Stories from Friday, February 6, 1998

To the editor: It is unfair to change the rules for riverboat gambling. It is also against Missouri constitutional law. Yet that is just what the gambling commission, along with most riverboat gambling companies, have done since gambling was legalized in Missouri. It is also what these groups are continuing to try to accomplish...

Sunday will be the kick-off day for National Child Passenger Safety Week. This is an issue that should involve all of us. Since I moved to this community, I have taken care of several children involved in one or another type of automobile accident. And despite valiant efforts on the part of our local emergency medical services and a variety of nurses and physicians, we have witnessed the tragic loss of young lives. ...

The American Concrete Pavement Association says a section of new Highway 60 in Butler County is the smoothest concrete pavement in the state. The association will present the honor to Missouri Department of Transportation officials on March 4 in Kansas City...

SCOTT CITY -- A wood stove is being blamed for a house fire that nearly destroyed the Scott City home of a woman and her three children Thursday afternoon. Scott City Fire Department Deputy Chief Bill Crump said Thursday that preliminary investigations revealed the fire began in or around a first floor wood stove and spread quickly to the attic of the house, located at 713 Chestnut...

These are the times that try our noses. And throats. And heads. Ah, this winter of our discontent. Some of the more than 200 viruses that cause our noses to drip like leaky faucets, our throats to feel like they're lined with wool, are likely to overcome our body's defense system at least once this time of the year. The result: the common cold...

MR. SULLIVAN used another large column to talk about what the president had allegedly to have done. Why don't we wait and see what he has done and let the proof come out before we start judging. We're still waiting for the truth. Your paper has been very guilty of printing rumors...

The Salvation Army has a simple mission: to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, and to help people who are in need. Since its founding in 1865, the Salvation Army has heeded that mission around the world. And for the past 100 years, it has had a presence in Cape Girardeau...

The Internal Revenue Service has taken its lumps in recent months, highlighted in congressional hearings that exposed unsavory activities that did more to harm the nation's taxpayers than to help them. But with the bright light of exposure has come quick and well-intentioned efforts to reform the IRS, whose commissioner, Charles Rossotti, was in front of the Senate Finance Committee last week with a long list of changes that are in the works...

To the editor: The Cape Girardeau Youth Advisory council is a courageous group of young people who have worked to address the problem of underage smoking in our community. To solve this major public health problem, they propose a new municipal ordinance setting annual license fees for the retail sale of tobacco products (and offering the prospect of a lost license to establishments that persist in selling to minors). ...

To the editor: I've always questioned the justice in our system where a prosecutor can grant immunity to a guilty person if that person will help him nail someone he has targeted, even though they are both guilty of the same offense. We have those weak people who, in order to save their own skin, will turn against their partner, group, lover or even their brother. These people are rats, and rats are famous for being the first to leave a sinking ship. I know some of them...

It will be months before cable customers in the region get any answers on how a pending merger between TCI Cablevision and Falcon will affect programming and services. TCI will continue to manage the system until the deal is completed "probably late in the second quarter," said Terry Pfister, a TCI spokeswoman in Chicago...

Some 100 middle-school musicians got an opportunity to better appreciate their art during the Middle School String Festival at Southeast Missouri State University Thursday. The festival, in its second year, brought together stringed instrument players from Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Parkway Northeast Middle School for an afternoon performance in Academic Auditorium. ...

Area lawmakers disagree over how best to combat methamphetamine production and trafficking in Missouri. Rep. Patrick Naeger, R-Perryville, is one of the sponsors of a bill that would authorize the state to pay $10,000 bounties for tips leading to the destruction of meth labs and the arrest and conviction of lab operators...

What was the civil rights movement? Where was the bus strike that made Rosa Parks famous? Who was George Washington Carver and for what is he famous? These are questions many twenty- or even thirtysomething Americans might have problems answering, but that isn't so for students at Alma Schrader and May Greene elementary schools...

It's not just the eating of far too much food for a reasonable price. It's the floor show at the steam tables too. If Southeast Missouri were a separate nation, the national dish would be All You Can Eat. There is no question that the preference for satisfying hearty appetites in this part of the world is the one-price-fits-all buffet...

ADVANCE -- A man and a woman were in serious but stable condition after a three-vehicle accident Thursday afternoon in Stoddard County. Tommy Oliver, 20, and Sharon Oliver, 42, both of Puxico were at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau Thursday after the accident, which occurred at Highway 25 and Route C in Advance...

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State University's previously high-flying basketball team came tumbling back down to earth with a major thud here Thursday night. Tennessee Tech, one of the worst teams in the Ohio Valley Conference, played one of its best games of the season and routed the Indians 77-57 in front of 1,383 fans at the Eblen Center...

JACKSON -- Where's the beef? The Jackson Indians might be wondering that after manhandling the Farmington Knights 60-47 at home Thursday night in an important Class 4A, District 1 contest. With both teams featuring players in the 6-foot-5-inch range, the Knights came into Jackson with a line-up that appeared to match up well with the Indians. But when it came to muscle, the Indians -- led by 6-5 senior Jeff Walter -- did all the flexing...

CHARLESTON -- The top two seeds, Jackson and Poplar Bluff, advanced to the championship game of the 19th Annual Charleston Girls' Invitational Tournament Thursday night with semifinal victories. Top-seeded Jackson, ranked No. 2 in Missouri Class 4A, defeated long-time rival Cape Central, the fourth seed, 58-52...

ULLIN, Ill. -- Mildred Kraatz, 68, of Calabasas, Calif., formerly of Ullin, died Thursday, Jan. 29, 1998, at Tarzana Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif. She was born May 15, 1929, in Tennessee, daughter of Alva and Kitty Lee Douglas Burge. She married Robert G. Kraatz...

SIKESTON -- Earl O. Maas, 61, of Sikeston died Wednesday, Feb. 4, 1998, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born Aug. 10, 1936, in Barberton, Ohio, son of Paul and Sylvia Marie Womack Maas. He and Ruby Carroll were married Nov. 11, 1971, in Las Vegas, Nev...

MARBLE HILL -- Graveside service for Eunice I. Boles of Humansville will be held at 1 p.m. today at Bollinger County Memorial Park Cemetery. Liley Funeral Home at Marble Hill is in charge of arrangements. Funeral service was held Thursday at Murray Funeral Chapel in Humansville, with the Rev. Martin Micke officiating...

SIKESTON -- Florence J. Hawkins, 76, of Sikeston died Wednesday, Feb. 4, 1998, at her home. She was born Jan. 28, 1922, in Portageville, daughter of William Robert and Margaret-Ann Elizabeth Davidson House. She and Charles T. "Billy" Hawkins were married Oct. 30, 1937, at Portageville. He died Oct. 14, 1976...

ANNA, Ill. -- Funeral service for Agnes Tucker Cash of Anna will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Anna. The Rev. Dewayne Taylor will officiate, with burial in Anna Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 5-8 p.m. today...

PERRYVILLE -- Lonieta C. Clifton, 72, of Perryville died Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998, at her home. She was born Aug. 20, 1925, at Old Appleton, daughter of Ferdinand and Annie Barks Ruessler. She and Martin Clifton were married Sept. 28, 1946. Clifton had worked at Prince Gardner and International Shoe Co. She was a member of First Baptist Church and its Women's Missionary Union, had been a Sunday School teacher, and worked in the Baptist Clothes Closet...

Marilyn C. Jenkins, 43, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, Feb. 4, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

ZALMA -- Opal J. Harwood, 88, formerly of Zalma and Kirkwood, died Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998, at Greenville Health Center in Greenville. She was born May 14, 1909, at Zalma, daughter of James and Icy May Abernathy Cato. She married Shelton Harwood, who died April 17, 1959...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Rose M. Lewis, 92, of Cairo died Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau, Mo. She was born Sept. 30, 1905, in Cairo, daughter of Sam and Debley John Khory. She married Ned Lewis, who preceded her in death in 1990...

VANDUSER -- Brandon E. Clark, 14, of Vanduser died Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998, at his home, following an extended illness. He was born Nov. 29, 1983, in Columbia, son of Larry and Victoria Clark Hunt. Survivors include his parents; maternal grandparents, Gene and Diana Clark of Vanduser; paternal grandmother, Gaila Warren of Sikeston; maternal great-grandmother, Juanita Verble of Vanduser; and paternal great-grandmother, Bessie Kirk of Dexter...

BUNCOMBE, Ill. -- Robert K. Gill, 84, of Buncombe died Wednesday, Feb. 4, 1998, at City Care Center in Anna. He was born Feb. 6, 1913, in Tekamah, Neb., son of Delmar and Mae Fairchild Gill. He and Margaret May Schumacher were married Aug. 6, 1945, in St. Louis County, Mo...

PERRYVILLE -- Joseph G. Eichenlaub, 79, of Perryville died Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1998, at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. He was born Aug. 29, 1918, in Ste. Genevieve, son of Oliver and Emily Klein Eichenlaub. He and Lucille McDermott were married Nov. 25, 1946...

Lynn E. Crafton, 86, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Ermal L. Briggs, 59, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born Aug. 17, 1938, at Sikeston, daughter of Otis and Daisy Mouser. She married Wilbur Briggs. Survivors include her husband; a son, Darrell Briggs of McClure, Ill.; a daughter, Estell McClatchey of Cape Girardeau; her mother of Cape Girardeau; four brothers, Merlin and Roger Mouser of Cape Girardeau, Stanley and Avery Mouser of McClure; a sister, Dora Briggs of McClure; and a grandchild...

JACKSON -- Graveside service for Lee Roy Allen of Jackson was held Thursday at Russell Heights Cemetery. The Rev. Philip Curran officiated. Cracraft-Miller Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements. Allen, 79, died Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1998, at Beverly Health and Rehabilitation in Cape Girardeau...