Stories from Saturday, March 15, 2003

By Lance Hanlin ~ SikestonStandard-Democrat Heading into Tuesday's Class 1 sectional game at Sikeston, I thought I had Clarkton figured out. Great record, weak schedule, overrated team. Boy, was I wrong. How wrong? On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the most outrageous, absurd, ludicrous take on a team you can think of ... this one was about a seven...

Cape Girardeau police officers used a pepper spray fogger to clear a crowd of about 250 people Thursday night after receiving complaints about a party at Cape Place Apartments. Sgt. Rick Schmidt said pepper spray was used after officers received no response after repeatedly telling people to leave the apartment complex's clubhouse and pool area. Pepper spray causes the eyes to tear and involuntarily close and makes breathing difficult...

SALT LAKE CITY -- The religious fanatic accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart may have tried to abduct her 18-year-old cousin seven weeks later, authorities said Friday as they began studying a 27-page manifesto in which the suspect talks of assembling a harem of wives...

China's legislature votes for new president BEIJING -- Hu Jintao was selected Saturday to replace Jiang Zemin as the president of a fast-changing China, the last major step in a sweeping transition to a younger generation of leaders. Hu, 60, who was vice president, claims the top post four months after ascending to the acme of China's ruling Communist Party. ...

Inflation up; confidence and manufacturing down WASHINGTON -- Severe winter weather and jitters about war took a further toll on the U.S. economy, sending wholesale energy prices soaring and triggering declines in both manufacturing output and consumer confidence...

VIENNA, Austria -- In New Mexico's desert and Russia's Ural Mountains, U.S. and Russian experts are experimenting with simulated "dirty bombs" to see how such radiation weapons and potential terrorist tools might work, officials of the two countries say...

SUMNER, Mo. -- A northern Missouri man died Friday morning after his truck was struck by a train in Chariton County, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said. Frank Jones, 28, of Linneus, was pronounced dead hours after the accident Thursday night. Jones was driving a truck on Highway 139 in Sumner and failed to stop for the train, the patrol said. There was no signal at the intersection...

WASHINGTON -- The FBI has a fleet of aircraft, some equipped with night surveillance and eavesdropping equipment, flying America's skies to track and collect intelligence on suspected terrorists and other criminals. The FBI will not provide exact figures on the planes and helicopters, but more than 80 are in the skies. There are several planes, known as "Nightstalkers," equipped with infrared devices that allow agents to track people and vehicles in the dark...

ST. LOUIS -- A St. Louis man convicted of using an aluminum softball bat and pogo stick to kill an acquaintance and injure another man has been ordered to spend 30 years in prison. Richard Bilauski was sentenced Thursday to 20 years on a voluntary manslaughter conviction in the 2001 death of Robert Vessell, 41. St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson also assessed a consecutive 10-year term for a second-degree assault count linked to another man's injuries in the attack...

There are two schools of thought on underage drinking: Maybe the legal age to drink is too high. Or maybe the legal age to do other things -- vote, marry, fight in a war -- are too low. But indisputably, the topic is on the minds of Southeast Missourians due to a tragic incident that centered on underage drinking. And while the physical wounds from it heal, the repercussions for some continue...

Editor's note: Cape Girardeau resident Stratton Tingle is writing letters on a periodic basis to the Southeast Missourian while spending a year as a missionary in Africa. It's taken me a little longer to write than I'd expected. I've been distributing plenty of maize lately, camping out in the bush, keeping myself busy, etc. Anyway, I said that I'd write a few more stories from our trip that we took to Kenya and Sudan. So, here's a pretty cool one: ...

To the editor: We in the Dover community, particularly Vicky Shockley's former coworkers, are truly shocked at the tragic death of her daughter, Katrina Krumrie, in a Cape Girardeau house fire. Katrina was a beautiful girl who loved ballet as a child and could have had a career as a ballerina. Not a "Nutcracker" rendition passed without Trina being one of the best dancers. We will always remember her beauty and grace. She was a shining star...

To the editor: Talented leaders do make Jackson a nice place to live. But let's not overlook the benevolent citizens of Jackson who make it a finer place to live. Thank you, Jack Litzelfelner Sr., for your generous donation of more than 20 acres of land to Jackson, making the hiking-biking trail a reality...

By Ken McManaman Our military forces around Iraq number more than 200,000. They wait. A number of allies have sent forces, including Czech and German biochemical experts to assess the nuclear, biological and chemical threats of Saddam Hussein, who will use these weapons against us if Gulf War II takes place...

Cape Girardeau city government is so strapped for cash that it's considering eliminating the employee Christmas party, a move that would save $7,500 this year. But the city council said Friday at its annual retreat that it would prefer to keep the holiday party even if employees had to pay part of the cost...

WASHINGTON -- Losing their U.N. fight, President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar agreed Friday to take a last-ditch stab at reviving their troubled war resolution at an Atlantic island summit. Billed as a bid "to pursue every last bit of diplomacy," the Sunday session was hurriedly scheduled amid a cascade of events -- all pointing to war, perhaps just days away...

By Jim Baker ~ Lawrence Journal-World LAWRENCE, Kan. -- God is handicap accessible. Worshipping him should be, too. That's the idea behind a special service that's held on the third Saturday of each month at Clinton Parkway Assembly of God...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A state basketball championship continued to be the elusive Holy Grail for the Jackson girls basketball team today. Playing in their seventh and final state final four under retiring head coach Ron Cook, the Indians saw their title dreams end again on the floor of the Hearnes Center...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The metamorphosis is nearly complete. The transformation from a 5-7 team to the Class 4 state champions stands just one win from fruition. The Notre Dame girls basketball team, last year's Class 2 champion, reeled off its 17th straight win Friday afternoon with a 60-51 victory over Carthage at the Hearnes Center to move into today's Class 4 state championship game...

Southeast Missouri State University football coach Tim Billings says life after Willie Ponder will be different -- but not all that bad -- for the Indians. As Southeast concluded its second week of spring workouts this week at Houck Stadium, Billings and his staff continued the search to replace go-to wide out Ponder, who completed a record-setting career last season as arguably the top receiver in school history...

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Southeast Missouri State University's gymnastics team finished third behind Denver and host Kentucky in a three-team meet Friday. Denver, No. 13 nationally, finished with 195.45 points to lead Kentucky (194.7) and Southeast (192.95)...

DALLAS -- Travon Bryant didn't have time to do anything else amid all the confusion. He just shot the ball. Capping a wild sequence before he got the ball, Bryant got off a short jumper just before time expired to give Missouri a 60-58 win over No. 23 Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament Friday...

The AssociatedPress ST. LOUIS -- Blues forward Keith Tkachuk will be sidelined at least one game, with hopes the severity of a wrist injury won't keep the team's leading goal scorer off the ice longer. Tkachuk, with 30 goals this season, left Thursday's road game at Vancouver with the injury after a big open-ice hit from the Canucks' Brad May. X-rays later showed no fracture on the right wrist, which was swollen...

JUPITER, Fla. -- Albert Pujols hit in his 14th straight spring training game and drove in three more runs to lead the Cardinals to a 7-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday. Pujols, the NL Rookie of the Year in 2001 and MVP runner-up last season, has hit safely in every game this spring and leads the NL with 21 RBIs...

JUPITER, Fla. -- On the comeback trail from offseason shoulder surgery, Jason Isringhausen offered the Cardinals hope Friday that he'll be ready for opening day. The closer, facing batters for the first time since last October's surgery, was nearly unhittable in a 21-pitch batting practice session. Working on one of the back fields at Roger Dean Stadium under the watchful eye of manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan, he impressed both of them...

It was intended to be a routine warrant arrest of an Illinois man wanted for driving while intoxicated, but it resulted in a high-speed chase, a three-hour manhunt and the arrest of four suspected of manufacturing methamphetamine in a Cape Girardeau hotel...

Briefly Baseball Kenny Lofton and Reggie Sanders, teammates with the NL champion San Francisco Giants last season, were reunited in Pittsburgh when Lofton reached terms Friday on a $1,025,000, one-year contract. The Pirates had tried to sign the 35-year-old Lofton since spring training started, finally making the deal after sweetening their initial offer of $500,000 in base salary and $500,000 in performance bonuses...

Pearson wins in pro class at SikestonDrag Strip SIKESTON, Mo. -- Steve Pearson of St. Charles, Mo., topped the super pro field in Sunday's event at Sikeston Drag Strip. Pearson had a 6.93-second dial and 6.954 time (98.61 mph) to lead Avery Sneed of Rosiclare, Ill. Sneed had a 6.276-second run (108.98 mph) on a 6.23 dial-in...

To the editor: Something liberals fail to understand is that they have the right in this country to speak out against their president and this government and even burn Old Glory for one reason: every man and woman who has served and sacrificed for this country...

Propping up the U.N. I AM embarrassed by the way that George Bush has allowed the United Nations to conduct an assault on our ability to defend our freedom without retribution. The United States should immediately withdraw from the United Nations. Without the United States, the United Nations would collapse like a house of cards. Our men and women in the armed forces wear red, white and blue, not U.N. blue...

To the editor: The 10th annual Doctor-Lawyer Basketball Game fund raiser March 7 at Notre Dame Regional High School was another great success. We thank the Southeast Missourian, players, volunteers and many sponsors, which included other media. The coverage you provided enabled us to reach the numbers needed to accomplish our goal...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- It's something no one enjoys, but someone has to do it -- police the numerous temporary signs and banners that seem at times to pop up overnight in the city. On July 1, the city adopted an ordinance that requires businesses and vendors to pay $10 for an annual permit on each temporary sign or banner. ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- It wasn't nearly as fast as calling 911, but for a Hallsville, Mo., woman whose telephones had been hidden from her, e-mail did the trick. Assistant Boone County fire chief Ken Hines found an e-mail from the woman at 7:40 a.m. Thursday saying she had been beaten and needed help. Hines called the sheriff's department, which sent deputies to the woman's home...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri tuberculosis cases reached their lowest point last year since the state started keeping records in 1944. There were 136 cases of the disease reported last year, down from 157 in 2001 and 211 the year before. "Missouri has made excellent progress in reducing the numbers of TB cases, but TB is still a major public health problem here and throughout the world," said Vic Tomlinson of the state Department of Health and Senior Services...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A southwest Missouri man pleaded guilty Friday to a charge he failed to tell a woman that he was infected with HIV before they had sexual intercourse. Robert E. Michael, 32, of Springfield, was sentenced in Greene County court to five years in prison...

Singer's comments about Bush draw fire NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Dixie Chicks are drawing criticism from country music fans for remarks singer Natalie Maines made about President Bush during a recent performance in London. Maines told the audience earlier this week, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."...

LIVING SUPPORT AREA 7, Kuwait -- Nearly a month ago, the Marines of the 7th Regiment were given 43 chickens to raise and nurture, chickens that were to repay them by helping detect a possible Iraqi chemical or biological attack. Within a week and a half, 42 were dead, although no one suspects foul play...

Briefly Baseball The widow of Baltimore pitcher Steve Bechler will be paid $450,000 in life insurance, major league baseball's pension committee decided Tuesday. Bechler died on Feb. 17 from heatstroke a day after collapsing during a workout at training camp. ...

WASHINGTON -- NASA officials are working to return the space shuttle to orbit as early as this fall, with plans to quickly correct any flaws in the system uncovered by the board now investigating the Columbia accident. Top NASA officials said Friday they are instructing engineers to plan any changes needed to resume the space shuttle program "as soon as practicable" after the investigation board determines why space shuttle Columbia broke apart...

ATLANTA -- Life expectancy for Americans reached an all-time high of 77.2 years in 2001, federal officials said Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said life expectancy increased by two-tenths of a year from 2000. A drop in major causes of deaths such as heart disease, cancer and stroke contributed to the increase...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Breaking a 30-hour debate, the Missouri Senate gave initial approval Friday evening to legislation that would impose new limits on medical malpractice cases and other personal injury lawsuits. Republican supporters of the legislation praised it as a way to slow the skyrocketing malpractice premiums of physicians, who had rallied by the hundreds at the Capitol earlier this year...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's capital city is the quintessential company town. The company, of course, is Missouri government. More than 16,000 people work for the state in and around Jefferson City, which with a population of 39,600 is roughly 4,000 people larger than Cape Girardeau...

QUSHTAPA, Iraq -- The Kurdish families arrive with few possessions but laden with stories about why they fled the city of Kirkuk: a tightening noose of searches, harassment and arrests by Saddam Hussein's forces in the strategic oil center. "It's terrible," exclaimed Saheed Said, who crossed into the Western-protected Kurdish enclave Friday with his wife and three children, joining a growing exodus of Iraqi Kurds from the northern city. "Saddam has turned it into a military camp."...

More than 40 local celebrities took part in the Hoop-It-Up for St. Jude Kids benefit event Friday at the A.C. Brase Arena Building in Cape Girardeau. The event raised $1,000, all of which will go toward St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn...

Cape Girardeau Saturday, March 15 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests Jordan R. Picker, 23, of 115 N. Fountain, Apt. 307, Cape Girardeau, was arrested Thursday on a Cape Girardeau County warrant for failure to appear...

Cape Girardeau County Saturday, March 15 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWI Lisa D. Brown, 36, of Jackson, was arrested March 7 on suspicion of driving while intoxicated...

SCOTT CITY -- Opal Coombes, 92, of Pekin, Ill., and formerly of Scott City, died Thursday, March 13, 2003, at Pekin Hospital. She was born Now. 30, 1910, in Obion, Tenn., daughter of Jones C. and Mattie Baker Allen. She married William A. Coombes on Oct. 26, 1930. He preceded her in death on May 28, 1941...

GLENALLEN, Mo. -- Rosie Lee Barnes, 91, of Glenallen died Thursday, March 13, 2003, at Eldercare Nursing Home in Marble Hill, Mo. She was born Aug. 6, 1911, in Choctaw, Ark., daughter of James and Eliza Honeycutt Chew. She married Thurman Odus Thompson in January 1931, and he preceded her in death. She then married Willie E. Barnes on Feb. 20, 1972, and he preceded her in death on Sept. 21, 1988...

CROWDER, Mo. -- Charles Everett Masters Sr., 86, died Friday, March 14, 2003, at his home. He was born March 19, 1916, in Vanduser, Mo., son of Lee A. and Tora Sheer Masters. He married Helen Mae Graham on March 8, 1941. She survives. He was service manager for Aufdenberg John Deere and served in the U.S. Army during World War II...

BENTON, Mo. -- Verneta E. Martin, 85, of Benton died Friday, March 14, 2003, at The Lutheran Home. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Ford & Sons Funeral Home in Benton.

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Edna Alice Murphy, 86, of Chaffee died Thursday, March 13, 2003, at The Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. She was born Aug. 13, 1916, daughter of James Settle and Nancy Charlotte Welker Barron. She was a retired bookkeeper, having worked for Chaffee Lumber Company. She was a member of First United Methodist Church of Chaffee, where she was organist for many years. She had lived in Chaffee sine 1964...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Ruth Ann Stern, 53, of Perryville died Friday, March 14, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Aug. 31, 1949, in Corning, Ark., the daughter of Charles and Elaine Moots Mansfield. She married Joseph E. Stern on June 5, 1969, and he preceded her in death on March 7, 1997...

Valentine Son to to Chris and Kerri Valentine of Green Bay, Wis., St. Mary's Hospital, Green Bay, 1:47 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003. Name, Ashton Christopher. Weight, 8 pounds 2 ounces. Second child, first son. Mrs. Valentine is the former Kerri Seabaugh, daughter of Mike and Renee Seabaugh of Jackson. Valentine is the son of David and Sandy Valentine of Sturgeon Bay, Wis. He is a pilot for America Medical Security...

COBDEN, Ill. -- Gail DeWitt 59, of Cobden died Friday, March 14, 2003, at Jonesboro Healthcare Center. She was born March 30, 1943, in Anna, Ill., daughter of John A. and Bessie Lorene Harvel DeWitt. She was a 1971 graduate of Southern Illinois University and a member of Phi Kappa Phi. She was former owner and administrator of Hillside Terrace Nursing Home in Cobden...

10 years ago: March 15, 1993 Cape Girardeau Police Department will hire five new officers over next few months -- three to replace departing officers, two more if approved in police budget by city council; in 1988 force hired five officers by holding mass "tryout," but this year hiring is being coordinated with Missouri Job Service...

Today The Rev. John J. Leibrecht, bishop of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Catholic Diocese, will celebrate Mass at 5 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Church. Candidates will be presented for confirmation. First Baptist Church of Delta will hold a revival at 7 p.m. Steve Harness is speaking...

Jackson success seminar registration due Monday Registration for a "Success that Matters" seminar to be held at New McKendree United Methodist Church in Jackson is due Monday The seminar is March 28 and 29 and includes topics about finding purpose in life and respect at home. Cost is $25 and includes all materials, snacks, coffee and breakfast...

Cape Girardeau Saturday, March 15 Firefighters responded Wednesday to the following items: At 3:37 p.m., emergency medical service at 1927 Merriweather. At 5:25 p.m., vehicle on fire at Shawnee Park. At 5:28 p.m., emergency medical service at 941 W. Rodney...

While Jefferson Elementary School fourth-graders deliberated on the most efficient approach to launching their own businesses, the biggest debate for four students was what to name their imaginary clothing company. After dismissing Tommy Hilfiger and Fubu, classmates Devin Rowett, Riena Maracci, Rodney White and Dominique Haynes finally settled on Phat Farm and began listing some necessary resources for starting their company: delivery trucks, sewing machines, cotton...