Stories from Friday, February 11, 2022

Less than 8% of registered voters in Cape Girardeau participated in the city's primary election Tuesday. The election's 7.45% voter turnout was a little lower than what Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark Summers anticipated. "I thought, based on past elections and the number of candidates on the ballot, the turnout would be closer to 9% or 10%," Summer said...

Area Boy Scouts will honor some of their own Saturday. The 60th annual Eagle Scout ceremony at 2 p.m. Saturday at Southeast Missouri State University's Academic Auditorium will honor Scouts who earned their Eagle rank in 2021. James Kinder III will give the keynote address, sing the national anthem and present each Scout with their medal...

A federal grant will help Southeast Missouri State University students study William Faulkner. Christopher Rieger, director of the Center for Faulkner Studies and professor of English at Southeast, has received a Digital Humanities Advancement grant, totaling $147,673. ...

For the second time in three months, Jackson's Board of Aldermen has voted to deny a special-use permit for a planned in-home day care. Monday's 8-0 vote to reject Little Buttercups LLC's request was in line with a previous decision from the city's Planning and Zoning Commission that the permit not be issued...

Casey's convenience stores will continue its partnership with Feeding America to provide meals to individuals facing hunger. The partnership between the two organizations began in 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased food insecurity in the United States...

FARMINGTON, Mo. -- Total Electric's office off the main drag is easy to pass by. The unassuming, small building sits among numerous other retail outlets on a busy street, but it's where chief operations officer Danny Miller has called his work home for going on 25 years...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A bill aimed at strengthening self-defense laws but dubbed the "Make Murder Legal Act" by one local prosecutor failed to advance in the GOP-led Missouri Legislature on Thursday. A Senate committee blocked the bill, which would have given shooters the benefit of the doubt that they acted in self-defense...

O Lord Jesus, we praise you, the author and perfecter of our faith. Amen.

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls. Feb. 9 n Medical assists were made at 10:37 a.m. on Hillcrest Drive; 3:09 p.m. on Mississippi Street; 3:52 p.m. on South Benton Street; 7:53 p.m. on West Lorimier Place; 8:15 p.m. on South Pind Wood Lane; 9:24 p.m. on South Ellis Street...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to the following calls. Assaults n Assault was reported on Whitener Street. n Assault, unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of controlled substance except 35 grams or less of marijuana/synthetic cannabinoid were reported on Lacey Street...

Opal Elaine Winder, 95, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, at the Lutheran Home. She was born Dec. 1, 1926, in Cape Girardeau to Pearl and Manna P. Windeknecht Kent. She and Willard Winder were married in Cape Girardeau on Jan. 19, 1946. He preceded her in death...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Carolyn Sue Shelton, 79, of Poplar Bluff passed away Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Carolyn was born Nov. 7, 1942, to Carl and Otis McMurtry Medling in Naylor, Missouri. She married Donald Dawson Shelton on July 3, 1959, in East St. Louis, Illinois...

Mary Catherine Bishop, 74, of Cape Girardeau passed away Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, at Southeast Hospital after a brief illness and a brave, nine-year battle with Parkinson's disease. Cathy, as most people knew her, was born Jan. 10, 1948, in Jefferson City to Wiley Hinkle and Catherine Eva "Puddy" Schmuke Statler. She and William Glenn "Bill" Bishop were married March 17, 1979, at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Cape Girardeau...

It has been 80 years since a Black man was assaulted and lynched in Sikeston, Missouri. Recently, an event was held in the city to remember the horrific events surrounding the death of Cleo Wright. For many years this was a topic not spoken about, Sikeston native Harry Howard told our sister publication the Standard Democrat. "It's like if we don't talk about it, it didn't happen," he said. But it did...

WASHINGTON -- Inflation soared over the past year at its highest rate in four decades, hammering American consumers, wiping out pay raises and reinforcing the Federal Reserve's decision to begin raising borrowing rates across the economy. The Labor Department said Thursday consumer prices jumped 7.5% last month compared with a year earlier, the steepest year-over-year increase since February 1982...

MOSCOW -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday the Ukraine crisis has grown into "the most dangerous moment" for Europe in decades, while his top diplomat held icy talks with her Moscow counterpart who said the Kremlin won't accept lectures from the West...

TORONTO -- The Biden administration urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government Thursday to use its federal powers to end the truck blockade by Canadians protesting the country's COVID-19 restrictions, as the bumper-to-bumper demonstration forced auto plants on both sides of the border to shut down or scale back production...

ST. LOUIS -- Thick smoke billowed from the vacant, crumbling St. Louis house, but Benjamin Polson knew homeless people might be inside taking refuge from the January chill. So the 33-year-old firefighter went in. It cost him his life. Eleven days later, three Baltimore firefighters died when an abandoned row home collapsed. The same vacant house was the site of another fire seven years earlier injuring three firefighters...

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Fire yesterday destroyed the 96-year-old Mississippi County Courthouse; the blaze was reported about 4:15 a.m., and firefighters from six departments responded to the alarm; while Butch Amann, a fire investigator with the state fire marshal's office, says it's too early to determine the cause of the fire, which started on the second floor of the courthouse, arson is suspected...

FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. -- Diane Marie Upchurch, 63, of Fredericktown passed away Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022, at her home. She was born Aug. 31, 1958, in Frohna, Missouri, the daughter of Wilson Henry and Lois Hinkle Hager. She married Michael W. Upchurch, and he passed away Aug. 6, 2013...

Margaret Mary Cobb, 92, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, at her home. She was born Feb. 22, 1929, in Cape Girardeau to John M. and Adell Harris Cox. Margaret and Clarence Cobb were united in marriage on Feb. 22, 1947, at Jackson and he passed away on March 14, 2006...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A measure passed Thursday by the GOP-led Missouri House would raise the bar to put constitutional amendments to a public vote and be passed. The legislation, approved 98-53 by House lawmakers, would require a two-thirds vote of the people to amend the state Constitution. Currently, it takes a simple majority vote...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Mike Parson's budget recommendations do not include any funding for a state commission dedicated to teaching about the Holocaust. The Holocaust Education and Awareness Commission is seeking $32,000 for fiscal year 2023, with the funds to be used for workshops, an updated website and an annual remembrance event, the Springfield News-Leader reported...