Stories from Friday, July 28, 2023

Route N in Scott County -- between County Road 344 and County Road 349 near Commerce, Missouri -- will be closed as Missouri Department of Transportation crews replace a culvert under the roadway. According to a MoDOT news release, the work will take place from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Monday, July 31, through Thursday, Aug. 3. The road will be closed until the work is complete, the release said...

Tree trunks engraved with initials from the centuries-old champion tree lie on the ground after the tree was cut down Thursday, July 27, on Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus in Cape Girardeau...

July was a big month for Jerry Hampton Sr., as he published four books. A longtime Cape Girardeau resident and founding member of Scott County Historical Society who has since moved to Texas, Hampton said his works are based in historical research with a science fiction component...

Safe House of Southeast Missouri will host a grand opening for the organization's new outreach office and thrift shop at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 25. The event will feature a ribbon-cutting sponsored by both Cape Girardeau and Jackson area chambers of commerce, followed by an open house, tours of the new facility, giveaways, raffles and hourly drawings for thrift shop gift cards. The office and thrift shop is at 2350 Independence St. in Cape Girardeau,...

St. Louis-based Schnuck Markets, which has an outlet at 19 S. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau, has agreed to pay an estimated $5.3 million to settle a 2021 alleged false advertising class-action lawsuit involving alcohol prices in its Missouri stores, according to winsightgrocerybusiness.com, an online industry newsletter...

With Southeast Missouri temperatures lately flirting with 100 degrees in an extraordinary summer of excessive heat in the U.S., nearly all of the Show Me State persists in a drought condition as July moves toward its end. National Drought Mitigation Center's latest map, released Thursday, July 27, and representing data culled through Tuesday, July 25, shows 94.9% of Missouri in some level of drought representing 3.64 million Missourians...

Southeast Missouri State University's domestic students will no longer pay an out-of-state tuition rate. SEMO's board of governors has adopted a One Rate Nationwide approach for domestic students. Based on this approach, students across the country will pay the same tuition rate, according to Lenell Hahn, director of admissions...

With Cape Girardeau and surrounding areas under a heat advisory, multiple organizations have offered advice on how to keep people and animals safe and cool. The National Weather Service reports temperatures in Cape Girardeau will remain in the high 90s over the next three to five days and shows a heat index of 104 degrees for Friday, July 28...

O Lord God, with all our hearts we praise your holy name. Amen.

It's unclear what exactly prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine in February 2022. What is clear is that he is directing and allowing Russian troops to commit atrocities and war crimes against the Ukrainian people...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls. July 26 n Medical assists were made at 2:27 a.m. on Independence Street; 7:30 a.m. on South Sprigg Street; 9:30 a.m. on South Park Avenue; 11:59 a.m. on Linden Street; 4:50 p.m. on South Silver Springs Road; and 7:40 p.m. on South Ellis Street...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to the following calls. Arrest does not imply guilt. Arrest n A warrant arrest was reported on North Pacific Street. Assault n Third-degree domestic assault, second-degree property damage and first-degree trespassing were reported on Clark Avenue...

Dorothy May O'Neal, 91, of Jackson passed away Wednesday, July 26, 2023, at Villas of Jackson. Dorothy was born Jan. 15, 1932, in Tunica, Louisiana, daughter of the late Charles and Ellade Ervin Reed, and moved to Cape Girardeau as a baby. She first married Joel L. Jones in 1949. She then married Joe M. O'Neal on Sept. 23, 1989, in Cape Girardeau. He preceded her in death June 25, 2022...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. — Barbara Ann Kaszanek, 75, of Marble Hill died Sunday, July 23, 2023. Hutchings-Pendergrass Funeral Chapel in Marble Hill is in charge of her final wishes of cremation with no services.

Donald Edward Kapfer, 66, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, July 26, 2023, at his home after a short battle with cancer. He was born Oct. 10, 1956 in Cape Girardeau, the youngest child of Arnold and Marcella Glastetter Kapfer. Don graduated from Notre Dame High School in 1975...

MEXICO CITY -- Four months after a fire at an immigration detention center near the United States border, eight badly burned survivors are stuck in their rooms at a Mexico City hotel. They eat in the hotel restaurant and have regular medical check-ups and make calls home...

MANILA, Philippines -- A small Philippine ferry turned upside down when passengers suddenly crowded to one side in panic as fierce winds pummeled the wooden vessel, leaving at least 26 people dead, while 40 others were rescued, officials said Friday...

NIAMEY, Niger -- Niger's president defiantly declared Thursday that democracy would prevail, a day after mutinous soldiers detained him and announced they had seized power in a coup because of the West African country's deteriorating security situation...

KYIV, Ukraine -- Fierce fighting raged Thursday in southeastern Ukraine, where a Western official said Kyiv has launched a major push and Russian President Vladimir Putin said "hostilities have intensified significantly." Battles in recent weeks have taken place on multiple points along the over 600-mile front line as Ukraine wages a counteroffensive with Western-supplied weapons and Western-trained troops against Russian forces that invaded 17 months ago...

SANTA FE, N.M. -- The U.S. Senate has endorsed a major expansion of a compensation program for people sickened by exposure to radiation during nuclear weapons testing and the mining of uranium during the Cold War, with a vote Thursday on a massive defense spending bill...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday it is investigating the patterns and practices of the police department in Memphis, Tennessee, nearly seven months after the violent beating of Tyre Nichols by five officers after a traffic stop strengthened nationwide calls for police reform...

ANKENY, Iowa -- Donald Trump and rival Ron DeSantis will appear for the first time at the same campaign event in early voting Iowa on Friday at a pivotal moment for the Republican presidential candidates. Trump, the early front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination, is making a rare appearance with the rest of the field at an Iowa Republican Party fundraiser a day after he was charged with additional counts over his retention of classified documents after leaving office. ...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy surprisingly accelerated to a 2.4% annual growth rate from April through June, showing continued resilience in the face of steadily higher interest rates resulting from the Federal Reserve's 16-month-long fight to bring down inflation...

WASHINGTON -- Congress has approved two measures to undo federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken and northern long-eared bat -- two endangered animals that have seen their populations plummet over the years. In separate votes Thursday, the House gave final legislative approval to rescind protections for the lesser prairie chicken -- a rare prairie bird once thought to number in the millions, but now hover around 30,000, officials said -- and the long-eared bat, one of 12 bat types decimated by a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome.. ...

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, as an ultranationalist Israeli Cabinet minister visited a sensitive Jerusalem holy site that has been a flashpoint for violence between Israel and the Palestinians...

WASHINGTON -- With heat waves spreading across the United States, President Joe Biden on Thursday announced new steps to protect workers -- including a hazard alert notifying employers and employees about ways to stay safe from extreme heat -- as well as measures to improve weather forecasts and make drinking water more accessible...

NEW YORK -- Randy Meisner, a founding member of the Eagles who added high harmonies to such favorites as "Take It Easy" and "Best of My Love" and stepped out front for the waltz-time ballad "Take It to the Limit", has died, the band said Thursday. Meisner died Wednesday night in Los Angeles of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the Eagles said in a statement. He was 77...

WASHINGTON -- Former President Donald Trump faced new charges Thursday in a case accusing him of illegally possessing classified documents, with prosecutors alleging he asked a staffer to delete camera footage at his Florida estate in an effort to obstruct a federal investigation into the records...

WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for Donald Trump met Thursday with members of special counsel Jack Smith's team ahead of a potential indictment over the former president's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter...

Southeast Missouri State University has begun construction of a $60,000 fountain in front of Kent Library; the fountain will feature a waterfall punctuated with a number of limestone boulders; former university president Dr. Kala Stroup proposed the project shortly before she left in August 1995 to take a job as Missouri's commissioner of higher education; she and her husband, Joe, donated $37,000 to the project, and the university plans to spend an additional $23,000; university construction crews are doing the work.. ...