely to see higher costs for holiday decorations and toys.

While a key part of national conversations has focused on the direct impacts on larger U.S. manufacturers and companies, local businesses are seeing the trickle-down effect, including stores in St. Joseph.  

“It’s bounced around so much that we’re a little numb to all of it. We’ve got products made all over the world,” said Mark Antle, owner of Leibowitz Menswear. “I don’t try to track the percentages of tariffs depending on what country the product originates from. I still have a business to run, I can’t be concerned with dialing back.”

A staple in St. Joseph since 1912, many of the products Leibowitz sells are imported due to materials being sourced from different countries of origin.

Despite the challenges and the unpredictable nature of tariffs, the longtime store has navigated through the situation successfully to this point, focusing on its calling card of offering customers a variety of options.

“In our business, you still have to present a great mix of merchandise and a good selection,” he said.

According to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research firm based in Washington, D.C., the average applied tariff rate on all imports has risen to 17.6% and the average effective tariff rate (the actual burden faced by taxpayers) to 12.5%, the highest since 1941.  

Steven Durlauf, a distinguished service professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, noted that when a tariff is implemented to raise taxes on imports, it negatively impacts the costs of goods and the overall production process.

Durlaf used the recent changes in the steel industry as a prime example of the implications that can occur.    

“In the first Trump Administration, it’s argued (that the tariff) helped steelworkers because it’ll create jobs in the steel industry, which is true,” Durlauf said. “But, what you do by raising the price of steel and generating more domestic steel is you’ve also raised the price of input to the production in the United States. The losses of jobs in steel-intensive industries were 10-to-15 times as large as the improvements in steel.” 

Durlauf explained, while the holidays and now-resolved government shutdown may appear to exacerbate the effects of tariffs, they won’t lead to dramatic price increases immediately. However, increased supply and demand for popular products will eventually pass the cost of the tariff from the producer to the consumer.

“There are debates about what fraction of the tariff … or what fraction of the sales tax is paid by the consumer versus the firm,” Durlauf said. “In terms of tariffs, that’s the same question. I think the best evidence is something on the order of 80% of the tariffs are eventually passed on to consumers. I say eventually because the firms are thinking about customer loyalty, preserving relationships, among other things. They don’t instantaneously pass on the tariffs.”

For all businesses having to wrestle with higher costs on the shelves, the long-term hope is that a form of relief will come at a certain point, whether it be at the end of 2025 or sometime in 2026. 

The lingering question remains for U.S. consumers: are higher tariffs a temporary measure to balance trade markets, or the new normal moving forward?

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Praji Ghosh

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) — The St. Joseph School District Board of Education reached a consensus Wednesday night, deciding to move forward with a plan to keep Benton and Central as the district’s two high schools and create a four-middle school model.

Plan 4BR is a combined, updated version of former Plans 7B and 4B. Under this setup, Lafayette High School would shift to a middle school, and Robidoux Middle School would move to an elementary school. 

Several buildings are also likely to be phased out under this plan, including Eugene Field, Pershing and Webster. Ellison won’t close, but it will operate slightly above its ideal capacity, going from 328 students to about 378.  

Superintendent Ashly McGinnis explained how high school capacity has been flexible in recent years, as classroom spaces have been converted into offices and meeting areas to support more counselors and additional services. 

“Capacity in our high school has been adaptive to accommodate classroom space that is being converted to offices and meeting spaces. We have recruited more support services, counselors we have converted those spaces into offices or meeting areas,” McGinnis said.  

District leaders and board members said the two–high school model would be the least disruptive overall, offering a more gradual, phased approach to consolidation.  

When it comes to boundaries, Hosea, Pickett and Hyde elementaries would feed into Spring Garden Middle School, while Parkway and Skaith elementaries would feed into Truman Middle School. Both Spring Garden and Truman would feed students to Benton High School. 

Central High School’s optimal capacity is currently 1,732 students, but would increase to 1,937 under this plan. Benton would grow from 884 students to 999.  

“Based on these projections from savings through staffing under Plan 4BR is $2.155 million, which is the potential savings…The maximum savings on this plan would be $3.974 million, which is estimated to be about a $160,000 difference between Plan 4BR and 2R,” said Mark Korell, SJSD’s director of human resources.

Plan 4BR would displace eight administrators, 170 certified staff and 83 classified staff, according to Korell.  

Assistant Superintendent Stacia Studer emphasized that both the proposed two–high school model plans — 2R and 4BR — would still support all the services students need.  

She said the district had already created pathways to serve students’ academic and post-secondary goals long before facility changes became part of the conversation.  

“In leading the college and the career pathways, we are going to have to rethink where our students receive the experiences and opportunities, and that’s why we center our work around not just Hillyards but also Missouri Western,” Studer said.  

Robert Hedgecorth, SJSD’s assistant superintendent of business and operations, noted that since both Plan 2R and 4BR transition a middle school into an elementary school, each would need a new playground and other small adjustments—about a $150,000 expense.  

Benton and Lafayette, each, had the potential to become middle schools, depending on which plan was chosen, with relatively minor modifications costing around $100,000.   

So far, the district has reviewed 14 different plans. Data shows that under Plan 4BR, roughly 2,316 families and students would be relocated. 

Facilities Impact Analysis 11.19.25Download

For now, the board plans to take an official vote on Plan 4BR on Monday, Nov. 24. If the plan is approved, it would be set into motion across the district.  

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