Category: kmiz-local-news

Alison Patton

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri lawmakers are considering a bill that would prohibit electrical corporations from using eminent domain to build wind and solar farms.

House Bill 2169 is going in front of the House Special Committee on Rural Issues at 4 pm. Wednesday. This bill is similar to two others from previous legislative sessions.

Bill sponsor Brad Pollitt (R-Sedalia) gave an example.

If three landowners owned about 80 acres total, and the two on the outside decide to install solar panels, then the solar company cannot use eminent domain to purchase the land in the middle to expand the solar farm.

Pollitt said he wasn’t aware of a case like the exaple happening, but the bill would close a “loophole.”

“There’s nothing in statute that says that that company cannot use eminent domain to take the other 80 acres to complete their solar project,” Pollitt said. “I want to specifically put in statute that they cannot do that.”

The public hearing on Pollitt’s bill was about 20 minutes long, and no one showed up in opposition to the bill.

Pollitt said the best chance to get his bill into law is actually in passing House Bill 2762, which absorbed Pollitt’s original bill. HB 2762 puts parameters around solar panels.

HB 2762, sponsored by Rep. Brad Banderman (R-St. Clair), passed out of the Utilities Committee on March 26. Pollitt said they are waiting for it to be assigned and discussed in the Rules Committee before it can be sent to the House Floor.

Both bills comes as Grain Belt Express, LLC., has filed multiple cases in Callaway County to force land owners to sell the company easements for construction and work on its transmission line. However, Pollitt said his bill does not apply to transmission lines.

“My bill actually specifically says that this does not associate with transmission lines,” Pollitt said. “This is only the land itself. Eminent domain can’t be used to acquire additional land to put up additional solar panels.”

The project will cross Missouri to deliver power from western wind fields to Illinois. The route will run through Mid-Missouri, and a connection is planned from north of Centralia to near Kingdom City. That route includes land in Monroe, Audrain and Callaway counties, according to the Grain Belt website.

Grain Belt sued the Missouri Attorney General’s Office after former Attorney General Andrew Bailey began an investigation into the project, alleging it had misled regulators and the public. New Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who was chief legal counsel for Grain Belt in her private practice before becoming attorney general, reached an agreement with the company to provide her office with documents.

Lawmakers have about a month and a half to pass legislation before the session ends on May 15.

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John Ross

An ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather Alert Day is in effect for the potential of severe storms that could produce damaging winds and quarter size hail through late tonight.

Storms along the warm front have mainly dissipated after dropping a few tornadoes in Illinois, and now our focus overnight will be toward a broken line of storms across far western Missouri. The most organized storms will track south of Highway 50, where there is a Severe Thunderstorm Watch in effect until 5:00 a.m. for Camden and Pulaski counties.

Several inches of rain have fallen in the west over the past 3 days, with heavy rain 2 nights ago causing flooding. Flood reports stretch from the lake area to Macon County. 3-Day rain totals are now up to nearly 4-5 inches in some spots in Pettis, Benton, Morgan, and Cooper counties.

SETUP

A slow moving cold front has allowed severe storms to develop across Kansas and Oklahoma, bringing strong wind gusts and hail earlier this evening. We’re losing daytime heating and instability continues to wane with time, but enough wind shear and lift will allow for at least a few strong storms overnight, especially across southern Missouri.

TIMING:

A broken line of storms has strengthened across southern Missouri where the strongest storms will be possible through early Saturday morning. The severe threat will come to an end likely after 4:00 a.m., with light rain through mid-morning.

IMPACTS:

All severe threats will be possible, including damaging winds, 1″ or larger hail, and tornadoes. How likely these threats are will become clearer with time, but these are realistic possibilities given the overall setup. Given the wet start to the week, we’ll also be concerned with flooding as a secondary or tertiary threat.

Make sure you have a way to receive timely alerts right to your location by downloading the ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather App. The app will also alert you to lightning within 15 miles of your location.

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John Ross

Rainfall on Tuesday marked the beginning of an active weather pattern for mid-Missouri.

Since its onset Tuesday morning, rain totals have steadily risen through several rounds of showers and storms that have already passed.

Radar estimated rain total maps illustrate streaking patterns of localized higher amounts, with one notably stretching from Warsaw through Versailles, California, Ashland, Fulton, and nearly to Montgomery City. This band is a remnant from very slow-moving, training thunderstorms that developed on Tuesday around mid-to-late morning. This has since been added to by scattered showers and storms that have been better at evenly distributing rainfall across the entire region.

More rain is expected with several rounds of thunderstorms still expected between now and Saturday morning.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Boone County judge sided Wednesday with Columbia Public Schools in a lawsuit alleging the district breached a contract for football field naming rights at Rock Bridge High School.

Wayne Sells filed the lawsuit in October 2024 after CPS removed his name from the Rock Bridge football field. The Columbia Board of Education unanimously voted to rename its athletics field in 2020 after Sells went on Facebook and criticized professional athletes who were protesting during the national anthem before games by kneeling. 

Sells had suggested renaming the field Veterans Memorial Field.

Judge Ben Miller heard arguments on March 2.

Sells argued that renaming the field violated his agreement with CPS made when he donated $100,000 to the school and agreed to an arrangement to name the field for him. CPS argued that no formal agreement existed.

That donation was used for improvements to Rock Bridge athletic facilities, which led to the school naming the field “Wayne Sells Family Activity Field” in 2006.

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Madison Stuerman

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A 48-year-old man from Chicago, Illinois, died in a crash in Audrain County on Wednesday.

Missouri State Highway Patrol said the crash happened at 6:20 a.m. on Route J at Audrain County Road 481.

Troopers said the driver of a 2011 International LF627 was going westbound on Route J when it went off the side of the road and hit a ditch. The report states the cargo shifted and hit the cab as the truck stopped.

The driver died at the scene.

Both directions of the road have been closed since around 8 a.m., according to the MoDOT Traveler Map. The agency said Route J between the Routes 19/54/J roundabouts and Route B is closed for an unknown amount of time.

 Sgt. Kyle Green with MSHP told ABC 17 News the weather is slowing down the investigation process.

As of 1 p.m., crews were still on scene cleaning up debris from the scene.

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Matthew Sanders

President Donald Trump continues to order more American troops to be sent to the Middle East, where the United States is embroiled in an air and sea conflict in Iran.

Trump has not said whether he plans to put soldiers on Iranian soil, but he has not ruled out the possibility. However, reports emerged Tuesday that the administration could be nearing an end to the conflict.

Do you think American soldiers will be deployed on land in Iran? Let us know by voting in the poll.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Camden County’s presiding commissioner entered the Republican primary for Missouri’s Sixth Senate District on the final day of filing Tuesday.

Todd Isaac “Ike” Skelton of Osage Beach is the sixth Republican to file paperwork to run in the August election for the district that runs from Cole County to the Lake of the Ozarks. Skelton is nearing the end of his first term in office, which includes a high-profile run-in with the law when he removed a license-plate reader camera from its perch along a state highway.

Tuesday was the final day to file for the August primary in statewide and county elections. Filing began Feb. 24. That’s when the other five Republicans — term-limited Missouri House member Rudy Veit of Wardsville, former lawmaker Dr. Lisa Thomas of Lake Ozark, Jake Vogel and Derrick Spicer of Jefferson City and Amber Buckles of Macks Creek — put their names in.

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Meanwhile, three candidates — Nick Sherrell, Kathy Campbell and Nathan Patton — are running in the Republican primary for Skelton’s current post. Two Democrats, Daniel Ousley and Mike McDuffey, are seeking their party’s nomination.

Mid-Missouri’s open 10th Senate District, which covers Callaway, Montgomery, Pike and Lincoln counties, will see contested primaries for the GOP and the Democrats. Republicans Tricia Byrnes (a current House member) of Wentzville and Mike Deering of Montgomery City filed on the first day. Democrats John Wells of Holts Summit and Pablo John Los of Hermann filed on Monday.

State House District 59, which represents Jefferson City and will be open in the general elections, will have a three-way Republican primary. Vic Rackers, Carrie Tergin and Glenn Reynolds all filed on the first day.

A full list of candidates who filed in the August primary is available on the Missouri secretary of state’s website.

Contested primaries set in Boone, Cole counties

Boone County voters who pull a Democratic ballot in August will have the chance to vote in two contested primaries.

Incumbent Auditor Kyle Rieman has drawn a challenge from Allen Bel-Long.

Two Democrats also filed for the Division 9 circuit judge seat — Bill Ellis and Spencer S. Smith.

All four filed on the first day.

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Cole County will hold contested primaries for the Republican nominee for presiding commissioner and county clerk. Each race has drawn the interest of a term-limited state lawmaker.

State Sen. Mike Bernskoetter is running for the GOP nomination for presiding commissioner against Paul Dupuis. State Rep. Dave Griffith of Jefferson City is running for county clerk against Jeff Ahlers.

Bernskoetter’s and Griffith’s term limits set up the open primaries in the Sixth Senate District and 59th House District, respectively.

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Haley Swaino

COLE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Cole County officially broke ground on its new $14 million juvenile center Tuesday.

“We’ve really outgrown our current facility,” Cole County Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman said. “That was built 30 years ago.”

The project to get an upgraded facility for the county is more than five years in the making and will meet growing needs.

“In the 21st century, we have some very troubled juveniles. So there’s really more of a need now than there was 30 years ago. And that’s what we’re addressing,” Bushman said.

Rendering of new Cole County juvenile center for detention and emergency care at its groundbreaking on Mar. 31, 2026. The center will be located in the 2300 block of St. Marys Boulevard in Jefferson City.

The current center, the Cole County Prenger Family Center, has only three secure beds for detention and seven beds for emergency care. The new center will have eight cell beds and more homey recreational space.

“We want to make sure that they’re [juveniles] not in a state of survival,” Cole County Juvenile Court Administrator Tobie Meyer said. “We want them to be comfortable, we want them to feel supported and we want them to be open to change.”

The center provides shelter, food and stability for those needing behavior changes or just a safe home.

“We currently have this in our facility, we have youths, juveniles, who have issues at home. They have no home life,” Bushman said. “So we basically become kind of their surrogate parents. And they live there, they have their own rooms, they go to school and we feed them. We kind of take care of them.”

The center will not only offer more space for juveniles, but it’s in a more preferable location.

“It’s important for it to be centrally located so that children and families can access us when they’re needed. We have served many youth who walk to our facility because they need a safe place to go,” Meyer said.

The Cole County Prenger Family Center, is located on Stadium Boulevard in southwest Jefferson City. Meyer said the new juvenile center, located on St. Marys Boulevard in Jefferson City, is better because its central to the county.

The project is expected to be completed in spring 2027.

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Camryn Payne

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Demolition crews on Tuesday started to tear down an old Gerbes in the 1200 block of East McCarty Street this week.

The demolition is part of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church’s expansion. The expansion has three phases and a total price tag of $40 million.

According to diagrams on the church’s website, the first phase includes constructing a new school building, new playgrounds and a new McCarty Street entrance. The expansion will cost $20 million.

The second phase — costing roughly $12.5 million –will include building a new commons and administration building and demolishing Kaiser Building for new parking. The third phase — costing about $7.5 million — includes adding a new gym and classrooms onto the commons and administration building.

The work on the first phase is expected to be done by August 2027, while the second and third phases could take at least five years apiece to complete, according to the diagrams.

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Dan Kite

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Two women from St. Louis County have been charged after allegedly filing a false kidnapping report that led to an extensive police search for a 5-year-old girl on Monday.

Ashley M. Collins, 29, and Kayla Williams, 31, both of Afton, were charged on Tuesday with a misdemeanor for making a false report, Collins faces and additional charge for misusing “911” services, also a misdemeanor. Both were arrested this afternoon and are being held in the St. Louis County Jail and are being held on $10,000 bonds. Court dates have not been scheduled.

According to a probable cause statement, Collins called 911 on Monday to report that her 2020 Jeep Renegade was stolen with a 5-year-old girl inside. An Amber Alert was issued that afternoon and several resources — includes a helicopter and drone surveillance and a K-9 search team — were used. The vehicle was later found around a mile from the house, according to the statement.

During an interview with Collins, she reported that she had temporary guardianship of the child, and that they live with Williams. She alleged that she placed the child in the vehilce and went back inside, when she returned both were gone. Williams gave the same story during her own interview with police.

Upon realizing the vehicle was gone, Collins reportedly took Williams to work in a separate vehicle and called her bank to see if they could locate the car, before calling 911, according to court documents.

Five hours after the initial report, both reportedly admitted that, while the car had been stolen, the kidnapping report was a hoax, court documents say.

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