Stories from Thursday, February 22, 2001

Until a year ago, Cape Girardeau's public works employees didn't know they were represented by a labor union. In the early 1970s, workers elected the St. Louis-based International Union of Operating Engineers Local 2 to be their collective bargaining representative. But somewhere along the way, the local and the workers forgot about each other...

Feb. 22, 2001 Dear Pat, When we were college students, our thoughts this time of year were on the glacial approach of a rite and right that belongs solely to people blessed to worry about grades instead of bills. Most of my spring breaks were spent frivolously and predictably in Daytona Beach or Padre Island. ...

A 32-year-old Cape Girardeau man was acquitted by a jury Wednesday of assault charges stemming from a brawl outside a bar involving a baseball bat and beer bottle. The jury deliberated for an hour and a half before finding Dennis J. George not guilty of second degree assault...

JACKSON, Mo. -- The 2001 "Meet the School Board Candidates" forum will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. March 19 at the Jackson Middle School library. Incumbent Gerald Adams and challengers Donna Tidwell, Kevin Schaper, Mack Illers, James Woeltje and Thomas Liebeknecht will face questions from the public. This year's moderator will be Lisa Crane from KFVS-TV 12...

The Southeast Missouri Regional Crime Lab could be relocated before year's end because federal funding has been secured to transform an old warehouse in Cape Girardeau into a modern-day forensic lab. The move could eventually lead to a regional morgue to store bodies and handle autopsies in criminal cases, officials said Wednesday...

Ruth Knote, a member of the River Campus Advisory Board, will be the speaker 7 p.m. Monday for the general meeting of the Historical Association of Greater Cape Girardeau. The meeting will be held on the first floor of the Saxony Village apartments at the Lutheran Home, 2825 Bloomfield Road. Knote will discuss the new campus for Southeast Missouri University's College of Visual and Performing Arts and show sketches of planned buildings...

College freshman Lisa Bryant (Tonya Lynn) has written an essay that has upset her teacher, Dr. Jo Garrett (Holly Raines), so much she has dropped the student from her class. Soon we learn that the student's paper announced her plan to commit suicide on the first day of spring break, forcing the professor to intervene...

Guest soprano Martha Dahlberg will present a voice recital at 8 p.m. today at Old St. Vincent's Church. A resident of Rockford, Ill., Dahlberg will be accompanied on piano by Southeast alumnus Ryan Kasten of Jackson, Mo. She will sing music by Marcello, Giordani, Stradella, Faure, Brahms and Wagner...

Isolated thunderstorms, along with periods of sleet and freezing rain, were forecast, making driving in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois treacherous through this morning. Although no major accidents were reported late Wednesday, sheets of ice were building up along roads throughout the region, causing a large number of minor accidents, law enforcement agencies reported...

Today's mission for Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team in trying to bounce back from its most horrendous performance of the Ohio Valley Conference season will be to slow down the nation's highest-scoring squad. Eastern Kentucky, which visits the Show Me Center for a 5:30 p.m. OVC tipoff, leads all NCAA Division I women's team's with an average of 88.1 points per game...

Southeast Missouri State University's perennially strong women's team and rapidly improving men's squad will both look to bring home Ohio Valley Conference indoor track championships this weekend. The Otahkians and Indians are both among the primary favorites heading into the meet, which will be held Friday and Saturday in Charleston, Ill...

The standings say that Eastern Kentucky is hands down the worst men's basketball team in the Ohio Valley Conference. And the Colonels have already been eliminated from contention for a spot in the eight-team OVC Tournament as they are assured of finishing last among the league's nine squads...

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Top-seeded New Madrid County Central and second-seeded Dexter posted semifinal victories Wednesday night to set up Friday night's highly anticipated showdown in the championship game of the Class 3A, District 1 Tournament. Host New Madrid, the defending 3A state champion, improved to 17-7 by routing fifth-seeded Kennett 75-51...

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Leonard J. Lorch, 85, of Advance was born Dec. 21, 1915, at Claryville, Mo., son of the late Joseph B. Lorch and Anna T. Geisler. He passed away Feb. 20, 2001, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He moved to Advance during his teen-age years and started operating a Standard Oil service station at age 17. He became a Standard Oil agent in 1937 and remained involved with Lorch Oil Co. until his death...

NEW HAMBURG, Mo. -- The Rev. John "Woody" Baker, 87, a priest with the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau 62 years, died Sunday, Feb. 18, 2001, at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Mo., following a brief illness. He was born June 4, 1913, in St. Louis, son of Henry and Julian Murphy Baker...

Christine G. Ellis, 89, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Feb. 17, 2001, at Chateau Girardeau. She was born Feb. 18, 1911, at Marquand, Mo., daughter of Columbus N. and Elsie Killian Davis. She and Edward Charles Ellis were married Oct. 28, 1928. He was a United Methodist minister in Missouri 41 years. They retired to Cape Girardeau in 1971 from St. Louis. He preceded her in death in 1976...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Christina Paige Beauchamp was stillborn Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2001, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She is the daughter of Lea-Ana Beauchamp of Jackson and Jamaal Tipler of Cape Girardeau. Graveside service will be held at 3:30 p.m. today at Russell Heights Cemetery...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- W. Clarence Miesner, 82, formerly of Perryville, died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2001, at the Beverly Health and Rehab Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born June 21, 1918, son of Fredrick C. and Christina Schlichting Miesner. He and Sylvia H. Thurm were married Sept. 11, 1948. She died Dec. 21, 1988...

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- Mary Margaret Fulton, 76, of Kansas City died Monday, Feb. 19, 2001, at her home. She was born April 13, 1924, at Fornfelt, Mo., daughter of Otto and Edna Quigley Schoen. She and John Fulton were married Oct. 7, 1961, in Kansas City...

ANNA, Ill. -- Alberta Sweitzer, 92, of Anna died Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2001, at Jackson County Care and Rehab Center in Murphysboro, Ill. She married Joseph C. Sweitzer, who preceded her in death. Friends may call at Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Alto Pass, Ill., after 10 a.m. Friday...

ANNA, Ill. -- Mary Loreen Wood, 81, of Anna died Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2001, at Northwest Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Anna Cemetery, with the Rev. Steve Wilkinson officiating. Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Anna is in charge of arrangements...

LET ME get this straight: A tax break means you do not have your money taken by the government to pay taxes. So how in the world can that possibly be a welfare program if the government doesn't take your money? I'M GETTING sick to death of hearing all these people complaining about the tax breaks being just for the rich. ...

Hundreds of people gathered Feb. 12 in Springfield, Ill., to witness a groundbreaking for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The $115 million, 198,000-square-foot complex will feature a library to be completed in the fall of 2002 and a museum to open a year later...

Law enforcement agencies in Missouri have until March 1 to provide the Missouri attorney general's office with statistics on the racial makeup of motorists stopped by police officers. It will be interesting to see what those statistics show. A law passed by the Missouri Legislature that went into effect last year requires each police agency to submit a report to the state that shows the age, race and gender of every driver or pedestrian stopped by police officers or state troopers...

China fortifying Iraq's air-defense system: China is building a fiber-optic communications system for Iraq's new air-defense network that was targeted by U.S. and British bombing last week, Pentagon officials confirmed. ... The air-defense network will greatly increase Iraq's ability to target and shoot down patrolling U.S. aircraft with anti-aircraft missiles, defense analysts said...

To the editor: I would like to thank Claire Ellinghouse, the Southeast Missourian and the many people who have given donations toward congenital heart research. My 19-year-old son has been given the opportunity to a second chance at life because of funding for research and early detection...