Author: KMIZ

Matthew Sanders

President Donald Trump hosted the country’s tech leaders at the White House on Tuesday for a summit focused on artificial intelligence.

Talk of whether and how government should regulate the development of new AI models has gained traction amid warnings that the technology could eventually harm humanity. At the summit, Trump and tech CEOs seemed to focus largely on the idea of industry self-regulation.

Should the government step in with AI safeguards? Let us know by voting in the poll.

Click here to follow the original article.

Steven Lambson

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A pursuit with law enforcement and a claim of a bomb in the suspect vehicle closed a Miller County road for more than two hours Tuesday, according to a post from the Miller County Coroner’s Office.

The post said the Miller County coroner was returning from Lake Regional Hospital for an unrelated investigation when he heard radio traffic about a pursuit with a stolen vehicle.

At one point the suspect vehicle stopped on Route 242 in Miller County, during which time the driver exited and said there was a bomb in the vehicle, according to the coroner’s post. Shortly before 6 p.m. the coroner responded to assist law enforcement.

Law enforcement closed the road due to the bomb report, and reopened it around 8 p.m. after determined the suspected device in the vehicle was not explosive, the post said.

It did not include any information about the suspect driver or the circumstances surrounding the pursuit other than the coroner’s involvement.

“Although the primary responsibility of the Coroner’s Office is the investigation of deaths occurring within Miller County, the office also has statutory responsibilities as a conservator of the peace,” the coroner’s post said. “Those responsibilities extend beyond death investigations and include certain law-enforcement and public-safety duties, including the pursuit and apprehension of persons suspected of committing felonies. Consistent with those responsibilities, the Coroner’s Office responded to assist with the incident.”

Click here to follow the original article.

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Lincoln University in Jefferson City is set to receive $1.58 million in federal funding, according to multiple press releases from government officials.

The money is part of a one-time investment of more than $174 million by the federal government toward Historically Black Colleges and Universities, according to a Sept. 22 press release by the Department of Education.

U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) announced in a Thursday press release that Missouri HBCUs will receive $2.67 million in total, with Harris-Stowe State University receiving $1.09 million.

“HBCUs have long punched above their weight,” Bell was quoted in the release. “And with adequate federal funding, they can continue to be the great equalizer for Black students (and students of all backgrounds) from Missouri and beyond for generations to come. I’ll keep fighting to make sure our state’s historic HBCUs have the resources they need to thrive.”

Click here to follow the original article.

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

No injuries were reported after an area under a deck at a Boone County home caught fire on Tuesday evening.

Chuck Doss, Boone County Fire Protection District assistant chief, told ABC 17 News that crews were called at 5 p.m. to the 9700 block of Route VV.

Firefighters saw light smoke coming from the back of the home when they arrived. A fire was found under the deck area and was under control within five minutes, Doss said. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

Doss said lattices can be gathering areas for leaves in the fall, and embers can ignite those quickly. Residents should beware of smoking materials and grilling around lattice work, he said.

Click here to follow the original article.

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A student who made a threat about the Morgan County R-1 School District last week is no longer enrolled, according to a Monday social media post from the school district.

The statement says the student made a post that included a weapon on the social media application SnapChat around 11 p.m. Thursday. The school was told about the post the next night after a parent showed the district a screenshot, the release says.

“There was never a weapon on our campus, and the student involved had not been in attendance at school since Tuesday,” the statement says. “The student is no longer a student here at Morgan County R-1. The student has been disciplined accordingly, and the matter has been referred to the Sheriff’s Department, where the investigation remains ongoing.”

Superintendent Chris Marshall told ABC 17 News in an email that the student and his family are moving to another state. The suspension “will carry with him to the next school,” the email says.

Click here to follow the original article.

Demetra Alarcon

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Editor’s Note: A source’s title has been corrected.

Protein is everywhere.

Grocery stores are full of products that promise extra protein, and federal health authorities have sung the virtues of adding more to Americans’ diets.

But a University of Missouri School of Medicine researcher said Tuesday that there’s not much evidence to show that “protein maxxing” has any health benefits.

The American Medical Association defines “protein maxxing” as a trend “where users focus on maximizing dietary protein intake to boost metabolism, manage weight and build muscle”.

University of Missouri School of Medicine Senior Associate Dean of Research Bettina Mittendorfer said there is little evidence that adding excessive protein to your diet improves muscle strength.

“If you protein max because you think you’re going to build more muscle, you become stronger, there’s no evidence really that this works,” Mittendorfer said.

Mittendorfer added that excessive protein intake can raise health concerns.

“High protein intake, particularly high protein intake from animal sources, meats, dairy products, and things like that, is associated with greater risks of developing Type 2 diabetes. They’re also associated with a greater risk of developing heart disease,” Mittendorfer said.

The standard recommended dietary allowance for protein is 0.36 grams per pound of body weight for a healthy adult.

When asked why Mittendorfer thinks this “protein-maxxing” trend has become popular, she said that it comes down to the other food groups falling out of favor and protein being easy to sell.

“So I think this is sort of if I’m not supposed to eat carbs, if I’m not supposed to eat fat, I gotta eat something to eat the protein,” Mittendorfer said.

Catherine Peterson, an Associate Director and Associate Professor of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at the University of Missouri, said that she was unfamiliar with the trend, but she does know about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services coming out with recommendations called the Dietary Guidelines for Americans that are roughly double the recommended daily allowance.

Peterson said that there are four tenets of good nutrition, and if you violate one or more, you could be facing risks.

“You’re kind of playing a little bit with some possible risks that we don’t even know, either foreseen or unforeseen, because you are throwing off balance,” Peterson said when talking about violating one of the tenets.

Peterson stressed eating plant-based protein to provide other nutrients, like fiber.

“Because at least you get in some of the other goodies that plants provide, like fiber and phytochemicals and vitamins and minerals,” Peterson said.

Peterson said too much protein compromises gut health. She recommends keeping a balanced diet with fruit, vegetables, and grain alongside protein.

Peterson recommends not exceeding 0.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

Click here to follow the original article.

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

No injuries were reported, but an adult and two children were displaced by a fire at a Jefferson City duplex on Tuesday afternoon.

A press release from the Jefferson City Fire Department says crews were called at 2:46 p.m. to the 1000 block of Elizabeth Street. The fire was found in the kitchen and firefighters had it under control within 10 minutes, the release says.

JCFD said the fire was accidental. The American Red Cross is helping the family with temporary housing, the release says.

Fourteen firefighters responded to the scene.

Click here to follow the original article.

Ellyse Edwards

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia Public Schools leadership said Tuesday that “appropriate consequences will be administered” to students who were caught with guns at two district high schools this month.

However, more details about the students and their motivations are unlikely to be made public, the district says, citing student privacy laws.

CPS is investigating after a gun was detected in a student’s backpack at Hickman High School on Monday. It was the second gun found on district property in less than two weeks.

CPS said the school’s weapons detection system detected the firearm as the student tried to enter the building Monday. The gun was confiscated, and the student was taken into custody by the school resource officer. The student’s name and age have not been released.

The Hickman incident happened 12 days after a gun was found inside a locked area of a student’s vehicle at Rock Bridge High School on Sept. 16.

The incident is under investigation, and a threat assessment is underway, according to a letter Superintendent Jeff Klein sent to Hickman families. Klein said school administrators, safety and security staff and the school resource officer “acted immediately” and that the detection system and staff “did exactly what they were supposed to do to keep our school safe.”

In a letter to Rock Bridge families, Klein said the gun found there was not used in a threatening manner and no threat of violence was made in connection with that incident.

An incident report states the student could have run afoul of two criminal statutes — unlawful use of a weapon and juvenile delinquency.

RBHS gun reportDownload

CPS policy says students who have a gun on school property or at a school activity can face a suspension of at least one calendar year or expulsion. The superintendent can modify that consequence on a case-by-case basis.

CPS spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark wrote in response to emailed questions that “appropriate consequences will be administered.”

She said the district followed its policies when handling these cases.

John McDonald with the Center for Educational Safety — part of the Missouri School Boards’ Association — said some students bring guns to school because “they think it’s cool.” He was speaking generally and did not say that was the reason in either CPS case.

“The challenge is figuring out what the intent was,” McDonald said. “So that often requires a threat assessment. Sometimes you never get to the intent. Other times you do.”

McDonald said he considered CPS’s same-day communication with families “really impressive,” while noting parents want information as quickly as possible. He said officials sometimes need time to determine what happened and whether there is a threat.

“Sometimes it takes five hours to get it right, and we’d rather get it right,” McDonald said.

McDonald said districts should explain what they can share with families, even when some details must remain private.

“Being transparent is absolutely essential because it keeps the trust,” McDonald said.

A student was also found with a gun at a public school in Cole County on Monday. The sheriff’s office said a student unintentionally left an unloaded gun in a locked car after hunting the day before.

Click here to follow the original article.

Marie Moyer

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia Public Schools argues in a new lawsuit that the Missouri State Board of Education violated state law in its approval of a Frontier Schools charter school in April.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, CPS asks the court to throw out the vote and Frontier’s license to operate in Boone County.

The city argues that Frontier failed to notify CPS of the charter school’s plans ahead of its submission to the new school’s sponsor, St. Louis University, and failed to submit its application as being sponsored by SLU to the state Board of Education on time.

CPS also claims the state board did not review applications from Frontier or SLU and instead watched a presentation by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on how Frontier meets state qualifications, which CPS alleges has several factual errors, including that Frontier inaccurately fulfilled application requirements.

“Because they’ve met all the requirements which we have said they’re required to meet, we have no other option but to support this,” Board Member Brooke Smelser said during the meeting, according to court documents.

CPS also argued that an improper vote was used to approve the Frontier school, with the board using a general “All those in favor?” vote instead of an individual roll call. The board also later inaccurately posted in meeting minutes that the vote was unanimous.

CPS vs Missouri charter approval lawsuitDownload

According to prior reporting, Democrat Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge voted against the application.

“They [Board of Education] abdicated their role in reviewing and properly vetting the application and instead delegated that to DESE, which is a violation of state statute,” Waters said.

The Missouri Board of Education has been notified of CPS’ second lawsuit.

Columbia Public Schools was also back in court Tuesday for a hearing in the months-long battle over rules on charter school eligibility.

The fight centers on Senate Bill 727. Passed in 2024, it states that charter schools can operate in counties “between 150,000 and 200,000 inhabitants.” While the bill does not name Boone County, it is the only county in the state that fits this description.

During Tuesday’s arguments, the state argued that Boone County is a good candidate for the public school for several reasons including the the population guidelines. Additionally, there is a large population in the area to staff the school, well-educated parents who are more likely to express an interest in additional school choice and the presence of a doctoral research university.

“Boone County’s unique achievement gaps, its high proportion of college-educated adults, andthe presence of the University of Missouri’s flagship campus. These all make BooneCounty unique as compared to other counties,” the state said in court documents.

They added that counties with populations larger than 200,000 like St. Louis County or Jackson and Clay County already have a variety of public and private schools.

“St. Louis County has both twenty-four separate public-school districts and the highest concentration of private schools in the State, making it reasonably unlikely that charter schools could reach any level of sustained success,” the state said in court documents.

CPS argued the law is unreasonable because charter schools affect individual school districts, not entire counties. They also questioned why the state’s law only focused on population size and not better signifiers like accreditation score or district need. The district also argued that Frontier School’s charter would not address the achievement gap the state cited as a reason for the law.

While Boone County has the largest achievement gap in the state, Frontier would operate within CPS, which has the state’s second-highest accreditation score at about 89%. Sturgeon, meanwhile, has the lowest accreditation score at about 60%, but a relatively small achievement gap.

Additionally, Boone County school districts range in population from 18,000 to 300 students, with some schools being staffed with out-of-county residents, calling into question the importance of a specific population.

CPS also argued that parent education and the presence of higher education should not be a factor in providing school choice options.

“It was somewhat offensive to say that only parents that are educated care about their own child’s education; I think all parents care about their own child’s education,” Columbia Board of Education Vice President Suzette Waters said. “Mizzou is not a charter sponsor right now, so Frontier had to look to St. Louis for a sponsor; the arguments the state was trying to make that there’s interest, somehow the presence of Mizzou is somehow a favorable for a charter, just didn’t make sense.”

CPS also argues the requirements are arbitrary because SB 727 only adds the population threshold to state law, not the additional higher education-related criteria or an achievement-gap threshold to target.

CPS adds that even if those criteria are considered, other counties meet them but were left out of the law. Greene County, for example, has a similar achievement gap of about 17%. However, it has around 300,000 people and hosts Missouri State University, which is not an R-1 doctoral research school like MU.

Phelps County also qualifies in all areas except in population. The county has around 45,000 people according to the U.S. Census and features the Missouri University of Science and Technology, which is an R-1.

Judge Emily Fretwell took arguments into consideration and set a deadline for optional post-hearing briefs for two weeks.

Click here to follow the original article.

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Columbia man was seriously injured in a crash on Tuesday morning on Route B, just south of Route HH in Boone County, according to a crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The 23-year-old man rode his 2026 Kawasaki Ninja southbound and rear-ended a stopped 2019 Tesla Model S that was driven by a 77-year-old Columbia woman, the report says.

The motorcycle overturned and the man fell off the bike, the report says. Both vehicles had moderate damage.

The man was brought to University Hospital by ambulance. He wore a helmet and the woman wore a seatbelt, according to the crash report.

MSHP reports do not state the names of those involved in crashes.

Click here to follow the original article.