Stories from Thursday, July 24, 2003

BAYONNE, France -- Riding with the pain of a double-fractured collarbone, it could be argued that Tyler Hamilton shouldn't even be in the Tour de France. Try telling him that. Grimacing in discomfort, the boyish-looking 32-year-old, who long played second-fiddle to superstar Lance Armstrong, won his first ever stage in cycling's premier race Wednesday -- sweet compensation for being too injured to challenge his former leader as he pursues a record-tying fifth title...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Treasury is set to begin mailing tax refunds of up to $400 per child to 25 million families later this week - a cornerstone of President Bush's effort to juice the economy, but a benefit that has sparked controversy. Bush will trumpet the imminent arrival of the refunds today, when he and Treasury Secretary John Snow visit a Philadelphia office where the checks are being printed...

BOSTON -- It is likely that more than 1,000 people were molested by priests and workers in the Boston Archdiocese over six decades, a figure the Massachusetts attorney general termed "staggering" as he issued a report Wednesday blaming Roman Catholic leaders for the crisis...

LIHUE, Hawaii -- A tour helicopter crashed Wednesday into a mountain on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, killing all five people on board, authorities said. The wreckage was spotted around noon at about 4,300 feet on Mount Waialeale, police said. The chopper went down in a crater on the peak's eastern face known as the rainiest spot on earth...

SAN ANTONIO -- A man on Wednesday walked into the real estate office where he worked and fatally shot two women and critically wounded another, authorities said. The shooter later killed himself while he was driving a sport utility vehicle being chased by police near Temple, about 135 miles northeast of San Antonio, officials said...

NEW YORK -- A city councilman known as a crusader against urban violence was shot to death inside City Hall on Wednesday by a political rival who bypassed security with a gun by walking into the building along with his victim. A plainclothes police officer shot and killed the assailant, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The gunman's ties to the councilman allowed him to bypass security, he added...

A new report says that attempts to curb binge drinking on campuses through so-called "social norms marketing" -- campaigns that trumpet evidence students at a given school party in moderation -- have failed. The report released Wednesday by the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study also found that alcohol abuse -- by a few measures -- increased at some campuses that employ social norms campaigns. A proponent of the marketing efforts immediately took issue with the findings...

MIAMI -- Cuban migrants fashioned a boat out of a 1951 Chevy pickup truck and "drove" it to within 40 miles of the United States before they were spotted, taken off and returned to the island, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday. The dozen migrants, some sheltered in the truck cab or under a yellow tarp covering the bed, were noticed last week by a U.S. Customs aircraft south of Key West, Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan Doss said...

Iran confirms holding top al-Qaida operatives TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran announced Wednesday it was holding senior members of the al-Qaida terror network and will hunt down any others on its soil, while the United States demanded it turn over any prisoners to face justice...

MONROVIA, Liberia -- Liberian rebels on Wednesday shattered a day-old pledge to cease fire, lobbing mortars at neighborhoods crowded with refugees and briefly capturing a key bridge in the war-ruined capital -- a city running desperately short of food and water...

TEHRAN, Iran -- Canada recalled its ambassador Wednesday to protest how Iran was dealing with the death of an Iranian-Canadian journalist after hours of police interrogation -- a death Iran's reformers have blamed on hard-line officials. Zahra Kazemi was buried Wednesday in her birthplace, the southern Iranian city of Shiraz, against the wishes of her son, who lives in Montreal, and the Canadian government...

JERUSALEM -- A few weeks into the truce that halted almost three years of Mideast fighting, Israelis and Palestinians are deadlocked over what to do next. Now, their leaders head to Washington, hoping to win pressure on the other side to take difficult steps...

U.S. forces captured a senior Republican Guard official, a day after killing Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai in a four-hour gunbattle. The head of the Special Republican Guard, Barzan Abd al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid al-Tikriti, was seized Wednesday at an undisclosed location in Iraq. He was 11th on the U.S. list of 55 most-wanted figures from the deposed regime...

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- A handler whose police dog died of heat exposure after the air conditioning in his patrol car failed has started bonding with a new dog, a German shepherd from the Czech Republic. The handler, Independence police Sgt. John Bullard, left his previous dog, Hondo, in an air-conditioned police car last week for about an hour. ...

EMINENCE, Mo. -- Former state Sen. Danny Staples, an Ozarks orator with legislative power over prisons and highways, died Tuesday at his home of a heart attack, a family spokesman announced. He was 68. Staples, a Democrat from Eminence, served 20 years in the Senate before retiring in January because of term limits. He previously served six years in the Missouri House...

ST. LOUIS -- A St. Louis man was in critical condition Wednesday after he was attacked by three pit bulls, authorities said. Blood stains on the street and a torn shirt on a vacant lot were reminders of the attack at around 11 p.m. Sunday on Ealgie Edwards Sr., 55. Edwards, partially paralyzed from previous gunshot wounds, suffered injuries to his legs, groin, arms and chest. The attack happened as Edwards was walking down the street...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- With natural gas reserves already at a five-year low and prices high, state officials warned a government panel Wednesday that Missourians could be paying more for natural gas this winter. Warren Wood, energy department manager for the state Public Service Commission, told the Governor's Energy Policy Council his agency has been concerned since March about the potential for higher consumer rates...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Citing high malpractice insurance costs, a state physicians group is asking Gov. Bob Holden to call a September special legislative session to consider new restrictions on lawsuits in medical malpractice cases. The request Wednesday from the Missouri State Medical Association comes just two weeks after Holden vetoed a bill backed by the group that would have imposed new limits not only on medical malpractice lawsuits but all personal injury lawsuits...

SALT LAKE CITY -- Eight people will receive equal shares of the $250,000 reward offered for information in the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, the mayor's office announced Wednesday. Elizabeth was kidnapped from her bedroom June 5, 2002, when she was 14. On March 12, she was spotted on a street in Salt Lake City suburb with two transients, Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee...

BOISE, Idaho -- Two firefighters were overrun by flames and killed soon after they were dropped by helicopter to battle a fast-moving blaze in a national forest in central Idaho, officials said Wednesday. The fire in the Salmon-Challis National Forest about 130 miles south of Missoula, Mont., was caused by lightning and first reported Sunday night. Hot temperatures and wind blew it up from 120 acres to about 1,000 acres Tuesday night, when the two died, officials said...

LOS ANGELES -- Two Southeast Missouri brothers welcomed California's scorching summer sun Wednesday afternoon as their solar car passed the finish line, winning the longest solar power car race in the world. Scott and Neal Essner of Kelso, Mo., along with the help of about 40 other members of the University of Missouri-Rolla solar car team, celebrated as UMR's Solar Miner IV cruised into Los Angeles, blowing away the competition in the American Solar Challenge. ...

July 24, 2003 Dear Julie, Hiding among the spam glutting my e-mail inbox recently was an e-mail from a historian I know. It described life in the United States in 1903 through the use of statistics. Some of the changes that have occurred in the past 100 years are startling. In 1903:...

"How was the bread pudding today?" It was an odd way to say hello, an odd way to start a telephone conversation from Iraq considering he saw, from afar, the mission that took out Odai and Qusai Hussein on Tuesday. But that's just Paul Mingus. And with that question, the Cape Girardeau Noon Lions Club members laughed and knew right away that he missed them...

DENVER -- Kobe Bryant's legal dream team consists of two low-profile attorneys with a client list ranging from JonBenet Ramsey's father to retired Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy and writer Hunter S. Thompson. One of them, Pamela Mackey, knows the prosecutor well and the other, Hal Haddon, ran former Sen. Gary Hart's 1988 presidential campaign...

Ronald Reagan was President, Charles and Di got married and the first space shuttle was launched. That was 1981, the year that Ricky Rudd began a record string of consecutive Winston Cup starts that will reach 700 Sunday in the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono International Raceway...

The Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- With flames engulfing them, Bobby Labonte and Ryan Newman had to keep calm while scrambling out of their fiery race cars. Both made it out without serious injury in the separate accidents, plunging out of their burning cockpits before safety crews even arrived to assist them...

The rising accountability enforced by new federal education laws has school districts across the country searching for a miracle cure to waning student achievement. Many districts, including Cape Girardeau, say they have found a remedy in a reform model known as professional learning communities...

A Chaffee woman pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to defrauding an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease out of more than $10,000 in credit-card purchases. Linda Gale Moore, 56, appeared solemn and dressed in black when she arrived at the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey in Cape Girardeau. She answered his questions in mostly two-word sentences of, "Yes, sir," and "No, sir."...

As controversy brews in Cape Girardeau about the Convention and Visitors Bureau's strategy to find a pitch for bringing visitors to the city, another group is working on strengthening the pride of the community's citizens. The group, chaired by Melvin Gateley, is a subcommittee of the city's Vision 2020 project. The members met Wednesday at City Hall to formulate a strategy for promoting the positive aspects of life in the City of Roses...

Long strikes out 19 for Jackson in Legion win Jackson starter Kyle Long struck out 19 batters in a complete-game shutout to help stave off elimination in a Senior Legion District 14 game Wednesday night. Long allowed only five hits in a 1-0 win over Poplar Bluff. Jackson's only run came in the bottom of the fifth. Brandon Gendron doubled with one out and Jason Owen singled to drive Gendron home...

Not even the heat of summer has kept tennis players from sweating out games on local courts. It's that kind of enthusiasm, along with a new tennis organization now in place, that's helped fuel the sport's renaissance in the area. "It's starting to come back," said Tim Benton, a tennis player from Cape Girardeau. "Fifteen to 20 years ago it was really big around the area."...

The Jackson junior legion baseball team will make history today by participating in the Junior Legion State Tournament for the first time in its eight years. Jackson didn't have to qualify for the tournament because it's the host, another first for the program...

There's no doubt Robbie Standridge is on a roll. The question is whether a $500 "bounty" will end it. Standridge, of Springfield, Ill., has won five consecutive features in the outlaw sprint class at Auto Tire and Parts Racepark near Benton, Mo. When that class returns Aug. 2 after taking this week off, the driver who defeats Standridge in the night's finale will earn an additional $500 on top of the regular $1,100 first-place money. The money was put up this week as a bonus by a local fan...

Leno publishes picture book for childrenLOS ANGELES -- His day job comes on television long after bedtime, so most little kids may discover Jay Leno for the first time as a children's author. Leno, host of NBC's "The Tonight Show," said Tuesday he's written a picture book, "If Roast Beef Could Fly," based on a family cookout in which mischief led to a ruined rotisserie of meat...

CHICAGO -- After a series of powerful summer storms didn't break so much as a branch on the 70-foot locust in front of their Chicago home, Natalie and Wendell Tucker figured the tree could withstand just about anything. Right up until Sunday night, that is, when it was knocked onto their house by yet another storm...

WASHINGTON -- Former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, or rather a padded cardboard box wrapped in a black T-shirt that is representing him in effigy, is getting a lecture on the details of human immolation: "We all know that hair is one of the first things that burn on a human body," says a woman, called as a witness in a mock trial Tuesday at the Capitol's west lawn...

Sam Waksal begins serving prison term MINERSVILLE, Pa. -- Sam Waksal, the drug-company executive caught in the insider-trading scandal that threatens Martha Stewart, reported to a federal minimum-security prison Wednesday to begin serving a sentence of more than seven years...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Two people were killed Tuesday in a one-car accident on U.S. 54 in Cole County, east of Route CC. The victims were Richard Wagner, 73, of Lake Ozark, and his granddaughter, Dana Baer, 10, of Pittsburgh, Pa. The child was dead at the scene, and Wagner died while en route to University Hospital in Columbia...

NEOSHO, Mo. -- The kitchen manager for the Newton County Jail has an array of fresh produce to pick from as she assembles colorful dishes, including pasta served with seasoned tomatoes and yellow squash. "I just want the trays to look pretty," said Debbie Williams, as the kitchen staff dished out the food to be delivered to the inmates' cells...

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Apparently, getting married at Darlington Raceway is a popular idea. Track spokeswoman Cathy Mock says the raceway sold out all its available wedding packages for the Southern 500 next month a week after announcing them. Mock wouldn't say how many couples will tie the knot at the historic track Aug. 31, only that nuptials will start at 8 a.m. and run through noon, when pre-race activities begin. She said there would be about 20 to 30 minutes between services...

Norman Gregory Watson, 70, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, July 23, 2003, at his home. He was born Nov. 16, 1932, in Cape Girardeau, son of William Homer and Flora Maude Williams Watson. He first married Emma Louise Fuerth, who preceded him in death. He and Mary Ella Kaufman were married April 9, 1981, in Cape Girardeau...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Mary F. Clay, 86, of Perryville died Monday, July 21, 2003, at Perry Oaks Manor. She was born Dec. 21, 1916, in Evanston, Ill., daughter of Henry and Hedwig Pestka Schwall. She married Stephen J. Clay, who preceded her in death. Clay was a member of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church...

Georgia O. Cauble, 91, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, July 23, 2003, at the Lutheran Home. Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

10 years ago: July 24, 1993 Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau reached crest yesterday and is receding slightly, but worst isn't over; after crest Friday of 46.6 feet, National Weather Service is predicting another crest of 47 feet on Aug. 3; today's river stage is 46.4 feet...

Kincy Daughters to Jim and Rose Mary Kincy of Jackson, Monday, June 16, 2003, in Smolensk, Russia. Jordan Anastasia was born Oct. 2, 1998, and Makayla Dariya was born Nov. 24, 2001. First children. Mrs. Kincy is the former Rose Mary Drum, daughter of Ralph and Martha Rose Drum Sr. of Friedheim. She is a deputy clerk with Cape Girardeau County Circuit Clerk's Office in Jackson. Kincy is the son of the late Aldon and Lenora Kincy of Dexter, Mo. He is manager of Country Mart in Jackson...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Many school districts have decided not to pay the tab to give students standardized tests in social studies and science after lawmakers failed to restore state funding for the exams. Through Tuesday, 266 of Missouri's 524 districts agreed to pay for Missouri Assessment Program testing in one or both subjects, but 97 had refused. ...

MOSUL, Iraq -- It was 10 a.m. when the four Humvees pulled up outside the handsome villa on Shalalat Street and disgorged a party of U.S. soldiers. Over a bullhorn, they told the occupants to come out with their hands up. What followed was a firefight from the ground and air that reduced the comfortable villa to a smoking hulk. ...

SAN DIEGO -- The Cardinals made sure they didn't lose another one-run game. Edgar Renteria had three hits and two RBIs and the Cardinals got 17 hits in an 8-4 win over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday. St. Louis, which lost the first two of the three-game series by a run and have lost 18 of 23 one-run decisions, got at least one hit from every position player...

A Cape Girardeau native dreamed up and wrote a new pair of videos that look at how the explorations of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark have inspired artists. Titled "Inspiring Journey: Lewis and Clark Through the Eyes of the Artist," the first video includes numerous works of art that depict the exploration that opened the American West. The second video focuses on how artists, particularly Montanan Ron Ukrainetz, go about creating historical art...

MACOMB, Ill. -- Two-a-day practices start today for the Rams, and two-time MVP Kurt Warner can't wait. Coming off an injury-plagued season will do that to a player. The quarterback was happy to make the three-plus hour drive to the team's remote training camp site...

Someday in the not-too-distant future, Iraqi parents will tuck their children into bed at night and, like Scheherazade, tell them tales of Odai and Qusai, the notorious sons of Saddam. This is how people talk about them even now. Odai, 39, was the loud, preening one. ...

WASHINGTON -- A day after American forces killed Saddam Hussein's sons and heirs, President Bush asserted Wednesday that the United States was making "steady progress" in pacifying postwar Iraq and said the sacrifices of U.S. troops were not in vain...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- By killing Odai and Qusai Hussein instead of capturing them, U.S. forces may have lost a chance to expose the inner workings of Saddam's regime, provide clues to the dictator's whereabouts and yield intelligence on anti-American guerrilla operations...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A new audiotape purported to be of toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, broadcast by an Arab satellite station Wednesday, called on former soldiers to rise up against the American occupation. The speaker said the tape was made on July 20, two days before his sons Odai and Qusai were killed in a fierce attack on a villa belonging to a Saddam cousin in the northern city of Mosul...

Even though heart disease is so prevalent, women who suffer from it often feel it carries a stigma -- one reason advocates have been unable to persuade any celebrities to talk publicly about their conditions. "Women have to have this youthful appearance, and if they admit they have heart disease, it's always aligned with being old," says Dr. Debra R. Judelson, a cardiologist with the Cardiovascular Medical Group of Southern California in Beverly Hills, Calif...

WASHINGTON -- Elderly blacks on Medicare are more than twice as likely as whites to go without prescription drugs, says a study by a public research group. Medicare does not cover most prescription medicines given outside a hospital. It is this gap in coverage that Congress is working to fill...

At age 30 and seemingly in great health, Cindy DeMarco was jolted awake early one Saturday three years ago with nausea, upper back pain, shortness of breath and a strange pressure in her chest. She thought the pain had to be related to her distance running or the racquetball game she had played the previous evening...

John Burton SIKESTON, Mo. -- John Ell Burton, 57, of Sikeston died Wednesday, July 23, 2003, at his home. He was born June 8, 1946, in Snow Lake, Ark., son of Louie and Ruby Edwards Burton. He married Vina Flanigan on Aug. 5, 1978, in Sikeston. He was a factory worker...

Anna M. "Granny" Little, 79, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, July 18, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born Jan. 26, 1924, at Lilbourn, Mo., daughter of Buster and Irene Butler Perry. Little was a retired school teacher and postal worker, and was a member of New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. She had lived in Cape Girardeau since 1983...

WASHINGTON -- House Majority Whip Roy Blunt has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer and will undergo surgery to have his prostate removed next month, he said Wednesday. The 53-year-old Blunt, R-Mo., said a malignancy was found during a routine screening and that doctors diagnosed prostate cancer in the early stages...

WASHINGTON -- Personalized postage stamps -- featuring the kids, the dog, the company logo -- may be in Americans' future. Such special issue stamps, sold at a premium, were among the recommendations issued Wednesday by the President's Commission on the Future of the Postal Service...

WASHINGTON -- The House voted Wednesday to prevent federal regulators from letting individual broadcast companies own television stations serving nearly half the national TV market, ignoring the preferences of its own Republican leaders and a Bush administration veto threat...

WASHINGTON -- He is best known for his trademark "Heeeeeeere's Johnny," but long before he became famous as Johnny Carson's sidekick, Ed McMahon was a decorated fighter pilot during the Korean War. This weekend, the television announcer, host, actor and pitchman will join thousands of other veterans in Washington marking the 50th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the fighting...

WASHINGTON -- Sept. 11 hijackers lived freely in San Diego, even after they were linked to al-Qaida. Warnings that terrorist groups were training pilots were ignored. Intelligence officials were more focused on stopping attacks abroad than at home. A congressional investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks has already revealed major intelligence problems. Today it will reveal more as its final report on the attacks is released, officials and congressional panel members say...

WASHINGTON -- The earliest map using "America" to label part of the New World is going on display in America for the first time. The 496-year-old Waldseemueller map, sometimes called America's birth certificate, will be on public view at the Library of Congress starting today...

WASHINGTON -- In a drive to meet Wall Street's expectations for earnings, housing finance giant Freddie Mac engaged in transactions that violated accounting rules as senior executives withheld information from company directors and investors, an investigation made public Wednesday has found...

Cape Girardeau Thursday, July 24 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests Jeffrey Todd Mayberry, 33, of 301 S. Sprigg, Cape Girardeau, was arrested Wednesday on a Cape Girardeau warrant for failure to appear...

Cape Girardeau Thursday, July 24 Firefighters responded Tuesday to the following items: at 7:46 p.m., emergency medical service at 1105 Linden. at 9:08 p.m., emergency medical service at 2110 William. Firefighters responded Wednesday to the following items:...

The Cape Girardeau Police Department says it has tried just about everything it can think of to cut crime that has plagued the city's south side for years. Recently the department turned to some experts for assistance: the residents who live there...

The Cape Girardeau School District is taking on a completely new way of thinking when it comes to setting its goals for next year, embracing a reform model that would supposedly make school settings "professional learning communities." While the district has yet to work out the specifics, the gist of the plan is intended to allow each school to set its own specific goals on how to deal with individualized problems while always establishing collaborative, successful communities of learning for schoolchildren.. ...

James Fortner and Heather West What is your favorite exercise/which exercise is most effective? Heather: "I really like to do short sprints to work on leg power." James: "I like to do jumping exercises to make my legs strong."...

Today Newborn massage course from 10 to 11 a.m. at Generations Resource Center at Southeast Missouri Hospital. The class is for parents and caregivers of newborns up to 6 weeks old. For information or to register, call 651-5825. Elks Mobile Dental Unit will be at the Cape Girardeau Elks Lodge through Aug. 21. The unit offers free dental service to qualifying patients. For information, call (573) 690-6003...

To the editor: Some type of bus transportation for our elderly and low-income residents is long overdue. I grew up in Quincy, Ill., a community roughly the size of Cape Girardeau, which has operated a bus system for decades. The population of our region is steadily growing older. With incidents such as the Santa Monica Market, an alternative has to be provided for people who should not be behind the wheel but must get out to do their shopping...

To the editor: I would like to express my extreme gratitude to the brave individuals of the Cape Girardeau and Jackson fire departments for their hard work in trying to save both Holiday Happenings and Independence Place early Sunday morning. The loss of this building affects this community in ways most will never know or understand. ...

Degrading activity I AM disgusted after reading the article about Our House Bar & Grill in downtown Cape Girardeau. I thought we were trying to spruce up the downtown area. I find it degrading that young women would parade around like that for money...

Elmer C. Koenig, 73, of Jackson passed away Tuesday, July 22, 2003, at his home. He was born Jan. 20, 1930, at New Wells, son of Ernest and Erna Gerler Koenig. He and Helenmarie Tuschhoff were married Sept. 5, 1954, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim...

The Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- The announcement Wednesday that Gov. Gray Davis will face a recall election capped a day of political jockeying among potential candidates to replace him, who may have to announce their plans as early as Saturday...