Stories from Monday, February 7, 2000

The Internal Revenue Service's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is being offered throughout Southeast Missouri -- including Cape Girardeau, Perryville, and Sikeston. Volunteers provide free assistance to taxpayers who cannot afford professional tax help and assist those with special needs, including people with disabilities, non-English speaking people and older taxpayers...

The Small Business Development Center will conduct counseling sessions at Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Perryville this month. The counselor, Gil Degenhardt, will be available Feb. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office. The hourlong counseling sessions. Call 335-3312 for appointment...

"Marketing Basics and Strategies," a meeting to discuss crop marketing, will be held at Route 25 Hall in Jackson Feb. 16. The meeting, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., is sponsored by Bank of America, Farm Credit Association, Farmers Co-ops of Jackson and Whitewater, Midwest Grain and Barge, Commerce Bank, Union Planters Bank and Consolidated Grain and Barge and Missouri University Extension...

A Soybean Growers Meeting and Update will be held at the Route 25 Hall in Jackson Feb. 22, from 3 to 8 p.m. Topics will include soybean production basics and marketing, weed control, and a discussion on nematodes and diseases in soybeans. The program is sponsored by the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council and University of Missouri Extension...

Schnucks Markets Inc. has opened its 93rd food and drugstore. The 82,000-square-foot Rockford Plaza Logli supermarket at Rockford, Ill., is the 28th Schnucks supermarket in Illinois. The new store is open daily from 6 a.m. to midnight and employs about 300 full- and-part-time workers...

Dana Corp., headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, has announced all-time high sales and earnings for 1999. Full-year sales were $13.2 billion, up 6 percent from record totals of 1998. Operating profits after taxes rose 15 percent to $678 million, and operating earnings a share increased 16 percent, to $4.06. Net income was $513 million, and earnings a share were $3.08 on a fully diluted basis...

Some stock brokerage firms are offering more of the services your bank does, such as savings accounts, home loans and estate planning. In the latest announcement, Merrill Lynch said last week it will offer federally insured savings accounts to many of its brokerage customers, and will expand its online mortgage business...

Mindful of the debacle with the Susan B. Anthony coin, the U.S. Mint is aggressively marketing the new Sacajawea coin by placing it in Wal-Mart cash registers and boxes of Cheerios. The Anthony dollar coin, often mistaken for a quarter because of its similar size and ridged edge, was a flop, and the government was stuck with nearly two-thirds of the 857 million coins produced between 1979 and 1981. Supplies eventually ran out, and the Mint produced a final 1999 encore run...

This "Financial Focus" column is prepared by Edward Jones Investments, headquartered in St. Louis. Jones includes branches throughout the nation, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson. These days, it seems as if everyone is following the stock market. With the spectacular runup in stock prices over the past few years, many investors have become focused on growth. Is their money growing? How fast? How much?...

There are certain video games Bill Keesee wouldn't want his young daughter to play. He checks what the video game is rated and asks what its content is, and if it's what he calls evil, he won't buy it. That's the parent in Keesee talking, but it also is how he runs his business. Keesee manages Newman Amusement Inc., which installs video games at area theaters and sports bars...

Gary Davie of Cape Girardeau has earned a "Top Producer" award from Schaeffer Specialized Lubricants, headquartered in St. Louis. Davie credits his achievement to two major factors. "We were selected two years ago to produce and market a new soy-based diesel fuel additive call SoyShield," said Davie. "We targeted two markets and sales are increasing every day."...

Terri Shaw, Shelter Insurance Cos. agent in Cape Girardeau, recently completed a personal and business insurance school the company's home office in Columbia. The one-week school is designed to give Shelter agents additional training in life and health insurance, personal lines of insurance purchased by families and package policies by business...

With February marking the largest U.S. growth expansion in history, there are many people in Washington taking credit for the steady pace of inflation. I, on the other hand, have a new theory to propose. I think that over the last couple of years, growth of the Internet has helped Alan Greenspan keep a lid on this terrible economic disease. With the Internet, public purchases, as well as Business-to-Business orders, are based upon searching the Net...

Jurrock's Park Zoo and Pet Shop has opened in Cape Girardeau. The new zoo, which features a variety of reptiles -- dragons, giant tortoises, alligators, lizards and toads -- is open six days a week. "We have more than 80 varieties of animals," said Randy "Rocky" Rainey. "We specialize in the 'giants' of the world."...

The Regional Social Scene, Ltd., has been founded in Cape Girardeau. The club, said its founder, is a social connections and activities organization for single adults, 21 and older in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. "We offer a wide variety of activities and entertainment options in a group atmosphere of friendship and support," said Elizabeth Schmucker...

First Impressions Styling Salon has opened at 125 S. Broadview in Cape Girardeau. The new, seven-station, salon is open Monday through Saturday for appointments. Cindy Wright, owner of the new salon, served as manager of MasterCuts in West Park Mall more than five years and received a number of high corporate awards for sales and service...

Stephen P. Ford, a Cape Girardeau native and president and operations manager of Bolden Pipe Construction Co., Inc., has purchased the company from its founder and previous owner, Robert A. Bolden. Bolden has grown from one employee, one backhoe and one dump truck to one of the premier underground utility contractors in Middle Tennessee, said Ford...

Raymond Moore of Oak Ridge has retired from the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). Moore, who most recently served as a maintenance specialist in MoDOT's Jackson area, had more than 39 years of service with MoDOT, working with the signing and striping crews from the Sikeston area...

Bill Evans and David Jernigan have received promotions from NewsChannel 6 (WPSD-TV). Evans, who has been serving as news director, has been named vice president of news and operations. He will oversee the news, engineering and operations departments at the station...

David L. Hahs and Brandon C. Hahs were recently honored at a Northwestern Mutual Life awards dinner, held by district agent and Mrs. T. Ronald Hahs, at the Cape Girardeau Country Club. David Hahs was recognized as the agency's sales leader for 1999 with production of 146 life policies and $166,473 in new annualized premium. He has been a member of the local agency since 1972 and is a Life and Qualifying member of the Million Dollar Round Table...

JACKSON -- In November, the Jackson Jaycees began a membership drive that so far has doubled the organization's membership from 25 to 51. But the Jaycees and other organizations are fighting a trend, the decrease in civic participation that has occurred throughout America since the 1950s...

LaDawn Burleson can barely feel the electrical impulses being sent up a nerve in her neck, but she's hopeful they will make a big impact in her life by helping control her epilepsy. Burleson of Malden, a 22-year-old mother of two, is the first patient at a Cape Girardeau hospital to receive a vagus nerve stimulator, a device that sends precisely timed and measured electrical pulses through the vagus nerve to the brain, with the goal of preventing epileptic seizures before they begin, said Dr. ...

Cape Girardeau County Extension officials hope to be in a new facility next fall, with work on the project to start next month. "We have accepted a construction bid," said Gerald Bryan, extension agronomy specialist. The building will be completed in September. Bryan, who is helping coordinate a fund-raising campaign, said the center will be an 8,000-square-foot extension and education center...

He's not an American icon yet, but ranger Willie B. Safe is trying. Actually, it's the mission of his creators, employees of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who oversee operations at Wappapello Lake. They want to make their life-vested cartoon ranger as synonymous with water safety as Smokey Bear is with stopping forest fires...

Antique and classic autos, including the Cape Girardeau Vocational School's creation using the front ends of two 1955 Fords, were used as shuttle buses for guests at Sunday's bed and breakfast tour. "I saw that car and I just had to ride in it," said Pacquita Leach, a senior at Southeast Missouri State University majoring in social work. Leach was accompanying Dr. and Mrs. Paul Keys on the tour of Annie Laurie's Cottage, Bellevue Bed and Breakfast and Neumeyer's Bed and Breakfast...

SEMO Gun Show, Cape Girardeau's "original" gun show drew large crowds to the Arena Building Saturday and Sunday. Jerry Barker, who helped organize the event, said there were 80 dealers displaying their wares, adding that the crowd seemed a little larger than normal...

Will Sen. John McCain's decisive win in New Hampshire trigger a momentum that will lead him to victory in South Carolina and beyond? What adjustments should Bush make to counter the McCain threat? Some believe that with so many Independent voters, who were made to order for McCain's reform message, New Hampshire is aberrational and hardly a predictor of what will happen in subsequent states. ...

FOR THOSE not informed correctly about the Catholic faith: God is above all, God is supreme. The Blessed Mary and the saints are prayed to asking their intercession to God for requests, if it be God's will. We do not say things against other religions. Show us the same respect...

Cape Girardeau County government isn't much closer today to bringing about a public transportation system in the county than it was when the idea was first taken up in earnest some three years ago. In the latest development, a five-member committee appointed last fall is exploring suggestions that were made by a previous committee in March 1999. ...

Tourism officials believe Missouri has overlooked an important part of its history -- its role in the Civil War and are talking about reviving it. The Missouri Division of Tourism has created a committee to explore the possibilities of promoting the state's Civil War history. Most tourism officials agree the concept has never been promoted effectively on a statewide scale...

At the beginning of the season, Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner said he felt almost certain that the eventual Ohio Valley Conference champion would have at least four or five losses, and that there would be several teams contending for the title...

ST. LOUIS -- Jackson High's wrestling team qualified eight athletes for sectional competition as the Indians placed third out of eight squads during Saturday's Class 4A, District 1 Meet at Lindbergh. Meanwhile, Cape Girardeau Central advanced three wrestlers to next Saturday's 4A sectional at Parkway South...

PERRYVILLE -- Marie H. Hoffman, 88, of Perryville died Saturday, Feb. 5, 2000, at the Perry County Nursing Home. She was born Feb. 9, 1911, daughter of William M. and Caroline Behrle Probst. She and Leroy J. Hoffman were married Oct. 30, 1933. He died Sept. 18, 1985...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Gladys Hood Bilyeu, 100, of Huntsville and formerly of Anna, Ill., died Friday, Feb. 4, 2000, at Fair Park Nursing Home at Huntsville. Friends may call after noon Wednesday at Anna United Methodist Church. Funeral will be at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the church, with the Rev. Richard Sullins officiating. Burial will be in Masonic Cemetery at Metropolis...

Mary Josephine Rauch, 93, of Cape Girardeau and formerly of Morehouse died Sunday, Feb. 6, 2000, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center. She was born Sept. 27, 1906, at St. Louis, daughter of John E. and Lola S. Burke Davis. She and Charles O. Rauch were married June 22, 1930, at St. Louis. He died Sept. 14, 1996...