Stories from Saturday, May 19, 2007

A late frost severely cut into a local addiction counseling ministry's annual strawberry sale. Teen Challenge, a residential program for recovering drug users, uses the proceeds to fund its counseling outreach. Executive director Jack Smart said the frost in early April devastated the crop north of Cape Girardeau on County Road 621...

The Cape Girardeau school board could vote Monday to seek plans and cost estimates from architects and facility development firms for renovations to the district's central administration building and the junior high school, and major additions to the high school...

Leaders from AmerenUE put on a presentation at their Cape Girardeau headquarters Friday to discuss storm preparation with community leaders. Firefighters, police officers, emergency management directors and public officials tried to coordinate their response efforts with the utility company...

An issue of local interest also took a major step forward Friday in the state Capitol. A state Senate bill dealing with local government issues included a provision allowing cities to share tax revenue. The provision was advanced by Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, Rep. Nathan Cooper, R-Cape Girardeau, and Rep. Scott Lipke, R-Jackson...

Parking lot plea; Feeding the family; Artistic disconnect; Bill is superfluous; No cameras; Biased media; Supply and demand; Classroom opinions; Food stamps; Setting policies; Outstanding reporter; Help with passport; Better news; Safety concern; Superficial issues; Teachers' pay; Living on food stamps

By Jerome J. Maiczewski In her recent article "Learn from Sweden," Joyce Stroup-Tummins praised Sweden as a standard of excellence for the rest of the world to emulate and condemned the United States as a model of despair that was "failing miserably" to attend to the needs of its citizens. ...

By Jason Crowell Earlier this month the Missouri Senate took an important step toward easing the financial burden of Missouri's seniors by passing House Bill 444. This bill ends excessive taxation on Social Security and retirement benefits by the state, and I am excited about this victory. Social Security was designed to make sure that getting older did not mean facing poverty. Missouri has lost the original meaning of that over the years due to an unfair income tax on retirement benefits...

DWI

n At 4:02 p.m., motor vehicle accident at the corner of South Sprigg and Independence streets. n At 6:21 p.m., box alarm at 612 S. Sprigg St. n At 6:27 p.m., emergency medical service in the 400 block of South Benton Street. n At 9:38 p.m., illegal burn at the corner of Olivia and Casquin streets...

WASHINGTON -- Grabbing pictures of iconic Smithsonian Institution artifacts just got a whole lot easier. Before, if people wanted to get a picture of the Wright Brothers' plane, they to go to the Smithsonian Images Web site and pay for a print or high-resolution image after clicking through several warnings about copyrights and other restrictions -- and it was only for students, teachers or those pledging not to use it to make money...

LOS ANGELES -- It was once the stuff of bikers and rebels. It meant danger. Poison. Trouble ahead. Now the skull-and-crossbones design more likely means "Pirates of the Caribbean" and a boatload of related merchandise. With its third chapter of the blockbuster film franchise set to hit theaters May 25, Disney is unveiling pirate products from couture fashions to costume jewelry, plus toys, shoes, electronics, furniture and even "healthy pirate snacks for energy."...

TAMPA, Fla. -- Deep-sea explorers said Friday they have hauled up what could be the richest sunken treasure ever discovered: hundreds of thousands of colonial-era silver and gold coins worth an estimated $500 million from a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean...

WAPPAPELLO, Mo. -- Wilfred Crain "Twinkie" Everett, 78, of Wappapello died Thursday, May 17, 2007, at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center in Poplar Bluff, Mo. He was born May 13, 1929, in Detroit, son of Neely "Bud" and Arles E. Crain Everett. He and Shirley Ann Revelle were married May 18, 1947, in Advance, Mo...

Andrew J. Seyer Jr., 71, of Oak Ridge, died Friday, May 18, 2007, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson is in charge of arrangements.

The Lord has called home one of His most faithful servants. Lorraine passed away Thursday, May 17, 2007, at her home. She leaves her husband of seven years, Eugene Wyrick of the Bruceville, Tenn., community, where they resided. Lorraine was a member of South Fork Baptist Church near Halls, Tenn...

Arthur Ray Graham, 67, of Asheville, N.C., died Wednesday, May 16, 2007, at Memorial Campus of Mission Hospitals. He was born in Advance, Mo., son of Lawrence Edgar and Anna Caroline Leazenby Graham. He grew up in Cape Girardeau, and had resided in Jacksonville, Fla., many years prior to moving to Asheville in February 2004...

Warren G. Bertrand, 84, of Herculaneum, Mo., formerly of Cape Girardeau, died Sunday, May 13, 2007, at Festus Manor in Jefferson County, Mo. He was born Nov. 28, 1922, son of Eugene and Alvina Bertrand. Bertrand was a Bi-State Transit driver for 39 years. He was a member of American Legion Post 555 and VFW Post 253...

Stanley Lee Hamilton, 43, of Beckville, Texas, died Wednesday, May 16, 2007, in Carthage, Texas. He was born Feb. 25, 1964, in El Paso, Texas, son of Mr. and Mrs. Marvin David Hamilton. Hamilton graduated from Ellensburg High School in Washington state. He was a truck driver and dispatcher...

HERRIN, Ill -- Stefen Hill, 56, of Herrin, Ill., died Monday, May 14, 2007, at Blodgett Hospital in East Grand Rapids, Mich. He was born Oct. 7, 1950, in Cape Girardeau, son of Murle Mack and Lily Pearl Hill. Hill was a truck driver for Pilot Express. He graduated from Southest Missouri State University with a degree in business. Hill was a veteran of the United States Air Force. When stationed in California, he earned his private pilot's license...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- A Sikeston man was arrested Friday on drug charges. Alex L. Burton, 19, of Sikeston, was charged Friday with three felony counts of distributing a controlled substance near a school, felony distribution of marijuana and misdemeanor possession of marijuana...

Police announce 'Click It or Ticket' starts Monday The Cape Girardeau Police Department announced Thursday they are joining with law enforcement nationwide to reduce safety belt law violations from Monday to June 3 in an effort to reduce traffic fatalities. ...

WASHINGTON -- Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, usually a staunch defender of the Bush administration, suggested Thursday that the White House might consider parting ways with embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. "The president might decide that the current leadership remaining at DOJ is doing more harm than good," Bond said...

Brother Henry guitarist Ned Henry isn't used to seeing the kind of crowd that turned out for the first Tunes at Twilight concert of the season. "It's really cool to see a bunch of heads with gray hair out there bobbing up and down," Henry joked about the mixed Tunes crowd, where ages ranged from infant to elderly. ...

Sentenced Age: 26 Residence: Malden, Mo. Charge: Possession of an unregistered firearm Sentence: 42 months in prison Summary: On Jan. 1, 2006, officers of the Malden police department responded to a call about a man with a firearm. Officers found Williams holding a .410 gauge shotgun and seized it, according to a news release from the federal prosecutor's office. ...

BAGHDAD -- About 50 suspected insurgents attacked a U.S. base in the center of a city north of Baghdad on Friday, sparking a battle with U.S. soldiers and helicopters that left at least six militants dead, the Iraqi army said. The fighting took place in Baqouba, a Sunni insurgent stronghold that has seen a recent spike in violence largely blamed on militants who fled a three-month-old security crackdown in Baghdad...

HYDERABAD, India -- A bomb ripped through a historic mosque Friday in south India, and 13 people were killed -- 11 in the blast and two in subsequent clashes between angry Muslim worshippers and security forces, police said. Minutes after the blast at the 17th-century Mecca Masjid, worshippers who were angered by what they said was a lack of police protection began chanting "God is great!" Some hurled stones at police, who dispersed them with baton charges and tear gas...

BALTIMORE -- Abraham Lincoln might have survived being shot if today's medical technology had existed in 1865. Given that scenario, the question is whether Lincoln would have recovered well enough to return to office, says a doctor and historian who planned to speak Friday at an annual University of Maryland School of Medicine conference on the deaths of historic figures...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- On their final day of work, Missouri lawmakers gave final approval to the biggest issue of their session: an overhaul of the Medicaid health-care program for the poor sought by Gov. Matt Blunt. The legislation passed Friday by the House and Senate would place a greater emphasis on preventive health care in a renamed "MO HealthNet" program and restore certain health benefits to some whose services were cut two years ago by Blunt and the Republican-led legislature...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- State health officials said Friday that the agency completed its review of problems with billing practices and found more than $200,000 in errors. The Department of Health and Senior Services said the problem was a small fraction of the agency's budget -- less than 2 percent of information technology expenses -- and it uncovered no intentional misuse of federal money...

BEAUFORT, Mo. -- Don Ownby stood in his front yard and waved as Mitchell Hults drove by in his beat-up pickup truck. Don didn't have a lot of time to chat; he would leave soon to take his 13-year-old son, Ben Ownby, to baseball practice. "We're trying to get back to normal," Ownby said Thursday...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White, the first black judge appointed the state's highest court, said Friday he is stepping down. White said he plans to retire July 6 and would like to continuing working in the legal field, though he has no specific plans...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A man who plead guilty to tossing a 5-year-old girl into a cold lake to terrorize a woman was sentenced Friday to 70 years in prison. Johnnie Jerome Kerns, 29, was sentenced by Circuit Judge Dan Conklin to consecutive terms for five felonies, including kidnapping, child abuse and assault...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The search for the next University of Missouri president is in the home stretch. After two rounds of confidential candidate interviews in St. Louis and Kansas City, university curators again convened behind closed doors Friday -- this time to narrow the prospects to a group of finalists...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Scott County Central junior D.D. Gillespie qualified for the finals in three events Friday, and the Braves are guaranteed four all-state finishes in their debut Friday at the Class 1 and 2 state track and field championships at Dwight T. Reed Stadium...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Saxony Lutheran senior Brandon Etzold defended his state titles in the 800-meter run and 1,600-meter run Friday at the Class 1 and 2 state track and field championships, but defending Class 1 champion Polo scored 12 points in the two events and appears to be the favorite once again at Dwight T. Reed Stadium...

Central's quest for its first state final four appearance in boys tennis ended Friday with a 6-1 home sectional loss to DeSmet. The Tigers won only one match, that coming at No. 6 singles as Josh Hubbard defeated his opponent 6-2, 6-3. DeSmet rolled to all three doubles wins and to three singles victories without dropping a set. Two singles matches in progress were stopped after the Spartans had clinched the team win...

Few acts are more despicable than taking advantage of someone who is disabled. The Union County state's attorney's office in Illinois has charged five people -- three men and two women -- with doing just that to 21-year-old Roy Easton, whose mental retardation made him a target of the group. They allegedly thought he was carrying a $500 federal disability check...

In just over a week, the church I serve is going to fill a new time capsule with archival documents and place it inside the cornerstone. The date has real meaning: May 27 will be exactly 100 years to the day since the first capsule found a home in 1907. The original time capsule didn't fare too well. Half of its contents had been destroyed, either by a 1914 fire or by tuckpointing done in 2004...

By CHRIS PAGANO Southeast Missourian The seventh annual ArtsCape community arts festival came a fiery conclusion Saturday as escape artist Marion Manzini was suspended upside-down from a burning rope while clad in a black leather straitjacket. The performance was a little more fiery than intended -- the padding to keep the rope from cutting into his ankles caught fire as he was being raised a crane...

ST. LOUIS -- Attorney General Jay Nixon announced Friday he will not pursue criminal charges against Ameren Corp. over the December 2005 collapse of the Taum Sauk reservoir, which destroyed much of Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park in Reynolds County. Nixon said he made the decision after reviewing the investigative report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol and discussing the matter with Gov. Matt Blunt on Friday...

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State bounced back from a tough first-game loss to split Friday's doubleheader at Tennessee Tech. But entering today's 1 p.m. series and regular-season finale, the Redhawks still find themselves in third place in the Ohio Valley Conference...

HILLSBORO, Mo. -- Two-run lead. Ace on the mound. Game in the bag, right? Not so fast. Central ace Brad LaBruyere did pick up the save in support of starter Tyler Propst on Friday in the Class 4 District 1 baseball championship, but not without a few anxious moments...

Jackson had to work overtime for its sixth straight district championship. Make that three overtimes. But the top-seeded Indians hardly minded after outlasting second-seeded Seckman 3-2 Friday night in the Class 2 District 1 tournament finals at Jackson...

Highway 61 will be reduced to one lane for road repairs at the Route D intersection from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday. The work zone will be marked. Old Toll Road in Jackson is now open. Route 34 between Cathy Drive and County Road 335 will be closed for brief periods to allow equipment to enter the project site. ...

Please send announcements for briefs and calendar by noon Thursday to appear the following Saturday. Briefly Register for VBS at Lynwood Baptist Church Register now for Vacation Bible School at Lynwood Baptist Church. Preparation for "Vacation Bible School 2007, Game Day Central: Where Heroes Are Made" is underway. ...

One of my favorite scripture passages is found in Jeremiah 17. The themes found in this passage are of fear, anxiety, endurance and happiness accompanied with living a meaningful life, themes that every man and woman at some point in their lives will address...

An 880-square-foot expansion is being added to the sanctuary at Maple United Methodist Church, 2441 Jean Ann Drive in Cape Girardeau. The expansion is one that the congregation planned when it bought a former Lutheran mission church at the corner of Jean Ann and Cape Rock drives and moved there from 624 S. Ellis St...