Category: kmiz-local-news

Erika McGuire

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Overcrowding at the Boone County Jail is costing the county, with officials now housing more inmates in out-of-county facilities than in the jail itself.

According to Cpt. Brian Leer with the Boone County Sheriff’s Office, the county has spent more than $1.8 million so far this year on housing inmates in other counties and is on track to hit $2 million by the end of the year.

Previous reporting says from Jan 10-May 23 of this year, the county had spent $461,235 to house detainees in other counties, meaning the cost has tripled in the second half of the year.

As of Nov. 21, Leer said there were 403 inmates in the Boone County Jail system, with 177 housed in the local jail and 226 housed in other Mid-Missouri counties. On May 22, the county was paying to house 113 detainees in other county jails.

The cost to house a single inmate in another county jail is $50-$60 a day, according to Leer.

The overcrowding can be problematic as it puts added pressure on partner agencies and Boone County staff who help manage the movement of inmates between facilities, Leer said.

“Agencies like Montgomery County, part of our agreement is they come and get them and transport them back and forth for us. It’s been a really good partnership,” Leer said. “It does present problems though because we’ve got to find staff to do these transports and some of our folks will work overtime just to do the transport,”

U.S. Marshals currently have three inmates from Boone County. Two juveniles have been remanded to the county but are being held at the Juvenile Justice Center and six inmates are being housed at a St. Louis hospital for mental-health-related issues.

There has been a steady increase in overcrowding since the COVID-19 pandemic, Leer said, with many factors playing a role, especially mental-health backlogs.

“Court proceedings, a lot of cases get continued, then we see a longer delay a lot of times in cases being adjudicated as well as mental health,” Leer said. ” We’ve got several folks back there waiting on mental health beds that we just can’t send them anywhere because they don’t have a bed for them. Somebody may be in here for six months and they’re deemed incompetent by the court.”

Leer claims the higher intake of detainees can be linked to a number of factors, including Boone County’s population increasing. The Boone County Jail aims to keep 10-15 beds available for intake everyday, limiting the number of inmates it can house at a given time. Keeping certain inmates separated is also a driving factor.

County officials have started discussions about a new, larger facility that meets demand.

While the project is still in the early stages, Leer said he expects the project to cost between $200-$300 million, with hopes of the facility having extra resources compared to the current facility that was built back in 1990.

“We would maybe have like a mental health wing or floor within the facility as well as have a lot more space,” Leer said. “It’s going to take years to even think about and get a plan. Let alone the years of production as far as getting things produced to then be shipped here then to be built,”

A new facility would likely have between 1,000-1,200 beds, roughly four times the capacity of the current jail, which can hold 246 inmates.

“You have to plan for the future so there’s just a lot of logistics to go through and plan, long-term housing, how is the county going to fund it?… If you start that funding process now, at what point would you be able to break ground and actually build a facility? There’s so much in discussion going on right now,” Leer said.

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ABC 17 News Team

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia City Council on Monday night unanimously approved the construction of a new building over its recycling site.

The bill allows staff to move forward with the design and construction after the building was damaged by an April 20 tornado.

The proposed building will cost about $3.5 million, which includes foundation design, a building with an office, breakroom and locker rooms.

The funds will come from an insurance reimbursement and capital funds.

Construction is expected to last 12-18 months.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

No one was injured, but some residents were displaced, after an apartment caught fire Tuesday morning in the 500 block of East Elm Street, according to a Tuesday press release from the Jefferson City Fire Department.

The release says firefighters were called at 6:21 a.m. for a fire coming from the wall near an electrical outlet in an apartment.  

“Upon arrival, firefighters found light smoke conditions and confirmed a fire contained to a bedroom within the apartment. The building’s fire sprinkler system activated as designed and successfully controlled the fire before it could spread beyond the room of origin. Smoke alarms also activated, alerting occupants to the emergency,” the release says.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, the release says.  

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Matthew Sanders

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Jefferson City government lost its appeal Tuesday in a lawsuit that sought taxes the city says telecommunications companies failed to pay.

The city brought the lawsuit in St. Louis County in 2022 against several companies, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon and U.S. Cellular, alleging that they failed to pay all of the city’s 7% tax on gross receipts. The lawsuit sought delinquent taxes plus interest and penalties.

The Missouri Eastern District Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s ruling, with Judge Virginia Lay writing in part that the city did not take the proper steps to notify the telecommunications companies about tax underpayments before taking the matter to court.

State law, the court ruled, requires assessment of the back tax due and that a notification be sent to the delinquent taxpayer.

The appeals court also found the city lacked standing to bring the lawsuit.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

An 80-year-old man from Lincoln, Missouri, was seriously injured Tuesday in a crash on Route H in Benton County, according to a crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The report says the driver in a 2018 Ford F-150 – a 55-year-old man from Lincoln, Missouri – failed to negotiate a curve while heading westbound and the truck ski on the roadway. The truck went off the left side of the road and hit a parked 2005 Ford Ranger, which was on its side from another crash, the report says.

The driver of the Ford Ranger was an 80-year-old man from Lincoln and he was flown to University Hospital with serious injuries, the report says. He was not wearing a seatbelt, the report says. The driver of the truck wore a seatbelt and had no reported injuries, the report says.

MSHP reports do not name those involved in crashes.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Mizzou women’s basketball team fielded questions from media on Tuesday ahead of their home game against California on Thursday.

The Tigers (7-2) are on a three-game win streak, featuring wins over Northwestern, Bradley and Washington State.

The Golden Bears are 6-2 on the season and saw its six-game winning streak snapped last week in a 58-50 loss to Auburn.

Watch Tuesday’s press conference in the webplayer at the top of this page.

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Gabrielle Teiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

If you’re speeding, especially in a work zone, you may be on the lookout for troopers on the side of the roads to avoid getting a ticket.

But it’s much harder to spot a trooper when they are ticketing you from 2,000 feet in the air.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Aircraft Division has been using planes for speed enforcement since the late 1950s. So far this year, the patrol has conducted at least 40 speed enforcement flights in Mid-Missouri. The counties include Boone, Callaway, Cole, Cooper, Phelps, Pulaski and Saline, where MSHP planes fly over road construction zones.

“These guys that are out here doing 80, 90 miles per hour plus, and they will continue going that speed, do not know that they’ve already been caught,” said Cpl. Geoffrey Beaulieu with Troop F. “It really just lets us hammer down on those big speeders that really need to be slowing down.”

To properly conduct a speed enforcement flight, troopers and Missouri Department of Transportation workers have to go to the site and paint white blocks on the road beforehand. Those blocks are placed 1/8 of a mile apart using a certified tape measure.

The process isn’t as complicated as it may seem, as troopers in the air use only their eyes, a radio and a stopwatch to catch speeders.

The stopwatch also gets set to 1/8 of a mile, and will calculate a vehicle’s speed by using the formula of time over distance.

“We start the stopwatch before they get to that block, and when they get to the second block, we stop the watch. The stopwatch gives us the speed,” said Master Sgt. Dustin Metzner, a trooper and pilot for the Highway Patrol’s Aircraft Division.

Metzner says it’s crucial that troopers start and stop the watch at the right time, or else they could get a bad speed reading.

“It’s really important for us to make sure that we’re not cheating the violator out of distance,” said Metzner. “Because if we measure their distance less than 1/8 of a mile on the watch, it’s going to erroneously give us a faster speed than what they’re actually going.”

The pilot and ground troopers are on the same radio channel to communicate back and forth. The plane follows the speeding car, giving detailed descriptions as they go, until the trooper catches up with the violator. The trooper on the ground gives the driver a ticket or citation, and the process repeats.

“If we’re not 100% certain that we started the watch after the blocks, then we’re not going to stop them and put them on the shoulder,” said Metzner.

According to flight reports from the Highway Patrol, the average speed enforcement flight led to around seven speeding tickets and two warnings for speed per flight. Most of those ticketed or warned were going 11-20 mph over the speed limit in a construction zone, which is typically 55 mph.

Watch ABC 17 News at 10 on Wednesday to find out how many resources go into running these flights, and what to do if you’re ticketed.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A 66-year-old woman from Eldon was seriously injured in a crash Monday afternoon on Highway 54 in Cole County at the Moreau River Bridge, according to a crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The report says the driver lost control of her 1999 Ford F-150 on the ice-covered roadway and hit the bridge. The truck was heading eastbound at the time of the crash.

Snow caused hazardous driving conditions on Monday and a slew of crashes were reported around the Mid-Missouri area.

The woman was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, the report says. She was brought to Capital Region Medical Center by ambulance.

MSHP reports do not name those involved in crashes.

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Haley Swaino

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A new Missouri rule, aimed at protecting children from online pornography, has prompted Pornhub — the pornography industry’s largest platform– to block access statewide rather than comply.

Pornography websites operating in Missouri must now verify that their users are adults before allowing them access to explicit content.

The rule — initiated by former Attorney General Andrew Bailey and continued by AG Catherine Hanaway — went into effect Monday. The attorney general is taking the action under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, which requires commercial porn sites to implement robust age-verification systems for users.

Under the new regulation, any website where a third or more of its content is pornographic must confirm that users are 18 or older. Noncompliant platforms will face penalties, injunctions and enforcement actions for engaging in unfair and deceptive practices.

Hanaway called the rule “one of the most significant online child-protection victories in state history” in a statement.

She said Pornhub’s decision to bar Missourians’ access to its site proves why the rule is needed.

“If a billion-dollar corporation would rather leave Missouri than verify that children are not accessing graphic sexual content, that tells you everything you need to know about its priorities,” Hanaway said in a statement.

Instead of identifying themselves to access such sites, some Missourians seem to be turning to virtual private networks.

A VPN creates an encrypted “tunnel” for internet traffic and masks IP addresses — enhancing online privacy and security. It can make it look like the user is in another state.

The Show-Me State has reportedly seen a major spike in VPN searches.

Google Trends data showed search interest for “VPN” in Missouri surged to its highest point of the year in the days surrounding the rule taking effect.

This suggests that Missourians are looking for ways to maintain anonymity, prevent potential data leaks, or visit sites that have restricted traffic from the state.

Google Trends data shows search interest for “VPN” in Missouri surges in the days surrounding a new age verification rule for pornographic sites taking effect on Nov. 30, 2025.

Pornhub criticized Missouri’s rule as ineffective and a potential risk to user privacy.

“We [Pornhub] believe that the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification. Until a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Missouri,” Pornhub said in a statement on its website.

The statement urges Missourians to contact state representatives and demand device-based verification solutions while also “respecting your privacy.”

“Pornhub is welcome to leave Missouri,” Hanaway said in a statement Tuesday, acknowledging the platform’s response to the new rule.

Research shows that the average age people are first exposed to pornography is 11 or 12, with many teens encountering violent or degrading content online, the Attorney General’s Office says. Studies suggest pornography can have addictive effects similar to dangerous substances, leaving children particularly vulnerable. It can also “distort young people’s understanding of sex and undermine healthy relationships.”

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A crash closed part of Highway 54 in eastern Audrain County on Tuesday morning.

The highway reopened at about noon.

MoDOT reported the closing in a news release a little before 9 a.m. The release says a crash closed Highway 54 between Route F and Highway 154 near Vandalia. Details about the crash were not provided.

It wasn’t clear when the road would reopen.

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