Author: News-Press NOW

Cameron Montemayor

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — City officials are preparing revised regulations that would loosen restrictions for keeping chickens and fowl on private property.

Tuesday’s City Council agenda includes a bill for first reading to revise the city’s Code of Ordinances related to the keeping of fowl and proper maintenance of coops and pens.

Current regulations state that it is unlawful for any person to pen fowl upon any premises within 100 feet of any building or structure of any kind occupied by human inhabitants.

New regulations proposed by the city would significantly restructure permitted distances of fowl from neighboring property depending on the number of fowl kept, among other changes.

Newly proposed regulations for fowl:

Three or less fowl: 25 feet from neighboring residencesFour to six fowl: 50 feet from neighboring residencesSeven to 12 fowl: 100 feet from neighboring residences

Fowl are required to be at least six feet from all property lines and in a fenced enclosure, coop or cage that is maintained and clean at all times in a sanitary manner that mitigates flies and disease.

Residents would be forbidden from keeping or harboring roosters at a private resident unless it is zoned for a specific use, other than residential, such as agricultural. Every structure or other yard arrangement shall be kept so that no offensive, disagreeable or obnoxious smell or odor shall arise.

Occasional supervised, free roaming fowl within a fenced area may be permitted, provided it does not create an offensive, disagreeable or noxious smell or odor to the injury.

Cages and pens must provide proper rest, exercise, and flight that is suitable for the species and shall provide a barrier for predators.

Per the ordinance, any manure present on any premises within the city for more than 24 hours, including cleanings from any barn, stable, stall, corral, pen, or enclosure or any truck, coop, wagon or railroad car used for the stabling, penning or transportation of animals or fowl is declared to be a nuisance, subject to abatement by the health officer as provided by law.

St. Joseph Animal Services may at any reasonable time inspect any structure or premises necessary to carry out the provisions of this section.

The new regulations come after one local resident raised concerns to City Council this May about being asked to remove several chickens from her property due to complaints from neighbors.

An exhibit of the proposed ordinance can be found below.

EXHIBIT A for Sec. 5-63 and 5-66Download

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TaMya Bracy

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Several college campuses in the region and across the United States are off to a nerve-wracking start of the school year.

There has been a wave of active shooter hoaxes sweeping across college campuses in the country. According to The Associated Press, law enforcement responded to calls claiming there were active shooters at the University of Arkansas, Northern Arizona University, Iowa State, Kansas State, the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of New Hampshire on Monday.

On Tuesday, law enforcement received even more calls for the University of Kentucky, West Virginia University and Central Georgia Technical College, according to AP.

These waves of threats can cause terror among students, given how common school shootings have become in the U.S.

Jill Voltmer, chief of police at MoWest, said that the university does have precautions in place if a shooter were to come on campus.

“We have a safety plan, an emergency management plan that we continually review and keep close at hand,” Voltmer said. “And we try to go through all of those points and continually update them.  Listen, watch and see everything, anything that looks out of place, she said.

Along with the emergency management plan, MoWest has an alert system that sends out messages. It’s called the Griffon Alert System.

“They are multifaceted and they come in several different ways,” Voltmer said. “They come in email, they come in text messages and they take over your computer screen. We also have annunciators, which are noises that come out of it with the basic information. So that is how correct current information is given by the university and in any type of situation like that,” she said.

Most students don’t think about a shooter coming on campus, even though it’s common. MoWest freshman, Summer Palmer, school should be a safe environment and you shouldn’t have to think about a shooter coming on campus.

“When you’re at school, you should have the mindset of like socializing, being a friend, going to hang out with your friends, focusing on schoolwork, building an education, going to school to, you know, have fun,” Palmer said.

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News-Press NOW

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Elections for mayor, city council and judge will be held at the beginning of 2026.

The Primary Election will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 3 and the General Election will be on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.

Candidates for mayor and members of council are required to be qualified city voters and be St. Joseph residents for at least one year immediately prior to the election.

District councilmembers are required to be residents of their district for at least six months prior to the election.

The judge, mayor and four at-large councilmembers shall be elected to serve four-year terms, and the four district councilmembers shall be elected to an initial two-year term.

The judge should be at least 25 years of age, licensed to practice law in the State of Missouri and shall have been a resident of St. Joseph for one year immediately prior to the election.

The judge will hold office for a four-year term, during which he or she will not practice law. No person who is in arrears for any city shall be entitled to hold any office in the city government.

Any person interested in running for any of the aforementioned offices is asked to stop by the City Clerk’s office at Room 303 in City Hall, located at 1100 Frederick Ave, beginning Tuesday, Sept. 9, to pick up petitions.

Petitions for candidates for the district councilchamber shall be signed by no less than 75 qualified district voters.

All petitions shall be filed with the city clerk should be filed between Tuesday, Oct. 7 and Tuesday, Oct. 28.

The City Clerk’s office hours are typically 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 816-271-4731.

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Cameron Montemayor

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — One of St. Joseph’s top employers and a global leader in battery production is engaging key cities and potential sites for development as it prepares to invest billions to advance energy manufacturing in the U.S.

Representatives with Clarios, the Chamber of Commerce and local media gathered for a meet and greet Thursday at the Chamber as an opportunity to strengthen ties with longstanding company cities and learn about its ambitious $6 billion U.S. energy manufacturing investment plan announced in March.

The long-term strategy is multifaceted — vastly expand the company’s footprint as a global leader and innovator in advanced battery production and other energy manufacturing, and strengthen the country’s manufacturing prowess and workforce.

“It’s almost a generational opportunity that we have here. There’s a combination of demand in the marketplace for advanced batteries that we produce and then this resurgence in U.S. manufacturing and bringing manufacturing back to the United States,” Clarios Chief Communications Officer Tom Downie told News-Press NOW.

The company has more than 900 employees in St. Joseph across its assembly plant and distribution center on Pear Street and Lower Lake Avenue, producing advanced batteries that are found in one out of every three cars worldwide.

Thursday’s meet and greet included discussions about the city and the key role its facilities play in Clarios’ domestic and global operation.

“St. Joe’s a huge part of it. St. Joe is one of our larger facilities and probably one of the top three sites in the U.S.,” Downie said. “That’s the key part of this … to better understand what their needs are and how we might be able to work together in the future.”

A vital component of Clarios’ investment plan includes a new state-of-the-art Manufacturing Technology & Training Center, designed as a hub for workforce development and the next generation of manufacturing research and development, including critical technologies like robotics, AI-augmented vision systems, autonomous material handling and manufacturing software.

Clarios views those technologies as key to improving its battery production network and energy storage capabilities for the years ahead.

“As vehicle technology advances, vehicles are becoming software dependent … those vehicles require more input from the low voltage network,” Downie said. “Part of the $6 billion, there’s $1 billion we’ve set aside to come up with new types of batteries to be able to serve those vehicles.”

The company is actively working to identify a location for the manufacturing and training facility and hopes to make a decision by the of the year.

Clarios is eyeing locations that may include public-private partnerships, incentives and existing workforce development initiatives, particularly in states where it has a presence today like St. Joseph.

The facility is one part of Clarios’ $6 billion plan, which includes a massive $1 billion critical minerals processing and recovery plant, which is likely to be located in either Indiana, Texas and Utah, the company’s first in the U.S.

“Keeping the battery components and the critical minerals that are in those batteries in the U.S. in our supply chain is very important,” he said.

The processing plant will utilize advanced technologies to extract antimony and other minerals from recycled materials for use in defense and military production, boosting the country’s supply of critical minerals and reducing its dependence on foreign sources.

Antimony is central to the production of advanced technologies like night vision goggles, infrared sensors, precision optics and even ammunition.

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News-Press NOW

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — The St. Joseph Fire Department received a Military Community Reinvestment Grant aimed at assisting communities that provide support to military programs and bases.

The $117,000 grant was awarded by the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

The grant funds, along with matching funding from the city, will be used to build a live fire training facility near Rosecrans Memorial Airport. The starter facility is expected to be complete by May 2026, according to a City of St. Joseph press release.

Firefighters with SJFD currently have to use other facilities for this type of training, which makes it difficult for all of them to earn the desired three hours of live fire training a year.

“The St. Joseph Fire Department, City of St Joseph as well as the 139th are very excited about this opportunity to build a live burn training facility here in St Joseph,” St. Joseph Fire Chief Ivan Klippenstein said. “This is a tool our fire departments have always been in need to have an accessible facility. We are not only excited about the opportunity to train, but to create relationships with old and new partners in the emergency services.”

SJFD is advocating for the future facility to be made the regional training facility that can be used by other area entities such as the 139th Airlift Wing and Missouri Western State University, according to a press release.

SJFD working with 139th Airlift Wing to develop new joint training facility

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News-Press NOW

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — The City of St. Joseph has shared its holiday hours in observance of Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 1.

City Office, the Recycling Center, Landfill and the REC Center will be closed.

The Remington Nature Center will be open during its normal hours.

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Kyle Schmidt

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990 with the intent to prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities.

Now, in modern day, internet accessibility has become just as important as physical accessibility, meaning websites also need to, by law, accommodate the roughly 55 million Americans who qualify under the ADA.

In order for websites to become compliant, they need to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

“A lot of times what happens is, folks are not very well aware of what the issues on the websites are, how to fix those issues, how to test for those things, how to audit them,” Ecomback President Nayan Padrai said.

Ecomback is an “Expert website accessibility services” company that helps businesses ensure their websites are accessible to people with disabilities.

According to Ecomback, 132 websites nationwide were sued do to lacking ADA compliance. This number skyrocketed to a high of 4,334 lawsuits in 2022.

In 2024, the total number dipped down to 3,188, with 1,600 coming from New York. A trend Ecomback has followed is, 1,619 cases filed last year were from 35 plaintiffs, while the rest of the 1,569 cases were filed by 196 plaintiffs.

“A lot of times, a law firm mans this space for a number of years and then after they get a lot of heat, they move out of this space or they might lay low,” Padrai said. “Or an associate or former employee might start their own firm. But it’s typically the same players.”

Here in Missouri, one of the main plaintiffs in website ADA compliance lawsuits is Robert Glen Myers. Myers is a blind veteran and has been involved in over 90 cases since 2024, according to PACER.

In an emailed statement to News-Press NOW, Myers said, “I pursue this advocacy because blind Americans, especially fellow blind veterans, are being systematically excluded from today’s digital world. Every website we make accessible is one fewer barrier for someone trying to apply for a job, order dinner, access healthcare, or simply live with dignity.”

Myers is represented by Attorney Kevin Puckett of ADA Legal Team.

Puckett, when questioned on the number of cases he has been a part of, representing Myers, said in an emailed statement, “We are just attorneys and bring lawsuits when we are retained by a client to file same. We can confirm that our client’s intent is not to pursue volume for volume’s sake, but rather to enforce longstanding federal law, be an advocate for the blind community that is so drastically marginalized in digital spaces, and to always provide notice to businesses prior to filing suit. The volume of claims will directly correlate with the claims we are hired to pursue and the continued lack of compliance.”

These lawsuits in Missouri stretch from Kansas City, Mo., to St. Louis. Padrai said that when a small business gets sued, most of the time, they don’t have many options.

“When small businesses get hit with a lawsuit, they have two choices,” Padrai said. “Either figure out the quickest, simplest, cheapest way to solve the problem or go to court in a protracted legal case, which drains a lot of energy and resources, and people are intimidated by the process.”

News-Press NOW contacted over 20 businesses in Northwest Missouri and all denied an interview.  

Some of the businesses claimed they didn’t know if their website was in compliance with the ADA, and some even expressed the fear of being sued.

In court documents found on PACER, a nearby dairy farm, Shatto Milk Company, in Osborn, was sued.

According to the court documents, the suit was filed due to the “defendant’s failure to make defendant’s online platform compatible with screen access software, thereby denying blind individuals, including Myers, full and equal access to defendant’s products and services.”

This case would end in a settlement a few months after being filed. The settlement is unknown for this specific case. Padrai said settlements can range from $2,500 to $25,000 or even more.

Puckett said all businesses are notified they are being sued ahead of time.

“Every company we’ve pursued on behalf of our clients were and always are given prior written notice and a meaningful opportunity to remediate its website before any lawsuit is/was filed,” Puckett said in an email statement.

Adjacent to Missouri, Kansas adjusted its legislation to combat “abusive litigation” in ADA lawsuits. Missouri has no such law. To Puckett, this change is “Unconstitutional.”

“Kansas’s statute is entirely unconstitutional and likely violates the anti-retaliation laws of the ADA, as they have a substantial chilling effect on disabled individuals attempting to assert their civil rights. Such laws weaken enforcement (contrary to Congress’s intent) and harm disabled citizens, all while contradicting the ADA’s core purpose,” Puckett said.

Padrai believes it is a great model for states to follow. If a business is concerned about its website and would like to have it audited, Ecomback offers a free audit.

“I believe that until accessibility is the norm rather than the exception and companies comply voluntarily, litigation will be a necessary component of our various clients’ enforcement efforts,” Puckett said.

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TaMya Bracy

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — A shooter opened fire on a Minneapolis church window, killing two children and injuring 17 others. Now, the local Catholic community is sharing its thoughts and condolences with those involved.

The shooter was identified as a 23-year-old Robin Westman, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene after firing through the windows of the Annunciation Church.

According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, in 2025, there were 148 school shootings nationwide.

“Any time I hear about school shootings, it’s just heartbreaking,” said Karen Kroh, the superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. “The fact that this occurred during the first back-to-school mass for the school year at Annunciation was devastating.”

In a statement to Archbishop Bernard Hebda, Pope Leo XIV expressed his “heartfelt condolences and the assurance of spiritual closeness to all those affected by this terrible tragedy, especially the families now grieving the loss of a child.”

As a “pledge of peace, fortitude and consolation in the Lord Jesus,” Pope Leo imparted his Apostolic Blessing upon “the Annunciation Catholic School Community, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis and the people of the greater Twin Cities metropolitan area.”

Father Steve Hansen, pastor of the Cathedral of St. Joseph, said his secretary informed him of the shooting yesterday.

“You know, that while children are praying at Mass, actually singing the songs of King David, that this would happen. A great sadness overcame,” he said

Hansen expressed how all the pastors and schools agreed to pray yesterday for Annunciation. He said the whole world will be praying about this tragedy.

“I assure you that all of the churches in town and throughout the probably the country, if not the world, will be praying,” said Father Hansen.

Hansen had a few words for the families in Minneapolis that have been affected by the shooting,

“I say to our parents and to our grandparents and to all of our adults to really watch off, watch over our young people who are having difficulties and never be afraid to intervene and to ask others for help on how to help a young person who could be troubled,” he said. “That’s a good thing for all of us to be aware of, myself included, just to be reminded of our important role and looking after those who are struggling.”

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Cameron Montemayor

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — It’s back to the drawing board for the city of St. Joseph after a planned agreement with one KC-based airport operator was suddenly withdrawn following claims by a local businessman of an improper selection process by city officials.

Apex Aero Center, a leading Midwest airport operator, was previously in line to become the next fixed base operator at Rosecrans Memorial Airport after an agreement for first reading was introduced at the Aug. 18 City Council meeting.

A city spokesperson and ACC confirmed separately to News-Press NOW that the agreement is now off after the company rescinded its proposal. The company declined to provide a specific reason as to why the decision was made.

Now, the bid award process remains open with the other vendors who submitted proposals. Councilmembers will decide at the next meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2, how to proceed.

“The city appreciates the outstanding effort put forward by Apex throughout this process,” a city spokesperson said.

The development comes after local businessman and FBO bidder Steve Craig accused the city of improperly selecting Apex during the last council meeting despite reports that the operator did not receive the highest evaluation among multiple proposals submitted, allegedly on multiple rounds of voting.

Craig’s group — which includes local partner Gary Patterson, president of Express Flight, LLC — was one of two local bidders who submitted plans to become the next FBO.

FBOs are organizations or companies granted the right to operate at an airport and provide a broad range of general aviation services for private and recreational flying, including refueling and maintenance services.

At the Aug. 18 meeting, councilmembers opted not to take up Craig’s request for an independent commission to examine the proposals, including a request to table the measure.

According to city documents, Apex was initially selected as the awardee after receiving the highest overall score in the evaluation process, consistently ranking at or near the top in qualifications, operational ability and preparedness.

The document indicates that the city’s Purchasing Department utilized a panel of outside aviation professionals to conduct an independent evaluation of the proposals. The panel included Melissa Cooper, A.A.E., Aviation Director for the City of Kansas City, Missouri; Dave Schaumburg, A.A.E., Springfield-Branson National Airport; and Joe Peska, Aviation Consultant, Woolpert.

“Collectively, these evaluators brought decades of leadership in airport management, commercial development, and aviation infrastructure, ensuring an impartial and industry-informed selection process,” the document reads.

Evaluators highlighted Apex’s proven success operating multiple FBOs in the Midwest, its readiness to begin operations at Rosecrans Memorial Airport without delay and its well-defined operational plan. Apex had also committed to making significant financial investments at Rosecrans Memorial Airport.

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Carter Ostermiller

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Labor Day weekend is approaching, and many families will be visiting their local rivers and lakes for some recreational activities.

Although the weekend before Labor Day is a time for families to have fun, it is also important to stay safe on the water this weekend.

Having the proper equipment on your water vessel is imperative for keeping yourself and others safe.

The number one thing to always have on the water is life jackets.

Sgt. Shane Hux, the public information education officer with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said life jackets are vital.

“Make sure you have enough lifejackets for everybody on board of your vessel. And make sure those kiddos wear them at all times, even when they’re on the vessel,” said Sgt. Hux.

Boat driving etiquette is also very important, not just for you, but also for others. 

According to Hux, there were four boating crashes statewide during the 2024 Labor Day weekend, resulting in two fatalities. 

If you need help on the water or notice anything illegal, *55 on your cell phone will get you in contact with your nearest troop headquarters. 

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