Cape Girardeau sales tax receipts for the first half of 2020 are running slightly ahead of where they were this time last year, despite disruption in many retail businesses this spring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the county’s use-tax revenue is running significantly ahead of last year’s pace, indicating strong growth of online commerce and other out-of-state purchases made by county residents and businesses...

More than 500 people are signed up to take a free COVID-19 community sampling test today at Arena Park in Cape Girardeau. By pre-registration appointment only, the drive-up test will be available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. “My understanding is the (Missouri) Department of Health and Senior Services is now into a waiting list for the test,” said Jane Wernsman, director of the Cape Girardeau Public Health Center...

A Stoddard County, Missouri, resident died from COVID-19 on Thursday as 15 new cases of the disease were reported in the region. No information was available about the Stoddard County case. The county has confirmed 103 cases of the disease associated with the coronavirus. The death marked the sixth in the county. Forty-two patients in the county have recovered from the disease...

As the National Weather Service forecasts temperatures to rise to 92 degrees Saturday, the reopening status of many area cooling centers is uncertain due to COVID-19. Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center director Jane Wernsam said exposure to extreme heat especially affects the most vulnerable population — infants, young children, those older than 65 and those with underlying health concerns — which is the same demographics affected most by COVID-19...

The bravery and sacrifice of hundreds of first responders on Sept. 11, 2001, during and after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., affected Jackson Fire Rescue captains Sam Herndon and Ryan Davie deeply -- and they're leading a charge to finish a memorial now in progress on the Jackson fire station lawn...

With all that is happening in our nation ranging from the coronavirus to racial tensions reignited by the death of an unarmed black man by police in Minnesota, Saturday's SpaceX launch of two American astronauts to the International Space Station was a welcomed moment of American pride...

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. -- No additional cases of the new coronavirus have been reported stemming from the crowded pool parties at Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks over the Memorial Day weekend, the state's top health official said. Camden County Health Department reported May 29 that a person from Boone County who had attended the parties tested positive for the virus...

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 1.9 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, evidence that many employers are still cutting jobs even as the gradual reopening of businesses has slowed the pace of layoffs. The total number of people who are receiving jobless aid rose slightly to 21.5 million, down from a peak of nearly 25 million two weeks ago but still at a historically high level. ...

MINNEAPOLIS -- Hollywood celebrities, musicians and politicians gathered in front of the golden casket of George Floyd at a fiery memorial Thursday for the man whose death at the hands of police sparked global protests, with a civil rights leader declaring it is time for black people to demand, "Get your knee off our necks!"...

Several authors of a large study raising safety concerns about malaria drugs for coronavirus patients have retracted the report, saying independent reviewers were not able to verify information that's been widely questioned by other scientists. Thursday's retraction in the journal Lancet involved a May 22 report on hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, drugs long used for preventing or treating malaria but whose safety and effectiveness for COVID-19 are unknown...

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Navy veteran detained in Iran for nearly two years has been released and started making his way home as part of a prisoner deal involving an American-Iranian doctor prosecuted in the United States, U.S. officials said Thursday. The U.S. special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, flew to Zurich with a doctor to meet freed detainee Michael White of Imperial Beach, California. His mother said "the nightmare is over" now that her son is out of Iranian hands...

PHILADELPHIA -- Mayor Jim Kenney kicked off a recent briefing on Philadelphia's coronavirus response with an unusual request for residents: Be careful what you flush. Between mid-March, when the city's stay-at-home order was issued, and the end of April, most of the 19 sewer and storm water pumping stations in Philadelphia had experienced clogs from face masks, gloves and wipes residents had pitched into the potty, Kenney said...

LONDON -- A vaccine summit hosted by Britain on Thursday raised billions of dollars to immunize children in developing countries as experts wrestled with the difficult question of how any potential vaccine against the new coronavirus might be distributed globally -- and fairly...

HONG KONG -- Thousands of people in Hong Kong defied a police ban Thursday evening, breaking through barricades to hold a candlelight vigil on the 31st anniversary of China's crushing of a democracy movement centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square. With democracy snuffed out in the mainland, the focus has shifted increasingly to semi-autonomous Hong Kong, where authorities for the first time banned the annual vigil that remembers victims of the 1989 crackdown...

LONDON -- It's nothing flashy. But then, it's not supposed to be. The plywood wall that surrounds a building site, painted with the words "WE GRIEVE? in massive letters, has become a focal point for people of the Stamford Hill neighborhood. It is there that they gather each Thursday to remember those who have died during the coronavirus pandemic...

Movie theater chain AMC warned this week it may not survive the coronavirus pandemic, which has shuttered its theaters and led film studios to explore releasing more movies directly to viewers over the internet. All of AMC's theaters are shut down through June, which means the company isn't generating any revenue. AMC said it had enough cash to reopen its theaters this summer, as it plans to do. But if it's not allowed to reopen, it will need more money, which it may not be able to borrow...

Thank you Jeff Long for your article on the polluting of Jackson creeks when people are not conscientious about litter, trash, oil, yard wastes and other damaging items that end up in our creeks. A creek borders our property, and we have watched the reduction of crayfish, frogs and minnows over the last few years to the point that very little animal life exists in our creek. ...