News

UPDATE 9/8: According to the Columbia Fire Department, the cause of the fire was an electrical malfunction in the exterior of the residence, originally from an electrical outlet. The damage from the fire is estimated to be at $2000. ORIGINAL STORY: Fire crews are investigating the cause of an early morning house fire in Columbia.

UPDATE 9/8: Traffic has been cleared. ORIGINAL STORY: The Missouri State Highway Patrol says a jack-knifed semi is blocking traffic on I-70 westbound right now. The crash happened just after 8:00am near the 137 mile marker. The patrol says traffic is backed up to the 140 mile marker, but says traffic is moving around the

A man has been arrested and is being held on a $100,000 bond for allegedly kidnapping his girlfriend, forcing her to drive him to buy drugs and beating her up in the car. Domestic violence experts like Mary Cunningham, who works for Rape and Abuse Crisis Service, said the high bond amount is something she

Health officials say the recent E.coli outbreak in Boone County could be from the same DNA strain. Four E.coli cases have been confirmed in Boone County. Officials say they are currently investigating where the source is coming from thru lab samples, and that it could take weeks till results are finalized. Doctors say typically a

The Cole County sheriff’s office phone line is down Thursday morning. The outage doesn’t affect the 911 line, and crews are working to correct the issue now. Calls are being directed to the jail, from which they will be transferred. The number for the jail is 573-635-7070. The cause of the outage is still unknown.

UPDATE 8:24am: All lanes are now reopened on I-70 westbound after a wreck. Our ABC 17 News crew sent a picture of a MoDOT sign that was damaged in the crash. Our crews are working to find out how many people were involved in the crash and if anyone was hurt. ORIGINAL: Reports indicate there

Friday morning will bring the threat for heavy rainfall closer to I-44. Rain looks to exit through 8AM tomorrow morning leaving some dry time before the final round of storms moves through before the weekend. An approaching cold front could bring a few storms in the evening on Friday with damaging winds gusting to 60

Nearly a dozen secondhand store owners voiced some displeasure with new rules aimed at curbing the flow of stolen goods through their shops. Columbia’s Substance Abuse Advisory Commission listened as store owners, police and a frequent user of pawn shops commented on the draft ordinance that would change the way many secondhand stores in town

Columbia police released the results of their alcohol enforcement campaign Wednesday. The department held two sobriety checkpoints over the weekend. On Friday they conducted a checkpoint at Brown Station Road and Providence Road. Police say they contacted 138 drivers between 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. They made one DWI arrest. The second checkpoint was held

Periods of showers and t-storms will occur from late Wednesday night through early Saturday morning as a cold front moves into the region, picking up tropical moisture from the southwest. This will cause heavy rain to fall with some of the storms with highest rainfall totals expected south of I-70 with up to 4 inches

The Lincoln University Board of Curators are meeting Thursday morning for the first meeting of the 2016-2017 school year. Board members will hear reports from LU’s president, Dr. Kevin Rome, as well as from the faculty senate. In July, the board of curators voted to cut the Bachelor of Music Education and Bachelor of Science

A public safety officer in Mexico was taken to the hospital for a heat-related illness after battling a fire Tuesday. It happened at Cerro Copper on Industrial Drive where insulated roofing material was burning around part of the building’s HVAC system. According to Mexico’s Department of Public Safety, Cerro employees and MPSD worked together to

Columbia police and fire departments responded to a crash involving a school on S. Providence Road Wednesday afternoon. The crash happened just after 4 p.m. At least seven emergency units responded to the scene. Michelle Baumstark, who is a spokesperson for Columbia Public Schools, tells ABC 17 Newsa bus with 21 Douglass High School students

Gov. Jay Nixon explained his 22 vetoes from the 2016 session Wednesday afternoon. He urged the public, media, and lawmakers toread his veto messagesdetailing the reasoning behind his decision. Some of the bills were vetoed due to a grammatical error. House Bill 1763, for example, uses the word “insured” instead of “insurer.” “I think everybody

BOLIVAR, Mo. (AP) – A woman found lying near the body of her disabled son in a southwest Missouri field has been charged in the teen’s death. Forty-two-year-old Kimberly Lightwine, of Aldrich, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Austin Anderson, who was blind and autistic. No attorney is listed for her

ABC 17 News went to the scene of a crash Wednesday morning about 15 minutes north of Jefferson City on Hwy. 63 southbound near the gas station off the Eagle Knoll exit. A dump truck and large tractor used for spraying crops were off the roadway. It is unclear if anyone was seriously hurt, but

UPDATE 9/7: The Columbia Housing Authority has confirmed another brief elevator outage at Paquin Towers. It says crews responded to the area around 6:00am Wednesday morning after learning the elevator was broken down. The Columbia Fire Department was also able to confirm that they arrived on scene four minutes after they were originally called. Authorities

UPDATE 3:22pm: The Missouri State Highway Patrol confirms the amber alert issued for a 9-month-old is now cancelled. The patrol says the child was located safe. The Independence Police Department posted on its Facebook page saying the infant wasfound with family members in Kansas City, MO. It’s unclear if anyone is in custody for the

The University of Missouri Board of Curators and presidential search committee kicked off two days of meetings in St. Louis Tuesday morning. The Board of Curators chair and the search committee co-chairs released a statement focusing on their progress with the search for a new system president: “We are excited that a new academic year

The Sturgeon R-V School District Superintendent says it has notified the Boone County Health Department about students sick with E. Coli. Superintendent Shawn Schultz told ABC 17 News Tuesday it’s had three cases of E. Coli. Schultz says the first case happened before school started and the other two happened after the school year started.