Two men who were instrumental in bringing Kansas City Chiefs training camp to Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph are now members of the St. Joseph Area Sports Hall of Fame.

Dirck Clark, former president of the Missouri Western Board of Governors, and Charlie Shields, former State Senator of the 34th District, were among the inductees in this year’s St. Joseph Area Sports Hall of Fame Class.

Shields, a St. Joseph resident, says he was surprised by the honor, but humbled nonetheless.

"It's been awhile since we actually got training camp to St. Joseph," Shields told KFEQ Radio. "It's a great honor and I know Dirck (Clark) feels the same thing to be recognized for our efforts to help bring the camp to St. Joseph."

Training camp has been in St. Joseph since 2010. Leading up that, Shields says it was a years-long process of getting the agreement done.

The idea and vision of camp being held at Missouri Western really started several years before 2010, when the team held OTAs on campus.

"A few years before we located the camp, we had summer OTAs at Missouri Western," Shields recalled. "And the community just turned out. It was a beautiful summer morning, and I think the Chiefs were impressed with how the community turned out, what the facilities looked like and I think they started to see the possibility."

Talks continued between Shields, then President Pro Tem of the Missouri Senate, the Missouri Western Board of Governors and Chiefs ownership about moving training camp from River Falls, Wisconsin to St. Joseph.

 Shields says there was a meeting with then Chiefs General Manager Carl Peterson and team chairman Clark Hunt at halftime of a preseason game with the St. Louis Rams.

Part of the agreement was Shields securing $25 million in tax credits from the Missouri Development Finance Board to help with Arrowhead Stadium renovations.

"But, there's really one thing that was going to make this attractive - bringing the camp back to St. Joseph and Missouri," Shields said, "and they agreed that it was a great idea. That if we put a package together, they would do that. That's exactly how the whole thing got started."

As part of the plan, the Chiefs donated $10 million to Missouri Western to help with construction of the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex and other facilities to help lure the Chiefs to campus.

The original deal was for five seasons. Now, 14 years later, Shields says all of Chiefs Kingdom can see how beneficial and impactful having the camp at Missouri Western has been.

"The indoor training facility with the weight rooms, conditioning rooms, therapy rooms, all top notch. All of that adds together as to why that thing has been there 14 years. It's good for the Chiefs, the community and Missouri Western."

"And the fans, all you have to do is watch on one of those practice mornings, the trail of cars coming up from Kansas City to see training camp. It shows that it makes a huge impact."

You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719427664252.jpeg" alt="Stock photo by&nbsp; Tommy Rezac." />
 <figcaption>Stock photo by&nbsp; Tommy Rezac.</figcaption>
 </figure>By TOMMY REZACSt. Joseph PostTwo men who were instrumental in bringing Kansas City Chiefs training camp to Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph are now members of the St. Joseph Area Sports Hall of Fame.Dirck Clark, former president of the Missouri Western Board of Governors, and Charlie Shields, former State Senator of the 34th District, were among the inductees in this year’s St. Joseph Area Sports Hall of Fame Class.Shields, a St. Joseph resident, says he was surprised by the honor, but humbled nonetheless."It's been awhile since we actually got training camp to St. Joseph," Shields told KFEQ Radio. "It's a great honor and I know Dirck (Clark) feels the same thing to be recognized for our efforts to help bring the camp to St. Joseph."Training camp has been in St. Joseph since 2010. Leading up that, Shields says it was a years-long process of getting the agreement done.The idea and vision of camp being held at Missouri Western really started several years before 2010, when the team held OTAs on campus."A few years before we located the camp, we had summer OTAs at Missouri Western," Shields recalled. "And the community just turned out. It was a beautiful summer morning, and I think the Chiefs were impressed with how the community turned out, what the facilities looked like and I think they started to see the possibility."Talks continued between Shields, then President Pro Tem of the Missouri Senate, the Missouri Western Board of Governors and Chiefs ownership about moving training camp from River Falls, Wisconsin to St. Joseph. Shields says there was a meeting with then Chiefs General Manager Carl Peterson and team chairman Clark Hunt at halftime of a preseason game with the St. Louis Rams.Part of the agreement was Shields securing $25 million in tax credits from the Missouri Development Finance Board to help with Arrowhead Stadium renovations."But, there's really one thing that was going to make this attractive - bringing the camp back to St. Joseph and Missouri," Shields said, "and they agreed that it was a great idea. That if we put a package together, they would do that. That's exactly how the whole thing got started."As part of the plan, the Chiefs donated $10 million to Missouri Western to help with construction of the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex and other facilities to help lure the Chiefs to campus.The original deal was for five seasons. Now, 14 years later, Shields says all of Chiefs Kingdom can see how beneficial and impactful having the camp at Missouri Western has been."The indoor training facility with the weight rooms, conditioning rooms, therapy rooms, all top notch. All of that adds together as to why that thing has been there 14 years. It's good for the Chiefs, the community and Missouri Western.""And the fans, all you have to do is watch on one of those practice mornings, the trail of cars coming up from Kansas City to see training camp. It shows that it makes a huge impact."Charlie Shields interview<div><iframe src="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kfeq-sports/embed/episodes/Charlie-Shields---history-of-Chiefs-camp-e2lbfbj" height="102px" width="400px" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719427899002.jpeg" alt="Stock photo." />
 <figcaption>Stock photo.</figcaption>
 </figure>You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.

Charlie Shields recalls the agreement that first brought Chiefs camp to St. Joseph

The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by Missouri and Louisiana, along with seven people who were either banned or throttled by social media companies

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/jason-hancock/">JASON HANCOCK</a><a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/20/state-senator-throws-first-punches-of-2024-missouri-governors-campaign/">Missouri Independent</a>

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected arguments by Missouri and Louisiana that the federal government violated the First Amendment in its efforts to combat false, misleading and dangerous information online.

In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the court held that neither the states nor seven individuals who were co-plaintiffs in the case were able to demonstrate any harm or substantial risk that they will suffer an injury in the future.

Therefore, they do not have legal standing to bring a case against the federal government.

Plaintiffs failed to prove that social media platforms acted due to government coercion, Barrett wrote, rather than their own judgment and policies.&nbsp;In fact, she wrote, social media platforms “began to suppress the plaintiffs’ COVID–19 content before the defendants’ challenged communications started.”

Plaintiffs cannot “manufacture standing,” Barrett wrote, “merely by inflicting harm on themselves based on their fears of hypothetical future harm that is not certainly impending.”

The ruling overturns a lower court decision that concluded officials under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump unlawfully coerced social media companies to remove deceptive or inaccurate content out of fears it would fuel vaccine hesitancy or upend elections.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who inherited the lawsuit from his predecessor, has called the federal government’s actions “the biggest violation of the First Amendment in our nation’s history.”

But those arguments were&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/18/suit-alleging-suppression-of-free-speech-met-with-skepticism-at-u-s-supreme-court/">greeted with skepticism by the court in March</a>, with justices from across the ideological spectrum punching holes in the lawsuit and raising concerns about the consequences for public safety and national security.

In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the government’s actions in this case were not ” ham-handed censorship” that the court has routinely rejected, but they were coercive and illegal all the same.

“It was blatantly unconstitutional,” he wrote, “and the country may come to regret the court’s failure to say so… If a coercive campaign is carried out with enough sophistication, it may get by. That is not a message this court should send.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill released a statement on social media calling Wednesday’s ruling “<a href="https://x.com/AGLizMurrill/status/1805986131021836757" target="_blank">unfortunate and disappointing</a>.”

“A majority of the Supreme Court gives a free pass to the federal government to threaten tech platforms into censorship and suppression of speech that is indisputably protected by the First Amendment,” Murril said. “The majority waves off the worst government coercion scheme in history.”

In an emailed statement, Bailey made no mention of the court’s decision to dismiss the case, instead declaring that his office will continue to pursue evidence of social media censorship by the federal government.

“Missouri is not done,” Bailey said. “We are going back to the district court to obtain more discovery in order to root out Joe Biden’s vast censorship enterprise once and for all.”

The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by Missouri and Louisiana, along with seven people who either were banned from a platform or whose posts were not prominently featured on social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube and X, then known as Twitter.

Among the co-plaintiffs is Jim Hoft, founder of the St. Louis-based right-wing conspiracy website Gateway Pundit. Hoft has built a career on promulgating false conspiracies on a wide range of topics, from the 2018 Parkland school shooting to former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

His company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/conservative-news-site-gateway-pundit-files-bankruptcy-2024-04-25/" target="_blank">recently filed for bankruptcy</a>&nbsp;as it faces defamation lawsuits in Missouri and Colorado filed by people who say they faced threats after being vilified by Gateway Pundit in false stories.

During appeals court arguments last year, the attorneys general specifically cited Hoft, claiming that he is “currently subjected to an ongoing campaign by federal officials to target the content on his website.”

Hoft claims claims that Twitter, in December 2020, censored content about the Hunter Biden laptop story at the urging of the federal government. But Barrett wrote that Twitter acted according to its own rules against posting or sharing “privately produced/distributed intimate media of someone without their express consent.”

There is no evidence, Barrett wrote, that Twitter adopted its policy in response to pressure from the federal government.

Benjamin Aguiñaga, the solicitor general for the Louisiana attorney general, argued before the court in March that the government has no right to try to persuade social media platforms to violate Americans’ constitutional rights, “and pressuring platforms in back rooms shielded from public view is not using the bully pulpit at all. That is just being a bully.”

Emails obtained as part of the lawsuit, Aguiñaga argued, show the government badgered platforms behind closed doors, abused them with profanity and “ominously says that the White House is considering its options… all to get the platforms to censor more speech.”

“Under this onslaught,” he said, “the platforms routinely cave.”

The federal government, represented by Brian Fletcher, principal deputy solicitor general, argued Aguiñaga’s accusations simply don’t hold water.&nbsp;

There is no evidence that decisions by social media companies to remove or deprioritize content can be attributed to the government. Instead, Fletcher argued, the companies made their own decisions relying on their own content moderation policies.

There was no coercion or attempted intimidation, Fletcher said, and the best proof is that social media companies “routinely said ‘no’ to the government.”

<h2>The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by Missouri and Louisiana, along with seven people who were either banned or throttled by social media companies</h2>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/jason-hancock/">JASON HANCOCK</a><a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/20/state-senator-throws-first-punches-of-2024-missouri-governors-campaign/">Missouri Independent</a>The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected arguments by Missouri and Louisiana that the federal government violated the First Amendment in its efforts to combat false, misleading and dangerous information online.In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the court held that neither the states nor seven individuals who were co-plaintiffs in the case were able to demonstrate any harm or substantial risk that they will suffer an injury in the future.Therefore, they do not have legal standing to bring a case against the federal government.Plaintiffs failed to prove that social media platforms acted due to government coercion, Barrett wrote, rather than their own judgment and policies.&nbsp;In fact, she wrote, social media platforms “began to suppress the plaintiffs’ COVID–19 content before the defendants’ challenged communications started.”Plaintiffs cannot “manufacture standing,” Barrett wrote, “merely by inflicting harm on themselves based on their fears of hypothetical future harm that is not certainly impending.”The ruling overturns a lower court decision that concluded officials under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump unlawfully coerced social media companies to remove deceptive or inaccurate content out of fears it would fuel vaccine hesitancy or upend elections.Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who inherited the lawsuit from his predecessor, has called the federal government’s actions “the biggest violation of the First Amendment in our nation’s history.”But those arguments were&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/18/suit-alleging-suppression-of-free-speech-met-with-skepticism-at-u-s-supreme-court/">greeted with skepticism by the court in March</a>, with justices from across the ideological spectrum punching holes in the lawsuit and raising concerns about the consequences for public safety and national security.In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the government’s actions in this case were not ” ham-handed censorship” that the court has routinely rejected, but they were coercive and illegal all the same.“It was blatantly unconstitutional,” he wrote, “and the country may come to regret the court’s failure to say so… If a coercive campaign is carried out with enough sophistication, it may get by. That is not a message this court should send.”Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill released a statement on social media calling Wednesday’s ruling “<a href="https://x.com/AGLizMurrill/status/1805986131021836757" target="_blank">unfortunate and disappointing</a>.”“A majority of the Supreme Court gives a free pass to the federal government to threaten tech platforms into censorship and suppression of speech that is indisputably protected by the First Amendment,” Murril said. “The majority waves off the worst government coercion scheme in history.”In an emailed statement, Bailey made no mention of the court’s decision to dismiss the case, instead declaring that his office will continue to pursue evidence of social media censorship by the federal government.“Missouri is not done,” Bailey said. “We are going back to the district court to obtain more discovery in order to root out Joe Biden’s vast censorship enterprise once and for all.”The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by Missouri and Louisiana, along with seven people who either were banned from a platform or whose posts were not prominently featured on social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube and X, then known as Twitter.Among the co-plaintiffs is Jim Hoft, founder of the St. Louis-based right-wing conspiracy website Gateway Pundit. Hoft has built a career on promulgating false conspiracies on a wide range of topics, from the 2018 Parkland school shooting to former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.His company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/conservative-news-site-gateway-pundit-files-bankruptcy-2024-04-25/" target="_blank">recently filed for bankruptcy</a>&nbsp;as it faces defamation lawsuits in Missouri and Colorado filed by people who say they faced threats after being vilified by Gateway Pundit in false stories.During appeals court arguments last year, the attorneys general specifically cited Hoft, claiming that he is “currently subjected to an ongoing campaign by federal officials to target the content on his website.”Hoft claims claims that Twitter, in December 2020, censored content about the Hunter Biden laptop story at the urging of the federal government. But Barrett wrote that Twitter acted according to its own rules against posting or sharing “privately produced/distributed intimate media of someone without their express consent.”There is no evidence, Barrett wrote, that Twitter adopted its policy in response to pressure from the federal government.Benjamin Aguiñaga, the solicitor general for the Louisiana attorney general, argued before the court in March that the government has no right to try to persuade social media platforms to violate Americans’ constitutional rights, “and pressuring platforms in back rooms shielded from public view is not using the bully pulpit at all. That is just being a bully.”Emails obtained as part of the lawsuit, Aguiñaga argued, show the government badgered platforms behind closed doors, abused them with profanity and “ominously says that the White House is considering its options… all to get the platforms to censor more speech.”“Under this onslaught,” he said, “the platforms routinely cave.”The federal government, represented by Brian Fletcher, principal deputy solicitor general, argued Aguiñaga’s accusations simply don’t hold water.&nbsp;There is no evidence that decisions by social media companies to remove or deprioritize content can be attributed to the government. Instead, Fletcher argued, the companies made their own decisions relying on their own content moderation policies.There was no coercion or attempted intimidation, Fletcher said, and the best proof is that social media companies “routinely said ‘no’ to the government.”

SCOTUS rejects Missouri lawsuit alleging feds bullied social media into censoring content

(Radio Iowa) -&nbsp;The president has approved the governor's request for a Major Disaster Declaration for five Iowa counties with heavy damage from flooding. 

Residents in Clay, Emmet, Lyon, Plymouth, and Sioux Counties may apply for federal aid through FEMA. A levee on the Little Sioux River broke in western Iowa shortly before five this (Tuesday) morning, forcing the evacuation of the small towns of Rodney and Smithland. 

The WinnaVegas casino in Sloan has closed. The Iowa D-O-T is closing Interstate 29 north of Council Bluffs later today (Tuesday). The timing will be determined by how fast the Missouri River rises in that area.

(Radio Iowa) -&nbsp;The president has approved the governor's request for a Major Disaster Declaration for five Iowa counties with heavy damage from flooding. Residents in Clay, Emmet, Lyon, Plymouth, and Sioux Counties may apply for federal aid through FEMA. A levee on the Little Sioux River broke in western Iowa shortly before five this (Tuesday) morning, forcing the evacuation of the small towns of Rodney and Smithland. The WinnaVegas casino in Sloan has closed. The Iowa D-O-T is closing Interstate 29 north of Council Bluffs later today (Tuesday). The timing will be determined by how fast the Missouri River rises in that area.

Evacuations, closures in western Iowa as flood waters rise

(Radio Iowa) -&nbsp;The Iowa Utilities Board has unanimously approved the proposed route for the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, but the company must meet other requirements before construction may begin. 

All three members of the Iowa Utilities Board agree the public benefits of the project outweigh the private and public costs. That clears the way for Summit to -- eventually -- use eminent domain authority to force landowners who've resisted the project to let the pipeline through their property. The board's order says Summit must get approval from South and North Dakota regulators for its pipeline route in those states, plus approval in North Dakota for the underground site where carbon is to be shipped and stored before construction may begin. 

A group of landowners who do not want the pipeline on their property say they will file a lawsuit. Republicans in the Iowa House say they plan to propose an update to Iowa's law on eminent domain.

(Radio Iowa) -&nbsp;The Iowa Utilities Board has unanimously approved the proposed route for the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, but the company must meet other requirements before construction may begin. All three members of the Iowa Utilities Board agree the public benefits of the project outweigh the private and public costs. That clears the way for Summit to -- eventually -- use eminent domain authority to force landowners who've resisted the project to let the pipeline through their property. The board's order says Summit must get approval from South and North Dakota regulators for its pipeline route in those states, plus approval in North Dakota for the underground site where carbon is to be shipped and stored before construction may begin. A group of landowners who do not want the pipeline on their property say they will file a lawsuit. Republicans in the Iowa House say they plan to propose an update to Iowa's law on eminent domain.

State regulators approve route for Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline

Snapchill LLC (Snapchill) of Wisconsin is voluntarily recalling all canned coffee products manufactured by the company, within expiration date, because their current process could lead to the growth and production of the deadly toxin, botulinum toxin, in low acid canned foods, according to a statement from the Food and Drug Administration.

<a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/179493/download?attachment">Click here to see a complete</a> list of products included

Botulism, a potentially fatal form of food poisoning, can cause the following symptoms: general weakness, dizziness, double-vision and trouble with speaking or swallowing. Difficulty in breathing, weakness of other muscles, abdominal distension and constipation may also be common symptoms. Symptoms can begin from six hours to two weeks after eating food that contains botulinum toxin. People experiencing these problems should seek immediate medical attention.

The products were distributed nationwide through various coffee roasters and retail locations, as well as through direct online purchase from Snapchill. The problem was identified when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified Snapchill that the low acid canned foods process for manufacturing the recalled products was not filed with FDA, as is required by regulation. No illnesses have been reported to-date, and Snapchill is not aware of any instances in which the company’s products contained botulin toxin. Snapchill is working on filing the appropriate notification with FDA.

The products are sold under a range of roaster and brand names, in variety of metal can sizes ranging from 7 oz to 12 oz. The products are identifiable by the language “Produced and distributed by Snapchill LLC” underneath the nutrition facts panel. Some of the products can also be identified by the text “Snapchill Coffee” on the label. The specific products subject to this voluntary recall are listed at the end of this notice.

This voluntary recall is being made with the knowledge of FDA.

Consumers should either destroy the products or return the product to Snapchill or the place of purchase for a refund. Snapchill will offer full refunds for any of these products, with appropriate proof of purchase including a picture of the product(s) before being destroyed. Full information about the return and refund will be available at Compliance@Snapchill.com.

Consumers with questions may contact the company any time by email at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:Compliance@snapchill.com">Compliance@snapchill.com</a>, or by phone, Monday through Friday between 8:00am and 4:00pm Central Time, at (920) 632-6018.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719331741764.png" alt="Among the hundreds of coffee products included in the recall" />
 <figcaption>Among the hundreds of coffee products included in the recall</figcaption>
 </figure>Snapchill LLC (Snapchill) of Wisconsin is voluntarily recalling all canned coffee products manufactured by the company, within expiration date, because their current process could lead to the growth and production of the deadly toxin, botulinum toxin, in low acid canned foods, according to a statement from the Food and Drug Administration.<a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/179493/download?attachment">Click here to see a complete</a> list of products includedBotulism, a potentially fatal form of food poisoning, can cause the following symptoms: general weakness, dizziness, double-vision and trouble with speaking or swallowing. Difficulty in breathing, weakness of other muscles, abdominal distension and constipation may also be common symptoms. Symptoms can begin from six hours to two weeks after eating food that contains botulinum toxin. People experiencing these problems should seek immediate medical attention.The products were distributed nationwide through various coffee roasters and retail locations, as well as through direct online purchase from Snapchill. The problem was identified when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified Snapchill that the low acid canned foods process for manufacturing the recalled products was not filed with FDA, as is required by regulation. No illnesses have been reported to-date, and Snapchill is not aware of any instances in which the company’s products contained botulin toxin. Snapchill is working on filing the appropriate notification with FDA.The products are sold under a range of roaster and brand names, in variety of metal can sizes ranging from 7 oz to 12 oz. The products are identifiable by the language “Produced and distributed by Snapchill LLC” underneath the nutrition facts panel. Some of the products can also be identified by the text “Snapchill Coffee” on the label. The specific products subject to this voluntary recall are listed at the end of this notice.This voluntary recall is being made with the knowledge of FDA.Consumers should either destroy the products or return the product to Snapchill or the place of purchase for a refund. Snapchill will offer full refunds for any of these products, with appropriate proof of purchase including a picture of the product(s) before being destroyed. Full information about the return and refund will be available at Compliance@Snapchill.com.Consumers with questions may contact the company any time by email at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:Compliance@snapchill.com">Compliance@snapchill.com</a>, or by phone, Monday through Friday between 8:00am and 4:00pm Central Time, at (920) 632-6018.

Risk of fatal food poisoning: Hundreds of coffee products recalled 

SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on multiple allegations after an altercation at a convenience store.

Just before 5a.m. Tuesday, employees from the KWIK Stop gas station at 1727 West Crawford Street in Salina reported to police that a man walked into the store naked and began battering employees with a stick in each hand, according to Salina Police Captain James Feldman 

The man assaulted three employees, the first at the back door of the convenience store and the second and third inside store.

When officers arrived at the store, employees had already subdued the subject, who SPD officers identified as 42-year-old Joshua Renfro of Salina.

The first employee Renfro allegedly assaulted was a 60-year-old employee Renfro pushed past to enter the store from the backdoor.

"There was a 55-year-old employee who heard a commotion in the business, and as he was at the back at the coolers, he observed the naked male who had two sticks in his hands," Feldman said. 

"This employee told Renfro he needed to leave the business. Renfro then allegedly struck the victim several times in the head with one of the sticks and that employee suffered several cuts to his forehead and left eye.

Another employee, a 51-year-old woman, moved to assist her two coworkers when Renfro pushed her to the ground and caused an injury to her left elbow and an injury on her thigh, according to Feldman.

Emergency responders transported the 51-year-old woman to Salina Regional Health Center to treat the potentially broken elbow.

"Officers ended up wrapping the subject and transporting him to the hospital because they believe there's an influence of drugs," Feldman said. "I don't know if he's out [of the hospital], but he is facing charges&nbsp; of aggravated battery and a count of simple battery.

Renfro did not attempt to steal any items at Kwik Shop — he only attacked employees in the convenience store.

After Renfro is released from the hospital,&nbsp; police will consider further charges for the incident.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718801355216.png" alt="Renfro -photo from an arrest earlier this month for alleged DUI. He was jailed for alleged battery in Salina in July of 2023, according to online jail records." />
 <figcaption>Renfro -photo from an arrest earlier this month for alleged DUI. He was jailed for alleged battery in Salina in July of 2023, according to online jail records.</figcaption>
 </figure>SALINE COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on multiple allegations after an altercation at a convenience store.Just before 5a.m. Tuesday, employees from the KWIK Stop gas station at 1727 West Crawford Street in Salina reported to police that a man walked into the store naked and began battering employees with a stick in each hand, according to Salina Police Captain James Feldman The man assaulted three employees, the first at the back door of the convenience store and the second and third inside store.When officers arrived at the store, employees had already subdued the subject, who SPD officers identified as 42-year-old Joshua Renfro of Salina.The first employee Renfro allegedly assaulted was a 60-year-old employee Renfro pushed past to enter the store from the backdoor."There was a 55-year-old employee who heard a commotion in the business, and as he was at the back at the coolers, he observed the naked male who had two sticks in his hands," Feldman said. "This employee told Renfro he needed to leave the business. Renfro then allegedly struck the victim several times in the head with one of the sticks and that employee suffered several cuts to his forehead and left eye.Another employee, a 51-year-old woman, moved to assist her two coworkers when Renfro pushed her to the ground and caused an injury to her left elbow and an injury on her thigh, according to Feldman.Emergency responders transported the 51-year-old woman to Salina Regional Health Center to treat the potentially broken elbow."Officers ended up wrapping the subject and transporting him to the hospital because they believe there's an influence of drugs," Feldman said. "I don't know if he's out [of the hospital], but he is facing charges&nbsp; of aggravated battery and a count of simple battery.Renfro did not attempt to steal any items at Kwik Shop — he only attacked employees in the convenience store.After Renfro is released from the hospital,&nbsp; police will consider further charges for the incident.

Police: Naked man attacked Kan. convenience store staff

Challenge from coalitions of attorneys general, led by Kansas and Missouri, culminated in two preliminary injunctions of the SAVE Plan Monday

BY:&nbsp;ANNELISE HANSHAW&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/09/21/missouri-judge-once-again-delays-decision-on-closing-agape-boarding-school/">Missouri Independent</a>

Federal judges in Kansas and Missouri on Monday blocked the full implementation of a student-loan forgiveness program proposed by the Biden administration that was set to launch July 1.

The SAVE Plan, an acronym for Saving on a Valuable Education, has been partially rolled out. The provisions already in effect may remain, United States District Court for the District of Kansas Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled Monday. But elements set for July 1, like reducing payments to 5% of borrowers’ income instead of 10%, are on hold while litigation challenging the program moves forward.

A separate ruling out of the Eastern District of Missouri will block only loan forgiveness. The SAVE Plan offered forgiveness for those who borrowed less than $12,000 and have been paying for more than 10 years, with an additional year for each $1,000 additional borrowed.

Both judges wrote that the SAVE Plan, which uses the Higher Education Act to authorize approximately $475 billion in loan forgiveness, is beyond the law’s legislative intent.

“The court is not free to replace the language of the statute with unenacted legislative intent.&nbsp;Congress has made it clear under what circumstances loan forgiveness is permitted, and the (income-contingent repayment) plan is not one of those circumstances,” United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri John Ross wrote.

The rulings are the result of lawsuits filed by two coalitions of attorneys general: one led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and the&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/03/missouri-argues-to-block-biden-admin-s-second-student-loan-forgiveness-plan/" target="_blank">other by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey</a>, representing a combined 18 states.

Crabtree dismissed eight of the 11 states represented in Kobach’s lawsuit earlier this month, finding that Alaska is the only state that can claim harm in Monday’s ruling over “$100,000 in lost (federal family education) loan interest over two years.”

Ross determined that Missouri, through quasi-governmental loan servicer MOHELA, has standing. MOHELA, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority,&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/06/30/missouri-company-plays-central-role-in-downfall-of-biden-loan-forgiveness-program/" target="_blank">gave Bailey standing in a U.S. Supreme Court case</a>&nbsp;that overturned an earlier version of loan forgiveness last year.

Ross wrote that the allegations of harm to MOHELA are “substantially similar to, if not identical to,” those argued in last year’s Supreme Court case.

MOHELA has routinely distanced itself from Bailey’s litigation against loan forgiveness.

Bailey, in a press release, lauded the Missouri ruling as a win for Missourians without large amounts of student-loan debt.

“Only Congress has the power of the purse, not the president,” he wrote in a statement. “Today’s ruling was a huge win for the rule of law, and for every American who Joe Biden was about to force to pay off someone else’s debt.”

Kobach also emphasized the judge’s ruling of a lack of Congressional authorization in the SAVE Plan.

“Kansas’s victory today is a victory for the entire country,” he said. “As the court correctly held, whether to forgive billions of dollars of student debt is a major question that only Congress can answer. Biden’s administration is attempting to usurp Congress’s authority. This is not only unconstitutional, it’s unfair. ”

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the Department of Justice “will continue to vigorously defend the SAVE Plan.”

“We designed SAVE to cut undergraduate loan payments in half, avoid interest growth for borrowers making zero-dollar or low payments, and allow at-risk borrowers to reach forgiveness faster,” he wrote in a statement. “Under SAVE, nearly 8 million Americans — one out of five borrowers — have breathing room from bills that, too often, compete with basic needs.”

Cardona said Republican elected officials are trying to block the plan “even though the department has relied on the authority under the Higher Education Act three times over the last 30 years to implement income-driven repayment plans.”

He promised a continued push from the federal government for student-loan forgiveness. The SAVE Plan is the department’s second iteration of forgiveness, of which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/08/president-joe-biden-outlines-new-plans-to-deliver-student-debt-relief-to-over-30-million-americans-under-the-biden-harris-administration/" target="_blank">three have been announced</a>. Bailey and Kobach&nbsp;<a href="https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024-5-16-Student-Loan-NPRM-Interested-States-Comment-Letter.pdf" target="_blank">wrote a letter to Cardona in May</a>&nbsp;with “significant concerns” about the latest plan, which has yet to be implemented.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719326302325.png" alt=" Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach appears at a June 17, 2024, news conference at the Statehouse in Topeka. He says student loan forgiveness is unconstitutional and unfair. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach appears at a June 17, 2024, news conference at the Statehouse in Topeka. He says student loan forgiveness is unconstitutional and unfair. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Challenge from coalitions of attorneys general, led by Kansas and Missouri, culminated in two preliminary injunctions of the SAVE Plan Monday</h2>BY:&nbsp;ANNELISE HANSHAW&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2022/09/21/missouri-judge-once-again-delays-decision-on-closing-agape-boarding-school/">Missouri Independent</a>Federal judges in Kansas and Missouri on Monday blocked the full implementation of a student-loan forgiveness program proposed by the Biden administration that was set to launch July 1.The SAVE Plan, an acronym for Saving on a Valuable Education, has been partially rolled out. The provisions already in effect may remain, United States District Court for the District of Kansas Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled Monday. But elements set for July 1, like reducing payments to 5% of borrowers’ income instead of 10%, are on hold while litigation challenging the program moves forward.A separate ruling out of the Eastern District of Missouri will block only loan forgiveness. The SAVE Plan offered forgiveness for those who borrowed less than $12,000 and have been paying for more than 10 years, with an additional year for each $1,000 additional borrowed.Both judges wrote that the SAVE Plan, which uses the Higher Education Act to authorize approximately $475 billion in loan forgiveness, is beyond the law’s legislative intent.“The court is not free to replace the language of the statute with unenacted legislative intent.&nbsp;Congress has made it clear under what circumstances loan forgiveness is permitted, and the (income-contingent repayment) plan is not one of those circumstances,” United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri John Ross wrote.The rulings are the result of lawsuits filed by two coalitions of attorneys general: one led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and the&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/03/missouri-argues-to-block-biden-admin-s-second-student-loan-forgiveness-plan/" target="_blank">other by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey</a>, representing a combined 18 states.Crabtree dismissed eight of the 11 states represented in Kobach’s lawsuit earlier this month, finding that Alaska is the only state that can claim harm in Monday’s ruling over “$100,000 in lost (federal family education) loan interest over two years.”Ross determined that Missouri, through quasi-governmental loan servicer MOHELA, has standing. MOHELA, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority,&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/06/30/missouri-company-plays-central-role-in-downfall-of-biden-loan-forgiveness-program/" target="_blank">gave Bailey standing in a U.S. Supreme Court case</a>&nbsp;that overturned an earlier version of loan forgiveness last year.Ross wrote that the allegations of harm to MOHELA are “substantially similar to, if not identical to,” those argued in last year’s Supreme Court case.MOHELA has routinely distanced itself from Bailey’s litigation against loan forgiveness.Bailey, in a press release, lauded the Missouri ruling as a win for Missourians without large amounts of student-loan debt.“Only Congress has the power of the purse, not the president,” he wrote in a statement. “Today’s ruling was a huge win for the rule of law, and for every American who Joe Biden was about to force to pay off someone else’s debt.”Kobach also emphasized the judge’s ruling of a lack of Congressional authorization in the SAVE Plan.“Kansas’s victory today is a victory for the entire country,” he said. “As the court correctly held, whether to forgive billions of dollars of student debt is a major question that only Congress can answer. Biden’s administration is attempting to usurp Congress’s authority. This is not only unconstitutional, it’s unfair. ”U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the Department of Justice “will continue to vigorously defend the SAVE Plan.”“We designed SAVE to cut undergraduate loan payments in half, avoid interest growth for borrowers making zero-dollar or low payments, and allow at-risk borrowers to reach forgiveness faster,” he wrote in a statement. “Under SAVE, nearly 8 million Americans — one out of five borrowers — have breathing room from bills that, too often, compete with basic needs.”Cardona said Republican elected officials are trying to block the plan “even though the department has relied on the authority under the Higher Education Act three times over the last 30 years to implement income-driven repayment plans.”He promised a continued push from the federal government for student-loan forgiveness. The SAVE Plan is the department’s second iteration of forgiveness, of which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/08/president-joe-biden-outlines-new-plans-to-deliver-student-debt-relief-to-over-30-million-americans-under-the-biden-harris-administration/" target="_blank">three have been announced</a>. Bailey and Kobach&nbsp;<a href="https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024-5-16-Student-Loan-NPRM-Interested-States-Comment-Letter.pdf" target="_blank">wrote a letter to Cardona in May</a>&nbsp;with “significant concerns” about the latest plan, which has yet to be implemented.

Federal rulings out of Mo., Kan. put Biden student-loan forgiveness on hold

In preparation for flooding along the Missouri River corridor, Governor Kim Reynolds has issued an emergency disaster declaration for five southwest Iowa counties along the river. 

The Army Corps of Engineers has deployed four surveillance teams to check levies along the Missouri River, but the Corps is predicting minor to moderate flooding along the Missouri below Sioux City. 

The Missouri River in the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro is expected to crest sometime Wednesday night or Thursday morning. The crest as the river exits Iowa near Nebraska City is expected to occur on Thursday night.

In preparation for flooding along the Missouri River corridor, Governor Kim Reynolds has issued an emergency disaster declaration for five southwest Iowa counties along the river. The Army Corps of Engineers has deployed four surveillance teams to check levies along the Missouri River, but the Corps is predicting minor to moderate flooding along the Missouri below Sioux City. The Missouri River in the Omaha/Council Bluffs metro is expected to crest sometime Wednesday night or Thursday morning. The crest as the river exits Iowa near Nebraska City is expected to occur on Thursday night.

Army Corps predicts minor to moderate Missouri River flooding south of Sioux City

Flooding in northwest Iowa is working its way downstream on
the Missouri River.

Officials with the Army Corps of Engineers are keeping an eye
on the Missouri River level, especially in Holt County.

“We have a flood fight team coming out of Glasgow, Missouri
that’ll be traveling to the area to meet with levee districts and address any
issues or concerns they may have up there,” Emergency Management Specialist
Mike Dulin with the Army Corps of Engineers Kansas City office tells those on a
conference call held in wake of the heavy rainfall in northwest Iowa that
spawned widespread flooding.

Dulin says the forecast calls for at least minor flooding
along the Missouri River as a result of the heavy rainfall in Iowa.

“Current forecasts from the National Weather Service, Missouri
Basin River Forecast Center, are projecting moderate flood stage between Rulo,
Nebraska and St. Joe, Missouri as the flood crest moves through between 29 and
30 June,” Minor says. “Minor flooding is forecast to occur downstream of St.
Joe, all the way down to Herman.”

Minor flooding along the Missouri River is expected in Rulo beginning
Tuesday morning, working its way downstream.

Dulin says a flood fight team has been sent to Holt County as
higher Missouri River levels test newly repaired levees.

“Levee rehab efforts following the 2019 and 2021 flood events
have been completed and all levee systems in our district’s PL (public law)
84-99 program have been fully restored to their pre-flood levels of protection,”
according to Dulin.

The Army Corps of Engineers has drastically reduced water
flows from upstream Missouri River dams in wake of the southwest Iowa flooding.

Iowa officials say their preliminary estimate is that at least
1,900 properties in 22 counties have been swamped by floodwaters with hundreds
of homes destroyed.

Radio Iowa contributed to this article.

You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719257741876.jpeg" alt="Gavins Point Dam/file photo" />
 <figcaption>Gavins Point Dam/file photo</figcaption>
 </figure>By BRENT MARTINSt. Joseph PostFlooding in northwest Iowa is working its way downstream on
the Missouri River.Officials with the Army Corps of Engineers are keeping an eye
on the Missouri River level, especially in Holt County.“We have a flood fight team coming out of Glasgow, Missouri
that’ll be traveling to the area to meet with levee districts and address any
issues or concerns they may have up there,” Emergency Management Specialist
Mike Dulin with the Army Corps of Engineers Kansas City office tells those on a
conference call held in wake of the heavy rainfall in northwest Iowa that
spawned widespread flooding.Dulin says the forecast calls for at least minor flooding
along the Missouri River as a result of the heavy rainfall in Iowa.“Current forecasts from the National Weather Service, Missouri
Basin River Forecast Center, are projecting moderate flood stage between Rulo,
Nebraska and St. Joe, Missouri as the flood crest moves through between 29 and
30 June,” Minor says. “Minor flooding is forecast to occur downstream of St.
Joe, all the way down to Herman.”Minor flooding along the Missouri River is expected in Rulo beginning
Tuesday morning, working its way downstream.Dulin says a flood fight team has been sent to Holt County as
higher Missouri River levels test newly repaired levees.“Levee rehab efforts following the 2019 and 2021 flood events
have been completed and all levee systems in our district’s PL (public law)
84-99 program have been fully restored to their pre-flood levels of protection,”
according to Dulin.The Army Corps of Engineers has drastically reduced water
flows from upstream Missouri River dams in wake of the southwest Iowa flooding.Iowa officials say their preliminary estimate is that at least
1,900 properties in 22 counties have been swamped by floodwaters with hundreds
of homes destroyed.Radio Iowa contributed to this article.You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.

Flooding in southwest Iowa working its way downstream on the Missouri River

(Radio Iowa) - The head of Iowa's Emergency Management agency says flooding will not cease and is likely to spread to other areas of the state. Sixteen river gauges in northwest Iowa have already recorded historic flood levels. 

On Sunday night, Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management director John Benson met with local officials about making preparations in the other places where those flood waters are headed. The seven-day forecast for Iowa calls for more rain. 

Last week over 10 inches of rain fell in northwest Iowa and the nearby river basins in Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota that drain into northwest Iowa. That's eight times the average amount.

(Radio Iowa) - The head of Iowa's Emergency Management agency says flooding will not cease and is likely to spread to other areas of the state. Sixteen river gauges in northwest Iowa have already recorded historic flood levels. On Sunday night, Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management director John Benson met with local officials about making preparations in the other places where those flood waters are headed. The seven-day forecast for Iowa calls for more rain. Last week over 10 inches of rain fell in northwest Iowa and the nearby river basins in Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota that drain into northwest Iowa. That's eight times the average amount.

Officials warn flooding will spread to other areas of the state

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion two years ago. Since then, thousands of Missourians sought other ways to access the medical procedure

BY:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/annaspoerre/">ANNA SPOERRE</a><a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/20/state-senator-throws-first-punches-of-2024-missouri-governors-campaign/">Missouri Independent</a>

When Missouri outlawed abortion two years ago, Nicole was far more worried for her grown children than for herself.&nbsp;

It had been two decades since she last gave birth, when she suffered a serious stroke during labor followed by severe postpartum depression. She was outraged that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, but pregnancy was in Nicole’s past.

That changed a couple weeks later, when her IUD failed.&nbsp;

“Are you kidding me?” she recalls thinking, looking around at the life she and her husband had built together in southwest Missouri.

In her 40s and living in a state where virtually every abortion is now banned, Nicole — who asked to only be identified by her middle name for fear of prosecution — was among the first of thousands of Missouri women forced to navigate abortion access in a post-Roe world.&nbsp;

On June 24, 2022, Missouri became the first state in the country to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, striking down Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion. The Republican-run state quickly enacted its trigger law banning all abortions with limited exceptions in cases of medical emergencies.

In the two years since, countless women like Nicole have faced already tough decisions made more excruciating by having to find discreet ways to manage their own health or travel far from home for care.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Missouri already had some of the strictest abortion regulations in the country, pushing most women seeking access to the procedure out of state. But the end of Roe raised the stakes, leaving women in Missouri — which already has some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country — fearful that in the most extreme cases, the ban could mean their death.&nbsp;

Last year, approximately 2,860 Missourians traveled to Kansas last year for abortions, and 8,710 traveled to Illinois,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://guttmacherinstitute.github.io/provision-dashboard/">according to the Guttmacher Institute,</a>&nbsp;a reproductive rights research group that closely tracks abortion data. But they made up only about 10% of the total abortion patients in each state.

After Dobbs, Missourians’ access to care in states like Kansas and Illinois became precarious as abortion bans became more widespread.

“In a matter of months, we started serving patients from Texas and Arkansas and Oklahoma,” Emily Wales, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said of the time immediately following the Dobbs decision. “Missourians had to really compete for too few appointments.”

The longer wait times at clinics and barriers to traveling for abortions has led Missourians to increasingly consider self-managed abortions.

That includes Nicole, who received an envelope at home marked with international postage containing Mifepristone and Misoprostol after consulting an online doctor she found through Plan C, an abortion-pill provider.

Missourians navigate abortion access after Dobbs

For Nicole, the decision to end her most recent pregnancy was simple. To continue felt unsafe, she said, and she and her husband didn’t want to start over raising a child.&nbsp;

But the conversations that followed were kept strictly between the husband and wife.&nbsp;

With pervasive uncertainty around whether or not women could be prosecuted for self-administering medication abortions in Missouri, the stakes are higher than ever for those trying to end unwanted or medically complicated pregnancies.&nbsp;

It’s why Nicole didn’t tell her pastor at church. She didn’t tell friends or family. Nicole didn’t even tell her gynecologist, fearing she would be reported by someone in their corner of the state where anti-abortion messaging proliferates billboards, bumper stickers and handwritten signs staked into yards.

Ultimately, Nicole couldn’t imagine fleeing her state for the procedure. She wanted to be home.&nbsp;

“I felt really angry that I would have to leave my community,” she said. “It’s not a shameful thing, it’s a procedure. It’s a medical health care procedure.”

In the six months after the Dobbs decision, the number of&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/25/more-than-26000-self-managed-abortions-may-have-occurred-post-dobbs-study-shows/">self-managed medication abortions rose&nbsp;</a>by more than 26,000 across the U.S. according to a<a target="_blank" href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2024.4266?utm_campaign=articlePDF%26utm_medium=articlePDFlink%26utm_source=articlePDF%26utm_content=jama.2024.4266">&nbsp;study</a>&nbsp;published in JAMA, the American Medical Association’s journal.

While medication abortions are overall very safe, effective and approved by the FDA to end pregnancies up to 10 weeks, there is some risk associated with any medication. Self-managing an abortion alone, without a local medical provider’s guidance,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/abortion-pill-experience-stories/?itid=ap_carolinekitchener">can be nerve-wracking.</a>

In the unlikely situation that Nicole started hemorrhaging, she and her husband mapped out the closest Kansas hospital that would have the level of care they needed.&nbsp;

When the time came, they both took a day off work and snuggled on the couch. Nicole pressed a heating pad to her abdomen to soothe the cramps, which she described as similar to period pains. Then came the relief.

After the abortion, her husband got a vasectomy. She kept the IUD. Despite their precautions, sex is now accompanied by paranoia as Nicole counts down the days to her period each month.&nbsp;

She ordered extra abortion medication in case anyone she knows might need it. And despite the nearly two years since her abortion, Nicole said she still can’t shake the absurdity she felt hunkering down in her home that day.

“I make decisions for myself every day, and I make good decisions,” she said. “The audacity that people think I can’t make the best healthcare decisions for myself — it’s hard for me to put into words how upsetting it is.”

Stories of women desperate to end their pregnancies proliferate the internet.&nbsp;

<a target="_blank" href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/online-abortion-resource-squad-advice-disinformation.html">Reddit is increasingly a gathering place&nbsp;</a>for those seeking answers and assurance. Many of the posts — all anonymous — illustrate how terrified many Missourians are.&nbsp;

In one post from mid-June, a 23-year-old woman from Missouri feared she was pregnant by her abusive boyfriend but didn’t have the money to travel for an abortion.

“I will drink an entire bottle of vodka if I have to idc,” she wrote. Other anonymous users quickly took to the page to offer other solutions.

In a 2023 post, someone inquired about getting an abortion for their pregnant 15-year-old sister in Missouri without parental consent.&nbsp;

“This experience is causing her to have suicidal thoughts, crippling anxiety, and extreme depression,” the user wrote. “All of which she already had before this. I need help. I am desperate. I do not want to lose my baby sister.”

Even for those who work in abortion-rights advocacy, navigating an abortion post-Roe is anxiety-inducing.

Maggie Olivia first got pregnant while living in St. Louis in 2020. She was on birth control at the time.&nbsp;

Because of Missouri’s “targeted regulation of abortion providers” laws, including mandatory pelvic exams for medication abortions and 72-hour waiting period between the initial appointment and a surgical abortion, she was encouraged to go to a Planned Parenthood in Illinois.

It was clinic escorts with Abortion Action Missouri who guided Olivia into her appointment just across the Mississippi River and reassured her ahead of the procedure. She was so moved by their kindness that Olivia went on to volunteer with the group, and now serves as a senior policy manager with the abortion-rights group.

In the months after the Dobbs decision, Olivia, like many in abortion advocacy work, was navigating the ever-changing landscape of abortion access. At the same time, Olivia said she was mistakenly denied her birth control prescription by a pharmacist after switching contraceptive methods.&nbsp;

When a pregnancy test came back positive several weeks later, Olivia’s first call was to her boss, who she said offered immediate support and guidance.&nbsp;

“But even that close proximity to the reality of the crisis doesn’t make being pregnant when you don’t want to be any less horrifying,” she said.&nbsp;

Unlike with her first pregnancy, Olivia decided not to tell her health care providers in Missouri.&nbsp;&nbsp;

But after ending up in the emergency room for unrelated reasons, her pregnancy was noted in her records. Months later, Olivia said she was denied access to an unrelated medication because her medical records said she was pregnant, compounding the fear she already had of being punished in some way for having an abortion, however legal, in Illinois.

“It was very upsetting,” Olivia said. “And I had thought that I had taken steps to be precautious.”

When she had her second abortion at the same Illinois clinic from two years prior, she also had an IUD placed.

“Your access to abortion doesn’t need to be attached to some traumatic, horrifying situation in of itself,” Olivia said. “Being pregnant when you don’t want to be is scary enough, is horrifying enough.”

When a sonographer approaches Dr. Jennifer Smith, a St. Louis OB-GYN, her heart drops.

“Every time I look at a fetal ultrasound, it takes on new intensity and new anxiety,” she said, concerned that her patient will have a diagnosis they can’t be of help with in Missouri.&nbsp;

Missouri physicians are balancing medically complex pregnant patients with&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/04/missouri-ob-gyn-residents-maternal-health-abortion/">legal restrictions that could land them in prison</a>&nbsp;for up to 15 years if they perform an abortion the state finds was unnecessary, and, therefore, illegal.&nbsp;

No providers have been prosecuted at this point, but the ways something could go wrong keep Smith up at night. So, too, does the future of not only maternal health care, but also motherhood in Missouri.

“Missouri women are afraid to be pregnant in Missouri,” Smith said. “They are so worried that they might die while pregnant, or that they may get pregnant with a baby with anomalies and have no options because they live in Missouri.”

While Smith is often helping women who want to be pregnant, a couple miles across the river in Illinois sits the regional logistics center for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. There, three patient navigators help those trying to end their pregnancies.&nbsp;

Kenicia Page, the call center manager, said she saw a tremendous increase in callers from the West Palm Beach area, more than 1,100 miles south, when&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/04/30/florida-is-one-day-away-of-becoming-the-latest-state-to-enact-a-rigid-six-week-abortion-ban/">Florida’s ban went into place on May 1</a>.

Right now, she says the clinic receives about 100 calls a day.&nbsp;&nbsp;

They act as pseudo travel planners and financial aid counselors, helping book transportation and finding funding for patients.&nbsp;

Despite the comparative proximity, transportation can still be a headache for some Missourians, particularly those in rural parts of the state without access to public transportation like Greyhound buses or Amtrak, Page said. Sometimes, when the patient doesn’t have a vehicle, nor access to public transportation or car rental services, their next best option is to rent a U-Haul to drive to their appointment.

But more often, Page said, she hears from Missourians trying to find and afford child care, or from minors who need a legal guardian to give consent for financial assistance. Some days Page still finds herself breaking the news to Missouri callers that abortion is illegal within their state borders, and that they will likely have to take a multi-day trip to Illinois to get care.

Page recently spoke with a woman who was homeless and living in a hotel with her children. She had no child-care options, nor a place to stay after the procedure. Page’s team helped connect the woman to funders who assisted with the day care fees and made sure she had a safe place to recover overnight in Illinois.&nbsp;

Their work is done when they get the final call or text from a patient saying they’ve returned home safely.&nbsp;

“It gives you that extra energy or extra push, determination, to continue to do what you do,” Page said. “Because it is definitely making a difference.”

Alison Dreith’s hotline through Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion fund based in Illinois, used to serve a majority of Missouri clients. As of mid-June, only 26 of the total 1,052 callers this year were from Missouri. Now most of her calls come from Texas, Indiana and Tennessee as patients from red states crowd clinics in Illinois and Kansas.&nbsp;

“Every time a new state goes,” Dreith said, “it has the ripple effect that reaches the Midwest.”

The need for child care is a refrain for patients, particularly lower-income Missourians,traveling to Kansas overnight for the procedure, said Wales, with Planned Parenthood Great Plains.

The short drive from Kansas City to Wyandotte or Johnson counties in Kansas has expanded from a fissure to a canyon for some patients. Those requesting medication abortions are usually seen within a week, but patients needing in-clinic abortions can wait two or three weeks to be seen, Wales said.

“We have to explain that we may be close to you, but we are seeing patients from around the region,” she said. “It doesn’t make it easier, necessarily, to get an appointment.”

Wales said many patients are also coming to them later in gestational age, and increasingly with fetal abnormalities. This is a theme across the country,&nbsp;as patients work to find an appointment, save up money and arrange time off work.

Because of the increase in demand, Planned Parenthood Great Plains will soon start seeing patients for abortions in Pittsburg, making it the fourth Kansas clinic to offer the procedure. She hopes that will cut down on drive times for Missourians in regions including Joplin and Springfield.

Julie&nbsp;Burkhart, co-owner of Hope Clinic, an abortion provider in Granite City, Illinois, has seen the number of Missourians served at her clinic more than triple since 2019. But even so, the percentage of total patients from Missouri has gone from more than 60% to less than half as patients from 28 states made their way to her clinic near the Mississippi River last year.

Wait times hover between one and two weeks.&nbsp;In May, the clinic saw 732 abortion patients; 45 were from Missouri.&nbsp;

Funding needs have skyrocketed since Roe fell, and she’s seen the number of Missouri patients seeking abortions in their second trimester increase to 17% this year. Before Roe, it was closer to 8% for all patients.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719238087294.png" alt="The message “You are not alone, support is here” is painted on the window of the Planned Parenthood Great Plains on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption>The message “You are not alone, support is here” is painted on the window of the Planned Parenthood Great Plains on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion two years ago. Since then, thousands of Missourians sought other ways to access the medical procedure</h2>BY:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/annaspoerre/">ANNA SPOERRE</a><a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/20/state-senator-throws-first-punches-of-2024-missouri-governors-campaign/">Missouri Independent</a>When Missouri outlawed abortion two years ago, Nicole was far more worried for her grown children than for herself.&nbsp;It had been two decades since she last gave birth, when she suffered a serious stroke during labor followed by severe postpartum depression. She was outraged that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, but pregnancy was in Nicole’s past.That changed a couple weeks later, when her IUD failed.&nbsp;“Are you kidding me?” she recalls thinking, looking around at the life she and her husband had built together in southwest Missouri.In her 40s and living in a state where virtually every abortion is now banned, Nicole — who asked to only be identified by her middle name for fear of prosecution — was among the first of thousands of Missouri women forced to navigate abortion access in a post-Roe world.&nbsp;On June 24, 2022, Missouri became the first state in the country to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, striking down Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion. The Republican-run state quickly enacted its trigger law banning all abortions with limited exceptions in cases of medical emergencies.In the two years since, countless women like Nicole have faced already tough decisions made more excruciating by having to find discreet ways to manage their own health or travel far from home for care.&nbsp;&nbsp;Missouri already had some of the strictest abortion regulations in the country, pushing most women seeking access to the procedure out of state. But the end of Roe raised the stakes, leaving women in Missouri — which already has some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country — fearful that in the most extreme cases, the ban could mean their death.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719238134991.png" alt=" A recovery room at the Planned Parenthood Great Plains office is pictured on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption> A recovery room at the Planned Parenthood Great Plains office is pictured on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>Last year, approximately 2,860 Missourians traveled to Kansas last year for abortions, and 8,710 traveled to Illinois,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://guttmacherinstitute.github.io/provision-dashboard/">according to the Guttmacher Institute,</a>&nbsp;a reproductive rights research group that closely tracks abortion data. But they made up only about 10% of the total abortion patients in each state.After Dobbs, Missourians’ access to care in states like Kansas and Illinois became precarious as abortion bans became more widespread.“In a matter of months, we started serving patients from Texas and Arkansas and Oklahoma,” Emily Wales, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said of the time immediately following the Dobbs decision. “Missourians had to really compete for too few appointments.”The longer wait times at clinics and barriers to traveling for abortions has led Missourians to increasingly consider self-managed abortions.That includes Nicole, who received an envelope at home marked with international postage containing Mifepristone and Misoprostol after consulting an online doctor she found through Plan C, an abortion-pill provider.<h2>Missourians navigate abortion access after Dobbs</h2>For Nicole, the decision to end her most recent pregnancy was simple. To continue felt unsafe, she said, and she and her husband didn’t want to start over raising a child.&nbsp;But the conversations that followed were kept strictly between the husband and wife.&nbsp;With pervasive uncertainty around whether or not women could be prosecuted for self-administering medication abortions in Missouri, the stakes are higher than ever for those trying to end unwanted or medically complicated pregnancies.&nbsp;It’s why Nicole didn’t tell her pastor at church. She didn’t tell friends or family. Nicole didn’t even tell her gynecologist, fearing she would be reported by someone in their corner of the state where anti-abortion messaging proliferates billboards, bumper stickers and handwritten signs staked into yards.Ultimately, Nicole couldn’t imagine fleeing her state for the procedure. She wanted to be home.&nbsp;“I felt really angry that I would have to leave my community,” she said. “It’s not a shameful thing, it’s a procedure. It’s a medical health care procedure.”In the six months after the Dobbs decision, the number of&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/25/more-than-26000-self-managed-abortions-may-have-occurred-post-dobbs-study-shows/">self-managed medication abortions rose&nbsp;</a>by more than 26,000 across the U.S. according to a<a target="_blank" href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2024.4266?utm_campaign=articlePDF%26utm_medium=articlePDFlink%26utm_source=articlePDF%26utm_content=jama.2024.4266">&nbsp;study</a>&nbsp;published in JAMA, the American Medical Association’s journal.While medication abortions are overall very safe, effective and approved by the FDA to end pregnancies up to 10 weeks, there is some risk associated with any medication. Self-managing an abortion alone, without a local medical provider’s guidance,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/abortion-pill-experience-stories/?itid=ap_carolinekitchener">can be nerve-wracking.</a>In the unlikely situation that Nicole started hemorrhaging, she and her husband mapped out the closest Kansas hospital that would have the level of care they needed.&nbsp;When the time came, they both took a day off work and snuggled on the couch. Nicole pressed a heating pad to her abdomen to soothe the cramps, which she described as similar to period pains. Then came the relief.After the abortion, her husband got a vasectomy. She kept the IUD. Despite their precautions, sex is now accompanied by paranoia as Nicole counts down the days to her period each month.&nbsp;She ordered extra abortion medication in case anyone she knows might need it. And despite the nearly two years since her abortion, Nicole said she still can’t shake the absurdity she felt hunkering down in her home that day.“I make decisions for myself every day, and I make good decisions,” she said. “The audacity that people think I can’t make the best healthcare decisions for myself — it’s hard for me to put into words how upsetting it is.”<h2>‘I am desperate’</h2>Stories of women desperate to end their pregnancies proliferate the internet.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/online-abortion-resource-squad-advice-disinformation.html">Reddit is increasingly a gathering place&nbsp;</a>for those seeking answers and assurance. Many of the posts — all anonymous — illustrate how terrified many Missourians are.&nbsp;In one post from mid-June, a 23-year-old woman from Missouri feared she was pregnant by her abusive boyfriend but didn’t have the money to travel for an abortion.“I will drink an entire bottle of vodka if I have to idc,” she wrote. Other anonymous users quickly took to the page to offer other solutions.In a 2023 post, someone inquired about getting an abortion for their pregnant 15-year-old sister in Missouri without parental consent.&nbsp;“This experience is causing her to have suicidal thoughts, crippling anxiety, and extreme depression,” the user wrote. “All of which she already had before this. I need help. I am desperate. I do not want to lose my baby sister.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719238191374.png" alt=" Instructions on what to expect during a visit to Planned Parenthood Great Plains sits on a desk in the waiting room on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption> Instructions on what to expect during a visit to Planned Parenthood Great Plains sits on a desk in the waiting room on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>Even for those who work in abortion-rights advocacy, navigating an abortion post-Roe is anxiety-inducing.Maggie Olivia first got pregnant while living in St. Louis in 2020. She was on birth control at the time.&nbsp;Because of Missouri’s “targeted regulation of abortion providers” laws, including mandatory pelvic exams for medication abortions and 72-hour waiting period between the initial appointment and a surgical abortion, she was encouraged to go to a Planned Parenthood in Illinois.It was clinic escorts with Abortion Action Missouri who guided Olivia into her appointment just across the Mississippi River and reassured her ahead of the procedure. She was so moved by their kindness that Olivia went on to volunteer with the group, and now serves as a senior policy manager with the abortion-rights group.In the months after the Dobbs decision, Olivia, like many in abortion advocacy work, was navigating the ever-changing landscape of abortion access. At the same time, Olivia said she was mistakenly denied her birth control prescription by a pharmacist after switching contraceptive methods.&nbsp;When a pregnancy test came back positive several weeks later, Olivia’s first call was to her boss, who she said offered immediate support and guidance.&nbsp;“But even that close proximity to the reality of the crisis doesn’t make being pregnant when you don’t want to be any less horrifying,” she said.&nbsp;Unlike with her first pregnancy, Olivia decided not to tell her health care providers in Missouri.&nbsp;&nbsp;But after ending up in the emergency room for unrelated reasons, her pregnancy was noted in her records. Months later, Olivia said she was denied access to an unrelated medication because her medical records said she was pregnant, compounding the fear she already had of being punished in some way for having an abortion, however legal, in Illinois.“It was very upsetting,” Olivia said. “And I had thought that I had taken steps to be precautious.”When she had her second abortion at the same Illinois clinic from two years prior, she also had an IUD placed.“Your access to abortion doesn’t need to be attached to some traumatic, horrifying situation in of itself,” Olivia said. “Being pregnant when you don’t want to be is scary enough, is horrifying enough.”<h2>Higher stakes for providers</h2>When a sonographer approaches Dr. Jennifer Smith, a St. Louis OB-GYN, her heart drops.“Every time I look at a fetal ultrasound, it takes on new intensity and new anxiety,” she said, concerned that her patient will have a diagnosis they can’t be of help with in Missouri.&nbsp;Missouri physicians are balancing medically complex pregnant patients with&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/04/missouri-ob-gyn-residents-maternal-health-abortion/">legal restrictions that could land them in prison</a>&nbsp;for up to 15 years if they perform an abortion the state finds was unnecessary, and, therefore, illegal.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719238245511.png" alt=" Ra’Maia Dillard, an ultrasound technician at Planned Parenthood Great Plains prepares to see a docket of 29 patients on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption> Ra’Maia Dillard, an ultrasound technician at Planned Parenthood Great Plains prepares to see a docket of 29 patients on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>No providers have been prosecuted at this point, but the ways something could go wrong keep Smith up at night. So, too, does the future of not only maternal health care, but also motherhood in Missouri.“Missouri women are afraid to be pregnant in Missouri,” Smith said. “They are so worried that they might die while pregnant, or that they may get pregnant with a baby with anomalies and have no options because they live in Missouri.”While Smith is often helping women who want to be pregnant, a couple miles across the river in Illinois sits the regional logistics center for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. There, three patient navigators help those trying to end their pregnancies.&nbsp;Kenicia Page, the call center manager, said she saw a tremendous increase in callers from the West Palm Beach area, more than 1,100 miles south, when&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/04/30/florida-is-one-day-away-of-becoming-the-latest-state-to-enact-a-rigid-six-week-abortion-ban/">Florida’s ban went into place on May 1</a>.Right now, she says the clinic receives about 100 calls a day.&nbsp;&nbsp;They act as pseudo travel planners and financial aid counselors, helping book transportation and finding funding for patients.&nbsp;Despite the comparative proximity, transportation can still be a headache for some Missourians, particularly those in rural parts of the state without access to public transportation like Greyhound buses or Amtrak, Page said. Sometimes, when the patient doesn’t have a vehicle, nor access to public transportation or car rental services, their next best option is to rent a U-Haul to drive to their appointment.But more often, Page said, she hears from Missourians trying to find and afford child care, or from minors who need a legal guardian to give consent for financial assistance. Some days Page still finds herself breaking the news to Missouri callers that abortion is illegal within their state borders, and that they will likely have to take a multi-day trip to Illinois to get care.Page recently spoke with a woman who was homeless and living in a hotel with her children. She had no child-care options, nor a place to stay after the procedure. Page’s team helped connect the woman to funders who assisted with the day care fees and made sure she had a safe place to recover overnight in Illinois.&nbsp;Their work is done when they get the final call or text from a patient saying they’ve returned home safely.&nbsp;“It gives you that extra energy or extra push, determination, to continue to do what you do,” Page said. “Because it is definitely making a difference.”Alison Dreith’s hotline through Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion fund based in Illinois, used to serve a majority of Missouri clients. As of mid-June, only 26 of the total 1,052 callers this year were from Missouri. Now most of her calls come from Texas, Indiana and Tennessee as patients from red states crowd clinics in Illinois and Kansas.&nbsp;“Every time a new state goes,” Dreith said, “it has the ripple effect that reaches the Midwest.”The need for child care is a refrain for patients, particularly lower-income Missourians,traveling to Kansas overnight for the procedure, said Wales, with Planned Parenthood Great Plains.The short drive from Kansas City to Wyandotte or Johnson counties in Kansas has expanded from a fissure to a canyon for some patients. Those requesting medication abortions are usually seen within a week, but patients needing in-clinic abortions can wait two or three weeks to be seen, Wales said.“We have to explain that we may be close to you, but we are seeing patients from around the region,” she said. “It doesn’t make it easier, necessarily, to get an appointment.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719238288919.png" alt=" Denise Baker, a reproductive health assistant at Planned Parenthood Great Plains prepares patient paperwork behind the clinic’s front desk on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas(Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption> Denise Baker, a reproductive health assistant at Planned Parenthood Great Plains prepares patient paperwork behind the clinic’s front desk on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas(Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>Wales said many patients are also coming to them later in gestational age, and increasingly with fetal abnormalities. This is a theme across the country,&nbsp;as patients work to find an appointment, save up money and arrange time off work.Because of the increase in demand, Planned Parenthood Great Plains will soon start seeing patients for abortions in Pittsburg, making it the fourth Kansas clinic to offer the procedure. She hopes that will cut down on drive times for Missourians in regions including Joplin and Springfield.Julie&nbsp;Burkhart, co-owner of Hope Clinic, an abortion provider in Granite City, Illinois, has seen the number of Missourians served at her clinic more than triple since 2019. But even so, the percentage of total patients from Missouri has gone from more than 60% to less than half as patients from 28 states made their way to her clinic near the Mississippi River last year.Wait times hover between one and two weeks.&nbsp;In May, the clinic saw 732 abortion patients; 45 were from Missouri.&nbsp;Funding needs have skyrocketed since Roe fell, and she’s seen the number of Missouri patients seeking abortions in their second trimester increase to 17% this year. Before Roe, it was closer to 8% for all patients.

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