Local
Howell County News will not publish an issue on July 2, 2025. To take a planned break every January and July, we publish 50 issues a year.
As many of you may know, the publishers have small children and will be taking this time to rest and relax as a family before coming back in the July 9...
A West Plains native is facing charges in Arkansas and is making headlines in national news outlets for allegations that she facilitated “fight club”-style violence among special needs students at the school she founded.
Mary Tracy Morrison, 50, of Jonesboro, Ark., is facing 11 felony...
The Missouri Department of Revenue is soliciting bids for the contract to operate a license office in Willow Springs. The current location closed May 19 at the expiration of the previous contract. Largely unrelated litigation delayed the bidding process, but now that it is resolved interested...
State Budget Director Dan Haug announced today that net general revenue collections for May 2025 increased 4.9 percent compared to those for May 2024, from $1.47 billion last year to $1.54 billion this year.
Net general revenue collections for 2025 fiscal year-to-date decreased 0.1 percent...
After a nine-month hiatus, the Public Safety Advisory Committee met on Monday, June 2 in Willow Springs. The committee was reorganized by a vote of the board of aldermen on May 15 after the PSAC failed to establish a quorum every month since September 2024.
PSAC members Jeff Lovan,...
Taylor J. Nelson, age 40, of Pomona, has been sentenced to serve seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. In March 2024, Nelson refused a security check while attempting to enter Howell County Courthouse.
Without submitting to a routine security check, Nelson was asked to...
Planning for the the Willow Springs Annual 4th of July Parade planning is in full swing, and there is a big change this year. This beloved annual tradition has outgrown the previous staging/line-up location of Booster Field, and organizers say it is no longer safe to start there.
Beginning...
Justin M. Kimbell, 41, of Mountain View, is currently on probation for a DWI crash with injuries. He is serving a suspended execution of a three-year sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections, and yet – he called the cops himself when a gun deal he arranged went south.
On June 3,...
Lawyers for Lance Shockley, the Van Buren man sentenced to death in the 2005 shooting death of Sergeant Carl D. Graham, Jr. say there is one avenue left for their client to prove his innocence – and he is seeking to use it. They have successfully petitioned the courts to perform DNA testing on...
Who are the Shannon County First Responders? It seems like the media calls everyone in public service a “first responder” these days, but in Shannon County, “First Responder” means a well trained medical volunteer who will come to your side to help in a medical emergency 24/7.
Generally if...