Stories from Monday, June 6, 2011

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- While the Midwest as a whole has been losing population to southern and western states, Kansas and Missouri appear to bucking that trend, with more people moving to Kansas and Missouri than are moving out, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau...

Since 2008, Sandy's Place at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport has been serving hungry customers who fly or drive to the restaurant. With help from some of her family, owner Sandy Ladd serves up Southern favorites like catfish, fried chicken and barbecue ribs to customers she feels are part of her family, too...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- The Missouri Department of Transportation believes it can do more with less. The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission will decide Wednesday whether or not to approve the "Bolder Five-Year Direction" plan, according to Mark Shelton, district engineer for MoDOT's Southeast District...

Southeast Missouri State baseball coach Mark Hogan has faced reloading situations in the past. Those generally turned out well, and Hogan expects no different in 2012 despite losing 18 seniors from this year's team. "Overall I'm feeling really good," Hogan said about next season...

Limestone bluff at Dutchtown.

A surreal image of sunrise over the Diversion Channel at Scott City shows a sailboat adrift.

Strange: A fluted tree trunk in dense forest formations.

A family of Canadian geese on Cypress Lake in Burfordville.

Contact: Raelene Ohanesian Email: raelene.ohanesian@familyvideo.com Call: 847.904.9000 Good Grades Add Up to FREE Rentals as Family Video Celebrates Academic Excellence Family Video is giving FREE movie and video game rentals to students for getting good grades on their final report cards in June. ...

For sight-seeing enthusiasts, history buffs and lovers of locomotives, witnessing the arrival of Union Pacific Railroad's "living legend" Saturday in Cape Girardeau, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And as the Union Pacific No. 844 steam engine sat still and on display Sunday on the tracks along the Mississippi River with the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge as a backdrop, the hundreds of visitors snapped photographs almost constantly to commemorate the occasion. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- First a tornado tore through the St. Louis airport. Then rising waters swamped small towns and flooded miles of fertile farmland along the Mississippi River. Then the nation's deadliest tornado in six decades ripped apart the city of Joplin, Mo...

2011 State 4-H Congress Participants from Cape Girardeau County. Front Row L-R: Julie Aufdenberg, Tyler Lappe, Morgan Bangert Middle Row L-R: Jennifer Stahlman, Lyndsey Hinkebein, Beth Wheatley, Amanda Lappe Back Row L-R: Kristi Seyer, Chaperone, Dustin Oehl, Emily Todt, Michaela Oehl, Ethan Seyer, Nicholas Fosse, Hunter Seyer, Matthew Brucker...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Elite Travel, Inc. was recently recognized as one of the top travel agencies nationwide by Southwest Airlines Vacations. Elite President Carolyn Kempf and travel consultant Jaime Stroder were among representatives of about 20 U.S. travel agencies recognized as top producers for 2010 by Southwest Vacations at a Florida retreat. ...

Pitters Pirate Party!! With LIVE Pirate music from The Dread Crew Of Oddwood at Pitters Cafe & Lounge in Cape Girardeau Thursday, July 21st. Dress up in your Pirate gear come party and drink rum, have some fun! THIS will be the party of the summer!...

This is the 2nd largest running steam engine, Union Pacific No.844, leaving Cape Girardeau, on 6/6/2011 at 8:15AM.

This is a picture I snapped of a pretty blue jay eating underneath a bird feeder at my grandmother's house in Sikeston.

One of the great pleasures we have here at the Southeast Missourian is celebrating the good of our communities. This column is often filled with praise of individuals or groups who are making a positive impact in our region. Every Fourth of July we take that concept and celebrate one deserving individual as our Spirit of America Award winner. ...

This is the day which the Lord has made, and we are full of joy and praise. Amen.

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Beatrice A. "Trissy" Crenshaw, 63, passed away Sunday, June 5, 2011, at her home in Marble Hill. She was born Aug. 7, 1947, in Fargo, N.D. Trissy was of the Catholic faith, attending St. John's Catholic Church in Leopold, Mo...

OLMSTED, Ill. -- Gladys Larry, 89, of Olmsted died Saturday, June 4, 2011, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Feb. 6, 1922, in Olmsted, the daughter of Eulis and Flora Belle Hiatt Rainwater. She married James M. Larry Sr. on Oct. 25, 1945. He preceded her in death on June 21, 2004...

James Alan LaMouria, 66, of Millersville died Thursday, June 2, 2011, at his home. He was born April 30, 1945, in Marquette, Mich., to Joseph Peter and Emma Therese VanDorne LaMouria. He and Eileen M. Jack were married Nov. 25, 1981 at Carson City, Nev...

Lawanda "Chickie" Kaiser, 84, of Cape Girardeau died peacefully Saturday, June 4, 2011, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center. She was born July 23, 1926, in Cape Girardeau, daughter of J.D. and Jewell Stewart. She and Gerald "Buck" Kaiser were married Aug. 31, 1948, in Cape Girardeau. He preceded her in death on July 19, 2006...

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- Seldon S. Grant, 81, of Olive Branch passed away at 2:50 p.m. Saturday, June 4, 2011, at his home. He was born Sept. 1, 1929 in Tamms, Ill, the son of Eldon and Dovie Dyer Grant. He married Charlotte Grable on Nov. 3, 1956, at Mounds (Ill.) United Methodist Church...

Douglas Wayne Thompson, thrice convicted of slaying a Cape Girardeau auxiliary policeman in 1961, has filed another civil rights action in U.S. District Court against the Scott County judge who last sentenced him; Thompson is seeking $1 million in damages from Judge Anthony Heckemeyer, who sentenced Thompson to a life term...

The Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department released the following items. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWI s...

GREER, Ariz. -- Authorities ordered more eastern Arizona residents to evacuate their homes Sunday as a 225-square-mile blaze that has grown into the third-largest in state history crept toward more buildings. The Apache County sheriff's office told an unknown number of people east of the town of Alpine along U.S. Highway 180 to get out as the forest fire crept closer...

BERLIN -- Better check your Facebook settings before posting a party invitation online. A teenage girl in Germany who forgot to mark her birthday invitation as private on Facebook fled her own party when more than 1,500 guests showed up and around 100 police officers, some on horses, were needed to keep the crowd under control...

SANAA, Yemen -- The departure of Yemen's battle-wounded president for treatment in Saudi Arabia set off wild street celebrations Sunday in the capital, where crowds danced, sang and slaughtered cows in hopes that this spelled a victorious end to a more than three-month campaign to push their leader from power...

OMAHA, Neb. -- Cities up and down the Missouri River in Nebraska and Iowa are inspecting flood walls and piling up sandbags to prepare for a deluge of water the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will release later this month. But it's difficult for anyone to feel 100 percent confident about their preparations because this year's flooding will likely exceed the 1993 flood and might rival the record 1952 flood. And the flooding is expected to last most of the summer...

City hall 401 Independence St. Study session, 5 p.m. today Meeting, 7 p.m. today Items for discussion Public hearings Consent agenda New ordinances...

On the heels of Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Jay Purcell's parks reorganization plan, at least two more county administrators are looking to consolidate their departments, leaving vacant positions unfilled and potentially saving the county tens of thousands of dollars a year...

Midwest Grain and Barge Co. and First Missouri Terminals Corp. of Cape Girardeau is expanding its grain storage facility at SEMO Port. Construction is underway on a new 120,000-bushel grain bin, which will more than double the current storage capacity, according to Matt Zimmerman, general manager of Midwest Grain and Barge...

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Dolly Parton has hoisted the Jolly Roger on the South Carolina coast with the opening of Pirates Voyage, the new dinner theater show that takes the place of her popular Western-themed Dixie Stampede. "We just needed to do something new and different," the singer said Friday, in town for the first show in the production that features actors portraying pirates and mermaids and also has real horses and sea lions...

The Southeast Missouri State football team doesn't open the season for about another three months but it's never too early to start talking about the Redhawks and the Ohio Valley Conference. National preseason publications are starting to come out, and at least one of them doesn't believe Southeast will take a major step back after last year's historic campaign...

St. Louis has the 22nd pick in the first round of the 2011 draft today but won't pick again until No. 79

Hearing loss is like any other health issue, says Joyce Hill Cooley, manager of Miracle Ear locations in Cape Girardeau, Perryville, Jackson, Ste. Genevieve and Farmington, Mo. It requires preventive care and, eventually, treatment. And the sooner we take care of it, the better...

ST. LOUIS -- Albert Pujols held the follow-through on his swing for a couple extra seconds, the bat extended like a lightning rod, then high-stepped it to home plate. The St. Louis Cardinals may be accustomed to his winning hits, but the All-Star slugger still gets pretty excited...

The Plaza Tire Capahas outscored the St. Louis Raging Bulls 26-1 in a doubleheader sweep Sunday in St. Louis to improve to 4-0. The Capahas won the opener 18-0 behind the shutout pitching of Cody Hafeli and Trent Wise. then posted an 8-1 victory with the help of home runs by Ky Burgess and Sean Bard...

What's the secret to feeling younger? TBY asked for advice on how to look great, feel happy and stay healthy, year after year. The answer, it seems, is to keep moving forward and don't think about your age. Get moving...

An elderly Cape Girardeau widower and a mature miniature dachshund; it was friendship at first sight for a man and a dog who each needed companionship. The octogenarian had no one to care for. His wife had passed away several years before, and the couple's dog had since died...

Dave Niswonger caught a case of the green thumb when he was not much bigger than a bean sprout. By the time he was 6, he was growing his own tomatoes. Some 80 years and thousands of flowers later, the Cape Girardeau gardener is still growing plants, a hybridizing master of scores of blooms of his own creation...

Day one -- Sept. 20, 2009 -- part II Saturday night, back in Vicksburg, we all went out for Chinese before Danny and I left Sunday morning. I had told Marla a little about my concerns on this last leg and that I was feeling more anxious than I had since that very first day back at Lake Itasca. ...

Rick Essner, director of facilities management at Saint Francis Medical Center, recently obtained Evidence-based Design Accreditation and Certification from The Center for Health Design, recognizing his knowledge of the evidence-based design process for health care. ...

HAMBURG, Germany -- The E. coli outbreak in Europe appears to have been caused by vegetable sprouts grown on an organic farm in Germany, an agriculture official Sunday as the toll climbed to at least 22 dead and more than 2,200 sickened. Preliminary tests found that bean sprouts and other sprout varieties from the farm in the Uelzen area, between the northern cities of Hamburg and Hannover, could be traced to infections in five German states, Lower Saxony Agriculture Minister Gert Lindemann said.. ...

I am a couponer and I buy four papers every Wednesday and Sunday. I try to go to the machines, but too many people have already stolen more than what they paid so the machine will not open even though there are papers in them. I go to the gas stations or Schnucks and buy them. I am also thinking of buying a subscription to both the Southeast Missourian and the Post Dispatch. Shame on the people that are stealing these papers!...

The team of Lyle Davis, Robin Davis, Clay Crossan and Mike Pashia won the four-person, two best ball handicap tournament Saturday at Dalhousie Golf Club. The team posted a 118 total to finish six strokes ahead of the field. Cord Dombrowski, Mark Johnson, Ken Swinford and Greg Howard totaled 124 to tie for second with the foursome of Jim Rust, Rob Erlbacher, David Hahs and Roger Tolliver...

The search for a missing mother of three last seen in Jackson on Wednesday continued Sunday, although a spokesman for the Cape Girardeau/Bollinger County Major Case Squad said they've followed up on leads, discovered evidence and developed a person of interest in connection to the woman's disappearance...