"Medflight" celebrates 30th year of service

PITTSBURG, Kans. — A company that provides lifesaving services to the Four States has plenty of reasons to celebrate.

How about 30? As in the number of years Medflight has been operating locally.

A celebration was held tonight in Pittsburg, and featured company officials, past and present crew members, even former patients, and many others.

Medflight has home bases in both Joplin and Parsons.

“…And, our accomplishment and what we do is we provide more tomorrows,” said Rod Pace, Regional Vice President for the Midwest region for AirMethods.

“MedFlight came and picked her up, they were actually waiting for the ambulance by the time we got there and they transported her to KU Med, definetly instrumental in saving her life,” said Nelson and Euna Blythe, Former Patients.

Since taking flight in October of 1992, Medflight crews have completed more than 21,000 transports.

Best-selling children's author makes second stop in the four-state area

GROVE, Okla. – A popular best-selling children’s author made a second stop in the Four States.

On Tuesday, the author spoke with around 500 Grove upper elementary and middle school students.

On Monday, author Dusti Bowling visited McDonald County middle school students.

To those aspiring writers she told them to put down their “screens” and pick up a book, Bowling said.

“Reading increases your creativity,” she said. “Reading requires your brain to be a better writer.”  

Bowling’s books center on children with physical disabilities or medical conditions.

“I wrote a book about a child with Tourette Syndrome because I wanted to give a more authentic representative of Tourette Syndrome,” Bowling told the students. “I never wanted to hurt a child with my work.”

Bowling spoke about growing up in a divorced home with alcoholic parents and some of her books deal with addiction.

Around 25 percent of children grow up with parents and other adults in their lives fighting addictions, she said.  

When questioned about her books, Bowling commented “I don’t have a great imagination, but I pull from things in real life.”

Some of Bowling’s books include Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus, The Canyon’s Edge, 24 Hours in Nowhere, Across the Desert, The Day We Met, Aven Green Sleuthing Machine, Aven Green Baking Machine, The Boy Who Loved Me, Aven Green Music Machine and Grace and Daisies,

Bowling described all of her books written and explained to the students what “sparked” the idea for each book.

The authored also introduced the children to her latest book “Dust” which will be available in the future.

Writing has long been a passion for Bowling but she explained to the children the laborious process of writing her first book.

“It took 10 years and the book was rejected about 100 times” before a literary agent picked up the book Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus and the book being published, Bowling said.

Bowling’s books have won numerous regional and national awards.

She and her family live a few hours outside of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Storms to begin Wednesday; Breezy through end of week

As a cold front passes over the Four States this morning, it brings some thunderstorms with it. Quick heavy downpours with some lightning and thunder are possible through 9 AM. It’s also breezy in front of this system, with the potential for wind gusts up to 35 MPH. By lunchtime, clouds will follow behind this system, and we’ll see a good amount of sunshine this afternoon as we warm into the middle 70s. Rainfall totals from this event will likely be below a half inch.

Thursday and Friday of this week will be sunny and breezy behind this system with temperatures in the lower to middle 70s expected. Low temperatures each night should cool into the 40s before we get to the weekend. Saturday will warm us near 80° ahead of a few cold fronts we’ll see into next week. Some of us could see some showers and storms into Saturday night along one front. The second cold front shouldn’t bring us any rain, but it will drop temperatures below average next week.

Best-selling author makes appearance at McDonald County Schools

ANDERSON, Mo. — Dusti Bowling, a best-selling author, made a stop in McDonald County.

Her presentation for middle schoolers inside the high school’s performing arts center involved adversity surrounding physical differences and disabilities, which are popular elements in many of her publications.

This was a real treat for the students, as the books are some of their favorites.

And writing has long been a passion for Bowling.

“So, I think I always knew I wanted to be a writer from the time I was young child. I loved books, stories, reading more than anything. I just never thought that I could do it myself. I thought it would be impossilbe to write a story, and even more impossible to get it published. And so I, as much as I loved books, I didn’t actually start writing until I was almost 30-years old, and so I’ve only been writing now for about 14 years. But, yeah, it just took a, like a leap of faith and bravery to start doing it,” said Dusti Bowling, Author.

Bowling’s books have won numerous regional and national awards.

She and her family live a few hours outside of Flagstaff, Arizona.

Local author visits JHS

JOPLIN, Mo. — A local author got on stage today, all to share writing tips and tricks with students at Joplin High School.

Annie Lisenby spoke to more than a thousand teens inside the school’s auditorium to kick off Teen Read Week. She lives in Monett and debuted her young adult dark fantasy book, A Three Letter Name, earlier this year.

The importance of telling stories was part of the agenda. She spoke about “story building” and “structure” to encourage young writers to start their journey.

“Specifically, I use some techniques from my background in theatre, which was my original training and background, and how I use those whenever I’m writing books, whenever I’m telling stories. A lot of it comes down to, how do you make a good story with interesting characters and strong conflict,” said Annie Lisenby, Author.

Lisenby began writing in 2018 and is already an award-winning author, including first place wins in the Joplin Writers’ Guild.

Award winning YA author stops by CJHS

CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — An award-winning author made a visit to Carl Junction High School. Author Mindy McGinnis spent her time discussing her books and talking with students about the writing process.

McGinnis is orginially from Ohio but was in Missouri today thanks to a Missouri award for one of her books.

Her book “Be Not Far from Me” is this years Missouri Gateway Award Winner. This award is based off of votes from teen readers which has left an impression on McGinnis.

Carl Junction students who have read some of McGinnis’s work were also excited to see the author of one of their books in person.

“It matters to me as a writer because its not just like, educators and librarians and reviewers saying hey this is a good book, its actually teens that have read the book and they’re like, no I actually really like this book,” said Mindy McGinnis, Author.

“I thought it was really cool when she said she was coming, definitely very, like, wow not a lot of people get that experience,” said Kelsi Rogers, Freshman, Carl Junction High School.

McGinnis says that she never received any formal writing education and that the only thing you have to do to be a writer is to write.

A look at Joplin's cost of living & how it stacks up to other cities

JOPLIN, Mo. — It may feel like everything in life is getting more and more expensive, but the City of Joplin is still boasting the cost of living, well below other areas.

Despite the rising cost of virtually every facet of life, there’s still some positive news when it comes to the cost of living in Joplin.

According to the website, “Doxo.com”, the average household expenses in Joplin are nearly 29 percent lower than the national average.

Those figures include things like cost of rent, mortgage, car loans and insurance, as well as health and life insurance, utilities, cable, satellite and cell service.

“In a lot of those categories Joplin is still in an affordable position and people can afford to live here and do those things that they enjoy doing as far as improving their quality of life,” said Erin Slifka, Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, Marketing & Public Relations.

But it’s not just cheaper to live here than other places in the country. It’s cheaper to live here than other places in the same state, where the expense of living are more than 16 percent less than the statewide average.

Erin Slifka says out-of-state home buyers know they can get more house for their dollar here, but are pleasantly surprised at how much less the cost of other expenses are.

“They are surprised at the cost of living and the affordability of all of it, with uh groceries and transportation and the time it takes to get from point A to point B and also just the kindness that everybody here is in this area,” said Slifka.

You can see the study for yourself on Doxo’s website.

"Human side of the badge" shown by local police

BAXTER SPRINGS, Kans. — Several police departments in Southeast Kansas participate in a nationwide event meant to strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they protect.

The event is called “Faith and Blue.”

It began in 2020, following several high profile incidents across the United States, where residents of many cities called for the defunding or dismantling of their current policing system.

Out of that unrest, “Faith and Blue” was born, where law enforcement and faith-based leaders come together to unite the community with those who serve and protect.

That’s exactly what took place in Baxter Springs this evening, where a free cookout was held in Kiwanis Park for area residents and several police departments from Cherokee County.

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Baxter Springs Police Chief, Brian Henderson was among the crowd and says a good relationship between a community and their police department, centers around mutual respect.

“It’s important for us to be here as officers but also to show the human side of the badge. To show that we are humans, that we also make mistakes sometimes, sometimes we don’t do everything just right. But for us to own that and now to have people that would support us and go, ‘you know what, I know that person, I know them personally,’ and to be able to do that and have that support, it’s great.” said Chief Henderson.

More than 100 residents from Southeast Kansas showed up to the cookout, which wraps up a week of events centered around positive relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Webb City passes first reading for "Airbnb" ordinance

WEBB CITY, Mo. — City council members in Webb City, tonight, passed the first reading of a new ordinance for short-term rentals, or “Airbnb”s.

Regulating them is something council members and the city’s Planning and Zoning Committee have been working on since the beginning of the year.

The majority of Webb’s short-term rentals are in residential neighborhoods.

The ordinance states owners are required to have a business license, a special use permit and a short-term rental license. Violations could result in license revocation.

“You need to get licenses. We are aware that there are many out there. What we have stated many times before, we don’t go out looking for them, but if neighbors complain, and there are issues, we will enforce current city ordinance,” said Carl Francis, City Administrator, Webb City.

A final reading of the ordinance will take place during the next council meeting on October 24th, where it could then be officially implemented.