Stories from Friday, December 10, 2021

SB I-55 in Cape, Perry counties reduced for pavement work Southbound Interstate 55 in Cape Girardeau and Perry counties will be reduced to one lane as contractor crews make repairs to the pavement, according to a Missouri Department of Transportation news release. This section of highway is from mile marker 129 near Perryville to mile marker 105 near Jackson. The work will be underway from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily from Thursday through Dec. 23...

A reportedly suicidal male exchanged gunfire with local and state law enforcement officers Wednesday before being taken into custody. A release from Bollinger County, Missouri, Sheriff Casey Graham said county authorities and Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers responded to a home on County Road 342 in response to a reported suicidal male, Camaron Earley of Millersville...

A Cape Girardeau man is in custody after an alleged stabbing. Cape Girardeau Police Department Sgt. Joey Hann said an 18-year-old man and a juvenile arrived at a local hospital Wednesday afternoon with injuries after a physical altercation. The juvenile had been stabbed with a pocket knife multiple times in the torso. The altercation occurred in the 900 block of South Ellis Street, Hann said...

A book chronicling the intertwined history of Cape Girardeau and Cape Girardeau Country Club is now available. "Cape Girardeau Country Club Centennial -- The First 100 years: 1921-2021," written by Jerry Ford and J. Fred Waltz, focuses on the club and its relationship to the city...

Camping World announced Thursday it will build a 33,000-square-foot SuperCenter in Scott County off Nash Road near the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport with an expected opening in the summer. Camping World Holdings, headquartered in the northern Chicago suburb of Lincolnshire, Illinois, said it is the nation's largest retailer of recreational vehicles...

Scott City voters will see the use tax on ballots once again. This week, Scott City Council members unanimously voted to place the measure on ballots again in a special election April 5. April's election will be the second attempt to pass a use tax in Scott City, according to city and council officials...

For 16 years, the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Office has taken part in Cape Girardeau Walmart's Shop With a Hero program. The program pairs public safety personnel with children selected by participating schools -- kids who need a helping hand when it comes to getting Christmas gifts each year...

An engineering firm will begin a study in Cape Girardeau next year to assess how to reduce congestion and travel times along a section of Broadway. The study, performed by Lochmueller Group, will focus on a portion of Broadway from North Clark Avenue to North Sprigg Street called the Broadway Corridor...

About the pose An accessible strengthening pose, Ardha Chandrasana is a standing pinnacle pose named after the moon within the hatha lineage. Get into the pose Take this pose one step at a time: fold forward, put one hand on the ground or on a block, and find your balance. ...

What do factories and many schools have in common? Bells, specialization into separate subjects and producing batches of children based on their date of manufacture, also known as their year of graduation. These are similarities Sir Ken Robinson points out in his classic 2010 TED Talk “Changing Education Paradigms.” The system, he says, is the product of an educational system created in the 1800s during the economic context of the Industrial Revolution, when conformity to certain standards was a prioritized cultural value. ...

Between enjoying time with loved ones and honoring treasured traditions during the holidays, it’s the most wonderful time of year — right?! Not for your skin. Harsh, cold winds and dry indoor air can turn a summer glow into dehydrated, dull skin. Beyond appearances, extremely dry skin can become easily irritated or painful. Yikes!...

On the sidewalks of downtown Cape, Lindsey Radcliffe, CEO of Morning Star Behavioral Associates, can be seen strolling with her kids and their bow-tie-wearing wiener dog, Owen. Radcliffe enjoys bringing Owen by each store to say hi to the owners and community, as she says, “Everybody tries to make him fat with treats.” Not only does Radcliffe walk her dog downtown, she also lives, works and owns property in downtown Cape...

Jami Steeg, owner of Sunny Ridge Farms LLC, was born and raised with small-town values right here in Southeast Missouri. It has been a lifelong dream of hers to feed people healthy, local meat. In today's world, consumers have put their faith and food in the hands of large companies that are not looking out for their best interests. ...

A cow eats grass, transforming it into beef. A person eats a hamburger and composts the food scraps. The food scraps are returned to the earth to fertilize dirt used for growing. A carrot is grown in that ground. It’s pulled up by a farmer who delivers it to a local market, selling it directly to consumers or to a local grocer who sells it to consumers. ...

Healing smiles is the ultimate goal for Dr. William Shipley and Cure Dental, but this does not stop at cleaning teeth. Shipley says “dentistry is just a vehicle to heal smiles,” and his small team of six constantly works to expand their vision by caring for patients, creating an enjoyable dental experience and reaching out to the community...

Santa is coming to town, and he plans on visiting the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeast Missouri at their holiday-themed event. Executive director Allen Treece says the main goal of the event is to provide a fun opportunity for families and donors to connect to the organization...

Eden Health Spa and Salon in historic downtown Cape is the premier hair and makeup salon for any bridal party or special event! We offer complete, customized bridal styling packages for your big day and our highly trained and professional staff attends to the smallest details for every bride...

O Lord God, may we not be self-seeking but instead lift one another up in love. Amen.

The left wants liberty for pregnant women but tells the rest of us to pound salt. On Monday, lame-duck New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced, "Omicron is here, and it looks very transmissible." So, de Blasio, ignoring scientific evidence that current COVID-19 vaccines will not stop the variant from spreading, decreed all private sector workers in businesses of all sizes must be vaccinated by Dec. 27...

Three area high school teams recently made deep runs in the state playoffs. Jackson's football team, coming off a state championship in 2020 and two consecutive appearances in the title game, lost to Webb City 35-21 in this year's semifinal. The Indians struggled to get going in the first half but made an impressive comeback after halftime...

DYERSBURG, Tenn. -- Earnest "Hal" McCarter, 84, of Dyersburg, formerly of Cape Girardeau, died Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. A visitation will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Dec. 18 at Johnson-Williams Funeral Home in Newbern, Tennessee. A celebration of life event will be held in the spring. Interment will be at a later date at the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery in Bloomfield...

Mary Marcella Holdiness, 70, daughter of the late Paul and Izella Lewis Harty, was born Oct. 10, 1951, in Cape Girardeau and was promoted to glory surrounded by her family Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, at her home. On Sept. 11, 1971, she married Ronald Lynn Holdiness Sr. in Jackson. He survives...

BLOOMSDALE, Mo. -- James A. Eftink, 73, of Bloomsdale died Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021, at his home. He was born May 27, 1948, in Cape Girardeau. He married Charlotte Anderson on July 18, 1970. Jim graduated from Notre Dame High School in 1966 and went on to get a business degree from Southeast Missouri State University...

Emma Ray Cooper, 98, of Scott City passed away Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021, at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Dec. 10, 1922, in Greenfield, Arkansas, the daughter of Jasper and Dalia Harwood Ray. Emma and Ivan Cooper were united in marriage on July 12, 1941, in Brownwood, Missouri, and he preceded her in death May 6, 1968...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Kim Clifton, 70, of Marble Hill died Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. on Monday at Ford and Young Funeral Home in Perryville, Missouri, with Deacon Direk Hunt officiating.

BENTON, Mo. -- Jean Bollinger, 91, of Benton passed away Sunday, Dec. 5, 2021, at her home. Jean was born March 21, 1930, in Stokes, Arkansas, to Willis and Stella Holder Milam. She was one of eight children. She had four sisters and three brothers...

NEW YORK -- Will Smith rappelled into a live volcano and kayaked down an Icelandic whitewater river for his latest project. But he wasn't making an action movie. It was personal. Smith, a Hollywood leading man who admits he's far from outdoorsy, has put himself in danger's way while filming "Welcome to Earth," a kinetic Disney+ original series from National Geographic. He was intimidated, but that brought clarity...

BANGKOK -- Myanmar government troops rounded up villagers, some believed to be children, tied them up and slaughtered them, according to a witness and other reports. An opposition leader said the civilians were burned alive, as repression of resistance to a de facto coup takes an increasingly brutal turn...

CHICAGO -- Former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett was convicted Thursday on charges he staged an anti-gay, racist attack on himself nearly three years ago and then lied to Chicago police about it. In the courtroom as the verdict was read, Smollett stood and faced the jury, showing no visible reaction. He and his family later left the courthouse without comment...

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court ruled Thursday against an effort by former President Donald Trump to shield documents from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. In a 68-page ruling, the three-judge panel tossed aside Trump's various arguments for blocking through executive privilege records the committee regards as vital to its investigation into the run-up to the deadly riot aimed at overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election...

MORSHYN, Ukraine -- A small spa town in western Ukraine is standing out in a European country where only 29% of the people have received COVID-19 vaccine shots, and locals credit their community spirit for fending off the worst of the pandemic. In Morshyn, a scenic town nestled at the Carpathian foothills in the Lviv region, 74% of its 3,439 residents had been fully vaccinated as of late November...

WASHINGTON -- Americans' overall income has accelerated since the pandemic, but so has inflation -- and a new poll finds far more people are noticing the higher prices than the pay gains. Two-thirds say their household costs have risen since the pandemic, compared with only about a quarter who say their incomes have increased, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. ...

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden reached out to Ukraine's leader Thursday as the United States moved to take a more direct role in diplomacy between that country and Russia, part of a broader effort to dissuade Russia from a destabilizing invasion of its western neighbor...

U.S. health authorities again expanded the nation's booster campaign Thursday, opening extra doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to several million 16- and 17-year-olds. The U.S. and many other nations already were urging adults to get booster shots to pump up immunity that can wane months after vaccination, calls that intensified with the discovery of the new omicron variant...

WASHINGTON -- Bob Dole lay in state Thursday at the U.S. Capitol, as the president and others gathered to pay tribute to a "giant of our history" who served the country in war and in politics with pragmatism, self-deprecating wit and a bygone era's sense of common civility and compromise...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A woman shot and killed her husband at his snake breeding business in mid-Missouri, a jury decided Thursday. Lynlee Renick was convicted in Boone County of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the June 2017 death of her husband, Ben Renick, who bred rare and exotic snakes at his business in New Florence...

Newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises has rejected a takeover offer from the Alden Global Capital hedge fund that is one of the largest newspaper owners in the country with a reputation for intense cost cuts and layoffs, but the fight over the company's future is likely far from over...

GALENA, Mo. -- Three men who were charged after a tourist boat sank in Missouri, killing 17 people, will find out next year whether they will face a criminal trial, a judge said Thursday. At the conclusion of a two-day preliminary hearing, Associate Circuit Judge Alan Mark Blankenship gave prosecutors until the end of the year to respond to defense attorneys' request the case against the three men be dismissed. ...

The Cape Girardeau County Commission will look into increasing after-hours security at Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau in the wake of an attempt by an arsonist over the weekend to set fire to the historic building; while damage to the 142-year-old courthouse was negligible, Don McQuay, head supervisor of buildings and grounds for the county, cautions the commissioners not to take the incident lightly, because the arsonist and the motivation for the crime remain unknown...