Stories from Tuesday, March 3, 1998

BENTON -- St. Denis School teacher Janie Cox uses cooperative learning to help her first- and second-grade students progress during the year. Students spend little time working independently, she said, and although it looks chaotic, a lot of work is actually accomplished...

Hungry? The Internet serves up fast food on the Internet. Of course it comes up even faster with a speedy connection. Virtually every major franchise has its own home on the Internet telling about its products and offering entertainment. You can't buy food, but you can buy merchandise...

Nick Clubb, who plays Brian, is in love with Jerry Finnegan's sister, Beth, played by Shannon Felker. Mark Sickles, a student at Jackson High School, presented the story of "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" by William Steig. Members of speech and debate clubs say their extracurricular activities are much more demanding than any athletic team...

The Cape Girardeau City Council tabled action on a controversial road assessment policy to gather more public input. The council voted Monday night to hold a public hearing March 16 to give residents a chance to comment on the proposed policy. It outlines how much property owners would be assessed for new roads or widening of residential, commercial and residential-commercial streets designated under the Transportation Trust Fund...

WEST PLAINS -- More than 100 wild horses and as many as 60 burros will be available for adoption this weekend. "We'll put 125 young, wild mustangs up for adoption at West Plains," said Gabriele Thompson, wild-horse and burro specialist with the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management in Milwaukee, Wis...

Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation employees mulched several playgrounds Monday, but their goal wasn't to protect plants -- they were protecting children. Mark Sullivan, park supervisor, said areas originally covered in pea gravel were cleared so that about 12 inches of wood chips and shredded hardwood mulch could be added...

Voters may get to decide in November if they want to publicly fund political campaigns for the Missouri Legislature and statewide offices. A coalition plans to circulate an initiative petition to get a campaign finance-reform measure on the November ballot. The group is Missouri Voters for Clean Elections. which is based in St. Louis...

"Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones." -- Montesquieu After asking several friends to help move heavy pieces of my mother's furniture over the weekend, I realized how nice it is to have friends. Everyone should have at least one good friend...

A substantially altered tobacco licensing ordinance was given the go-ahead by the Cape Girardeau City Council Monday night. The council approved on first reading a new ordinance outlining a graduated series of fines and other penalties for businesses found selling tobacco to minors...

I DON'T think guns should be legal. Parents keep guns lying around the house without the safety on. If a young child finds the gun, he might think it is a toy. And if a criminal has a legal gun, then there's nothing you can do about it, because he'd be within the law. ...

One of the reasons Saddam Hussein gave in to U.N. demands was Madeleine Albright's hint that he might become the target of a Ken Starr investigation. Perhaps the most ambivalent person in America over the Iraqi agreement is President Clinton, who prefers news media attention on Hussein's sins rather than his own...

Just so you don't forget: Gov. Mel Carnahan wants to raise your taxes to pay for transportation needs around Missouri. But he knows the Legislature isn't going to talk about new taxes during this election year, much less approve a tax for transportation. So the governor is likely going to ask you next year to approve a tax increase of some kind to pay for transportation...

Most every employer has been in the situation at one time or another of having to talk about former employees when they apply for new jobs. Thanks to lawsuits aplenty, most employers are reluctant to give out much information for fear of being sued for saying anything negative, no matter how warranted...

To the editor: Recently the village of East Cape Girardeau and the Alexander County Sheriff's Department entered into a joint cooperative agreement to provide police protection for the citizens of East Cape. The community policing program is being done in conjunction with the Neighborhood Watch program. This partnership is one of the first in Southern Illinois and is proving to be very successful...

To the editor: It is important to bear in mind as we continue to sort environmental reality from environmental fantasy that the whole environmental wacko movement is based on half-truths and outright lies. A common and false assertion of the Chicken Little mentality is that deforestation proceeds at a ruinous pace. ...

To the editor: Does anyone have any honor anymore? The media, IRS, CIA, Pentagon and the White House have all lost a bit of honor. As a result, this country doesn't have as much honor. How do we regain that? Bill Clinton is just a man. He's not supposed to be perfect. The only perfect person was crucified on the cross. Some people may disagree with that, and that's their right...

Leonardo Defilippis will present a one-man drama on the life of Christ at 7 p.m. March 29 at Old St. Vincent's Church. The performance is sponsored by St. Mary's Cathedral. Defilippis will perform "The Passion According to Luke," a dramatic telling of the Easter story...

Cape Girardeau City Council Monday March 2 Consent ordinances -- Approved n ordinance amending the City Code relating to noise control. -- Approved an ordinance amending the boundaries of Ward 4 to include property of Michael A. and Bonnie C. Smith, Larry D. Brown, Carl W. and Shirley A. Patterson, Horace L. and Robbie H. Eastman, Betty L. McCulley, Trustee, and Paul C. and Barbara B. Horn...

JACKSON -- The city will purchase a state-of-the-art map of Jackson to aid in maintenance of its infrastructure and future development. "Photogrammetric mapping" of the city will be accomplished through the use of digital photography. The digital information will be stored in a computer, giving the city both a map of its infrastructure and a database that can be used for maintenance...

All things considered, Gary Garner came away extremely pleased with his first season as the head coach of Southeast Missouri State University's basketball Indians. Despite several key injuries and numerous heartbreaking defeats, the Indians managed only the school's second winning record in seven NCAA Division I seasons...

Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team improved a little bit this season, winning three more games than it did the year before and qualifying for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. And Otahkian coach Ed Arnzen -- armed with one of his best recruiting classes in a while -- will be looking for that upward trend to continue next season...

BLOOMFIELD -- The favored teams advanced in first-round games Monday in the Class 2A, District 2 boys basketball tournament. Top-seeded Kelly beat No. 8 Greenville 55-45, No. 2 Scott City hammered No. 7 Puxico 93-73 and No. 3 Bloomfield outlasted No. 6 Bernie 51-47...

Sisters Misty and Mindy Jameson recently signed letters of intent to play softball at KcKendree College. Misty, a catcher, is transferring from Three Rivers Community College. Mindy, a left-handed pitcher, is currently a senior at Shawnee High School in McClure, Ill...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Funeral service for Mary Nell Lay of Memphis, Tenn., will be held at 2 p.m. today at Shelby Funeral Home in East Prairie. Larry Smith will officiate, with burial in East Prairie Memorial Park Cemetery. Lay, 87, died Sunday, March 1, 1998, at Methodist Central Hospital in Memphis...

SIKESTON -- Willa Mae Henderson, 80, of Sikeston died Sunday, March 1, 1998, at Clearview Nursing Center. She was born March 19, 1917, at Risco, daughter of William and Bertha Fritts. She and Fred Henderson were married Oct. 15, 1934. He died March 16, 1991...

GLEN ALLEN -- Tilbert "Tib" Skaggs, 47, of Glen Allen died Sunday, March 1, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born May 5, 1950, near Hiram, son of Charley and Ethel Tooman Skaggs. He and Jeannie Kay Kirkpatrick were married June 11, 1984...

HERRIN, Ill. -- Private funeral service for Devin James Laws was held Monday at Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Cobden. The infant, eight days, died Saturday, Feb. 28, 1998, at Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. He was born Feb. 20, 1998, in Carbondale, son of Joshua Aaron Bert and Trisha Dianne DeHart Laws...

ESSEX -- Jimmie G. Parker, 54, of Sullivan died Monday, March 2, 1998, at his home. He was born Oct. 27, 1943, in Essex, son of Paul and Naomi Eaton Parker. Parker lived in the Essex and Dexter areas until moving to Sullivan seven years ago. He owned and operated a metal building construction company. He was a member of an Eagles Club. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army...

Kristi Ann Healy, 21, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, March 2, 1998, at Barnes Jewish Medical Center in St. Louis. Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Essie Shaw, 85, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, March 2, 1998, at St. Francis Medical Center. Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Daughter to Mark Leon and Maria Joy Gates of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 2 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18, 1998. Name, Megan Ann. Weight, 8 pounds ounce. Second child, first daughter. Mrs. Gates is the former Maria Mussatti, daughter of Barbara and Robert Dempsey of Brookfield, Wis., and Joseph Mussatti of Franklin, Wis. Gates is the son of Leon and Evelyn Gates of Parker, Colo. He is a radiologist with Cape Radiology Group Inc...

Georgia E. Witting, 92, of Cape Girardeau, died Sunday, March 1, 1998, at The Lutheran Home. Arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Chapel.