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69 alleged gang members in St. Louis region arrested; 16 arrests on murder-related warrants

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(This story is written by Missourinet St. Louis contributor Jill Enders)

ST. LOUIS- Nearly 200 fugitives wanted for violent offenses are off the streets of the St. Louis area tonight, as a result of a massive federal special operation. 16 of the arrests are on murder-related warrants.

U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen and U.S. Marshal John Jordan brief reporters about “Operation Triple Beam” on November 14, 2019 at the Eagleton Courthouse in downtown St. Louis (Jill Enders photo)

During a Thursday morning press conference at the Thomas Eagleton Courthouse in downtown St. Louis, federal prosecutors announced that 162 fugitives have been arrested in the St. Louis region as part of “Operation Triple Beam.” State and local law enforcement officers joined U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen at the press conference.

“This joint operation had the added effect of strengthening the relationship among our local, state and federal law enforcement counterparts,” U.S. Marshal of Missouri’s Eastern District John Jordan tells reporters. “The U.S. Marshals provided multiple resources to include manpower, funds and essential equipment to assist local, state and federal partners in this operation.”

Jordan emphasizes that 16 of the St. Louis-area arrests were connected to homicides. 69 suspected gang members have been arrested. Jordan also says 40 firearms and three vehicles have been seized, and nearly ten pounds of illegal drugs have been confiscated.

The special operation spanned three months.

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Blunt says trade dispute has hurt China’s economy more than America’s

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U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, believes the trade dispute with China will be resolved, but says the belief that trade would change China will likely never materialize. Blunt says both the U.S. and China have reasons to sign a new trade agreement.

Blunt says trade dispute has hurt China’s economy more than America’s

“I don’t think we’re ever going to get back to where we were with China a decade ago when there was a sense that this was going to be smooth-sailing and the Chinese economy and their view of individual freedom was developing so rapidly that, before you knew it, we’d all be functioning the same way,” Blunt says in an interview with St. Joseph affiliate KFEQ. “I think we now see that’s not likely to happen. President Xi is president for life.”

Blunt insists the trade dispute has hurt the Chinese economy more than the American economy. He says China, because of its communist form of government, can better weather economic hardships than the United States.

“They can tolerate more unhappiness in their system, but nobody likes to tolerate unhappiness,” Blunt says. “So, President Xi should want to do this. President Trump should want to do this. I think we will see some things happen there, but not everything that probably we need to see happen and would eventually want to see happen.”

Blunt says the optimistic outlook many U.S. leaders had that open trade would create an open China just hasn’t happened and likely won’t happen.

One trade agreement has been reached, but is pending Congressional approval.

Blunt is optimistic Congress will approve the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is touted as vital to Missouri agriculture as well as business.
Blunt says it might seem odd, but the move by House Democrats to investigate and possibly impeach President Donald Trump could well pave the way for approval of the USMCA.

“The impeachment votes in the House make it even more likely that the Speaker’s going to decide that the 30 or 40 members that are going to have the hardest time casting that vote are the same 30 or 40 members that have the most need to have a vote on USMCA,” according to Blunt. “I think we have a real chance to get that done.”

Blunt holds out hope Congress will take up and pass the trade agreement before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, public impeachment hearings involving President Trump begin today.

By Brent Martin of Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph

About 120 new jobs headed to southwest Missouri

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Bass Pro Shops – Image courtesy of Bass Pro Shops

Nearly 120 jobs are being relocated to southwest Missouri’s Springfield from Bass Pro Shops’ Cabela’s operation in Sidney, Nebraska. The timeline of when these jobs will be moved is unknown.

The company says employees who choose not to move to Springfield will be offered severance, as well as outplacement aid.

Cabela’s once employed around 2,000 people at its headquarters in Sidney before being bought by Bass Pro.

By Don Louzader of Missourinet affiliate KSGF in Springfield

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Missouri ag director says transfer of USDA agencies will benefit state’s farmers

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Missouri Agriculture Director Chris Chinn says a relocation of the USDA’s Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture from Washington, D.C. to downtown Kansas City will benefit the state’s farmers.

Missouri Agriculture Director Chris Chinn

“These researchers, these people who are doing that important work, actually have the opportunity to reach out and get to know a farmer and ask them ‘What challenges do you see on a daily basis for your operation, what do you need a solution for, what can we do to help you?’ So that’s where we think it’s going to be a huge benefit,” says Chinn.

A lease was signed to house the two agencies near the intersection of I-70 and I-35. Chinn says the agencies’ location reinforces the state’s role as an agriculture hub.

“It also just kind of sends out a very strong message that Missouri is here and we’re open for business and we’re looking for new opportunities all of the time to serve agriculture and the people that we work for,” says Chinn.

Employees who made the initial move a month ago have been in another USDA building in Kansas City where they’ll remain until the downtown office is ready.

By Tom Steever of Brownfield Ag News

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Northwest Missouri route reopens to traffic, again

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The route to Rulo has reopened, once again. Missouri Department of Transportation officials report U.S. Route 159 from Route 111 at Big Lake across the Missouri River to Rulo, Nebraska has reopened after floodwaters had closed it a second time.

Floodwaters heavily damaged the Little Tarkio Creek Bridge/MoDOT photo

Work to replace the Little Tarkio Creek Bridge at Fortescue on U.S. Route 159 will likely not be completed until spring.

Now, both vital links between northwest Missouri and southeast Nebraska have reopened after being closed for much of the year due to the widespread and recurring flooding. Highway 136 to the north of U.S. Route 159 reopened about two weeks ago, reopening the route to Brownville, Nebraska cut off since March 15th.

MoDOT completed a work-around of the heavily flood damaged Little Tarkio Creek Bridge in September only to see floodwaters rise again, overflow the Big Lake area, and again shut down the route being reopened for only 16 days.

MoDOT Thursday reopened Route 111, Lake Shore Drive, along Big Lake between U.S. Route 159 and Route 118. March floods closed both routes. Contractor Phillips Hardy worked with MoDOT to complete extensive repairs to both routes in late April.

When flooding receded earlier this week, crews returned to U.S. Route 159 to complete shoulder and roadway repairs. Crews removed debris and made small repairs to Route 111 when floodwaters receded two days ago.

For more information on flood recovery, click here for MoDOT’s special flood web page.

By Brent Martin of Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph

Former CIA agent from Missouri says espionage conviction was ‘payback’

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A former CIA agent from southeast Missouri convicted of espionage says the agency made an example of him. Jeffrey Sterling of Cape Girardeau spent more than three years in federal prison after a jury decided he leaked information to a journalist. Sterling tells Missourinet affiliate KSSZ in Columbia that he’s innocent and the government wanted to scare off any future potential whistleblowers.

Former CIA agent from Missouri says espionage conviction was ‘payback’

“Individuals such as Cartwright, Petraeus, just mountains of evidence of them betraying the trust for classified information. Yet I am put on trial, prosecuted for doing something I did not do,” Sterling says.

He says the prosecution was payback for him accusing the agency of racial discrimination.

“Just the aspect of whistleblowing, standing up for yourself. Reprisal is something very real, especially in a place with any intelligence community, especially the CIA,” he says.

Sterling says it was “shocking” to be charged by the government he served while in the CIA.

“To be charged with basically being a spy for the country, against the country I love, was very hard for me to deal with,” says Sterling.

He got out of prison last year. Sterling spoke on the Mizzou campus this week about his new book “Unwanted Spy.”

By Brad Tregnago of Missourinet afilliate KSSZ in Columbia

17 percent more Missouri children uninsured since 2016, national study says

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A new report by Georgetown University says an estimated 83,000 Missouri children were uninsured in 2018, an increase of about 17 percent since 2016.

The report says the factors are  efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut Medicaid; delays in funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); elimination of the individual mandate penalty; cuts to enrollment outreach and advertising; inadequate oversight over state Medicaid – fear and confusion for immigrant families that discourages them from enrolling eligible children in Medicaid or CHIP.

Kids Win Missouri, representing more than 100 child advocacy groups and agencies, responded to these numbers saying they are “disappointed but not surprised.” Their statement says Missouri has seen almost 100,000 children fall off the Medicaid and CHIP insurance rolls in the past two years, even when many of those children are actually still eligible to receive coverage.

Representative David Wood, R-Versailles, says he is not surprised either, but for other reasons. He is chairman of Missouri House committee keeping tabs on the state’s Medicaid figures. He says the state’s Medicaid enrollment figures are leveling off, like predicted.  He has said Missourians dropped off the Medicaid rolls mostly because of a previous Obamacare requirement parents to put their kids on Medicaid.

Hearing continues about fate of St. Louis Planned Parenthood’s abortion license

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The fate on Missouri’s only abortion clinic is the subject of a hearing this week. The state’s Administrative Hearing Commission began hearing arguments Monday about whether the St. Louis Planned Parenthood can keep its abortion license. The state has refused to renew the clinic’s license to perform abortions, citing concerns that include failed abortions.

St. Louis Planned Parenthood (Photo courtesy of Planned Parenthood)

Dr. David Eisenberg of Planned Parenthood in St. Louis spoke on the state’s concerns of failed abortions.

“Any time you have a procedure, there’s things that can maybe not work out correctly,” says Eisenberg. “We know that sometimes you can’t have a continuing pregnancy, despite everything having been done right, despite our physicians having practiced the highest quality medicine and said to the patient everything is our pathology lab having told us everything is fine.”

Eisenberg remains optimistic.

“Abortion is some of the safest medicine practiced,” says Eisenberg. “Reproductive health services is still here – we are still providing abortion care and we will continue to do so. When there are politically-driven attacks against women having access to care, we will stand up and fight back.”

Meanwhile, abortion opponents held a demonstration outside of Planned Parenthood during the hearings. Lisa Stricker of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Wentzville gave her thoughts about failed abortions.

“A dear friend of mine just recently she had an abortion,” says Strickland. I couldn’t take her out of it but long story short, she’s had nothing but complications since and this is just in the last two months. Well, she now has to have a total hysterectomy.”
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Strickland said her friend’s abortion was not performed at Planned Parenthood.

Mary Bartolotta, of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Wentzville shared her thoughts on the issue.

“I really believe strongly that it’s not about taking away a woman’s right to choose,” says Bartolotta. “It’s about helping women with other alternatives. I love what the sign says – Pro-woman, Pro-choice, Pro-life. I think abortions do nothing but hurt women and babies of course.”

The church and other churches are holding a 40-day prayer event about this case.

The hearing is expected to last five days and a ruling is not expected until at least February.

By Missourinet contributor Jill Enders

Copyright © 2019 · Missourinet

Missouri expected to get above normal moisture from November to February

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The National Weather Service says there’s a likelihood of above normal precipitation in the Plains and Midwest in the coming months, including in Missouri. Senior hydrologist Mark Fuchs of the St. Louis office says the weather models are showing increased rain from November to January – and even stretching into February. He says a winter weather outlook indicates most of that precipitation would likely be in the form of snow.

A St. Louis city employee uses a brush machine to clear snow off sidewalks in downtown St. Louis on January 12, 2019 (photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI)

“The last thing we really need in the Upper Mississippi and Upper Missouri River basins, given the fact that stream flows are already well above normal, soil moisture content is well above normal throughout this area,” he tells Brownfield Ag News.

Fuchs says Missouri needs time to drain the moisture into the system and flush itself out.

“We could see a potential of significant flooding, as we get into the spring, for both the Missouri and Mississippi River basins again. Certainly the folks along those rivers – that’s the last thing in the world they want to he but that’s what we’re looking at,” Fuchs says.

He cautions that the outlook is not a forecast.

“I’ve seen outlooks like this, especially those that are two to four months away, fall apart and not work out as we expect them to or thought they would. That is certainly our hope – that it would not work out quite like we have it mapped out,” Fuchs.

Fuchs spoke at the Missouri River Basin Corps of Engineers management update Friday. Corps officials say they will be as aggressive as they can this fall pumping water out of the basins to prepare for next spring, in the event of more flooding in 2020.

By Julie Harker of Brownfield Ag News

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Missouri farmer accused of killing Wisconsin brothers makes first court appearance

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A northwest Missouri farmer accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of two missing Wisconsin brothers from made his first court appearance today. Garland Joseph Nelson, 25, appeared via closed-circuit TV in the Circuit Court of Caldwell County.

Garland Joseph Nelson

Nelson’s attorney asked the judge for a continuance of three weeks to prepare before entering a plea. The judge scheduled a preliminary hearing for November 14.

The previous charge of tampering with a motor vehicle has been dismissed.

Brothers Nick and Justin Diemel, who owned a livestock business in Wisconsin, were reported missing July 21 after renting a truck and traveling to Nelson’s farm in Brayer to deal with a financial issue with Nelson. Afterward, Nelson was charged with tampering with the brothers’ vehicle by driving to a commuter parking lot and leaving the rental there.

In July, police found burnt human remains on Nelson’s farm, northeast of Kansas City. Court documents show Nelson reported the bodies, which were inside a 55-gallon barrel and hidden in a manure pile.

The probable cause statement from the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office states that DNA comparisons lead authorities to believe the remains are those of Nicholas and Justin Diemel.

Nelson is also charged in Caldwell County with two counts of abandonment of a corpse, two counts of tampering with physical evidence in felony prosecution, two counts of armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Jeremy Shields of Missourinet affiliate KKWK in Cameron contributed to this story

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