Stories from Tuesday, April 5, 1994

Don't panic. Cape Girardeau stockbrokers offered that advice Monday in the wake of a down day on Wall Street. The stock market experienced a flood of sell orders sparked by a fear of rising interest rates, analysts said. The Dow Jones industrial average finished down more than 40 points...

Many Missourians are familiar with the term, "Information Superhighway." The Bill Clinton/Al Gore administration has mentioned the proposed network of fiber optic cables that will enable people to interact with each other over long distances, and ConnectMissouri, a group of Missourians dedicated to bringing optic cables to all areas in Missouri, have been shouting their support for a Southwestern Bell proposal making its way through the state legislature...

SCOTT CITY -- Emotions ran high Monday night as Scott City residents met again to discuss riverboat gambling. The Rev. Lee Holland invited gambling proponents to Monday's forum at the Scott City High School gym to defend themselves against claims that riverboat gambling promotes corruption, poverty and social destruction...

In an effort to eliminate further delay of a law to establish minimum property standards, the Cape Girardeau City Council elected to bypass a recommendation by City Manager J. Ronald Fischer and put the matter on the agenda for a vote at the next meeting...

Southeast Missouri State University has more chairs than a furniture store. I'm not talking about the four-legged, still-life kind -- but rather the two-legged, talking variety. At Southeast, committees have been elevated to almost an art form. There's a committee for virtually everything...

Changes expected as business and community leaders approach the 21st century, health care reforms, river boat tourism and downtown development are among topics to be discussed during the 1994 Business Conference to be held at the Show Me Center Wednesday...

OAK RIDGE -- Charles D. Sievers, 59, of Oak Ridge, died Monday, April 4, 1994, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Oct. 17, 1934, in Jackson, son of Emil H. and Mary Dickerson Sievers. He and Judith Hobeck were married Dec. 5, 1970, in Ste. Genevieve...

BERTRAND -- Funeral service for Milford G. Winders, Bertrand Route 1, will be held at 2 p.m. today at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel in Sikeston. The Rev. Ted Wimberly will officiate, with burial in Blodgett Cemetery. Winders, 75, died Sunday, April 3, 1994, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston...

Most Missourians recognize that we need meaningful health insurance reform. Health care costs are spiraling out of control, making it difficult or impossible for hundreds of thousands of Missourians to afford quality health care. Furthermore, too many Missourians are being denied health care coverage because of pre-existing conditions. And too many Missourians are losing their health care coverage because they have become sick, have changed jobs, or have lost their job...

At a minimum, I have found nine attempts to disguise what's inside the real health care plan championed by Governor Carnahan. Every example presented here is introduced by the Governor's own verifiable quotes. In rebuttal, my remarks are set in bold type...

The cost of attending a university, as any parent with older teen-agers will attest, proves hard on the nerves and the pocketbook. Perhaps some of this is generational nostalgia, a wistful remembrance of what was once paid for a college degree. At Southeast Missouri State University, which at one time fashioned a reputation as a cost-friendly institution, the tide of rising prices has been too difficult to buck. ...

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Gerald R. Ortbals, who has promised to accept no special interest contributions and serve only one term if elected, plans to bring his campaign through Southeast Missouri this week. Ortbals' "Campaign Reform Rolls On" van is scheduled to be in Cape Girardeau about 2 p.m. today, although a news release announcing the visit did not specify where the candidate would be, other than to go by news media offices...

The Cape Girardeau police and fire Departments are hosting a blood drive today in honor of Officer Dan Niswonger, who was seriously injured in a car accident over the weekend. The blood drive will be held at Fire Station No. 1, at the intersection of Sprigg and Independence streets, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. today...

JACKSON -- By a unanimous vote, the Jackson Board of Aldermen Monday approved the city's 1994 budget, which calls for almost $12 million in expenditures, including a 3 percent across-the-board pay increase for all city employees. The issue had been tabled once for additional study...

"Planting Flowers" and the annual ABWA Spring Conference will be among topics at the Thursday meeting of the City of Roses Charter Chapter of the American Business Women's Association (ABWA). Dortha Strack of Sunny Hill Gardens will be guest speaker at the 6 p.m. meeting, to be held at Drury Lodge, and will discuss flower planting...

Workshop on Wheels will be presenting two workshops this month. A workshop on "Fostering Self-Control in Children" will be held today at A Small World Preschool, 1215 N. Kingshighway, at 7 p.m. On April 12, a workshop on "Helping Children Deal with Death and Loss" will be held at 7 p.m. at the Center for Child Studies at Southeast Missouri State University...

Melissa Engelen doesn't just know how to spell Bacillus thuringensis, she's worked with it. In fact, the Leopold High School senior has experimented with the bacteria for four years now. The bacteria forms the centerpiece of experiments she has entered in the Southeast Missouri Regional Science Fair...

When Andrea Taylor looks at her seventh-grade students she sees role models for other youngsters at Cape Christian School. This is Taylor's first year of teaching and the school's first year to offer seventh grade. "Since we are a smaller, private school," Taylor said, "we are able to offer special subjects and projects. We teach the importance of being good role models and citizens."...

In recent months a number of businesses throughout Cape Girardeau have been approached by Tri-State Publications soliciting the purchase of advertisement ads for calendars related to Cape Central High baseball, basketball, football, etc. Because of the supportive nature of our business community, many paid for such ads with the impression that a percentage of the money would go to Central High School. ...

Alina Stepak, a senior at Scott City High School, has been selected as the May Youth of the Month by the Exchange Club of Cape Girardeau. She is being honored at the April meeting of the Exchange Club. Stepak is a member of the choir, Future Business Leaders of America and Pep Club. ...

Keith Johnson of Cape Girardeau has been recognized as the 1994 Scholar Athlete for the sport of men's cross country at Rice University. One athlete from each of the men's and women's intercollegiate sports at the university is chosen. These students were honored at a banquet March 13 in Houston, Texas. Johnson is a junior majoring in chemical engineering. He was also named to the 1993-94 GTE/Southwest Conference Academic All Honor Team...

Rebecca Mosebach and Debra Nenninger, both of the Kelso C-7 School District, recently attended the 18th annual conference of the Missouri Middle School Association. Over 50 professional development mini-sessions were offered on an array of topics ranging from student discipline and mediation of conflicts to an interdisciplinary unit on dinosaur bones...

Students from Cape Girardeau Central High School were among students winning at the Foreign Language Fair at Southeast Missouri State University March 26. Sabrina Gibbar, Spanish IV, earned first place; and Rob Giles, Spanish II, earned first place in recitation of poetry...

Four area students have been honored through the Tandy Technology Scholars program. Honored as outstanding math, science and computer science students at the school level are Alina Stepak from Scott City High School and Rebeccah Elizabeth Nothdurft of Oran High School...

Enrollment in the Delta R-5 kindergarten program will be conducted April 27-28. Registration will be alphabetical. Those with last names from A-G are to enroll April 27 from 8:30-10:30 a.m.; H-K from 12:30-2 p.m.; and L-Z April 28 from 8:30-10:30 a.m. at the elementary school...

Ziehyun Huh of Cape Girardeau has received class honors at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Huh also received the Branstrom Prize. Class honors recognize undergraduates with an academic record equal to at least half A's and half B's for two terms. Also 237 members of the freshman class received the William J. Branstrom Prize, a book of their choice. Recipients ranked in the top 5 percent of their class...

The Jackson kindergarten and first-grade enrollments will be held Friday at the Primary Annex from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Parents of children who will be 5 years old before July 1 may enroll for kindergarten. Any students who have not attended the kindergarten program and will be 6 years old before July 1 may enroll for first grade...

Tiffany Shankle, a sophomore at Kelly High School, has been chosen by her classmates to represent the school at the annual Sophomore Pilgrimage to Jefferson City on April 12. To be chosen, students must be within the upper quarter of the class, and demonstrate high standards of honor, courage, citizenship, leadership and service...

The Cape Girardeau School District will conduct its annual kindergarten roundup April 25-29. Preregistration for the 1994-95 school year will take place at Alma Schrader, Clippard, Franklin, Jefferson, May Greene and Washington schools each day during the week...

Teams from Kelly High School's FFA chapter have earned honors in district contests. Winning first place were Melinda Gilpin, Chad Seiler and Aaron Robert in soils; Heather burger, Tiffiny Shankle and Beau Hennemann in etymology; Donna Lynn, Lisa Robey and Bekky King in agriculture sales; Traci Moore, Denetra Huff and DeAnn Vinyard in floraculture; and Chris Seyer, Justin Pattengill and Mark Klipfel in field crops...

The Oak Ridge School District will hold both kindergarten and preschool screenings during the third week of April. The screening for preschoolers and incoming kindergarten students will be April 15. The screenings cover the areas of language development, cognitive thinking skills, fine and gross motor skills, as well as vision and hearing. Staff members will share the results of the screening with parents when the screening is completed...