Stories from Friday, September 13, 1996

After two threats to sell St. Vincent's Seminary on the courthouse steps, an attorney for the Vincentian Fathers says the matter will be settled in private. The first sale was scheduled Sept. 5 and the second on Thursday. Instead of auctioning the property, David Roth, attorney for the Vincentians, announced Thursday that the sale was discontinued...

Erna Tucker never thought she'd celebrate her 100th birthday, so she didn't expect a party to mark the occasion. Nor did she expect to earn membership in the Century Club. "I've had so many birthdays," she said. "I never thought I'd be 100." Tucker received a plaque from Gov. Mel Carnahan welcoming her into the club for centenarians...

The Cape Girardeau City Council will conduct a public hearing on fireworks at 7:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall. Mayor Al Spradling III said purpose of the hearing is to receive input and suggestions regarding whether to keep the present ordinances or amend them to partially or completely ban fireworks...

Congressional candidate Emily Firebaugh pledged during a news conference at a Cape Girardeau construction site Thursday to work for tax cuts for working families. Construction workers briefly stopped hanging drywall in a strip mall taking shape at Themis and Silver Springs Road so Firebaugh could be heard by reporters...

The director of the Missouri Department of Insurance, Jay Angoff, has been handed another blow in yet another legal action taken against the industry he is charged with overseeing. A Jefferson City judge this week issued a summary judgment that halted Angoff's efforts to get Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the state even after regulators had given -- and then rescinded -- approval of a for-profit subsidiary...

The Chronicle of Higher Education, the insiders' bible of universities and colleges across the nation, laments that federal funding for research grants is shrinking. In 1993, Congress doled out $763 million in mostly pork-barrel funding for such grants, but only $299 million this year...

To the editor: Thank you for your Aug. 30 editorial, "Mr. President: A few thoughts." You expressed my concerns very well. According to the president's acceptance speech, we are all going to be given health, wealth and happiness without cost to us. Who, then, is going to pay for this?...

To the editor: As a practicing pharmacist, I am concerned about a recent letter suggesting the Food and Drug Administration should not control herbal substances containing ephedra. The writer stated the drug was no more dangerous than eating rhubarb leaves. ...

To the editor: Bruce Collier's letter that questioned whether or not there is a God caught my attention and interest. I look back further than 30 years, as he implied, and I still prefer that part of life. It was peaceful, free of crime, free of indecency, free of drugs and definitely more satisfying...

Draft horses have been around for centuries, but their numbers, and workloads, have diminished over the past 50 years. Draft (work) horses once supplied much of the power needed for jobs that trucks, cars and tractors do today."They once pulled plows on farms, freight wagons from town to town, and provided transportation by pulling trolleys in cities," said Charles Mangels...

JACKSON -- Supporters of a proposed tax-increment finance district are waiting to learn if property taxes will have to be collected to support development in the district. Mitch Robinson and Chauncy Buchheit told Cape Girardeau County commissioners Thursday that it may be necessary to collect the property taxes, hold them briefly, and then disburse them to taxing entities in order to get bond financing for improvement projects that would be done in the district...

Magazine sweepstakes aren't illegal, but most businesses would go kaput using those tactics on their customers. A few years ago I made a huge mistake. For purposes of research on a series of news stories, I entered one of those national sweepstakes contests that involves buying magazines...

Fire Thursday claimed a house on Cape Girardeau's northeast side, making it the fifth in the neighborhood to burn during the last year. The house at 709 N. Main was vacant. It sits next to the River's Edge, a nightclub. When participants in a River's Edge pool tournament looked out the back door about 7:45 p.m., they saw the home in flames. About 30 people evacuated the nightclub...

CHARLESTON -- Virgil Thomas Humphrey, 73, Charleston Route 3, died Wednesday, Sept. 11, 1996, at his home. He was born Feb. 24, 1923, at Morehouse, son of Herman E. and Ada M. Burns Humphrey. He and Catherine Louise Bradley were married July 25, 1942. She died Aug. 15, 1988...

CHAFFEE -- Emogene Fuge, 88, of Chaffee died Wednesday, Sept. 11, 1996, at Chaffee Nursing Center. She was born Aug. 21, 1908, at Hartville, daughter of Thomas and Verna Wynne Jones. She and I.W. "Buster" Fuge were married March 31, 1929. He died March 29, 1981...

SIKESTON -- Billy James Bird, 69, of Sikeston died Thursday, Sept. 12, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born March 20, 1927, in Springfield, son of Rupert and Effie A. Barton Bird. Bird was founder and chief executive officer of Balverne Vineyards. He received a bachelor of arts degree from University of Southern California, and was a veteran of the U.S. Army...

DELTA -- G. Dale Angle, 87, of Delta died Wednesday, Sept. 11, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 6, 1908, at Scopus, son of Jessie Albert and Tishie Limbaugh Angle. He married Elfrieda Caby, who died Oct. 31, 1990...

CHARLESTON -- Robert "Bob" Wicker of Charleston died Thursday, Sept. 12, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. McMikle Funeral Home at Charleston is in charge of arrangements.

Daughter to Teddy Mark and Angie Debbie Stevens of Jackson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 3:15 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, 1996. Name, Brigette-Tiffany Jesse. Weight, 5 pounds 13 ounces. First child. Mrs. Stevens is the former Angie Johnson, daughter of Joanne and Miller Williams of Philadelphia, Pa. She is employed at Psychic Readings by Angie. Stevens is the son of George and Cathy Stevens of Blytheville, Ark. He is self-employed...

DEXTER -- Robert Bryan Miller, 71, of Dexter died Wednesday, Sept. 11, 1996, in the Emergency Room at Dexter Memorial Hospital. He was born Oct. 25, 1924, at Dexter, son of Bryan S. Gaines and Florence Irene Miller. He and Elaine Adelman were married July 8, 1975, in New Jersey...