Stories from Monday, May 22, 2000

David Rutkowski, director of the human resources department of Rawlings Sporting Goods Co. in St. Louis, and chairman of the industrial relations committee of Associated Industries of Missouri, will be guest speaker at the AIM Cape Girardeau Workers Compensation Discussion Group June 7 at the Drury Lodge...

Thursday Chamber of Commerce's Business Breakfast, Holiday Inn, 7:15. May 31 Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, Membership Drive Victory Party, 4 p.m., Drury Lodge. June 2 Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee, 7:30 a.m., Show Me Center...

Morrill Development L.L.C. of Cape Girardeau, a local Ceco Building Systems' dealer, recently received the $1 Million Cumulative Volume Award and the $1 Million Annual Volume Award during the Ceco Builder conference held in Naples, Fla. Ceco builders from across the nation met to discuss the expanding role of technology in the construction business and new products. Ceco, a manufacturer of metal building systems, has sales and manufacturing facilities throughout the United States...

The Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission meeting, originally scheduled this month, will be held June 15, at a site to be announced. Highlighting the agenda will be a report from the nominating committee for new officers and presentation of a draft by the budget and finance committee on the operating budget for 2000-2001,...

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. Where can you go for investment advice? Anywhere. Everywhere. Look in magazines, surf the Internet, turn on your television, listen to your neighbor everywhere you turn, you'll find sources of information. ...

Laidlaw Corp. is expanding its operation at Metropolis, Ill. Laidlaw, which employs 103 workers, manufactures coat hangers, dry cleaning chemicals, supplies and other materials related to the laundry and cleaning industry. Laidlaw is the first industry to locate in the new 200-acre Massac County Industrial Park, near the Interstate 24 and Route 45. Laidlaw will use 14 acres in the park and build an 180,000-square-foot facility...

The world's largest brewer is looking to be even bigger. Beer giant Anheuser-Busch Co. Inc. has plans to build at its home base at St. Louis, and the work is estimated at between $500 million and $800 million over the next five years, said Jerry Feldhaus, executive secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council AFL-CIO. By St. Louis standards, that's more than it cost to build the Trans World Dome...

Dreary weather, stock market volatility and rising interest rates helped pull Americans back from their free-spending ways in April, sending retail sales down for the first time since August 1998. Sales at retail stores nationwide declined 0.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted $266 billion, following a brisk 0.5 percent increase in March, the Commerce Department said recently...

The Federal Reserve bumped up interest rates last week by a bold half point, pushing a key rate to its highest level in nine years. Fed policy-makers signaled they were prepared to move even more aggressively if needed to fight inflation. The central bank raised its target for the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other, to 6.5 percent...

Kevin Essner has received a promotion at Capaha Bank. John R. Abercrombie, president of the bank, announced Essner's promotion to senior vice president of Capaha Bank. Essner, a Kelso native, joined Capaha Bank in March 1992 as vice president and commercial agricultural loan officer. He is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University and is a member of both the Cape Girardeau and Jackson chambers of commerce...

Larry Vaughn, vice president of the Anna National Bank in Anna, Ill., recently attended "The Community Bankers for Compliance" seminar in Springfield, Ill., conducted by the Community Bankers Association of Illinois. Topics included information on new privacy regulations, reviewing the adequacy of procedures, understanding the timing and requirements of disclosures...

Allen Hawkins of Sedalia was elected president of the Missouri Division of Travelers Protective Association of America during the state convention recently at the Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau. Other officers elected included J. R. Latta of Hannibal, vice president; and Joe Cady of Columbia, secretary...

Missouri is not one of the top 10 destination states for visitors this summer, but more than 34 million people are expected to visit, generating more than $12 billion for the state's economy. A "Summer 2000 Travelometer" reveals that 86 percent of travelers plan to take at least one trip this summer, up significantly from last summer when 82 percent travelers were planning a summer trip...

Rag mats, acid-free backs, conservation glass. Flags, golf balls, rope knots, baseball mitt, military medals, pictures. Everybody is "framing" America. Homes throughout the country are becoming mini art galleries, their walls hung with treasures ranging from a child's first, scribbled alphabet to great-grandmother's needlepoint to family photographs and prints...

A number of Century 21 Key Realty real-estate agents have received sales honors. Jane Clark and Birdie Rader were named Centurion Producers of the year for 1999. Rader was recognized as a lifetime member of the International Hall of Fame and Clark received the Diamond Masters Club Award, announced at the Century 21 International Convention at Orlando, Fla., and at the Century 21 St. Louis Broker Council...

David Cato, a driver for United Parcel Service, was honored recently for completing 25 years with the company. Cato of Cape Girardeau works out of the UPS facility at Cape Girardeau and was cited for years of loyal service. UPS serves more than 200 countries and territories and employs more than 339,000 workers. The company has more than 30 centers in Missouri and employs more than 5,000 people...

Stan K. Wicks, owner of General Maintenance Co., 121 N. West End Blvd., Cape Girardeau, has been selected to appear in the National Register's Who's Who in Executives & Professionals publication in the 2001-2002 edition. The publication includes people who have reached a level of recognizable success in their respective fields...

CAIRO, Ill. -- The Cairo Board of Education is seeking ways to reduce the district's budget by $1 million next year. Schools Superintendent Robert Isom said the district is nearly broke, since most of its reserve balances were used several years ago when a deficit-spending pattern began. The district is included on a financial watch list monitored by state education officials for districts whose reserves slip lower than 10 percent of its annual budget...

It's a different year, but the hazards remain the same as American boaters prepare for one of recreational boating's biggest weekends. A majority of the nation's more than 18 million boaters will be heading for the water, and water safety experts estimate that as many as 50 people could die in U.S. waters during the holiday...

A sagging roof, broken windows and a tangle of honeysuckle vines engulfing the porch are testament to the years of neglect suffered by a modest house on St. Mary's Road in Ste. Genevieve. But because of the history behind the home where a respected, hard-working black man raised his family, there is an effort to save this home in this city known for its historic homes. ...

Laurie Laverentz of Cape Girardeau carded a hole-in-one at the Cape Girardeau Country Club Saturday. She used a five-iron to ace the 115-yard, par-3 No. 6 hole. Her husband, Bernie Laverentz, witnessed the shot.

SIKESTON -- Patricia Gaylene Price, 56, of Sikeston died Saturday, May 20, 2000, at the East Prairie Nursing Center. She was born June 6, 1943, at Sikeston, daughter of Daniel and Dorotha Cox Helton. She and John L. Price were married Oct. 15, 1964. He died Dec. 7, 1997...

SEDGEWICKVILLE -- Ora C. McCall, 74, of Sedgewickville died Saturday, May 20, 2000, at the Perry County Hospital. He was born Dec. 12, 1925, at Lutesville, son of Marion F. and Minnie Banks McCall. He and Alfredia Mae Woods were married Dec. 8, 1946. She died Sept. 11, 1998...

Jeannette Tharp Smith Osteen, 94, of Cape Girardeau and formerly of Portageville, died Saturday, May 20, 2000, at the St. Francis Medical Center. She was born Aug. 13, 1905, at Oakland, Tenn., daughter of Arthur Alexander and Jessie Tharp Smith. She was married to Joseph W. Osteen. He died Aug. 29, 1972...

JACKSON -- Helen M. Wilkens, 87, of Jackson died Saturday, May 20, 2000, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born May 18, 1913, in Cape Girardeau County, daughter of Charles and Jeffie Slack Short. She and Elmer G. Wilkens were married May 8, 1937, at Benton...

JACKSON -- Stanley C. Hunsaker, 85, of Jackson died Saturday, May 20, 2000, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born Sept. 7, 1914, at Poplar Bluff, son of Joseph C. and Ellen Phelps Hunsaker. He and Ruby I. Hahn were married in 1953. She died July 12, 1996...

Zola Eldridge, 92, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, May 21, 2000, at Fountainbleau Lodge. Arrangements are pending at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Chapel.

Jackson School District, if you want to increase our taxes, you'd better start looking around and see how little respect we get from the students who have graduated in the last 10-12 years. The so-called jocks in your districts are just that until they go to work. ...

A Missouri Supreme Court ruling that allows victims of drunken drivers to sue the bar or restaurant where the driver overturned a Missouri law that the court said establishes arbitrary and unreasonable barriers on the courts. The suit was allowed served regardless of whether the establishment first had been convicted of serving an intoxicated person...

A new round of Alcohol Safety Awareness and Prevention programs aimed at preventing underage drinking kicked off over the weekend at the Wappapello Lake Power Boat Races. ASAP, as it is called, began in December 1998 and is primarily aimed at educating bars and minors on underage drinking. ...