Stories from Monday, October 10, 2005

AUGUSTA, Mo. -- St. Charles County's growing wine business offers visitors beautiful scenery and a chance to sample fresh vintages in pleasant, small wineries. It also offers those who aren't careful a chance to go to jail if they sample too much of the wine and then try to drive home on the county's highways...

On the heels of the last year's strong holiday shopping season -- the best in the previous five years -- the always optimistic National Retail Federation says retailers can expect similar success this year. Not everyone is so sure. Economists and business leaders say that the outlook for the 2006 holiday shopping season nationally and in Southeast Missouri is murky at best, especially in light of September sales results, which suggest that consumer anxiety about the economy is growing...

Editor's note: This is the first of an occasional series about Michael Montgomery and Danielle Ernie, who chose to leave their hometowns of Poplar Bluff and Ellington to attend Notre Dame Regional High School as freshmen. Michael Montgomery was sore. And according to his host mom, maybe a bit grumpy...

ST. LOUIS -- The toughest part of Joe Jurevicius' biggest day in the NFL had nothing to do with filling in as a starting wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks. It was the bus ride past the hospital where his son died that was tough to take. Jurevicius caught a career-best nine passes for 137 yards and a touchdown in Seattle's 37-31 victory Sunday over St. ...

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Mark Martin is probably NASCAR's best known pessimist. As Martin raced toward a victory Sunday at Kansas Speedway that would keep his slim championship hopes alive, he couldn't shake the feeling that something would keep him from Victory Lane...

The Miami Herald The revisions to the 32-year-old Endangered Species Act approved by the House of Representatives by a 229 to 193 vote last week were a sellout of the very creatures the law is supposed to protect. If the Senate were to go along with this bill, it would reverse three decades of progressive actions that have restored American bald eagles and condors; and Florida panthers, manatees and Key deer, to name just a few...

What I reported as speculation a few weeks back appears to be fact -- Barnes & Noble is moving to Westfield West Park. Or as less high-falutin' folks around these parts call it, the mall. Don't believe me? Do what I did. Just call B&N and ask. I did, without at first identifying myself as your friendly, neighborhood business writer...

The River Heritage Quilters Guild recently held its biennial quilt home tour "Decorating With Quilts," giving almost 70 visitors new ideas on how to use quilts for more than comfort and warmth. The 125 members of the guild have varying levels of experience, from beginners to advanced...

NEW YORK -- Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and the New York Yankees are still around -- by the slimmest of margins. Slow-footed catcher Jorge Posada barely beat the tag for the go-ahead run on Jeter's seventh-inning bouncer, and the New York Yankees scratched out a 3-2 victory Sunday night over the Los Angeles Angels to force a decisive fifth game in California...

Relief efforts mobilized; death toll reaches 20,000, expected to rise even higher. MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan -- Rescuers worked to reach remote, mountainous areas Sunday after Pakistan's worst-ever earthquake wiped out entire villages, buried roads in rubble and knocked out electricity and water supplies. The death toll stood at 20,000 and was expected to rise...

Complaints about the company sound like the very ills it promises to cure with its software. SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. promises its software will make people better workers -- more productive, more profitable, more able, as the company likes to say, to achieve their potential...

ROUND TOP, Texas -- About 80 miles east of Austin, out where the fire ants bite and men still doff their baseball hats when greeting women, 20 cows pregnant with calves cloned by ViaGen Inc. have just arrived. Stampeding down a chute from a tractor trailer, the cattle join a menagerie of cloned pigs and cows that include Elvis and Priscilla, calves cloned from cells scraped from sides of high-quality beef hanging in a slaughterhouse...

WASHINGTON -- The FBI, famous for its straight-laced crime-fighting image, is considering whether to relax its hiring rules over how often applicants could have used marijuana or other illegal drugs earlier in life. Some senior FBI managers have been deeply frustrated that they could not hire applicants who acknowledged occasional marijuana use in college, but in some cases already perform top-secret work at other government agencies, such as the CIA or State Department...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Delphi Corp.'s bankruptcy could change the face of the U.S. auto industry, ratcheting up the pressure to produce cheaper auto parts overseas and forcing unprecedented cuts in union wages and benefits, industry analysts and autoworkers said Sunday...

25 years ago: Oct. 10, 1980 Flood-control planning for Cape Girardeau County is running ahead of schedule, but Army Corps of Engineers officials told a gathering of area residents last night it will probably be at least 1990 before the implementation of any flood-control plan begins in the area; the study area encompasses 210 square miles of the county, from just north of Turkey Creek in Northern Cape Girardeau County to the Diversion Channel on the south edge of the county...

Saint Francis initiates rapid response team Saint Francis Medical Center initiated a Rapid Response Team on Oct. 1. The RRT was established to ensure rapid care is given in response to a patient with deteriorating signs and symptoms before a cardiac arrest occurs. ...

Hi Tech Communications hires marketing director Viney Mosley has taken the job as director of marketing and sales at Hi Tech Communications in Cape Girardeau. Owner Jim Woods said that Mosley will manage the company's sales and marketing efforts out of their new office at 623 S. Silver Springs Road, Suite 200. Woods started Hi Tech in 1996 as a locally owned company that provides telecommunications equipment and service in a 150-mile radius...

Recent charges filed against parents for endangering their children because of filthy living conditions raise questions for everyone about how these conditions could be prevented. A couple in Perryville, Mo., have been charged with manslaughter and child endangerment in the death of their 4-year-old boy, who died from a staph infection. The child endangerment charges stem from the unsanitary living conditions found in the home by investigators from the Missouri Children's Division...

To the editor: Thanks to the Rust family for inviting me to participate in the Southeast Missourian's 100th celebration Oct. 1. I had a great time, and it was a first-class event. I very much enjoy working with all of you. I take pride in being open and accessible to your paper at all times. I appreciate being a small part of the great success our Cape Girardeau-Jackson area has incurred the past several years. Your paper is one of the reasons we continue to grow in Cape Girardeau County...

To the editor; This letter is written in sincerest gratitude to two wonderful, honest people who recently went out of their ways to help me, a stranger. I mistakenly left my billfold on the hood of a friend's van in Jackson. I did not miss it until I was back in Cape Girardeau. ...

Raymond A. Diebold, 80, of Chaffee died Sunday, Oct. 9, 2005, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 3, 1924, in Perkins, Mo., son of the late Jacob and Bertha Graser Diebold. He and Florence Welter were married on Nov. 8, 1949. She preceded him in death on June 9, 2003...

Expensive trips; Send them to prison; No advance warning; God's on both sides; ID carelessness; Keep us informed; Dangerous policy; Other reasons; Event organizer

COBEN, Ill. -- Mable Irene Blake, 70, of Herrin, Ill., formerly of Cobden, died Saturday, Oct. 8, 2005 at her home in Herrin. She was born Feb. 9, 1935, in Union County, daughter of James Earl and Mable Marie Askew Modglin. She is survived by two daughters, Laura Blake of Chicago and Linda Blake of Marietta, S.C.; one son, Larry and wife, Valerie Blake, of Herrin...

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. -- Verdeman Eugene "Brad" Kemp, 68, of East Prairie died Sunday, Oct. 9, 2005, at the East Prairie Nursing Center. He was born Sept. 3, 1937, in Kaiser, Ark., son of the late Tom and Beauton Riley Kemp Bowles. He and Cora May Nickell were married Nov. 6, 1971. She preceded him in death on July 22, 1973...

Ronald Charles Rueseler, 62, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, Oct. 9, 2005, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Aug. 27, 1943, in Minneapolis, Minn., son of Albert C. and Opal Brantley Rueseler. His early childhood years were spent growing up in Cape Girardeau. ...

Firefighters and volunteers will install 9,600 smoke detectors and batteries in homes in Cape Girardeau. On nearly every weekend beginning in October until Thanksgiving the Cape Girardeau Fire Department and volunteers are installing 9,600 smoke detectors and batteries in homes on the south and east sides of Cape Girardeau...

Old Town Cape wants to fashion land-use plan for development of the Good Hope neighborhood. When Tim Arbeiter walks along Good Hope Street, he sees more than run-down houses, well-worn business buildings and vacant lots. He sees future development in one of the city's oldest neighborhoods...

This week I thought we would check in with "The Rumor Mill @ Southeast," the online university resource which helped spark "Fact or Fiction?" Ann Hayes, news bureau director at Southeast Missouri State University, has been fielding questions at The Rumor Mill for more than six years...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A new program that chose 10 Columbia school teachers to share their teaching methods with colleagues is being criticized by some as a possible plan to circumvent state law on teacher pay. The new professional development program is scheduled to be unveiled tonight at a Columbia Board of Education meeting. Details, including the teachers who have been chosen, have not been released...

NEW ORLEANS -- This city's historical jazz funeral procession returned to debris-lined streets Sunday to honor a famous chef who died last month in Atlanta, where he had evacuated after being rescued from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters. More than two dozen people carrying black and white photos of a smiling Austin Leslie marched down the streets of the devastated Seventh Ward in New Orleans, celebrating the life of the famous chef whose Chez Helene soul food restaurant inspired the television show "Frank's Place" in the 1980s.. ...

NEW ORLEANS -- Two New Orleans police officers repeatedly punched a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication, and another city officer assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations. After being questioned, the three patrolmen were arrested late Sunday and charged with battery. They were released and ordered to appear in court at a later date, Capt. Marlon Defillo said. The officers also were suspended without pay, he added...

Everyone needs to work the return desk of a major department store (which I have), serve in elected office (which I have), umpire a Little League baseball game (which I have) and serve on a government reform commission (which I just did). In none of these can you please everybody, but you learn a lot about human nature -- and yourself...

WASHINGTON -- As doubts grow about her abortion views, Harriet Miers will face vigorous questioning on privacy rights and her qualifications for the Supreme Court, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said President Bush's pick to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor must show she can handle complicated legal issues and has not cut deals with the White House to overturn Roe v. Wade...

Cape Girardeau Firefighters responded to the following calls Saturday: * At 7:25 p.m., a structure fire at 2075 Corporate Circle. * At 7:39 p.m., emergency medical service at 500 Asher St. * At 10:12 p.m., transformer fire at 1843 Stoddard St. Firefighters responded to the following calls Sunday:...

Cape Girardeau The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWIs * Johnathon C. Hopper, 25, of 4052 State Hwy 77, Benton, Mo., was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. * Bryan M. Kempinski, 20, 10576 Keck Road, Apt. 6, Saint Jacob, Ill., was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated...

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- The slaughter of thousands of domestic fowl in Turkey and Romania began Sunday as a precaution against the spread of bird flu after both countries confirmed their first cases of the disease over the weekend. It has not been determined in either country that the disease is the same H5N1 strain that has swept through poultry populations in Asia since 2003, infecting humans and killing at least 60 people...

HADITHA, Iraq -- They stormed the insurgent-ridden city of Fallujah, returned home, and now are back in Iraq's most troubled province -- all in 10 months time. Some prefer this hectic pace. "I didn't join the Marine Corps just to stand around," said Lance Cpl. Giovanni Perez of Los Angeles...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- With U.S. mediation, Shiite Muslim and Kurdish officials negotiated with Sunni Arab leaders Sunday over possible last-minute additions to Iraq's proposed constitution, trying to win Sunni support ahead of next weekend's crucial referendum...

SAN DIEGO -- Chris Carpenter stood soaked with champagne in the St. Louis clubhouse as he reeled off everything the Cardinals are doing right this postseason. They jumped to big leads in all three first-round games against San Diego. Carpenter and the other starters were superb and the bullpen sealed it each time. The defense turned enough double plays that the Padres never found any kind of offensive groove...

In a phenomenal display of power between golf's two biggest sluggers, Tiger Woods outlasted John Daly in the American Express Championship because of a 3-foot putt. Woods made up two shots over the final three holes Sunday to force a playoff, then won on the second extra hole when Daly three-putted for bogey from 15 feet on the 16th, badly pulling his short par putt...

The Southeast Missouri State University women's soccer team bounced back from its first conference loss with a 1-0 road victory over Eastern Kentucky on Sunday. The Redhawks' Alaina Lacopo scored the game's lone goal when her shot from 20 yards out deflected off a defender and past Colonels goalkeeper Christina Graul and into the top left-hand corner with four minutes remaining in the game. The goal was unassisted...

Mapes, Mealy capture Ladies Day tourney Beth Mapes and Deb Mealy won first place in the championship flight of the Cape Girardeau Country Club Ladies Day Guest Day tournament Thursday. Kathy Morris and Linda Matheson finished second, and Leslie Steele and Jayne Spangler placed third...

Chief Paul White Eagle to give free presentation Chief Paul White Eagle will give a free presentation at 8 p.m. Thursday at the University Center Ballroom on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. The program is on "The Origin of Life: Looking from the inside and seeing its many spectrums as known and taught by Native Peoples." This event is sponsored by the Association of College and University Biology Educators (ACUBE). ...

Cape man promoted to 1st lieutenant; Area man enlists in National Guard as MP; Jackson native graduates from infantry training

Judge Gary Kamp reads a 32-year-old man his charges during a scheduled Division III preliminary court hearing. The first charge is driving while intoxicated. Other charges include operating a vehicle without a drivers license and in a careless or reckless manner...

Sounds of bluegrass music, the smell of kettle cooked popcorn and a cool breeze greeted visitors at the 15th annual Oktoberfest at Black Forest Villages in Cape Girardeau. "It's been a pretty nice fall day," said Greg Macke, owner of Black Forest Villages Co. "We saw a lot of people come through and just stay for the entire day."...

The SEMO Conference tournament will be among three played this week. Southeast Missourian For area volleyball fans, today marks the start of conference tournament week. Three area conferences, the SEMO Conference, Mississippi Valley Conference and Stoddard County Activities Association, will all conduct their conference tournaments this week...

Jets 14, Buccaneer 12 Vinny Testaverde looked as comfortable in the pocket for the New York Jets on Sunday as he was watching them from his couch two weeks ago. The Meadowlands crowd welcomed Testaverde back with rousing cheers and a standing ovation, and in the end, he deserved it: The 41-year-old quarterback led the Jets (2-3) to a victory over the Buccaneers...

HOUSTON -- Roger Clemens and the Houston Astros gave a whole new meaning to the word "longevity." The 43-year-old Rocket came out of the bullpen to rescue the Astros, and Chris Burke ended the longest postseason game in baseball history with a home run in the 18th inning, lifting Houston over the Atlanta Braves 7-6 Sunday and into the NL Championship Series...