Stories from Saturday, February 3, 2007

Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton was justified in removing state Rep. Scott Lipke as chairman of an important crime-fighting committee, two lawmakers said in a letter to the Southeast Missourian written at Jetton's request. Reps. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, and Kenny Jones, R-California, wrote that Jetton was forced into the action. "Due to a chain of events that occurred in the committee, the speaker had no choice but to remove Lipke as chair," they wrote...

Kaylen Martin intently focused on the chess pieces, contemplating her next move. "You have to be quiet and you have to concentrate," she explained. The sixth-grader at Cape Girardeau Central Middle School isn't alone. More than 50 fifth- and sixth-graders stay after school to play chess for about an hour each Wednesday, starting in October and ending in late February...

McCLURE, Ill. -- A semitrailer driving eastbound on Highway 146 struck and killed a pedestrian walking the opposite direction Friday. The accident occurred at just before 3:30 a.m. in McClure, near Highway 146's intersection with Highway 3. The truck was driven by David R. Jones, 29, of Scott City, the Illinois State Police said. Further details are being withheld until the next of kin can be notified...

Political cycles; Not an empire; Respectful teens; How to discipline; Shades of the KGB; Tail wagging dog?; Registering offenders; Drug informants; Cold jail; Bad example; After the storm; Driving on the left; Late audit; District dallying; Why change?; Demand answers

Big Brothers Big Sisters in Cape Girardeau operates an after-school mentoring program at Jefferson, Clippard, Blanchard and Franklin elementary schools and at Central Middle School that serves 150 students. Another 56 students are on a waiting list to get a mentor...

After opening in the morning despite an unexpectedly heavy snowfall, the Cape Girardeau Public Schools are forced to call off classes at 11 a.m., an almost unprecedented course of action; Southeast Missouri receives 4 to 8 inches of snow. Voters in the Jackson School District yesterday approved one bond issue and rejected another; a $1,090,000 bond issue to finance additions to the junior high and West Lane Elementary schools won approval, while a $410,000 bond issue to finance construction of an addition to the high school gymnasium failed.. ...

Officials at Southeast Missouri State University disclosed Friday that the circumstances surrounding former women's basketball coach B.J. Smith's teaching of a "Coaching of Basketball" class did not include a reportable NCAA violation. In response to a request from the Southeast Missourian regarding documents in the NCAA investigation, the university's custodian of records and associate to the president, Art Wallhausen, wrote in an e-mail that there were no documents related to the question of academic integrity from the class.. ...

The Southeast Missouri State women's gymnastics team, ranked 29th nationally, had little trouble winning Friday night's Wisconsin-LaCrosse Invitational. Competing against five Division III programs, the Redhawks tallied a score of 190.850. Host Wisconsin-LaCrosse was second (182.050), followed by Wisconsin-Oshkosh (177.925), Winona State (177.350), Wisconsin-Stout (176.425) and Wisconsin-Eau Claire (172.950)...

The only Ohio Valley Conference team Southeast Missouri State's women have not yet faced is next on their agenda. But Southeast acting head coach John Ishee pretty much knows what to expect from host Tennessee-Martin in today's 4 p.m. tipoff -- a major challenge...

Top seed Saxony Lutheran and No. 2 Chaffee used double-digit semifinal victories Friday to move into the Mississippi Valley Conference tournament championship at Meadow Heights. Saxony Lutheran will face Chaffee at 8:30 tonight. Saxony Lutheran (17-3) and Leopold were deadlocked at the end of the third quarter before the Crusaders used a 22-11 fourth quarter for a 68-57 win...

Southeast Missouri State figures to confront a desperate Tennessee-Martin team tonight. That's because about the only realistic chance the Skyhawks have of making the Ohio Valley Conference tournament hinges on beating the Redhawks in the 6 p.m. tipoff in Martin, Tenn...

Anthony J. "Tony" Somora, 69, of Independence, Kan., died Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007, at Via Christi-St. Francis Medical Center in Wichita, Kan. He was born Aug. 3, 1937, in Chicago, son of Anton and Pauline Krsak Somora. He and Angela "Dee" Scilingo were married Sept. 12, 1959, in North Riverside, Ill...

Cagle; Hill; Neely; Thoma; Dodd; Richards; Killman; Earnheart; Mills

n At 5:25 p.m., citizen assist at 1400 S. West End Blvd. n At 6:55 p.m., emergency medical service in the unit block of Hazel Drive. n At 8:18 p.m., gas leak in the 400 block of Mason Street. n At 8:38 p.m., motor vehicle accident at William Street and West End Boulevard...

Cape Girardeau: Arrests; Assaults; DWIs; Thefts; Property damage; Miscellaneous; Arrests; Jackson: Arrests; Thefts; Property damage; Miscellaneous

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. -- A new pair of hands pulled Punxsutawney Phil from his stump this year, so it was only fitting that the groundhog offered a new prediction. Phil did not see his shadow on Friday, which, according to German folklore, means folks can expect an early spring instead of six more weeks of winter...

BOSTON -- Some legal experts say prosecutors will have a hard time proving that two men intended to cause a scare when they planted blinking electronic devices around Boston in a publicity stunt for a cartoon show. They say the key difficulties prosecutors face are demonstrating that the men intended to cause fear, and that the devices, which depict a cartoon character, looked dangerous. The state must prove both to win felony convictions for placing a hoax device, the experts said...

MORLEY, Mo. -- Clyde H. Curtis Sr., 72, of Morley died Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Feb. 6, 1934, at Cuba Landing, Tenn., son of Melvin B. and Flora Ella Williams Curtis. He first married Rosa Brown Feb. 12, 1951. She died Aug. 31, 2001. He and Lucille Stidham were married Dec. 8, 2006...

ORAN, Mo. -- Dorothy Halter, 80, of Oran died Friday, Feb. 2, 2007, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Oran is in charge of arrangements.

A Jackson businessman is suing the city to be placed back on the ballot for mayor in the April 3 election. John Graham, owner of a copy machine company, will be in court Tuesday for arguments challenging the city's decision to remove him from the race for mayor for nonpayment of property taxes. To argue his case, Graham hired attorney Bekki Cook, former secretary of state for Missouri...

They don't have magic wands to fix all the city's problems, but they'll sure talk them out. Cape Girardeau's monthly First Friday Coffee at the Show Me Center was a town hall forum with Mayor Jay Knudtson and Chamber of Commerce president John Mehner presiding. They responded to questions on the "state of the city."...

The twin-engine plane was diving toward the ground Friday morning at a speed of well over 400 miles per hour. Its pilot and co-pilot were unconscious from oxygen deprivation. The plane's nose was tilted down and in about 15 seconds would collide with the earth northwest of Cape Girardeau...

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Bernita Crawford, 88, of Charleston died Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born July 16, 1918, at Steele, Mo., daughter of Arthur and Estie Mae Chunn Key. She and Guy Thomas Crawford were married April 9, 1938. He died May 4, 1992...

Jackson High School senior Leigha Wilkerson gleefully huddled around a computer screen with a group of other students Friday afternoon, making decisions on a simulated business program. "We're making money," she said as she looked over numbers on the screen that kept track of the simulated sales. "We're doing good."...

CAIRO, Ill. -- A convicted felon challenging his dismissal from the ballot cannot be a candidate for Cairo City Council, a judge ruled Friday. Phillip Matthews, who was seeking the Ward 2 seat, had been removed from the ballot by a city election board Jan. 5 following a challenge to his candidacy from Thomas Simpson, who is also seeking the spot. The board found that Matthews, who was convicted of theft in 1998, could not be a candidate under state law...

Matt McGee has it down. Without sponsors, the sport of rodeo would be a lonely circuit. McGee was quick to credit his after his turn in tie-down roping Friday night at the 19th annual Show Me Center Championship Rodeo in Cape Girardeau. "A growing thing in rodeo is sponsors," said McGee, a Cape Girardeau resident of the past two years. "It makes it possible for us to be out on the road."...

Zalma men get court dates for alleged theft ZALMA, Mo. -- Charged with second-degree felony burglary, two Zalma men have March 1 court dates before Circuit Judge Benjamin Lewis. The burglary charge carries a maximum 15-year prison term. Curtis W. Wallace, 17, and Nickolas J. ...

Tiles falling from above, a structural crack running the height of the building and dirty water leaking into every nook and cranny. Is this the way to welcome newcomers to Cape Girardeau? Leaders at the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitor's Bureau say no. And they're now seeking to move out of their 50-year-old downtown structure...

As the local V-Day production of "The Vagina Monologues" prepares for its fifth annual performance, the event's producer and director says this year is the most important yet. With the recent news of the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence's loss of funding for its Green Bear children's education program, "Monologues" producer and director Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs said she hopes the production can help raise awareness about the program's importance...

UNITED NATIONS -- The head of the Senate's Environment Committee called on the White House Friday to hold a summit grouping the 12 largest greenhouse-gas emitting nations. Sen. Barbara Boxer's comments came on the heels of a report released by a U.N.-sponsored panel of climate scientists which said there was little doubt the man-made emissions are to blame for global warming...

WASHINGTON -- Keeping troops in Iraq for another year and a half will cost nearly a quarter-trillion dollars -- about $800 for every man, woman and child in the United States -- under the budget President Bush will submit to Congress Monday. Bush will ask for $100 billion more for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and seek $145 billion for 2008, a senior Pentagon official said Friday. ...

WASHINGTON -- Low-wage workers will have to wait to see an increase in the minimum wage, a Democratic priority now caught in a party dispute over business tax breaks. Democrats were trying to avoid an impasse over the legislation, but differences between House and Senate bills to raise the wage floor by $2.10 an hour posed the first test for a party newly in control of Congress...

WASHINGTON -- Cloneburgers won't come with warnings. When the government approves food from cloned animals, expected in the next year, the Food and Drug Administration doesn't plan special labels. Government scientists have found no difference between clones and conventional cows, pigs or goats...

Slouched at a computer, the "hunter" perks up as a 12-point buck eases into view on his screen. Maneuvering his mouse, he swivels the rifle and focuses the cross hairs. With a click of the mouse, the rifle fires a bullet, mortally wounding the animal...

PARIS -- The bleak outlook of a major new report on climate change shifted the onus onto governments, even mankind, to take action, with dire warnings Friday from around the world that drastic, rapid change is needed -- not least from the United States...

LONDON -- Britain will have to "put up with me for a bit longer," Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday, a day after police revealed that they questioned him a second time in an investigation into whether political honors such as knighthoods were traded for cash...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A U.S. Army helicopter crashed Friday in a hail of gunfire north of Baghdad, police and witnesses said -- the fourth lost in Iraq in the last two weeks. The U.S. command said two crew members were killed, and the top U.S. general conceded that insurgent ground fire has become more effective...

BETHANY, Mo. -- A regional effort to find a cat who became lost when its caretakers died in a car accident more than a month ago has come to a happy ending. Frankie the cat, a lilac-point Siamese male, was found Wednesday, hungry but healthy near the site of an accident that killed his keepers, Dale and Forrest Weber, on New Year's Eve...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Bypassing the legislature altogether, Republican Gov. Rick Perry issued an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. By employing an executive order, Perry sidestepped opposition in the legislature from conservatives and parents' rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way Texans raise their children...

LADY LAKE, Fla. -- Disaster crews with dogs went from one pile of debris to another in a search for bodies Friday after powerful storms, including at least one tornado, smashed hundreds of homes across Central Florida and killed at least 19 people. It was the deadliest combination of thunderstorms and tornadoes to hit Florida in nearly a decade, cutting a 40-mile swath of destruction across four counties just before daybreak, terrorizing residents of one of the nation's biggest retirement communities, and leaving trees and fields littered with clothes, furniture and splintered lumber.. ...

Ministers listen to people's problems and offer counsel. They live their lives in front of their congregations. But when a pastor has a problem, where can he go for help? The Rev. Fred Burgard and his business partner, Paul Cordes, have opened Shadow Rest Ministries just outside Cape Girardeau. Shadow Rest is a quiet place with two rustic cabins where a minister -- and his wife -- can go to sort out problems, take a short rest or reflect on life...