Stories from Thursday, April 20, 2000

To the editor: The Speak Out caller who said the Nixon-Agnew administration was worse than Clinton-Gore really hasn't looked at these people. Agnew got into trouble because of things he did at the state level while governor of Maryland. He did not use the office of the vice president as a money machine to finance political operations. ...

If you're making vacation plans, call the Illinois tourism folks and ask them to put you in touch with the people over in the corrections department. If you want to travel in style, Donald Snyder is the man to talk to. Synder is director of the Illinois corrections department. ...

At a recent meeting of editors from across the country, the topic was disasters. In particular, the editors discussed how to report on major calamities that can strike any community. Editors from Oklahoma City, Denver, Paducah and Jonesboro, Ark., discussed the bombing of a federal building, the Columbine shootings and the school shootings in Kentucky and Arkansas...

President Clinton can hold as many feel-good White House conferences as he wants but until he at least attempts to practice what he preaches, these ballyhooed confabs will hardly be worth the hot air they generate. Clinton announced that he and Hillary will host a White House Conference on Teen-agers on May 2 to "talk through the challenges of raising responsible children." It seems they were moved by an astonishing piece of research indicating that the preteen years set patterns for behavior in adulthood. ...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Memphis' Pink Palace Museum is currently offering views of Egypt even people who have been there haven't seen, along with an opportunity to look at sports in a different way. "Mysteries of Egypt," playing through June 30 at the Union Planters IMAX Theater, was produced by National Geographic and offers aerial shots of the pyramids and intimate views of the pharaohs' possessions. It is the first National Geographic film made in the IMAX format...

Maxine Boren began going gaga for Easter decorations 18 years ago after she spied plastic eggs hanging from a tree in someone's yard. She decorated the buckeye tree in her own yard in the same fashion and since has added something new to the Technicolor pageant every year...

Cape Girardeau will be one of the stops on Time magazine's trip down the Mississippi River to take what the publication calls "the pulse of America." A team of Time reporters, photographers and editors will take a two-week journey down the river beginning in Hannibal on Monday and ending in New Orleans May 5...

Sorrow. Betrayal. Anger. Guilt. Fear. Pride. They are all powerful emotions that Linda and John Anderson see every day when people visit the half-size replica of the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. But wherever it travels the wall offers healing, Linda Anderson said...

State Auditor Claire McCaskill criticized Chancellor Dale Nitzschke's contract with Southeast Missouri State University Wednesday because it allows the school's former president to live in Ohio. The long-distance relationship doesn't concern top school officials, who view it as a small price to pay to secure private and federal funding for the institution...

April 20, 2000 Dear Pat, People have been walking all over us for the past few weeks. They were so difficult to find that we don't seem to mind. Roofers have been pulling up our tiles and exposing rotted wood. Just when we think they're done they find something else wrong, a spot where the roof is ready to cave in. Look at this, they say, and sure enough there's a hole too big to ignore. OK, fix it, please. Look at this eave, they say. OK, replace it, please. OK, OK, OK...

Officials at St. Francis Medical Center are interested in preserving bits of the old St. Francis Hospital as the old building is prepared for demolition. Richard L. Essner Sr., director of environmental engineering at St. Francis Medical Center, said representatives from the hospital recently were allowed to tour the old building, which will be demolished to make way for an apartment complex, and were allowed to take out several pieces of old hospital equipment that had been stored there...

Making pillows is good therapy for residents of Heartland Care and Rehab Center. But since February, residents and volunteers at the skilled nursing home have made nearly 200 pillows with another goal giving them away to patients at Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center...

A fire around a printing press at M&W Packaging on Tuesday caused minimal damage and no injuries, a company spokesman said. The fire, which started about 11:30 a.m., was quickly brought under control by the company's fire brigade and a fire suspression system within the press itself, said Jeff Perry, chief financial officer...

SIKESTON -- On Dec. 26, Undraus "Mony" Nabors, 25, disappeared from Sikeston without a trace. Nearly four months later police and family are still looking for clues. "We haven't heard anything," said Louise Beam, Nabors' sister. "We've heard a lot of rumors; they have found him in a ditch or in the back of a car, but none of it has been true. It has been upsetting when they call and tell you that, but no facts that we can actually put on our hands on."...

Coordinators of a federal crime fighting program in Cape Girardeau are interviewing candidates this week who would like to organize community programs for the city's south side. Organization of some programs has slipped since the former seeding coordinator, Debra Hamilton, chose not to renew her contract in March, said Lisa Lane, executive director of Southeast Missouri Weed and Seed...

The Cape Girardeau School District's credit looks good to investors looking to spend about $18 million within the next week. That's the report from representatives of A.G. Edwards Company in St. Louis, who placed $18 million in general obligation bonds on the market Tuesday to finance construction of a new high school for the school district...

More than 85 percent of farm land in Missouri has been worked at least once for spring crops and over 50 percent of corn planting has been completed. Southeast Missouri areas report as much as 75 percent of corn planting is complete. In Cape Girardeau County, planting is probably more than 80 percent complete, said Terry Birk, director of Cape Girardeau County's Farm Service Agency...

The "Pizza Man" has a new home. The last time we heard about the 15-foot-tall, fiberglass pizza man, was when he had tumbled from his perch atop Pop's Pizza in Cape Girardeau, falling on a customer's unoccupied car. The car was damaged and no one was injured in the December, 1996 mishap, except the pizza man, who suffered a pair of broken arms...

Mid-week, non-league college baseball games are generally plenty unpredictable and entertaining. With teams wanting to save many of their top pitchers for weekend conference series, games played during the middle of the week are often extremely wild and high-scoring...

Cape Girardeau Central rallied to send the game into extra innings, but eventually fell 4-3 to Sikeston, the state's ninth ranked Class 4A high school baseball team, Wednesday at Tiger Field. Sikeston (10-2) appeared to be cruising. It had a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh inning. Bulldog starting pitcher Ricky Fodge had allowed only one hit to the Tigers (9-5), then struck out the first batter he faced in the seventh...

ORAN -- Advance High pitcher Garrett Broshuis had very little defense behind him, but despite playing with a fever, he maintained his cool and struck out the final batter Wednesday to grab a key 7-6 rematch victory in relief over district and arch-rival Oran...

FREDERICKTOWN -- Notre Dame High's baseball team had its offense in high gear Wednesday as the Bulldogs pounded out 16 hits and belted five home runs during an 18-7 win over host Fredericktown. The game was stopped after six innings by the 10-run rule...

Cape Girardeau Central High School graduate Marissa Uzoaru, a freshman at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, finished third during the recent Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference track and field meet. Uzoaru placed third in the high jump as she cleared 5 feet 10 inches...

The Cape Girardeau Junior American Legion Post 63 baseball team will hold tryouts for boys 16 and younger at 5 p.m. Friday at the Cape Central High School baseball field. For more information, call Steve Williams at 334-0145 or Kevin Crawford at 651-1359...

The Cape Girardeau Ford & Sons Post 63 American Legion and the Cape Senior Babe Ruth baseball teams will hold tryouts for boys 16-18 at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 7, at the Cape Central High School baseball field. Any player who turns 19 before Aug. 1 is not eligible...

Lawrence D. "Larry" Frey, 50, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, April 19, 2000, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born March 27, 1950, at Sikeston, son of Stanford and Alma Miller Frey. He and Ann Essner were married Nov. 25, 1977, in Cape Girardeau...

Funeral for Geneva Nadine Heuer of Little Rock, Ark., will be held at 2 p.m. today at Hanover Lutheran Church. The Rev. Jeffrey Sippy will officiate. Burial will be in Cape County Memorial Park. Heuer, 78, died Sunday, April 16, 2000, at Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Lula Regina Jones, 75, of Alton died Tuesday, April 18, 2000, at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Granite City. She was born Feb. 4, 1925, in Cairo, daughter of Frank and Nola Irish Johnson. She first married Leon Brown. She later married Sedric Jones in 1973. He died in 1996...

Funeral for Pearl R. Cobb Femmer Penturf of St. Peters was held Friday, April 7, 2000, at Baue Funeral and Memorial Center in St. Charles. Burial was in St. Charles Memorial Gardens Cemetery. Penturf, 90, died Wednesday, April 5, 2000, at St. Joseph Health Center in St. Charles...

MOREHOUSE -- Bonnie E. Costello, 69, of Morehouse died Tuesday, April 18, 2000, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born July 19,1930, in Summersville, daughter of John W. and Bertha Lynch Martin. Costello retired from the VFW Club. She was past president of VFW Auxiliary...

Area churches plan services and special events to mark Holy Week and Easter. Following is a partial list of services compiled by Southeast Missourian staff. Maundy Thursday Wesley United Methodist Church will hold a Maundy Thursday communion service in a setting much like the disciples would have experienced. The service is at 7 p.m., and child care will be offered...