Stories from Monday, November 6, 2023

SIKESTON, Mo. — Sikeston voters will decide Tuesday, Nov. 7, on whether to allow the sale of liquor by the drink. On July 31, Sikeston City Council members approved an ordinance calling for an election to allow the sale of liquor by the drink in excess of 5%...

Butler County Prosecuting Attorney Kacey Proctor will be appointed presiding judge for the 36th Judicial Circuit later this month. The announcement was made Friday, Nov. 3, by Gov. Mike Parson. It will come as current presiding Judge Michael Pritchett retires...

BENTON, Mo. — Voters in Scott County will be asked to approve a half-cent countywide sales tax when they step up to the polls during the Tuesday, Nov. 7, election. Scott County Presiding Commissioner Danny Tetley said he and fellow commissioners, Donnie Kiefer and Terry Cole, have been evaluating the county's revenue and needs because of the rising costs of operations and the need for competitive salaries for employees...

Walmart customers in Jackson have a remodeled store to look forward to. The Walmart Supercenter at 3051 E. Jackson Blvd. celebrated its grand reopening at 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 3. The event featured an official ribbon-cutting with the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce as well as refreshments, food trucks and appearances from local first responders and school district officials...

My name is Christopher Borro, and I have the fortune and privilege of being your new Southeast Missourian business editor. I have been working here at the newspaper for the last four months and it's been quite the enjoyable experience so far. I've loved being able to cover grand openings, big events, local happenings -- anything that can help the public learn more about, and become involved in, their community. To me, that's the greatest joy of being a journalist...

Cape Girardeau was not on Dr. Steven Finstad’s radar. As a native to Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, he says he only heard of the city “maybe once” from a friend who enjoyed catfishing. Finstad and his wife were looking to make a career change, so he was interviewing for positions across the country — everywhere from Idaho to Florida and Michigan. After finishing up an interview at a hospital in the Midwest, Finstad and his wife decided “on a whim” to drive to Cape Girardeau...

Mike Pind has loved dogs since he was a young boy. Born and raised in Cape Girardeau, he grew up watching “Lassie” on television and tried to imitate her skills with his own childhood dog, Chip. Together, they’d head to Capaha Park or go fishing, and he knew dog training was in his future. He didn’t even care what kind of dog; that is, until he saw his first labrador retriever...

I knew when I chose “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig that it would be a challenge for me, as I don’t enjoy science fiction and read very little fantasy. But the enthusiastic recommendations from two former students caused me to ignore my misgivings...

We weren’t served by an ice cream truck in the neighborhood where I grew up. It was a brand-new subdivision outside of city limits, and I guess there weren’t enough potential customers to make a route profitable. But we did have a beloved Sno-Cone lady who drove along our street sometimes. ...

Billy Joel helped us forget about life for a while, ABC brought nukes into Americans’ living rooms and someone paid for a self-portrait of a clean-shaven van Gogh. 1973 50 years ago On Nov. 2, 1973, Billy Joel released his first major hit and signature song, “Piano Man.” Joel based the story of the song on his real-life experiences and the people he met as a piano-lounge singer at the Executive Room Bar in Los Angeles. ...

Today is Monday, Nov. 6, the 310th day of 2023. There are 55 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Nov. 6, 1984, President Ronald Reagan won reelection by a landslide over former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic challenger who won just one state, his native Minnesota...

O Father God, may we first seek your kingdom and righteousness. Amen.

The world is nothing but murders, massacres and the threat of war. It's gotten so bad, you wake up and ask, "Who died overnight?" Or "Whose rockets and bombs hit who this time?" I'll go out on a limb here and blame most of the world's turmoil and tragedy on President Joe Biden and his handlers...

Some policy experts who, over the last few decades, saw little need for serious fiscal austerity because the government could borrow at low interest rates are now changing their tune. Their argument is that with rates now rising and the government's interest payments set to become extremely expensive, it's time to adjust. While I suppose that's progress, they fail to see that the past calls for austerity were attempts to avoid precisely what's happening today...

The VintageNOW fashion show is a labor of love. The annual event is spearheaded by director Deb Maevers and an army of volunteers. Its purpose: To raise awareness around the issue of domestic violence and raise funds to support Safe House of Southeast Missouri, a not-for-profit agency that provides shelter and services to women and men in some of the most difficult life circumstances...

Woke activism has no bearing on the fiduciary duties of a company and has no place in the corporate boardroom — the SEC shouldn't be used as a political weapon by the Biden administration to browbeat corporations into woke investing. ...

The City of Cape Girardeau's Community Development Department received several business applications this past week for a variety of potential local businesses. n Adam Lusthaus of Boca Raton, Florida, applied for a Sqrl Service Station at 2551 Bloomfield Road in Cape Girardeau. This would be a convenience store selling food and fuel, as well as alcohol and tobacco...

A new Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches location held a ribbon-cutting at 3465 William St. this past week. This is the company's second location in Cape Girardeau, joining one at 1800 Broadway.

The Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce will hold a business advocacy coffee event from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8. This will allow members to meet with and ask questions to Cape Girardeau County elected officials. The meeting will be held in the Montgomery Bank conference and training center at 526 W. Main St. in Jackson...

Gas prices have declined slightly since last week in the region, the state and across the nation. In the Show Me State, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline dropped from $3.15 to $3.09 Saturday, Nov. 4. Nationwide, prices fell from an average of $3.49 to about $3.43 per gallon...

The Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce aims to promote local businesses before the holiday season with a Women's Network Shop Local Holiday Kick-Off. Whitney Quick, vice president of programs and leadership development with the chamber, said the plans for such an event had been years in the making, "... but then COVID happened, and we never were able to get that to take off again. This is the first year we're able to implement the idea."...

The Gibson Center for Behavioral Change has announced the groundbreaking of its new campus expansion at 1112 Linden St. in Cape Girardeau. Gibson Center representatives, as well as those from banking, design and construction partners, will hold the official groundbreaking ceremony at 3 p.m. Monday, Nov. 6...

NEW YORK -- Donald Trump has testified in court as a football owner, casino builder and airline buyer. He bragged in a deposition that he saved "millions of lives" by deterring nuclear war as president. Another time, he fretted about the dangers of flung fruit...

DETROIT -- Stellantis plans to build a new midsize pickup truck, along with battery-run versions of six Jeep, Ram and Dodge vehicles. Ford envisions at least three new electric vehicles that will preserve jobs at several factories. General Motors plans to build at least six new electric vehicles, including a full-size SUV...

NEW YORK -- The warnings have grown louder and more urgent as 2024 approaches: The rapid advance of artificial intelligence tools threatens to amplify misinformation in next year's presidential election at a scale never seen before. Most adults in the U.S. feel the same way, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy...

It's not just you: Shopping for airfare is harder than ever. Choosing between basic economy and regular economy fares and navigating add-on fees makes booking more complicated, and that's no accident. Airlines are harnessing lessons from a still-emerging academic field known as behavioral economics to nudge customers into spending more...

When Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle five years ago, it left boats, cars and trucks piled up to the windows of Bonny Paulson's home in the tiny coastal community of Mexico Beach, Florida, even though the house rests on pillars 14 feet above the ground. But Paulson's home, with a rounded shape that looks something like a ship, shrugged off Category 5 winds that might otherwise have collapsed it...

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took his diplomatic push on the Israel-Hamas war to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, trying to assure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the Biden administration was intensifying efforts to ease the plight of Gaza's civilians and insisting that Palestinians must have a main say in whatever comes next for the territory after the conflict...

KATHMANDU, Nepal -- Villagers in the mountains of northwest Nepal on Sunday cremated the bodies of some of those who perished in an earthquake two days earlier. The strong temblor killed 157 people and left thousands of others homeless. The 13 bodies were carried to the banks of the Bheri River and placed on pyres made of stacked wood. ...

BENGALURU, India -- Tense negotiations at the final meeting on a climate-related loss and damages fund -- an international fund to help poor countries hit hard by a warming planet -- ended Saturday in Abu Dhabi, with participants agreeing that the World Bank would temporarily host the fund for the next four years...

Uptown Jackson Revitalization Organization will be holding its annual Christmas parade beginning at 5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3. According to its Facebook page, Uptown Jackson said the parade’s theme is “A Vintage Christmas”. The parade route will begin at Southern Bank on West Main Street/South Farmington Road and will end in uptown Jackson. Float participants are encouraged to be dropped off at Southern Bank and picked up at the end of the parade route...

Richard "Rick" Murray, director of the Division of Inspection Services for the City of Cape Girardeau since 1993, has accepted a similar position at Fulton, Missouri; Murray will become planning and protective services director there Dec. 1. A new approach to conservation education -- a conservation campus in Cape Girardeau County North Park -- is authorized by the Missouri Conservation Commission; meeting in St. ...

Darlene Spell has been honored by peers and jurors for high-quality photography with International Exhibitions in New York City and Los Angeles. Darlene has been honored with over 10 International Awards this year 2023. Her work has shown excellence in composition and detail along with the editing process. ...