Stories from Saturday, August 29, 2020

Carroll Williams is best known in the community as "Coach Williams." He's spent about 65 years educating students in physical education classes and coaching local sports teams, but it was his work with a local Christian school, in his 80s no less, that earned him Newsmaker distinction...

The following is a column I wrote for the latest edition of B Magazine, a regional magazine covering business in Southeast Missouri. The Difference Makers edition is one of my favorites. Twelve individuals and one organization were highlighted, plus there's additional business content you'll want to read. ...

With midday humidity still hours away, a calming morning air and a colorful sky filled the Powell family's quiet Cape Girardeau neighborhood shortly after as Dustin Powell entered the kitchen to begin cooking breakfast. Vibrant shades of purple and pink filled the dawn sky outside as Alex Powell sat in her living room with her only son, 4-year-old Elijah...

About 60 new COVID-19 cases were reported Friday, and officials in Scott County announced the county's 14th death attributed to the disease associated with coronavirus. No demographic details about the fatality were released. Scott County officials also reported nine new virus cases, pushing the county's total number of cases to 619. Four hundred seventy-eight county residents have recovered from the virus...

Matt Henson, the newly-named chair of the Cape Girardeau County Republican Central Committee, discounts national presidential polling and is persuaded President Donald J. Trump will be reelected in November. Henson said this year's just-completed pandemic-driven virtual Republican National Convention -- which wrapped up Thursday -- was "very unusual."...

The past few months have presented a challenge that a year ago we could not even fathom. But the challenge is here and is likely to be with us longer than we might like. We have met the COVID-19 pandemic challenge head on, committed to staying strong and continuing to positively impact the health and wellness of our region...

Today in History Today is Saturday, Aug. 29, the 242nd day of 2020. There are 124 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast near Buras, Louisiana, bringing floods that devastated New Orleans. More than 1,800 people in the region died...

A fountain and pedestrian plaza will be erected at Southeast Missouri State University within the next two to three years; it is a $30,000 departing gift from Dr. Kala and Joe Stroup; Kala Stroup is stepping down as university president to take a job as Missouri's commissioner of higher education...

Calvin and Evelyn Diebold of Kelso, Missouri, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Aug. 13 with a dinner hosted by their children. Diebold and the former Evelyn Sater were married Aug. 13, 1960, at St. Ambrose Church in Chaffee, Missouri. They have five children, Deborah (Dru) Wright, Rebecca (Dale) Kluesner, Elizabeth (Eddie) Martin, Mitchell (Holly) Diebold and Theresa (Ryan) LeGrand. ...

Charles and Kay Urhahn of Oran, Missouri, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary Aug. 27 with a dinner at their home. Urhahn and the former Kay Scheeter were married Aug. 27, 1960, at Guardian Angel Catholic Church in Oran. The couple has three children, Eric (Sherry) Urhahn of Oran, Derek (Kelly) Urhahn of Dexter, Missouri, and Kerwin Urhahn of Columbia, Missouri. ...

About this time of the year, it seems like the grass and weeds just take over the gardens. I spent one day a week or so ago getting the weeds and grass out of our rhubarb plants. I started about 20 new rhubarb plants last spring from seeds. Probably 15 or so of these plants made it to planting time in our hill garden. I think all of them are still alive with one exception. One simply dried up and died...

Another prominent leader has been discovered to not be who they said they were. They were not living out the values that they claimed to hold. They were not victims of the cancel culture but of grotesque hypocrisy. Sadly, each of us can place a different image to the previous description. ...

Does it seem as though evil goes unpunished? It is difficult to watch the news and see what is going on in some of our major cities. While the destructive mobs are described as protesters or demonstrators, we get the sense that something else is going on. Why are these organized groups damaging the homes and businesses of the people they claim to be fighting for? One of the phrases we hear repeated is, "No justice, no peace."...

Recently I discovered the Anglo-Welsh poet R.S. Thomas, who was an Anglican priest at rural parishes throughout his life and searched for God in silence. What comforts and urges me on about his spirituality is that he understands the point is obedience to the choice of acting in faith. Reaping a benefit from that choice is not what it's about; the act of faithing is what matters...

I took this photo Aug. 19. What you see here are the green berries of a plant called polkberry, polkweed or polk sallet. When the berries ripen, they will be dark purple. This is a common native shrub that dies back to the ground each autumn. The root system stays alive, and the following spring the upper stalks regrow...

Submitted by Safe Harbor Animal Sanctuary This sweet girl is Poppy. She is a 7-year-old terrier mix and really needs a loving home. If you are ready for a rewarding experience, come see us at Safe Harbor. Call (573) 243-9823.

Senior centers are open for carryout and delivery only. Monday: Scrambled eggs, sausage patty, biscuit and gravy, hash browns with onions, bran muffin, orange juice and grapes. Tuesday: Ham and beans or chicken livers, oven potatoes with onion, tomato salad, cornbread or crackers and mixed fruit dessert or lemon pineapple cake...

Moses Austin didn't mind the distance from the hills of Virginia to the hills of the Missouri Territory to scope out his future. He had heard "the richest lead deposits in the world could be found there." He read evidence in Chavalier de Luzier's writings of 1796, "There is a great quantity of iron, lead, copper ore ... ...

Not to us, O Lord, but to you goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness. Amen.

American Airlines warned in July that it would have to lay off up to 25,000 flight attendants, pilots and other front-line workers this fall due to the steep decline in travel brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. But after many left on their own, they only had to lay off 17,000. You see these numbers everyday, and yet they say more people are working and less on unemployment. Tell me another lie...

It is hard to tell what the current revolutionary violence in our major cities is all about. So far, hundreds of police have been injured, dozens of people have been killed, and we have seen billions of dollars in property and collateral damage. Ostensibly, many of the summer demonstrations were in protest over the gruesome detention and death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. consumers increased their spending by 1.9% last month, a dose of support for an economy struggling to emerge from the grip of a pandemic that has held back a recovery and kept roughly 27 million people jobless. The July gain marked the third straight monthly increase in consumer spending, the primary driver of the U.S. ...

TOKYO -- Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said Friday he is stepping down because a chronic health problem has resurfaced. He told reporters that it was "gut wrenching" to leave many of his goals unfinished. Abe has had ulcerative colitis since he was a teenager and has said the condition was controlled with treatment. ...

BERLIN -- Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is still in an induced coma from a suspected poisoning but his condition is stable and his symptoms are improving, the German doctors treating him said Friday. Navalny, a politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics, fell ill on a flight back to Moscow from Siberia on Aug. 20 and was taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk after the plane made an emergency landing...

MOSCOW -- The Russian navy conducted major war games near Alaska involving dozens of ships and aircraft, the military said Friday, the biggest such drills in the area since Soviet times. Russia's navy chief, Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, said that more than 50 warships and about 40 aircraft were taking part in the exercise in the Bering Sea, which involved multiple practice missile launches...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- As more and more schools and businesses around the country get the OK to reopen, some college towns are moving in the opposite direction because of too much partying and too many COVID-19 infections among students. With more than 300 students at the University of Missouri testing positive for the coronavirus, the local health director Friday ordered bars to stop serving alcohol at 9 p.m. ...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- With more than 300 University of Missouri students infected with the coronavirus and cases spiking in the surrounding community, Columbia's city health director on Friday announced a new order that limits crowd sizes and requires bars to close early...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri woman should receive the maximum sentence possible for directing a plan to hide the death of a developmentally disabled man whose body was found encased in concrete, a federal prosecutor said in court filings. Sherry Paulo, of Fulton, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday on federal charges of health care fraud and failing to provide medical care to Carl DeBrodie, 31, whose body was found in a storage unit in Fulton in April 2017. ...

MINSK, Belarus -- Belarus' authoritarian leader accused NATO on Friday of hatching aggressive plans and threatened neighbors Lithuania and Poland with counter-sanctions as he sought to shore up his 26-year rule amid weeks of demonstrations against his reelection in a vote the opposition says was rigged...

WASHINGTON -- Capping a week of protests and outrage over the police shooting of a Black man in Wisconsin, civil rights advocates began highlighting the scourge of police and vigilante violence against Black Americans at a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Arrest does not imply guilt. DWI n Driving under the influence was reported on Doctors Park Drive. Assaults n Assault was reported in the 1500 block of North Main Street. n Assault was reported in the 1700 block of Lacey Street...

Eugene R. Ulrich, 101, and Jane Collins Ulrich, 86, husband and wife, formerly of Jackson, passed away Monday, Aug. 17, 2020, and Sunday, March 11, 2012, respectively. Eugene, born Feb. 7, 1919, in Cape Girardeau to Ben F. and Flora Kinder Ulrich, was a graduate of Cape Girardeau Central High School. He then attended one year at Southeast Missouri State University and one year of business college in Memphis, Tennessee...

Edith Wray Prater of Jackson passed from this life Friday, Aug. 21, 2020, at Flo and Phil Jones Hospice House in Jonesboro, Arkansas. She was born Oct. 15, 1932, grew up in Coldwater, Missouri, and eventually settled down in Jackson, until she passed...

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Sidney Flora Mayberry of Advance passed away Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020, at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born March 24, 1934, in Blytheville, Arkansas, the daughter of Sidney Lichtig and Mora Jones Bidewell. She was married to the late Kenneth Dean Grindstaff, who passed away July 28, 1965. She later married Raymond Mayberry, also deceased...

Fern Olive Lange, 88, of Jackson, passed away Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Sept. 16, 1931, in the state of Kansas, daughter of Columbus F. "Lum" and Cora R. Nelson Crader. She and Richard F. Lange were married Jan. 15, 1947, in Arkansas...

Barbara Ann Johnston, 62, of Cape Girardeau, died Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. Memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Funeral Home, with Pastor Michael Lee officiating. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service...

DONIPHAN, Mo. -- Albert Sharpe Jackson was born Aug. 16, 1939, at Success, Arkansas, to Albert Silas and Velma Sharpe Jackson. He departed this earthly life Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020. Al's education consisted of several two-room schools, then Naylor (Missouri) Grade School and High School. High school sports provided some of the highlights of his life, with a verified scoring of 70 basketball game points once and 50 points frequently scored...

Donald David Harris, son of the late Robert Harris and Ada Jane Welch Harris was born Nov. 22, 1939, in Oran, Missouri, and departed this life Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, Missouri, at the age of 80 years. On May 25, 1960, he was united in marriage to Sharon Lynn Phillips in Oran. She preceded him in death Nov. 30, 2008...

** Barbara Beard Barbara Beard, 87, of Cape Girardeau, died Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau.

Cape Girardeau County Commission 9 a.m. today 1 Barton Square, Jackson Approval of minutes n Minutes from Aug. 27 meetings Communications/reports -- other elected officials n COVID-19 Update: In an effort to keep Cape Girardeau County residents safe and aware regarding the status of the virus, Emergency Management Agency (EMA) director Mark Winkler will be issuing an update at County Commission meetings. ...

Marian M. Essner, of Kelso, Missouri, passed away Friday, Aug. 28 at Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. She was born Aug. 14, 1926, to John and Christine Diebold Ressel. Marian grew up on a farm just south of Kelso, where she worked with her family as a young girl. ...

Classes in the Cape Girardeau School District will be dismissed early for the rest of the week due to the continuing heat wave; school officials made the decision yesterday in declaring a weather emergency. Despite some rain delays early this spring, construction is continuing as planned on the Nash Road extension project; the Missouri State Highways and Transportation Commission is expected to award a contract later this week for construction of a bridge crossing Ramsey Creek; costs for the extension project are estimated at $9 million, and it is scheduled for completion in 1997.. ...

Twin daughters to Lee and Patricia Hodges of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Hospital, Monday, July 6, 2020. Ava Theresa was born at 4:32 p.m. and weighed 4 pounds, 14 ounces. Isla Dianne was born at 4:48 p.m. and weighed 3 pounds, 14 ounces. First children. ...