Month: January 2022

The Springfield-Greene County Health Department is holding a virtual media briefing at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to provide and update on the ongoing response to COVID-19.

Leaders from the health department, CoxHealth and Mercy Springfield will speak at the briefing.

Watch live streaming video of the virtual media briefing here beginning at 10:30.

Health department officials say they hope a drop in the number of COVID-19 cases is the start of a downward trend.

465 new cases were reported on Monday, down from more than 1100 last Thursday.

However, Springfield hospitals are reporting a near record number of patients with 249 on Tuesday.

In the meantime, there is a very high demand for COVID-19 testing in the Ozarks, and the Department of Health and Senior Services is continuing to provide additional free testing sites.

On Saturday, January 29th, a free testing event, sponsored by DHSS, will be held from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. on the parking lot south of Hammons Field between Trafficway and St. Louis Streets.

Free testing is available at that same location every Tuesday between 10 and 6.

Also, free testing is being held in Marshfield Wednesday, January 26th through 2 p.m. at Ellis O. Jackson Park on north Marshall.

BNSF railroad’s two biggest unions won’t be able to go on strike over a new attendance policy they say would penalize employees for missing work for any reason.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a strike would likely violate federal law because railroad unions aren’t allowed to strike over minor disputes.

Judge Mark Pittman said a strike would hurt BNSF and could cause significant damage to the economy because of the role the railroad plays in delivering all kinds of goods.

The Greene County Sheriff’s Department is conducting a death investigation at a home near Springfield.

Deputies went for a well-being check at a house on Farm Road 178 and found 46 year old Jennifer Winders dead.

An autopsy will be conducted Wednesday.

There are no reports of injuries following a house fire early Tuesday morning in Springfield.

Crews were called to the 2700 block of west Nichols just after 4:00 a.m.

The house, which was vacant, has extensive damage.

Firefighters had to deal with temperatures in the teens and single digit wind chills as they fought those flames.

A Webster County man who admitted he killed his wife and then froze her body has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Larry Dinwiddie kept his wife’s body in a freezer in a storage unit in Marshfield for four years before the body was discovered.

Nixa High School leaders are removing several soap dispensers from their bathrooms after students apparently took some apart and urinated in them.

Principal David Kelly tells KY3 he believes the prank stemmed from a TikTok challenge.

Kelly says before the Christmas break, the dispensers started going missing or getting destroyed.

The principal says he didn’t want to ruin something as simple as washing your hands, but after students began urinating in the soap dispensers, that was the last straw.

Instead, the school has placed hand sanitizer stations outside everything bathroom.

The Springfield Police Department says a man who officers chased and deployed a taser on died while being taken to a local hospital to get checked out.

Officers responded to the Casey’s in the 900 block of south Grant Saturday night and found two men rummaging through a trash dumpster on the parking lot.

Police found out one of the men had a warrant for their arrest.

The man was placed under arrest, but resisted.

During the struggle, an officer deployed a taser, but it was ineffective.

The man then pulled a knife, but officers knocked it away from him.

The suspect took off running, and officers deployed a taser a second time, but it didn’t work.

That’s when the man pulled out a second knife from his waistband.

The suspect was finally subdued.

While in an ambulance, police say the man stopping breathing and paramedics began CPR, but those efforts were not successful, and the suspect died at the hospital.

The police department is attempting to notify the man’s family.