Editorials

The SEMO District Fair has come and gone again. Every year it brings excitement to Cape Girardeau, from the livestock judging to the midway, from the food to the entertainment. Every year is different, but every year is the same. That's what you call tradition. According to the fair's website, the fair "has been a family destination for 164 years."...

Learning is made much more difficult under traumatic circumstances. School districts are forming plans and techniques to help students dealing with traumatic events, to help them cope and learn. The movement to provide more resources for trauma is growing across the state, as Missouri enacted the Trauma Informed Schools Initiative. ...

There are a few important dates coming up for the future of Cape Girardeau. Two of them have to do with planning street and sidewalk projects well into the future, and the other has to do with an attempt to improve Cape Girardeau’s south side. There will be two open houses for you to weigh in on the project list for Transportation Trust Fund 6. ...

It's rivalry week in Cape Girardeau County. Tonight, the Jackson and Cape Girardeau Central football teams will do battle for the 113th time. Jackson, a football power in recent years in Southeast Missouri under coach Brent Eckley, will be the favorite at home when the two teams meet tonight at 7...

The flood of 2019 broke records for its duration and inconvenienced thousands of people, as it closed down highways in Southern Illinois. For most, the flood was a major inconvenience. For farmers, it meant loss of income. For some, it meant damaged or destroyed property...

A Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce program is working hard to help future job-seekers develop soft skills needed in the workplace. Called Capable, the program was launched in the Cape Girardeau School District last year. It aims to help students learn how to write a professional email, organize and prioritize tasks and collaborate with co-workers, according to a recent story by business editor Jay Wolz...

The leisure activity known as vaping has been in the news a lot lately, for all the wrong reasons. Severe, acute, lung illnesses have been reported all over the country, two of them resulting in deaths. One adult has died in Illinois, and a second death was reported in Oregon this week...

There's giving back to your community. Then there's Holigan-giving-back to your community. Harold and Hermena Parks Holigan of Dallas set up a family scholarship to pay for any Puxico High School graduate who maintained a 2.75 grade-point average and are pursuing an undergraduate degree at Southeast Missouri State University or Three Rivers College...

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more-perfect person, based on qualifications and experience, to lead Old Town Cape. Cape Girardeau’s downtown organization is welcoming home a downtown native in Liz Haynes. Haynes grew up in downtown, in the “Indie House” as it is now known, a Victorian-style house at 605 Broadway...

Proctor & Gamble's Cape Girardeau County plant turned 50 in August. In late August of 1969, the first Pampers disposable diapers rolled off the production line. As stated in a recent article by business editor Jay Wolz, the plant produces and ships several billion dollars worth of diapers, paper towels and toilet paper throughout North America. Some diaper products have a worldwide distribution...

The local football season kicks off tonight with the season opener for Southeast Missouri State University at home against regional rival Southern Illinois University. Last year's game in Carbondale was an epic back-and-forth game, won late in dramatic fashion by the Redhawks, 48-44, in the highest scoring game between the two squads in recent memory...

If you haven't read the latest edition of B Magazine, the Southeast Missourian's business publication, you're missing out on some great content. It's the Newsmakers edition, which features 18 people who give selflessly in their efforts to make the community a better place. Eighteen people are profiled along with stunning colorful portraits by Tyler Graef. Truly, it's content you don't want to miss...

Notre Dame Regional High School is still in adjustment mode after the surprising announcement last week that Brother David Anthony Migliorino, OSF, will be leaving the school. Migliorino was beloved by almost everyone involved with the school. He has a big personality, and demonstrated his love for Notre Dame on his sleeve and with his smile every day...

Downtown Cape will be humming on Tuesday, even more than usual. Nearly 1,000 Corvettes (and their owners) will converge here as part of the annual Corvette Caravan that ends at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Greene, Kentucky. The caravan passed through the area before, in 2014...

Football is a big deal in Southeast Missouri. Towns have a way of rallying behind their hometown teams. Fans attend the games on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons, and there's plenty of "water cooler" talk about who the stand-out players are and whether a new coach can live up to the hype...

When you think of band instruments in Southeast Missouri, you think of the name Shivelbine. The Shivelbine family, through its business, has provided musical instruments for thousands upon thousands of musicians over the years. This time of the year is particularly busy for them as they get school bands ready for their marching performances...

One of the United Way of Southeast Missouri's new funding partners for the next three years aims to provide or assist oral health services to adults, including the elderly. The Oral Health Coalition of Southeast Missouri was formed nearly 15 years ago with the goal of improving dental health for children and elderly in the region. With the funding from the United Way, the organization will extend those services...

It may not officially die until the calendar flips to Sept. 23. The temperatures will continue to rise into the 90s. The swimming pool will still feel good for a few more weeks. But for many, the summer ended last week with the return of the school year...

Cape Girardeau's Tunes at Twilight series resumes tonight with the first performance of the fall 2019 season. Jimmy Davis, a singer-songwriter from Tennessee will perform. He's written songs for some famous country stars, including Martina McBride and Restless Heart...

Most of us figured the Cape Catfish would be bottom feeders, let's face it. First-year teams and programs usually take some time to develop. We would have been happy with competitive. But that's not what happened at all. The Cape Catfish turned out to be a really big fish in the Prospect League pond...

Several of Cape Girardeau’s downtown groups and organizations took home awards recently during a ceremony by Missouri Main Street Connection in St. Louis. Among the winners were Old Town Cape Historic Landmark Preservation Group (not to be confused with Old Town Cape), Zickfield’s Jewelry and Gifts, and Isle Casino Cape Girardeau ...

Two faith-based organizations, led by two compassionate people, have combined forces to get homeless people off the streets and into stable housing. As recently reported by Jay Wolz, a two-story, four-bedroom house on Jefferson Street in Cape Girardeau soon will become permanent housing for several homeless men, thanks to a partnership between The People’s Shelter and Saint Francis Health System Foundation...

Crashing cars in the name of Jesus. That's what Cape First plans to do tonight at Arena Park, where thousands are expected to enjoy a night of Demolition Derby and many other activities. The event is free and open to the public. Overall festivities begin at 5:30, with the derby to begin at 7:30 at the grandstand...

The Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo is one of the biggest events every year in Southeast Missouri and one of the biggest professional rodeo events in the Midwest. It brings in some of the best rodeo performers in the country from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association...

The United Way of Southeast Missouri announced its funding partners recently. The United Way selects partners every three years through a lengthy process involving more than 60 community volunteers and scored more than 50 program applications. The volunteers visited several sites and heard several presentations. The United Way increased the number of partner agences from 24 to 27...

Cape Central High School is one of nine high schools — six in Missouri and three in Tennessee — working with a new organization aimed at helping students gain better access to college and career opportunities. It’s designed to help rural students, though Central is a large school district...

Local license bureaus are finding that Missouri residents are confused about the Real ID licenses. The new licenses serve as ID for drivers and non-drivers, and will be required by federal law to board planes and some federal buildings beginning in October 2020, unless individuals possess passports...

This is your annual reminder that if you're looking to buy back-to-school items for the coming school year, this is the weekend to save a few bucks. Beginning Friday, the state of Missouri will waive its regular sales tax, saving consumers 4.2% of their out-of-pocket expense...

The Flood of 2019 broke records and hearts. It will not be remembered for how high the river rose, although it did get plenty high, cresting at 46.29, the fifth highest on record. It won't be remembered like the 2011 flood, which required the detonation of a levee and the destruction of homes and farmland...

Our journalists at the Southeast Missourian and Mind + Body magazine had a wonderful time in recent weeks getting to know the participants in the "Dancing with the Show Me Stars," a fund-raising event where local folks are paired with an instructor and learn a dance routine and help put on a show for charity...

On Aug. 6, Cape Girardeau voters will decide whether to renew a quarter-cent “capital improvements” sales tax that is critical to our water system. Mayor Bob Fox and city manager Scott Meyer, who recently met with the Southeast Missourian editorial board, said nearly half ($18 million over 15 years) of the renewed tax would go toward replacing old, galvanized pipes with stronger PVC. ...

Travis Hollis, the Rogers, Arkansas deputy fire chief, was announced earlier this week as Cape Girardeau's next fire chief. Cape Girardeau city manager Scott Meyer said in a news release that Hollis comes with a "diverse skill set" and leadership qualities that will benefit the department...

When Terry Kitchen accepted the Semoball Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, we knew the crowd was in for a treat. The longtime Cape Central coach and administrator had a school spirit unmatched by even the most vocal of Tiger fans. He spoke about putting in the hard work and not giving up. You didn’t have to be a high school athlete to leave inspired. In fact, video of Kitchen’s remarks has been viewed more than 20,000 times on semoball.com and its Facebook page. Kitchen died earlier this year after a battle with cancer. The visitation and funeral were incredible testaments to his character. On Monday evening the Cape Girardeau Public School Board announced that the junior high school would be named the Terry W. Kitchen Central Junior High School. “A lot of the family was there,” superintendent Niel Glass told reporter Jeff Breer. “You could tell it meant a lot to them that the district would honor their father, grandfather, and brother in this manner.” The recognition comes just a few years after the junior high sports complex was renamed for Kitchen. Renaming a school is a big decision and an honor not given out with regularity. The school board made a good decision in renaming the junior high after Kitchen. It’s the facility where most of his playing, coaching and administration years took place. It will be a reminder of Coach’s legacy to those of us who admired him, and hopefully start conversations with younger students. You can almost hear students now: “Who was Terry Kitchen?” There will be plenty of admirers ready and willing to talk about Coach.