Stories from Wednesday, March 29, 2023

The Pig's Hiney bar and grill in Scott City will hold an Adult Prom from 7 p.m. until the bar closes Saturday, April 1. Owner Beth Fugate said there is no theme for the prom but she and her husband, Paul, will be wearing their best 1980s prom attire...

Federal warrant information has been released on the suspect who evaded Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's deputies during a chase Monday, March 27. Deputies located Austin Burton, 26, around 2 p.m. Monday southbound on U.S. 61 near Fruitland. Burton is wanted on a federal warrant...

Mirroring a sharp decline seen nationally, cases of influenza dropped dramatically between January and February in Cape Girardeau County. According to statistics released by the county's public health center, cases of Influenza A and B combined dropped 93% from 75 reported occurrences to five...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- A Chaffee school teacher faces two felonies and one misdemeanor charge for allegedly attempting to arrange a sexual encounter with a 16-year-old girl. Mitchell John Dirnberger, an industrial technology shop teacher at Chaffee Junior and Senior High School, was charged Friday, March 24, with the Class C felony of promoting a sexual performance by a child, a Class D felony of endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree and the class C misdemeanor of sexual misconduct in the second degree. ...

Howard Benyon, the newly appointed superintendent for Cape Girardeau Public Schools, announced plans for leadership changes ahead of the upcoming school year. A news release, sent by CGPS on Tuesday, March 28, stated Benyon's current position as deputy superintendent of elementary education will be eliminated. ...

Cape Central Academy won't be able to move into its new home until at least January. The initial hope had been for the Academy to transition into the former Red Star Baptist Church by the beginning of the next school year in August. However, Josh Crowell, assistant superintendent of Support Services, reported to the Cape Girardeau Public Schools Board of Education on Monday, March 27, that delays in the renovation schedule, due in part to equipment availability, meant the date had to be pushed back.. ...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Kelsey Johnson received the key to her new home at a dedication ceremony Sunday, March 26, in Marble Hill. This is the 62nd home Habitat for Humanity -- Cape Area has dedicated in the 36 years it has been in operation. The location serves Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Perry and Stoddard counties...

At a regular meeting, Monday, March 27, the Cape Girardeau Public Schools Board of Education authorized negotiations with multiple contractors in the construction of the first phase of an athletic complex to be built on the Central High School campus...

Zion United Methodist Church in Gordonville voted to disaffiliate from the United Methodist denomination March 19 adding to the droves of churches leaving the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. The congregation of the rural church voted 110 to 28 in favor of disaffiliation, easily clearing the required two-thirds threshold. Zion has 234 members...

Today is Wednesday, March 29, the 88th day of 2023. There are 277 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On March 29, 2004, President George W. Bush welcomed seven former Soviet-bloc nations (Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia and Estonia) into NATO during a White House ceremony...

O Lord Jesus, we worship you, the Messiah, the Son of God. Amen.

We are going to look back years from now and wonder how we failed young girls so badly. Between social media and fashionable gender theories, we are making teenage girls depressed, anxious and trans. In a Substack essay the other day, a mother wrote of her daughter: “She was among the last of her small group of biologically female friends to socially transition. ...

Pure chaos. That’s the best way to describe the situation on our southern border. President Joe Biden has spent his entire presidency taking a sledgehammer to the Trump administration’s effective border policies. Biden inherited a border that was the most secure it had ever been, but within his first 100 days in office, he issued 94 executive actions impacting immigration — including ending construction of President Donald Trump’s border wall — something which had received bipartisan funding approval in Congress. ...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls. March 27 n Medical assists were made at 6:29 a.m. on North Middle Street; 6:58 a.m. on South West End Boulevard; 8:11 a.m. on South Farrar Drive; 9:13 a.m. on North Kingshighway; 10:50 a.m., on Shirley Drive; 12:55 p.m. on Whitener Street; 3:55 p.m. on Kingsway Drive; 6:04 p.m. on South Fountain Street; 9:58 p.m. on Rampart Street...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to the following calls. Assault n Assault was reported. Thefts n Theft was reported on Chesapeake Avenue. n Theft was reported on South Mount Auburn Road. n Stealing and fraudulent use of a credit/debit device were reported...

This is not a presidential election year. It’s not even a mid-term year. But on Tuesday, April 4, voters in Missouri will head to the polls. And make no mistake, this election is important. While national media places much importance on our presidential and congressional elections, which we agree are important, it’s also critical voters provide the same attention to local races and ballot issues. ...

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- In the 1700s, a boy was born into slavery in Colonial America. He spent his life working in the coastal city of Charleston. And when he died in middle age, he was buried alongside 35 other slaves. That's the likely history that researchers have uncovered for the man -- there's no written record for him or the others buried at the long-forgotten site. ...

PARIS -- Bolstered French police forces clashed with demonstrators in numerous cities Tuesday as hundred of thousands of marchers protested President Emmanuel Macron's unpopular retirement reform. Security was ramped up for the 10th round of protest marches since January after the government warned that some demonstrators intended "to destroy, to injure and to kill."...

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve's bank supervisors warned Silicon Valley Bank's management as early as the fall of 2021 of risks stemming from its unusual business model, a top Fed official said Tuesday, but its managers failed to take the steps necessary to fix the problems...

TALLINN, Estonia -- A Russian court on Tuesday convicted a single father over social media posts critical of the war in Ukraine and sentenced him to two years in prison -- a case brought against him after his daughter's drawing at school opposed the invasion, according to his lawyer and activists...

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- A company announced Tuesday that it is recalling a packaged pasta dish sold in HyVee grocery stores in eight Midwestern states. Chester, Illinois-based Gilster-Mary Lee Corp. said it was recalling HyVee Hamburger Chili Macaroni Skillet Meals produced at a plant in Steeleville, Illinois, because of undeclared milk in the product. The milk could be dangerous to people who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk...

NEW YORK -- FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with directing $40 million in bribes to one or more Chinese officials to unfreeze assets relating to his cryptocurrency business in a newly rewritten indictment unsealed Tuesday. The charge of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act raises to 13 the number of charges Bankman-Fried faces after he was arrested in the Bahamas in December and brought to the United States soon afterward. ...

CAPE COAST, Ghana -- Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday stepped through the black doors of a colonial-era seaside fort and down into the dungeons, touring a site where millions of enslaved Africans were held captive before they were loaded onto ships bound for the Americas...

DOVER, Del. -- A $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan for the Boy Scouts of America has been upheld by a federal judge, clearing an important hurdle in the legal challenge by certain insurance companies and dissenting sex abuse survivors. The plan would let the Texas-based organization keep operating while it compensates tens of thousands of men who say they were sexually abused as children while involved in Scouting...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A Maryland appellate court on Tuesday reinstated Adnan Syed's murder conviction and ordered a new hearing in the case, marking the latest development in the protracted legal odyssey chronicled in the hit podcast "Serial." Though Syed's conviction has been reinstated, he will not immediately be taken back into custody...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's Republican-led House on Tuesday voted to ban state government spending on diversity, equity and inclusion, including at public colleges and universities. During work on the state budget, lawmakers voted to prohibit government funding from paying for staff, vendors, consultants and programs "associated with diversity, equity (and) inclusion."...

ADVANCE, Mo. — Lawrence "Larry" Paul Story, 82, of Advance went to be with the Lord on Sunday, March 26, 2023, in Joplin, Missouri. He was born March 10, 1941, in Kankakee, Illinois, the son of Burt and Francis Houde Williams. Larry retired after a 35-year career at the Ford Motor Co. in Chicago Heights, Illinois. After retiring, he enjoyed traveling the country with his wife, Deborah. They loved spending their winters in Yuma, Arizona...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. — Mary Jean Null, 94, of Marble Hill died Monday, March 27, 2023, at her home, surrounded by her loved ones. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 31, at Ford and Liley Funeral Home in Marble Hill. A second visitation will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, April 1, at Little Valley Baptist Church in Marble Hill...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Daphne Sue Koepp, 74, of Jefferson City passed away Friday, March 24, 2023. She was born April 7, 1948, in Cape Girardeau, daughter of the late John and Kathleen Boeler Koepp. Friends will be received from 9 to 10 a.m. Friday, March 31, at Houser-Millard Funeral Directors in Jefferson City...

Ruth Rueseler Knote, 95, met her Heavenly Father on Monday, March 27, 2023. She was born Dec. 27, 1927. Her parents were Albert and Lucy Rueseler, the owners of Rueseler Chevrolet. She attended Trinity Lutheran Grade School and graduated from Central High School in Cape Girardeau. ...

Clarence J. Greaser Jr., 97, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, March 25, 2023, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. He was born Oct. 24, 1925, in Cape Girardeau to Clarence J. and Veronica LaCroix Greaser. He and Martha Ann Bollinger were married May 22, 1954, in Benton, Missouri...

PEVELY, Mo. — Roy D. Evans II, 62, of Pevely, formerly of Jackson, passed away Friday, March 24, 2023, at Mercy-Jefferson Hospital in Festus, Missouri. He was born April 10, 1960, in Alameda, California, to Roy D. I and Betty J. Biri Evans. Roy grew up in Cahokia, Illinois, where he started playing football. ...

OKHTYRKA, Ukraine -- Ukraine's president visited the Sumy region in northern Ukraine on Tuesday, continuing his tour over recent days of areas of the country that have felt the brunt of Russia's full-scale invasion and as the stage increasingly looks set for a Ukrainian counteroffensive...

JERUSALEM -- As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put his contentious judicial overhaul plan on hold this week, he vowed to pass the package through parliament "one way or another." But he may have a hard time keeping that promise. This week's about-face has left him weakened and coming up against a wall of opposition he has never before faced in a three-decade political career...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- After migrants in northern Mexico placed mattresses against the bars of their detention cell and set them on fire, guards quickly walked away and made no apparent attempt to release the men before smoke filled the room and killed 38 men, surveillance video showed Tuesday...

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has ruled former Vice President Mike Pence will have to testify before a grand jury in the Justice Department's investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election...

America will probably get more killer tornado- and hail-spawning supercells as the world warms, according to a new study that also warns the lethal storms will edge eastward to strike more frequently in the more populous Southern states, such as Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee...

A "stable share" of Americans has participated in religious services in some way -- virtually or in person -- during the coronavirus pandemic, though in-person attendance is slightly lower than before the COVID-19 outbreak. Those are among the key findings in a comprehensive report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center titled: "How the Pandemic Has Affected Attendance at U.S. ...

More than 43% of Hispanics either didn't respond to the question asking them to select their race or selected the "some other race" box on the 2020 census form, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday, lending support to arguments the federal government should change its race and ethnicity categories...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The shooter who killed three students and three staff members at a Christian school in Nashville legally bought seven weapons in recent years and hid the guns from their parents before carrying out the attack by firing indiscriminately at victims and spraying gunfire through doors and windows, police said Tuesday...

Cape Girardeau has grown more in the first seven years of the 1990s than it did throughout the entire 1980s decade; new population estimates, prepared by the U.S. Census Bureau through a cooperative program between state and federal governments, indicate an increase of almost 1,000 residents in the city of Cape Girardeau, during the first seven years of the 1990s; that compares to almost non-existent growth during the 1980s, when the city population grew from 34,361 in 1980 to only 34,474, according to the 1990 census.. ...

Patricia Ann Smart, 87, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, March 27, 2023, at Chateau Girardeau. She was born Aug. 17, 1935, in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, to Benjamin Franklin and Mary Idora Lacy Thompson. She and Marion Glen Smart were married Aug. 18, 1957, at Campbell, Missouri...

The John Guild Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution met on March 21, 2023 at Kimbeland Country Club in Jackson. Chapter Community Service Award Chair Missy Janzow presented member Earlene Sokolowski with a pin and certificate from the National Society for her dedication to serving the local community. Sokolowski has volunteered at Southeast Hospital for 20 years, and has accumulated more than 6203 hours of service...

Pi day is normally celebrated on March 14 (3-14) because Pi equals 3.14. How clever are these mathematicians!! However, Guardian Angel School in Oran decided to celebrate on Wednesday, March 15. The celebration began with the 8th graders taking turns telling interesting facts regarding pi. ...