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Missouri schools join forces to help military children

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Lengthy separations from a parent serving in the military. Heightened anxiety about the safety of their mom or dad in uniform. Frequent moves from one town to the next and leaving familiar things behind. Overlaps in school curriculum and graduation requirement differences. Watching a military parent return home with an injury, or an invisible one like depression or post-traumatic stress. The grief of losing loved ones in combat. These are some of the realities that take a toll on young military hearts every day.

Navigating these challenges takes a village. Some Missouri schools have joined forces with families in the Armed Services to help provide military students with a softer academic landing.

Dr. Blaine Henningsen is the assistant commissioner in the Office of College and Career Readiness at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. He tells Missourinet the school districts near the state’s two active-duty bases – Fort Leonard Wood in Waynesville and Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster and Warrensburg – are especially committed to the state’s more than 12,000 military kids.

Missouri Capitol (Photo courtesy of Gov. Parson’s Flickr page)

Take Knob Noster, for instance. It has a feature smack dab on the home page of its website detailing its commitment to the military student population.

“With two out of every three Knob Noster students being military-connected, we understand the challenges of military children and families that result from frequent PCS assignments and deployments. The education of all students is very important to us and our team is committed to facilitating your transition into our schools in a welcoming, supportive, and positive manner. Once enrolled, we are dedicated to providing excellent, personalized learning and leadership opportunities for your children,” the page says. “For 2016 and 2017, Knob Noster Public Schools received the highest Annual Performance Report from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education of all school districts in the region. In 2017, Knob Noster Public Schools also produced the top Advanced Placement Qualifying Scores in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math of all high schools across Global Strike Command.”

Global Strike Command is a U.S. Air Force command in charge of America’s nuclear weapons arsenals. It includes the storage of weapons and weapons systems delivery.

Liz Clark serves as Whiteman Air Force Base’s school liaison for 19 Missouri public school districts in the Knob Noster area and all the way up to the Jackson County region. She tells Missourinet many programs are in place to help these families at home and at school.

“If the family is under stress, the active-duty member can’t do the mission,” Clark says. “We want to help make sure the family is as prepared as possible with every resource they can have so that when it comes time for deployment or when it comes time to PCS, which is changing from one base to another, that they’re ready.”

She says the base works one-on-one with families transitioning from other bases, for deployment reasons, and for other events. It holds camps for kids, team-building workshops, and helps students apply for college scholarships. Operation Homefront hooks up each military student with a free backpack annually.

Clark says the base works closely with the military life counselors in school districts. There is a peer-to-peer program in the schools, essentially a buddy system, to pair up a new student with a student that has been around for a while. The base also works closely with the Exceptional Family Member Program to help connect family members with special needs and get them support services.

She says new initiatives and options happen frequently, like virtual services, grant opportunities, and STEM programs for math and science lovers.

Clark says the programs have been very beneficial.

“The military member, of course, is who signs up. It’s the whole family unit that is really serving,” she says.

The state plans to launch a Purple Star School Program in August to showcase schools who are going above and beyond the call of duty to support Missouri’s military kids. The Military Child Education Coalition says nine other states have similar programs and when Missouri launches one, there will be 10. Henningsen says the program is an effort that has been in the works for a couple years.

Missouri Capitol (Photo courtesy of Gov. Parson’s Flickr page)

“I think the various branches of the military are really taking a long, hard look at the communities where their bases are located and they are looking at the quality of life situations that those communities offer. We think Missouri is in a good place, says Henningsen. “When we work with our economic development people around the state, they have really emphasized the importance of these military bases, not only in terms of the jobs and the economic impact they have on their local communities, but all around the state because there are lots of supporting industries and businesses. What we are seeing here is when we have these thousands of military personnel deployed to Fort Leonard Wood or Whiteman Air Force Base, at the time of their leaving military service, we’re seeing many of those move back to other areas of the United States. But we want them to know how important they are to us and we want them to really consider Missouri as a place to live, work, and to raise their families after their military service.”

Joe Driskill, the executive director of the Missouri Office of Military Advocate, says U.S. Department of Defense information updated this year shows Missouri has a total of roughly 43,000 members in military uniform and service civilians.

The program requirements are a work in progress but Henningsen says they are expected to include a designated military family liaison, professional development for teachers to help these students, and various military family recognition efforts.

“I think this Purple Star Program will show military families, when they move into these new communities, that they have a friend here in the local communities and that they have someone to go to,” he says.

According to the Military Child Education Coalition, a military-connected child can expect to move six to nine times from kindergarten through their high school graduation, with approximately 200,000 students transitioning to a new school in any given year. It says about 80% of America’s military kids attend public schools. Schools are often a source of stability for these students.

Missouri Governor’s Mansion (Photo courtesy of Gov. Parson’s Flickr page)

“The physical, social and emotional well-being of military children is essential not only to that student’s success in the classroom, but also the success of their family who have dedicated their lives to serving our country,” Missouri Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven said in a press release.

Gov. Mike Parson, a U.S. Army veteran, has proclaimed April as the Month of the Military Child. He wants to pay tribute to Missouri’s military children for their commitment and sacrifice as they support their family members who have sworn to serve and protect our country.

“When parents serve our country, their kids serve too,” he said in a press release.

Parson has designated today as “Purple Up Day” – a day to encourage Missouri businesses and citizens to wear purple and hang purple ribbons to show support for military children. The color purple represents all branches of the military; it is the combination of each of their respective colors combined into one. The Missouri Capitol dome and Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City will also be shining the color purple tonight.

Copyright © 2021 · Missourinet

Missouri shares virus aid spending suggestions with K-12 schools

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The U.S. Department of Education says Missouri’s K-12 schools will get nearly $2 billion in total federal aid from the latest coronavirus plan. State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education spokeswoman Mallory McGowin said health experts suggest spending some of the virus funding on the basics.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson visits a St. Louis school on July 29, 2020 (file photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

“The experts shared that while good sanitation in schools is never something that you should omit, purchasing those UV cleaning systems that can be quite pricey or spending a lot of money to do these extraordinary cleaning measures may not be the place to invest your resources. The experts shared that continuing to purchase masks for students, continuing some of those other mitigation strategies would be a better place to drop their dollars into,” she said.

As schools consider what to use the money for, McGowin said many Missouri schools are not set up to have much social distancing.

“If you’re not able to utilize that layer of protection – keeping students and staff at least three feet apart now per the new CDC guidance – then you need to layer on the additional mitigation strategies. That’s when masks become prudent. That’s when the plexiglass barriers and things like that become something you really need to sink your energy into,” she said.

Some Missouri communities and local school boards have lifted coronavirus restrictions. McGowin said now is not the time to ease up school health rules.

“From our perspective and the perspective of the Department of Health and Senior Services, all are in alignment that those mitigation strategies that schools are using and that we’re seeing work must remain in place to ensure that we can continue to offer those in-person learning opportunities safety and with little to no interruption,” she said.

The state strongly encourages the use of face masks but McGowin said there are no financial penalties against schools that do not require masks.

Copyright © 2021 · Missourinet

Missouri gaining ground along broadband superhighway, but many more miles to go

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A new report says Missouri ranks 32nd in the nation in broadband internet access – a positive step from 41st just a couple years ago. Federal and state aid have helped to boost access around Missouri.

The report says 23% of Missouri students still do not have access to high-speed internet. Plus, it says the state ranks in the bottom five for access to low-cost internet.

Missouri gaining ground along broadband superhighway, but many more miles to go (Photo courtesy of Alisa Nelson)

During a state Board of Education meeting Tuesday, Tim Arbeiter, state Director of Missouri’s Broadband Development Office, said there is still a lot of work to do.

“Within the next three years, I think we could probably cut our divide in half. But I still think we are going to have challenges ahead of us in the affordability space. As I listen to my colleagues across the state, when affordability programs are active and live, there is still some hesitancy from populations to hook on. We don’t know the aspects and the why to that. So, we need to understand that little piece a little bit better,” said Arbeiter.

Arbeiter said Missouri has 255 broadband internet providers, including cable, wireless, electric, and telecommunication companies.

Rob Dixon, the director of the state Department of Economic Development, said Missouri’s economy will not grow without continuing to boost broadband access.

“It’s a key plank in our overall economic development strategy,” says Dixon. “The big question of is it an affordability issue or is it an access issue or is it a device issue. The answer is yes on all of those things. And so, it is a pretty challenging issue all around.”

He said data shows Missouri is a mixed bag in its state of broadband.

“The bottom line message I think that we have is there is still very much a gap that we are trying to close, but we are moving in that right direction. We’re still on the wrong side of that list but we are moving forward. It’s a difficult issue to talk about kind of in a positive way because there is still such a big gap that we are trying to close. I think that’s why there’s so much urgency around this issue,” says Dixon.

Board member Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge of Pasadena Hills said some individuals in the corporate community want to help.

“Maybe where they plug in and play is with these short-term actions,” she said.

Members talked about broadband coverage being spotty from house to house. During the pandemic, some communities have set up portable wifi connections for students to access internet from a building or a parked bus, for instance.

“A lot of homework being done at the McDonalds,” said Board President Charlie Shields of St. Joseph.

To view the report, click here.

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Missouri puts the brakes on the use of J&J COVID-19 vaccine

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Missouri has suspended the use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine until further notice.

“In an abundance of caution and as per federal guidelines, we are pausing vaccination with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine until further notice in Missouri,” says Dr. Randall Williams, director of the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). “We anticipate having more information shortly to make further decisions about overall vaccine distribution in light of this new development and will continue to update citizens who have been vaccinated with the J&J vaccine after the advisory committee meets at the federal level tomorrow.”

A press release today from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) says a new standing order for this vaccine has been issued by DHSS and is effective immediately.

The announcement comes after a statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration saying the federal agencies are investigating a rare and severe type of blood clot reported in six women that occurred after getting the vaccination. More than 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been given nationwide.

People who have received the J&J vaccine who develop severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination should contact their health care provider. Patients with other clinical questions should contact their health care provider or call the COVID-19 hotline at 877-435-8411.

Providers are asked to keep any on-hand J&J vaccine in the appropriate storage unit and label it “quarantine-do not use” until further notice.

DHSS says as the state receives more information, it will be made available. The impact the move will have on Missouri’s mass and mega vaccination events is unknown at this time. Some of those have used the J&J vaccine.

Copyright © 2021 · Missourinet

School nurse group hopes Missouri districts will put federal aid toward hiring nurses

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Missouri’s K-12 schools are getting a big chunk of change in the latest federal coronavirus relief package. The U.S. Department of Education says $1.95 billion total has been designated for Missouri schools. The plan also includes funding for a program to increase student internet connectivity for virtual learning and aid for nonpublic schools.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson speaks to schoolchildren and teachers in mid-Missouri’s California School District on September 9, 2020 (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

Linda Neumann, with the Missouri Association of School Nurses, says the group hopes the state’s school districts will consider using some of the federal funding to hire school nurses.

“The Missouri Association of School Nurses is hoping that in Missouri, they will invest the federal funding in a way that will effectively achieve safer classrooms in schools, to improve the physical and mental health and academic success of children. Part of this involves hiring school nurses in those schools that do not have access to a school nurse,” says Neumann. “If they need school nurses or if they need a counselor or maybe they can expand the number of school nurses they have so that one school nurse doesn’t have to cover three schools.”

Neumann tells Missourinet a 2020 state Education Department report shows about 20% of Missouri public school districts do not have a nurse.

“For some students, the school nurse is their actual health care home because of lack of access in their community, especially in some of our rural communities. That tends to be where there is a lack of school nurses right now, where not every town has a doctor, dentist, or a pharmacy, but they have a school. If that school has a registered nurse there to take care of those kids, that school nurse can really fill in the gaps, find resources, and have resources brought in. “It’s not that schools don’t appreciate having a registered nurse there. It is often a budget issue,” she says.

Neumann says in the early 1990s, about 50% of Missouri public school districts did not have a school nurse on hand. Then, an effort began to tax smokeless tobacco products and designate that revenue toward putting more nurses in schools.

In 1995, Missouri allocated $5.4 million annually for 15 years for school health services, which increased school nurses in schools to 99.7%. That funding ended in 2010. As a result, not all school nurse positions were sustained.

For the schools without a registered school nurse, some have a health aide. Others rely on their principal or an administrative assistant to field health problems. Without a school nurse, Neumann says the level of expertise and care the kids are going to receive is not going to be the same.

According to the state Department of Health and Senior Services, there are more than 72,000 Missouri K-12 public school students with asthma, some 27,000 have life-threatening food allergies, about 7,300 suffer from seizures, and more than 2,200 have Type 1 diabetes.

“This doesn’t even mention the impact that COVID-19 has had on kids,” says Neumann. “COVID-19 has definitely disrupted learning of students and compromised their physical and mental health. We have seen anxiety and depression go up tremendously in our state both in children and adults during covid.”

Neumann says having a school nurse on staff helps to reduce student absenteeism.

“When a registered nurse is there to help manage those chronic health conditions, like asthma and diabetes, those are things that the healthier we can keep the kids the more they can be in school,” she says.

Neumann cites The Journal of American Medical Association showing the benefits of investing in a school nurse.

“Their determination was that in schools, for every dollar invested in a full-time registered school nurse, that society would gain $2.20,” she says.

When administrators or school boards are determining how many school nurses are needed, Neumann says the schools should keep in mind student safety.

“That means nurse to student ratio and it really varies depending on the health needs of the students and the social determinants of the population,” she says. “If you have 700 kids that are all well, one school nurse is sufficient. But if you have eight kids with Type 1 diabetes, three with seizure disorders, three with sickle cell, a kiddo with chemotherapy – there are just so many factors that play into that.”

Missouri has about 550 traditional public school districts and charter schools serving roughly 900,000 students.

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Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska governors plan bipartisan Thursday meeting on river and Corps-related issues

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Missouri’s governor will join the governors of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska Thursday afternoon in Council Bluffs, to follow-up on Missouri River issues and about the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Governor Mike Parson talks to Missouri National Guard members in northern Missouri on June 3, 2019, after an aerial tour of massive flooding (file photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

This will be at least the fourth bipartisan meeting between Governor Mike Parson (R) and Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts (R), Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly (D). While their 3 p.m. meeting will be closed, the governors will brief reporters after the event at the Council Bluffs Police Department.

The governors have signed a four-state agreement to cooperate on issues relating to flood control and the Corps.

Governor Parson is still frustrated over the 2019 flooding, which hit northern Missouri especially hard. The Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest general farm organization, says more than 1.4 million acres of farmland in the state went unplanted in 2019, due to flooding.

The flooding also caused the October 2019 collapse of the heavily-traveled railroad bridge over the Grand River in northern Missouri’s Brunswick, causing Norfolk Southern to suspend freight train service between Moberly and Kansas City for a time.

Brunswick is a small farming community, between Carrollton and Moberly. The National Weather Service (NWS) Missouri Basin River forecast center said in 2019 that backwater from flood debris helped cause that bridge to collapse. The logjam collapsed the train tracks.

Governor Parson will also be heading to northwest Missouri’s rural Rock Port on Thursday morning, to tour a major levee known as L-536. He’ll tour the levee and will meet with farmers who were impacted by the 2019 flooding.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Tarkio), who’s the ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee on Capitol Hill, has told Missourinet that flood control and navigation must be the top priority for the Corps, regarding the Missouri River.

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(AUDIO) Missouri’s third mega vaccination event comes at pivotal time

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The state of Missouri is organizing its third mega vaccination event. Up to 10,000 total doses of coronavirus vaccine could be given Thursday and Friday at the Hammons Student Center on the Missouri State University campus.

Dr. Russell Kohl is a colonel in the Missouri National Guard and is also a family physician who is helping to organize the event. He encourages Missourians to get vaccinated during this pivotal time.

The Missouri National Guard, the state Department of Health and Senior Services and Pettis County health officials assist residents at a mass vaccination clinic in west-central Missouri’s Sedalia on February 23, 2021 (photo courtesy of the State Emergency Management Agency)

“We know that vaccine is effective for the B.1.1.7 variant that has been identified in the area,” he tells Missourinet. “We know that we are just far enough after spring break that if some folks didn’t pay attention to what they were supposed to be doing at spring break that we are about at the point where we would start to see an outbreak.”

Beginning Friday, all Missouri adults are eligible to get vaccinated statewide. The mega event is open to all eligible Missourians.

“Just in the past week, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department has announced the B.1.1.7 variant of COVID-19 there in Greene County. This is the variant that effects younger folks more and is easier to spread. It’s a great opportunity for the folks, particularly the college students and some of the younger folks who have not been eligible before, to be able to get that one and done Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” says Kohl.

According to the Sean Barnhill with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, about 4,000 people have registered for the mega event so far.

Col. Kohl says registrants should plan to be there for about an hour. It is a walk thru event.

For Missourians who aren’t crazy about needles, Kohl says the worst part of anxiety is waiting for something to happen.

“Given the numbers of vaccines that we are trying to do, it is not uncommon at these sorts of events for us to be doing 125-150 shots every 15 minutes. Once you get to being near a vaccinator, there’s no time to worry anymore,” he says. “The shot is done.”

State-organized mass vaccination events have been going on since January. The state of Missouri has completed about 2.8 million total doses so far.

“The Missouri National Guard-supported events, so far in the state of Missouri, have administered over 250,000 doses. The National Guard-supported events, which really are a huge team effort of the National Guard supporting those local folks, we are still running about 10-12% of the overall vaccines in Missouri,” says Kohl.

According to Kohl, an event of Thursday’s and Friday’s size takes about 100 National Guard soldiers. Americorps volunteers, local public health department employees, and others are also helping.

“When we first started, really, the mass vaccination teams out in the different regions in late January, at that point those National Guard events were giving between 20-30% of the total doses in the state. We’ve been able to keep increasing the number of doses that we give, but as I just mentioned we are now down to 10-12%. So, that’s actually a great thing for the state of Missouri and kind of reflects how many more doses are coming into the state. Your local health departments, your doctor’s offices, your pharmacies – there’s a whole lot of people on the team trying to get shots in arms at this point.”

He says the plan is to use the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine for other mega events.

“From a public health perspective, when we are trying to get a large amount of the population vaccinated, being able to use that one and done vaccine is a really effective tool to help that,” says Kohl. “If we get 10,000 people to come out to Missouri State on Thursday and Friday, and a month from now we do it again, if we gave Pfizer or the Moderna vaccine, then at the end of that we would have 10,000 vaccinated Missourians, which is great. However, if we are able to use J&J for that event, with the exact same amount of work, a month from now we’ve got 20,000 Missourians vaccinated. This is all about a numbers game of being able to get as many shots in arms of Missourians and getting them immune as soon as possible.”

As far as no-shows go at the mass and mega events statewide, Col. Kohl says the workers have backup plans to use leftover vaccine and avoid waste. He says the no show rate can run in the 10-15% range overall.

Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Spokeswoman Lisa Cox tells Missourinet whether booster shots will be needed around the fall to help prevent infection is not clear yet. She says manufacturers are preparing the vaccines just in case. Therefore, it is still too early to tell if the state will be organizing future mass vaccination events for booster shots.

To register for the Springfield event or another one, go to mostopscovid.com.

The full interview is below.

Copyright © 2021 · Missourinet

Missouri hopes to work with neighbors to improve Missouri River levees

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Brent Martin, KFEQ

Missouri state officials hope to convince the Army Corps of Engineers to make changes to the Missouri River levee system.

Deputy Director Dru Buntin of the Department of Natural Resources says Missouri is working with Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa state officials to propose changes to the levee system in an effort to avoid the problems which made the 2019 flood so devastating.

2019 flooding in northwest Missouri/File photo by Brent Martin

“It’s the states’ intention working together to take a regional approach to looking at where are the areas where targeted investment and focus about our approach to flood risk management is going to reap the most benefit,” Buntin tells St. Joseph Post.

Of particular interest is the Missouri River L-536 levee in Atchison and Holt Counties, which breached in five locations in 2019. The Atchison County Levee District has suggested moving the levee back to allow more room for floodwaters. The district also suggests upgrading the levee with a more modern design.

A study commissioned by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson focused on pinch points along the Missouri River, segments that restrict the flow of water creating a greater potential for flooding. The study suggested the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could alter not just the levees, but where they are built, using setbacks and other moves to restore a more natural floodplain.

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Southeast Missouri congressman considering U.S. Senate run in 2022; pledges to fight for working families (AUDIO)

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A southern Missouri congressman who serves as the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee says he’s considering a run for the U.S. Senate in 2022. U.S. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Salem) spoke to Missourinet Monday evening outside the Statehouse in Jefferson City, after he met with the governor about the issue of feral hogs.

U.S. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Salem) is outside the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City on March 29, 2021 (Brian Hauswirth photo)

“I will just say that I would put my record fighting for working-class families, farmers, small business owners and my conservative credentials amongst any names that’s been out there or suggested for the United States Senate,” Smith says.

Former Governor Eric Greitens and Attorney General Eric Schmitt, both Republicans, have announced they’re running for the Senate. Former State Sen. Scott Sifton (D-Affton) and Jefferson City native Lucas Kunce are two Democrats who have announced. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has also been mentioned as a possible Senate candidate.

Incumbent U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R) is retiring. He’s finishing his second six-year Senate term on Capitol Hill.

Smith, who represents 30 counties in southern and southeast Missouri, emphasizes that he hasn’t made a decision yet.

“I was elected by the good people of southeast Missouri to do a job in Washington D.C. as the Republican leader of the (House) Budget Committee. I’m fighting everyday for our rural way of life to make sure that (President Joe) Biden doesn’t take away our freedoms and liberties, and that is my focus right now,” says Smith.

The Budget Committee is chaired by U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Kentucky), and Smith is the committee’s top Republican.

Smith, who’s served in Congress since 2013, was re-elected in November with 77 percent of the vote against Festus social worker Kathy Ellis. The sprawling Eighth Congressional District includes Cape Girardeau, Farmington, Poplar Bluff, Portageville, Kennett, West Plains and Rolla.

Meantime, Congressman Smith and 70 other congressional Republicans have signed a letter, calling for an investigation into the suspension of the southern border wall construction. Smith says President Biden’s decision has fueled a crisis at the border.

“What the president did on his first three hours in office, by a declaration, was to halt funding that was appropriated by Congress in a bipartisan way. You’re talking about billions of dollars that was appropriated in a bipartisan way, and he halted the construction of the southern border,” Smith says.

President Biden issued a January 20 proclamation, saying that building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border “is not a serious policy solution.” President Biden described it as a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security. President Biden says his administration is committed to ensuring that the United States has a comprehensive and humane immigration system that operates consistently with our nation’s values.

As for the feral hog issue, Governor Mike Parson says State Sen. Jason Bean (R-Holcomb) also participated in Monday’s meeting with Congressman Smith, as well as Missouri Department of Conservation Director Sara Parker-Pauley and representatives from the USDA and U.S. Forest Service.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s interview with U.S. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Salem), which was recorded outside the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City on March 29, 2021:

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Central Missouri man accused in January’s attack on U.S. Capitol

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A man from mid Missouri has been arrested in connection to U.S. Capitol riots in January that left five people dead. Court records show 55-year-old Matthew Eugene Loganbill of Versailles is accused of obstruction of a Congressional proceeding, unlawful entry, and violent entry or disorderly conduct.

In a January 13 interview by the FBI, Loganbill said he traveled to Washington, D.C. with “likeminded individuals” whom he declined to identify. Loganbill posted social media pictures of himself with a helmet and gas mask on and said he brought them because he was fearful that Antifa would infiltrate the “Stop the Steal” rally to support former President Donald Trump. Court records state that he told an officer “we came peacefully this time,” but that “it would be different if we have to come again,” or words to that effect.

Loganbill owns the Tooth and Nail Armory firearms store in Gravois Mills.

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