Stories from Monday, January 26, 1998

This "Financial Focus" column is prepared by Edward Jones Investments, headquartered in St. Louis. Jones includes branches throughout the nation, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson. The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 expanded rules on traditional IRAs and created the new Roth IRA. Both options offer different advantages, but each should allow individuals to boost their savings and provide for a more comfortable retirement...

A Sedgewickville man was killed in a one-vehicle accident early Sunday morning off Nash Road. Cape Girardeau police reported that Rickey Paul Jones, 42, died after his pickup truck struck a guard rail and overturned off the Nash Road exit of Interstate 55 shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday morning...

Tuesday, Jan. 27, 1998 7:30 p.m. Jackson Middle School Library Action Items: -- Consider final reading of policy revisions. -- Consider guidelines for elementary attendance areas. -- Executive session Employment, personnel evaluation, and real estate. Authority is Section 610.021, Para. 2, 3 and 13, Revised Statutes of Missouri, as amended...

This week the Southeast Missourian asked, "What do you think of the proposed Missouri law that would protect the farming industry from defamatory remarks?" Nicole Poe, Chaffee "I think it's a good law because that way people (farmers) won't go broke or anything."...

Nonresidential and residential building sectors experience a decline nationally in November. Contracting for new construction fell 3 percent to a seasonably adjusted annual rate of $328.5 billion, according to F.W. Dodge, a unit of the McGraw-Hill Construction Information Group...

Anheuser-Busch is a company whose name is familiar to all Southeast Missourians. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BUD, and it controls about 45 percent of the U.S. beer market. With its ties to Asia, Europe and South America, it is also the largest brewer in the world. ...

Wayne and Lynn Hughes stood "under the boat" in the showroom at the Academy of Scuba Training. The perspective is what a diver would see after a dive. "Every time I dive, I see something wonderful." Angela Brown and her 15-year-old son, Ryan Brown, have been under water in such exotic places as Bonaire, off the coast of Venezuela and the Grand Cayman Islands...

There are no dancing popcorn boxes on the screen. No awkward speaker boxes. But it's still a drive-in. Welcome to mobile movies, playing soon in a community near you. Here's how it works: Three hugmongous tractor-trailer trucks pull into an empty space, which is graded and leveled...

Monday Pesticide certification training, Cape Girardeau. Jackson Chamber of Commerce meeting, 5:30 p.m., Delmonicos Restaurant. Tuesday Pesticide training seminar, Cape Girardeau. Wednesday SBA counseling sessions, Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, 1267 N. Mount Auburn Road, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (one-hour sessions)...

The date, site and theme has been established for the annual Downtown Merchants Association auction. The DMA "Mardi Gras" event will be held Feb. 21 at the River City Yacht Club at Port Cape Girardeau Restaurant. Proceeds from the auction benefit downtown restoration projects...

More than 800 people turned out for a recent job fair in Sikeston. The job fair, sponsored by Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream Co. at its new facility in Sikeston Business and Technology Park, attracted applicants from a 35- to 40-mile radius. Good Humor-Breyers is expected to start production in its new 200,000-square-foot facility this spring...

The American Association of Retired Persons Tax-Aide team will help taxpayers with personal income tax returns between Feb. 2 and April 15. The program is designed basically to assist seniors but will assist anyone needing assistance free of charge," said Laverne Northdurft, District 15 tax-aide program coordinator-instructor. District 15 includes seven counties. Last year more than 1,600 people received help from tax-aide volunteers...

Mean Gene's Burgers, which opened recently at the Rhodes-101 at 497 Highway 77 in Chaffee, is named after Mean Gene Okerlund, a professional wrestling broadcaster. Mean Gene's Burgers is a partnership between Gene Okerlund and Orion Food Systems of Sioux Falls, S.D...

NationsBank increased net income and shareholder dividends by 30 percent in 1997, due to its growth in revenue, core expense management and the benefit from acquisitions. Net income for the year was $3.08 billion, or $4.27 per common share, compared to net income of $2.4 billion or $4 per common share in 1996...

Willard Cohen of Cake Girardeau has joined South East Missouri Bank as senior vice president and lending officer. Cohen has more than 30 years of financial experience. He previously worked for Mercantile Bank in Cape Girardeau and Lebanon, Mo., as vice president of consumer and real estate lending...

Commerce Bancshares Inc. has announced record earnings of $133 million for 1997, an increase of 13 percent from the $120 million in 1996. Per-share earnings were $3.36 for 1997, compared to $2.97 for 1996. Return on assets for the year was 1.46 percent...

It's official. NationsBank is the third largest bank in the United States. NationsBank, which agreed in August to buy Florida's Barnett Banks for $14.6 billion worth of stock, completed the industry's largest-ever acquisition with the closing of the Barnett deal Jan. 16, becoming Florida's largest banking franchise...

Efforts are moving forward to create a one-stop referral network for people trying to access social service agencies and fill special needs in Cape Girardeau County. United Way director Nancy Jernigan said an executive committee has been formed to devise an information and referral network in the county. The committee has developed a scale budget and is actively seeking public and private sponsorship for the network...

For the people who gathered at The Playdium Sunday evening, the Super Bowl was less of a football game and more of an event, which explains why many of them started arriving long before the 5:18 kickoff of the big game. Thousands of people, regardless of their feelings about the sport, gathered around television sets Sunday afternoon to watch Super Bowl XXXII. ...

When Charlotte Craig got her start with the Cape Girardeau County Health Department 20 years ago, children got two kinds of care: developmental screenings and immunizations. It was called "well-baby care," said Craig, now the director of the health department...

If the backyard feeder has not been a popular dining spot for birds this winter, blame the mild weather and the plenitude of natural food. "If you had the choice of tofu every day or a salad bar, which would you take?" asks Dr. Bill Eddleman, a biology professor at Southeast Missouri State University...

While millions of Americans filled up on pizza, chili and potato chips during the Super Bowl, local youth used the occasion to raise money to support the hungry in Southeast Missouri. The youth, working through local churches, participated in the ninth annual "Souper Bowl of Caring."...

There's nothing like a relationship to help you get in touch with your Inner Prosecutor. My friend Becky has a long list of "first date" questions she always asks. Most are pretty basic: Where are you from? Where'd you go to school? Do you have family here? Do you have a job?...

We should all learn to speak English I JUST want to make a comment about English being the official language. I'd like to know when we ever got away from speaking English. Why should we even vote on something that's always been natural for hundreds of years? It just doesn't make sense to me. ...

The Joint Veterans Council has decided to take the lead in what will become an effort to get a state veterans cemetery in Cape Girardeau County. It is logical that the council, made up of veterans organizations in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, lead the effort, and that the cemetery be situated in Cape Girardeau County...

Thirty-six years after he made history as the first American to orbit Earth, U.S. Sen. John Glenn has been given the go-ahead -- providing he can complete a vigorous training program -- to revisit space. NASA announced that the 76-year-old Ohio senator, who in 1962 circled the globe three times aboard the Mercury spacecraft Friendship 7 in a flight that lasted only four hours and 56 minutes, will be aboard shuttle Discovery in October if he can complete the training program and be able to perform certain physical skills required of astronauts in case of an emergency. ...

To the editor: We do appreciate the article you published Jan. 19 about Jim ("Chaffee man recalls fight against polio"). And on the front page, no less. I did have one smidgen of regret: that it was not possible to include the pictures of him that appeared in the 1934 magazines, Weekly Reader and most newspapers around the country. ...

Basketball and football aren't the only college sports in which teams welcome lesser-weights to campus early in the season for a healthy mauling. Southeast Missouri State University's gymnastics team played host to Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Sunday, and, b' gosh, the Titans weren't much competition...

The official early signing period for high school football players is still over a week away, but some local prep stars have already decided where they'll continue their football and academic careers. Jackson High School all-staters J.P. Hall and Devree Flint, after leading the Indians to an undefeated regular season, plan on keeping their talents in state. According to Jackson head coach Carl Gross, both players have made verbal commitments to Missouri schools...

Luck has certainly not been on Bud Eley's side this season. Eley, Southeast Missouri State University's standout 6-foot-10 center, will almost certainly miss the remainder of the season after suffering a stress fracture in his left foot during Saturday night's 81-78 overtime loss to Eastern Illinois...

SEDGEWICKVILLE -- Rickey "Rick" P. Jones, 42, of Sedgewickville, died Sunday, Jan. 25, 1998, from a vehicle accident at I-55 AB exit in Cape Girardeau. He was born March 23, 1955, at St. Louis, son of Kelly Paul and Melba Paterson Jones. Jones was a livestock dealer and a member of the Elks Lodge in Jackson and the Eagles Lodge in Perryville...

George Julius Liebig, 90, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Jan. 24, 1998, at Westview Nursing Center in Herculaneum. He was born Nov. 17, 1907, at St. Louis, son of Julius and Clara Strebler Liebig. He and Dorothy Barbush were married April 19, 1941. She died May 30, 1974...

MARBLE HILL -- William A. Morrison, 75, of Marble Hill died Saturday, Jan. 24, 1998, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born April 15, 1922, at Delta, son of William S. and Grace Gibbons Morrison. Morrison served in the Navy from 1944 to 1946. He worked as an engineer on a tow boat for many years and as a lineman for Frisco Railroad for a number of years. He became the custodian for the First Baptist Church in Jackson in 1958 and remained there until his retirement in 1988...

MOUNDS, Ill. -- Boyce Ewing, 74, of Memphis, Tenn., formerly of Mounds, died Saturday, Jan. 24, 1998, in Memphis. She was born Oct. 2, 1913, at Goreville, daughter of Lowell and Zellah Webb Russell. She and Lee Ewing were married Sept. 1, 1934. He died Feb. 1, 1981...

MILLERSVILLE -- Denzel Dale Sander, 81, of Millersville died Saturday, Jan. 24, 1998, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born March 20, 1916, at Millersville, son of Louis and Mary I. Stroder Sander. He and Ellen Pearline Gray were married Oct. 27, 1935...