Overcast ~ 25°F   River stage: 23.46 Rising Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010

Stories since 2002 Blogs Comments Photos Events Classifieds Marketplace Real Estate Everything (Google)

Columnists Brian Blackwell Your Business >> Chris Harris Street Spirit >> Paul Schnare Dr. Grow >> Ellen Shuck Reflections >> Gary Rust Gary's Commentary >> Bob and Callie Clark Miller His and Hers >> Aaron Horrell Through the Woods >> Rob Hurtgen Commentary >> Jeff Long Commentary >> Jon K. Rust >> Joe Sullivan River City Journal >> Marty Mishow The Latest Line >> Frank Nickell Special People, Special Places >> Susan McClanahan Recipe Swap >> Sam Blackwell Letters From Home >> Tom Harte A Harte Appetite >>

Columns Jeff Long Finally, a movie for believers "Eli's coming ... get down on your knees." I played the song, "Eli's Coming," by Three Dog Night, over and over on my stereo as a teenager. Even now, I can remember turning it up loud in the basement and hearing my mother stomp on the upstairs floor in complaint... Aaron Horrell Diving into facts about ring-neck duck Although this bird is named the ring-neck duck, it is most easily identified by the white ring close to the black tip of its bill. It is a common diving duck and will dive to escape danger. A smart little duck, this one will sometimes even elude hunters by diving, swimming underwater for several yards to another location, surfacing and flying away... Adherence to Constitution not a sometimes thing By Paul J. Passanante On Jan. 14 the Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Klotz v. St. Anthony's, a case that challenges the constitutionality of the caps that the Missouri General Assemble has imposed on damages in medical negligence cases. ... Chris Harris On a mission to watch all 10 best picture nominees Let's talk globally for a moment, shall we? The Oscar nominations were released earlier this week, including the 10 best picture nominees. Not five this year, but 10. It figures that the year I decide to watch all the best picture nominees is the year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decides to double the number of films... Joe Sullivan A cat's life Miss Kitty, the calico cat who lives with us, has us figured out. And we continue to discover more and more about our constantly shedding purr factory. Because she is partly an outdoor cat, Miss Kitty keeps her claws sharp and ready to use. Too ready, sometimes. When she purrs, her paws knead the closest soft surface -- usually my midsection -- and her claws etch interesting patterns into my skin... Sam Blackwell J.D. Salinger: Looking for any hope to latch onto Feb. 4, 2009 Dear Leslie, In W.P. Kinsella's novel "Shoeless Joe," an Iowa farmer on a quest goes looking for J.D. Salinger, who in the 1960s seemed to go into hiding and stopped writing books. The novel became the movie "Field of Dreams," and in the movie Salinger became a fictional 1960s activist who has lost faith... Susan McClanahan Recipe Swap: Club trades recipes from around the country Jodi Thompson, an avid recipe and cookbook collector, sent me these recipes to include here. She has an Internet recipe club that shares recipes from all across the country, and these are a few that came from her recently. I save many of the recipes she sends me, and I enjoy going back and looking through them from time to time. ... Spending czars: Let the spenders figure out how to ... cut spending If the new Obama administration federal budget unveiled this week has accomplished anything, it is this: Schoolchildren will soon know how many zeros are in a trillion. Just like your household budget, the federal government each year charts income and expenses. To put it mildly, it ain't pretty this year. And it won't improve to any great extent until at least 2020... Time to break the cycle of debt Anyone who has opened the paper recently has been confronted by some pretty grizzly numbers about our nation's deficit and debt. Last year, the budget deficit was a record $1.4 trillion. New projections released last week show that this year's deficit will be almost as bad, $1.35 trillion. Missourians are worried about our deficit and debt, and they should be. I am too... Congressional votes Here's a look at how area members of Congress voted over the previous week. WATER DIVERSION IN IDAHO FORESTS: The House approved the Idaho Wilderness Water Facilities Act (H.R. 4474), sponsored by Rep. Walter Minnick, D-Idaho, to authorize the continuance of private water diversions in national forests in Idaho by giving the Agriculture Secretary the authority to issue a special use authorization to owners of water storage, transport, or diversion facilities located on National Forest System lands in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness or the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, for continued operation, maintenance, and reconstruction of applicable facilities. ... Aaron Horrell Red-shouldered hawk stays close to home This hawk looks a lot like a common red-tailed hawk (chicken hawk) but it is not. It is a red-shouldered hawk. The red-shouldered hawk is slightly smaller and tends to stay in or close to bottomland hardwood forests and swamps. While fishing you may hear a red-tailed hawk's loud "Kee -- AAWH" call repeated several times from the same tree with quiet intervals of a few minutes in between... Still no action by Congress on credit default swaps By Josh Bill and Dr. Hamner Hill "Every civilization," Swiss historian Jacob Burkhardt once wrote, "carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction." We believe the financial crisis of 2008 exposes a seed that can destroy Western-style free-market capitalism. The name of that seed is the credit default swap, or CDS... End the Federal Reserve I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe. -- Abraham Lincoln By Robert Bunn In the United States today, we have, in effect, two governments: the duly constituted government, and the Federal Reserve System, an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government operating the money powers that are reserved to Congress by the Constitution... Chris Harris Changing spaces: Cat Ranch Art Guild to exhibit with Cadmium River Group Those who frequent the First Friday art openings in Cape Girardeau will notice one less stop on the trip around town Feb. 5. The Cat Ranch Art Guild, based in Marble Hill, Mo., has decided to leave Westray Studio to combine efforts and art shows with the Cadmium River Group at Global Cafe... Joe Sullivan One ringy-dingy I'm a bill checker, and I'm proud of it. When I get a bill, I take a close look to make sure I know what I'm paying for. Sometimes the sender of a bill makes an honest mistake. This is easy to fix: a simple phone call, a pleasant conversation, an apology and an immediate adjustment. Thank you very much... My pro-life story Friday night I was awake and bothered by what I had heard on television: that our president had made a comment about abortion that, to my mind, implied he supported the taking of life, even at birth. What I gathered from this talk is that he supports abortion for any reason... Sam Blackwell Life in 3-D Jan. 28, 2010 Dear Patty. Some people have reported becoming depressed after seeing the movie "Avatar," in part because the reality awaiting as they walk out of the movie theater doesn't seem nearly as spectacular as the reality in the 3-D movie... Why pro-life? Today [Jan. 22] we reflect and protest the Supreme Court's (supreme they are not) decision of Jan. 22, 1973, in which the court allowed American women to terminate a conceived pregnancy. Up until this point human life in the womb was protected and acknowledged from the moment of conception... Helping Haiti The Italians are blaming the United States for a "poor" response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti. The French are accusing the United States of using the earthquake as an "excuse to occupy" Haiti. Venezuela is blaming the United States of ... well, it's Venezuela, so they blame us for everything... Susan McClanahan Quick and easy meals from snack to finish For Christmas I was fortunate enough to get several new cookbooks as gifts from friends and family. This first book I will share with you is the Gooseberry Patch book "Quick & Easy Family Favorites," which I received from Joan Weeks, a friend and volunteer at the senior center. ... Congressional votes There were no key votes in the Senate this week. ST. CROIX NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE: The House failed to pass the Castle Nugent National Historic Site Establishment Act (H.R. 3726), sponsored by Del. Donna Christensen, D-V.I., that would have established the Castle Nugent in St. ... Blocking tax increases on Missouri farmers Missouri has a strong history of agriculture, tracing back to 1725 when some of the first farms in the state were established. Agriculture is the state's No. 1 industry, and Missouri ranks second in the country for number of farms. Just like any industry in this economy, however, farmers are facing tough times as an unstable market puts their livelihoods in jeopardy... Aaron Horrell A shrew's determination During our recent cold spell, I was out with my camera for a short time one evening just before dark on no more than a cold-weather lark. I expected nothing, so the photo shown here was a surprising result. Investigating the distress call from an animal I could not immediately identify, I located its origin on an ice-covered pool near the discharge pipe below a pond levee. It was an adult bullfrog being harassed by a small hungry shrew maybe one eighth the frog's size... Rob Hurtgen Faith in face of tragedy People here and abroad have been touched by the images of the devastation caused from the earthquake that rocked Haiti. Many have been touched by the plight of the Haitian people before the earthquake that nearly destroyed the tiny nation. With every passing day, the compassion continues to grow. ... Jeff Long Family Resource Center would be missed "But I'll bet you won't forget me when I go." The aforementioned is a lyric from "Fairy Tale," an old Elvis Presley song. The idea is that we don't appreciate what we have until it's no longer a part of our lives. For all the well-deserved clucking after Mark McGwire's long-delayed admission of steroid use, one thing cannot be denied: Many people missed him. ...