Month: September 2021

A federal lawsuit was filed Wednesday against a Virginia based company that contaminated water in Greene County.

The lawsuit says Northrop Grumman knew for more than a decade that chemicals from the old Litton Industries site it owns near the Springfield-Branson Airport were contaminating groundwater in surrounding property.

The lawsuit claims the company did not notify residents their groundwater may contain TCE solvent, which causes cancer.

The contamination came to light only after TCE was detected near Fantastic Caverns in 2018.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two Springfield families who said the contamination made their land and businesses “worthless” and led to health problems.

Attorneys are seeking class-action certification to represent other affected families.

Here is a link to the lawsuit filing and a video conference:

Springfield Police are investigating a road rage incident Tuesday night in the 1000 block of South Weller Street.

Police say two motorcyclist followed a truck from Glenstone to Grand then to Weller.

They then fired ten shots at the truck.

Five of those shots hit the truck.

Police do not have any suspects at this time.

(News Release)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – State Rep. Craig Fishel recently submitted a sunshine request to the Springfield Public Schools in an effort to ensure the district is not implementing portions of the 1619 Project or Critical Race Theory into the curriculum. Now Fishel is calling out the district for its lack of transparency and cooperation as it has put an outrageous price tag of nearly $200,000 on its response to the request.

“Parents in my district and across the state have a right to know what is being taught to their children in our public schools, and our school officials have an obligation to be transparent and forthcoming with this information,” said Fishel, R-Springfield. “My request is a simple one and is designed to ensure these controversial topics aren’t being taught in our schools without parents being aware.”

Fishel submitted his request for information on September 1 and received a response from the school district on September 20. Fishel said it was clear from the response that the district was making no effort to work with him and was instead trying to use worst case scenarios to inflate the cost of fulfilling the request. Fishel also noted that the district included charges for time to review and redact, and argued that the Missouri Supreme Court opinion in Elad Gross v. Michael Parson made it clear these charges are against the law.

“I would urge the district to work with me in a reasonable manner on this issue. These are public documents and deserve to be available to the public without a $194,324 price tag,” said Fishel. “If all else fails I will ask the Speaker to allow us to subpoena the district for these records, which will force them to comply at no cost,” said Fishel. “Parents deserve this information and I am going to fight for them to get it.”

A man accused in the kidnapping case of Cassidy Rainwater appeared before a judge in Dallas County Tuesday.

Timothy Norton appeared by a video link from the Greene County Jail.

He did not have a public defender. Another man accused, James Phelps, did not appear but was appointed a public defender.

He is being held in the Dallas County Jail.

They are being held without bond in separate jails.

The judge set their court date for October 5^th.

Republic Police are investigating the death of a married couple as a murder/suicide.

According to a press release, officers arrived on the scene at 6:52 a.m. to find Daniel Lee Reynolds and Zenia Wai Sha Reynolds-Woo dead.

The couple was reported to have suffered fatal gunshot wounds.