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Missouri senior citizens are being warned about increasing scam calls (AUDIO)

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Missouri’s attorney general warned Wednesday afternoon in Jefferson City that scams targeting seniors are increasing, including the “IRS” and sweepstakes scams.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt spoke to about 50 seniors Wednesday at Heisinger Bluffs, urging them to be on the lookout.

“Preying upon people’s vulnerabilities, a grandchild in trouble or if they don’t pay the money, they (seniors) are going to be thrown in jail,” Schmitt says. “We want people to be armed with the information number one and number two, let us know.”

Schmitt urges seniors and other Missourians to report scams to his office’s Consumer Protection Hotline, which is 1-800-392-8222. He says the Consumer Protection division receives about 100,000 complaints about fraud and scams each year.

One Jefferson City resident at Heisinger worried that he’ll be charged a “fee” if he contacts Schmitt’s office. The attorney general tells the audience there are no fees.

“That’s what we’re there for, and it’s a core mission of our office to look out for consumers,” says Schmitt.

He says the “IRS scam” has been increasing, reminding seniors that the IRS will never contact you by phone, only by mail. Schmitt also reminds seniors to never give their social security number to people who call them.

Jefferson City Mayor Carrie Tergin attended Wednesday’s presentation. She told the audience that scammers have also called people impersonating utilities such as Ameren Missouri and “Jefferson City Utilities,” adding that the caller ID makes it look legitimate. Mayor Tergin urges seniors to be cautious, noting she’s received scam calls as well.

Attorney General Schmitt will travel to southeast Missouri’s Cape Girardeau to meet with seniors at the Chateau Girardeau Thursday afternoon at 1.

Click here to listen to the full conversation between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, which was recorded on October 23, 2019 at Heisinger Bluffs in Jefferson City:

Copyright © 2019 · Missourinet

First trailer released for ‘Gone Girl,’ movie shot in Cape Girardeau

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The first trailer for a major motion picture shot in Cape Girardeau has been released.

“Gone Girl” is a movie about the disappearance of a woman in a troubled marriage, resulting in her husband becoming the prime suspect in the vanishing. It is set in the fictional Mississippi River town of North Carthage, Missouri. 

The film stars Ben Affleck, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry and Rosamund Pike.  It is scheduled for release October 3.

See the new trailer below:

Attorney General’s Office: Solution for grant loss to domestic violence shelters could come next week

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See the updated story from Friday afternoon

The Attorney General’s Office says it expects the Missouri Housing Development Commission staff to have a proposed solution next week for the domestic violence shelters it turned down for a grant last month.

A shelter for homeless veterans in Columbia revealed on Thursday it had also been denied for that grant.

At least 15 domestic violence shelters were told their applications for the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) had been rejected but were not told why. Missourinet has been told that the Commission has not voted on the final decisions on how the grants will be awarded this cycle.

The members of the commission include Governor Jay Nixon, Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder, State Treasurer Clint Zweifel and Attorney General Chris Koster. When Missourinet reached out to their offices about the situation, Koster Press Secretary Nanci Gonder issued this statement:

“Funding is critical for our state’s domestic violence shelters. After learning of the cuts in emergency shelter grants, we discussed the issue with MHDC staff and expect they will present a proposal at next week’s meeting.”

The Commission will meet at the Stoney Creek Inn in Columbia Friday, March 14 at 9:00.

After learning about those domestic violence shelters, a shelter for homeless veterans in Columbia reached out to Missourinet to say it had also lost the ESG.

Executive Director of Welcome Home, Inc, Aneisa Sherrill-Mattox, says Welcome Home Inc. has been approved for about $18,000 each of the 8 years she has worked there. Last year the shelter was approved for $50,000.

Like the domestic violence shelters, she has not been told why Welcome Home’s ESG application was turned down and instead was told the shelter is on a list to receive its evaluations.

Sherrill-Mattox says the shelter has already cut two caseworker positions and is cutting programs. She says much of what Welcome Home used that grant for was to provide emergency motel stays for homeless female veterans and veterans with small children.

“Female veterans are one of the fastest-growing parts of the homeless population and there are virtually no services available to them,” says Sherrill-Mattox. “Our shelter, by virtue of how small we are, we couldn’t provide safe housing for them in the shelter so we had relied on the ESG for them to be placed into a motel until a more permanent housing solution could be identified.”

The Nixon Administration has also told Representative Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) and other legislators it is looking for a funding source for those shelters, perhaps using money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

The Office of Administration told Missourinet Wednesday the Administration’s office of Budget & Planning and the Department of Social Services are looking at multiple possible solutions, but have not nailed down any mechanics.

Earlier stories:

Domestic Violence Shelters still waiting for replacement of lost grant

Nixon Administration moves swiftly to back domestic violence shelters after loss of grant

Domestic Violence Shelters still waiting for replacement of lost grant

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Workers at 15 domestic violence shelters are anxiously awaiting word on whether funding will be available for those shelters after learning that they had been turned down for a grant.

The Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) is in its second year of being administered by the Missouri Housing Development Commission. The Commission’s staff rejected the applications of those 15 shelters, most of them in rural parts of the state, and has not yet released explanations of the rejections. The Commission has not yet voted on the awarding of those grants.

The shelters whose applications had been rejected are in Cape Girardeau, Clinton, Harrisonville, Lebanon, Moberly, Bolivar, Doniphan, Sedalia, Sikeston, Lexington, Nevada, Parkville, Portageville and one each in St. Louis and Kansas City.   A shelter in Springfield had an application for shelter funds rejected, but was approved for other ESG grant money.

When the administration of Governor Jay Nixon (D) was informed of the situation by state lawmakers whose districts included those shelters, it began looking for ways to make sure they would be funded. The Office of Administration says several options are being considered but a mechanism hasn’t been decided on.

That’s encouraging news to Kelly Pedigo, Co-Director at Safe Passage in Moberly, but it’s still a long way from a solution.

“This is far from over,” she tells Missourinet.

The ESG reimburses recipients for expenses already paid. The grant coverage cycle begins April 1. Pedigo says her shelter can’t go very long paying bills without confidence that money is coming for that reimbursement.

“Locating replacement funding is a have-to thing. There’s nowhere else in (our) budget to cut,” says Pedigo.

Safe Passage applied for more than $28,000 dollars, but like most shelters, didn’t anticipate receiving the full amount. Getting cut completely was a shock.

“When your entire annual budget is around $250,000 and you just took out $20,000 of your essential expenses, that hits pretty hard,” says Pedigo.

She says the loss of that funding at Safe Passage would cause employees to be laid off, but it could also result in the loss of matching federal funds.

“Once you start having to lay people off because you can’t afford the general revenue portion of their salary,” Pedigo says, “then you have to start turning down government funding as well, so it’s a really slippery slope.”

See our earlier story on these shelters’ loss of the ESG

Ann Gosnell with House of Hope, Inc. in Lexington says local fundraising efforts are an option, but can only go so far in rural areas.

“It becomes burdensome on our community, which is very supportive of House of Hope,” says Gosnell. “We have a lot of supporters, but … going to the same people over and over again to ask them for money to help run our program can sometimes put a barrier up between us and our community, and we absolutely don’t want that.”

She says it also puts the shelters at a disadvantage to not yet know why they lost the grant.

“It’s frustrating, then, to go into our community and say, ‘We need your help, but I can’t tell you why our funding was cut. I can’t tell you why other shelters are funded at 100-percent and we’re funded at zero.'”

Both Gosnell and Pedigo hope members of their communities will work to raise attention about the issue.

“Please go to your legislators and ask them what their plan is,” says Gosnell. “Ask what’s going on and ask what the solution is.”

NWS: Halloween storms produce four tornadoes in southeast Missouri

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A National Weather Service assessment team has confirmed four tornado touchdowns in southeast Missouri during storms Halloween night, including one that crossed the Mississippi River into Kentucky.

That tornado reached EF-1 intensity with winds peaking at 100 miles per hour. It touched down at Wyatt and traveled northeast for six miles before lifting up at Wickliffe, Kentucky. The damage path was up to 200 yards wide. The storm damaged homes in Wyatt, one heavily and a roof on a barn was destroyed. Crops were damaged and trees and power polls were snapped and uprooted.

The strongest tornado was an EF-2 that touched down southwest of Baker at about 7:24 Thursday night with winds up to 115 miles per hour. Its damage path was two miles long and up to 100 yards wide. It leveled sheds and grain bins, overturned farm equipment and snapped and uprooted trees. Two homes’ roofs were damaged and brick was removed from the side of one home.

The team also confirmed an EF-1 tornado touchdown that occurred south of Cape Girardeau at about 7:05. It traveled a damage path nearly 4 miles long and 150 yards wide with peak winds of 105 miles per hour.

What appears to have been the first tornado to touch down was an EF-1 in southeast Bollinger County. It traveled east along a half-mile path beginning one mile west of Leopold. Winds are estimated to have reached up to 95 miles-per-hour. It is believed to have touched down at about 6:54.

A microburst is blamed for wind damage in south Cape Girardeau. That event is thought to have happened at about 7:15 with winds peaking at 95 miles per hour. A microburst is a narrow column of sinking air that can produce straight-line winds that can cause damage in some cases comparable to that cause by tornadoes.

Visit the National Weather Service’s Paducah, Kentucky office webpage

UPDATE: NWS confirms second tornado touchdown on Halloween in southeast MO

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The National Weather Service says it has found evidence of an EF-1 tornado in southeast Bollinger County, that touched down during storms Halloween night.

The tornado traveled east along a half-mile path beginning one mile west of Leopold. Winds are estimated to have reached up to 95 miles-per-hour.  It is believed to have touched down at about 6:54.

This follows the findings of the NWS survey team that another EF-1 tornado touched down south of Cape Girardeau last night. That twister traveled a damage path about four miles long and 150 yards wide with peak wind speeds of 105 miles-per-hour. It touched down at about 7:05 last night.

The team also says a microburst is what caused wind damage in south Cape Girardeau last night. That event is believed to have happened at about 7:15 with winds peaking at about 95 miles per hour.

A microburst is a narrow column of sinking air that can produce straight-line winds that can cause damage in some cases comparable to that cause by tornadoes.

 

UPDATE: NWS confirms tornado touchdown south of Cape Girardeau

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A National Weather Service survey team has confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down south of Cape Girardeau last night. The twister traveled a damage path about four miles long and 150 yards wide with peak wind speeds of 105 miles-per-hour. It touched down at about 7:05 last night.

The team had earlier determined a microburst is what caused wind damage in south Cape Girardeau last night. That event is believed to have happened at about 7:15 with winds peaking at about 95 miles per hour.

A microburst is a narrow column of sinking air that can produce straight-line winds that can cause damage in some cases comparable to that cause by tornadoes.

Another team says a weak, EF-0 tornado touched down across the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau, Illinois about 5 minutes after the microburst on the Missouri side.

NWS team: microburst hit south Cape Girardeau Halloween night

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A survey team from the National Weather Service says a microburst is what caused wind damage on the south side of Cape Girardeau during storms last night. The event is believed to have happened at about 7:15 with winds peaking at about 95 miles per hour.

A microburst is a narrow column of sinking air that can produce straight-line winds that can cause damage in some cases comparable to that cause by tornadoes.

The team does believe a weak, EF-0 tornado touched down across the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau, Illinois about 5 minutes after the microburst on the Missouri side.

The team is also following-up today on reports of a possible tornado sighting west of Naylor and wind damage around Marble Hill.

See our earlier story about NWS teams surveying damage from Halloween night storms.

Weather service to survey damage, follow report of tornado in southeast Missouri

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The National Weather Service will have survey teams in southeast Missouri this morning looking at damage left by storms Halloween night.

This radar capture from the National Weather Service Office in Paducah, Kentucky, shows severe weather passing through southeast Missouri at 7:31 p.m. Halloween Night.

This radar capture from the National Weather Service Office in Paducah, Kentucky, shows severe weather passing through southeast Missouri at 7:31 p.m. Halloween Night.

Teams will view damage in three areas. In and around Naylor they will see if the damage backs up the reports of some witnesses who thought they spotted a tornado.

Meteorologist Robin Smith tells Missourinet, “We had reports of a possible tornado especially west of town. Several buildings have been damaged … one building was destroyed. We had two different witnesses for a possible tornado. The problem with the one over by Naylor is that it was rain-wrapped, so of course between that and the nighttime hours it was very difficult to see.”

The report of a funnel cloud near Naylor was made at 6:24 last evening. Later reports from west of Naylor indicate some cattle were injured or killed, a barn was destroyed and trees and power lines were blown down.

A survey will also be made in the Cape Girardeau area where Smith says some wind damage was reported. “We had several reports of downed trees and power lines, some structural damage and then some small hail and gusty winds.”

Another report indicated the storm rolled a semi tractor over on Highway 55 at Cape Girardeau.

The team will also view wind damage reported in Marble Hill where a 51 mile-per-hour wind gust was reported at 6:50 last night.

Reports indicate the storms also produced at least one 50 mile-per-hour wind gust in Poplar Bluff. Elsewhere in Butler County a roof was blown off a home and grain bins were damaged in Harviell and a mobile home was blown over in Broseley.

Supreme Court orders new hearing for Poplar Bluff murderer (AUDIO)

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A Poplar Bluff man has served nearly 15 years of a life sentence, and of a death sentence. However, the Supreme Court now says his sentencing hearing was unfair.

Terrance Anderson was sentenced to death for shooting to death his ex-girlfriend’s mother in Poplar Bluff. He was also sentenced to life without parole for shooting to death his ex-girlfriend’s father. Anderson’s attorney, William Swift, argued to the Supreme Court that Judge William Sylar talked about the case extensively as it was ongoing with the jury foreperson. Swift tells the Supreme Court Syler was unable to fairly serve because of those conversations, and the Supreme Court agrees.

Listen to the oral arguments HERE.

Had these conversations not occurred, Swift said, it “could have tipped the scales in favor of life.” He added that Syler was “unable to fairly serve; and the overall appearance to a reasonable person was that he could not serve.”

“Certainly if we had actual bias, that would determine the issue,” he said.

The Supreme Court has remanded the case back to the Cape Girardeau Circuit Court for a new hearing on  Anderson’s motion to vacate his sentence,  with aa new judge. It has ordered that Syler recuse himself.  The murder convictions stay. The death sentence remains in place.

 

The Supreme Court’s summary says that, “A man convicted of murder and sentenced to death appeals the circuit court’s denial of his request for post-conviction relief. In a 6-0 decision written by Judge Patricia Breckenridge, the Supreme Court of Missouri reverses the judgment. Based on the circuit court’s statements throughout the proceedings below, a reasonable person would have factual grounds to find an appearance of impropriety. As such, recusal is required. The case is remanded (sent back) for the court to sustain the man’s motion for disqualification and for further proceedings.”

BACKGROUND:

On the night of July 25, 1997, Terrance Anderson went to the Poplar Bluff home of his girlfriend, Abbey Rainwater, with a gun. Earlier in the day, she had told him that she had gotten a restraining order to keep him away from her and their three-month-old daughter and that visitation would be arranged through the court. Anderson kicked in the door, and Abbey’s mother, Debbie, told her to run. Debbie, who was holding the child, got on her knees and begged for her life, but Anderson placed the gun against the back of Debbie’s head and fired it, killing Debbie instantly. Anderson subsequently took the child and went into the front yard. He pointed the gun at the baby’s head and yelled that he would shoot if Abbey did not come out. After Abbey’s father, Stephen, came home, Anderson approached Stephen, began talking to him, and shot Stephen in the forehead, killing him. Anderson still was holding the child at the time.

Anderson was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and was tried in Cape Girardeau County on a change of venue from Butler County. The jury found him guilty of both counts and recommended that he be sentenced to death for killing Debbie Rainwater and to life in prison without the possibility of probation or parole for killing Stephen Rainwater.

View the article from the Southeast Missourian when the original sentence was handed down HERE. (Article is on Page 3.)

AUDIO: Jessica Machetta reports (1:21)