BREAKING NEWS: Charges filed in Gladstone Blvd. shooting

Jackson County Prosecutors today charged Syreta Tosan of murder in the first degree for her involvement in an early morning shooting here.

Prosecutors say Tosan deliberately murdered John Barbieri.

Court documents say she told Kansas City Police she shot her boyfriend after he forced her to smoke crack and sexually assaulted her. She pulled a gun from her bag and shot him several times. Tosan then ran to a nearby residence and called the police.

Police responded to the residence where they found the victim dead from an apparent gunshot wound. After an investigation was conducted, a gun was found under a pillow by the victim and two crack pipes were found on the floor at the foot of the bed.

— Kristi L. Dalberg, reporter

For more on this, be sure to check back to www.northeastnews.net

Police find body in Northeast home

Police are investigating an early morning homicide at the 5500 block of Saida Avenue.

Police are not releasing details but say the person might have been involved in a disturbance at the 5200 block of Gladstone earlier in the night. After being called to the area, police say they noticed an open door to a home where they found the body.

Check The Northeast News on Wednesday for more on this story.

Independence School District officials to close admin building

Independence Public Schools Superintendent Jim Hinson is expected to announce this afternoon that the district will be closing its main administrative offices due to hazardous health conditions.

The offices, which are located in the former Palmer Junior High School building near the Independence Square, were deemed unsafe by health officials after Hinson and other district employees began feeling ill. Administrators are planning to move the offices to an empty building near Truman High School off South Noland Road.

Hinson is expected to make the announcement at a press conference at 3:30 p.m. today.

Moving vans arrive at Hardesty Post Office

UPDATED - 3 p.m: U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Terri Penland says the post office still has not made a final decision on whether to close the Hardesty sub-station.

Rather, she said, the low-key announcement to close this week was a miscommunication by postal officials and employees at the sub-station.

The moving vans? Penland said that by getting all the old equipment, furniture, wall hangings and other itemts out, engineers can get a better look at the building to determine if it is safe for customers and employees.

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Earlier today: U.S. Postal Service officials are wasting no time in their secretive plans to shut down the Hardesty Post Office.

This morning moving vans with U.S. Postal Service logos were backed up to the sub-station and postal employees from downtown were hauling desks, file cabinets and other items out of the post office.

On Wednesday, postal officials arrived unannounced at the Hardesty Post Office and told employees there they had to be out by March 31. Neighborhood associations, who were also taken by surprise by the announcement, are now scrambling to find out what they can do to save the post office that has served Northeast residents for decades.

Already some neighborhoods are organizing to contact their local, state and national representatives to voice their concern.

To contact your representatives click to be directed to their individual Web sites.

U.S. Rep Emanuel Cleaver's office

U.S. Sen. Clair McCaskill

U.S. Sen. Kit Bond

State Rep. John Burnett

Mayor Mark Funkhouser

Tut-tut, looks like rain — lucky you.

They keep referring to this winter as the perfect storm.

Lots of snow. Lots of ice and little money in the city's coffers.

At a budget hearing this week, public works officials said if the city council did not release funds from the city's reserves, then snow plows might not be able to clear the streets if Mother Nature decides to dump one more snow storm on the metro. And forecasters this week were predicting, you guessed it, more snow.

Officials went before the city's finance and audit committee Wednesday asking for an additional $1.5 million to help pay for snow removal for the remainder of the fiscal year. Already the city has spent its budgeted $1.2 million attempting to keep close to 900 miles of roadway clear during this past snow-filled winter.

Council members were reluctant, obviously, to give public works more money after it had already warned the department last July that money might not be available around this time of the year with analysts already predicting that not enough was being pumped into snow removal programs.

Budget officials said if the City Council did not grant the extra money, they had two options: wait until summer to refill their supply of sand or simply not plow the streets.

But with rain now in the forecast instead of snow, it looks like everybody can avoid the financial thin ice that the city is skating around.

For more on this, and other City Hall news, pick up a copy of The Northeast News each Wednesday.

HARDESTY POST OFFICE TO CLOSE

Updated - 4 p.m.

After months of confusing statements from the U.S. Postal Service and idle threats from postal officials in Denver, the Hardesty Post Office will close at the end of the month.

Around the beginning of the year Postal Officials sent a letter, obtained by The Northeast News, that telling postal employees at that sub-station to have the building closed up and empty by March 31. But when the letter was made public, officials in Denver said they knew nothing of the closure and were still studying the matter.

It seems today without any fanfare or announcements, the Postal Service has decided to close the Hardesty Office.

Sources tell The Northeast News that they will begin shipping equipment and other mail to post offices around the area but were not sure when exactly the last day of service will be.

For more information check here and next Wednesday's Northeast News.

BREAKING NEWS: Royster out of State House race

It seems Will Royster's foray into politics was more of a day trip than a serious campaign.

According to the Missouri Secretary of State, Royster has pulled his name from the running in his bid for the District 40 Missouri Legislature seat.

Royster had thrown his hat into the ring two weeks ago challenging two Northeast power families: State Rep. John Burnett and John "JJ" Rizzo.

Royster threatened to upset the two seasoned politicians who have gone at each other's throats in past elections.

But Royster, who has a large groundswell of grass roots support though the neighborhoods, is not out of politics all together. Expect more to come from this neighborhood activist in the coming week.