Category: kmiz-local-news

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A fire that occurred Monday in a care facility in the 300 block of East Stone Street in Sturgeon was caused by an “electrical malfunction” near a porch, according to Boone County Fire Protection District Assistant Chief Gale Blomenkamp.

Previous reporting shows that a staff member at Sturgeon Residential Care Facility found a fire on the porch and tried to put it out before it spread to the attic. Blomenkamp told ABC 17 News in a Wednesday text message that the fire did get into the attic and caused about $400,000 in damage.

The fire was reported around 4:37 a.m. that morning.

There were 19 residents and two staff members were in the building when the fire started and were evacuated in about four minutes, previous reporting says. No injuries were reported.  

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A portion of East Ash Street and the sidewalk by the Boone County Courthouse will be closed from 6:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday, April 8, according to a press release from the City of Columbia.

Both lanes of the street and the southern sidewalk between North Seventh and Eighth streets will be closed, along with part of the northern sidewalk, the release says. Signs will direct pedestrians to alternate routes. Metered street parking will also be closed.

The release says the closures are occurring as an air conditioning unit is replaced on top of the courthouse.

Go COMO bus routes will also be affected, the release says. The Black Route will detour using Park Avenue and North Seventh Street. The Armory Sports Center stop will be moved to the west side of the intersection of North Seventh and Ash streets, the release says.

The Orange and Gold Routes – which are detoured to East Ash Street because of construction on Park Avenue – will temporarily be returned to its normal route on Park Avenue on April 8, the release says.

The release says no bus stops will be missed.

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Edits to Columbia Public Schools’ bullying policy, including summer interactions and employee protocol, will be discussed during a school board policy committee meeting Wednesday.

The new policy, if passed, would implement new guidelines for instructors on handling reports of bullying.

The initial policy had instructors and employees ask to report incidents to the building’s principal. Revisions change this to have instructors work directly with students.

According to meeting documents, staff “are expected to intervene to prevent student bullying, appropriately address the situation, assist the victim and report the incident to the building principal or designee for further investigation and action.”

The revisions also add new procedures for managing bullying off-campus and during school breaks.

While the school has limited jurisdiction over bullying that occurs off school grounds or through school resources and technology, the school will work to assist students who are affected, under the new policy. This includes contacting law enforcement or social media companies and “contacting the parents/guardians of the victim and the alleged perpetrators, communicating that this behavior is not allowed on district grounds or at district activities,” according to the meeting document.

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Bullying reports will be accepted year-round, and schools will investigate instances of bullying during business hours, even when students are not in school.

“Reports of bullying that occurs during summer school will be investigated to the same extent as a report during the regular school year. However, if the relevant staff, students or witnesses are not available, the investigation will be delayed until a complete investigation can be conducted,” according to the meeting document.

Investigations of bullying will continue to begin two days after school leadership receives a bullying report. Reports involving students from multiple schools, special education students or a student with disabilities will have additional school administrators and staff added to the investigation.

The investigation should be completed within 10 school days of the date of the written report of bullying.

“Ultimately, the goal is for all policies to be clear and in language that all can understand. For this one, we also hope that the reporting and investigation of the incidents will be more consistent,” CPS School Board Vice President Paul Harper said in a statement.

The Policy Committee Meeting begins at 4:45 p.m. in the Aslin Administration Building.

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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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