Category: kmiz-local-news

Marie Moyer

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

An open lot in west Jefferson City is paving the way for affordable housing opportunities.

Several groups including members of the city government, the Missouri Department of Economic Development and Central Missouri Community Action broke ground Tuesday for the Stronghold Landing Project, an affordable housing construction project, at 5011 Old Lohman Road.

The project will add 40 total affordable apartments featuring two-bedroom and three-bedroom units. The complex will also have a community center and dog park. The plan costs around $13.7 million in total and is funded by a mix of state and federal funding, as well as Community Development Black Grant funds and low-income housing tax credits.

The project is part of the city’s larger “Race to 50” initiative, established by Mayor Ron Fitzwater in 2023 that set a goal to increase Jefferson City’s Population to 50,000 residents. Planning for the project was also directly tied to the 2019 tornado that destroyed around 152 housing units in the city, with 95% of those being rentals.

“Hitachi has grown substantially, Unilever is growing, Scholastic is growing, our small businesses are growing, but they have to have places for people to live,” Fitzwater said, “We knew that housing had to be a critical piece of that race if we were going to add 6,000 to 7,000 new residents to this community.”

Fitzwater added that the city has more than 600 units set to begin construction across the city during the next year, tackling both rental and for-sale properties of varying price points.

That total includes townhomes planned after the completion of the Wildwood Extension project, which is expected to wrap up this winter; 30 rental apartments across from Stronghold Landing, set for completion as early as January; and the controversial 230 single-family homes off Rock Ridge Road, set to break ground next year.

“There’s not enough housing for upper-income households and there’s not enough housing for lower-income households,” CMCA Executive Director Darin Preis said. “The low-income households are paying for housing that they can’t really afford and the upper-income households, they’re buying up that middle housing too.”

The Stronghold Landing Project will focus on low-income households, with two-bedroom units ranging in price from $480-$750 and three-bedroom units ranging from $450-$850. The exact cost of rent would be decided on a sliding scale based on the applicant’s income level. Applicants’ criminal histories will also be reviewed, similar to a traditional rental process.

“We all recognize that there’s a housing shortage here,” Jefferson City Ward 3 Councilwoman Treaka Young said. “[Residents’] concerns that they have is due to traffic, we’re conscious of that as council people, we’re understanding that we need to do a traffic study to make sure that it does not do more harm.”

Jefferson City Ward 4 Councilwoman Julie Allen was especially excited for the Stronghold Projects to be based in her ward.

“We have individuals coming in from the actual hospitals and executives, and they can’t find housing here,” Allen said. “We also have individuals in our industry and they say there’s nowhere to live here, from all levels, we need workforce housing.”

ABC 17 News spoke with seven residents living near Stronghold Landing. The majority of residents felt construction wasn’t an issue, one had no preference and one person voiced concerns that the apartment’s addition would bring down property values, adding that her family is planning to move once construction is completed.

Construction for Stronghold Landing is expected to be finished July 2026.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Missouri State Highway Report crash report gives a possible reason for why a trolley holding more than 40 people crashed in May in Gasconade County.

On Saturday, May 3, a trolley bus carrying 41 passengers veered off the road, injuring 32 people. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the accident occurred near Eagles Nest Drive at 10:45 a.m. after the driver — a 45-year-old Hermann man — overcorrected after leaving the right side of the road, causing the vehicle to crash into a ditch, according to previous reporting.

The driver allegedly told authorities that he hit a pothole, causing him to veer to the right, the report says. The driver also allegedly said that a rear tire went off the roadway, and he steered the trolley to the left to save it, causing him to overcorrect and travel off the left side of the road, the report says.

Multiple passengers in the report claimed the driver was speeding.

HERMANN TROLLEY Crash_Report_250222798-RedactedDownload

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Erika McGuire

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Flashing flooding can happen anywhere within minutes and hours of intense rainfall posing a threat to life and property.

Flash flooding occurred in the early morning hours of July 4 in Kerrville, Texas, killing more than 100 people, according to reporting from CNN. Missouri Task Force 1 was deployed to Texas on Monday.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday afternoon 170 people remain missing.

The National Weather Service says flash floods can be caused by a number of things but most often is due to extremely heavy rainfall from thunderstorms and can occur during to dam or levee breaks or mudslides.

Marshall Pfahler with the National Weather Service said a warning is then issued when there is an immediate threat to life or property.

“A warning that means there is an immediate threat, so that means we’re looking at the radar the estimated precipitation n the rainfall amounts so we’re expecting flash flooding imminently occurring or already occurring,” Pfahler said.

It can happen when there is too much rain for the soil to absorb and can quickly catch people off guard and put them in danger.

The situation can turn dangerous quickly if someone encounters high, fast moving water child traveling, if people are in their or homes or business, the water can rise quickly and trap them and cause property damage.

A flood risk summary report done by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2022 found that 1.7% of land in Boone County is considered high-risk for flooding, while the state wide median is 2.9%.

The report also found 3,947 buildings are in high risk of flood plains and 3,617 residential structures are at risk. Several areas in Boone County are considered flood-prone, including the MKT Trail that suffered significant flooding in 2021.

According to the NWS, urban areas are also prone to flooding in short time-spans and sometimes rainfall in an urban area can cause flooding faster and more severe than in the suburbs or country side.

“Pavement asphalt, building so a lot of that has to get channeled off or run off into the drainage systems as well as rivers,” Pfahler said.

Creeks and rivers are first to feel the impact of flooding.

“Smaller rivers and creeks. so when that water is running off it thats usually its first stop it enters the river system so we can see quick rises and very swift flowing water,” Pfahler said.

The National Weather Service encourages using NOAA weather radios, a nationwide network broadcasting 24/7 weather forecasts, watches, warnings including flash flood warnings.

Director of the Boone County Emergency Management Agency Chris Kelley said weather radios can be crucial during severe weather as it will alert you whether power or cell service goes out.

“Have it coded for whatever county you are in so when those warnings come out you can receive them, we have areas in Boone County that have poor cell reception,” Pfahler said, “Its the redundancy and getting alerts and getting information,”

According to Kelley not all areas in the county that have poor cell service are near flood prone areas but there are some.

Local television and radio stations are also good information resources along with social media platforms and weather and emergency apps. The ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather App is also a useful tool and will send weather alerts straight to your phone.

Additionally, people in affected areas receive Wireless Emergency Alerts directly on their mobile phones these are short, high-priority messages sent without the need to sign up.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Tuesday marked one year since Boone County Fire Protection District Assistant Fire Chief Matthew Tobben died while saving two people.

On July 8, 2024, a rescue boat lost power and capsized near Bear Creek. The boat carried Tobben, Columbia firefighter Derek Abbott and two people they rescued. All four people were thrown into the water, but Tobben never resurfaced. An autopsy report showed Tobben drowned.

The 42-year-old served with Missouri Task Force 1 for 12 years and was previously with the fire department in Union, Missouri, for 19 years before coming to Boone County in May 2024.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Part of Columbia’s busy Stadium Boulevard was closed during rush hour Tuesday evening after a crash took out a utility pole, according to a public alert.

South Stadium was closed from Rollins Road to College Park Drive after a crash caused an electric line to go across the road, the alert said. Columbia police cruisers were seen blocking part of Stadium.

The Columbia Water and Light outage map showed 12 customers without power after the crash. The road was reopened soon afterward.

More details were not immediately available.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri State Highway Patrol has named the victim of a fatal shooting that occurred on Sunday in Moberly.

MSHP wrote on its social media on Tuesday that Bailey E. Scott, 23, of Moberly, died in the shooting.

The Moberly Police Department previously wrote in a social media post that officers found a woman dead while responding to a shooting at a residence in the 900 block of East Logan Street on Sunday night.

A balloon release will be held in Moberly at 7 p.m. Friday, to honor Scott, according to a social media post from the Boozy Badger Bar in Moberly.

Check back for updates.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Jefferson City man was charged with four felonies after he was accused of shooting at a vehicle in 2024.

Keiron Robinson, 23, was charged on Tuesday in Cole County with shooting at a vehicle, two counts of armed criminal action and one count of illegal gun possession. He is being held at the Cole County Jail without bond. A court date has not been scheduled.

The probable cause statement says that police were called on July 31, 2024 for a weapons offense near East Elm Street and Clark Avenue. Police wrote that they found 17 shell casings.

A witness was found on Aug. 1, 2024, and police conducted a search warrant at their residence and found the gun used in the shooting, the statement says. The witness allegedly told police that Robinson fired the gun several times out of their vehicle, the statement says.

The witness allegedly admitted to holding the gun for Robinson, court documents say. The gun was sent to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s crime lab for analysis and determined between June 12-18, 2025, that the shell casings found were fired from the gun, the statement says.

Robinson was arrested on Monday.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Former Mizzou football coach Gary Pinkel has been accused again of driving while intoxicated.

A Missouri State Highway Patrol report shows that Pinkel, 73, was arrested at 11:46 p.m. Monday in Camden County.

The arrest report says he was brought to the Camden County jail and was released. He was accused of a single count of DWI, the report says. He was not listed on the Camden County Jail 48-hour release roster. Charges have not yet appeared on Casenet.

Pinkel previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DWI in 2011 in Boone County. He was sentenced to two years of probation and completed the sentence.

ABC 17 News has reached out to the Camden County Sheriff’s Office and Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Pinkel served as MU’s head coach from 2001-15.

Pinkel’s lawyer, Bogdan Susan, said in a statement that Pinkel will not make any statements regarding the case, but he plans on pleading not guilty.

Check back for updates.

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Keriana Gamboa

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Local after-school organizations are raising alarms about the Education Department’s plan to withhold nearly $7 billion in funds for the next fiscal year.

Those funds include money for programs such as the Boys and Girls Club.

If the funding is not released, Boys and Girls Clubs across the country could face widespread consequences, including summer camp closures, staff layoffs and the potential permanent shutdown of hundreds of locations in the coming weeks, the organization says.

“Our Club remains fully committed to providing the same impactful and critical services that our youth and families count on every day. We will not stop doing whatever it takes to build great futures for all youth in our community,” The Boys and Girls Clubs of Columbia and Jefferson City said in an online post.

Program leaders are urging the public to contact their members of Congress and ask them to push the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Education to release these funds immediately.

The Boys and Girls Club has posted a website that puts users in contact with U.S. senators immediately upon filling out the form.

The Department of Education’s decision this week to withhold $6.8 billion in federal K-12 funding for next year has sparked widespread concern among state education officials, school administrators and advocacy groups.

The funding loss will affect programs such as after-school activities, enrichment opportunities and language-learning services.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says those federal grants provide $64.3 million in funding to local education agencies and select state-level programs.

“DESE will continue to monitor the status of these grant programs and provide updates when they become available,” a department spokesperson said.

The Department of Education announced on Tuesday that several major federal education grants are still under review and have not yet been approved. Because of this delay, states have not received official notices or funding amounts for the upcoming year.

Programs affected serve nearly 1.4 million children and families nationwide. Among those, more than 220,000 are youth who attend one of 926 Boys and Girls Club sites.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A leader of the Missouri Senate said Tuesday that she wants MU Health Care to accept terms offered by insurer Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield by the end of the week.

“This contract needs renewed this week,” Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin (R-Shelbina) wrote on Facebook. “I have contacted a few other senators to get their input and they agree; sign the contract. Yes I know that I am not on the inside nor the CEO of either but from what I’ve been told this seems a reasonable offer. I’m encouraging the contract be signed by Thursday so the thousands of people insured and seeking access to their doctors can once again resume their healthcare.”

O’Laughlin and other lawmakers held a committee hearing last week to talk with Anthem and MU Health leadership about the contract dispute.

Anthem customers using Medicare Advantage plans have been out of MU Health Care’s network since February. Other customers have been out of network since April, after the two parties failed to reach an agreement for a new contract. MU Health has said Anthem is slow to pay claims and wants too high a reimbursement rate. Anthem maintains that it can’t afford higher reimbursement rates.

Anthem, which covers about 90,000 MU Health patients, gave two new offers during last week’s hearing. O’Laughlin wants MU Health to take one of them.

“Anthem doubled their rate increase offer,” O’Laughlin wrote. “They also will allow policy exceptions to remain in place (those exceptions allow MU to receive extra insurance coverage on services.) The Anthem proposal increase includes paying doctors more.”

“These two entities started a long ways apart but I believe it is time to renew. Anthem has come up substantially and there’s too many people negatively affected and going without coverage to see their doctors at MU Health.”

Anthem highlighted its two proposals in a statement and said a follow-up session was held.

“During the recent public hearing, Anthem presented two distinct proposals to MU Health Care in an effort to resolve our contractual differences,” the statement says. “In a private session following the hearing and again as recently as yesterday, we extended an additional offer aimed at moving toward a resolution. Our goal remains clear: to restore MU Health Care to our network at rates that preserve access while keeping coverage affordable for all Missourians, including those covered by the Missouri Consolidated Health Plan.”

MU Health Care also confirmed it’s been in communication with Anthem since the hearing.

“MU Health Care and Anthem have been in active conversations since the hearing last Monday, and we received a proposal from Anthem late yesterday afternoon. Our goal remains to reach an agreement and return in-network access for Anthem members to MU Health Care clinicians and facilities,” said MU Health Communications Specialist Rochita Ghosh.

Sandy Smith, a cancer survivor who has relied on MU Health Care since 2016, said she’s had no issues with Anthem until this year.

“I have a condition called Lynch syndrome, which makes me more susceptible to other cancers. And so I don’t feel like I can just go to anybody that’s not familiar with that,” Smith said. “So when I heard that they weren’t renewing the contract, I was just going to wait until the marketplace opened again and then I would have to go with UnitedHealthcare. Any appointments I have from now until the end of the year, I was just going to postpone them until I get different insurance.”

Smith said she called Anthem to try to enroll in continuity of care, but was told she already had a doctor in her town.

“When I look that doctor up, it’s a male and I go to females for my kind of cancer and treatments. And so that was a “no.” And it wasn’t an oncologist gynecologist,” Smith said. “So they think that there’s options, but when you need certain specific doctors and gender it’s not an option. So it is very frustrating and it can be stressful.”

Smith added that while her current care is primarily preventive, the ongoing dispute is much more stressful for patients actively undergoing treatment.

“I’m one of the healthier ones, because all mine are preventative. I think more of the people that are going through cancer treatments right now and having to deal with this, my heart goes out to them,” Smith said. “We are people. We’re not just numbers. And so when you’ve gone through treatments or you’re facing things, you need people with compassion and they need to show some compassion towards us as human beings.”

Rep. Gregg Bush (D-Boone County), a nurse and Anthem customer, said the issue is deeply personal.

“There’s an old proverb that when elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers,” Bush said. “And what we have is we have Anthem this big institution. We have MU that has been filling the gaps with rural health care, and that when they’re in conflict, it’s the rest of us that are suffering.”

Bush said he moved to Anthem insurance earlier this year and immediately felt the impact.

“It was a little bit of a gut punch, frankly. My family has been using MU Health Care for almost two decades,” Bush said. “In some ways, I don’t want lawmakers kind of involved in this, but we can’t not be. We are talking about the people who assist us throughout the whole Capitol. We’re talking about Missouri State Highway Patrol members. These are the people that serve us, that protect us. And if we have any sort of clout whatsoever, we should exercise it to try to make sure that they get the best care for themselves and for their family.”

Bush also said MU Health Care is vital to rural Missouri.

“MU Health Care has kind of been in the gaps where for-profit health care has fled rural Missouri and MU Health Care has taken up the slack,” Bush said. “We have legislators that come from all over the state. And there’s only one network that is in all the state, and that’s MU Health Care. It’s just the reality.”

He added that Anthem’s for-profit model adds to the burden on patients.

“We have institutions that are basically taking money out of health care and putting it into stock buybacks, taking money out of people’s care and putting it into dividends,” Bush said. “And MU Health Care doesn’t do those kinds of things. They take all of their margin that they’re making and they end up opening clinics in rural parts of Missouri because they’re not allowed to make a profit and pay shareholders.”

Bush said he’s heard from constituents across the state, but the issue also hits close to home.

“I have children that need pediatricians and there’s only one provider in our county that has a network of pediatricians and that’s MU Health Care,” he said. “When they don’t accept Anthem, that’s a significant issue. Now in our health care oasis, which is Columbia, now we’re having to drive two hours to go see a provider.”

As of Tuesday evening, MU Health Care had not indicated whether it would accept the latest proposal from Anthem. O’Laughlin urged the health system to finalize a deal by Thursday. The contract dispute remains unresolved.

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