Month: January 2025

Missouri State University and their Provost Search Committee are announcing five finalists for the provost job search.

The candidates include: Dr. Mitchell McKinney, Dr. Clarenda Phillips, Dr. James Satterfield, Dr. Mark Smith and Dr. Shawn Wahl. Each one will participate in a public forum in the Student Union Theater in February, The full schedule is below.

• Feb. 7, 9-10:30 a.m. – Smith
• Feb. 10, 2:30-4 p.m. – Wahl
• Feb. 11, 2:30-4 p.m. – Phillips
• Feb. 12, 2:30-4 p.m. – Satterfield
• Feb. 18, 2:30-4 p.m. – McKinney

MSU President Richard Williams said “I encourage our faculty, staff, students and community members to hear from and engage with these finalists at the upcoming forums and offer their valued feedback.”

80 individuals in total applied for the position of Provost at Missouri State University.

Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe will deliver his first State of the State Address Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 pm at the state capitol in Jefferson City.

A combined budget and policy briefing will precede the address at 1:00 pm, where Budget Director Dan Haug and administration officials will outline the 2026 budget and legislative priorities.

Watch live streaming coverage of the Governor’s address here beginning at 3:00 pm Tuesday.

Some students at Missouri State University say they’re concerned about how an incident last week involving a suspicious bag at Meyer Library was communicated to the campus.

Springfield Police and Fire came to the library on Thursday for reports of a suspicious person leaving the bag in the library.

The immediate area was evacuated, and the bag was found to have “non-life-threatening contents inside.” Library staff alerted university security, but students did not receive any kind of emergency alert.

Two state lawmakers have introduced bills that would require Missouri schools to teach cursive handwriting.

Both bills would require testing on cursive handwriting by the end of the 5th grade. Nearly half of all states require cursive to be taught in schools, but so far Missouri does not.

A bill introduced in the Senate would give school districts and charter schools the option of teaching cursive, but not require it.

Several fire departments fought flames at a large shop in Webster County this weekend. The flames broke out on New Hope Road near Fordland.

When crews arrived, the building was fully engulfed, with fire shooting out of the roof. No word yet on what caused the fire.

A fugitive from Missouri who was on the F-B-I’s Ten Most Wanted List has been captured in Florida.

The St. Louis Division of the F-B-I announced that 60-year-old Donald Eugene Fields the Second was arrested during a traffic stop Saturday morning in Orlando.

He was wanted out of Franklin County on charges of child sexual abuse and federal charges of child sex trafficking in 2022.

The F-B-I added him to the Ten Most Wanted list in 2023.

Two people have died in separate one-vehicle crashes.

The Highway Patrol says a 66-year-old man from Sarcoxie was killed in Jasper County when his truck ran off Liberty Road near Avilla striking a highway sign and a cement culvert.

The Highway Patrol says a 36-year-old man from Caulfield was killed in a crash on Highway “H” west Caulfield, when his truck ran off the left side of the road and struck a utility pole.

He was thrown from his truck and died at the scene.

The Greene County Sheriff’s Office has issued an endangered person advisory for a teenage girl.

The Sheriff’s Office says 16-year-old Ella Jae Phillips left her house in Rogersville around 5 PM Friday.

Her phone was found a block from her home.

She has a medical condition that requires medication.

Phillips is white, 5 foot five, with brown hair and blue eyes.

She has a tattoo of an eagle and two storks in a tree.

If you have any information about Phillips, you are asked to call 9-1-1 or the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.

A pedestrian was killed in a crash on Kearney near Benton Avenue Friday.

Springfield Police say 44-year-old Everette Fleming of Winfield, Kansas, was walking south across the street when he stepped was struck and killed by a westbound car.

The crash is under investigation.

This is the first traffic fatality in Springfield in 2025.