Stories from Friday, March 10, 2000

To the editor: The rising price of gasoline is big news, and Big Oil and its allies in Congress are using every press opportunity to stump for drilling the Arctic. But drilling in the Arctic is not the solution to the present crisis. A sensible, long-term energy strategy is. ...

To the editor: I am a SEMO graduate living in Tulsa. I want to thank you for your Web site. It is the only way that I can keep up with Indian sports on a daily basis. The only contact we have here in Tulsa is with the AP scores in the Tulsa World. Again, thank you very much...

A good economy and full employment are producing a mixed bag of results when it comes to finding the best candidates to fill job openings. The private sector isn't the only area affected. School districts, for example, are facing stiff competition in hiring -- and keeping -- teachers...

AL GORE says that he's going to make trigger locks mandatory. I wonder who he's going to hire to knock on every door to check with every gun owner to see if he or she has a trigger lock. There are a lot of guns in this country. That was the most ridiculous remark I ever heard any candidate for the office of president of the United States make, other than the remarks of Bill Clinton...

Despite enormous advances in neuroscience, our understanding of the basic brain functions and their importance to the individual and humanity were known well and revealed by Hippocrates, the father of medicine, in his eloquent description more than 2,000 years ago...

Dr. Shawn Parker performed LASIK eye surgery on Ruth Ann Newman of Poplar Bluff at Eye Care Specialists, 360 S. Mount Auburn Road. Parker worked with coordinator Lori Johnson and technician Brian Yarbrough. Glasses slipping to the end of your sweaty nose, contacts popping out in the middle of the big game, the baby cries and you stumble blindly toward the crib because you can't find your glasses...

The flora has spring fever, and tree and plant experts say it isn't unhealthy. Blooms and blossoms on trees and plants are early this year, said Rocky Hayes, urban forester with the Missouri Conservation Department. "We're a couple of weeks earlier than normal," he said...

Southeast Missouri State University basketball fans may find few tickets available to the school's first appearance ever in the Division I NCAA Tournament next week. Like the other schools in the Big Dance, the university is guaranteed only 450 tickets for the first- and second-round games combined...

Enumerators are taking to the roads to ensure outcounty and "noncity-style" residences are not missed in this year's Census. Local Census office manager Ellen Brandom said some 220,000 Census 2000 questionnaires are scheduled for hand delivery throughout a 31-county region by Wednesday...

We've thought about Paris and California and lofty Mount Zion, but we'd really like to get out of the Show Me State for this year's anniversary vacation, if we can. This is the time of year I get itchy to go somewhere. The weather is bright. The sun is warm. Travel is in the air...

Kevin Tankersley walked through a framed-up building Thursday that will be a club house for the Cape Place apartments taking shape on an 11-acre site at Sprigg and Bertling. Giving a guided tour to a reporter, he pointed out where the club house kitchen and the fitness center will be housed. Beyond the building's shell, he pointed to bare ground where a swimming pool will be built...

The Parsons Dance Company has the power to squeeze giggles out of seen-it-all audiences, to disturb with Brave New World images, to amaze with feats of physical and technological magic, and most of all to convey the joy of being in a body. The internationally-acclaimed company performed Thursday night at Academic Auditorium before an inexplicably small audience of fewer than 175 people...

A Parma man could face a 120-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to selling "crack" cocaine, the U.S. attorney's office said. De Regionald Cain, 41, pleaded guilty to six felony counts of distribution of cocaine base on Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel...

Seldom are double-header splits as evenly divided than the one between Southeast Missouri and Loyola-Chicago in softball action played Thursday at University Field. Over the course of the two games, both teams had three runs, both had 10 hits and both committed just one error. It seemed appropriate that each came away with one win. Loyola won the opener 3-1 before Southeast came back to win the nightcap 2-0...

Thursday was Bob Garrett's lucky day. In fact, after a round of golf at the Cape Girardeau Country Club, Garrett said he was going to buy a lottery ticket. He would actually have a better shot at striking it rich in the lottery than he would have at repeating his performance Thursday...

NEW MADRID -- If anybody knows what it takes to win in Columbia, it's Lennies McFerren. The veteran coach has made 11 appearances in the final four, claiming seven state titles at Charleston to form a dynasty that stretched over three decades. In his sixth year at New Madrid County Central, it appears he may have another dynasty in the making...

St. Vincent had five girls and five boys named to the Jefferson County Conference small division team recently. For the Squaws, Jessica Lakenan was named league MVP and joined Sara Cissell on the first team. Danielle Sutterer, Carrie Strattman and Casey Kirn were each given honorable mention. The girls team ended in a three-way tie for first place in the conference, the Squaws' first-ever piece of the title...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Ruth P. Keller, 86, of Jonesboro died Tuesday, March 7, 2000, at Herrin Hospital in Herrin. She was born June 2, 1913, at Morley, daughter of Joshua and Eva Mae Brown Zimmerman. She and Oliver "Bud" Keller were married March 16, 1931, in Jonesboro. He died July 28, 1975...

PERRYVILLE -- Cheryl Ann Duvall, 42, of Perryville died Wednesday, March 8, 2000, at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. She was born Feb. 17, 1958, in Perryville, daughter of Ronald and Judith Steinbecker Gremaud. She and Leroy Duvall were married Nov. 26, 1976...

BENTON -- Funeral Mass for Sister Mary Anita Ressel, CPPS, of O'Fallon was held Feb. 21 in the Motherhouse Chapel in O'Fallon. Ressel, 98, died Thursday, Feb. 17, 2000, at St. Catherine Retirement Center in O'Fallon. She was born Leona Ressel Sept. 14, 1901, in rural Benton, daughter of Theodore E. and Mary Ann Diebold Ressel...

SIKESTON -- Funeral for Dwight Alan Latham of Sikeston will be held at 2 p.m. today at Blanchard Funeral Chapel. Woodrow Phillips will officiate. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Latham, 44, died Wednesday, March 8, 2000, at his home. He was born Feb. 7, 1956, at Sikeston, son of Sherman Albert "Bert" and Irene Harwood Latham. He married Donna Lasley...

FRIEDHEIM -- Funeral for Jean Ann Ward of Friedheim will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Trinity Lutheran Church in Friedheim. The Rev. David Burge will officiate. Burial will be in the church cemetery. Friends may call at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson from 4-8 p.m. today...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Graveside service for Maggie A. Peterson of Jonesboro will be held at 10 a.m. today at Anna Cemetery. The Rev. Dewayne Taylor will officiate. Peterson, 87, died Wednesday, March 8, 2000, at Jonesboro Health Care Center. She was born July 15, 1912, in Madison County, Miss. She married William Peterson, who preceded her in death...

SIKESTON -- Graveside service for William G. Kaiser of Sikeston will be held at noon today at Memorial Park Cemetery. The Rev. Marvin Butrum will officiate. Ponder Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Kaiser, 58, died Tuesday, March 7, 2000, at his home...