Author: News-Press NOW

Cameron Montemayor

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — One new business is adding a wrinkle to the local coffee industry and bringing the ever popular drink straight to the customer.

Coffee connoisseurs will see a new teal colored mobile coffee truck called D.B’s Coffee at various locations and events in St. Joseph and Kansas City after opening for business two weeks ago.

Owner Dylan Bishop, a native of Agency, Missouri, and graduate of Missouri Western, brings years of experience preparing handcrafted coffee, including working at coffee shops like the former Pony Espresso.

“I’ve learned a lot over the years and the biggest thing is consistency. You want to make sure you’re serving the same thing to customers,” Bishop said. “I do a bunch of lattes, specialty lattes, chai, matcha. Everything you can get at a coffee shop. I have it on wheels.”

A customer orders a drink from D.B.’s Coffee on Tuesday in Downtown St. Joseph.

D.B’s has made frequent stops near the Missouri Theater, the St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau, Five Guys and other destinations like Schweizer’s Orchard, including catering for private events in Kansas City.

In just two weeks of business, the truck has already been booked for nearly 50 future events and activities, a quick start in a competitive coffee market.

“I have 48 more bookings already on my calendar. So it’s honestly taking off way faster than I imagined,” he said. “I’m going to do a lot of St. Joe events throughout the winter and then this weekend, I’ll be down at Schweitzer’s Orchard on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”

Next up for Bishop is a private event in Kansas City with 200 hot chocolate drinks set to be prepared. Coffee beans used by D.B’s are purchased from a company in Kansas City as well.

While Bishop is solely focused on promoting the business and growing his customer base, long-term his goal is to open a storefront with a drive-thru.

Interested customers are encouraged to check out the coffee truck’s Facebook page to find out when and where it will be located each day.

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Leah Rainwater

DEKALB COUNTY, Mo. (KQTV) — The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office has released the identities of the three people found dead following a structure fire in Weatherby last week.

The fire occurred Thursday, Nov. 20, at 190 N. North St., Lot 1. When responders entered the structure, they discovered three victims inside.

The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said 36-year-old Mary Catherine Justus, 26-year-old Christopher Malaki Evans and an eight-year-old child were found dead in the home, according to a news release.

The Jackson County Medical Examiner carried out autopsies on all three victims on Friday, Nov. 21. The official cause of death is not finalized.

The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said no other information can be released at this time, as the investigation continues.

Anyone with information regarding the investigation is encouraged to contact Captain Michael Marvin at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office at 816-449-5802.

A fund is set up at Independent Farmers Bank in Maysville, Missouri, to help with service-related expenses.

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Daniel Byford

FAUCETT, Mo. (KQTV) — With just days to go before Thanksgiving, Mid-Buchanan School District students got a special treat.

For the second year, the district hosted its Thanksgiving Showcase.

“If we can give kids a sense of ‘hey, let’s come together and share this one thing before we leave for that exact holiday of coming together as a family,'” Mid-Buchanan High School Director of Bands Colton Butcher said. “(We) might as well just start that at Mid-Buch too.”

Instead of spending time in class, district students spent the day watching girls’ basketball, boys’ basketball, girls’ wrestling and Mid-Buchanan’s band.

The idea wasn’t Athletic Director Ryan Shultz’s, but he’s happy with the job he and others did in making it a reality.

“The previous A.D. actually, they came up with the idea,” said Shultz, “Me and the administration just worked through a plan to make it work, there was a lot of planning that went into it, a lot of variables, but it’s been a really cool experience. The kids love it, we’ve really enjoyed doing it.”

Butcher believes the event serves as good inspiration for future members of his band.

“The kids work really hard,” he said, “They try to sound good, and they try to have fun while they do it. And they want more young people to see them, so maybe one day they can get involved and we can grow bigger.”

“Oh, it’s awesome,” Shultz said of the Showcase. “I know they’re ready to get home and get to break. They love being able to have some school spirit… Obviously, elementary kids cheering on where they hope to be in the future. Just seeing the bigger kids is a really fun experience. They get really into it, so it’s been a lot of fun.”

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News-Press NOW

By: Zac Scott

MARYVILLE, Mo. (KQTV) — The countdown is on for Maryville’s fourth annual Turkey Trot.

The Turkey Trot allows families to visit downtown Maryville and engage in a morning activity before beginning holiday festivities.

With the Turkey Trot being close to a 5K, Executive Director of Downtown Maryville, DeAnn Davison, wanted to create an easy-going environment for all participants to enjoy.

“We have families, kids,  strollers, pets, everything. So it’s just really, a really low-key environment…People walk around the course, and then it’s just a quick event, and then they come home,” said Davison.

Registration for the Maryville Turkey Trot is at 7 a.m. between Fourth and Buchanan Streets, with the race beginning at 8 a.m. Interested participants can register at the event on Thursday, Nov. 27.

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Patrick Holleron

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Entering last night’s consequential Board of Education meeting, uncertainty remained on the proposed path the district would elect to move forward with.

In a span of roughly three weeks, proposals shifted from Plan E, a three high school model with Central, Benton and Lafayette, to Plan 2B (Lafyette/Central) before settling on Plan 4BR (Benton/Central).

Even for those who advocated for a particular model, many at Monday’s meeting sought clarity after weeks of discussions, as well as information on where the district stood financially.

“One week it’s Plan E and everyone was staying. Another week, Benton is closed and then the next week Lafayette is closed,” said Connor Zeit, a community member who attended the meeting. “The public is starting to lose trust in the board and in the district. People feel like they aren’t being listened to by the board.”

A key part of Monday’s meeting focused on a recent financial review of the district. Linda Quinley, senior director of school finance for the Missouri School Board Association, was brought in to discuss SJSD’s difficult financial position.

Linda Quinley, senior director of school finance for the Missouri School Board Association, speaks during the board meeting at Central High School on Monday, Nov. 25, 2025

One of her key takeaways is while the district is not in a financial crisis, the budget is not in a healthy place and improvements need to be made.

For example, a review of the district’s June budget showed a significant error in recorded expenditures: Just over $7 million should have been spent in reserve funding, but the actual number recorded was $36.6 million.

Those findings and budget estimate inaccuracies played a key factor.

Throughout the evening, supporters of the Lafayette Fighting Irish, many of whom said “we bleed green,” made impassioned speeches to the board to change course.

While the board’s 5-2 vote to approve 4BR provided much-needed direction for the district, the decision left many distraught, frustrated and for some, in tears.

“It’s sad to see all these people react like this and then be OK with that,” said Breanna, a student from Lafayette. “There’s going to be a lot more people at the same school as we go to a new, unknown environment and high school.”

For some at last night’s meeting like Zeit, many questioned why the process seemingly occurred as quickly as it did: “Why are they doing this now?”

“These are big decisions that are going to impact our town for years to come. I think this decision has been rushed,” Zeit said. “They should have stepped back and took a pause, I think they needed more time. The week before Thanksgiving break, and we keep pushing for a decision?”

Zeit further explained that while he hasn’t been in this position, he feels for the students impacted.

“It’s a tough situation, I can’t put myself in their shoes because I haven’t been through something like this,” Zeit said. “I’m just being supportive and continuing to give guidance each and every day. Being a person they can come talk to is really the only thing we can really do in this situation.”

Going forward the board will be discussing how to tackle decisions related to staffing, zoning and potential overcrowding, among many other discussions in store in the near future.

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TaMya Bracy

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) — Aetna Better Health of Missouri collaborated with a local organization to improve child health across Northwest Missouri.

Aetna donated $30,000 to Northwest Missouri United Labor Community Services Agency and Community Action Partnership of Greater St. Joseph. The donation was divided equally, with each organization receiving $15,000.

The funding will be used for the AFL-CIO’s Diaper Depot program. The program provides diapers, pull-ups, potty training kits and ointment to families with young children. Families are able to receive diapers from the program up until the child’s fourth birthday.

The program serves 18 counties in Missouri and Kansas.

Nichi Seckinger, executive director of AFL-CIO Community Services Agency, said the donation allowed the program to provide items to parents and help children have better health.

“The donation allowed us to move up a tier in the partnership with Happy Bottoms, and it allowed us to serve more children,” she said. “But it also helps provide those hygiene supplies because that is not part of the Happy Bottoms agreement.”

Seckinger said the organization was surprised to receive the donation from Aetna.

“Having something like this come up really will allow us to keep moving this program forward and keep growing the program, because we know that there are more individuals than just the ones that we serve that need it,” Seckinger said. “Anything we can do to grow it and expand it, we’re thrilled to death to be able to do that…They really are helping us make that possible,”

Brandy Kroeger has been using the diaper depot for five years.

Kroeger said the program helped her because diapers are very expensive, especially since her children are one and under.

“There were three in diapers at the same time, very small children, and it was very hard to keep up. So it helped out a lot,” Kroger said. “But it still really, really helped us budget for food and other things that we also need in our family.”

Kroger said it’s great that AFL-CIO got the donation from Aetna.

“I think there’s a lot of families who could really benefit from this program that are struggling. But yeah, really, and there’s probably a lot of families that don’t even know about program that could use that,” she said.

Kroger said the program is great because it helps families who are struggling to make ends meet.

“There are families that like, literally, can’t afford diapers or food. And so it provides that for them without them having to find a way that isn’t good for their family,” she said.

Seckinger said the donation will help the program purchase items through next August.

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News-Press NOW

By: Chris Roush, News Director

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) — Following months of work and questioning, the reasons for the St. Joseph School District’s budget shortfalls are clear. 

During a special school board work session Monday night, a representative from the Missouri School Boards’ Association presented the shortfalls and ways to improve the budget.

Linda Quinley, the senior director of School Finance at MSBA, said the school district’s budget issues stem from late claiming of Title programming reimbursements and errors made in the 2024-2025 June budget estimates, which led to inaccurate 2025-2026 budget estimates. 

“It created a false sense of security in what reserves were going to be on June 30, 2025,” Quinley said to the board Monday night.

According to the presentation, the 2023-2024 Title reimbursement was claimed in July 2025 and was ultimately received that same month.

Quinley said the $4.6 million had not been claimed until the mistake was discovered by Robert Hedgecorth, the new Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations, in July.

As for the 2024-2025 Title reimbursement, it was claimed in October 2025 and received in the same month. The unclaimed money was $5.1 million. 

Quinley said, if the $9.7 million had been claimed before June 30, then the reserves would have been at 16% instead of 10%.

The difference between the 2024-2025 budget on June 30 and the actual budget was drastic. In the revenue, the budget was projected to be $158,705,072, and the actual revenue was $161,746,922. 

Quinley’s biggest concerns came from the discrepancies in expenditures, which ended up being 19.73%. In her presentation, the June budget showed, the district should have spent $7,010,405 in reserves, but the actual number was $36,671,402. The difference was $29,660,997 or 17.85%.

The review was not an audit, but it did give the administration and board areas to improve.

Quinley said timely reimbursement claiming practices, working together, continuing to improve the system in place and making sure the quality and type of financial data provided to the school board is up-to-date. 

Since the budget mistakes were found, district officials have been working on getting the reserves built back up.

The federal Title money has all been received and updated for October’s amended budget. 

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Leah Rainwater

SAVANNAH, Mo. (KQTV) — A Savannah, Missouri, man was sentenced in federal court Monday for embezzling funds from the Savannah R-III School District and his employees.

Anthony S. Moon, 44, worked as the Savannah School District’s accountant. In addition, he was also the owner and president of Parker and Associates, LLC, a tax preparation and bookkeeping service company.

U.S. District Judge Roseann A. Ketchmark sentenced Moon to one year and one day in federal prison without parole.

The court also ordered Moon to pay restitution of $92,746.99 to the district and $29,695.77 to his two employee-victims. The court also entered a final order of money judgment forfeiture of $122,442.76.

According to a news release, beginning in or about January 2023, and continuing until about Nov. 21, 2023, Moon embezzled funds from the district. He used his position to write unauthorized checks to himself and his business.

Moon also used the district’s checking account to make Automated Clearing House payments to his and his wife’s personal credit card accounts.

As for his company, Moon embezzled additional funds from his employees’ retirement savings plan.

For his employees, Moon sponsored an employee pension plan subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or the Simple IRA Plan.

For years, Moon caused tens of thousands of dollars to be withheld from the salaries of his employees, but failed to transfer those funds to the Plan. He also failed to deposit funds in employer-matched contributions to the Plan.

Moon used the embezzled funds from his company to pay for his and his wife’s personal expenses, including Kansas City Chiefs tickets, food, travel, gas and entertainment.

The court ordered Moon to self-surrender on Jan. 8, 2026.

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Leah Rainwater

BUCHANAN COUNTY, Mo. (KQTV) — The Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is holding its annual Crime Victim Memorial Tree Lighting Open House.

The community is invited to attend between 5 and 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 25, at the Buchanan County Courthouse.

A short program will begin at 5:15 p.m. The doors on the north side of the courthouse will be accessible during the event.

Attendees can place an ornament in memory of their loved one on the outside tree located on the north side of the courthouse.

Attendees will also be able to enjoy socializing, as well as cookies and cocoa.

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