Stories from Saturday, August 11, 2001

Understanding Scripture can be among the toughest tasks for the Christian community, but you don't have to understand Elizabethan English to read about the life of Jesus. Area pastors and Bible scholars say even though the Bible is more accessible today than ever before it isn't always as well-read because people are afraid of it...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Calling domestic violence the "secret sickness of our society," Gov. Bob Holden on Friday signed an executive order establishing a task force to maximize services for battered women and children. In light of lean budgets, Holden said state agencies and private shelters must do more to stretch every dollar...

Michael W. Lackman was named Friday as Cape Gir-ardeau's fire chief. Lackman replaces Dan White, who resigned in April to take a position in Bentonville, Ark. Assistant fire chief Mark Hasheider has been acting chief since he left. The new chief's annual salary will be $62,500. He starts the job in early September...

Southeast Missouri State University had to turn away less than a dozen prospective students to meet its freshmen enrollment cap and keep from overcrowding classrooms and campus housing for the fall semester, school officials say. "It has been a much smoother process than I anticipated," said Dr. Pauline Fox, vice president of administration and enrollment management...

It could have been a great story. John Casebolt, a Scott City, Mo., construction worker, removed his license plates on Election Day last year as an act of protest, and eventually, of course, he was stopped and ticketed. Several times. I was one of the news reporters Casebolt called earlier this week to ask for a story about his case, scheduled to be heard before Associate Circuit Judge Gary Kamp...

PULASKI, Ill. -- Most anything on four wheels will be smashing, revving or pulling at the Pulaski County Fair next week. Tractor pulls, demolition derbies, mud races and four-wheel drive truck pulls are among events scheduled for the fair, to be held at the Pulaski Fairgrounds...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Collin Raye is the country and western singer his female fans probably wish their husband or boyfriend was more like. Raye doesn't pretend to be an angel (the hilarious "That's My Story") and has a loud and raucous side ("My Kind of Girl"). ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Chaffee Medicap Pharmacy is very much alive and kicking in the Senior American Legion State Tournament. Chaffee, relegated to the loser's bracket after falling to Kirksville in Thursday's tourney opener, bounced back with a pair of elimination-game victories Friday...

Even though his team has already been bounced into the loser's bracket, Craftsman Union Capahas manager Jess Bolen still has hopes for a strong showing in the National Baseball Congress World Series. The Capahas, who went 1-1 last weekend during their first two games in the double-elimination event, headed back to Kansas Friday in preparation for tonight's 10 o'clock elimination contest against the Nevada (Mo.) Griffons...

George Landre carded a hole-in-one Friday at Cape Girardeau Country Club. Landre used a 5-wood to ace No. 2, a par 3 playing 185 yards. Witnesses were Brevin Grebler, Mike Lyons, Jim Karsten and Ken Karsten.

Son to Jessica Della Ann Fisher of Jackson, Mo., Southeast Missouri Hospital, 10:22 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2001. Name, Alexander Dean. Weight, 9 pounds 14 ounces. Third son. Ms. Fisher is the former Jessica Cross, daughter of Villis and Sandra Cross of Ellsinore, Mo. She is a department manager at K's Merchandise...

ULLIN, Ill. -- Clarice Willis, 71, of Ullin died Thursday, Aug. 9, 2001, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Massie Funeral Home in Cairo, Ill.

A Pocahontas teen-ager was injured Thursday when the vehicle he was driving overturned north of Fruitland, Mo., and two people from Mississippi sustained moderate injuries Friday in an accident east of Benton, Mo. Brian Mann, 17, of Pocahontas was taken to Southeast Missouri Hospital after the 4:40 p.m. accident Thursday on Route C, 4 miles north of Fruitland...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Funeral for Walter E. Kasten of Jackson will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at St. Paul Lutheran Church. The Rev. David Johnson will officiate. Burial will be in Russell Heights Cemetery. Friends may call at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson from 4-8 p.m. today, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday, and then at the church after 1 p.m...

ALTENBURG, Mo. -- Viola J. Quest, 97, of Altenburg died Friday, Aug. 10, 2001, at the Lutheran Home. She was born Sept. 28, 1903, at Palmyra, daughter of John and Emilie Schilling Voepel. She and Elmer F. Quest were married Sept. 17, 1936. He died July 23, 1987...

ANNA, Ill. -- Funeral for Leonelle Ledgerwood of Anna will be held at 2 p.m. today at Crain Funeral Home in Anna. Wesley Hazel will officiate. Burial will be in Christian Chapel Cemetery. Ledgerwood, 76, died Thursday, Aug. 9, 2001, at City Care Center in Cobden, Ill...

DEXTER, Mo. -- James F. Aycock, 67, of Dexter died Thursday, Aug. 9, 2001, at his home. He was born Dec. 18, 1933, in Marie, Ark., son of Robert E. and Pauline West Aycock. He and Alveta Murphy were married May 23, 1953, at Parma, Mo. Aycock was a farmer...

COBDEN, Ill. -- Mary Ellen Wilkins, 86, of Cobden died Friday, Aug. 10, 2001, at the Union County Hospital in Anna, Ill. Funeral arrangements are pending at Lutz & Rendleman Funeral Home in Cobden.

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Freda Miller, 89, of Whitewater, Wis., died Thursday, Aug. 9, 2001, in Whitewater. She was born Aug. 29, 1911, near Advance, daughter of James and Carrie Reutzel Lockhart. She and James F. Miller were married Sept. 12, 1934, at Jackson, Mo. He died March 18, 1995...

Dora C. Mason, 88, of Cape Girardeau, formerly of Jackson, Mo., died Sunday, Aug. 5, 2001, at Fountainbleau Lodge. She was born Sept. 11, 1912, at Glen Allen, Mo., daughter of Navy Lawrence and Nancy Caroline Sitze Clingingsmith. She and Russell L. Mason were married May 27, 1937, at Glen Allen. He died May 22, 2000...

BERNIE, Mo. -- Mary Ellen Martin, 54, of Bernie died Thursday, Aug. 9, 2001, at the Three Rivers Healthcare North Campus in Poplar Bluff, Mo. She was born Nov. 27, 1946, at St. Louis, daughter of Napoleon and Pearl Ollmay Mulligan Elldridge. She was a custodian at the Associated Electric Cooperative at Marston, Mo., and attend the Alliance Church in Bernie...

KELSO, Mo. -- Iva Jewell Tucker, 70, of Kelso died Thursday, Aug. 9, 2001, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born March 26, 1931, in Illmo, Mo., daughter of Eugene and Bessie Irene Stone Burton. She and Robert L. Tucker were married May 9, 1981, in Scott City, Mo...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Esther Agnas Perez, 81, of Desloge, Mo., died Thursday, Aug. 9, 2001, at Elder Care of Marble Hill. She was born July 19, 1920, in Wabeno, Wis., daughter of John Franklin and Alfilda Opsahl Stage. She married Juan Perez in St. Louis. He died in April 1998...

POOR DAVID Limbaugh. He just can't seem to understand that in a representative demo-cracy, politics is the art of the possible. Compromise is its crowning jewel. Pragmatism is the political palliative necessary to sustain a people's republic. All Limbaugh needs to do is understand the necessity to compromise on many political issues, and he will snap out of the funk his recent column seemed to indicate he'd fallen into...

Now is not the time for the Bush administration to get weak-kneed on affirmative action. Not only did George Bush campaign against racial preferences, but they are bad policy and are destructive of racial relations. Recently, USA Today reported that the Bush administration has decided to follow the Clinton administration in defending a racially preferential contracting program in the never-ending case of Adarand Constructors Inc. ...

The Chaffee Solid Waste Department's pay issue was a good example of democracy in action. A few months ago, two city councilmen became concerned about the short hours worked by the department's three full-time employees. They asked that accurate time sheets be kept...

Surrounding school districts can take a lesson from Cape Girardeau on how to pass a ballot issue. No, Tuesday's election wasn't pretty. It was a knuckle-whitening, teeth-clenching, nail-biting experience for supporters of public education. In the end, district voters decided 51 percent to 49 percent to increase their taxes measurably -- by 58 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation -- to provide better buildings and make teachers' salaries comparable to those in the rest of the area and state...

To the editor: I want to register my strong opposition to stem-cell research not on the basis of killing a group of cells, but based on the experience of a so-called cure being worse than the disease. One of those is Parkinson's disease, for which I am being treated. ...