Buzzed driving affects lives … forever; The story of Jason Swann

JOPLIN, Mo. — In a recorded public service announcement in 2018 for the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety the Swann family, of Oronogo, shared the story of brother, uncle, and son, Jason Swann, who was hit by a drunk driver. 

Sgt Jared Swann of the Joplin Police Dept, “What happened to my brother was in Dec. 1999, he was hit by a drunk driver. It ended up killing the front seat passenger. And then my brother ended up basically making him disabled.” 

Jason suffered a brain stem injury. His mind was ok but he could not walk or talk. He could only communicate by blinking and small facial gestures.

The other mother lost a child,” The Swann brothers mother, Lynita Leggett says near tears. “I still have my son to hug everyday. But he can’t do anything.” 

People that think buzzed driving is ok? Eventually it will catch up to you. You will get caught or you will get hurt,” Sgt Swann states.

The year following the public service announcement, Jason Swann died in November of 2019. Nearly 20 years to the day he was injured. 

“The other mother lost a child,” Lynita Leggett says near tears. “I still have my son to hug everyday. But he can’t do anything.”

And that’s why I work as hard as I do to make sure this never happens again.”

Sgt Jared Swann

KSN-16 LAUREN JOHNSON SHARED PART OF THE SWANN FAMILY JOURNEY SHORTLY BEFORE HE DIED IN 2019.

”Impaired driving accounts for approximately 20% of the traffic fatalities in Missouri. While the dangers of drunk driving are relatively well known, impaired driving is not limited to alcohol use. It also consists of drugs, including prescription medications, and physical impairments such as drowsy driving, poor vision, or reduced cognitive capabilities.” — The Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety

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Kansas Highway Patrol releases Christmas weekend numbers

KANSAS — The Kansas Highway Patrol has released their activity numbers from Christmas weekend.

The agency made 15 DUI arrests, down three from 18 arrests in 2020.

Officers responded to two deadly crashes, both of which were not related to DUI driving.

Also on the report were less speed warnings and citations than last year. 491 warnings were given, which is down 122 from 613 warnings in 2020, while 377 citations were written, down 213 from 590 citations last year.

The period of these statistics ran from 6 p.m. CT on December 23rd through 11:59 p.m. CT on Sunday evening.

Steelers fan, Instagram model doubles down after taking shot at Brittany Matthews, Jackson Mahomes

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Pittsburgh Steelers fan, sports reporter and Instagram influencer Amanda Vance took to social media after her team’s blow out loss to the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday and took a shot at quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ fiancé and brother.

Vance said Chiefs fans were messaging her directly after the game and she responded by posting a picture of Brittany Matthews and Jackson Mahomes on her Instagram story with the caption, “Talk your crap in my DMs KC fans, but you have to deal with this for the next 15 years.”

Vance then posted a snapshot of an article discussing her original post to her Instagram feed and captioned it with “I mean… am I wrong?”

Matthews and Jackson are active on social media on Chiefs’ game days with the pair always being seen together to cheer on the Chiefs quarterback.

Jackson has had his fair share of controversy this season at road games, including pouring water on opposing hecklers at the Baltimore Ravens game and dancing on the late Sean Taylor’s number during the Washington Football Team game.

Jackson apologized for both instances and on the latter, said that he and other VIPs were told to stand on top of the number painted onto the sideline.

As of this writing, the pair have not responded to the social media influencer who has over half-a-million followers on Instagram.

Cyber experts warn T-Mobile users of SIM card scam

JOPLIN, Mo. — Cyber security experts are warning T-Mobile users to be extra vigilant after a recent hack.

They say hackers have been swapping SIM cards, which gives scammers access to your text messages and phone calls.

This means hackers can intercept two form authentication text messages.

According to Stronghold data in Joplin — people should use an application like Google Authenticator” — Authy or Duo for push notifications.

“It seems like we are always impacted we always have to be on the defense and have other layers. So like I said two factor authentication is a fantastic level of defense to add. Its just we always have to be adding these because they are getting more and more common everyday,” said Joe Thomas, Director of Services for Stronghold Data.

Experts also say you should have at least 12 character passwords that are complex and they should be changed annually.

Governor Parson to end COVID-19 state of emergency

JEFFERSON CITY, MO – Missouri Governor Mike Parson announced today that the COVID-19 state of emergency will expire on December 31. He had declared the state of emergency back in March 2020.

Governor Parson stated in a press release, “Thanks to the effectiveness of the vaccine, widespread efforts to mitigate the virus, and our committed health care professionals, past needs to continue the state of emergency are no longer present,” Governor Parson said. “Over the last 22 months, we have coordinated with local, state, and private partners to mitigate COVID-19 and work towards returning to normalcy. We all now know how to best fight and prevent serious illness from this virus. The State stands ready to provide assistance and response, but there is no longer a need for a state of emergency.

Only 20 other states have related COVID-19 state of emergencies still in place, with three of those bordering Missouri.

Governor Parson said that Missouri never had mandates or forced lockdowns. He said the main focus was on providing support and assistance to Missourians, health care facilities, and businesses. He also gave encouragement to get vaccinated and stay diligent as we continue to battle COVID-19 while trying to live our normal lives.

It was also stated in the release that Agencies, boards, commissions, and departments are able to pursue rulemaking if permanent changes to regulations are needed after December 31 to improve long-term outcomes for Missourians, health care facilitates, and businesses.

With a COVID-19 vaccination being the best method of serious illness prevention, and over 62 percent of Missourians choosing to get the vaccine, Missouri now stands in December alone with 565,000 doses of the vaccine being administered with 42 percent being part of the primary vaccine series.

It was also communicated to healthcare workers in Missouri that there will be flexibility during this period of transition.

A Joplin organization is helping Kentucky rebuild

JOPLIN, Mo. — A Joplin organization is helping a part of Kentucky that was impacted by deadly tornadoes earlier this month.

Spring River Baptist Association’s Disaster Relief Team is in Dawson Springs, Kentucky.

The team of five volunteers is helping families rebuild after the December 10th tornadoes. They Joplin on December 26th and have been clearing brush and cutting down trees.

One of the volunteers is a pastor and board member of Bright Futures Joplin and has been ministering families.

“Peoples’ lives are uprooted they’re changed forever,” said Pastor John Boyd, with the Spring River Baptist team.

“I have seen a mixture of things. I have seen devastation I have seen rejoicing that they’re alive. I just talked with a man a minute ago that lost his mom and his aunt in this tornado in the house across from where we are talking right now. He is at peace with it.”

Over the past five days, the volunteers have done several jobs and pastor Boyd has ministered four dozen people. The group plans to leave Kentucky on Saturday.

To make a donation you can visit this link.

Granby thrift boutique store set for opening

GRANBY, Mo. — Something new is coming to Main Street in Granby.

The Foundry is set to open this Saturday at 10 a.m.

It’s a nonprofit thrift boutique, run by members of Grow Granby.

They’re renting the building from the city of Granby for only a dollar a year — on a 10-year deal.

It took around six months to get ready for this weekend’s opening.

All the money brought in by sales will go back into the community.

“We really want to see Granby come back to life,” said Sarah James, Grow Granby board member. “So we started brainstorming on some things that would draw people into town…and this was something we heard on a podcast from a town in Canada — that they were doing to have revenue come in to be able to do projects for revitalizing their town. So, we thought ‘if it’s working there, let’s try it here’.”

The Foundry will be open on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Organizers welcome donations of gently used clothing, accessories, shoes and furniture.

Warm and breezy Friday; Rain transitions to wintry mix tomorrow morning

The last day of 2021 will be warm, cloudy and breezy with southwesterly winds gusting up to 30 MPH at times. Precipitation will begin as rain Friday afternoon, primarily near the MO-AR border. Flooding is possible near Table Rock Lake, and storms are possible closer to central Arkansas.

Rain will become widespread after midnight going into Saturday, but temperatures will be dropping through the day. Once they hit below freezing (likely before noon Saturday), rain will transition into a rain/snow mix. Ice accumulations are possible, and travel impacts could be seen along and north of I-44 through Saturday afternoon. If this system lingers into Saturday evening, snow is possible over parts of SE Kansas & SW Missouri, and accumulations will be low.

Wind chills will drop below zero into Sunday morning before high temperatures won’t get above freezing in the afternoon. We’ll finally start to warm back to average conditions by the start of next week.

Pittsburg program helping turn renters into homeowners

PITTSBURG, Kans. — What started as a dream in the 80s, has become a community-wide effort to turn renters, into homeowners. Now, a church in Pittsburg that is hoping to level the playing field.

“When we moved from Joplin, we’ve been here 11 years renting, when we added up everything we paid in rent it was almost sickening, we could’ve paid for half a house by then,” said Melissa Owens, a Level Playing Field participant.

Melissa and husband Chris Owens spent roughly $65 thousand dollars while they were renting in Pittsburg. They decided to make a change and began the daunting process of becoming homeowners.

This is where Lighthouse Temple Ministries got involved — asking the Owens to be the first participants in its “Level Playing Field” – or LPF – program.

“They’re going to level the playing field so that you can be able to be established that if you need to go in a bank, you can go in a bank and say ‘hey this is what i have and this is what I can bring to the table,” said Chris Owens.

“We were able to buy a house with no down payment, it helped us to get some of our finances together where we have one monthly payment,” added Melissa.

“They already got the money, so since they got the money, they make the payment, they don’t have to worry about the down payment,” said Bishop Walter Simpson with Lighthouse Temple Ministries.

Since the Owens, LPF has continued to grow. Thanks to a partnership with Pittsburg State University, new homeowners will have a list of resources to help them with things like repairs.

“When you move from a renter to a home-owner, now you’re a landlord,” said Simpson, “if they have a break like a water heater go down, they know who to call, and we call that part of it ‘grow the blessings,’ so we’re going to talk with other businesses to see if they will help us.”

Creating deep roots to benefit both the families and the community.

“The net worth of a person that rents is about six thousand dollars a year, a person’s net worth who owns is about a quarter of a million dollars … renters leave, homeowners stay, we want to grow the community and we want the community to become a great community.”

We have a link to the Level Playing Field Homes here.

Suspect with $60,000 of outstanding warrants arrested

DELAWARE COUNTY, Okla – Authorities arrested a suspect with $60,000 of outstanding warrants from Cherokee Nation.

On December 28th, Police received information on a wanted suspect residing in Oaks, Oklahoma.

According to the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, authorities located the male suspect, 35, and arrested him on the following charges:

  • receiving/possessing/concealing stolen vehicles
  • trafficking illegal drugs
  • escaping from arrest or detention for felony

Sheriff Beck had further information on a possible location of a stolen vehicle in the Kansas area.

Following investigations, police recovered two potentially stolen vehicles and impounded them.

According to the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, the suspect is a person of interest regarding other crimes in the county.