Stories from Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Macy Campbell, 21 months, finds fun among the pumpkins Tuesday at the Grace Pumpkin Patch at Broadway and Caruthers Avenue in Cape Girardeau. The pumpkins were grown on the Navajo reservation in Farmington, New Mexico. Grace United Methodist Church keeps a percentage of sales to support church missions. The patch will be open through Oct. 31...

Zaxby's is expanding to include a franchise restaurant in Cape Girardeau and another in Sikeston, Missouri. The fast-casual chain, best known for its prepared-at-order chicken, will be near the Mercato Di Rodi convenience station on South Mount Auburn Road...

Nearly two years after federal criminal charges were dismissed against Cape Girardeau neurosurgeon Sonjay Fonn, the government is prosecuting him in a civil suit stemming from allegations of kickbacks involving his medical practice that mirror the previous criminal case...

The Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center soon will offer a commercial driver's license, or CDL, training program -- a boon to Cape Girardeau and the region, officials said. Rich Payne, director of the Career and Technology Center, or CTC, said the program is designed to fill a void in the region's economy...

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 25, the 298th day of 2017. There are 67 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Oct. 25, 1854, the "Charge of the Light Brigade" took place during the Crimean War as an English brigade of more than 600 men charged the Russian army, suffering heavy losses...

There's a new report out this week that concludes 74 percent of teens would opt for a digital conversation over a real, face-to-face conversation. I'm not necessarily surprised by the survey results. But it does point to a trend that is somehow concerning...

Forty-one new businesses opened in downtown Cape Girardeau during the last fiscal year, for a net gain of 24 businesses and 59 new jobs. Jackson's smaller uptown area saw seven new businesses start up, the most since at least 2013, when the Uptown Jackson Revitalization Organization was started...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Cycling. Baseball. Track. Horse racing. Now dogsledding has become the latest professional sport to be engulfed in a doping scandal, this one involving the huskies that dash across the frozen landscape in Alaska's grueling, 1,000-mile Iditarod...

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund political research into President Donald Trump that ultimately produced a dossier of allegations about his ties to Russia, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday night...

NEW YORK -- Two years ago, George Green got stabbing pain and bad blisters around his right arm. It was the worst case of shingles his doctor had seen. "I said, 'Wait a minute, I had the vaccine! How come I got this?'" recalled Green, a 68-year-old engineer in Austell, Georgia, who got the shot seven years earlier...

WASHINGTON -- A pair of senators from President Donald Trump's own Republican Party blistered him with criticism Tuesday in a day of denunciation that laid bare a GOP at war with itself. Jeff Flake of Arizona declared he would not be "complicit" with Trump and announced his surprise retirement, while Bob Corker of Tennessee declared the president "debases our nation" with constant untruths and name-calling...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Tuesday allowed the resumption of refugee admissions into the U.S. under new, stricter screening rules but ordered nationals from 11 countries believed to pose higher risk to U.S. national security to face tougher scrutiny...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A judge won't block a portion of a new Missouri law that tightens abortion regulations from taking effect Tuesday. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU challenged a requirement the doctor who will perform an abortion must give specific information about the procedure to a woman at least 72 hours beforehand...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Public defenders said two recent high court rulings have left them facing a dilemma: take on too many cases and risk losing their law license to an ethics complaint, or refuse to take on an excessive workload and risk being held in contempt of court and jailed...

Cape Girardeau The Cape Girardeau Fire Deparment responded to the following calls: Sunday n Unspecified calls were made at 2:04 a.m. on North Ellis Street; and at 3:38 a.m. on North Fountain Street. n Medical assists were made at 4:51 p.m. on Village Drive; 5:35 p.m. on Blue Ridge Road; and 8:12 p.m. on William Street...

BEIJING -- The ruling Communist Party on Tuesday formally lifted Xi Jinping's status to China's most powerful ruler in decades, setting the stage for the authoritarian leader to tighten his grip over the country while pursuing an increasingly muscular foreign policy and military expansion...

BEIRUT -- As U.S.-allied fighters hurtle down the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, a showdown could ensue between the U.S. and Russia, whose allies are racing to take over the same strategic oil-rich territory from the Islamic State group. While the two sides will likely avoid a direct confrontation, the capture of Raqqa by the U.S.-backed forces, followed by their swift seizure of Syria's largest oil field from IS, has irked Damascus, which needs the oil to boost its flagging economy...

Ronald Leslie Jaynes, 71, formerly of Cape Girardeau, Parma and Sikeston, Missouri, peacefully passed away Friday, Oct. 13, 2017, surrounded by family and friends at Jackson Manor in Jackson. Born April 21, 1946, in Hayti, Missouri, son of the late Leslie Holland and Helen Beatrice Jaynes, he was a former sports editor for The Daily Standard in Sikeston in the 1970s and owned and operated many small newspapers in Southeast Missouri up until his retirement...

Pumpkins -- 35,000 pounds of pumpkins -- along with bales and bales of straw make up Pumpkin Village at Cape Girardeau's Town Plaza; Mike Redfearn, owner of Party Palace, is operating the attraction for the Town Plaza Merchants Association; a maze is free, while pumpkins, Indian corn, gourds, carving kits and other seasonal items are being sold...

CAPE GIRARDEAU The Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests n A subject was in custody pending formal charges on possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia at the intersection of Themis Street and East Rodney Vista Boulevard...

Sikeston, Missouri, native Anna Catherine DeHart advanced to the "Knockouts" round during Monday's episode of the NBC-TV singing competition, "The Voice." In the "Battle Round," contestants compete in a sing-off against a member of their team. DeHart, 23, went head-to-head with teammate Kristi Hoopes during Monday's third part of the "Battle Round."...

ELLINGTON, Mo. -- An elderly Ellington man died over the weekend from a gunshot wound he suffered at the hands of unknown assailants who remain at large. The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported James Nance died Saturday. The 86-year-old had been taken to a St. Louis-area hospital after he was shot in the head about 4 p.m. Wednesday at his home on Highway 106, about five miles west of Ellington...

Dozens of employers are expected to participate in a job fair Thursday at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau. The event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is organized by the Missouri Job Center. Mike Berry, functional leader at the Cape Girardeau Job Center, said employers from several industries will be represented. From radio and TV to manufacturing to law enforcement, Berry said "anything and everything" will be covered...

Bob Fox, Cape Girardeau's Ward 5 councilman, filed as a candidate for mayor Tuesday, the first day for filing for the April 2018 election. Fox announced his candidacy in April. He is seeking to replace Mayor Harry Rediger, who no longer can serve because of term limits...

O Heavenly Father, our soul waits on you, the author of our faith. Amen.

NEW YORK -- Robert Guillaume, who rose from squalid beginnings in St. Louis slums to become a star in stage musicals and win Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the sharp-tongued butler in the TV sitcoms "Soap" and "Benson," has died at age 89. Guillaume died at home Tuesday in Los Angeles, according to his widow, Donna Brown Guillaume. He had been battling prostate cancer, she told The Associated Press...

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. -- A surfer won a recycled surfboard contest with an entry covered with 10,000 cigarette butts. "This is the most polluted item picked up on the beach," creator Taylor Lane said. "And no one thinks twice that you can do anything with it." Lane, 24, of Santa Cruz, California, had the top entry amid an assortment of boards made from potato sacks, used packaging and stuff picked up from Dumpster dives. ...

KINGDOM CITY, Mo. -- Donald Gene Wiley, 63, of Kingdom City and formerly of Scott City, died Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, at the University of Missouri Hospital in Columbia, Missouri. There are no services. Announcement is courtesy of Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City...

Delbert DuRall, 58, of Grand Chain, Illinois, died Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017, at his home. Arrangements are incomplete at Crain Funeral Home in Ullin, Illinois.

Son to Ryan Christopher Moore and Jennifer Lee Morris of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Hospital, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017. Name, Thatcher Wesley. Weight, 8 pounds, 7 ounces. First child. Morris is the daughter of Randol and Marlene Morris of Cape Girardeau. She is a registered nurse at SoutheastHEALTH. Moore is the son of Adam and Cheryl Moore of Mansfield, Ohio. He is a farmhand at Sinn Farms...

Jackson The Jackson Police Department released the following items. Theft n A theft was reported in the 600 block of Sara Street. Miscellaneous n Trespassing was reported in the 3000 block of East Jackson Boulevard. n A peace disturbance was reported in the area of North Union Avenue...

A reception and book launch for Robert Hamblin’s latest book, My Life with Faulkner and Brodsky, will be held at the Hamblin residence in Cape Girardeau, 313 Themis Street, on November 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. The public is invited. The memoir, published for the Center for Faulkner Studies by Southeast Missouri State University Press, recounts the author’s career-long interest in the writings of William Faulkner, as well as Hamblin’s 36-year friendship and collaboration with Faulkner collector Louis Daniel Brodsky, who died in 2014.. ...