Golden City man arrested after 40-mile pursuit

 

(From Dade County Sheriff Ryan Robison)

On the evening of August 5, 2026, a Dade County Sheriff's deputy attempted to stop a motorcycle operated by Cody G. Roller, 33, of Golden City, who was wanted on an active Dade County felony capias warrant for Failure to Appear on Second-Degree Burglary charges. Despite some reports circulating on social media, the vehicle involved was a motorcycle, not a moped.

Rather than stop, Roller fled from deputies, leading law enforcement on a pursuit of approximately 40 miles through Dade County before entering Greene County. During the pursuit, he repeatedly crossed into oncoming traffic, ran a stop sign, and committed numerous traffic violations while refusing to stop for law enforcement, creating a substantial risk to the public and responding officers.

After the pursuit entered Greene County, deputies with the Greene County Sheriff's Office assumed the lead. Roller later abandoned the motorcycle near Republic and fled on foot into a wooded area. Following an extensive search utilizing a K-9 unit, he was taken into custody without further incident.

Roller is currently being held in the Greene County Jail on Greene County charges of Resisting Arrest/Detention/Stop by Fleeing Creating a Substantial Risk of Serious Physical Injury or Death and Assault on a Law Enforcement Animal, in addition to a Dade County hold for the active felony capias warrant.

In addition to the active felony warrant, Roller is also a person of interest in multiple recent felony investigations spanning several jurisdictions. Those investigations remain active and ongoing, and no additional information regarding those cases will be released at this time.

I want to thank the Greene County Sheriff's Office, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and all assisting agencies for their professionalism, teamwork, and coordination throughout this incident. Their efforts resulted in the safe apprehension of the suspect while helping minimize the risk to the public.
All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Probable cause: Stotts City man charged with child molestation, multiple felonies

A 9:30 a.m. August 10 arraignment is scheduled in Lawrence County Circuit Court for a Stotts City man charged with sexual exploitation of a child, child abuse, promoting child pornography, possession of child pornography and tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution.

Tanner Donald Park (DOB 1995) is being held without bond.

According to the probable cause statement, the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office received a report of a man lying the road north of the intersection of Center Street and Water Street in Stotts City. The reporting party told a deputy the man said he was hearing voices.

Park told deputies he had performed oral sex on a girl under age 14 in 2022 and that he is a member of 764.

764 is in reference to an online network involving targeting, grooming, and extortion of vulnerable children and minors.

764 also has ties to self-harm, animal abuse and producing explicit material such as child sexual assault material, also known as child pornography.

Park told me took pictures of Confidential Victim 1 (CV1) and posted them to a Discord channel page linked to 764. Park told me he showed CV1 his penis and "raped her on a metaphysical level.:

Park told me he killed Confidential Victim 2's dog for Satan. {He} told me he killed the dog because he enjoyed it.

Park also admitted to molesting another child in Utah, watching child pornography and to performing oral sex on his dogs, according to the probable cause statement and told deputies he did it because "I am turned on and I have a serious mental problem."

Agenda posted for Joplin City Council special meeting

                                 

JOPLIN CITY COUNCIL   SPECIAL MEETING

August 10, 2026
5:45 P.M., Council Chambers




AGENDA 

1.

Call To Order 

2.

Reading Of Special Called 

3.

Roll Call

4.

New Business

1.

Fiscal Year 2027 Proposed Budget Presentation 

Documents:

1. AUGUST 10 BUDGET WORK SESSION PRESENTATION.PDF
2. CITY MANAGERS PROPOSED BUDGET MESSAGE FY27 FINAL.PDF

2.

Transit Routing Alignment Project 

Documents:

1. TRANSIT PRESENTATION 8-10.PDF

3.

Set Public Hearing For FY 2027 Proposed Budget On August 24, 2026

4.

Set Public Hearing For Property Tax Levy On August 24, 2026

5.

Vote To Go Into Closed Session, Which Shall Pertain To The Hiring, Firing, Disciplining, Or Promotion Of An Employee Or Particular Employees Of A Governmental Body Involving Personal Information As Set Forth In Section 610.021(3) RSMo, As Amended, 2020, More Specifically For The Purpose Of Evaluating Certain Council Employees. This Meeting, Record, And Vote To Be Closed To The Extent Provided By Law. The City Council Shall Adjourn At The End Of The Session.

City of Joplin renews trash hauling contract with Republic Services

(From the City of Joplin)

Joplin residents will experience some changes to curbside solid waste collection beginning this fall after the City of Joplin renewed its contract with Republic Services earlier this week.

The contract, which takes effect Oct. 1, includes some new pieces, including an option for routine tree limb and foliage pickup and changes to the bulky items pickup process.

New biweekly yard waste pickup option. Residents must have their grass clippings, leaves, and/or tree limbs bundled in biodegradable paper bag containers/wrapping(such as kraft paper) and are limited to 10 bundles per pickup. The cost for this new biweekly pickup is $3 and will automatically be included in the cost of every resident’s trash bill. 

While this cost is automatically included, residents must contact Republic Services to add their address to the pickup schedule. This change is required to minimize the amount of biodegradable materials taken to landfills which should only be receiving non-recyclable and non-biodegradable waste. You will be notified of your yard waste collection day at the time you sign up with Republic Services. 

Please note, this may be a different day of the week than your trash and recycling services.With this new addition of biweekly yard and brush pickup, the City encourages residents to avoid placing grass clippings, leaves, weeds, or tree limbs in their trash receptacles.

All solid waste (trash) must be placed inside the Republic Services-provided trash receptacle. The solid waste pickup frequency for Joplin residents will remain the same –the contents of trash carts will be collected once a week. All households receive one trash cart at no charge, and a second cart can be added for $5.50/month. The new monthly rate for solid waste pickup is $17.42/month.

The bulky items pickup process is changing. Starting Oct. 1, residents must call Republic Services to schedule the pickup of bulky items such as mattresses and other items that do not fit in a trash receptacle. Residents are limited to four cubic yards of bulky items per pickup, and each home is limited to four pickups per year. The cost of bulky items pickup is included in the price of solid waste (trash) pickup – there is no extra fee, but residents must contact Republic Services to schedule these pickups.

Curbside Recycling continues to be available as an optional add-on. Homeowners can sign up with Republic Services to have a recycling cart delivered to their home which will be picked up biweekly. The new monthly rate for recycling pickup is $5.26. Visit JoplinRecycles.com to learn more.

Administrative fees for the City of Joplin will remain the same, at 55 cents per billing cycle. This fee covers the cost of billing and collecting for trash service.

To get on the schedule for new yard waste pickup, to opt into recycling pickup, to schedule a bulky items pickup, or to learn more about any of their services, visit the Republic Services website at https://www.republicservices.com/municipality/joplin-mo.

What To Expect On Your October Bill:

To summarize, the new base bill for each resident will be $17.42/month and includes:Trash (weekly)
Yard waste and brush (biweekly – must sign up to begin receiving this service)
Bulky items pickup (4x per year – must call to schedule your bulky item pickups)
City Administrative Fee

Those opting in for the recycling pickup (biweekly) will pay a total bill of $22.68/month.

Those opting in for one additional trash cart but no recycling will pay a total bill of $22.92/month.

Why Is The Cost of Solid Waste Services Going Up?

After an open bid process and thorough review of three competitive bids submitted by qualified solid waste disposal companies, Republic Services was found to be the lowest and best bidder. Council considered making recycling mandatory for all residents but opted to keep it as an optional add-on to minimize the rate increase.

Reminders About Other Solid Waste Services Provided by the City of Joplin

Residents with larger or more frequent tree limb drop-off needs can still use the free Tree Limb Dropoff site at 1701 N. Schifferdecker on designated weekends. Learn more:https://www.joplinmo.org/1238/Residential-Limb-and-Brush-Drop-off-Prog 

Those needing to dispose of more grass clippings or leaves can use the City’s Compost Facility located at the Turkey Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant at 3457 West Eddy Lane. Learn more:https://www.joplinmo.org/1237/Residential-Leaf-Drop-Off-Program

Those wishing to recycle at no cost may haul recyclables and household hazardous waste to our FREE Recycling Center at 1310 W. A Street. Dropoff of most items at these facilities is free of charge. There is a $10 fee for TVs or computer monitors dropped off at the RecyclingCenter. This fee can be paid by check or money order, or it can be paid in advance at the finance department on the third floor of City Hall, 602 S. Main St.Learn more:https://www.joplinmo.org/293/Recycling-Solid-Waste-Management

What Tuesday's primary results say about Amendment 5 and the next Missouri Senate

By Jason Hancock 

Missouri Independent 

Missourians went to the polls Tuesday, and the results resist a single storyline. Here’s what’s worth noticing.

Amendment 5 is the clearest verdict of the night. It lost 83-16. Not close, not regional — a rout. The governor’s top priority, backed by $17.2 million from donors who never had to identify themselves and it couldn’t even clear 20%.

Watch what that did downballot. State Rep. Greg Sharpe voted against it every time it came up, drew more than $91,000 in attack spending for it, and won going away. In the 6th District, the two candidates who ran hardest against it — Rudy Veit and Ike Skelton — together drew 47.3% of the vote, nearly twice the winner’s share. Jake Vogel won that race with 26.6% while offering the least enthusiastic endorsement in Missouri politics: “It is a plan.”

The theory in June was that Amendment 5 would be a loyalty test with consequences. It turned out to be a liability most Republicans had already sensed and run from. Gov. Mike Kehoe says the work isn’t over. The arithmetic suggests otherwise, at least in this form.

The anti-establishment wave didn’t arrive. Dusty Blue lost in northeast Missouri, finishing 18 points behind Sharpe. Dan Stacy lost by 25 in Lee’s Summit to House Speaker Jon Patterson, who helped shepherd Amendment 5 through the legislature. Tricia Byrnes, who built her campaign on data centers in a district where Amazon and Google are actually building them, lost by 12.

Running against Jefferson City was not, by itself, enough. Several candidates spent the summer promising to go to the Capitol and blow things up, and voters mostly declined the offer.

Except in the 20th District.

Lori Rook did exactly that — ran against Jefferson City, its lobbyists and its power structure — and knocked off state Sen. Curtis Trent.

That one matters beyond southwest Missouri. Trent wasn’t just an incumbent. He was running to become Senate majority floor leader, the person who controls what legislation reaches the floor. He had the backing of much of the Republican establishment and an allied PAC that spent $838,000, more than $500,000 of it attacking Rook.

She won anyway.

Which brings us to money.

A national school-choice group spent nearly $90,000 trying to defeat state Sen. Jill Carter, almost $150,000 opposing Bill Hardwick and $36,000 against Rook. It went 0-for-3.

But Patterson’s roughly $2.9 million war chest certainly didn’t hurt him against Stacy, who had $43,000. And Hardwick won after an Illinois gambling company seeking to legalize video lottery terminals poured $422,000 into a PAC attacking Hannah Kelly while giving another $95,000 to a PAC aligned with him.

So Tuesday wasn’t a rejection of money any more than it was a rejection of the establishment.

Maybe the better way to understand the results is that Republican voters were selective about what they were angry about — and whom they blamed.

They overwhelmingly rejected the tax plan Jefferson City handed them. They punished Trent, who had accumulated power in the Capitol, but rewarded Patterson, who had accumulated far more. They chose Sharpe over the candidate endorsed by the outgoing Senate president. But they rejected insurgents elsewhere who made essentially the same argument about a broken political system.

Tuesday didn’t produce a revolution.

It produced something potentially more interesting: a Republican Senate with no obvious mandate about what voters want it to become.

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.

Applicants sought for vacant Carthage City Council seat

(From the City of Carthage)

The City of Carthage extends its appreciation to Ward 2 Council Member Ray West for his service to our community and wishes him all the best following his resignation, effective August 1, after moving out of Ward 2.

The City is now seeking qualified candidates to fill the vacant Ward 2 Council seat for the remainder of the term, which expires in April 2027.

Residents interested in serving their community and representing Ward 2 are encouraged to apply. For more information, please contact Mayor Bren Flanigan at b.flanigan@carthagemo.gov, Miranda Deal at m.deal@carthagemo.gov, or call 417-237-7003.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Must be a registered voter residing in Ward 2
• Must be at least 21 years of age
• Must have no felony convictions
• Must have no unpaid city or county taxes, fees, or balances, including accounts with Carthage Water & Electric and the Carthage Public Library

Carthage R-9 names Tiger Alumni Award recipients

(From the Carthage R-9 School District)

Congratulations to Our 2026 Distinguished Tiger Alumni Award Recipients! 

Carthage School District is proud to recognize the outstanding graduates selected as our 2026 Distinguished Tiger Alumni Award recipients:

 Jill Hanus – Class of 1973
 Dr. Allison Hayman – Class of 2003
 Dr. Joshua Mason – Class of 2009

Established in honor of Ms. Caroline Tubbs, the Distinguished Tiger Alumni Award celebrates Carthage High School graduates whose achievements, leadership, and service have made a meaningful impact in their professions, communities, and beyond. 

These recipients represent the very best of what it means to be a Tiger—using their talents to inspire others, solve real-world challenges, and make a difference.

From engineering and aerospace research to medicine and cancer care, this year's honorees are changing lives around the world while serving as incredible examples for today's students.

Joplin man indicted on meth trafficking, weapons charges

A grand jury indictment of a Joplin man on charges of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, possessing a firearm in the furtherance of drug trafficking and felon in possession of a firearm was unsealed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Springfield.

The indictment was for events that allegedly occurred March 5.

 

Joplin, Duenweg, Anderson men indicted on weapons charges

Grand jury indictments of three southwest Missouri men on weapons charges were unsealed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. All  three men were charged for being felons possessing a firearm.

Those indicted were Bryan Eugene West, 58, Anderson, Andrew Keith Dobson, 33, Duenweg, and Jeffrey Ray Dean Ford, 33, Joplin.

Federal grand jury indicts Joplin sex offender

A federal grand jury indictment of a Joplin man on sex charges was unsealed today in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

According to the indictment, Larry Don Hilburn, 39, received pornographic material involving the sexual abuse of children and failed to follow sex oflender reporting requirements.

Hilburn, a former Neosho resident, was previously convicted of sending and receiving child pornography.