Stories from Tuesday, December 26, 2000

The Scott County Soil and Water Conservation District has received the Buffer Achievement Award for Area 8 in Missouri. The award is presented by the Missouri Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts in conjunction with the National Conservation Buffer Council...

Will fish soon be at the Southeast Missouri District Fair livestock tents? Yes, if the USDA has its way. "Herds, grazes, round up and flocks" may soon become more common names in aquaculture in the future. Aquaculture is making a big splash in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois, and, in the near future, it may become another phase of livestock farming...

Noranda Aluminum Inc. of New Madrid, Mo., has presented its annual Quality Through Improved Performance "Carrier of the Year" awards. This is the first year a van carrier and flatbed carrier qualified for the award. Hull Trucking of Old Appleton, Mo., and Milan Express Inc. of Jackson, Tenn., were declared winners...

The Future Farmers of America has given the Tractor Supply Co. the Distinguished Service Citation. TSC has stores in six sites in Missouri, including Cape Girardeau, and is in its 16th year of sponsoring the National FFA Foundation. TSC, a farm and ranch supply store, has invested more than $400,000 in the foundation and has four executives on the Foundation Sponsor's Board...

Gasoline prices fell by more than nickel over the past three weeks, according to an industry survey. The average price of all grades of gasoline was $1.54 on Friday, according to the Lundberg Survey of about 10,000 service stations nationwide. Lower crude oil prices and a large supply of refined gasoline have contributed to the lower prices, said industry analyst Trilby Lundberg. ...

The Missouri Department of Agriculture and the University of Missouri will hold training sessions throughout January on pesticide use for certified commercial, noncommercial and public applicators as well as pesticide technicians. Certification training for unlicensed people will be held Jan. 22 in Cape Girardeau...

Eight Mary Kay Cosmetics consultants have been recognized by senior sales director Jana Jateff for sales. The consultants are Michelle Warren of Cape Girardeau, Emerald Star; Betsy Ferguson of Patton, Mo., Diamond Star; Lori Long of Patton, Ruby Star; Kristie Garner of Cape Girardeau, Ruby Star; Julie Wehmeyer of Chicago, Ruby Star; Kay Waller of Cape Girardeau, Sapphire Star; Amy Neighbors of Chicago, Sapphire Star; Diana Edwards of Potosi, Mo., Sapphire Star...

Jerry L. Reppert attended a "Directors' Seminar: Best Board Practices" at Springfield, Ill. Reppert, a businessman at Anna, Ill., is a member of the Anna National Bank board of directors.

Thorngate, Ltd., manufacturer in Cape Girardeau, has honored a number of employees for years of service. Margie Lee and Rose Lee Kern were honored for 40 years of service. Others honored included Kathleen Bennett, Debbie Carlton, Wanda Puhlman, Kathy Kutz, Joyce Livingston, Teresa Cochran, Lea Ann Petty and Tammy Morrison, 20 years; Betty Roberts, Carolyn Allison, and Martha Craft, 10 years...

Cheryl A. Morris and Jennifer Garms, of Schott & Van de Ven, Certified Public Accounts have attended training courses. Garms attended a two-day, Missouri Society of CPAs Fall Tax Institute, where changes in tax laws and new developments on tax return preparation and planning were discussed...

Tammy Hahn-Brown, certified adult nurse practitioner, has joined the medical staff of Ortho-paedic Associates of Southeast Missouri. Hahn-Brown received her associated degree in nursing from Southeast Missouri State University, a bachelor's degree in nursing from Webster University, and a master's degree in nursing from Vanderbilt University...

Walter Rasmussen of Cape Girardeau has been promoted to district sales manager with McLeodUSA Publishing Co. Rasmussen, who has been with McLeodUSA five years, is responsible for the sales and services of yellow page advertising in the McLeodUSA telephone director in Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff, Mo., Quincy and Jerseyville, Ill., and Dyersburg, Tenn...

Vincent Miller of Scott City, Mo., has been elected to the Scott County Farm Service Agency Committee. Miller, who will assume his committee duties Monday, will serve a three-year term. Named alternates were Ervin Glueck of Chaffee, Mo., first alternate; and George Felker of Chaffee, second alternate...

Jamie Geske of Matthews, Mo., has been elected to a two-year term on the Missouri Farm Bureau board of directors, from the South District At Large area. Locally, she is treasurer of the New Madrid Farm Bureau and has served as the women's committee chairman, membership chairman and county president...

Larry DeWitt of Sikeston, Mo., has received "Excellence in Business" award from the Missouri Small Business Development Center. DeWitt started his landscaping business in Sikeston after earning degrees in horticulture and landscape design. Over the years, DeWitt experimented with textiles and materials to develop a new "landscape fabric," later called "Dewitt's Weed Barrier," which stops weed growth but allows moisture and air to plants...

When William Faulkner lived in Oxford, Miss., during the first half of the 20th century, writing books that won him the Nobel Prize and two Pulitzer prizes, the white supremacist Theodore Bilbo served two terms as governor of Mississippi and three times was elected to represent the state in the U.S. Senate...

The Cape Girardeau Police Department is losing its experience. With the retirement of Lt. Dale Ratliff last week, six officers with an average of 27 years of service have left the department this year. With the change, the police lost more than 20 percent of their years of experience...

Five weeks after giving birth to triplet boys on Oct. 18, doctors removed a malignant, golf ball-sized tumor from Merrily's brain. She survived the surgery despite doctors' grave concerns, and this Christmas may well be the most precious one the family has spent together...

The ancient Babylonians celebrated the new year, but making New Year's resolutions seems uniquely American. We love forgiveness for past actions and we love fresh starts. We believe everybody deserves another chance. Heck, we even elect presidents who we know have had sex addictions or drug addictions, and we hope for the best in the future. Sometimes that whole second-chance thing pans out, sometimes it doesn't, as we know...

Matt Vollink began his college soccer career at Quincy (Ill.) University as a walk-on, meaning he received no scholarship money. He ended it as an All-America as the former Notre Dame High School standout was recently named to the NCAA Division II second team by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America...

Injuries and the weather are occupying much of Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball coach Gary Garner's thoughts as the Indians prepare for this week's Sierra Providence SunClassic Tournament in El Paso, Texas. The Indians (7-3) are extremely banged up entering Wednesday night's first-round tourney game against Houston (2-7). The tipoff is set for 10 p.m. CST, following an 8 p.m. contest between host Texas-El Paso (7-1) and Jackson State (0-10)...

A Farmington, Mo., man died Christmas Eve, the result of a single-car accident Thursday near Scott City, Mo. Doctors at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau pronounced Frank Henson, 29, dead Sunday. On Thursday around 5:20 p.m., a 1998 Acura driven by Shawn M. Seiter, 19, of Valles Mines, Mo., was southbound on Interstate 55, five miles south of Scott City...

Vivian Hill Basler, 86, of Anna, Ill., died Monday, Dec. 25, 2000, at the Union County Hospital in Anna. Funeral arrangements are pending at Lutz and Rendleman Funeral Home in Cobden, Ill.

Leo R. Moureau, 97, of McClure, Ill., died Friday, Dec. 22, 2000, at Heartland Care and Rehab Center. Graveside rites will be at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at Memorial Park Cemetery in Cape Girardeau, with the Rev. Gregory Schultz officiating. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements...

MOUNDS, Ill. -- Laurence T. Schneider, 94, of Mounds died Friday, Dec. 22, 2000, at Meridian manor Nursing Home in Mounds. He was born Aug. 6, 1906, in Waterloo, Ill., son of Louis and Louise Schneider. His wife, Janet, died in 1993. Schneider retired from teaching at Mounds Township High School. He was a member of the Illinois Retired Teachers Association, the Smiles Senior Citizens in Mounds and the Magnolia Manor Patrons Club...

I can't believe anyone with a memory thinks the economy was improving in 1992. We were going downhill with every aspect imaginable. The debt was the highest in history. Unemployment was at an all-time high of 15 percent. Social Security was in danger due to Republicans borrowing from it. ...

President-elect George W. Bush is announcing his Cabinet picks, and those first among them are giving enormous reason for confidence. First to be announced was the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Gen. Colin Powell, as secretary of state...

To the editor: Mother Jones magazine has obtained Food and Drug Administration figures listing 30 cases of uterine rupture associated with the use of the drug Cytotec to induce labor in expectant mothers, including eight cases in which the fetus died in utero. Even so the FDA recently approved the RU486 chemical abortion regimen that includes misuse of Cytotec in the abortion process...

To the editor: Here's some holiday travel news that doesn't fall into the category of good cheer. According to a recent study by the Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform, unseen taxes boost the price of travel-related items by about 41 percent. Without these taxes:...