Tag Archives: Missouri

Flash flood watches issued in four Southern states ahead of thunderstorms

Portions of four Southern states are bracing for the possibility of flash flooding later this week.

The National Weather Service on Monday issued flash flood watches for parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana ahead of a series of thunderstorms that is expected to bring anywhere between three and 10 inches of rain to those regions between Tuesday and Thursday.

The flash flood watch states the heaviest rains are expected in eastern Texas, western Louisiana and southwestern Arkansas, increasing the risk of flash flooding in those communities.

The storms are expected to bring lighter precipitation totals across the Great Plains, South and Midwest over the next three days, and National Weather Service forecasts indicate that some parts of Missouri, Illinois and Mississippi could all receive three or more inches of rain.

Residents of all of the affected states are encouraged to monitor their local forecasts.

The service also said there is a slight chance of severe thunderstorms across the Southern Plains tonight, but had yet to issue any watches or warnings for those storms as of 1 p.m. Central time.

The flash flood watches come after California was hit with heavy rains over the weekend.

The National Weather Service’s unofficial totals show more than 10 inches of rain fell in parts of Monterey, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties between Friday morning and Monday morning.

The weekend storms also brought more than two feet of snow and wind gusts that topped 60 mph to some mountainous areas, the service said, including an 88-mph gust near Mount Diablo.

Those topped trees and power lines, knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses.

Utility company PG&E said reported more than 265,000 of its customers in the Bay Area lost power during the storm, though all but 8,700 had their service restored as of Sunday morning.

Radar showed some California communities were receiving additional rain and snow Monday, and the National Weather Service warned that some areas could see another 10 inches of snow.

FFRF criticizes group prayer in Missouri middle school

A lawyer for the Freedom From Religion Foundation contacted a Missouri school district after watching a video that purportedly shows a ministry official leading students in prayer in the lunchroom.

The organization, which describes itself as a watchdog that strives for a separation of church and state, wrote a letter to the Hollister R-V School District’s superintendent, saying a concerned parent contacted them after the video was shared on social media.

The 10-second cell-phone video was uploaded to Facebook on February 5. It appears to show Robert Bruce, the local chapter director of the Christian youth ministry K-Life, standing in the center of a circle of students in the Hollister Middle School lunchroom and leading a prayer. Dozens of students are holding hands in the circle, while a few remain seated at lunch tables.

In his Feb. 10 letter to Hollister’s superintendent, Freedom From Religion Foundation attorney Patrick C. Elliott called the practice “an egregious violation of the First Amendment,” which forbids schools from promoting religion, and said it “must be stopped immediately.”

“It is unconstitutional for a public school to allow an evangelical Christian organization to impose prayer on all students,” Elliott said in a statement. “Giving the group access to all students as part of school programming suggests that the school district has preference not only for religion over nonreligion, but also evangelical Christianity over other faiths. This sort of entanglement between religion and public education is inappropriate.”

The letter argues that allowing the ministry into the school allowed its representatives to “proselytize” and students who did not participate in the prayer were made to feel like outsiders.

According to Elliott’s letter, the child of the parent who complained said that students had been directed in similar prayers on other occasions around the time the video was originally posted.

“No religious organization should have direct access to students at school,” Elliott argues in the letter. “This predatory conduct should raise red flags, especially since these adults are conversing with students without parental knowledge.”

The prayer circle video had been viewed more than 10,000 times as of Thursday afternoon.

In the video’s description on Facebook, the boy who uploaded it to the social media website wrote “we chose to do this” as a way of “Respecting Our God.”

On Thursday, after local media reported on the letter, a student from Hollister High School tweeted that “HHS supports HMS as well as Robert Bruce” and shared a 17-second video of students gathered in a prayer circle in what appears to be the high school’s cafeteria.

The student tweeted that it was a “110% student led prayer,” and the dozens of kids who appear in the high school video all participated voluntarily.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has written many letters to schools and government agencies across the country about the presence of religious tones in those environments.

On Thursday, it announced it had contacted lawyers for the Bentonville School District in Arkansas, claiming that the Feb. 19 inauguration of a new fitness trail at Cooper Elementary School had unconstitutional components, including a nun blessing the trail with holy water.

“Even when outside the typical school environment, the Supreme Court has found prayers taking place at school-sponsored events unconstitutional,” Elliott wrote in the Feb. 23 letter.

Death Toll Rises as Floodwaters Continue to Plague Missouri, Other States

Large portions of the central United States remained under flood warnings on Thursday morning as high waters continued to wreak havoc on dozens of riverside communities.

The National Weather Service issued the warnings for significant swaths of Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, where floodwaters reached historic levels following a powerful winter storm, but also issued isolated flood warnings throughout the southeast. The service also issued flash flooding watches in large portions of Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

While floodwaters began to recede in many locations, particularly around hard-hit greater St. Louis, they remained at critically high levels. The National Weather Service warned that towns and cities further south along the Mississippi River could experience “significant river flooding” into mid-January as the massive amounts of water flowed downstream, according to its website.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that 365 river gauges remained at flood stages on Thursday, 44 of which were at “major flooding” levels. The river gauges don’t always consider lakes, creeks or streams, many of which also breached their banks.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, who declared a state of emergency and mobilized the National Guard in the wake of the flooding, said the floods are responsible for killing 14 people in the state, according to a news release from his office. The Missouri Department of Transportation said at least 200 roads were submerged statewide early Thursday, according to a news release.

A busy 21-mile stretch of Interstate 44 remained closed near St.Louis, and the statement from Nixon’s office indicated it was the first time floodwaters shut down the road since 1982.

The Meramec River in Valley Park, Missouri, near St. Louis, crested at a record level of 44.11 feet early Thursday, according to the NOAA, which was more than four feet above a 33-year-old record and only the second time the river reached 38 feet in the past century. The river receded slightly to 43.57 feet later Thursday, the NOAA said, but that was still 27 feet above flood stage.

The community ordered those in low-lying areas to evacuate as the waters surged toward historic heights, according to a posting on its Facebook page. The city is protected by a levee, the posting indicates, but there was still “significant flooding” in several portions of the city.

The Meramec River flooding also damaged “hundreds of homes and businesses” in Pacific, Missouri, according to the governor’s office. The city, located upstream from Valley Park, crested just shy of its all-time record, the NOAA said, but that was still 18 feet above flood stage.

As the waters departed Valley Park and Pacific, they arrived further downstream.

NOAA data indicates the Meramec River in Arnold climbed to an all-time high of 47.22 feet on Thursday morning, nearly two feet above the record and roughly 23 feet above flood stage. The city recommended people evacuate because of the danger to residences, according to its website.

The Meramec flows into the Mississippi River, and communities downstream were expected to see waters rise further. In Chester, Illinois, the NOAA said waters were already at 44.26 feet on Thursday, 17 feet above flood stage and its second-highest level ever, and forecasts called for another 3-foot rise this week. Several roads in the city were already closed, its website indicates.

“This historic flooding event will continue to cause significant hazards and disruptions – from Missourians being forced from their homes, to businesses temporarily closing, to traffic congestion and impacts on interstate commerce due to the closure of a major trucking corridor,” Nixon said in a statement. “I thank the many Missourians who are assisting their neighbors by providing rooms in their homes, helping with sandbagging efforts and countless other acts of kindness.”

Missouri wasn’t the only state affected by the extreme weather.

The storm dumped snow, ice and rain throughout Oklahoma, prompting Governor Mary Fallin to extend a state of emergency. The state Department of Emergency Management reported Wednesday evening that five people lost their lives and another 104 were injured in the storm.

Earlier this week, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner said “significant issues related to flooding” had occurred in seven counties and he issued a disaster proclamation for those areas, according to a news release from his office.

Authorities Investigating Batches of Suspicious Cell Phone Purchases in Missouri

The FBI is investigating multiple reports of bulk purchases of prepaid cell phones in Missouri.

According to various local media reports, law enforcement officials in at least six Missouri towns reported that customers bought a large quantity of the prepaid phones at local Walmart stores.

Prepaid cell phones are popular for a number of reasons, including that they can be bought with cash and don’t require a contract or a credit check like many wireless plans. People can pay for the minutes as they use them, and buy more calling time whenever they need it. But the phones are also attractive in other circles because they’re difficult to trace and can be easily disposable.

Criminals have been known to use prepaid phones, often called burners, to avoid police detection because they can be purchased anonymously and don’t require disclosing a lot of personal information. Terrorists have also been known to use cell phones to detonate explosives.

The first batch of bulk cell phone buys was on Dec. 5, when buyers reportedly went to a Walmart in Lebanon around 4 a.m. and bought 59 cell phones. Law enforcement officials in Macon, Ava, Jefferson City, Columbia and Cape Girardeau also reported similar phone buys on that weekend. Fox News reported that more than 200 prepaid cell phones were purchased in total at the stores.

The purchases came days after a husband and wife killed 14 people and injured 21 more in a Dec. 2 mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, in what has been called an act of terrorism.

The American public has been on high alert since that attack.

Searches for concealed carry permits, which allow people to carry hidden handguns in public, have surged to record levels, and a Public Religion Research Institute survey released last week found 47 percent of all Americans fear they or someone in their family will be a terrorism victim.

Americans have long been encouraged to report any kind of suspicious activity through the Department of Homeland Security’s “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign. That’s exactly what the Walmart stores and local law enforcement authorities appear to be doing.

Speaking to the Kansas City Star, FBI spokesperson Bridget Patton said law enforcement officials were “acting out of an abundance of caution” in alerting the FBI about the phone buys.

“We have seen similar purchases of bulk cell phones in the past, and it has been concluded that these transactions were unrelated to terrorism,” Patton told the newspaper.

The Kansas City Star also spoke to law enforcement officials in Macon. Sheriff’s Sgt. Curt Glover noted that people have been known to purchase burner phones and resell them at higher prices.

“I do not feel there’s an immediate threat to the community,” Glover told the newspaper. “This has been going on for the last 15 years. They sell them and make a whole lot more money.”

There weren’t any arrests this month because buying a lot of cell phones at once isn’t illegal, and retired FBI Agent Jeff Lanza told the Kansas City Star that a link to terrorism appears unlikely.

“If you were planning to use those in a terrorist act, you wouldn’t be buying in bulk and attracting attention to yourself,” Lanza told the newspaper. “It would be a stupid way to start buying things to be used as bomb detonators because the first thing people do is call the police.”

The FBI has also been notified about a theft of propane canisters in Kansas City, Patton told the Kansas City Star, but the bureau is leaving the investigations of those thefts to local authorities.

The fact that propane can be used in improvised explosive devices raised some alarm bells, particularly because they reportedly occurred around the time of the prepaid phone purchases. But there’s currently no evidence suggesting the propane thefts and phone buys were related.

Americans are asked to remain vigilant and tell police if they notice suspicious activity.

Davis Case Brings Religious Freedom Issues to Forefront

The recent jailing of a Christian in Kentucky because of her stand for her beliefs is bringing about a national debate on the issue of religious freedom and religious accommodation.

Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, recently spent five days in jail because she refused to compromise her Christian beliefs.

“Thank you all so much. I love you all so very much,” she said. “I just want to give God the glory. His people have rallied, and you are a strong people. We serve a living God who knows exactly where each and every one of us is at. Just keep on pressing. Don’t let down, because he is here. He’s worthy.”

The lawyers in the case say the problem is that the judge involved with the case will not make an accommodation to Davis based on her faith that would allow her to complete her tasks without violating her “Constitutionally protected” freedom of speech.

“We’ve asked for a simple solution — get her name and authority off the certificate. The judge could order that,” attorney Mat Staver said.

Now, the Kentucky legislature has a majority of members calling on the Governor to hold a special session to look at religious accommodation laws and ways that the religious freedom of people of all faiths can be protected.  The Governor has refused stating a desire to not spend taxpayer dollars.

Missouri lawmakers have also announced an intention to introduce laws to “protect religious liberty.”

Minor Earthquake Hits New Madrid Fault

A minor earthquake struck the New Madrid fault Tuesday, the second quake on the fault line in the last two weeks.

The magnitude 2.7 quake struck around 8:46 p.m. Tuesday about 5 miles from the town of New Madrid, Missouri.  The Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis said the quake was 5.9 miles deep.

Residents in northwest Tennessee, southeast Missouri and western Kentucky all reported slight shaking from the quake.

It’s the second minor quake along the New Madrid Fault in two weeks.  A magnitude 3.5 quake struck near Memphis, Tennessee on August 25th.

The New Madrid fault line is twenty times larger than the San Andreas fault line in California.

One Missouri official is calling on residents to check to make sure they have earthquake coverage as part of their homeowners insurance.  The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the probability of a 7.5 or greater quake in the next 50 years at 7-10%, with the possibility of a quake stronger than 6.0 at 25-40%.

Gunman Opens Fire at Ferguson Protest

A gunman hidden within a group of black protesters shot at St. Louis County police officers on Sunday night following a protest about the death of Michael Brown one year ago.

One of the protesters was shot by police after he fired “a remarkable amount of gunfire” using a stolen handgun according to St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar.  

“We cannot continue, we cannot talk about the good things that we have been talking about, if we are prevented from moving forward with this kind of violence,” he said.

Belmar insisted the people conducting the violence were not protesters.

“They were criminals; they weren’t protesters,” Chief Belmar said of the groups exchanging gunfire. “Protesters are the people out there talking about a way to effect change. We can’t afford to have this kind of violence, not only on a night like this, but any point in time if we’re going to move forward in the right direction.”

The gunfire began as Ferguson’s acting police chief, Andre Anderson, was speaking to reporters.  The gunman fired at police who pursued him following the initial volley of shots.

“The weekend’s events were peaceful and promoted a message of reconciliation and healing,” Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in a statement. “But incidents of violence, such as we saw last night, are contrary to both that message, along with everything that all of us, including this group, have worked to achieve over the past year.”

Flash Flooding & Severe Storms Cut Off Missouri Town

Severe storms caused unexpected levels of flash flooding that essentially cut off the south central Missouri town of Cassville.

“There’s a lot of flooding. We have numerous roads in the county are closed,” said a spokesman for the Barry County Sheriff’s Department. “We have had evacuations and rescues in Cassville.’’

The department’s website was even more blunt, stating “Cassville is CLOSED! Do NOT come to Cassville!’’

Witnesses say the flash flood really started to strike around 9 a.m.  Henry Thomas was in a local barbershop when the flood hit.

“I was sitting there, and this waste-paper basket comes floating out from the back room,” Thomas said. “‘We got a little current in here,’ is what I told J.T. That’s when he started cranking up his barber chair. He got it as high as it would go.”

“The water from Horner Branch came across the road and Flat Creek came up back behind us. We got it from both sides. It was like a river across this area. It was 2 foot deep at my front door,” barber J.T Blankenship told the Joplin Globe.

A Budget Inn had the entire first floor flooded.

Steve Runnels of the National Weather Service said that a flash flood emergency sent for the area around the Roaring River was vital, enabling the staff of the Roaring River State Park to evacuate campers.

“We knew it was going to be extreme,” Runnels said. “They got them moved out before they were trapped. Lives may have been saved because of those efforts.”

The city of Branson was also hit with flooding and many roads had to be closed because of impassably high water.

Colorado Tornadoes Destroy Homes

A series of tornadoes swept through Colorado Thursday night destroying three homes and damaging over two dozen others.

Officials say there were no injuries reported in the outbreak.

One of the storms brought so much rain that it caused a sinkhole 15 feet deep that swallowed a police cruiser.  The officer inside at the time was able to escape without serious injury.

The homes were destroyed in Berthoud, about 40 miles north of Denver.

“It was probably on the ground two minutes,” Scott Oliver, who lives in northern Boulder County, told The Daily Camera newspaper. “It was just kicking up everything. It was terrible.”

“You just wouldn’t believe how many hailstones we had,” resident Dan Grabosky told NBC. “And the continuous roar of the lightning and thunder. It was just awful.”

“It was just a whirling mass,” he said. “It was coming for my home, and God stopped it.”

One forecaster with the Weather Channel reported he had received reports of hail the size of grapefruit.

The rain continued through the midwest bringing flooding to Kansas City.

Satanic Temple Sues For Abortion “Religious Exemption”

The Satanic Temple has filed a lawsuit in Missouri with the intention of obtaining a “religious exemption” to the state’s requirement of women waiting 72 hours before obtaining an abortion.

The New York-based group had stated last summer they planned to launch a series of lawsuits in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision.  They target what they consider “pro-life” parts of laws that they claim violates their beliefs.

The group sent letters to women who belong to their group that were aimed to be presented to abortion clinics when the workers mention the 72 hour rule.

“As an adherent to the principles of the Satanic Temple, my sincerely held religious beliefs are: My body is inviolable and subject to my will alone. … My inviolable body includes any fetal or embryonic tissue I carry so long as that tissue is unable to survive outside my body as an independent human being,” it reads in part.

The group’s suit on behalf of a woman called “Mary” says she went to a Planned Parenthood facility for an abortion and was denied in violation of her Constitutional rights.

“I personally would have liked to have the procedure done as soon as possible,” “Mary,” who is stated to be 12 weeks pregnant, told reporters. “But with all the difficulties, how hard it is do this, it’s been put off for several weeks. If you’re right on the edge of the state you’ve got to go 500 miles just to get to St. Louis, and you have to make arrangements.”

The group claims the action violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“We have theocrats pushing an agenda through legislation, and it’s time we show that other people have different values and are just as deserving as protections,” Satanic Temple leader Doug Mesner, who also goes by the name Lucien Greaves, told the Daily Beast. “We’re not making Christians get abortions if they feel it’s wrong. They put a burden on us.”