News Staff If you want to buy a Christmas gift for a child in need — you just have a day left — to sign up for the Adopt a Child program run by the Kirksville Salvation Army.
The deadline to get involved is tomorrow. To sign up, just call the Kirksville Salvation Army or message them on their Facebook page. You’ll be given the name of a child 16 or under to buy for — and the Kirksville fire department will hand out the toys.
An 88 year old man suffered moderate injuries in Marion county when some farm animals hit a four-wheel ATV he was driving. The 4-wheeler overturned and threw the man off. The State Patrol says that Franklin Tuley was taken to University hospital. The wreck happened on a farm on Hwy 168.
Donations are mounting-up for a Missouri man who was wrongfully convicted of killing three people.
Kevin Strickland got out of prison after a judge said he is innocent. The GoFundMe page to benefit Strickland has raised more than $430,000.
Strickland is 62, and he’s not getting any money from the state because state law only allows payments for people who are cleared by DNA evidence. Strickland has always maintained that he was home watching television and had nothing to do with the killings, which happened when he was 18 years old. Evidence used against him was completely debunked.
A naval officer who grew-up in Kirksville is being honored for her work as a Navy judge advocate. Tracy Reynolds, picked by the Judge Advocates Association as its 2021 Outstanding member. A judge advocate is an attorney who helps those in the military with various legal issues. Reynolds graduated from Kirksville High School in 1995 and Truman State in 1999. She is being honored for a record of superb professional accomplishments, service to the community and to the legal profession
More controversy involving the St. Louis county health director.
Dr. Faisal Khan sent an email to staff telling them to ignore the “lunatic fringe” opposed to the county’s mask order and vaccines. That has outraged some politicians in the county who call the remarks inapprorpiate. It comes after Dr. Kahn made a lewd gesture at a group of angry anti-mask protesters after he spoke at a County Council meeting.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is suing the Moberly School District. He says they’re violating the state’s Sunshine Law violations by forcing parents to fill-out a form if they want to record meetings about a child’s individual learning plan. But Moberly’s school supt disagrees. He says the paperwork is just a consent form to let them know parents are recording the meeting
The average price of gas around Kirksville is $3.09 a gallon. President Biden is releasing oil from America’s emergency stockpile — hoping that will bring down gas prices — which are at least $1.30 a gallon higher than this time last year. The president’s popularity has gone down…as gas prices…and other prices have gone up.
A new city engineer for Kirksville.
Adam Dorrell gets the job, replacing Len Kollars who retired. Dorrell has been with a local engineering firm, and he has 20 years of experience. The city engineer manages a wide range of projects from roads to wastewater and other aspects of the city’s infrastructure.
The Missouri Police Chiefs Association is asking for changes to a law that says Missouri cops cannot enforce federal gun laws. A letter from the chiefs said that the state law makes it harder to fight crime. The law was enacted in case the Biden Adminstration put restrictions on private citizes owning guns. The police group says lawmakers need to make clear that police can be involved enforcing some federal gun laws…but doesn’t seem likely lawmakers will make any changes anytime soon.
An audit of Sullivan county government is concluded. State Auditor Nicole Galloway gives the county a grade of “fair”. That’s a step up from the last audit of Sullivan county which was rated as “poor” back in 2017. The auditor says improvement is still needed in several county offices. For example, keeping track of funds in the prosecutor’s office. The report says the prosecutor has also been slow sending out restitution payments to crime victims. Other deficiencies in county spending were also found that the auditor says needs to be corrected