Local News

Clutching four brightly-colored pinwheel flowers alongside two of her sisters, Cynthia King of Chaffee, Missouri, was walking to end Alzheimer's in honor of her mother, Barbara Schaefer, on Saturday at Cape County Park North. Barbara died in 2012, represented by Schaefer's purple flower. This year's marks the family's 10th year participating...

An uphill gravel road on the fringes of Cape Girardeau leads to the secluded home of 80-year-old Joan McPherson. Her husband passed away last year leaving behind a massive collection of classic cars, vintage service station pumps, 8,000 spark plugs and branded signage galore -- all now assigned to the auction block...

Joe Kirchdoerfer was 14 when he started showing jersey cattle at the SEMO District Fair, but that was 70 years ago. The dairy farmer now boasts seven decades as a jersey cattle exhibitor at the annual fair. In 1949, he and sister, Marie James, showed their jersey cattle for the first time. Kirchdoerfer continued into his adult life and said he hasn't missed a year at the fair since...

The State of Missouri has received 21 applications for medical marijuana facilities in Cape Girardeau and another six in Jackson. Most of the applications — 18 for locations in Cape Girardeau and five in Jackson — are for medical marijuana dispensaries, according to data released by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services ...

SIKESTON, Mo. — The Sikeston Department of Public Safety officer who made anti-Islamic posts on a public Facebook account resigned from duty, effective early Friday. “Late yesterday evening, the officer gave me a verbal resignation and then said he would turn in his equipment this morning,” Sikeston DPS chief James McMillen said in a news release Friday. “A few moments ago, the officer did as he said and returned department property.” ...

Cape Girardeau Dental Care and Jungermann Dental Care will be offering cleanings, fillings and extractions for those in need of dental services during Free Dentistry Day on Saturday, according to news release. Dr. David Kaelin, Dr. Richard Straus and Dr. Alina Gritsan will provide the services from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 7 Doctors Park in Cape Girardeau. Patients will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis...

A Bollinger County volunteer firefighter faces charges of rape, sodomy, child molestation and incest stemming from incidents this year and last. Ronald Braden, 45, of Zalma, Missouri, was arrested earlier this summer. His wife, Trishcia Braden, faces a felony charge of tampering with physical evidence in connection with the case...

Illinois State Police and the office of the state fire marshal are investigating a residential fire near Tamms, Illinois, which also involves a missing person. The incident occurred Tuesday. State police reported the incident Thursday. “The fire was set at a residence on McDaniel School Road,” state police said in a news release...

Route F in Cape County reduced for pavement work According to a news release issued by the Missouri Department of Transportation, Route F in Cape Girardeau County will be reduced with a 12-foot width restriction as Missouri Department of Transportation crews make pavement repairs at the following locations:...

The 83rd Missouri Association for Family and Community Education annual conference was held Aug. 26 through 28 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Jefferson City. The theme of the conference was "reaching for the stars." The banquet speaker was Carol Reimann, Missouri Teacher of the Year...

A judge has upheld the impeachment and ouster of the former, elected police chief of Miner, Missouri. Christopher Griggs had gone to court in an effort to get his job back after the Scott County city's board of aldermen impeached him at the conclusion of a three-hour hearing in March...

A nationwide search is underway for an executive director to head a south Cape Girardeau revitalization group, which is also looking for office space in the neighborhood it serves. PORCH, which stands for People Organized to Revitalize Community Healing, began advertising for a director in late August. The organization hopes to name someone to the post no later than the middle of October and possibly before the end of September...

Scott County chief deputy Ryan Dennis, who is second only to Sheriff Wes Drury in the sheriff's department, has resigned, effective Sept. 30. Dennis is leaving to take a position as investigator for the Scott County prosecutor's office. He is scheduled to begin his new job Oct. 1...

Southeast Missouri State University's Catholic Campus Ministry has outgrown its current chapel and plans for a new, larger facility are beginning to take shape — requiring the demolition of the chapel and its two on-campus houses. Deacon and director of the Newman Center Tom Schumer said construction for the new 7,000-square-foot Newman Center with a tentative completion date of spring 2021...

Sikeston, Missouri, police officer Frankie Adams was placed on administrative leave Thursday after posting anti-Muslim comments on Facebook. "I get to choose whom I dislike, and it just so happens to be all Muslims and their beliefs," Adams wrote in one of many Facebook messages...

Voters in Cape Girardeau County next year will be wearing "I Voted" stickers featuring the winning sticker design of a contest now underway through the Cape Girardeau County Clerk's Office. The contest, which began this week, is open to all Cape Girardeau County residents. The winning design will be used as the official "I Voted" stickers available at the polls starting in 2020...

Routes AA in Scott and New Madrid counties will be reduced with an 8-foot width restriction as contractor crews mill and overlay the roadway, a Missouri Department of Transportation news release says. The road reduction will be from U.S. 62 in Miner, Missouri, to Highway 80 in Matthews, Missouri. The release says the work will take place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily Sept. 23 through Oct. 19...

CAIRO, Ill. — The 82-year-old bridge between Cairo and Wickliffe, Kentucky, will be replaced before it reaches its 100th anniversary, according to the Kentucky transportation officials. "We would like for people to be driving on a new bridge sometime in the next 15 years," according to Keith Todd, public information office with the District One office of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) in Paducah...

The waste from Cape Girardeau's sinks, toilets and washing machines is being transformed into fertilizer pellets, a process that city public works director Stan Polivick said benefits both the environment and the city's bottom line. Polivick said the city won't have the cost of disposing of the sludge or biosolids at a regional landfill near Dexter, Missouri...

Steven Chapman of Marble Hill, Missouri, 17, died by suicide in December, which prompted his mother, Katrina Holston, to take a stand this year with the local chapter of American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The annual Out of the Darkness Community Walk — with a goal of $35,000 — is set for noon on Sept. 22 at Cape County Park North...

Cape Girardeau County Commission 9 a.m. today 1 Barton Square, Jackson Approval of minutes n Minutes for the Aug. 29, Sept. 5 and Sept. 9 meetings Communications/reports -- other elected officials n None at this time Public comments n Items listed on the agenda...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. — Tow-truck operator Jeffery Scott “Scotty” Robins was fatally shot in the head while asleep in his rural Bollinger County home. Seven years later, there still have been no arrests. Bollinger County Coroner Charles Hutchings remains frustrated by the fact no one has been charged in a case he contends is ”very solvable.” ...

The body of Jeffery Scott “Scotty” Robins was discovered by his children when they returned home from school Sept. 6, 2012. He had been shot in the head while sleeping. The single shot came from a .22-caliber gun. Bollinger County Coroner Charles Hutchings said he doesn’t know whether the shot came from a handgun or a rifle. The murder weapon has not been found...

A two-year outbreak of hepatitis A in Southeast Missouri appears to be slowing, but state and county health officials say vaccinations are needed to be sure the viral outbreak doesn’t rekindle. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 426 cases of hepatitis A have been reported in Missouri since Sept. 1, 2017...

Today is Patriot Day, observed in memory of the 2,977 people who died during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. We’ve compiled a list of several events within Southeast Missouri honoring those killed at the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania...

Inc. Magazine tells us celebrating is very critical to success — even suggesting if you don’t celebrate, you are likely to burn out. Celebrating changes your physiology and psychology, strengthens your network and attracts more success.

Groundbreaking for a 9/11 memorial on the grounds of Jackson’s Fire Station No. 1 is set for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, 18 years to the day after terrorist attacks on U.S. soil killed nearly 3,000 people, including 343 New York City firefighters. A project of Jackson Fire Rescue, the memorial also will honor firefighters from Cape Girardeau County who have died in the line of duty...

The Cape Girardeau County Circuit Clerk’s Office will no longer allow the public or news media to print out court records from a public access computer in the Common Pleas Courthouse. Requested documents now will be printed by clerk staff and redacted to mark out any personal identifiers such as date of birth and Social Security and driver’s license numbers, Circuit Clerk Charleen Biester said Monday...

Bertling Street east of West End Boulevard in Cape Girardeau will be closed in both directions for up to a week starting Thursday, allowing for street repaving following a water system repair project. Detours will be marked to direct traffic around the closure via West End Boulevard, Butler Street and Henderson Avenue.

A network of regional high schools has announced the creation of a foreign exchange program to let students study across the big pond: the Mississippi River. The program, dubbed IMAGINE (Illinois Missouri Association Guiding Interstate Noteworthy Exchanges), will allow high school students to live with a host family and experience life on the other side of the river...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. — At first glance, it's hard to tell what sits inside M & J's at 106 1st St. in Marble Hill ...

Ten-year-old Jimmy Williams of Jackson is staying strong through the support of friends and family — and a recent visit from St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube with the Stanley Cup — as he awaits a heart transplant at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis...

Among the pack of roughly 200 restored large tractors, lawn tractors and other farming machinery sits Wayne Helderman’s red Massey-Harris 555D “wheatland” tractor next to a slick-wheeled 1924 Wallis. The tractors will be on display through Friday, marking the Egypt Mills Antique Tractor Club’s 39th year at the SEMO District Fair in Cape Girardeau...

Approval of minutes n Minutes for Sept. 5 meeting Communications/reports -- other elected officials n None at this time Public comments n Items listed on the agenda Routine business...

The City of Sikeston, Missouri, was not responsible for the actions of its former public safety director Drew Juden in the wrongful arrest and conviction of David Robinson, an attorney for the city has argued. The city, Juden and former detective John Blakely are defendants in a federal civil suit brought by Robinson. Each defendant is represented by a different attorney. Each defendant, however, is asking the judge to dismiss the suit on various grounds...

Educators in Cape Girardeau County’s two largest school districts are working to become more sensitive and responsive to students who experience various forms of childhood trauma. The combined enrollment of the Cape Girardeau and Jackson public school districts is approximately 9,600, and counselors in both districts say there’s a strong likelihood most of them either have or will experience at least one traumatic experience before they reach their 17th birthday...

An international cultural festival, a downtown ambassador program and an electric scooter ride-sharing service were three of the ideas presented Friday morning at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday Coffee. The ideas were developed by participants in the 2019 Leadership Cape program and were designed to make Cape Girardeau more welcoming and more prosperous as well as a better place to live overall...

In celebration of Old Town Cape's 20th anniversary, the event center at Isle Casino Cape Girardeau will be donned in emerald Saturday for the 32nd annual Charles L. Hutson Auction. The annual auction serves as the major and only annual fundraiser for Old Town Cape. The event begins at 6:30 p.m...

The president of Alliance Bank in Jackson has been named to serve as president of the bank's operations in Cape Girardeau as well. The additional role for Wade "Pee Wee" Bartels is "effective immediately," according to Alliance Bank president and CEO Cord Polen...

A Sikeston, Missouri, man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for the murder of a man outside a liquor store in 2015 in a case that involved once-missing video evidence. A Scott County Circuit Court jury in July convicted 37-year-old Antoine Harris, also know as Harris-Applewhite, of second-degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon...

It goes back to the ancient Greeks at Delphi in the 6th Century B.C.: they held multiple-day events that included music and athletic competitions. Throughout the Middle Ages, Celtic and Gaelic cultural fairs promoted music, with a dance competition as the main event. In Europe, large gatherings of the upper class listened to classical music. Throughout the 1960s, music festivals were a way to express counter-cultural views, meeting grounds for political activism and change...

A water service interruption notice has been issued for a residential area along a portion of Old Cape Road in Jackson as well as several adjoining streets. According to a news release issued Wednesday afternoon, the Jackson Water Department will be working today on the water main along Old Cape Road in the area between June Lane and Old Hickory Drive...

A 41-year-old wrong-way driver has been charged with manslaughter after his passenger died after apparently jumping from a Ford pickup truck last week on Interstate 55 and breaking his neck. Myron Lee Tillman of Columbia, Missouri, was charged Wednesday in Scott County Circuit Court with first-degree involuntary manslaughter, first-degree assault, leaving the scene of a fatal accident, driving with a revoked license, operating a motor vehicle in a careless and imprudent manner, and armed criminal action through the use of the pickup truck as a “dangerous instrument.”. ...

Neil Dougan's life completely changed when his wife Alberta, 73, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. But with the help of Alzheimer's Association Greater Missouri Chapter, he's learning more about the disease and how to cope through the experience of others in Southeast Missouri...

From a business and economic perspective, the past 12 months have been relatively successful in Jackson, and despite concerns about the expected disruption caused by road construction next year along U.S. 61 at the Interstate 55 interchange, the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce expects the next 12 months to be generally upbeat as well...

Route FF in Bollinger County will be closed as contractor crews replace a bridge over Cane Creek. The span is between county roads 512 and 514. As construction is underway, traffic will use a temporary bypass, according to a Missouri Department of Transportation news release. The work will begin Wednesday and is scheduled to be completed by Jan. 1, the release said...

Cape Girardeau County Commission 9 a.m. today 1 Barton Square, Jackson Approval of minutes n None at this time Communications/ reports -- other elected officials n None at this time Public comments n Items listed on the agenda Routine business n Purchase orders...