Stories from Thursday, October 12, 2000

I went through medical school during a time when there were a lot of women in medicine. In fact, as I recall, the class that followed me was the first class in the history of the School of Medicine to have more than 50 percent women enrolled. Although men's names clearly predominate in the history of medicine, as they often do in other histories, women have long been involved in healthcare. ...

MCCLURE, Ill. -- Farming keeps changing, and after 35 years in the fields, Bill Colyer knows when it's time to adapt again. The last time was five years ago, when Colyer switched from planting conventional soybean crops to genetically engineered seeds. Now, after cutting his costs and improving his yields, there's no going back from biotechnology in agriculture...

The Linemar Space Man doesn't frequently surface. The toy astronaut, finished in silver and red, is an interesting variation of the early windup astronauts, containing some features that set it apart from other windups of the day. Space Man features remote-controlled action. The astronaut has an enclosed white, tin dome with only the smallest of visors revealing the face beneath. A battery powers a light in the dome and a light at the front...

The owner of Cape Girardeau's most infamous nightclub is fighting to keep his liquor license and shed what he calls his bar's unfair image. But Michael Pryor, who bought the Taste Lounge on Good Hope Street 10 years ago, says he's being stymied by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. In fact, he's accusing police of trying to run him out of business and claims the police chief told him not to invest any more money in his club, indicating it won't be open for long...

Oct. 12, 2000 Dear Julie, On some summer vacations when I was a kid, we'd visit my peripatetic grandparents in barely remembered small towns in Illinois and Indiana. Pana, Kankakee, Clinton and someplace with Green in the name. They were always moving because my grandpa managed clothing factories. That seems to have made for an itinerant life...

Nurses generally feel rewarded for their work just by knowing they helped someone in need, but they won't turn down flowers and free pizza, either. A festive mood hung over the emergency rooms at two Cape Girardeau hospitals Wednesday as staff members and well-wishers celebrated Emergency Room Nurse Day...

When KRCU FM 90.9 started in 1976, the public radio station broadcast with 10 watts from a cranny beside the stage in Academic Auditorium. Station manager Greg Petrowich was 7 then but has been told the signal reached "almost to Capaha Park if the wind was blowing."...

Thinking their best competition likely is their own company, a local convenience store plans to increase its presence along North Sprigg Street. P&J Marketing LLC and Jeffrey J. Maurer plan to open a gas station and convenience store just blocks away from an existing store at 1037 N. Sprigg St...

Southeast Missouri State University expects to spend $1.1 million to clean up radioactive contamination in the school's Magill Hall science building. The university has had to reallocate funds in its budget to pay for the costly work, said Dr. Ken Dobbins, Southeast's president...

HOUSE SPRINGS, Mo. -- When Cape Girardeau Central and Seckman squared off in a high school softball game on Sept. 26, the host Lady Tigers squeezed out a 1-0 victory. So it figured that Wednesday's rematch, in a Class 4A sectional playoff contest, would feature another pitcher's duel, right?...

Delta High School's first season of fall softball will continue at least one more game as the Lady Bobcats picked up a thrilling 5-4 win over Bakersfield Wednesday in a Class 1A sectional contest played in Koshkonong, Mo. The Lady Bobcats will play either Morrisville or Fair Play Saturday in the state quarterfinals in Ash Grove, Mo...

BENTON, Mo. -- The Lady Hawks softball team cruised to an easy 7-0 first-round win over East Carter County at Kelly High School on Wednesday. A stellar three-hit pitching performance by Marissa Essner led Kelly (19-2) to victory and into the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs. Kelly will face either Clopton or Fatima on Saturday at Ballwin...

Notre Dame High School's volleyball team had little trouble in claiming its 12th victory of the season Wednesday night as the Lady Bulldogs rolled past visiting Chaffee 15-5, 15-7. The Lady Bulldogs improved to 12-7-4 while the Lady Red Devils fell to 0-12...

Even though Southeast Missouri State University's volleyball team has routed every Ohio Valley Conference opponent so far this season, coach Cindy Gannon has said all along that she believes the Otahkians will end up having some tough league matches...

Roscoe Hollifield, 72, of Ellington, Mo., died Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2000, at St. Francis Medical Center. There is no service. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

CAMPUS, Ill. -- Ellsworth F. "Pat" Maguire, 82, of Campus died Monday, Oct. 9, 2000, at OSF St. James Hospital in Pontiac, Ill. He was born April 2, 1918, in Campus, son of Thomas P. and Lillian L. Lower Maguire. He and Margaret M. Breen were married Sept. 14, 1942, in Campus...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Funeral for Opal F. Yates of Sikeston will be held at 11 a.m. today at Ponder Funeral Home. Burial will be in Armer Cemetery near Bertrand, Mo. Friends may call from 10 a.m. until service time. Yates, 76, died Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2000, at Clearview Nursing Center...

William A. Schumacher, 84, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2000, at his home. He was born Nov. 3, 1915, at Egypt Mills, Mo., son of Anton and Cora Hengst Schumacher. He first married I. Erlene McKee in 1937. She preceded him in death. He then married Frieda Herbec in 1949, who also preceded him in death. He and Wilma Wampler were married in 1990...

Daughter to Joseph William and Laura Beth Proffer of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 7:25 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2000. Name, Morgan Rebecca. Weight, 8 pounds 1/2 ounce. Third daughter. Mrs. Proffer is the former Laura Ketcher, daughter of David and Noretta Blattner of Jackson, Mo., and Jim Ketcher of Cape Girardeau. ...

Ronald McDonald is gone again, and this time his bench is missing, too. A statue of the fast food spokesman for McDonalds restaurants was stolen sometime between Oct. 6 and 9 from McDonalds at 3419 William St., Cape Girardeau police said. No evidence has been gathered yet to show who might have taken the statue, which is in a sitting position on a bench, police said...

The Perry Avenue-Broadway intersection will be closed to traffic traveling south on Perry beginning today and for about two weeks. The intersection will remain open for use by traffic traveling both ways on Broadway. The closure is part of a $2.1 million reconstruction project that is widening Broadway to four lanes between Clark Street to Perry Avenue. The work includes new pavement, curb and cutter, widening, storm draining improvements...

IF THE court of appeals from St. Louis sides with Mr. Drury on the River Campus issue and it takes another election, I would suggest that all the people get out and vote against it. I WISH the post office would teach the letter carriers to read the name of the street and not just the numbers...

I'm sure Al Gore's barb at the wealthiest 1 percent was focus group-tested. But did his choreographers tell the group he was going to say it 10 times? I wonder what kinds of people are attracted to such gratuitous hate-speech anyway. Many Bush supporters, while generally quite pleased with Bush's performance in the first presidential debate last week, were a bit frustrated at his failure to respond to Gore's repeated charge that Bush's tax cut proposal disproportionately benefits the wealthiest one percent of the people.. ...

Poor Christopher Columbus. If it weren't for the federal government's Monday holidays, the Italian explorer might be relegated to Great Unknown populated by former vice presidents whose names are only remembered as questions for "Jeopardy" answers and by saints who have been discarded from the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church...

Most motorists -- commuters, shoppers, travelers, truckers -- have had, in one way or another, personal experiences in recent months with the effects of high oil prices. Typically, changes in the prices of worldwide commodities are often of more interest to analysts and investors than to average consumers, but the impact of international oil prices on the cost of gasoline at the pump is something just about everyone notices...