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Greitens' defense attorneys reached out to Gardner's office Saturday, offering the governor's resignation in exchange for the circuit attorney's office to drop the felony computer tampering charge, said Susan Ryan, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Office's spokeswoman.

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Hammons Field and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame will not be sold as part of bankruptcy proceedings between John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts and New York investment firm JD Holdings.

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But a new study published last month in the American Journal of Psychiatry shows that low doses of ketamine are effective at reducing suicidal thoughts in people who suffer from depression, in as little as a few hours. No current depression treatment has such a rapid effect.

"For these patients, it's important to get the mood stabilized,” Woodring said.

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One Springfield treatment center had a 12-year-old patient who was addicted to opioids after undergoing a dental treatment.

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Anthem will continue to enforce its controversial emergency room policy in Missouri, despite a new law that goes into effect in August that's intended to circumvent that program.

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Niblo’s wife, Cheryl, made the 911 call.

Just before dawn on Dec. 12, Cheryl Niblo heard gunshots while inside her bathroom, according to court documents. She then fled the home through the back door and ran to a neighbor’s house to call the police, leaving her cellphone behind in the bathroom.

She called 911 at 6:18 a.m. Police arrived shortly afterward.

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Cover letter

At my core, I am a watchdog reporter who holds onto a story like a dog with a bone. My background and experience has shaped me into a laser-focused journalist with the knowledge and skills to investigate anything from corrupt school district officials to rampant child abuse to accidental shootings.

My most recent investigative foray involved gathering records for a USA TODAY NETWORK series on children accidentally shooting themselves or another child. As part of the network's investigative team, I handled all Texas cases, calling district clerks from numerous counties for documents, talking to district attorneys about the punishment they sought in each case, and submitting open records requests for police records. Many times, my questions were met with suspicion and my records requests were met with letters to the attorney general, seeking not to disclose the information I sought. Still, I fought for the facts with whatever tools I had, and eventually gathered the full story of what happened in each of the nine Texas cases. The result was a devastating series on what happens when a child gets a hold of a gun.

My focus is not fleeting either. I spent the past two years examining the civil rights and lack thereof of society's most vulnerable population -- children. It was an accident really. I stumbled upon the story, like most good stories, while working my beat as the government multimedia journalist for the Reporter-News. I sat in meeting after meeting of the commissioners court, listening to the exorbitant costs CPS was placing on the county and the number of children being removed from their homes. That pricked my investigative ears. I started digging, first shadowing a CPS caseworker in October 2015 for a feature story and eventually discovering the Abilene region has the highest rate of child abuse and neglect per capita in the state. That story package transformed me as a journalist and a person. I'll never forget the looks in the eyes of those who forensically interview abused children. I'll never forget the foster mom with three adopted foster children who made me laugh until my sides hurt because she was just that kind of person - funny, bright, accepting. And I'll never forget the gratitude from the community, comrades and experts who read or helped form my solutions to child abuse story. I still have those emails and voicemails.

I'd be glad to discuss my qualifications further. Thank you for taking the time to consider my application. Please contact me via email or phone at 214-385-7793 if you have any questions or would like to set up a time for an interview. I look forward to hearing back from you.

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I contributed to this story by collating data and public records from various sources, including court documents and police case records.

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So vehement was the backlash from Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller’s Feb. 21 announcement of the approval of a warfarin-based pesticide to control the feral hog population, it took only a week for a lawsuit to be filed and an Austin district court judge to grant a temporary restraining order blocking the emergency rules established by the Texas Agriculture Department.

Video: http://arnne.ws/2mBrpvy

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"The statistics show that for every individual that we can teach about child abuse and gender equality and all types of victimization...we have the potential to save 100 kids," said Lori Bunton, violence prevention director and certified victim advocate at the Abilene Regional Victim Crisis Center. 

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Incoming state representatives for Abilene and Taylor County intend to tackle the myriad problems facing Child Protective Services when they take office in January, acknowledging that money is not a panacea.

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Under the new model, the state contracts with a single provider to serve foster children in geographic areas that have at least 500 new entries into foster care a year, said Cyndi Reed, Foster Care Redesign program administrator for Region 2.

Those areas may include an entire region — there are 11 in the state — or a portion of a region, called a "catchment area."

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Being a parent is not easy.

There is no handbook, no how-to guide.

There are no rules, no regulations, no role models every parent can embody.

And if a community such as Abilene, which has seen the highest rates of child abuse and neglect per capita in the state for the past five years, is going to make a dent in reducing those numbers, that fact must be acknowledged and accepted, according to Dr. Beverly Fortson, a behavioral scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Hector Ortiz will begin his new position Dec. 19, according to a news release from the Department of Family and Protective Services, which oversees CPS.

New DFPS Commissioner Henry “Hank” Whitman required all 11 CPS regional directors to reapply for their jobs as a condition for keeping their employment. Four of those directors were fired in late-August, including Sherrel Mathews of Region 2, the Abilene-Wichita Falls region.

It took the agency the longest to replace Mathews.

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In fact, she revels in it.

Amerine and her husband, Justin, do not subscribe to the notion that there is such a unit as the “perfect family.” But that does not stop them from continuing to expand theirs.

With four biological children, the Amerines recently finalized the adoption of their second foster child and are currently fostering a 15-month-old girl. They also take in foster children when their foster parents need a break or to go out of town.

They won’t tell you it’s easy. They won’t tell you it isn’t messy. But they will tell you it’s worth it.

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Mathews heard the news Monday that she would be replaced. Her last day will be Sept. 9 when the new regional directors should be revealed, she said. All 10 of the state's regional CPS directors had been required to reapply for their jobs.