Stories from Friday, March 7, 1997

EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. -- A tractor-trailer driver swerved into a ditch and flipped the truck to avoid hitting a school bus carrying elementary and high-school students. The accident occurred at about 7 a.m. Thursday on Highway 146 a quarter of a mile east of the Purple Crackle, authorities said. The school bus was not hit and no children were injured...

Cape Girardeau County is under the first rabies alert in 11 years after a skunk was found with the disease near Millersville. County and state health officials issued the alert to inform residents that a case of rabies has been reported. "This is not to cause a panic but to bring to people's attention that rabies, just like any other communicable disease, is around," said Charlotte Craig, director of the Cape Girardeau County Health Department...

Students at Franklin Elementary School are developing math, science and social skills by visiting an interactive museum during physical education classes this week. The traveling museum has 19 exhibits and arrived at the school Sunday. It is an extension of the Bootheel Youth Museum in Malden, which was created to let children see firsthand how math and science concepts are used...

Rhyming Nitzschke is anything but a cinch-key. But there's a bonus prize waiting for the budding poet who can author a verse that will rhyme with Nitzschke. The prize: an unabridged volume of the collected works of Shakespeare. The poetry contest is just one of the activities planned for the inauguration next month of Dr. Dale Nitzschke as Southeast Missouri State University's 16th president...

With the deadline over, four people -- one short of a quorum -- have applied for membership on what is supposed to be a seven-member Cape Girardeau Ethics Commission. "We'll start with those and probably re-advertise the positions," said City Manager Michael G. Miller...

Six inches of water covered U.S. 51 and 62 between Wickliffe and the bridge over the Ohio River, but authorities had not yet closed the road. "They said they're going to hold out as long as they can, and eventually it's going to be closed," said Barry Marine, a dispatcher with the Kentucky State Police in Paducah...

Some of you were kind enough to notice that I didn't write a column last week. There were even some especially thoughtful people who called or wrote to make sure I was OK. Thanks, but the truth is we age-advantaged folks are never entirely OK. We groan and ache. We worry a lot. We make doctor's appointments. And we forget where we are supposed to be. And when...

13 YEARS ago I was in a car accident, hit by a drunk driver at 8:30 a.m. Four surgeries later and not able to work, I don't know a day without pain. I still have to have total knee replacement for both knees. I'm sure I speak for many, many drivers: Please, I beg you, don't drink and drive. Minutes can change the lives of a victim and their families forever. Thank you...

The old adage that necessity is the mother of invention receives new meaning from the constructive response of many legislators and other Missourians to the coming end of court ordered desegregation in both Kansas City and St. Louis. Faced with the prospect of disastrous outflows of education dollars form our largest metropolitan areas, legislators from each of our population centers and from outstate joined together to devise a plan which would both avert financial disaster and strengthen educaiton reform.. ...

It is a positive nod to the Cape Girardeau area that Procter & Gamble Co. is considering a major expansion of its plant near the Mississippi River north of Trail of Tears State Park. Not only would the expansion provide additional jobs, it would cement P&G's longstanding commitment as a major corporate citizen of this region...

The recent announcement that efforts on behalf of a new federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau have been put on hold for a year comes as no surprise. The reason, according to General Services Administration officials, is President Clinton's budget, which doesn't contain any funding for the project, which ultimately would cost more than $30 million...

About 300 students, most of whom hope to land jobs in criminal justice, participated Wednesday in Southeast Missouri State University's 24th annual Criminal Justice Day. Representatives from 23 federal, state and local criminal justice agencies attended the 24th annual event sponsored by the university's Criminal Justice Association at the University Center...

Missourians will have a chance to tell Secretary of State Bekki Cook how to improve election procedures and increase voter turnout at a series of town hall meetings. The first meeting will begin at 7 p.m. Monday at the University Center Party Room in Cape Girardeau...

BLOOMFIELD -- Practice makes perfect. Just ask Scott City's Jon Beck. With 13 seconds remaining and the Rams trailing Notre Dame by a point, Beck stepped to the free throw line with the Class 2A, District 2 semifinal game on the line. Beck calmly dropped two free throws through the hoop to give the Rams their first lead since early in the second quarter. Those two points proved to be the difference in Scott City's 70-67 win...

ORAN -- Scott County Central High's girls basketball team has 11 losses this season, but coach Semona Penrod knows those defeats all served a purpose. "We played a lot of big schools. Even when they beat us, it helped us get ready for this," said Penrod...

ORAN -- Richland High's boys basketball team might not be favored to repeat its Class 1A state basketball championship this season, but the Rebels certainly aren't going to relinquish their crown without a fight. That has been evident all season and it was even more apparent Thursday night as the second-seeded Rebels upended fourth-seeded Delta 76-67 in the championship game of the Class 1A, District 2 Tournament...

Three Southeast Missouri gymnastic team members have made it look easy in the team's current run of five consecutive meet victories. Led by Erin Chenier, Kate Farrington and Malia Roberts, the Otahkians will be looking for a sixth consecutive win Saturday when Southeast travels to Alabama to face the defending national champions...

JACKSON -- Advance tickets for Saturday's Class 4A sectional basketball game involving Jackson High's girls will be on sale today only at two area locations. Tickets ($4 apiece) for the 1:30 p.m. game at the University of Missouri-St. Louis will be available today at the Jackson High athletic office and at SEMO Specialties & Sports in Jackson...

The Cape Girardeau Kohlfeld Scorpion Rugby Club will play its first home game of the season Saturday when the Sunday Morning Rugby Club from St. Louis visits. Game time at Arena Park is set for 1 p.m. at Arena Park. The home field, on the west side of Arena Park off Hawthorne, features new 35-foot goalposts erected this week...

Son to Jennifer Lynn St.Clair of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 8:19 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 23, 1997. Name, Logan Mitchell. Weight, 6 pounds 2 ounces. First child. Miss St.Clair is the daughter of Vann and Paula St.Clair of Cape Girardeau. Son to Aaron Ray and Kimberly Sue Clark of Jackson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 6:07 p.m. ...

BERTRAND -- James Edward "Junior" Helmes, 68, of Bertrand died Thursday, March 6, 1997, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. McMikle Funeral Home at Charleston is in charge of arrangements.

CHARLESTON -- Kermit W. Shelby, 72, of Karnak, Ill., died Wednesday, March 5, 1997, at Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, Ky. He was born April 6, 1924, at Morley, son of Robert Paul "Bob" and Hallie Watson Shelby. He and Francis Johnson were married June 7, 1947...

DEXTER -- Clara G. Bradford, 63, of Dexter died Thursday, March 6, 1997, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Sept. 4, 1933, in St. Louis, daughter of Eleic and Mildred Henderson Robison. She and the Rev. James "Bob" Bradford were married Sept. 9, 1949, in Piggott, Ark...

Stephen Paul Deck, 43, of Beaumont, Texas, died Tuesday, Feb. 25, 1997, in Beaumont, following a lengthy illness. He was born Sept. 11, 1953, in Cape Girardeau, son of Paul V. and Normagene Mercer Deck. Deck was a graduate of Central High School, and attended Metro Business College. He was most recently employed at Conn's Appliance Center in Beaumont...