Stories from Tuesday, January 8, 2002

HOUSTON -- Andrea Yates, who has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity in the bathtub drowning deaths of her five young children, went on trial Monday as attorneys began evaluating dozens of potential jurors. Yates, 37, could get the death penalty if jurors decide she was sane last summer when she drowned the children, ranging in age from 6 months to 7 years...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, facing election-year criticism from Democrats, defended his tax-cutting policies Monday and blamed emerging federal budget deficits on the recession and America's war against terrorism. He pledged to resubmit his economic revival package to Congress in a budget proposal that Democrats are poised to criticize. After nearly five years of surpluses in Washington, the president said, "We may not balance the budget for this year."...

WASHINGTON -- Researchers used embryonic stem cells to relieve symptoms of Parkinson's disease in rats, demonstrating the cells can be turned into neurons that make dopamine, a key brain chemical. The researchers at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., showed in tests that the cells injected into rats whose brains had been chemically damaged would spontaneously convert to correct the Parkinson's symptoms...

On the Net National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: www.nhtsa.dot.gov Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: www.highwaysafety.org By Nedra Pickler ~ The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Sixteen-year-old boys still are the most risky drivers on the road, but the girls are gaining...

Southeast Missouri editor R. Joe Sullivan has announced several newsroom personnel changes aimed at more and improved content in the daily newspaper and on semissourian.com. The newspaper also wants more reader participation in gathering news. ...

Cape Girardeau Tuesday, Jan. 8 Firefighters responded to the following call Sunday:At 7:43 p.m., an emergency medical service at 531 Woodbine Place. Firefighters responded to the following calls Monday:At 12:28 a.m., a motor vehicle accident at N 61 County Farm Park...

Cape Girardeau Tuesday, Jan. 8 ArrestsBobby Earl Reed, 37, of 825 N. Spanish was arrested Sunday for driving while revoked. Neglasper Lee McLinton, 21, of 517 S. Middle was arrested Sunday for trafficking cocaine. Jason Colby Hicks, 29, of 1807 New Madrid was arrested Sunday for contempt of court and failure to appear...

Big book sale at West Lane Elementary West Lane Elementary will be hosting a Scholastic Warehouse sale Jan. 11-13. The sale is open to the public and includes a selection including picture books, chapter books, reference, cookbooks, software and gift items. All books are 50 percent off the cover price. Sale hours are 4-7 p.m. Jan. 11; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Jan. 12; and 1-4 p.m. Jan. 13...

Susan Schindler and her little sister, Kyeshia, have great fun playing tag or running around the playground at Blanchard Elementary School in Cape Girardeau while Holly Zoellner and her little sister, Jazmon, spend most of their time together at the park...

Beginning today, the Southeast Missourian adds a weekly cartoon series called "It's that time of the year" to its Learning section. The feature is drawn by artist Taylor Crowe, who grew up in Cape Girardeau. The cartoon will take a new look at a topical subject like a holiday, obscure fact about the date or a season of the year...

Customers calling the IRS for help with their tax returns are waiting 15 percent longer to talk to a representative than they did in 2000, and they must wait on average about four minutes, the General Accounting Office says. That probably won't surprise any of the 70 million people who called the IRS in 2001...

A dispute over how quickly former Cape Girardeau County's public administrator, John Ferguson, was handing over his cases to the new public administrator, Phyllis Schwab, when she took office in January 2001 seems to have been laid to rest to everyone's satisfaction...

Public hearings Consent ordinancesn Approved an ordinance enacting a new section 17-196 of the city code relating to delivery or concealment of contraband articles. Approved an ordinance accepting a temporary construction easement from Billy Joe Newell for the William Street Improvement Project...

7:30 p.m. Monday City Hall Public Hearingsn Held hearing to consider revisions to the Land Subdivision Regulations of Jackson, Mo. Action Items Power and Light Committee Approved the appointment of Alderwoman Val Tuschhoff to serve as city representative on the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging...

The Notre Dame girls basketball team continued to roll Monday night and trounced Farmington 69-38. Ashley Millham paced the Lady Bulldogs (10-1) offensively with 18 points and Deana McCormick added 10. Ten players hit the scoring column for Notre Dame, which led 18-7 after one quarter and 39-20 at halftime...

Olushala Ajanaku couldn't believe how far off his shot had been this season. "I've been out of sync for real," he said. Ajanaku, Tennessee State's sophomore forward, finally got in sync Monday night, much to the chagrin of Southeast Missouri State University...

It's shaping up as a huge week for Southeast Missouri State University's Otahkians. Southeast (8-3 overall, 1-0 Ohio Valley Conference) will begin a four-game homestand tonight, three of those against some of the conference's top teams. The homestand starts with a bang as perennial league powerhouse Tennessee Tech (8-5, 1-1) visits the Show Me Center tonight...

WASHINGTON -- Don't tell Rocco Ferretti that standardized tests are ruining education. Ferretti, principal of Bodkin Elementary School in Pasadena, Md., says the tests are improving teaching and showing students how to solve real-life problems. "I think it just changed the rules, but it didn't squash creativity," he said...

ST. LOUIS -- Now that they've clinched home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, the St. Louis Rams will see more of their own homes this week. Coach Mike Martz has scheduled three days of running and weight-lifting, but the team won't practice until next Monday. They were anticipating the time off after beating the Atlanta Falcons 31-13 Sunday to finish at a franchise-best 14-2...

Apparently, we can't all just get along. Not in the sports world, anyway. It was nice to think that after the events of Sept. 11 wiped the pro sports calendar clean for a few days, something had changed. That the players, coaches, owners and fans who returned to the games would be a little less edgy, less greedy and a whole lot less juiced...

DECATUR, Ga. -- A former DeKalb County sheriff charged in the slaying of his successor lost his appeal for bond on Monday. Sidney Dorsey's lawyer had argued that Superior Court Judge Edward Wheeler failed to provide specific reasons for denying bond and based his Dec. 11 decision on insufficient evidence...

TRENTON, N.J. -- Struggling telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies on Monday named as its new president and chief executive a former company official who left last year for Eastman Kodak. Patricia Russo, 49, spent 20 years with AT&T and Lucent before leaving in August 2000 as once high-flying Lucent was starting to crash along with much of the telecommunications sector...

ATLANTA -- The Muslim cleric and former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown considers his upcoming murder trial the culmination of a decades-long government conspiracy to silence him. Prosecutors say their case against Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin is much more simple. To them, he's a cop killer and they say they have the evidence to prove it...

Porn star to run for Hungarian parliament BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Hoping to build on a political career she launched in Italy, Hungarian-born porn star Ilona Staller -- known popularly as Cicciolina -- is planning to run for a seat in the Hungarian parliament...

A Florida youth flies a small plane into a skyscraper and leaves a note supporting terrorists. Another from California ends up fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan. Like the defendants in high-profile school shooting cases, Charles Bishop, the 15-year-old suicide pilot who crashed a small plane into a Tampa office building, and John Walker Lindh, the 20-year-old American Taliban fighter, are sometimes described as loners or outsiders...

WASHINGTON -- Convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols lost another appeal before the Supreme Court on Monday, clearing the way for a state trial on murder charges that could lead to a death sentence. It was Nichols' fourth appeal to the court, and perhaps not his last. This time, the court refused to consider Nichols' claim that a new trial in Oklahoma amounts to unconstitutional double jeopardy...

SINGAPORE -- Suspected al-Qaida members armed with bombmaking instructions were planning to attack the U.S. embassy and American businesses in Singapore, the island's government said Monday. The 15 suspects -- some of them members of Singapore's military -- were detained last month after authorities found bomb information along with photographs and video footage of targeted buildings in their homes and offices...

JERUSALEM -- In a prison interview, the Palestinian naval captain captured by Israeli commandos with 50 tons of weapons on his ship said Monday he's a longtime member of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement who undertook the risky operation to help the outgunned Palestinians defend themselves...

PARIS -- Yves Saint Laurent, who put women into elegant pantsuits and broke down other barriers between the sexes with cutting-edge designs that changed the way generations of women dressed, announced his retirement Monday and said he was closing the legendary fashion house he started 40 years ago...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The international terminal is a cavern of desolation, guarded by a little man with a big gun. The air traffic control center, antique even by Afghan standards, is useless without the powerful radio that someone spirited away during the U.S. bombardment...

BONAVASH, Afghanistan -- The village of Bonavash is slowly starving. Besieged by the Taliban and crushed by years of drought, people on this remote mountain have resorted to eating bread made from grass and trace amounts of barley flour. Babies whose mothers' milk has dried up are fed grass porridge. The toothless elderly crush grass into a near powder...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair and nine U.S. senators swept into this former Soviet airbase north of Kabul on Monday and promised Afghan leaders their full support in rebuilding the shattered country. Blair, in an unannounced midnight visit to this base 30 miles from the capital, also praised the U.S.-led alliance for crushing the terrorist regime in Afghanistan...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A decade has passed since James R. Johnson held California, Mo., in terror through the cross hairs of a sniper's rifle. But Ruby Teel said she still thinks of the shooting rampage every day. Her daughter Pam Jones, wife of Moniteau County Sheriff Kenny Jones, was shot to death through her living room window as she read a Christmas story to a Bible class...

NEOSHO, Mo. -- Free-lance writer Kay Hively had to be talked into writing her first song. Imagine her surprise, then, when her initial efforts became part of a Grammy-nominated gospel album. "It's strange," Hively said. "People devote their life to trying to get people to listen to songs they've written and record songs they've written. They work and work and work. And I was sort of dragged into it. And the first jump out of the box, I wrote a song nominated for a Grammy."...

ST. LOUIS -- When she first sought election as state auditor, Claire McCaskill says her detractors argued that because she wasn't a certified public accountant -- and a Democrat like the governor -- she wasn't the right choice for the job. In announcing plans Monday to seek a second term, McCaskill said her time in office has proved those concerns never should have been concerns in the first place...

As the NFL playoffs begin, most indicators suggest this is the year of the Ram. Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk seem unstoppable, and the defense that allowed 471 points in 2000 gave up 198 fewer this season. It could produce the team's second Super Bowl appearance in three years...

Jimmie Johnson led the start of winter testing at Daytona International Speedway on Monday, a strong start for his 2002 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year campaign. Driving a Chevrolet co-owned by Rick Hendrick and defending series champion Jeff Gordon, Johnson posted a lap of 183.120 mph in his new No. 48 Monte Carlo...

To the editor: This is in response to the letter written by Marie Hyten. I personally enjoyed living in Southeast Missouri. Since I have a wife and a 16-month-old daughter I had to find employment someplace. I moved to Dallas with my wife and daughter...

Staff and wire reports Thousands of people who pledged to donate blood after Sept. 11 aren't doing so, as the nation's supply dwindles to pre-attack levels and in some places nears shortages. Blood supplies always drop in the winter, as snowstorms, flu and holidays hinder regular donors from giving. ...

The ranking for the overall well-being of children in Cape Girardeau County dropped from 16th best to 41st among 114 counties in Missouri and the city of St. Louis, according to Kids Count in Missouri, an annual study performed by the watchdog group Citizens for Missouri's Children...

After nearly a year of appeals, Regina's House of Dolls must suspend liquor sales for 20 days after being charged with 12 counts of lewdness. Four undercover liquor control agents investigated the club March 17 and reported witnessing simulated acts of sexual intercourse and dancers displaying "unauthorized areas of the body," said Don Pickard of the Missouri Division of Liquor Control...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Motorists won't have to depend on luck and prayers to get through the interchange at Interstate 55 and Highway 51 without a fender bender after traffic lights are installed there later this year. The Missouri Department of Transportation also plans to install traffic signals at Highway 74 and Mount Auburn Road in Cape Girardeau...

After watching Otis "Mr. OK" Key play in a college all-star game, the Harlem Globetrotters invited him to try out for the team. Key wasn't interested. He wanted to play real basketball. "I had a misconception that it was not very serious basketball," said Key, who was in Cape Girardeau Monday to promote the team's appearance Jan. 20 at the Show Me Center. "But they have a rich history."...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Developers hope the Jackson Board of Aldermen will temper proposals that would transfer to them some costs for infrastructure and inspections currently borne by the city. At a public hearing Monday night on proposed revisions to the city's Land Use Regulations, some developers predicted that projects will begin moving outside the city limits if costs go up. ...

The city's planning department has estimated that it will cost $71,650 to make the downtown Marquette Hotel "secure," by doing such things as boarding up windows, repairing brick walls and reinforcing beams. Planning director Kent Bratton submitted the preliminary figures to the Cape Girardeau City Council at Monday night's meeting...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The long-running River Campus dispute enters its final phase today as the Missouri Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a lawsuit blocking the project. When it issues its ruling, which is expected in March, the court will decide whether a 1-cent hike in Cape Girardeau's hotel/motel tax approved by city voters in 1998 is valid. ...

AP Business WriterNEW YORK (AP) -- Divergent signals on the state of business left investors cautious and prices mixed on Wall Street Tuesday. Upbeat comments from Microsoft and Tiffany encouraged the market, but disappointing statements from Gateway, Ciena and AOL Time Warner limited stocks' ability to advance...

AP Baseball WriterNEW YORK (AP) -- Ozzie Smith, regarded as the finest-fielding shortstop ever, was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first try by an overwhelming margin Tuesday. Smith was the only player picked, with Gary Carter falling just short...

AP Diplomatic WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- Switching gears, the State Department accepted as "credible" Israel's allegations that the Palestinian Authority was trying to smuggle in rockets and other weapons by sea. "We have some of the evidence," spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday. A day earlier Boucher said the State Department had not assembled the facts and could not determine whether the ship seized last Friday by Israel was making a delivery for the Palestinian Authority...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court narrowed the reach of a landmark disability rights law Tuesday, ruling that an assembly line worker with carpal tunnel syndrome was not entitled to special treatment on the job. A unanimous court ruled that Ella Williams' partial disability did not obligate her employer, car manufacturer Toyota, to tailor a job to suit her wrist, arm and shoulder problems...

Associated Press WriterHAMILTON, Ohio (AP) -- President Bush, acting Tuesday on his No. 1 domestic priority, signed into law a sweeping education bill that will require new reading and math tests, seek to close the education gap between rich and poor students and raise teacher standards...

Associated Press WriterLONDON (AP) -- The Archbishop of Canterbury announced his retirement Tuesday after more than a decade as the spiritual leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans and a reign plagued by infighting over women priests, gay clergy and the Church of England's financial problems...

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- Orders to U.S. factories fell by 3.3 percent in November with virtually all the weakness coming from a huge drop in demand for military airplanes. The Commerce Department report Tuesday showed that a wide range of other manufactured goods -- including metals, machinery, cars, computers and household appliances -- posted gains...

Associated Press WriterCOLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Dave Thomas, the portly pitchman whose homespun ads built Wendy's Old-Fashioned Hamburgers into one of the world's most successful fast-food enterprises, has died. He was 69. Thomas died around midnight at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the company said Tuesday...

An Arizona arbitrator has awarded fledging Renaissance Aircraft $2.7 million in compensatory and punitive damages from the foundation that had claimed it had terminated the company's license to build its aircraft. But Renaissance president John Dearden says that money could be a long time coming and that his company is looking for $2 million from investors to keep the Cape Girardeau-based business afloat...

$$$Start hkronmueller I don't usually make New Year's resolutions. In fact, I used to think the idea of making such yearlong promises to myself was frivolous. A lot of people make resolutions to exercise more and eat less fast food. It's a good idea, but the 52-week plan usually only lasts for about 14 days. By the time February rolls around, it's back to eating French fries and burgers and thinking that exercise means walking from the couch to the kitchen to get a snack...

10 years ago: Jan. 8, 1992 Students at Cape Girardeau Central High School say it's time 14-year-old "new gym" had real name, and Athletic Director Terry Kitchen agrees; committee composed of students, school representatives and alumni is being put together to name facility...

Speak Out IQ A SPEAK Out caller speculated that those who don't call Speak Out are smarter than those who do. The record needs to be set straight. The estimated IQ of the average Speak out caller is 165 -- above genius level. Those who read but don't call Speak Out have average IQs ranging from 85 to 110. Those who neither read nor call Speak Out have a median IQ of 3, slightly below that of a potted plant...

MURPHYSBORO, Ill. -- Stella S. Moeckel, 96, of Murphysboro died Monday, Jan. 7, 2002, at Chester Memorial Hospital in Chester, Ill. She was born Sept. 26, 1905, in Jacob, Ill., daughter of Emanuel and Martha Boehme Bellmann. She and Herbert G. Moeckel were married Feb. 18, 1928, in St. Louis. He died May 16, 1981...

Faye Rene Mills of Murphysboro, Ill., died following a short illness at 1:26 p.m. Dec. 25, 2001, at her daughter's home in Murphysboro. Faye was born April 10, 1903, to Elmer West Landess and Edna Belle Boxell Landess. She married William Leon Mills of Malden, Mo., Nov. 15, 1925. He preceded her in death Jan. 18, 1949...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Gladys M. Wilson, 87, of Perryville died Sunday, Jan. 6, 2002, at the Perry County Nursing Home. She was born March 31, 1914, in Edwardsville, Ill., daughter of William and Mary Lautner Damke. She worked for Woolworth in St. Louis and was store supervisor for Wilson 5&10 store...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Bessie B. Johnson, 88, of Sikeston died Sunday, Jan. 6, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born Dec. 31, 1913, in Sikeston, daughter of Clarence and Edith Schaffer Curtner. She and Amos Johnson were married March 7, 1930, in New Madrid, Mo. He died Jan. 3, 1981...

ORAN, Mo. -- Oma F. Barber, 78, of Memphis, Tenn., died Sunday, Jan. 6, 2002, at Methodist Central Hospital. She was born Oct. 17, 1923, at Marble Hill, Mo., daughter of Henry and Nora Limbaugh Fulton. Barber was a graduate of Memphis State. She was a retired first grade teacher with Memphis City Schools. She was a member of Second Baptist Church, member of the choir and a Sunday school teacher...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Irene J. Bohnert, 82, of Perryville died Monday, Jan. 7, 2002, at Perry County Memorial Hospital. She was born March 14, 1919, in Perryville, daughter of Joseph and Agnes Baudendistel Gebhardt. She and Lloyd H. "Beck" Bohnert were married May 5, 1937. He died Oct. 10, 1993...

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- Evelyn B. Fordyce, 70, of Scott City died Monday, Jan. 7, 2002, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. She was born Feb. 28, 1931, in Fredericktown, Mo., daughter of Jesse and Mattie Buchanan Faircloth. She and Ray Fordyce were married Feb. 11, 1952. He died Aug. 16, 1966...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Zelma Marie Miles, 77, of Bridgeton, Mo., died Saturday, Jan. 5, 2002, at DePaul Hospital in St. Louis. She was born April 26, 1924, in Perry County, daughter of Victor and Bertha Moore. She married Orin H. Miles. He died Aug. 3, 1968...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Funeral for Eva Crowell, 93, of Sikeston will be held at 11 a.m. today at Ponder Funeral Home. The Rev. David Johnson will officiate. Burial will be in Garden of Memories Cemetery. Crowell, 93, died Saturday, Jan. 5, 2002, at Clearview Nursing Center...

Funeral for Bill H. Williams of Cape Girardeau will be held at 1 p.m. today at Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel. The Rev. Zack Strong will officiate. Burial will be in St. Mary's Cemetery. Friends may call at the chapel from 11 a.m. until time of service...

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. -- Funeral for Dorothy Mae Young of East Prairie will be at 1 p.m. today at Shelby Funeral Home. Martin Lucas will officiate. Burial will be in East Prairie Memorial Park Cemetery. Young, 82, died Sunday, Jan. 6, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, Mo...

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Funeral for Marie Bryant Morrow of Charleston will be at 1 p.m. today at McMikle Funeral Home. The Rev. Gerald Collier will officiate. Burial will be in IOOF Cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 11 a.m. until time of service...

Funeral for Zeno "Sammy" Schaefer Jr. of Russellville, Ark., was held Friday, Dec. 28, 2001, at St. John's Catholic Church. The Rev. Ernie Hardesty officiated. Burial was in St. Paul/Gravel Hill Cemetery near Dover, Ark. Humphrey Funeral Service in Russellville was in charge of arrangements...

Son to Shanon and Shelly McCoy of Cadiz, Ky., Gateway Medical Center in Clarksville, Tenn., 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 27, 2001. Name, Noah Douglas. Weight, 10 pounds 5 ounces. Second son. Mrs. McCoy is the former Shelly Koch, daughter of Doug and Linda Koch of Cape Girardeau. She is assistant manager at Dairy Queen in Cadiz. McCoy is the son of Sam and Willa Fern McCoy of Thebes, Ill. He is associate manager at Cracker Barrel in Cadiz...

Bollinger County bridge repairs planned A bridge on Route V between the Route C and Route K junction in Bollinger County will be closed while the Missouri Department of Transportation bridge crew makes routine repairs to the structure. Weather permitting, the bridge will be closed Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. each day. Motorists will need to take alternate routes while the repairs are being made...

Associated Press WriterKABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan officials on Tuesday weighed a reported surrender offer from top Taliban figures, including the former defense minister, as U.S. troops began winding up an unsuccessful search for Osama bin Laden at the bomb-shattered Tora Bora cave complex...