MARYVILLE, Mo. (KCTV) – An attempt to turn onto a county road from a rural Missouri highway led to a rear-end collision that left both drivers seriously injured.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol indicates that around 11 a.m. on Friday, June 6, emergency crews were called to the area of Missouri Highway 148 and County Road 220, about 3 miles north of Maryville, with reports of a 2-vehicle crash.

When first responders arrived, they said they found a 49-year-old Pickering man had been stopped on the highway in a 2020 Chevrolet Silverado as he attempted to turn west onto County Road 220. However, he was hit from behind by a 32-year-old Maryville man in a 2021 Ford van.

State Troopers indicated that the impact of the crash caused both vehicles to veer off the roadway and crash into a nearby ditch.

Emergency crews said both drivers were taken to Mosaic Life Care in Maryville with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. No one involved had been wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.

Investigators noted that both vehicles were extensively damaged as a result. No further information has been released.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A man who had been wanted for a Kansas rape for nearly 5 years was taken into custody after he was found in Kansas City, Missouri.

Jackson County, Missouri, Circuit Court records filed on Wednesday, May 28, indicate that Mario Perez, 38, has been found and arrested in connection to 2020 rape charges filed in Kansas.

Wyandotte County, Kansas, District Court documents revealed that Perez was charged with rape and aggravated criminal sodomy for an incident that happened in November 2019. The charges were filed in August 2020, upon the completion of an investigation by the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.

Law enforcement officials noted that a warrant for Perez’s arrest was issued the same day charges were filed, however, he was not taken into custody until he was found in Kansas City, Missouri, nearly 5 years later.

A waiver of extradition was filed in Jackson County on Wednesday, and Perez was transported to the Wyandotte County Detention Facility, where he awaits a 9 a.m. court appearance on June 17.

Copyright 2025 KCTV. All rights reserved.

Missouri senators on Thursday approved a plan to provide over $100 million in aid for tornado-ravaged St. Louis and authorized hundreds of millions of dollars worth of incentives to try to persuade the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals to continue playing in Missouri in new or improved stadiums.

Lawmakers are acting with urgency in a special session because the professional sports teams face an end of June deadline to accept a competing offer from Kansas while residents in St. Louis are struggling to recover from May storms that caused an estimated $1.6 billion of damage.

The aid measures advanced in a series of early morning votes only after Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe struck a deal with some holdouts that included more disaster relief money and the potential for property tax breaks for some homeowners facing rising tax bills. The package also contains funding for building projects around the state, including $50 million for a nuclear research reactor used for cancer treatments at the University of Missouri.

Though House approval is still needed, the Senate vote marked a major hurdle, because the stadium incentives stalled there last month. Tornadoes struck St. Louis and other parts of Missouri on May 16, a day after lawmakers wrapped up work in their regular session.

In addition to the $100 million for St. Louis disaster relief, the package authorizes $25 million for emergency housing assistance and a $5,000 income tax deduction to offset insurance policy deductibles for people in any area included in a request for a presidential disaster declaration.

Kehoe said the plan would “help those in crisis, while also making smart decisions that secure opportunity for the future.”

The future of the Chiefs and Royals has been up in the air for a while.

The teams currently play professional football and baseball in side-by-side stadiums in eastern Kansas City in Jackson County, Missouri, under leases that run until January 2031.

Jackson County voters last year turned down a sales tax extension that would have helped finance a $2 billion ballpark district for the Royals in downtown Kansas City and an $800 million renovation of the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium.

That prompted Kansas lawmakers last year to authorize bonds for up to 70% of the cost of new stadiums in their state.

Missouri’s counterproposal would authorize bonds for up to 50% of the cost of stadium projects while also providing up to $50 million of tax credits to go with unspecified support from local governments.

While testifying Tuesday to a Senate committee, Chiefs lobbyist Rich AuBuchon described the Missouri offer as “legitimate” and “competitive.” If the Chiefs stay in Missouri, he said they likely would begin a $1.15 billion plan to renovate Arrowhead Stadium and upgrade the team’s practice facilities in either 2027 or 2028. It would take three years to complete.

AuBuchon pointed to other recent publicly financed stadium projects in Baltimore, New Orleans, Nashville and Buffalo, New York.

“Throughout the country states are funding stadiums. They are a big economic development. They are a big business,” AuBuchon said.

However, many economists contend public funding for stadiums isn’t worth it, because sports tend to divert discretionary spending away from other forms of entertainment rather than generate new income.

“What the teams are doing is playing Kansas and Missouri against each other,” said Patrick Tuohey, senior fellow at the Show-Me Institute, a free-market think tank whose St. Louis headquarters got hit by the tornado.

“When cities and states do this, they hollow out their tax base for the benefit of wealthy billionaire team owners … they lose the ability to provide public safety, basic services,” Tuohey said.

Royals lobbyist Jewell Patek said that even with the state incentives, a planned stadium district likely would need voter approval for local tax incentives in either Jackson or Clay counties, which couldn’t happen until later this year.

He made no guarantee the Royals would pick Missouri over Kansas, but Patek added: “We love the community, we love the state … we think this is a step in the right direction for the state of Missouri.”