Stories from Saturday, May 29, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Iraqi Governing Council chose a longtime anti-Saddam Hussein exile to become prime minister of Iraq's interim government, making the surprise announcement Friday despite U.N. concerns over his ties to the United States and the CIA...

Christian women's club scheduled to meet June 14 The Cape Girardeau County Christian Women's Club will meet at 11 a.m. June 14 at Port Cape restaurant in Cape Girardeau. Lunch and day-care reservations should be made by June 10 by calling Bonnie Macke at 243-2866...

To the editor: In the April 5 Time magazine, U.S. Sen. John Kerry is quoted as saying, "I will be a president who is Catholic, not a Catholic president." I think this statement speaks volumes about the differences between liberal Christians and conservative Christians...

To the editor: America is in a funk. Jimmy Carter said, "America is experiencing malaise." Ronald Reagan countered, "You're destroying the American dream." So we ushered in an era of defining ourselves as conservative or liberal. We don't know exactly what that means. We simply know who is and who isn't. We embarked on the greatest spending binge in history and the greatest public and private indebtedness in human history...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Harold "Jake" Mowery, 76, of Jonesboro died Friday, May 28, 2004, at his home. He was born March 1, 1928, at Mill Creek, Ill., son of Howard and Carrie Hileman Mowery. He and Betty Ann Bowen were married Jan. 20, 1951, in Piggott, Ark. She died Jan. 31, 1996. He later married Joan Mosby March 17, 2001, in Jonesboro...

Ronald Crigger, 48, of North Carolina died Monday, May 24, 2004, in an automobile accident in Wichita, Kan. He was born Nov. 8, 1955, in Chicago, son of Robert and Lorene Adams Crigger. He and Vanessa Henderson were married Dec. 6, 1973, in Cape Girardeau...

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Grace M. Davis, 67, of Advance died Friday, May 28, 2004, at Advance Nursing Center. She was born Oct. 25, 1936, at Painton, Mo., daughter of John and Irene Jones Davis. Davis was self-employed most of her life in the construction and trucking industries...

Rhonda Gail Westrich, 46, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, May 28, 2004, at her home. Friends may call at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Monday at the funeral home. The Revs. David Pringle and Doug Lucy will officiate. Burial will be in Cape County Memorial Park...

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. -- Bobbie Leondas Allen, 70, of East Prairie died Wednesday, May 26, 2004, at his home. He was born May 19, 1934, in East Prairie, son of Leondas and Olivia Irene Allen. He married Betty Poley. Allen served in the U.S. Air Force. Survivors include his wife; two daughters, Teresa Horn of Arnold, Mo., Karen Wray of Imperial, Mo.; four sisters, Betty Eastman of Charleston, Mo., Bonnie Woods and Judy McCann of Sikeston, Mo., Joyce Baltrusaitis of East Prairie; and two grandchildren.. ...

10 years ago: May 29, 1994 The 100th anniversary of Allenville Baptist Church is celebrated; the Rev. Don Estes is guest speaker at morning service; basket dinner follows worship service; afternoon service features music by Mills Family and Assurance...

Barnes Son to Christopher Lee Barnes and Alisha Berlin Tranum of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 4:33 p.m. Thursday, May 20, 2004. Name, Elijah Cheveyo. Weight, 7 pounds 2 ounces. First child. Ms. Tranum is the daughter of Mark Tranum of Pennsylvania and Kathy Tranum of Glenallen, Mo. She is employed at McDonald's. Barnes is the son of Charlie Barnes and Sandy Barnes of Cape Girardeau. He is employed at Wal-Mart...

Deserve a raise THE U.S. Fire Administration says a total of 110 (out of about 290,000) U.S. firefighters died while on duty in 2003. The National Law Enforcement memorial fund says 145 police officers (out of about 740,000) were killed during 2003. ...

Is this Bible necessary? That is the question, as the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) enters the cluttered and competitive market for English translations. The HCSB is a $10 million project of the Southern Baptist Convention's publishing arm. (The New Testament portion appeared in 2000.)...

The Missouri Highway Patrol's participation in the national Click It or Ticket campaign is an attempt to increase the use of safety belts, which law enforcement officials credit with saving more than 13,000 lives each year in the United States. The campaign begins Monday (Memorial Day) and continues through June 6. ...

Cape Girardeau The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests Jerome Lewis Bridges, 128, 2812 Themis, Apt. D, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of second-degree domestic assault. Joe Willy Brand Jr., 20, 813 S. Sprigg, was arrested Friday on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Dozens of scheduled abortions were canceled Friday as a state law took effect requiring women to first consult physicians and then wait a day before undergoing the procedure. The sudden starting date for Missouri's "informed consent" law came as a result of a federal appeals panel decision Thursday to lift a temporary restraining order that had prevented the law from taking effect in October...

While the city of Jackson has constructed new sewers, electric lines and water mains to keep up with city growth, it has not kept pace in the area of fire safety, a recent report suggests. The city has made some improvements to the fire department over the last several years, including increasing staff, but an independent insurance organization says Jackson is in jeopardy of losing its fire safety rating, which was last issued in 1990...

The Wall Street Journal He's not backing down. At Stanford University Sunday, after a speech to teachers, Bill Cosby didn't mince words when he spoke of parents not doing right by their children. "Some of these children," the San Jose Mercury News quotes him as saying, "have been raised like pimps."...

By Jennifer Ferrell The rain streams down on a dreary Friday night, but the entire town of Jackson is crowded around a little football field to watch their Indians defeat Cape Central. Teenagers all around me sport "GO INDIANS" T-shirts and red face paint. The only thing that matters to the crowd is the game...

FENTON, Mo. -- Notre Dame didn't have anything left in the second half to overome a 2-0 halftime deficit, and the Bulldogs fell to Springfield Catholic 2-1 in the semifinals of the Class 1 girls soccer tournament Friday night at Aheuser-Busch Center...

Southeast Missourian JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- None of the local athletes representing Southeast Missouri ended the day Friday as state champions, but Perryville's Kyle Dobbelare is well on his way. Dobbelare cleared the preliminaries of the 110 hurdles in 14.5 seconds, the fastest time among the eight finalists, on the first day of the Class 3 and 4 state track and field championships at Dwight T. ...

SANTIAGO, Chile -- A court ruled Friday that former dictator Augusto Pinochet can be sued for a bloody wave of repression in the 1970s and '80s, after a TV interview in which he appeared lucid raised questions about Supreme Court rulings that he is unfit for trial...

MAPOU, Haiti -- U.S. troops delivered food and water to this remote farming town, where reporters saw for the first time Friday the worst devastation from deadly floods that have inundated parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic and left Mapou under 10 feet of water...

ST. LOUIS -- Two Hollywood movie studios have sued an online retailer, accusing Technology One of selling DVD-copying software previously barred by two federal courts. The lawsuit, filed in New York by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and Paramount Pictures Corp., marks the first time a movie company has sued a retailer of the forbidden software by 321 Studios Inc...

PARIS -- Marat Safin celebrated a particularly nifty shot at the French Open by mooning the crowd, which raised the question: What will he do if he wins the tournament? The mercurial Russian advanced to the third round Friday by winning a two-day marathon against Felix Mantilla, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 11-9. The match was suspended Thursday because of darkness at 7-all in the fifth set and ended 24 minutes after it resumed when Mantilla sailed a backhand long...

WASHINGTON -- As Tuesday's starting date approaches for the Medicare drug discount program, the number of older Americans enrolling for the new benefit has been disappointing, according to some card sponsors. While most of the more than 70 sponsors are silent about how many people they've signed up, AARP admits its number is minuscule. The group, which has 35 million 50-and-older members, mailed out 26,000 enrollment kits and has signed up only 400 people, spokeswoman Carol Shirley said...

Cape Girardeau Firefighters responded to the following items on Thursday: At 7:53 p.m., an emergency medical service at Cape County Park South. At 9:46 p.m., an emergency medical service at 2126 Broadway. Firefighters responded to the following items on Friday:...

Baseball The Chicago Cubs added to their already crowded disabled list Friday, putting right-hander Todd Wellemeyer and outfielder Tom Goodwin on the 15-day DL. Wellemeyer, whose move was retroactive to last Saturday, has a strained right shoulder. ...

Today Anniversary services at 10 a.m., 2 and 7 p.m. at Church of Jesus Christ in Jackson. For information, call 204-7761. Sunday Lynwood Baptist Church will have one Bible study time at 9 a.m. and one worship service at 10:30 a.m. A barbecue dinner and "note-burning" fellowship will follow the morning worship service. The church is celebrating a debt payoff on 17 acres adjoining the church's existing property. All evening activities are canceled...

The Cape Girardeau VFW distributed buddy poppies Thursday and Friday as part of Buddy Poppy Week. The poppies are tied into bunches and packed by disabled veterans at Veterans Administration hospitals and state veterans homes. Proceeds help fund relief and welfare work...

Late last year, Syed Hashmi, a Pakistani doctor who had recently completed his internal medicine residency in Chicago, was facing the unwelcome prospect of having to return to Pakistan. At the same time, Midtown Family Medical Clinic in Cape Girardeau had dimming prospects of finding a physician to help staff its low-income clinic...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court has let stand a lower court's ruling upholding the authority of police to use search warrants to forcibly obtain physical evidence from drunken driving suspects. On May 12, the high court heard arguments in the case, which was brought by a Jackson woman charged with DWI. Instead of issuing an opinion, it remanded the matter to the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District in St. Louis in an unsigned order issued Tuesday...

When Cape Girardeau fire chief Richard Ennis took his job three months ago, he asked one of the firefighters in charge of equipment to put a breathing apparatus in his official car. When he saw it, he said he was surprised to see that it was the same model that he trained on when he was a rookie firefighter in school 22 years ago...

For two decades, gifted students from across the state have given up three weeks of summer vacation in exchange for intensive learning at the Missouri Scholars Academy. And they do it just for the sake of learning. There's no credit -- college or high school -- offered for attending the academy. It's all about the experience...

As the rain-swollen Mississippi River climbed toward flood stage Friday at Cape Girardeau, the Main Street Levee District went into action. Workers closed the gravity-flow storm drainage tunnel and started pumping operations at the Merriwether Street pumping station. When the river is high, the pumping operation prevents storm water from backing up in drainage pipes and spilling onto downtown streets...

The Mississippi River long has been a major attraction for tourists who visit Cape Girardeau. This was the major reason behind the expansion of the River Walk, which is nearing completion on the Mississippi, city planner Kent Bratton says. This week, riprap has been added to protect the banks and the newly completed walkways from erosion. This was a major step in the completion of the project, said Abdul Alkadry, the city's project manager...

SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas -- About 24,000 chickens were destroyed after avian flu was found on a Texas farm that supplies chickens to the poultry giant Pilgrim's Pride, state officials said Friday. Pilgrim's Pride, the second-largest poultry producer in the United States and Mexico, said routine blood tests indicated the bird flu infection. Bob Hillman, Texas state veterinarian, said officials did not observe any birds sick or dying from avian influenza...

Many Americans are in denial about their weight problems, according to an Associated Press poll, although more than half say they have been on diets at some point. Those who do watch what they eat are more likely to trim fat than take the trendier approach of cutting carbohydrates...

PADUCAH, Ky. -- Two down and two more to go for Southeast Missouri State University as it shoots for the Ohio Valley Conference tournament title. The fifth-seeded Indians won their second straight tournament game after falling in the first round, this time rallying past and then holding off fourth-seeded Eastern Kentucky 9-7 Friday in an elimination contest...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Legislative leaders formally signed off Friday on a proposed state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, completing another step in the process toward putting it before voters later this year. But it's still unclear exactly when voters will decide the amendment's fate...

HOUSTON -- Ray Lankford scored on Octavio Dotel's balk in the 10th inning and the St. Louis Cardinals thwarted the Houston Astros' late rally with a 2-1 win Friday night. A pitching duel between Houston's Roger Clemens and St. Louis' Chris Carpenter was overshadowed by the game's wacky and thrilling ending...

In Scripture, Jesus admonished his disciple Peter to "feed my sheep," and the churches of Cape Girardeau are taking that commandment to heart. For 30 years, congregations in the city in partnership with Southeast Missouri Hospital Auxiliary and the Cape Girardeau County Area Medical Society Alliance have been making sure that the elderly and ill receive a hot, nutritious meal each weekday...

MILWAUKEE -- A federal judge Friday night ordered Anheuser-Busch Cos. to pull one of three sets of ads in a new campaign that targets its chief rival, Miller Brewing Co., as being South African-owned. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman said the ads that must be pulled -- posters displayed in liquor stores -- falsely state that Milwaukee-based Miller is owned by South African Breweries...

HANOI, Vietnam -- Piloting the same plane that rescued him three decades ago, a former American prisoner of war returned to Vietnam Friday to fly home remains thought to be of two fallen comrades. Standing on the steamy tarmac in his flight suit, Air Force Reserve Maj. Gen. Edward Mechenbier saluted two aluminum cases draped in American flags as they were loaded onto the C-141, dubbed the "Hanoi Taxi" by POWs who rode it home after their release...

WASHINGTON -- Most of their comrades are dead now, making today's dedication of the National World War II Memorial bittersweet for the tens of thousands of elderly veterans on hand. Marvin Spencer, who toured the site Friday with his wife, Helen, said the memorial is a lasting tribute to those who served and a history lesson for future generations...

Earthquake hits Iran; at least 23 dead TEHRAN, Iran -- A strong earthquake shook central and northern Iran on Friday, killing at least 23 people -- some buried by landslides on a mountain road -- and seriously damaging more than 80 villages, the Interior Ministry and state-run media said. ...

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Outfielder Raul Mondesi has reached a deal to play for the Anaheim Angels just three weeks after walking away from the game, he told The Associated Press on Friday. The former All-Star and Gold Glover said he got a $1.75 million contract for the rest of the season. He said he will make his debut in center field for the banged-up AL West leaders Sunday at Chicago...

BOULDER, Colo. -- For nearly four months, Colorado coach Gary Barnett listened as reports of sexual assaults, drug and alcohol use and questionable recruiting practices filtered almost daily from the campus. It was enough to make him wonder if he'd ever be allowed back...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Wayne Levi made four birdies just before the second round was suspended because of darkness Friday and held a one-shot lead in the rain-delayed Senior PGA Championship. The 52-year-old Levi was one of 72 players who completed his first round late at Valhalla Golf Club on Friday afternoon. Levi shot an opening 69, then made the four birdies through the first 11 holes of his second round to move to 6-under...

NEW ORLEANS -- Just before the heavy-driving Memorial Day weekend, more than 500 Shell and Texaco stations in the South have stopped selling gasoline because of high sulfur levels that can ruin vehicle fuel gauges and make an empty tank appear full...

BENSALEM, Pa. -- John Servis can breathe a little easier: Smarty Jones' final tuneup was flawless. The trainer watched from the backstretch as his Triple Crown threat worked seven furlongs Friday morning at Philadelphia Park -- his only timed workout before the Belmont Stakes...

BALTIMORE -- Not so long ago, the idea of performing heart surgery was medical blasphemy. After the Hippocratic oath, surgeons followed another dictum: "Don't touch the heart." Dr. Alfred Blalock, a brash, egotistical Georgia native who in 1943 was named head of surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, changed that. But he wasn't alone...

FREDERICKSBURG, Ind. -- Powerful thunderstorms that spawned tornadoes and soaked the Midwest pushed southward on Friday, leaving flooded roads and toppled trees in their wake. Dozens of West Virginia schools canceled or delayed classes Friday, while some residents had to be rescued by boat from flash floods that stranded them on highways or in flooded homes. ...

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A man convicted of killing two women while looking for money 12 years ago was executed Friday in South Carolina's electric chair. James Neil Tucker, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. He was the first person to die by electrocution in more than a year. ...

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- The judge in the Michael Jackson child-molestation case refused to lift intense secrecy Friday as he set a Sept. 13 tentative trial date that he expects will be pushed back. Judge Rodney Melville made it clear he won't let the public or press in on much pretrial material, maintaining a lid on such basic documents as the grand jury indictment. ...

BALTIMORE -- Two young men were arrested on murder charges Friday in the gruesome slayings of three younger relatives in an apartment. One was beheaded with a butcher knife, the others were nearly decapitated, police said. Police said the two men are cousins, but the Mexican government identified Policarpio Espinoza, 22, as the children's uncle and Adan Espinoza Canela, 17, as their cousin...

THAYER, Mo. -- Oran catcher Joey Williams spent much of Friday afternoon looking up at the sizeable Thayer hitters as he called pitches behind the plate. But Oran's 5-foot-7 cleanup hitter delivered the biggest blow of the day, driving a single up the middle in the bottom of the seventh to score Trevor Irwin with the winning run in an improbable 9-8 victory against Thayer in a Class 1 state quarterfinal game...