Cape Girardeau County’s 911 system phone bill will be cut by about half starting next month. “Our bill is probably going to go from 11 grand a month down to five or six thousand a month,” said Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Charlie Herbst, who, along with other members of the County Commission, approved a new three-year 911 telephone service contract with AT&T during Thursday’s commission meeting...

Rising COVID-19 cases in the student body and among staff has prompted Cape Girardeau Central High School administrators to shut down in-person learning for a week, beginning Monday. Kristen Tallent, communications director for the district, said Wednesday afternoon the decision was out of an “abundance of caution.”...

The Nell Holcomb School District in eastern Cape Girardeau County is lengthening its fall break by three days due to COVID-19 concerns. The kindergarten-through- eighth-grade district was scheduled to be on break through Tuesday but school officials now have extended the downtime through Nov. 6...

Seven area residents died of COVID-19 on Tuesday, officials reported Scott County officials reported five virus-related deaths Tuesday, bringing the total number of county residents who have died because of the virus to 26. The county has tallied 1,488 total cases of the virus, while 1,215 county residents have recovered from it. New cases totaled 10 each on Saturday and Sunday, 13 Monday and 20 Tuesday...

BRUSSELS -- The World Health Organization's Europe director expressed deep concern Thursday after the region again recorded the highest-ever weekly incidence of cases, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of a "difficult winter" as residents in France braced for life under a new month-long lockdown and Spain's parliament voted to extend a state of emergency...

ROME -- Pope Francis is halting his public general audiences and will limit participation at Christmas and other upcoming Masses amid a surge of coronavirus cases in Italy and the Vatican, officials said Thursday. Starting next week, Francis will resume livestreaming his weekly catechism lessons from his library in the Apostolic Palace, as he did during the Vatican's COVID-19 lockdown during the spring and summer, the Vatican said...

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a scolding assessment of COVID-19 relief talks Thursday, blaming Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for failing to produce answers to her demands for Democratic priorities as part of an almost $2 trillion aid package...

TAMPA, Fla. -- Pressing against stiff headwinds from the pandemic, President Donald Trump steered toward what he hoped was safer political ground with the U.S. economy Thursday, as Democratic rival Joe Biden kept up his assault on Trump's handling of the coronavirus...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- The new surge of the coronavirus was evident in Missouri on Thursday, with record hospitalizations in St. Louis and Columbia, and the Kansas City metropolitan area experiencing its worst month ever for COVID-19 deaths. The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force late Wednesday reported 72 hospital admissions in one day, the most since tracking began in April. ...

Why people continue to trust government officials is a mystery. Often disconnected from the problems at hand, their policies also often contradict their supporters' frequently expressed beliefs. While suffering from cost overruns and increasing budget deficits, these policies handsomely reward their cronies, too...

The interim director of Southeast Missouri State University’s Center for Behavioral Health and Accessibility doesn’t mince words when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic. “There’s no end in sight and we’re tired of it,” said Millicent Odhiambo. Much of the world went into novel coronavirus lockdown in greater or lesser degrees by mid-March...

The emergency face mask mandate in Cape Girardeau County will continue, but not without criteria for easing it. Members of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center Board of Trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to continue the countywide face mask order to help control the spread of COVID-19...

WARM SPRINGS, Ga. -- Joe Biden traveled to the hot springs town where Franklin Delano Roosevelt coped with polio on Tuesday to declare the U.S. is not too politically diseased to overcome its health and economic crises, pledging to be the unifying force who can "restore our soul and save this country."...

AUSTIN, Texas -- A record surge in coronavirus cases is pushing hospitals to the brink in the border cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, confronting health officials in Texas and Mexico with twin disasters in the tightly knit metropolitan area of 3 million people...

Health officials reported three COVID-19-related deaths Monday, two in Bollinger County, Missouri, and one in Cape Girardeau County. Bollinger County reported two deaths because of the virus, bringing the county’s total to four. As of Monday, the county reported 661 total cases (up 31 from its previous report) and 526 recoveries...

With just over two months left in 2020, Cape Girardeau County officials say the calendar and the county’s $9.2 million coronavirus relief fund should both run out at about the same time. “It will be awfully close,” commented First District County Commissioner Paul Koeper, who has been keeping tabs on fund allocation requests and passing them on to the other commissioners for consideration...