Stories from Friday, January 13, 2017

Not much that I like about winter, except a beautiful glaze of ice on the trees (as long as it stays off the pavement!!) This was taken Friday 1/13 afternoon out my back window.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Without more cuts, Missouri is expected to end the current fiscal year about $40 million in the hole and could be on the path to a nearly $460 million shortfall next fiscal year, the Republican House budget leader said Thursday...

Police found a 15-year-old Hayti, Missouri, boy dead in an apartment complex Wednesday, according to a news release. Hayti police found Shamar Holmes, 15, dead in the Cleveland Apartment complex, the release stated. An autopsy conducted Thursday indicated Holmes was not killed in a homicide and most likely was not killed in a suicide, according to Pemiscot County, Missouri, Coroner Jim Brimhall...

Southeast Missouri State University’s online bachelor’s degree programs ranked 28th nationally and highest among Missouri schools, according to a recent U.S. News and World Report listing. Southeast’s online master of business administration program was ranked 82nd...

A 20-year-old Cape Girardeau man was shot early Thursday morning in the 1500 block of Rand Street, police said. The victim was taken to a local hospital and was still at the hospital Thursday afternoon, according to public-information officer Richard McCall...

Two Cape Girardeau men, ages 36 and 22, were recovering in a hospital Thursday afternoon after being shot Wednesday on Jefferson Avenue, police said. Cape Girardeau police officers interviewed both victims in the hospital about the shooting that occurred about 5:50 p.m. Wednesday in the 1000 block of Jefferson Avenue, public-information officer Sgt. Adam Glueck said...

Melaina's Magical Playland in Cape Girardeau County Park North has become a popular destination for families. County officials envision the same success with Levi's Adventure Trail, which is taking shape in Cape Girardeau County Park South. Along with construction of a veterans memorial in the north park and a plan to upgrade the lake in the south park, there is no shortage of projects on the drawing board for the county's park system...

Today in History Today is Friday, Jan. 13, the 13th day of 2017. There are 352 days left in the year. Today[[OpenSingle]]s Highlight in History: On Jan. 13, 1967, the Rolling Stones[[OpenSingle]] double-A sided single [[""]]Let[[OpenSingle]]s Spend the Night Together[[""]] and [[""]]Ruby Tuesday[[""]] was released in the United Kingdom by Decca Records. (It was released the following day in the United States on the London label)...

Lord Jesus, we praise you, for through your resurrection we have hope. Amen.

During the Republican primaries, Donald Trump repeatedly disparaged Republican Establishment, and all his Republican and Democratic adversaries. And he indulged in much prevarication and denial of facts, which were glaringly evident to all around him. Now that Trump is president-elect, we must accept these realities of Trump administration in the years to come...

The world is changing all the time, thank goodness. In American society the last half-century has produced countless gains for the better, like accepting the fact that women are equal to their male counterparts, even to the point that women in the military can serve in combat roles...

Sometimes you just have a hunch. For Debbie Leoni, the hunch in 2013 was that the running community in Cape Girardeau would embrace My Team Triumph, an organization that helps "disabled individuals by pushing special race chairs," according to a recent Southeast Missourian article...

Thousands of Southeast Missouri State University students moved back into their dormitory rooms Sunday to prepare for the start of spring semester classes today. In a tearful announcement, Cape Girardeau Board of Education member Carolyn Kelley resigns from the board; Kelley, who has served on the board almost eight years, will remain a member of the board through a Jan. 23 educational summit; Kelley plans to move with her family to Little Rock, Arkansas...

The Jackson Police Department released the following items. Summonses n Steve R. Kelley, 25, of Jackson was issued a summons for a seat-belt violation. n Justin R. Amelunke, 29, of Jackson was issued a summons for failure to use turn signal...

The Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Arrest does not imply guilt. Arrest n A suspect was in custody pending formal charges of domestic assault and resisting or interfering with arrest. Summonses n Austin A. Urhahn, 25, of Cape Girardeau was issued a summons for animal leash law required at 3033 Boutin Drive...

NEW YORK -- AT&T says the market for its new internet cable service, DirecTV Now, could be as large as 20 million households. To put it to the test, I farmed out part of this review to several friends and relatives. It's TV, it's fun, it's a free trial with no hassle. Why wouldn't people jump at the chance to try something new?...

CHASKA, Minn. -- The Minnesota judge overseeing Prince's estate will wait for appeals to be exhausted before making a final determination on who will inherit a fortune that could be worth around $200 million, he said at a hearing Thursday. But Carver County District Judge Kevin Eide also made it clear the late superstar's six confirmed siblings are the likely heirs. ...

Performer Chris Stapleton will perform at 7 p.m. April 28 at the Show Me Center, 1333 N. Sprigg St. in Cape Girardeau. According to the Show Me Center's website, Stapleton's debut album, "Traveller," released in May 2015 through Mercury Nashville, initially debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. Stapleton won Male Vocalist of the Year and Music Video of the Year ("Fire Away") at the 50th annual CMA Awards...

Home for the holidays! #semoselfie

VIENNA -- Wanted, part-time: a hermit. Experience not necessary. Municipal and Roman Catholic church officials in the Austrian town of Saalfelden are looking for someone to live in a nearby hermitage built into steep cliffs characteristic of the Salzburg region. The more than 350-year-old building has been uninhabited since a Benedictine monk left in the fall. Salary details weren't provided, but other reports said only free room and board would be provided...

BEIRUT -- The U.N. envoy for Syria said Thursday a cease-fire in Syria was "largely holding with some exceptions" as opposition activists reported a mounting number of government airstrikes, including a raid in the northern Aleppo province that killed at least six civilians...

MOSUL, Iraq -- Small stalls and carts have sprung up outside the bombed-out buildings in eastern Mosul, selling meat and vegetables, cigarettes and cellphones to the thousands of civilians still living in neighborhoods where the Iraqi military has driven out the Islamic State group...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama announced Thursday he is ending a longstanding immigration policy that allows any Cuban who makes it to U.S. soil to stay and become a legal resident. The repeal of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy is effective immediately...

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Republicans are taking the first steps toward dismantling President Barack Obama's health-care law, facing pressure from President-elect Donald Trump to move quickly on a replacement. "We have a responsibility to step in and provide relief from this failing law," Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Thursday. "And we have to do it all at the same time so that everybody sees what we're trying to do."...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- President Barack Obama signed an order Thursday designating a historic civil-rights district in Alabama as a national monument, placing several blocks of a city once rocked by racial violence on par with landmarks including the Grand Canyon...

SAN FRANCISCO -- More than 40 percent of California is out of drought, federal drought-watchers said Thursday at the tail end of powerful storms that sent thousands of people fleeing from flooding rivers in the north, unleashed burbling waterfalls in southern deserts and doubled the vital snowpack in the Sierra Nevada in little more than a week...

WASHINGTON -- Americans with no more than a high-school diploma have fallen so far behind college graduates in their economic lives, the earnings gap between college grads and everyone else has reached its widest point on record. College graduates, on average, earned 56 percent more than high-school grads in 2015, according to data compiled by the Economic Policy Institute. That was up from 51 percent in 1999 and is the largest such gap in EPI's figures dating to 1973...

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday top intelligence leaders told him and President Barack Obama they felt obligated to inform them about uncorroborated allegations about President-elect Donald Trump out of concern the information would become public and catch them off-guard...

WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump's pick to run the CIA told Congress on Thursday he accepts the findings in an intelligence assessment Russia interfered in the U.S. election with the goal of helping Trump win, even though the president-elect has been skeptical of some of the report's conclusions...

WASHINGTON -- In yet another aftershock from the chaotic presidential campaign, the Justice Department inspector general opened an investigation Thursday into department and FBI actions before the election, including whether FBI director James Comey followed established policies in the email investigation of Hillary Clinton...

WASHINGTON -- Retired Gen. James Mattis on Thursday cruised toward likely confirmation as Donald Trump's defense secretary, easily prevailing in a Senate vote granting him an exemption to run the Pentagon as a recently retired officer. At his confirmation hearing, he called Russia the nation's No. 1 security threat, accusing its leader of trying to "break" NATO...

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis homicide detectives are investigating the death of a man whose body was found near Interstate 70. The victim was found with multiple gunshot wounds just before 10 p.m. Wednesday on Goodfellow Boulevard near an industrial area. His name has not been released, and no arrests have been made...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A longtime parishioner of a Catholic church in northern Kansas City has been banned from all church property because of his interactions with children. The Kansas City Star reported the 70-year-old man was a parishioner at St. Patrick Catholic Church. That's the parish of a former priest whose child-pornography scandal led to then-bishop Robert Finn's conviction for failing to report suspected child abuse...

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Medical Examiner's Office said a 4-month-old girl's death was due to "chronic abuse." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the girl was found unresponsive at a home Tuesday and taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The child's parents were arrested...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A former state senator is going to work for newly inaugurated Missouri Treasurer Eric Schmitt. Schmitt announced several senior staff positions Thursday, including former state senator David Pearce as his senior policy coordinator...

ST. LOUIS -- An Ohio man could face up to life in prison after being convicted of transporting four teenage girls to Missouri to engage in prostitution. A four-day trial in U.S. District Court in St. Louis ended Thursday when 54-year-old Kyle Maurice Parks of Columbus, Ohio, was convicted of several counts related to sex trafficking. Sentencing is April 19...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Ameren electrical customers in Missouri should expect to see an increase of about $3 per month for energy efficiency. The Missouri Public Service Commission said Thursday it had approved a request from Ameren to raise a total of $44.2 million per year to provide incentives encouraging customers to be more energy-efficient...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A former principal of the year from Kansas City has been charged with having sex with a high-school cheerleader nearly two decades ago. Matthew Lindsey of Oak Grove, Missouri, was charged Wednesday with two statutory-rape counts. No attorney is listed for him in online court records, the Kansas City Star reported...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- An attorney for a man who served a 25-year prison sentence for rape argued Thursday a Missouri law allowing him to be committed indefinitely to a mental institution as a "sexually violent predator" is unconstitutional. The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments from attorneys for Jay Nelson and the state about its sexually violent predator statute...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri House on Thursday took a step toward a top campaign promise by Republican Gov. Eric Greitens to ban lobbyist gifts to elected officials. House members voted 147-6 in favor of a proposed limit on lobbyist gifts that would ban presents to individual elected officials but allow for lobbyist-catered meals at some events...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Roy L. Schaupert, 60, of Perryville died Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017, at his home. Because of the weather, funeral services have been postponed until Monday. Visitation will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday at Young and Sons Funeral Home in Perryville. A memorial service will be at 6 p.m. Monday at the funeral home.

Gospel group Steve Hess & Southern Salvation will perform a concert at 6 p.m. Sunday at Fellowship Baptist Church, 430 Koch Ave. in Cape Girardeau. The trio of Steve Hess, Jay Arview and John McCall will present spiritually uplifting Christian music and ministry. The concert is free and open to the public...

The River City Players Abbott Awards will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Yacht Club at Port Cape Girardeau, 19 N. Water St. in Cape Girardeau. Every January, the River City Players Community Theatre hosts the Abbott Awards to celebrate the previous season of shows. The evening's program will include presentation of trophies for best show, best actor, etc., as well as some more whimsical awards and entertainment...

For the third consecutive year, Jurassic Quest returns to Cape Girardeau from today through Sunday. The three-day event will feature more than 80 animatronic dinosaurs and events, including dinosaur rides, a fossil dig and baby dinosaur petting zoo...