Stories from Wednesday, October 17, 2018

The Southeast Missouri counties of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Iron, Madison, Perry and Ste. Genevieve are eligible for federal disaster aid to address damage caused by storms in spring 2017, a regional planning official said. Barry Horst, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency funding would be for damage from storms that occurred April 28 through May 11...

Medicare open enrollment begins this week, which means it’s a good time for older adults to look into the APPLE project, which helps adults age 60 and older fill out paperwork. The project serves those who live in Cape Girardeau, Perry and Scott counties...

Salvador Mondragon, a fisheries management biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, holds a black crappie after measuring it for data and sampling purposes Tuesday at Lake Girardeau in Whitewater.

Jackson High School theater students are set to perform a female-focused “The Odd Couple” — nearly two months in the making — next week. Taylor Hamlett, director of theater at Jackson High School, is leading this year’s fall production, following in former director Bob Clubb’s footsteps...

The City of Cape Girardeau is accepting proposals for the development of a city-owned property at the northwest corner of Broadway and Main Street downtown. In seeking to develop the 1.04-acre property, a parking lot, the city hopes the space will be put to more constructive use, advancing the city’s 2017 Downtown Strategic Plan. ...

Gov. Mike Parson urged area civic and local government leaders Tuesday to push for passage of Proposition D, the fuel-tax-increase measure on the November ballot. He told the audience at the Drury Plaza Hotel Conference Center in Cape Girardeau improving the state’s roads and bridges and workforce development are vital to moving Missouri forward. He said they are the two major focuses of his administration...

Ameren Missouri is set to begin construction on a one-megawatt solar panel facility that will provide customers the option to support a more sustainable power model, an official with the company said. Matt Forck, assistant vice president of community, economic development and energy solutions at Ameren Missouri, said residential and small-business customers might not individually be able to participate in solar power, either because of homeowners’ associations restrictions or a high upfront investment, but still want to support solar power. ...

Started 30 years ago with services at a movie theater in the mall, La Croix Church celebrated its anniversary earlier this month. Pastor Ron Watts shared how as a young man he felt called to start a new church -- but in his hometown of St. Louis. God, however, kept directing him to Cape. Thank you, Ron and wife Linda, for following that call...

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 17, the 290th day of 2018. There are 75 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Oct. 17, 1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany. On this date: In 1610, French King Louis XIII, age nine, was crowned at Reims, five months after the assassination of his father, Henry IV...

Clean Missouri will be on the Nov. 6 ballot as Amendment 1. With a name like that you would think it would be a bipartisan bill with pure intentions. But, what we have is a Wolf in Sheep's clothing. Clean Missouri is being promoted as ethics reform and includes changes to the state's laws relating to lobbyists and campaign contribution limits. This part of Amendment 1 I agree with. However, it's what is in the weeds that has to be spotlighted...

I suspect we're all guilty of clinging to things long past their expiration date. A shirt in the closet that no longer fits and is woefully out of style. Well worn shoes that may well conjure past memories but should have been relegated to the trash heap long ago...

EUREKA, Mo. -- Six people have managed to spend 30 hours in coffins as part of a ghoulish promotion at Six Flags St. Louis. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported each won their coffin, two season passes and other prizes. The challenge started Saturday afternoon with a "laying to rest ceremony" and ended with a "raising from the dead." Participants emerged only for bathroom breaks and a series of mini-challenges...

Two companies facing multiple lawsuits over a summer tourist boat accident in Branson, Missouri, that killed 17 people have invoked an 1851 law allowing vessel owners to try to avoid or limit legal damages as they also seek settlement negotiations with victims' family members...

NEW YORK -- U.S. health officials Tuesday reported a jump in cases of a rare paralyzing illness in children, and said it seems to be following an every-other-year pattern. At least 62 cases have been confirmed in 22 states this year, and at least 65 additional illnesses in those states are being investigated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Similar waves of the same illness occurred in 2014 and 2016...

TORONTO -- Tom Clarke has been dealing marijuana illegally in Canada for 30 years. He wrote in his high school yearbook his dream was to open a cafe in Amsterdam, the Dutch city where people have legally smoked weed in coffee shops since the 1970s. Turns out, Clarke didn't have to go nearly that far to open his own retail cannabis outlet...

KATHMANDU, Nepal -- Rescuers hampered by difficult, remote terrain took two days to recover the bodies of nine climbers, including one of the world's best, who hoped to map a new route to a Himalayan peak in Nepal that hasn't been scaled in eight years...

REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy threw the United States into an epoch-defining financial storm. Imagine 300 of them going bust at once. That, in relative terms, is what Iceland endured a decade ago during its banking crisis, which on this rugged island steeped in myths of gods and giants is now known as "hrunid" -- the collapse...

ISTANBUL -- Police searching the Saudi Consulate found evidence Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed there, a high-level Turkish official said Tuesday, and authorities appeared ready to also search the nearby residence of the consul general after the diplomat left the country...

PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- Hurricane Michael killed at least 16 people in Florida, most of them in the coastal county that took a direct hit from the storm, state emergency authorities said Tuesday. That's in addition to at least 10 deaths elsewhere across the South...

BOISE, Idaho -- A top Idaho wildlife official has resigned amid outrage over a photo of him posing with a baboon family he killed in Africa. Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter said in a statement he asked for and accepted Blake Fischer's resignation Monday, three days after the Idaho Statesman newspaper published the first report about a photo of Fischer smiling with four dead baboons propped in front of him...

BEIJING -- China on Tuesday characterized its mass internment of Muslims as a push to bring into the "modern, civilized" world a destitute people who are easily led astray -- a depiction analysts said bore troubling colonial overtones. The report is the ruling Communist Party's latest effort to defend its extrajudicial detention of Central Asian Muslim minorities against mounting criticism...

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The U.S. military Tuesday announced its deadliest airstrike against the al-Shabab extremist group in Somalia in nearly a year, killing about 60 fighters. The U.S. Africa Command said Friday's airstrike occurred near the al-Shabab-controlled community of Harardere in Mudug province in the central part of the country. According to its assessment no civilians were injured or killed, the statement said...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Tuesday he won't accept the blame if Republicans lose the House in November. Trump said he believes he is "helping" Republican candidates as he campaigns ahead of crucial midterm elections next month. With Republicans facing headwinds, Trump said he thinks the GOP is "going to do well," arguing "it feels to me very much like" 2016...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized rapidly mounting global condemnation of Saudi Arabia over the case of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, warning of a rush to judgment. In an interview with The Associated Press, Trump compared the situation to the allegations of sexual assault leveled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The DNA test Sen. Elizabeth Warren used to try to rebut the ridicule of President Donald Trump angered some Native Americans, who complained the genetic analysis cheapens the identities of tribal members with deeper ties to the Indian past...

Democrats dominated Republicans in money races across the House map and in key Senate contests with three weeks left before midterm elections. Money is no guarantee of electoral outcomes, but the numbers suggest Democratic voters' enthusiasm continues unabated in 2018, with small-dollar donors in particular fueling the party's hopes of reshaping Republican-run Washington for the final two years of President Donald Trump's first term...

SEATTLE -- Obesity surgery may dramatically lower the danger of heart attacks and strokes in patients with diabetes, new research suggests, reinforcing evidence benefits extend beyond weight loss. The study tracked about 20,000 severely obese patients with Type 2 diabetes. Those who had weight loss surgery had a 40 percent lower chance of developing a heart attack or stroke in the five years following surgery compared to those who got usual care with diabetes medicines or insulin...

Bishop John J. Leibrecht of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese celebrates a Latin Mass at noon at Old St. Vincent's Catholic Church; the Mass commemorates Cape Girardeau's bicentennial. The congregation of First Pentecostal Church is temporarily holding services at 636 S. Kingsway Drive until its new building on Lexington Avenue is completed...

Mary Lois Rellergert, born as Thelma Lois Chafin, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018, at Lutheran Home. She was born Aug. 6, 1937, in Mansfield, Ohio, to Mary Frances Sanders and Leon Hulett Chafin and was the stepdaughter of J.W. Gerhardt. She and Herbert Rellergert were married May 24, 1958, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Apple Creek, Missouri, and had six children...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Charles "Butch" Nenninger, 78, of Perryville died Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018 at Perry County Memorial Hospital. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and from 6:30 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Young and Sons Funeral Home. Funeral Mass will be at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, with the Rev. Joe Geders, CM, officiating. Burial in the Mount Hope Cemetery, with military graveside honors provided by American Legion and Navy Honors Team...

Veda Marilyn Powell Kinsey died Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, surrounded by family at her son's home in Thompsonville, Illinois, where she was cared for, for a brief period of time. The youngest of six children, Marilyn was born Nov. 1, 1932, in Beaucoup Township, Illinois, to Waldo and Veva Walker Powell. Upon graduating from Centralia Township (Illinois) High School, she and Duane Alfred Kinsey were married July 23, 1950, in Centralia...

Donald H. Howard, 81, of Jackson passed away Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, at Life Care Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Aug. 4, 1937, in Cape Girardeau to the late Lester and Ethel Burns Howard. Donald and Betty J. Thomas were married Dec. 29, 1955, in Cape Girardeau. She preceded him in death Dec. 12, 1991...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Barbara S. Brewer, 75, of Perryville died on Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, at her home. Visitation will be held today from 4 to 8 p.m. and from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Young and Sons Funeral Home. Funeral Mass will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, with the Rev. Rich Wehrmeyer officiating. Burial will be in Mount Hope Cemetery...

O Lord Jesus, may we love others, flee evil and seek your righteousness. Amen.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri vehicle owners will be getting new red, white and blue license plates to commemorate the state's upcoming bicentennial. The new plates will be distributed as people renew their licenses over the next couple of years. The goal is to have them all in place before the state's 200th anniversary in 2021...

Son to Curtis Wayne Jr. and Emily Danielle Hall of Scott City, Saint Francis Medical Center, 8:02 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018. Name, Abel Lucas. Weight, 3 pounds, 1 ounce. Second son. Mrs. Hall is the former Emily Essner, daughter of Jill Essner of Jackson and Danny Essner of Scott City. She is a loan administrative assistant with The Bank of Missouri. Hall is the son of Curtis and Vickie Hall of Scott City. He is a line technician with Procter & Gamble...

Before there was Amazon ----or, for that matter, Home Depot or Walmart or Kmart -- there was Sears. From its beginnings as a mail-order watch business in Minneapolis 132 years ago, the company grew to become America's everything-under-one-roof store and the biggest retailer in the world...

Care to Learn in Cape Girardeau supports students living in southeast Missouri by providing resources to meet their immediate needs in the areas of health, hunger, and hygiene. Throughout the region, nearly 26 percent of children have limited access to food and Care to Learn works with a network of volunteers, educational staff and families to help wherever possible...

Gordonville Grill is continuing to give back to the community through their 10% Tuesday Community Night Program. Every week, this night allows Gordonville Grill to donate 10% of the gross sales to a local, non-profit organization. From the moment we open until the moment we close...

The entire student body of Guardian Angel School in Oran, pre-k to 8th, along with teachers, parents, grandparents, and younger siblings of students, made the trip to Beggs Farm at Blodgett on Friday, October 5. It was a chilly day compared to the past years, but all the children still had a great time. Everyone was ready to rest by the end of the day. Many memories were made and pictures taken...

Alex Schlitt with the Oran Fire Department came to Guardian Angel School on Tuesday, October 9 to educate the children on fire safety. He discussed with them about whether they had working smoke detectors and what to do if you catch on fire. He even ran the siren for the students to hear. Thank you to Alex for taking the time to educate the children in fire safety...

The town of Oran, MO will be celebrating its sesquicentennial in 2019. A coloring contest was held for ages 4 & 5, 6 & 7, and 8-10. Guardian Angel School was lucky to have 2 of the winners. Elaina Hahn was selected as the winner of ages 4 & 5 and Ashtyn Pobst was selected as the winner of ages 6 & 7. ...

Zoodles, a free educational program from White House, TN, made a visit to Guardian Angel School in Oran on Tuesday, October 9 with several interesting animals. Steven Thomas, who is an animal handler for Zoodles, was accompanied by Jack (1 year old) & Maria (5 year old), African Tortoise; Dane, Indonesian Blue Tongued Skink; Miss Barbara, royal python snake; Soloman, parrot from Soloman Islands, and Kiki, Keikaju or honey bear. ...

A group of 36 people gathered on the lawn near Guardian Angel Church for a rosary rally on Saturday, October 13. This was the 101st anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, Portugal. Julie Senciboy coordinated the rally for Guardian Angel Parish and led everyone in the rosary. ...

On Tuesday, October 30, the Jackson Chapter of Future Business Leaders of America students will trick or treat for cans in the Jackson area. The members will be going door to door in groups to collect cans for the Jackson Ministerial Alliance Food Bank. They will hit the streets at 5:30 pm and will deliver the cans at the food pantry at 8 pm. They appreciate the continued support of the community in this annual service project...

On October 5, seventeen students from the Jackson High School Chapter #8532 attended the Show Me Leadership Conference at Six Flags, St. Louis. The students involved participated in many activities. All members participated in competitive event open testing, with the team of Zach Freeman and Hunter Rees placing third in Decision Making. ...