Stories from Friday, February 26, 2021

Eight people were transported to local hospitals following two motor vehicle accidents Thursday morning in Scott County. According to Capt. Kevin Drury with the Scott City Fire Department, the first accident involved three vehicles and occurred at approximately 7:35 a.m. One person involved was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries...

Newly introduced legislation to add household pets to orders of protection got a hearing before a Missouri Senate committee earlier this week. Sen. Elaine Gannon (R-3/De Soto), a 1975 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, filed Senate Bill 71 in order to shield pets from those threatening or committing abuse against them...

Cape Girardeau police responded to a report of shots fired Wednesday night in the 2800 block of Hemlock Court. According to patrolman Richard McCall, officers located one victim at the scene with minor injuries. The victim refused medical treatment...

An ordinance allowing an urban deer hunt in Cape Girardeau deals with the same issue voters rejected in 2013, but the current measure differs from its predecessor in significant ways. The City Council approved the measure by a 4-1 vote, but, opponents have begun gathering signatures to try to overturn the ordinance. In 2013, after council members approved an urban deer hunt, voters compelled a citywide vote on the matter and struck it down...

WASHINGTON -- The United States launched airstrikes in Syria on Thursday, targeting facilities near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups. The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack Feb. 15 in Iraq that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition troops...

A statement from Kathryn Limbaugh and family said Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was honorably laid to rest Wednesday in St. Louis, with close immediate family in attendance. There will be additional celebrations of Rush’s life to come both virtually and in his home town of Cape Girardeau, the statement said. A retropective of Cape Girardeau native Rush Limbaugh’s life and career will be featured in the Weekend Southeast Missourian.

Today is Friday, Feb. 26, the 57th day of 2021. There are 308 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Feb. 26, 1993, a truck bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of the North Tower of New York's World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others. (The bomb failed to topple the North Tower into the South Tower, as the terrorists had hoped; both structures were destroyed in the 9/11 attack eight years later.)...

(Published May 25, 1993.) Growing up in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, meant many an afternoon playing fuzzball behind the Limbaugh home. "The guys in the neighborhood would get together and play ball for hours," said Steve Miesner of St. Louis, a boyhood pal of renowned radio personality Rush Limbaugh. ...

(Published May 25, 1993.) "Rusty and I became friends back in '64. We played on the same baseball team in Babe Ruth League," recalls boyhood pal Craig Valle of St. Louis. "The first thing we noticed that we had in common was the love of baseball although Rusty played football too. We were both pitchers. When we were not pitching, we played first base. We spent a lot of time together practicing our pitching...

(Published May 25, 1993.) David Crowe met Rush Limbaugh when they were 3. Their activities included games and a lot of radio. "Rusty would hook up the CB radios and his 45 turntable and play songs over the CB. He loved to pretend he was a disc jockey. He would rattle off some commentary and play me a song. Then he would ask, 'How did that sound?' I guess you could say that I was his first radio coach and his first broadcast audience...

(Published May 25, 1993.) Millie Limbaugh, mother of the nation's most controversial -- and most popular -- radio talk show host in history, was playing bridge with friends at the country club one day when someone called her and said he had just heard her son refer to her crowd as "the blue-haired, bloody-Mary drinking, bridge players at the country club."...

(Published May 25, 1993.) According to the Neilsen average television audience ratings, Rush Limbaugh's national television ratings currently are 3.3 for the entire season. He consistently beats "David Letterman" (2.6) and "Arsenio Hall" (2.7) and "CBS Prime Time" (3.0). ...

(Published May 25, 1993.) It's no surprise to Rush's brother, David, that Rush has made it big. "Since the time he was very young, Rush has always been determined to succeed in radio. Even as a child, he had lofty goals, including becoming a top deejay in one of the top ten radio markets," David noted. ...

(Published May 25, 1993.) In public, liberals call him right-wing. They may call him something else privately. The national media call him talk radio's bombast king, the patron saint of white mail chauvinists. Feminists call him obnoxious and gays say he's shameful...

(Published May 25, 1993.) The king of talk radio has already conquered the book world with a non-fiction volume which has dominated the market, setting records and yielding only to the Bible in sales volume. But that's not all of his kingdom...

(Published May 25, 1993.) The Southeast Missourian newsroom continually fields calls from journalists asking, "Who is Rush Limbaugh?" "Is he for real?" Rush Limbaugh... love him or hate him ... has single handedly put the bustling Mississippi riverfront community of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on the map...

It's time to work on infrastructure. Bridges, roads and electrical grid! Thank you, Mr. Biden, for giving us higher gas prices and for letting 25,000 illegal immigrants come across our border without being tested for virus and being properly vetted for MS-13 gang membership and drug cartel members and human traffickers and shutting down the oil pipeline, costing thousands of good paying union jobs...

O Lord Jesus, may we forgive others as you forgive us. Amen.

In his autobiography, "Up From the Projects," the late economist Walter Williams explained his move away from the belief that minimum wages help the poor. His change of heart on the topic began when one of his UCLA professors asked him whether he cared more about the intentions behind the minimum wage or its effects...

Leadership for Cape Girardeau's behavioral health hospital, joined by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and 100 community members, gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony this week to celebrate the opening of the new $33-million facility. The 102-bed Southeast Behavioral Hospital is expected to admit its first patients the week of March 8...

One of the first stories about Rush Limbaugh, born Jan. 12, 1951, in the Southeast Missourian (not counting birth announcement or class field trips) was an Aug. 11, 1965, article that focused on his friendship with Los Angeles Dodger Maury Willis: "Rusty Finds Wills A Star Off Diamond."...

MISSION, Kan. -- When COVID-19 patients inundated St. Louis hospitals, respiratory therapists arriving for yet another grueling shift with a dwindling supply of ventilators would often glance at their assignments and cry, heading into the locker room to collect themselves...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- Missouri teachers and child care providers will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in mid-March, Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday. Parson said during his weekly media briefing the state plans to open up vaccinations to those in Phase 1B, Tier 3, effective March 15. That group involves an estimated 550,000 additional residents. The new date is about a month earlier than state leaders originally projected...

Marilyn Sides Morrison, 86, a resident of Cape Girardeau, died Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, at Hunter Acres Caring Center in Sikeston, Missouri. Friends may call from 11 a.m. to noon on March 20 at New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau. Funeral service will be at noon on March 20, with Pastor Joseph G. Cotton Jr., officiating. Interment will follow in Fairmount Cemetery...

Doris J. Martinez, age 77, of Jackson died Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, at Ozark Manor Assisted Living in Fredericktown, Missouri. She was born May 6, 1943 in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. She worked for AT&T for 30 years before retiring. Doris is survived by a daughter, Maria (Richard) Knox of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri; brother, Ronald Irvin of Oglesville, Missouri; two grandchildren, Sean Dykes and Logan Barnhill, both of Park Hills, Missouri; and a great-granddaughter, Alexis Dykes of Jackson...

SUNSET HILLS, Mo. -- Jack H. Mann left this world Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021, dying of cancer at Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis at the age of 69. Jack attended Southeast Missouri State University and began his career as an educator with the Perry County (Missouri) School District. He was also employed by the Cape Girardeau and Nell Holcomb school districts. He retired after 29 years of service to children as a superintendent of Grandview R-2 School District in Hillsboro, Missouri...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Lisa Ann Crites Archer, 52, of Marble Hill passed away Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Feb. 17, 1969, in Frankfurt, Germany, daughter of Charles "David" and Thelma "Ann" Hilton Crites. She and Bryan Archer were married Aug. 26, 2012, in Cape Girardeau...

Geese sit and stand on the mixture of ice and slush Wednesday in the Capaha Park pond in Cape Girardeau. Feathered friends and people enjoyed the sunshine the past few days. The temperature hit a high of 66 degrees on Wednesday, according to Accuweather...

MEXICO CITY -- The number of monarch butterflies that showed up at their winter resting grounds in central Mexico decreased by about 26% this year, and four times as many trees were lost to illegal logging, drought and other causes, making 2020 a bad year for the butterflies...

NEW YORK -- A New York prosecutor has obtained copies of Donald Trump's tax records after the Supreme Court this week rejected the former president's last-ditch effort to prevent them from being handed over. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office enforced a subpoena on Trump's accounting firm within hours of the Supreme Court's ruling Monday and now has the documents in hand, a spokesman for the office, Danny Frost, said Thursday...

WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week in a sign layoffs may have eased, though applications for aid remain at a historically high level. Jobless claims declined by 111,000 from the previous week to a seasonally adjusted 730,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. ...

NEW YORK -- February is usually the peak of flu season, with doctors' offices and hospitals packed with suffering patients. But not this year. Flu has virtually disappeared from the U.S., with reports coming in at far lower levels than anything seen in decades...

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers pressed the acting U.S. Capitol Police chief Thursday to explain why the force wasn't prepared to fend off a violent mob of insurrectionists even though officials had compiled specific, compelling intelligence extremists were likely to attack Congress and try to halt the certification of Donald Trump's election loss...

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic-led House passed a bill Thursday enshrining LGBTQ protections in the nation's labor and civil rights laws, a top priority of President Joe Biden, though the legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate. The bill passed by a vote of 224-206 with three Republicans joining Democrats in voting "yes."...

JACKSON, Miss. -- The sunshine is back, and the ice has melted. But more than a week after a deep freeze across the South, many communities are still grappling with getting clean water to their residents. Families stood in lines for hours to get drinking water. They boiled it to make it safe to drink or brush their teeth. They scooped up snow and melted it in their bathtubs. Hospitals collected buckets of water to flush toilets...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Republican-led Missouri House on Wednesday passed another bill to require voter photo identification at the polls, an attempt to reinstate the policy after it was gutted by the state Supreme Court. House lawmakers voted 109-46 to send the bill to the GOP-led state Senate...

Press Release: Kara Roberts crowned Miss Missouri for America 2020 Kara Roberts was crowned Miss Missouri for America on September 20, 2020. Kara is a resident of Rolla, Missouri and will now go on to compete March 19-27, 2021 for the Miss for America 2021 National Pageant in Las Vegas, Nevada. The pageant will be hosted at the Westgate Resort and Casino in conjunction with the Mrs America Pageant...

ROCKVIEW, Mo. -- There are no zoning laws, no town ordinances and no elected officials in this community; but its not a town without history, and residents hope to make history by incorporating sometime soon; Rockview, located about 2 miles from Chaffee, Missouri, along Route M, began as a railroad settlement; its name likely came from the view atop its rocky hills, where the railroad once operated a quarry; no rocks are quarried now and trains seldom stop along either set of tracks that split the community; but residents aren't split over a decision to form a sewer district and eventually incorporate.. ...

CAPE GIRARDEAU The Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Assaults n Assault was reported in the 1700 block of Lacey Street. n Assault was reported in the 2800 block of Hemlock Court Miscellaneous n Property damage was reported in the 300 block of South Benton Street...

(Published May 25, 1993.) It all started with Rush Jr. Rush H. Limbaugh Jr., 1918-1990, attorney, father and namesake of the most listened-to radio talk host ever, was one of Cape Girardeau, Missouri's most unforgettable characters. An extremely close friend of our family and my father's attorney, Rust Jr. ...

On March 11, 1987, the Southeast Missourian printed a story in which Rush Limbaugh explained his business secrets. This was after he achieved success in California but before he hit it big nationally. Early in his life, Rush "Rusty" Limbaugh III rebelled against doing what was expected of him...

Rush Limbaugh's high school newspaper, The Tiger, might have been the first newspaper to feature his passion for radio. The following article comes to our attention from Sue Jackson Cook, who graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High School in 1968 "a year before Rush." Cook sang in the musical group, The Choraliers, with Rush's mother Millie, and her brothers were school friends with Rush and his brother David...