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Archives for April 2017

Fatal motorcycle crashes reach all-time high in Missouri

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In 2016, there were more than 2,100 motorcycle accidents in Missouri. Kelly Jackson with the Missouri Transportation Department tells Missourinet more than 1,900 motorcyclists were injured and a record high 122 were killed last year in Missouri traffic accidents.

“Over the last four years, we’ve seen a steady increase in motorcycle fatalities,” says Jackson.

The number of motorcyclists killed in Missouri crashes in recent years:

2016: 122, 40 of the fatalities included motorcycles not wearing helmets.
2015: 91, 28 of the fatalities included motorcycles without helmets.
2014: 89, 26 of the motorcyclists were not wearing helmets.
2013: 74, 16 of the fatalities included motorcycles without helmets.

Fatal motorcycle crashes reach all-time high in Missouri

So far this year, at least 23 motorcyclists have been killed in Missouri traffic accidents.

“We do know that with warmer weather and a milder winter, motorcyclists were able to get out and about a little bit more,” says Jackson. “They were traveling more on Missouri’s roadways and of course with the vehicle miles traveled up, we see more motorists on the highway.”

May is Motorcycle Safety Month in Missouri. Jackson reminds those traveling on Missouri’s roadways to keep some life-saving safety measures in mind:

* Be visible. Motorists often have a hard time seeing you. Keep your headlight on, day or night. Use reflective strips/decals on your clothing and on your motorcycle. Be aware of other vehicle’s blind spots.

*Dress for safety. Wear a helmet and eye protection. Wear bright clothing. Wear thick or leather clothing for protection. Section 302.020 RSMo. states, in part, “Every person operating or riding as a passenger on any motorcycle or motor-tricycle, as defined in Section 301.010 RSMo., upon any highway of this state shall wear protective headgear at all times the vehicle is in motion. The protective headgear shall meet reasonable standards and specifications established by the director.”

*Think safety while riding. Give yourself space to react to other motorists’ actions. Use lane positioning to increase visibility. Watch for turning vehicles. Signal your next action in advance. Pretend you’re invisible and drive defensively.

*Know your bike. Get formal training and take refresher courses. Practice riding your motorcycle before going into heavy traffic. Know how to handle your motorcycle in all types of road conditions.

Car and truck drivers need to share the road with motorcyclists and keep the following in mind:

* Drivers should actively watch for motorcyclists.

* Motorcycles may look farther away than they are due to their smaller size. It is also difficult to judge the speed at which a motorcycle is traveling as it approaches.

*Motorcycles are hidden easily in a vehicle’s blind spots, or masked by objects or backgrounds. Thoroughly check traffic before changing lanes.

*Motorcyclists may slow down by downshifting or easing off the throttle. So, you may not see a brake light. Allow extra distance between you and a motorcycle.

*A motorcycle’s turn signal does not cancel after the turn like a vehicle’s signal does. So, pay attention, the motorcycle may not be turning.

*A motorcyclist will often adjust their position in the lane in order to be seen more easily and to avoid debris, wind, or passing vehicles. Allow the motorcyclist to share the lane; don’t assume they are being reckless.

*Stopping distance for motorcycles is similar to that of cars. But, slippery pavement can make stopping quickly difficult. Please allow more distance behind a motorcycle in these types of road conditions.

The Bill Pollock Show–#Chiefs takes QB in the #NFLDraft that they don’t need and a #Mizzou fan gives her side of the story (PODCAST)

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The Chiefs have gone 11-5 and 12-4 and the fan base is ready to see this team play in the Super Bowl.  GM John Dorsey makes a trade with Buffalo for the 10th overall pick. Does he pick a guy who can make an immediate impact for 2017 and help this team get one step closer?  No.  He picks a quarterback who won’t play for another two full seasons and gives up next year’s first round pick as well.

Where does this make sense?

If the Chiefs take any steps backwards in the next couple of years, Dorsey will be gone.  He’s got a division winner and he uses the 10th pick to choose a guy who will not help this team now.

Dorsey says he didn’t give up a lot and the entire organization loves their pick.  I think it’s bad.  You’ll hear from Dorsey and then I’ll weigh in.

Yesterday I called Brooke Reynolds a knucklehead.  She is the Director of the Tiger’s Lair, the student cheering section for Mizzou football.  I thought her arguments were weak as she tries to save primo seats for Mizzou students at football games while the team considers moving sidelines.  I must point out, all of this has caused a big stir because of a silly SEC rule.

So after I called Brooke names, I want to give her a chance to give her side of the story.  I’m giving the students a voice here on the Bill Pollock Show!!!

Northern Missouri tech company to add 100 new jobs; company CEO praises state business climate

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An IT company headquartered in northern Missouri’s Macon will add about 100 new jobs in the next 18 months.

Congressman Sam Graves

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Tarkio), who recently toured Onshore Outsourcing, tells Missourinet he’s excited about the new jobs.

“It’s great to see success stories like this that, you know, where you’re creating jobs and people have opportunities to get those jobs in small towns,” says Graves.

Macon is located on Highway 63, between Moberly and Kirksville.

Congressman Graves represents 36 Missouri counties, including Macon County. He says the new jobs are good for everyone.

“The nice thing as well as for the customers out there, because you’ve got somebody, these are a lot of call center type jobs too, and you’ve got somebody on the other end of the line that speaks English, you know and is an American somebody a live person on the phone,” Graves says.

Onshore Outsourcing CEO Shane Mayes tells Missourinet Moberly affiliate KWIX that the new jobs will all be in Missouri, mostly in Macon.

Mayes praises Graves and also praises new Gov. Eric Greitens (R), saying there is a positive business environment in the Show-Me State.

Onshore currently has four facilities across Missouri and Georgia.

Onshore’s website has a section about its mission. It reads, in part: “Our passion is providing Americans and veterans in rural communities stable and rewarding IT careers. Our purpose is bettering their lives and enriching the communities where they live, while helping Fortune 2000 companies achieve success.”

Missouri lawmakers look to finalize a budget that doesn’t include midyear cuts

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There’s now confidence that lawmakers in Jefferson City will meet a deadline to complete a state budget.  At this point, they’re trying to ensure the final product can withstand fluctuations in the supply of money and thus, avoid painful cuts in the next year.

Republican Governor Eric Greitens withheld $146 million shortly after taking office in January, while previous Democratic Governor Jay Nixon held back a total of $200 million in 2016

A week ago, cobbling together a spending plan seemed uncertain after Republican Senator Rob Schaaf of St. Joseph ground his chamber to a halt with a one man filibuster.

But the Senate approved a budget with relative ease over two days this week, which makes House Budget Committee Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick (R-Shell Knob) rest easier.

“There’s a lot of suspicion that some of the folks who were frustrated in the Senate were going to try to target the budget, and it appears that they have not done that yet” said Fitzpatrick.  “Now, they could still do it…because the Senate will have a vote on the budget again before it’s all said and done.  But I feel better now than I did a week ago for sure.”

Now that the Senate’s completed its initial portion of the budget writing process, members of both chambers will enter into a conference committee to hash out differences between the houses.  And at the get-go, Fitzpatrick contends the Senate budget is out of balance by a substantial sum.

“It’s certainly more than $50 million.  I can tell you that with 100% certainty.  There’s no question that it’s more than $50 million.  I think that almost certainly more than $100 million.  I don’t know if it quite elevates to $150 million or not.”

Fitzpatrick’s Senate counterpart, Dan Brown (R-Rolla), thinks the figure is somewhat less, but won’t say how much.

Brown notes part of the discrepancy is the fact that the Senate is fully funding the state employee retirement fund while the House is not.

“I really believe that we really need to keep up to date on funding the retirement program” said Brown.  “There are so many thousands of Missourians dependent upon that.  I don’t want to see that fund get behind and get in trouble.”

Fitzpatrick thinks there’s likely a great deal of hidden costs in the Senate’s numbers that’ll contribute to it being out of balance.

“There could be things that they did that make their budget look smaller than it really is.  And those are the things we have to identify and uncover so we can see what the real differences are.”

One way to hide the true cost of an item in Missouri budgets is to place an “E”, which stands for estimate, at the end of a spending figure on a spreadsheet.

Fitzpatrick notes that with one expenditure, the Senate budget allocates $1 followed by an “E”, while the House spending plan allots $25 million for the same expenditure.  Fitzpatrick did away with all E’s in this year’s House budget.

Brown thinks there could be a snag in negotiating differences in the supplemental budget, which is a fund used for “unexpected expenses”.

“We didn’t have quite as much booked for supplemental as the House, and that may be a point of contention” said Brown.

Cost overruns have led to at least $100 million in state money coming out of the supplemental budget in most years.  Fitzpatrick has placed almost $200 million in that fund this year, while the Senate has set aside between $106 and $108 million for it.

Brown says he won’t negotiate a couple of items in the budget, including DUI checkpoints and highway patrol pay.  He also says that he brought no “personal projects” to the budget and thinks Fitzpatrick also did not.

Brown and Fitzpatrick each will lead five member sides in a conference committee to hash out their differences starting early next week.

Fitzpatrick tells Missourinet he’s confident their finished product will be approved by both houses, and a final budget can be sent to the governor by next Friday’s deadline.

Cardinals score in eight of nine innings over stretch of DH to sweep Blue Jays

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Matt Carpenter celebrates after his walk off grand slam (photo/Bill Greenblatt,UPI)

The time off in between games didn’t slow the Cardinals as they used a hot finish and fast start to sweep the Blue Jays in their double header on Thursday with 8-4 and 6-4 victories.

St. Louis jumped on Toronto in the second game getting to Casey Lawrence.

Dexter Fowler sparked a three run first with a single. He added a solo homer and Matt Adams had two hits to score two and Stephen Piscotty drove in two.

Add to that, the eight unanswered runs the Cardinals scored to come back from a 4-0 deficit starting in the seventh of the first game, the Cardinals scored all their runs by scoring in eight of nine innings over the two games.

The victories get the Cardinals back to 11-11, going 8-2 over their last ten games

#Chiefs draft QB-Let’s hope Mahomes turns out better than Blackledge

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For the first time since 1983, the Chiefs have selected a quarterback.  GM John Dorsey traded up to get Texas Tech’s Patrick Mahomes.

The Chiefs traded with Buffalo for the No. 10 pick in the NFL Draft to select Mahomes. The last QB the Chiefs drafted a quarterback in the first round was Todd Blackledge.

Will the Chiefs be patient and let Mahomes sit the next two seasons under Alex Smith to learn?  They sure leveraged a lot to pick up the “gunslingin” Red Raider Mahomes.

The Chiefs also gave up this year’s third round pick and next year’s first round pick.

 

From #Mizzou to Miami-Harris goes with the 22nd pick

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Mizzou junior defensive end Charles Harris (Kansas City, Mo.) was selected with the No. 22 overall pick in the first round of the 2017 National Football League Draft by the Miami Dolphins.

Harris becomes the eighth Tiger since 2009 to be drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft, with five of those being defensive linemen.

Shane Ray (No. 23 to Denver in 2015), Sheldon Richardson (No. 13 to New York Jets in 2013), Aldon Smith (No. 7 to San Francisco in 2011) and Ziggy Hood (No. 32 to Pittsburgh in 2009).

Mizzou’s other first-rounders since 2009 include QB Blaine Gabbert (No. 10 to Jacksonville in 2011), LB Sean Weatherspoon (No. 19 to Atlanta in 2010) and WR Jeremy Maclin (No. 19 to Philadelphia in 2009).

Overall, Harris is the 20th Tiger in history to be taken in the NFL Draft’s first round.

Columbia woman admits stealing $231,000 from Shelter Insurance

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Federal prosecutors say a longtime employee at Columbia’s Shelter Insurance pleaded guilty Thursday to embezzling more than $231,000 from her employer.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says Debra L. Wenger, 62, pleaded guilty in federal court in Jefferson City to misappropriation of funds by a credit union employee.

Wenger’s employer was Shelter Insurance Federal Credit Union in Columbia.

Federal prosecutors say Wenger began working for Shelter Insurance Companies in 1972, and was transferred to Shelter Insurance Federal Credit Union in 1988.

Court documents indicate she had accounting responsibilities and served as a teller. She no longer works there.

Prosecutors say an external auditor discovered the misappropriation of funds in February 2016.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says Wenger later met with Columbia Police in 2016 and confessed that she had taken cash from her teller drawer and deposited it into her personal bank account.

Shelter Insurance’s internal audit says the total amount of embezzled funds was $231,600.

Wenger faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not been set.

The FBI and IRS assisted Columbia Police with the investigation.

Greitens disagrees with PAC releasing Missouri legislator’s cell number

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Gov. Greitens

Governor Eric Greitens (R) says he disagrees with a political action committee releasing Sen. Rob Schaaf’s (R-St. Joseph) personal cell phone number, but he says he’s not involved in its day-to-day operations. The PAC – A New Missouri – was created to support Greitens’ agenda. It has released attack ads last week against Schaaf urging constituents to tell him to “stop siding with liberals” and blocking certain legislation.

“People are sick of watching career politicians talk and talk and talk but not getting anything done,” says Greitens. “People are standing up. They’re joining us and making sure that we get our priorities passed.”

An advisor to Greitens, Austin Chambers, heads the PAC. Schaaf says Chambers takes marching orders from Greitens.

Schaaf has taken aim this session at Greitens by calling out the governor about refusing to release some campaign donation information, or so-called dark money.

Sen. Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph)

Schaaf told a publication that the governor lacks the courage to confront him directly. During an Missourinet interview in Greitens’ Capitol office, he says that’s not the case.

“We’ll have a conversation who’s willing to fight for the people of Missouri,” says Greitens. “But when you have really liberal, anti-law enforcement politicians who get up and do things like filibuster something like Blue Alert, which I think makes sense to everybody. People around the state know that we need to support our law enforcement officers.”

Schaaf successfully halted Senate business in the chamber most of last week through filibusters focused on his opposition to expanding managed care statewide. Under managed care, private companies are given a monthly fee to provide services to each of Missouri’s Medicaid recipients.

The House and Senate have both passed the expansion.