Rockaway Beach News

The founder of an environmental organization that houses tigers is looking at two locations, one in Taney County and now another in Stone County.

Three people were hurt Monday when two cars collided at Highway 176 and Silver Creek Road in Rockaway Beach.

Former Rockaway Beach and Highlandville Police Officer, Timothy Lee Daff, 33, passed away on November 19, 2009, in Ruby Memorial Hospital, at Morgantown WV, after loosing his battle with cancer. He passed with family members at his bedside.

Funeral services were held at Morgan Funeral Home in Reedsville, West Virginia, officiated by Pastor Isaac Harmon and Chaplain Thomas Mitter. The procession was escorted by the Patriot Guard to Shays Chapel Cemetery near Tunnelton WV.

Daff was the Chief of Reedsville Police Department and their canine handler, who was placed on administrative leave pending a civil rights violation law suit after allegations of misconduct and excessive use of force were filed against him by many individuals named as Plaintiffs. He and the town's Mayor are named as defendants.

According to sources he was veteran of the US Army and a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, which is also known as the FOP.

Daff, resigned his position in Rockaway Beach, Missouri, in the summer of 2008, after nearly 50 complaints were filed by citizens against him and his fellow officers under former Chief Bobby Carpenter, alleging civil rights violations, misconduct, excessive use of force, the shooting of a resident's dog, planting of evidence, harassment, wrongful stops and ticketing of residents and visitors to the tiny lake town in 2008.

The alleged assault of Scott Donner and the witnesses who came forward to this reporter for investigation and coverage, while I was stringing for a local paper, is what spurned my investigations into the allegations against the Rockaway Beach Police Department, which lead to other news reports and investigations by other officials.

A full house of outraged residents and business owners attended an emergency call meeting of the City Alderman in June & July 2008, in order to testify in person regarding the specific cases of alleged misconduct and excessive use of force and the illegal shooting and disposal of a resident's dog, by Daff and the now defunct department's misconduct and civil rights violations. (See extended entry for part 2...)

As the water level in Lake Taneycomo lowers in Rockaway Beach, sludge is seen on its banks.

Rockaway Beach has been approved to receive a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant for a water systems improvement project, according to the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

Dear Rockaway Chamber of Commerce, No one in the legitimate sanctuary community considers GREEN aka National Tiger Sanctuary to be a tiger sanctuary.

The Rockaway Beach Chamber of Commerce will host a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the community center in city hall to announce plans for a tiger sanctuary.

A Branson woman was killed and a Rockaway Beach woman was injured after a two-car crash Saturday in Taney County.

Though she lives in Springfield, when reader Lori Johnson visits her good friends in Forsyth, she knows she'll most likely dine at La Pizza Cellar in Rockaway Beach.

Bikers and Babes at the Beach 2009? Sounds like a party! The event in downtown Rockaway Beach -- billed as a fundraiser for Bikers Against Child Abuse -- will include tattoo contests, a poker run, raffles, bike shows and live music.

A child from Texas suffered moderate injuries Friday after she was run over by a golf cart in Stone County.

Erica Dixon volunteered to help during a street count of homeless people in Taney County last summer.

Friday, June 12, 2009 Nixon Halts Rockaway Beach Police Funding

Gov. Jay Nixon has directed Attorney General Chris Koster to cut off state funding for the Rockaway Beach Police Department.

Rockaway Beach was one of 12 law enforcement entities listed as "non-compliant" in the annual Missouri Vehicle Stop report issued on June 1st. Gov. Nixon has ordered that funding be stopped for all those who did not comply.

Rockaway Beach was the only Ozarks-area department that was non-compliant.

"Missouri has been at the forefront of collecting and reporting data about traffic stops, and these reports have served as the basis for constructive communications between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve," Gov. Nixon said in a statement. "The vast majority of law enforcement agencies in Missouri have complied with the reporting requirements of the law since it took effect. This is a law we take seriously, and the consequences for not complying are clear."

Missouri's racial profiling report began in 2000.

By TERESA BREWER

According to Don Hearon, CEO of Hearon Media, from Las Vegas NV, artists from all over the country are expected to attend and perform the first annual Red, White and Blues Festival June 20th in Lebanon TN, in order to support the national effort to help Michele Seidman, founder of National Women in Blues Festival in Willmington North Carolina, which has