Stories from Friday, March 20, 1998

To the editor: I write in reply to the recent letter by Dr. Kathleen Conway and the comments she made about wetlands preservation as it pertains to the property for the new vocational and high schools in our city. She is a faculty member at our local university and is, therefore, accustomed in the teaching of her students to asking questions. I'd like to ask her the following questions:...

Anyone who has ever been chairman of a volunteer effort can easily sympathize with the Cape Girardeau Veterans of Foreign Wars Post, which is ready to throw in the towel on the annual Fourth of July fireworks display at Arena Park unless others in the community step up to help...

The silence of all the big-name women's organizations -- the ones that claim to speak on behalf of women's rights -- has been deafening during the long months since the first allegations of sexual misconduct by President Clinton. Contrast this silent support for the president to the cacophony at the time of U.S. ...

I WISH they would get the animal control on Westwood. I've never so many dogs and cats running around. My kids were walking down to the park. This gray and white dog came running down the driveway after my kids. They were scared to death. This big German shepherd also goes after you. It really is mean. It is running day and night. I hope they do something with all these dogs and cats running wild. The lawns are just one mess with dog dirt everywhere...

When 100 women were asked last year to rate a caffeine-laced orange juice, they ranked it near the bottom of the list. It might be the only caffeine-jazzed product consumers don't thirst for. But when it comes to coffee, tea, chocolate and soft drinks, Americans eat, drink and be merry -- making caffeine the country's socially accepted drug of choice. And the most popular drug in the world...

The Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau's Paddlewheelers worked nearly 1,750 hours for wages totalling approximately $11,000, according to a CVB report. The report, which outlines what the Paddlewheelers do and how much they are paid, was passed out the CVB advisory board Thursday night for review...

A cataract is a cloudy area in the normally transparent lens of the eye, and it may cause vision problems. The lens is the part of the eye that helps focus light onto the sensitive layer in the back of the eye called the retina, which sends visual signals to the brain. ...

Parking in Cape Girardeau will be cramped and restaurants packed today when approximately 4,400 people arrive for the Missouri State Teachers' Association's district meeting, a spring convention of Elks and a Children with Attention Deficit Disorder conference...

Three nationally known folk singers will perform this spring in KRCU's new Spring Folk Music Series. The station sponsored two successful concerts last year to test the waters for a series that is likely to become a permanent KRCU production, station manager Greg Petrowich said...

The Southeast Missouri Private Industry Council has opened the Work Connections Center at the council's office in Suite H at 760 S. Kingshighway to help out-of-work people find jobs. The center also will help people seeking jobs to have access to the Internet, use fax machines, review training manuals and career guides and ask questions of the council's staff members...

Tonight local doctors and lawyers set aside their stethoscopes and briefcases in favor of a basketball. Tipoff is at 7:30 at Central High School Fieldhouse for the fifth annual Doctor-Lawyer Basketball game. Proceeds benefit the Community Counseling Center Foundation, which provides money for capital projects...

The Cape Girardeau Job Service Office could become a satellite office of the Missouri Division of Employment Security at Sikeston and have fewer employees. The Division of Employment Security is considering the change as a result of the retirement of Cape Girardeau Job Service Office manager Jackie Cecil...

After all those years of picking up rocks from the fields in Kelo Valley, I bought my own. Why, if I had a nickel for every ... In the hills of the Ozarks west of here, some of my ancestors are twirling in the their graves because of something I did this week...

The Telephone "Doctor," a nationally known expert on telephone etiquette and customer service, will bring her cure to Southeast Missouri next month. The Telephone Doctor, Nancy Friedman, will be the keynote speaker for the 106th annual Southeast Missouri Press Association meeting. The Telephone Doctor's presentation from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday, April 17 is open to the public...

JACKSON -- A new attorney joined the staff as an assistant public defender in the Southeast Missouri district of the state's public defender system. Attorney Dane Roper was added to the staff Monday, said Kenton Hall, district defender and managing attorney of the district office...

APPLE CREEK -- The annual Hee Haw Show at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Apple Creek started as a fund raiser to build a new school. Eighteen years later, the show remains a fund raiser for St. Joseph's Catholic Parish School. The variety show also has become a tradition in this small community between Perryville and Cape Girardeau...

After serving as Cape Central assistant girls basketball coach the past two seasons, 1982 Central graduate Darrick Smith will be taking over the head coaching reigns of his alma mater next season. Smith replaces head coach Paula Watkins, who will be taking a maternity leave of absence from the school. The news was officially announced Thursday night...

In athletics, experience usually equals success. The two Cape Girardeau high schools, Central and Notre Dame, have a load of golf experience returning from last year's successful teams. Jackson, shooting for its fifth straight trip to the state tournament, lost five seniors to graduation and will field one of its most inexperienced teams in years...

Daughter to James N. and Marsha Vangilder of Jackson, Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis, 6:28 a.m. Tuesday, March 3, 1998. Name, Grace Ann. Weight, 7 pounds 5 ounces. Second daughter. Mrs. Vangilder is the former Marsha Payne, daughter of James and Barbara Payne of Scott City. Vangilder is the son of Mildred Vangilder of Cape Girardeau, and the late Russell Vangilder. He is president and CEO of Havco Wood Products...

JACKSON -- Funeral for Orville J. "O.J." Stone of Jackson will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at McCombs Funeral Chapel in Jackson. The Rev. Kevin Roberts will officiate, with burial in Russell Heights Cemetery. Friends may call at the chapel from 5-8 p.m. today...

SCOTT CITY -- Jerry Lee Scholz, 62, of Scott City died Thursday, March 19, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Nov. 14, 1935, son of William and Edith Snell Finney Scholz. He and Marilyn Louise Rhyne were married Sept. 7, 1957, at Whitewater...