JOPLIN, MO – Each year, “The Milken Center” honors some of the best educators in the country.

Over the last 2 weeks, 14 different chosen educators have attended the “Milken Fellow” program at the center, after distinguishing themselves in their respective school districts.

The men and women spend time at the center learning how to inspire students to discover, research, and present stories about unsung hero’s.

Megan Helberg teaches at a small community school in rural Nebraska, and was named “Teacher of the Year” in Nebraska 2020.

“The ones before me are quite prestigious and really rock stars in the field of education so to be amongst them is a great feeling, and to be welcomed by the community of Fort Scott has been amazing, this town has really rolled out the red carpet for us to make our experience even better.” Says Helberg.

Helberg is also part of the only husband and wife team of fellows in the history of the “Milken Center.”

Her mother was also a Milken Fellow back in 2012.

CARTERVILLE, MO – The city of Carterville is replacing an old pipe near the Jonestown Neighborhood.

Last weeks, a resident alerted Carterville Public Works about a leak in the alley between South Pearl and South Locust Streets.

Crews dug up the pipes and inserted a fitting, but it blew apart.

Tuesday five residents on Pearl and Locust were briefly without water while crews replaced a portion of the pipe.

Crews will dig up the rest of the 100 year old pipe in the morning, and replace it.

“We’re not ready to knock on their doors and tell them they will lose water for this many hours or this many minutes we’ll be through get you some bottled water that’s what we can do. And get it done as fast as we can,” said Carze Brown, Supervisor of Public Works.

Brown adds, residents in the area should not lose water during the repair work tomorrow.

JOPLIN, MO – Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Toby Teeter has announced his resignation.

In a statement to the chamber’s board of directors, Teeter says, “Serving as the Joplin Chamber’s President has been one of the greatest honors of my life. Now it’s time for me to step down and allow a new chamber leader to emerge with the skills required to navigate Joplin’s next chapter.”

Teeter will stay on with the chamber and assist with transitioning to a new president through July 30th.

He was hired at the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce in December 2018.

Chamber board chair, and Mercy Joplin President and CEO, Jeremy Drinkwitz, thanked Teeter for his service, wishing him the best of luck with his next chapter.

No future plans for the chamber have been announced,

JEFFERSON CITY, MO – Missouri lawmakers have less than two days to renew an important Medicaid tax before the governor enforces millions of dollars in budget cuts.

July 1st is the governor’s deadline to extend the federal reimbursement allowance tax.

House members held a hearing Tuesday for the legislation, but as expected, there’s also debate about taking funding away from abortion facilities and providers who offer abortion services.

“So I am very concerned about losing our Medicaid funding and we are here to protect our Medicaid funding.” Says Unsicker (D).

The tax that’s paid by the healthcare providers that brings in billions for Medicaid is now in the hands of the house.

“By not passing the FRA timely by July 1st, you’re impacting the lives of 23 thousand very very critical ill individuals. There’s no where else they can get the care other than the nursing homes.” Says Nikki, health care.

Since lawmakers didn’t renew the FRA during regular session, they are now up against the governor’s deadline of July 1st.

The big debate now in the house, if abortion providers and facilities should receive public funding.

“I do think that we want to be careful and we want to make sure that we’re doing this most appropriate way possible and there’s not any unintended consequences.” Says Deaton (R).

Representative Nick Schroer is the sponsor of the bill, separate of the FRA renewal.

“That we are going to defend taxpayer dollars, we are going to defend the lives of the unborn.” Says Schroer.

The bill would nullify any federal law that requires Medicaid from paying for abortion services.

Missouri right to life spoke in favor of the legislation Tuesday.

“Standing up for life is not easy when we have a pro-abortion president but he has made it very clear that he absolutely wants the Hyde Amendment to go away.” Says Susan.

While Planned Parenthood warning that this could jeopardize the state’s entire Medicaid program.

“That is going to have extremely negative impacts on people who already face many challenges trying to access quality care.” Says April.

Now both the FRA renewal and Schroer’s bill were voted out of committee Tuesday, both Pieces of legislation will be in front of the full house Wednesday.

If passed Schroer’s bill would have to go back to the senate for the approval, and there’s no word if senators would come back to vote on it.

NEOSHO, MO – Pretty unique event, this evening, at the “Neosho, Newton County Library.” One for the whole family. One that was hot. Literally hot.

The library sponsored Jason D’Vaude, who is a fire juggler.

He worked some of his magic at “Big Spring Park.”

Officials hope events like this will being parents and their kids to the library.

“Personally, for me, I love to see the community come together. I know the kids have missed their friends at the events because of COVID. The parents are eager to get their kids outside and have some fun and enjoy themselves with their kids.” Says Pam Swink, Youth Services Coordinator for the Neosho Newton County Library.

On Tuesday, July 20th, the “Dickerson Park Zoo” out of Springfield will have some of its animals at the library. That event will start at 10:00a.m.

FORT SCOTT, KS – A Southeast Kansas educational attraction is growing.

In this case, it’s beyond the walls of its current facility.

They may not be a household name, but every person featured inside the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes, has had a positive impact on history.

And for the first time since the center opened its doors at Main and Wall Streets in downtown Fort Scott back in 2016, the facility is expanding, this time outside.

“Which will have story rails on unsung heroes, it will have places to sit and enjoy the beautiful outdoor weather, and it will be a place to even enhance the downtown of Fort Scott, which is, I think, on a real renaissance for this particular area.” Says Norm Conard, Exec. Dir., Lowell Milken Center For Unsung Heroes.

Ground was formally broken on “The Unsung Heroes Park” in downtown Fort Scott.

“We are starting to accumulate a lot of amenities for the community to enjoy and visitors to enjoy, and this park will be one more of those benefits and one of those amenities that will be enjoyed by passers through and locals, and it’s going to be a great addition to our community.” Says Jeremy Frazier, Fort Scott City Manager.

Conard says plans for the park have been on the drawing board for some time, the money for the project has finally come through.

“We’ll have turf in the park, sidewalks, eventually we hope to have a bandstand, that’s additional funds, but it’s quite a beautiful park, you can see from the architect’s drawing behind me, this is something really special.” Says Conard.

The cost of the project will be two hundred thousand dollars with the majority of that amount coming from a donation by the Milken Family Foundation, construction should be complete around mid August.