Missouri Southern earned a Wellness award at the highest level

JOPLIN, MO – A program at Missouri Southern has earned state recognition.

The university’s “Wellness Incentive Program” has earned the “Missouri Workplace Wellness Award” at the platinum level.

It’s the highest certification level awarded.

The program at MSSU started 4 years ago, and gives all employees the opportunity to get preventative exams, health screenings, and online health assessments, while earning incentive points towards health insurance credit.

“We look at is as an opportunity to continually advance, so every year when we look at our wellness program, we’re always looking at ways we can improve the program.” Says Evan Jewsbury, MSSU Chief HR Officer.

The wellness award is a collaboration between the “Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services,” “Missouri Council for Activity and Nutrition” and the “University of Missouri Extension.”

"NEO A&M's" "E-Sports" team is now part of the athletic department

MIAMI, OK – “NEO A&M” in Miami has something new in its athletic program.

The college “E-Sports” team is now officially part of the athletic department.

The school launched the team last year as a club sport.

Since then, it’s grown to 25 members.

They compete in games like “Call of Duty,” “Super Smash Brothers,” and “NBA 2K-21.”

The “Buffalo Run Casino and Resort E-Sports lab” serves as the home of “NEO E-Sports.”

The team has also signed its first ever student-athlete, who will receive a fill scholarship for the fall.

Freeman Health System is expecting COVID-19 numbers to go up after the holiday weekend

JOPLIN, MO – The holiday weekend has come to a close, but that means hospital officials are concerned for what’s to come.

Freeman Health System officials say they are prepared for an increase in COVID-19 numbers.

Time will tell if more action needs to take place. Now that the holiday weekend is over, hospital workers are getting ready for a surge in COVID-19 numbers. But they won’t know the exact numbers for nearly two more weeks.

“Most of the time if we are going to see a surge, we see it seven to 10 days after a major holiday, and we anticipate the possibility of that after the Fourth of July.” Says Jessica Liberty, Freeman Infection Prev. Mgr.

Currently Freeman Health System has 51 COVID-19 hospitalizations, while Mercy Hospital Joplin has 48. Just four of those are fully vaccinated. But unlike in the past, many of the people coming in are different ages.

“We are seeing admissions pretty heavy since the Fourth of July, and we’ve seen several people that are significantly younger by comparison to the previous last several months.” Says Liberty.

Although hospitalizations are up, so are vaccinations. This is both partially due to people getting ready to go back to school, and the knowledge of new strains.

“We have seen some of the variant strains present in the community, more specifically the Delta and Brazilian, most people have heard of both of those, those are both very present in our community.” Says Liberty.

While the new strains are current in the community, Liberty adds they’re prepared to serve the people.

“We anticipate continuing to meet the needs, whatever the need is present, and so if we are to have a surge we would adjust and adapt to whatever we’re seeing.” Says Liberty.

That adapting includes needed supplies, beds, nurses, and more. While it hasn’t come to this yet, the hospitals are prepared to send patients to other facilities if need be.

"4th of July" calls to the Joplin fire department were just like any other day

JOPLIN, MO – You would think that the “4th of July” would be one of the busiest days of the year for area fire departments. But that wasn’t the case this yea in Joplin.

Interim Fire Chief Mark Cannon says holidays can lead to more calls than usual, but Sunday was a good example of it being just another day at the office.

“Business as usual day, we only ran 37 calls for service on Sunday, July the 4th, out of those 37 calls, I think we ran 4 to 5 fireworks related incidents, that day’s typical compared to last Sunday, the 27th of June, we ran 45 calls for service.” Says Cannon.

And fire officials across the four states say our recent rainfall turned out to be a blessing, and most likely helped keep fire calls to a minimum.

The city of Joplin is conducting a study on how locals get from point "A" to point "B"

JOPLIN, MO – The city of Joplin wants to know how people are getting around town when they aren’t using vehicles with engines.

It’s conducting a study, designed to find out how individuals get from point “A” to point “B” when they’re using people-power as opposed to driving.

“Most of the people we have who bike or walk, most, not all, it’s for recreation, it’s just to go on a walk after work or something, we want to make it a viable transportation option, so part of the assessment is getting public input on where we need to make these connections.” Says Taylor Cunningham, City of Joplin Senior Transportation Planner.

If you’d like to learn more about the assessment, a public meeting will be held on Thursday, August 5th at the “Joplin Senior Center.” It runs from 4:00p.m to 6:00p.m.

You can also take the assessment online through the link below.

https://www.facebook.com/JoplinActiveTransportation/

The 4th of July was definitely celebrated in a special way for many this year

UNITED STATES – In today’s dose of good news… The 4th of July was extra special for many this year.

And those special celebrations were felt across the country.

From coast to coast, the great American fourth of July comeback, on full display.

For many, the return of fireworks, that familiar sensation, came with an emotional release.

“It feels good to be back out here since we had to miss last year due to the pandemic.” Says Andre Arroyo.

From New York, to Chicago, to Houston, over the Vegas strip, and in San Francisco.

“4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.” Says Aaliyah Hightower.

And even where fireworks are not allowed because of fire danger, like the mountain town near Tahoe California, American innovation prevailed.

They rolled out hundreds of feet of bubble wrap down Main Street, to stomp and pop their way through celebration.

Back in the Big Apple, hundreds of thousands watched the long awaited Macy’s fireworks blast off above the East River.

The return of those colorful bursts, lighting up the skies, lifting up a nation.

COVID has affected the construction industry as a whole, but a local business hasn't been too affected

NEOSHO, MO – The last few months have been a difficult time for the construction industry across the country.

And while many companies across the U.S. have has to downsize because of it, one local construction business is bucking that trend.

According to the “Associated General Contractors of America,” construction employment dropped by 7,000 workers, nationwide, just between May and June of this year.

And over the last 15 months, all but 10 U.S. states have seen a decline in overall construction employment since COVID-19 struck 15 months ago.

And Missouri is not one of those fortunate few states.

But Justin Branham says his company has bucked that employment decline, with virtually the same number of employees now as before the start of the pandemic.

“Surprisingly we have not had that many projects delayed, we’ve only had one significant project that’s actually been put on hold, all of the other ones we’ve found a way to get the materials that we needed and just adjust our schedules a little bit with our owners to get them to the finish line.” Says Justin Branham, President, Branco Enterprises.

He says it’s required a lot of out of the box thinking.

“A lot of times instead of trying to build your schedule based on a completion date, now we have to find the most sought after commodity in that schedule and that will actually set both the start and the finish of the schedule.” Says Branham.

But he says he couldn’t have made it work without a lot of patience.

“We really like the support we’re getting from a lot of our clients, the municipalities, the school districts, and all of the people we work for for the most part have been very understanding, they see the news, they see the data, they know what’s going on and I think they really appreciate us being proactive as we can with trying to mitigate the impacts they have to endure on their projects.” Says Branham.

The city of Joplin has a couple of projects that are in the making

JOPLIN, MO – The Joplin City Council is moving forward with two projects.

“This is an interesting project in that none of the existing roads you see out there will be left. It’s all going to be different. Either it will be raised or lowered everywhere.” Says Dan Johnson, Assistant Director of Public Works.

Monday, the Joplin City Council approved a more than $8,000,000 street widening project.

Construction crews will widen 32nd Street from Schifferdecker to Central City Road to three lanes and add a combination sidewalk and bike trail on the north side.

The city is working on the project now because the road has heavy traffic flow and a large number of crashes.

“The sight distances is terrible. You have ditches and two lanes with open ditches. terrible sight distances and a lot of things working against the safety on that particular road.” Says Johnson.

Voters approved this project in 2014 and will be split into two projects.

Crews will start replacing the road from Schifferdecker Avenue to Country Club Drive and the second part will be replacing the road from Country Club Drive to Central City Road.

The city says this project will help develop the area.

“Whenever we have a meeting with a potential industrial developer one of the things that really matters and that they look at is the ability to get vehicles in and out of the facility. With this improvement it will sure make that more marketable.” Says Johnson.

City council also approved the site plan for a new structure.

Monday, council members approved the plans for Jasper County Court Appointed Advocate to build a new training and connection center.

The new facility will be located on 20th Street near Range Line.

CASA Volunteers spend time with foster children giving them a support system.

“I hope that everyone sees that and they say what is that and find out about it, because when they find out about it the volunteer base will expand. We have hundreds of foster kids in Jasper County. This is just for Jasper County and right now we are servicing 150 of them.” Says Ryan Stanley, Joplin Mayor.

Jasper County CASA will break ground on the new facility in the fall.

One UPS driver made his retirement day special for him and a young man he met along the way

COLORADO – In tonight’s dose of good news… One UPS driver making his final delivery before retirement got the chance to make it extra special for a young man he met along his route.

UPS worker Dave Weingardt has delivered packages to thousands of homes in Colorado for more than 30 years.

“I’ve been driving down here for a long time.” Says Weingardt.

But there is one young man he developed a special bond with. 16 year old UPS fan Caleb Lambert.

“Caleb came into my life at that point for a special reason.” Says Weingardt.

“He was born with a congenital brain defect. because of his intellectual disabilities as well as severe seizures. Years and years ago, when he couldn’t even talk, we would point to the letters on the truck, and he would repeat after us, ‘UPS’. It was one of the first things he learned to say.” Says Caleb’s mom.

Dave immediately bonding with Caleb when he realized he shared a similar condition to his own teen aged son.

“My boy was 17 at that time. Caleb was 16. And, so many similarities. They just looked like each other. Their mannerisms were the same, and I knew that these two boys were special. Kaymen was 17 last year, end of March, when he passed. He had a seizure, and the same seizure he had, each time he had a seizure during sleep. And this one took his life.” Says Weingardt.

Despite his heartache, Dave stayed on the job delivering packages, keeping that connection with Caleb.

“That UPS truck, and especially Mr. David are absolutely the highlight of his day.” Says Caleb’s mom.

“Caleb, he does. He feels like he is my son. He…he… That’s why he came into my life, I think. He’s… he’s filling a void for me (chokes up). It’s special.” Says Weingardt.

When Dave recently spent his last day on the job before retiring, he wanted to make it special for Caleb too.

“Today we are making him an honorary UPS driver for the day, and he’ll be able to take this with him and remember it forever.” Says Weingardt.

Making him an honorary UPS driver for the day, complete with his own uniform.

Caleb climbed into the driver’s seat, and sounded the horn, a few times.

“He is going to be talking about this for the rest of his life. (smiling)” Says Caleb’s mom.

Then Dave and Caleb, had one last package to drop off. To Nicole, Caleb’s mom.

“We’re making it happen for Caleb today. Very special.” Says Weingardt.

A final delivery, both will never forget.

“He’s a great kid, and we need to give these kids everything we have.” Says Weingardt.

Missouri medical cannabis sales top $70 million mark

JEFFERSON, Mo. – More than $70 million in cumulative sales of medical marijuana have been reported for the state of Missouri since Oct. 2020.

That’s according to the Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association. The total number of sales is $70,328,681, as originally reported by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Total cannabis sales for May amount to $15.5 million and approximately $16.4 million have been reported for June.

There are 126 dispensaries in Missouri with new retail locations opening almost on a daily basis, according to the trade association.

Throughout the state, there are 201 facilities that are waiting to receive state operating approval, including five testing labs, 23 cultivators, and 33 manufacturers of infused products such as cannabis edibles, concentrates, and vape cartridges.

The trade association reports that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has licensed 375 facilities to cultivate, manufacture, test, transport, and dispense medical marijuana to Missouri patients.

“Patient after patient, our members hear every day just how vital Missouri’s medical cannabis program has become in a relatively short time,” said Andrew Mullins, executive director of the Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association.
 
“This remains a summer of lofty expectations, with thousands of new patients each week obtaining their cannabis cards, business owners creating a steady flow of new jobs, and our industry generating millions in new tax revenue for the state thanks to an additional 4 percent sales tax dedicated to the health and care of veterans.”

There are more than 121,000 medical marijuana patients in Missouri with almost 3,700 people who have been issued state agent ID cards to work in medical cannabis facilities, according to the trade association.

The association states that the medical cannabis industry is “expected to generate nearly twice that many jobs, more than $800 million in direct spending and another $570 million in indirect spending over the course of its first full year of sales and operation.”

The state of Illinois currently has 55 licensed retail outlets.

Under Missouri’s constitution, residents who have cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, and 20 other conditions, can purchase or cultivate medical marijuana with a physician’s certification.

The law also allows physicians to certify patients under their discretion who have other chronic and debilitating medical conditions.