Stories from Monday, May 14, 2001

SEMO Box Co. is expanding its facility in Nash Road Industrial Park. The company will hold a ground-breaking ceremony Tuesday for its new 50,000-square-foot structure, which will more than double the size of the company, which now works out of a 35,000-square-foot facility...

David and Elizabeth Michel of Down to Earth Satellite Systems, 1028 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, recently attended DISH Network's Teams Summit 2001, held at Point South Mountain Resort in Phoenix, Ariz. The fourth annual conference provided educational seminars and workshops, featuring demonstrations on new technologies...

Kendra Troncale of Cape Girardeau, a district representative for Aid Association for Lutherans, has been honored at the group's national sales and education conference. Troncale qualified for the conference, held in San Antonio, Texas, in recognition of outstanding sales performance in 2000. She was also honored for his support of AAL local volunteer groups...

Rhonda Dorris has been named site manager for the Cape Girardeau office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri. Dorris has been with the company 13 years, serving three years as office manager of the Cape Girardeau Marketing Office, before relocating to the St. Louis office, where she most recently was manager of the individual markets area...

Tim Caldwell of Tamms, Ill., has earned All American team status with the Country Companies Insurance Group for a 12th straight time. Caldwell is among a group of 192 Country Companies agents and agency managers who qualified for the honor. The All America status is the highest honor a Country Companies agent or agency manager can receive...

Members of Aid Association for Lutherans (AAL) branch 1837 at Shawneetown, Mo., have been awarded a gold star rating by the fraternal benefit society in recognition of volunteer service to the community. The branch is supported by AAL representative Tammy Bohnert...

Judith Anne's has become Patricia Ann's in downtown Cape Girardeau. Bob and Patricia Blade recently opened Patricia Ann's at 130 N. Main. The Blades moved to Cape Girardeau from Malden, Mo. Patricia Blade, who works in real estate for Prudential Bridgeport Realty, will continue to work in real estate and will have a full-time sales person, Phyllis Humphries, at the store...

Country Mart, which expanded its Marble Hill, Mo., location in 1999, has been honored as the Bollinger County Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year. Country Mart employs more than 100 people, said store manager Rodney Crites, who accepted the award for the store and its employees...

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and Calpine Corp. plan to jointly develop a $624 million pipeline to carry national gas to California form New Mexico. California is suffering from shortages of natural gas and electricity. A new pipeline would help in both areas, because most power plants planned in California are gas-fired...

The National Association for Business Economics' (NABE) forecasters predicted at its meeting Tuesday the Fed will cut rates again, probably by another half-point. NABE members, in a survey released last week, "have remained steadfast in their belief that a recession is unlikely," said the association's president, Richard Berner, chief economist at Morgan Stanley...

Glenn Kinder of Scott City, Mo., is the winner of a new 2001, fully-loaded Kia Rio and trip for four to Disney World in Orlando, Fla. Kinder's grand prize was part of a sweepstakes promotion by Auffenberg Chrysler Supercenter and stations of the Zimmer Radio Group (K-103, Real Rock 99.3, Kiss 93.9, and News Radio 960 KZIM)...

David Stockard has been named local sales manager at KFVS 12 television station. Mike Smythe, general manager of KFVS, announced Stockard's appointment recently. Stockard replaces Joe Trepasso, who was promoted to general sales manager last month. Stockard joined KFVS in April 1998 as national sales manager and has been instrumental in setting all-time record revenues at the station in national sales...

Ozark Airlines has quit operations at the Columbia, Mo., airport, and the status of another regional carrier there is in doubt. Great Plains Airline Holding Co. purchased Ozark Air Lines in March. The Tulsa, Okla., company said Ozark will resume passenger service out of Columbia "if it fits into its plans down the road."...

Logan's Roadhouse is coming to Cape Girar-deau. "We found our location -- 3000 block of William -- and we'll start building soon," said Ralph McCracken, a senior vice president with the Nashville, Tenn.-based restaurant. Logan's, which operates 76 restaurants in a dozen states, is making its debut in Missouri with its Cape site...

Earl Norman knew he could sell. And that's what he did. Norman, 64, recalled his early days in the health industry group purchasing business last week, following the signing of final papers to sell his corporation. It was the late 1960s, and he was affiliated with Addressograph-Multigraph Corp., a company that sold special "charge control" data systems to hospitals...

Ellie Williams has struck out on her own in the publishing world. Already a co-author on four books on investing, the Cape Girardeau native has published "The McGraw-Hill Investor's Desk Reference." It's a comprehensive reference book that provides information for beginning and experienced investors, she said, although it is geared for people who have already begun the process of finding where to put their money...

Two Cape Girardeau City Council members are unhappy that police aren't enforcing peace disturbance and loitering ordinances as they believe it should be done. Councilmen Jay Purcell and Richard "Butch" Eggimann have been asking city officials to address the problems of loud radios and groups standing in the street late into the night in the 200 block of South Middle Street...

The house where Mary and Brenda Parsh were killed hasn't changed much since 1977. "It might have been painted three or four times," but that's all, said Muriel Kelley, who has lived across the street from the Parsh's old house for about 50 years. The unsolved killings of the mother and daughter at 612 Koch St. changed the way residents on the block lived for years, and from time to time it still sparks conversations...

A man with what appeared to be a gun robbed a fast food stand on William Street shortly after 9 p.m. on Saturday, Cape Girardeau police said. An employee at Hamburger Express told police that just after a man bought a soda he pulled out a handgun and demanded money. The employee handed over the cash drawer, and the man fled on foot, police said...

No matter which district you turn to, there's an intriguing story. In District 2 in Class 1A, there are three baseball teams who could win state, including last year's state champion St. Vincent. In Class 2A, District 2, there are two teams who reached the Final Four last year, including state champion Crystal City -- the fifth seed -- and Notre Dame, which broke into the state poll this week at No. 8. Then there's Chaffee, ranked second in the state...

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Things did not go well all the way around for Southeast Missouri State University's baseball team Sunday afternoon as the Indians ended their regular season. Southeast coach Mark Hogan was ejected from the game in the second inning, but he was probably glad he didn't have to watch what happened the rest of the way as host Eastern Illinois banged out 17 hits and routed the Indians 12-5...

The season for area high school girls soccer teams will take on added significance today when district tournaments begin in Cape Girardeau. Even though all local teams finished the regular season on the plus side in the win-loss column, it was a season-long dogfight. There were an unusual number of ties and no team showed an ability to dominate...

The four newest inductees in the Cape Girardeau Central High School Sports Hall of Fame will be honored Tuesday night during the Central All-School Booster Club Recognition Banquet at the A.C. Brase Arena. New inductees are Paul Stehr, Don Koch, Alan Kesterson and Mike Price...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Robert A. Green, 77, of Perryville died Sunday, May 13, 2001, at Perry County Memorial Hospital. He was born Dec. 9, 1923, at Sikeston, son of Walker E. and Essie Daniels Green. He and Glenda "Lindy" Niswonger were married Aug. 27, 1944, at Perryville...

OLMSTED, Ill. -- Barbara Racey George, 66, of Olmsted, Ill., died Friday, May 11, 2001, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. She was born July 11, 1934, at Cypress, daughter of George and Beatrice Racey. She was married to Joe George, who survives...

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Beverlee Ann Shepherd, 48, of Advance, Mo., died Saturday, May 12, 2001, at her home, after an extended illness. Shepherd was born Jan. 8, 1953, at Portageville, Mo., daughter of Melola Newell and Cecil Loughary. She and Gary Shepherd were married Jan. 13, 1969, at Grassy, Mo...

ANNA, Ill. -- Ervin A. Ring, 82, of Wolf Lake, Ill., died Saturday, May 12, 2001, at his home. He was born Sept. 29, 1918, at Centralia, son of Ernest and Della Arnold Ring. He and Adell P. Miller were married March 28, 1968, at Anna. She died Feb. 3, 1993...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- George M. "Bob" Laster, 77, of Jonesboro, Ill., died Saturday, May 12, 2001, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born June 17, 1923, at Clarksville, Ark., son of Earl M. and Etta Hartline Laster. He and Janette Johnson were married Nov. 6, 1943, in Commerce, Mo...

CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. -- An Arkansas man was killed early Sunday when the car he was driving ran off a road in the Missouri Bootheel and overturned several times, authorities said. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said David Nichols, 23, of Blytheville, Ark., was killed in the accident on Pemiscot County Road U, three miles west of Caruthersville...

THANK YOU, Southeast Missourian, for putting the photographs of the prom on your Web site. I JUST read recently that the No. 1 activity in the United States, ranked by dollars generated, is the manufacture, maintenance and fueling of automobiles. It's no wonder that the United States is the energy hog of the world. ...

I THINK the politicians have reached a level of ridiculousness for broadcasting their speeches in Spanish as well as English. If Spanish people are in the United States legally, that's great. But if they can't speak and understand English, they have no right to be here, especially long enough to be a voter...

A significant business transaction took place in Cape Girardeau last week when Earl Norman sold his Health Services Corp. of America to MedAssets of Alpharetta, Ga., and Northbrook, Ill. It was significant by virtue of the fact that it established MedAssets as one of the four largest group-purchasing organizations in the nation. ...

Every year about 120,000 tons of trash go into a landfill in Butler County, and officials there are considering a study to determine the feasibility of burning most of it to produce power. The Butler County Commission recently was asked by an engineering company to support the study. It would be to that county's advantage to do so...

To the editor: This is in regard to the recent article, "Docs asked to give morning-after pill in advance." The article said that all women of childbearing age should be offered advance prescriptions of the morning-after pill during routine checkups. Supposedly, this would dramatically reduce the number of abortions and unintended pregnancies...