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A Missouri Congressman says Capitol Hill is working to get more money to small businesses hurt by the coronavirus. A hospital group says the CARES Act has helped hospitals, especially rural ones. But, the losses continue. Missouri could become a larger producer of personal protective gear in the future.
Bill Wise reports.
Missouri U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt says he hopes President Donald Trump is delivering a message and is not serious about cutting off funding to the World Health Organization.
Missouri U.S. Senator Roy Blunt
“Sending a signal to the WHO is fine, but the truth is the World Health Organization is not nearly what it should be without the United States,” Blunt tells Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph.
President Trump, a Republican, has announced he is instructing his administration to halt funding of the WHO while a review is conducted on its management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump says the United States has a duty to insist on full accountability. Trump says the review will be a very thorough investigation that should be complete in 60 to 90 days.
Trump has described the WHO in the past as “China-centric” and has criticized it for opposing travel restrictions from China, where the virus originated.
Blunt, also a Republican, says if the U.S. is not going to fund the WHO, it needs to find an alternative and he doesn’t know of any.
“So, I hope this is an important, but short-term coming together with a meeting of the minds,” Blunt says.
Blunt acknowledges the WHO made mistakes at the outset of the coronavirus and should be held accountable. But he insists the U.S. needs it.
“If the coronavirus has taught us anything it should have taught us that we are not isolated from the rest of the world no matter how well located we are.”
Blunt says he isn’t sure this is the right time to press the WHO.
“Well, whether they should be pressed right now or not, I don’t know,” Blunt says. “I think everybody is going to look at lots of things when this is over. I think the WHO was probably not insistent enough getting information from China, but we never seem to get very much information from China either, when we want it.”
Blunt says the time to assess the performance of the WHO is after the coronavirus pandemic peaks. Still, Blunt says he won’t defend the WHO and what it has done the past two to five years.
“But, I do know that a lot of things have happened during that period of time that would have created much greater danger for the United States if we hadn’t had this organization and they just simply are not who they need to be without our scientists, without our administrators, without what we bring to the table.”
The United States is the largest contributor to the WHO.
By Brent Martin of Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph
Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet
A suspect is dead and a Jefferson City police is recovering from being shot in the chest after an overnight chase.
Jefferson City officer shot, suspect killed after chase
Investigators say two officers tried to pull over a wanted person at about 10:20 p.m. Wednesday near West McCarty and Hughes streets. The car took off through several Jefferson City streets.
The car eventually stopped and the two people inside ran into nearby woods. JCPD says one suspect started fighting the officers, shooting one of them in the chest. The other officer then shot and killed that suspect.
The injured officer was wearing a bulletproof vest and is in stable condition at a hospital as of early Thursday morning. Authorities found the second person from the car hiding in the woods.
The suspects names are unknown at this time. The Highway Patrol is investigating the shooting.
By Brad Tregnago of Missourinet affiliate KSSZ in Columbia
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page says he expects the regional stay at home order to be extended until May.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page (Photo courtesy of Jill Enders)
Page made that announcement Wednesday morning during the second of his three briefings this week on the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he has been in discussions with other regional leaders about the matter.
“I would expect those discussions that the stay at home order will extend into May, but I’m not prepared to give you a specific date. We know before we can ease stay at home restrictions, we need a robust testing environment.” Page said.
Page also stressed that lifting restrictions too soon could result in a rebound in cases. He said an official announcement could come later this week.
Page is also asking the County Council to approve $7 million from the health fund to be used to buy more coronavirus tests. He claims testing is needed in order to re-open the economy.
It was also announced that the St. Louis County Health Department is contracting with local hotels to house homeless people and first responders infected with the virus.
As of Wednesday, St. Louis County has over 1,800 confirmed cases, including 58 deaths. Page said north St. Louis County is the hardest hit area of the county.
By Missourinet contributor Jill Enders
St. Joseph city officials in northwest Missouri report the first death in Buchanan County from complications brought on by COVID-19; the former St. Joseph state prisoner transferred to Kansas City. The Missouri Department of Corrections made the announcement.
City officials say the prisoner was transferred to St. Joseph for an unrelated illness that required isolation, which the prison in Cameron could not accommodate. The prisoner was actually diagnosed with COVID-19 when transferred to a Kansas City area hospital March 19th. Though he later tested negative twice for coronavirus, he remained hospitalized for other medical conditions.
Corrections officials say he was the first prisoner diagnosed with the virus. The prisoner had been isolated in a negative airflow chamber at Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in St. Joseph since March 4th after being monitored for a suspected respiratory condition. No other prisoner had contact with the inmate. No staff has reported symptoms.
Corrections officials say medical and custody staff followed all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. All rooms and vehicles the offender occupied were immediately sanitized, according to the Department of Corrections. All staff who came into contact with the infected prisoner have been notified.
By Brent Martin of Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph
Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet
Information from a UM system statement
All four UM universities have postponed in-person spring commencement exercises, promising that each university will celebrate graduates, online or in-person in the future. All students who completed the requirements for graduation will still get their degrees.
“We know how disappointed our students, parents and families are that we won’t be able to hold our commencement ceremonies in May,” said Mun Choi, president of the University of Missouri System. “Hundreds of UM faculty and staff take part in these ceremonies each year, and it brings us great pride to celebrate our students’ accomplishments alongside them and their families. This May, we will have to adjust how we celebrate to ensure the safety of our university communities.”
University leaders will share details of their commencement ceremony plans with students and families in the near future.
Levels on the Missouri River could move into minor flood stage from Nebraska City to northwest Missouri’s St. Joseph this week. Chairman Tom Waters with the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association says the area isn’t prepared for a high-than-normal runoff predicted.
The Missouri River spread out into St. Joseph in 2019/Photo by Brent Martin
“The big issue for us is soil moisture,” Waters tells Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph. “Normally, North and South Dakota, Montana through the summer and fall, it dries out and you go into winter dry, the soil moisture is dry and then it snows, you have your spring rains, but when the soil thaws it’s hungry and it soaks up a lot of that water. There’s not any of that water that is going to be soaked up this year. So, any snow, any rainfall we have we know today that that is going to run into the river and cause river levels to be higher.”
That makes members of the Missouri Levee and Drainage District Association nervous, according to Waters.
“Membership’s very anxious about what’s going on here,” Waters says. “We’ve seen people that had their 2018 crop in a bin that was flooded and lost, weren’t able to plant a 2019 crop and now going into 2020. If they don’t get this crop in, they may be out of business.”
Waters says the only good that could come out of the widespread damage from last year’s floods is that it could finally change attitudes about how best to manage the Missouri River.
Waters perceives a shift in attitudes after the 2019 floods which wasn’t the case after either the 1993 or the 2011 floods.
“Everybody realizes we have to do something different,” according to Waters. “We went through this in 2011. We went through it in 1993 and we didn’t do a lot different. I think we’re seeing some signs and hints it’s going to be different this time so that maybe five or ten years down the road we won’t have such a problem.”
Another wrinkle has been added. The US Army Corps of Engineers is on standby to help in whatever way it can in the battle against the coronavirus. At present, the Corps doesn’t believe that will hamper continuing efforts to rebuild the levees damaged by last year’s floods. Levees in the Omaha District of the Corps of Engineers have mostly been repaired. Several levees in the Kansas City District remain damaged, making vast areas of northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas vulnerable to flooding.
By Brent Martin of Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph
La-Z-Boy to lay off 800 southwest Missouri workers
Missourinet affiliate KZRG in Joplin reports La-Z-Boy has temporarily closed all manufacturing operations in the United States, including its factory in Neosho. The decision has put 800 southwest Missouri plant workers out of jobs. In total, the announcement affects approximately 6,800 employees, or approximately 70% of its global workforce.
The company announced its plans are in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Temporary closure of its U.S. manufacturing factories is effective immediately and is scheduled to be re-evaluated on April 13.
A salary reduction of 50% for senior management and 25% for salaried employees will be in place until further notice. The board of directors will forego the cash portion of its compensation until further notice as well.
By Rob Rauch of Missourinet affiliate KZRG in Joplin
The FBI says a man shot and killed Tuesday in Belton, near Kansas City, was the subject of a monthslong domestic terrorism investigation and was actively planning a bombing. KMBC-TV in Kansas City reports agents were attempting to arrest Timothy Wilson, 36, in Belton. Wilson, who was armed with a weapon, was injured and taken to a hospital, where he later died.
Missouri man allegedly planning hospital bombing dies after FBI confrontation
According to the FBI, the investigation revealed Wilson was a potentially violent extremist, motivated by racial, religious and anti-government views. He was actively planning to commit an act of domestic terrorism, a bombing, and decided to accelerate his plan as a result of the current coronavirus health crisis. The FBI said Wilson considered various targets and ultimately settled on a hospital in an attempt to harm many people.
“Wilson had taken the necessary steps to acquire materials needed to build an explosive device. At all times during the investigation, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force kept close track of Wilson in order to protect public safety,” the FBI said in a news release.
The bureau said it was ready to arrest Wilson when he arrived to pick up what he thought was a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. There was no actual bomb.
According to Don Ledford with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District, he says there is no probable cause arrest statement or court documents because no charges were ever filed.
View the FBI press release here.
Copyright © 2020 · Missourinet
A church in eastern Missouri has figured out a way to reach its parishioners in person, but with plenty of social distancing. The Pleasant Hill Christian Church in Potosi is meeting at the Starlight Drive-In in rural Washington County
“It was a joke at first,” says Pastor Trevor Kean. “We had tried to collaborate with the church leaders on what would be our next steps, knowing that these guidelines were going to be more emphasized on distancing ourselves, limiting numbers and gatherings. “I just kind of suggested it as a joke and thought ‘hey let’s just do it at the drive-in. Someone said ‘hey that sounds perfect, let’s reach out.’”
Kean explains how they were able to pull off the idea.
“They have a microphone that comes from the upstairs part of the drive-in,” he says. “And then everyone will be tuned into the FM radio channel that they had assigned to it.”
And how do they engage with a congregation of cars?
“We asked that if you are having a great time or this is a great thing, flash your lights at us and let us know how things are going. [There were] a lot of honked horns, flashing lights, blinkers, whatever they could do,” Kean says. “We had a lot of people reach out afterward, thanking us for offering that.”
The drive-in sits in a field near the busy Highway 21 between Potosi and Cadet. It has been around since 1952.
Thanks to Chad Speakar of Missourinet affiliate KREI in Farmington
