Stories from May 2003

From the deck of an aircraft carrier, President Bush is expected to address the nation tonight to say that major combat in Iraq has ended. That's good news for the U.S. soldiers who have been involved in fierce fighting and family members back home who have been worried about them...

10 years ago: May 1, 1993 Southeast Missouri State University plans to take over operation of gymnastics program for youths under plan approved by board of regents; Regent Ann Dombrowski of Cape Girardeau cast lone dissenting vote, arguing that university was, in effect, acquiring private business operated by university gymnastics coach Bill Hopkins and competing with private gymnastics ventures in Perryville and Sikeston...

Kooyer Daughter to Brendon John and Jessica Lynne Kooyer of Jackson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 7:17 a.m. Wednesday, April 23, 2003. Name, Alyssa Grace. Weight, 7 pounds 10 ounces. Second child, first daughter. Mrs. Kooyer is the daughter of Lolita Hayes and John and Debby Stroup of Jackson. She is employed at Union Planters Bank. Kooyer is the son of Maureen Kooyer of Scott City, and the late Don Kooyer. He is employed by Drury Industries...

Margaret Bridgett Holder, 88, of Scott City died Tuesday, April 29, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born June 8, 1914, in East St. Louis, Ill., daughter of Sidney Fost and Rose Phillips Johnston. She and Ardell Anthony Holder were married Dec. 13, 1933, at Fornfelt. He died June 30, 1963...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The Rev. John F. Zimmerman, 94, died Wednesday, April 30, 2003, at St. Mary's of the Barrens Seminary. He was born Sept. 18, 1908, in Chicago, son of John Frederick and Kathryne Veronica Murray Zimmerman. Zimmerman received his doctorate and license from Pont University St. Thomas/Angelicum in Rome, Italy...

ARBOR, Mo. -- Dora Lee Staats, 81, of Farmington, Mo., died Tuesday, April 29, 2003, at Parkland Health Center in Farmington. She was born Nov. 11, 1921, at Arbor, daughter of Eugene and Mary Fife Cook. She and Homer F. Staats were married Aug. 31, 1937, at Marble Hill, Mo...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Robert Lee Bradley, 72, of Jonesboro died Tuesday, April 29, 2003, at his home. He was born Aug. 26, 1930, in Lincoln, Ill., son of George and Gertrude Martin Bradley. He married Marie Cleveland. Bradley was a painter. Survivors include his wife; two sons, Robert and Cody Bradley of Jonesboro; two daughters, Sandra Smith of Marion, Ill., Rochelle Hickam of Jonesboro; a sister, Charlene Dowell of Lincoln; two brothers, William and Herb Bradley of Lincoln; and 10 grandchildren...

Calvin M. "Mote" DeWeese, 74, of Moberly, Mo., died Tuesday, April 29, 2003, at Boone Hospital Center in Columbia, Mo. He was born July 19, 1928, in Clarence, Mo., son of Ambrose and Rita Mote DeWeese. He and Kathleen Stoner were married July 16, 1948, at Moberly...

Silas Joseph Dohogne, 78, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, April 29, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born Dec. 21, 1924, at Kelso, Mo., son of Leo and Louisa Diebold Dohogne. He and Mary Belle Roth were married Feb. 23, 1946, in Cape Girardeau...

Lisa Gaye Fraser Mitchell came into this world Jan. 13, 1959. Cancer took her from us April 22, 2003, while home in Millersville with husband, Daniel J. Mitchell, and her youngest son, Daniel J. Mitchell II. Her parents, Orville and Clara Fraser, preceded her in death...

Churches too big TWENTY-TWO years ago, my husband joined the church I belonged to here in Cape. In those years the only thing they have asked of us is how much money we can give. There was no one from this church when my husband's father passed away, no one from this church when my parents passed away. ...

To the editor: Two and a half years ago, the national debate was on how to spend the national surplus. Now, with record deficits, the debate is centered on which programs should be sacrificed in order to fund the next round of tax cuts to benefit the billionaires of America who can then invest their savings in offshore tax shelters...

Today Infant Massage from 8 to 10 a.m. in the conference room at the Healing Arts Center. The course costs $25. For information, call the St. Francis Education Center at 331-5107. Blood pressure screening from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Cape Senior Center, sponsored by Generations Family Resource Center at Southeast Missouri Hospital...

WASHINGTON -- Debra Gara held 9-month-old Cristal in her arms, singing her to sleep, and then dozed off herself. An hour later, she awoke with a start to find her baby ice-cold and not breathing. An autopsy diagnosed a rare metabolic disease, one treatable if Cristal's parents had known -- and one of more than 40 genetic and metabolic disorders that can be diagnosed easily at birth...

Cape Girardeau Thursday, May 1 Firefighters responded to the following items Tuesday: At 5:54 p.m., an emergency medical service at 1527 Water. At 6:38 p.m., an alarm sounding at 1701 Lacey. At 6:57 p.m., power lines down at 199 E. Cape Rock Drive.Firefighters responded to the following items Wednesday:...

Cape Girardeau Thursday, May 1 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests Martha Ellen Glastetter, 47, of 37 Crestview, Benton, Mo., was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of stealing. Stephen Lamar Hempstead, 22, of 906 Ranney, Cape Girardeau, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of driving while revoked, careless and imprudent driving, failure to stop and failure to use signal...

A Cape Girardeau man pleaded guilty at a bench trial Wednesday for failing to register as a convicted sex offender. Timothy T. Glas, 35, will be sentenced on June 2. Glas was named as the suspect in a reported March 12 abduction attempt of a Cape Girardeau middle school girl in court documents filed by Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle...

What makes Grant Gunning's can tab collection so unique is the way it has blossomed into other benevolent collections affected by many individuals. Gunning, a junior at Cape Central High School, is a student of Brandon Jones, special education teacher. ...

Concordia Lutheran to serve spring dinner A chicken and dumplins dinner with all the trimmings will be served from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday at Concordia Lutheran Church, 836 Park in Sikeston, Mo. (corner of Park and Wakefield). Proceeds will benefit Concordia's new family life center. For more information call (573) 471-5842...

The Girl Scouts of Otahki Council held their annual meeting and volunteer appreciation program on April 26. Board of director and nominating committee members were elected and installed. Jean Bollinger of Cape Girardeau was re-elected as president of the board of directors. ...

PWP announces weekend events An orientation and general meeting for Parents Without Partners will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at Riverside Regional Library in Jackson. A garage sale to finance Parents Without Partners children's activities will be held at 6 a.m. Saturday at 2812 Hilltop in Cape Girardeau...

The final preliminary competition for the Optimist oratorical contest for the region was held recently in Jackson. The topic for this year's speech contest was "United We Stand in Optimism." Winning the girls' regional competition was Jessica Chinnadurai from Sikeston, Mo. Norman Popp, sponsored by the Jackson Optimist Club, won the boys' contest...

WASHINGTON -- Missouri education commissioner Kent King was at the White House Wednesday as President Bush approved the state's accountability plan under the No Child Left Behind law. The plan directs Missouri officials to develop and begin testing, in grades that haven't already begun testing, as a way to identify schools where students fall short of yearly targets for progress...

WASHINGTON -- International terrorist attacks fell significantly in 2002 and so did anti-U.S. attacks, the State Department reported Wednesday. Seven countries remained on a list of countries the department says sponsor terrorism -- Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria and Sudan. An official said Iraq is likely to be removed now that President Saddam Hussein has been deposed...

WASHINGTON -- Federal and state fraud fighters are cracking down on Internet auction scams that fleeced thousands of consumers out of money and merchandise. The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday it is joining 33 state and local law enforcement agencies to target auction con artists with 57 actions ranging from prosecutions to warning letters...

WASHINGTON --Pakistani authorities have captured a man accused of playing a leading role in the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of an American warship in Yemen, a catch President Bush called a "major, significant find" in the war against the ailing al-Qaida network...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri senators narrowly defeated a proposal Wednesday that would have asked voters to raise the state sales tax temporarily as a way to soften cuts to state government. Instead, the Senate passed legislation that raises revenue through a variety of more unconventional ways, including elimination of some business tax breaks that Democratic Gov. Bob Holden has labeled "loopholes."...

CLAYTON, Mo. -- A St. Louis woman faces murder charges stemming from a car wreck that killed four people last September. Dorothy McKeller, 33, was charged with four counts of second-degree murder, St. Louis County prosecutors said Wednesday. She was also charged with involuntary manslaughter, assault and leaving the scene of an accident, and was being held on $200,000 bond...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Renovations planned for the Missouri Supreme Court building have been scaled back because of the state's budget problems, officials said Wednesday. The plans had called for the 95-year-old building to undergo major renovation, including new plumbing, heating and cooling, at an expected cost of $4.9 million...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Fraternities at the University of Missouri-Columbia will ban alcohol on all fraternity property beginning Aug. 1. The only exception to the ban will be approved weekend gatherings for alumni. Fraternity houses will still be allowed to sponsor offsite parties where alcohol is served...

ST. LOUIS -- Customers having trouble paying their AmerenUE utility bills will have a chance for some relief, through a new, one-time program to settle their past due bills. AmerenUE and the Missouri Public Service Commission planned to announce the $3 million program Wednesday at a news conference in St. Louis...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The former in-house counsel for Stevens Financial Group of Springfield has pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct a national bank examination. James Scott Pope, 41, entered the guilty plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri...

WASHINGTON, Mo. -- Apparently batty about bats, students at a grade school in this eastern Missouri town want the state's lawmakers to swoop into action -- and make the creepy creatures with wings the state's official flying mammal. That quest by the St. ...

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri gaming officials have recommended a $100,000 fine against a suburban St. Louis casino for mailing promotional materials to a problem gambler. If imposed against Harrah's Maryland Heights, the fine would be the largest handed down by the Missouri Gaming Commission for this type of offense, spokesman Harold Bailey said...

BEIJING -- Beijing didn't have enough beds for SARS patients in its hospitals, so it built a new one -- in eight days. As city leaders struggled to bring in enough doctors and add more hospital beds to cope with its SARS epidemic, construction workers put the finishing touches Wednesday on the new 1,000-bed facility...

ANKARA, Turkey -- At least 135 children were buried in a collapsed school dormitory after a strong earthquake struck southeastern Turkey, a provincial governor said earlier today. Gov. Huseyin Avni Cos told private NTV television he did not know if any of the children were killed...

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Nigerian navy ships sailed Wednesday toward offshore drilling rigs where 97 foreigners -- including 17 Americans -- were being held after talks to resolve the 11-day hostage standoff broke off in deadlock. About 100 disgruntled Nigerian oil workers have been holding the foreigners aboard four drilling rigs owned by Houston-based Transocean, about 20 miles off Nigeria's coast. ...

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's top leader said Wednesday that by striking a cease-fire with an Iranian opposition group, the United States was demonstrating it believed the only bad terrorists were those who were not its "servants." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told state-run Tehran Radio that the United States and the world had recognized the Mujahedeen Khalq as terrorists. "Now, America supports them. It shows terrorism is bad if terrorists are not America's servants," he said...

JERUSALEM -- International mediators presented Israeli and Palestinian leaders Wednesday with a new Middle East "road map," an ambitious blueprint for ending 31 months of violence and establishing a Palestinian state. The U.S.-backed plan is supported by a unique consensus of world leaders and comes at a time when U.S. clout is at a high point in the wake of Saddam Hussein's ouster in Iraq...

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- American troops again fired on anti-U.S. protesters in Fallujah's streets Wednesday and said they won't give up their foothold in the one-time Baath Party bastion. At least two were killed and 18 wounded, hospital officials reported...

MUSSOORIE, India -- In the bar at the Savoy hotel, where Britain's colonial elite once toasted their empire in Victorian splendor, the clock is frozen at 1:10 and the paint peels in ragged strips. And Lal Singh, the bartender, will smile apologetically if you ask for a whiskey on ice...

CAIRO, Egypt -- A purported letter from Saddam Hussein published Wednesday in an Arabic-language newspaper in London urges Iraqis to "rise up" against occupation. Al-Quds Al-Arabi, which has taken a pro-Saddam editorial line and blamed the Iraqi people for the toppling of the Iraqi leader, did not say how it obtained the letter attributed to Saddam, a copy of which was published on page 3...

The folks of Marble Hill can tell you how destructive tornadoes can be. April 28 marked the one-year anniversary of the tornado that ravaged a wide swath near that community, killing a 12-year-old boy, injuring 16 people and destroying six homes. Residents of the area are still picking up the pieces, literally and psychologically...

CHICAGO -- It will take four to six weeks for DNA tests to determine whether a boy who showed up at a suburban hospital is a child who disappeared from North Carolina more than two years ago, authorities said. Relatives of Tristen "Buddy" Myers are optimistic that authorities have found the boy, who was 4 when they last saw him in October 2000. The dirty, bedraggled boy arrived at the hospital nearly three months ago...

A new pneumonia vaccine for infants dramatically reduces serious illness in young children and may prevent the spread of the bacteria to adults, researchers report. The first pneumonia vaccine for babies was approved in 2000 and is now recommended for all children under age 2. It fights infections caused by pneumococcus bacteria, including pneumonia, blood poisoning, meningitis and ear infections...

Visa reaches tentative $2 billion settlement NEW YORK -- Visa USA has reached a tentative $2 billion settlement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and thousands of other retailers just before their multibillion-dollar lawsuit over the company's popular debit cards was set to go to trial, a source close to the talks said late Wednesday...

MIAMI -- Another dispute is brewing over Florida's chaotic 2000 presidential election: Should the 6 million ballots, hanging chads and all, be destroyed or saved because of their historical significance? Many election supervisors in Florida's 67 counties want to get rid of the ballots because they take up so much space. ...

Berry: 'Most Beautiful' list not easy to make NEW YORK -- For the seventh time, Halle Berry is on People magazine's annual list of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" -- but making it there repeatedly isn't easy. The 34-year-old actress, who's on the cover of the issue that comes out Friday, says she works out daily with a treadmill and weights, and maintains a strict diet of chicken, fish, vegetables, brown rice and tabbouleh...

Abbie Leoni says her husband, Ed, is a 50-year-old in a 30-year-old's body. "That's an accurate assessment," Ed says. What makes it true? Take a triathlon and change the swim to a 6-mile canoe ride, flip the road run to an 8-mile run upstream, take your bike and equip it with maps and clues to help you find your way through a city, then head for a 20-mile ride on a path as narrow as the bike itself. ...

Ron MacCubbin and Kyle Kuba of the Southeast Missouri State University bodybuilding team had a big showing in the Mid-Illinois Fitness and Figure Championships on April 12. MacCubbin won the lightweight novice class, and Kuba finished third in the teenage division...

He's in jail. He's bankrupt. His property was repossessed. Keith Adamson said he's heard all the rumors about why his new Poplar Bluff Speedway -- a 3/8-mile dirt oval track originally planned to be open late last fall, then by the end of April -- still isn't ready...

WASHINGTON -- News of missing children will speed to the public over radio, TV and electronic highway signs in more states under the Amber Alert legislation, signed Wednesday by President Bush. Already operating in 41 states, such networks quickly distribute information about kidnapped children and their abductors...

Six Southeast Missouri State University alumni will be honored at the school's commencement ceremonies on May 17. The six will receive the 2003 Young Alumni Merit awards, presented by the school's alumni association. The winners are Trent Ball of Cape Girardeau, Scott Carlton of Northville, Mich., Scott Spindler of Belleville, Ill., Kimberly Bowie of Tucson, Ariz., Dr. Yvette Patmore Fobian of Wildwood, Mo., and David Welker of Festus, Mo...

Now there's further proof that it's possible to think too long and hard about the draft. The psychological test the New York Giants give prospective draft choices totals 380 questions. That's four or five times more than the tests most other teams use and nearly eight times as many questions asked during the standard Wonderlic intelligence test given to every potential draftee...

May, Brown win weekly Chip-A-Ways golf event Glendella May won the Class A competition in the weekly Chip-A-Ways golf event Tuesday. Carol Brown won the Class B competition. Mary Van Cleve won the low putts award. Shirley Glastetter had the play of the day...

Briefly Baseball Colorado Rockies pitcher Todd Jones apologized to the organization and his teammates Wednesday for his recent anti-gay remarks, but he didn't back off what he said. In an entertainment story in The Denver Post on Sunday, Jones said he would not want to have a gay teammate and that gays should not go around flaunting their sexuality...

At 6-foot-7, Central graduate and Murray State senior Craig Ringwald has quite a presence on the mound. And while that presence helped Central to a district title in 1996 and Three Rivers Community College to a 50-10 record and a No. 8 national ranking in 1999, Ringwald's first year with the Racers was not a smashing success...

PADUCAH, Ky. -- Southeast Missouri State University finished a disappointing Ohio Valley Conference men's golf tournament Wednesday by placing eighth among nine teams. The Indians ended the three-day, 54-hole event at the Country Club of Paducah with a 929 total after Wednesday's 309...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Southeast Missouri State University's Indians were within one strike of beating 24th-ranked Missouri Wednesday night. But Ryan Rallo's two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs capped a five-run rally by the Tigers, who stunned the Indians 11-10...

Scott City senior Loren Groves beat her own school records in the shot put and discus as the Rams finished second in both boys and girls divisions during a track and field meet Wednesday at Kelly. Valle Catholic won both the boys and the girls divisions...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Bruce Weber became the 16th men's basketball coach at the University of Illinois Wednesday, returning to the Big Ten after five seasons at Southern Illinois. "I am honored and humbled to be named the coach here," Weber said. "It's a tremendous honor."...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. yle Busch is finally turning 18, and all he wants is a new stock car and to establish his own identity. He'll get both wishes -- a year and a half behind schedule. NASCAR put the brakes on his career in December 2001 by implementing an age minimum of 18 for competitors in its top three series. Busch, the younger brother of NASCAR sensation Kurt Busch, will get the green flag to go racing again on Friday, when he celebrates his birthday...

ST. LOUIS -- Boy, the Cardinals could really use Jason Isringhausen right about now. The rebuilt bullpen is largely to blame for the team's slow start as April wound down. After Wednesday night's defeat of the New York Mets, the Cardinals remained 1-7 in one-run games, blew three ninth-inning leads and have lost five times in the opposition's final at-bat...

ST. LOUIS -- Once again, New York Mets pitchers got battered. Albert Pujols homered twice and Eli Marrero and Fernando Vina also connected, leading Woody Williams and the Cardinals to a 13-4 victory Wednesday night. Edgar Renteria drove in three runs, giving him seven RBIs in two games, as the Cardinals followed up Tuesday night's 13-3 romp over the Mets by routing them again...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- While stories of elder abuse at the hands of negligent nursing home operators generates massive public outcry, the care provided by good facilities never generates headlines. The result is a tarnished public image of the industry as a whole that is frustrating to those dedicated to running quality operations...

Plans for a survey of residents have been set aside in favor of a roundtable discussion as Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson looks for answers as to why voters rejected four tax and fee issues on the April ballot. Knudtson said Wednesday that he decided on a roundtable discussion rather than a mailed survey because he and other council members worried that a questionnaire would anger some voters and be an unnecessary expense...

Many of the students in the audience Wednesday are the same age Mendel Rosenberg was when he lived in a German concentration camp. He was 16 and had lived in "hell" for three years when liberated at the end of World War II. His youth was one of two things that helped him survive...

Travis Gibson already lost his health. Now he's about to lose his auto repair business on Morgan Oak Street, one of two side-by-side car repair shops that the Southeast Missouri University Foundation wants closed by June 1 so they can be razed for parking for the River Campus arts school in Cape Girardeau...

The Jackson Board of Aldermen is considering whether to break down the last leg of the East Main Street extension project to Interstate 55 into phases and, if so, whether the road should be two lanes or three in the first phase. Smith & Co. Inc. of Poplar Bluff was hired to do the engineering of the project. Representatives from that firm presented the aldermen with some options at Monday night's study session...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In the heart of Iraq's capital, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld walked through the massive doorway of one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces to tape a reassuring message to the Iraqi people. "Iraq belongs to you," he said, his words broadcast on radio and television. "The coalition has no intention of owning or running Iraq."...

DANVILLE, Ill. -- Lucy Webb knows people are out there searching the Web for health information. She just wants them to be getting good information. Her wish led her recently to present "Surf Your Way to Good Health," a seminar sponsored by Provena United Good Samaritans Medical Center...

May 1, 2003 Dear Pat, I was awakened Saturday morning by a phone call from DC. She was at her parents' house. In half an hour, she and her mother were supposed to begin leading tours at a restored 1883 Victorian called the Glenn House. The American Queen, a riverboat that had just docked, was unloading people looking for history...

Three new exhibits open today at arts council Oil paintings and watercolors are represented in three new exhibits opening today at the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri. Oil paintings by Cape Girardeau native David Gross and by Barbara B. Cleary will be exhibited in the Lorimier Gallery, while watercolors by another Cape Girardeau native, Patricia Harris Leavell, will be shown in Gallery 100...

OS ANGELES -- If America's looking for heroes in these times, Hollywood aims to deliver. The summer season always is loaded with movies about gallant warriors beating the tar out of bad guys. And the Sept. 11 attacks and the war against terrorism that led to conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq may have audiences more primed than ever for big-screen heroes...

Julie Bricknell is an occupational therapist who treats people with hand problems. When she began making pottery, her hands discovered a form of therapy that helps Bricknell. "Because I'm a service-oriented professional, this is how I renew myself," she says...

We love pizza. We have always loved pizza. Case in point. I have had kosher pizza, pizza Margherita (made with tomatoes, olive oil, basil, and garlic), East Coast thin crust, deep dish Chicago style, West Coast Wolfgang Puck's Nuevo pizza (made with just about anything you can think of), ice cream pizza, sushi pizza and the kind where the crust is so thick you eat it almost like a sandwich...

One star (out of four) If you are a fan of the Douglas family, don't go see "It Runs in the Family." You will surely be disappointed. My husband said it should have been entitled, "Life and Times with a Dysfunctional Family." I agree. The drama, based in New York City, traces the trials and tribulations of an extended family (The Grombergs). ...

10 years ago: May 2, 1993 Area's two state representatives -- Mary Kasten of Cape Girardeau and David Schwab of Jackson -- anticipate long hours and headaches as legislative session heads into its final two weeks. City Council agrees to appoint 10-member task force to examine issue of public housing in city and whether to appoint housing authority; action comes after officials with local chapter of National Association for Advancement of Colored People decried shortage of available low-income housing and publicly funded rental assistance.. ...

Price Son to Anthony and Vanessa Price of Owensville, Mo., St. John's Mercy Hospital, Saturday, March 29, 2003. Name, Blaine Anthony. Weight, 7 pounds 12 ounces. First child. Mrs. Price is the daughter of Dennis and Susan Lowe of Benton, Mo. Price is the son of Andrew Price of Bland, Mo., and Mary Price of Owensville...

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Willie "Shortie" Johnson, 54, of Des Moines, Iowa, died Thursday, April 24, 2003. He was born Feb. 28, 1949, in Charleston, son of Cam Willie and Mable Lee Johnson. Johnson served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Survivors include three daughters, Dorothy Kee of Columbia, Mo., Rashawn Lovejoy and Lisa Lee of Des Moines; five sons, William Johnson of Columbia, Ronald Moore, Willie Dawson, James Gonzales and Tanzell Johnson, all of Des Moines; two stepsons, Shawn Moore and James Dawson of Des Moines; two brothers, Floyd Johnson of Newton, Iowa, Joseph Johnson of Columbia; three sisters, Virginia Johnson of Cairo, Ill., Teola Wright and Martha Dobbins of Columbia; and numerous grandchildren.. ...

VILLA RIDGE, Ill. -- Leonard John Lee, 85, of Villa Ridge, formerly of Barlow, Ky., died Thursday, May 1, 2003, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born July 2, 1917, in Middleton, Tenn., the son of John and Emma Etta Everett Lee. He and Berdie Carlisle were married. She preceded him in death...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Genevia Norris, 95, of Jonesboro died Thursday, May 1, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born March 2, 1908, in Union County, daughter of Everett D. and Flora Miller. She and Jesse Norris were married Oct. 24, 1940, at Benton, Mo. He died Sept. 12, 1966...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Roy Gorden Drum, 49, of Fenton, Mo., formerly of Marble Hill, died Saturday, April 12, 2003. Graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Bollinger County Memorial Park Cemetery. The Rev. Slade Johnson will officiate. Liley Funeral Home at Marble Hill is in charge of arrangements...

Joseph R. Burciaga, 75, of Plano, Texas, died Monday, April 28, 2003, in Dallas, Texas. Survivors include his wife, Georgianna; two daughters, Julie Burciaga of Plano, Toni Chalfant of Sugarland, Texas; a son and daughter-in-law, Joe and Carol Burciaga of Sunrise, Fla.; a brother, the Rev. John Burciaga of Phoenix, Ariz.; a sister and brother-in-law, Mary and John Miller of Cape Girardeau; and two granddaughters, Brandi and Nikki Chalfant of Sugarland...

ANNA, Ill. -- William E. "Bill" Keller, 70, of Anna died Thursday, May 1, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Aug. 17, 1932, in Jonesboro, Ill., son of Floyd E. and T. Alice Halterman Keller. Keller received a bachelor's degree from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 1954, master's degree from the university in 1956, attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and received a doctorate in history from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.. ...

Hobert Deon Hanners, 62, of Jackson passed away Thursday, May 1, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born March 9, 1941, in Cape Girardeau County, son of John D. and Maude A. Moore Hanners. He and Mary Slinkard were married Jan. 22, 1965...

Missouri is over 30 percent forested, and oaks are among our most important and abundant trees. Oaks provide food for wild animals in the form of acorns, especially for deer, wild turkeys and squirrels. Oaks belong to the so-called hardwood trees, in contrast to the cone-bearing needle trees, and are a most important source for lumber. The lumber we cut from oak trees is important to Missouri's economy; it is used for making barrels, furniture, cabinets and flooring....

Cape Girardeau Friday, May 2 Firefighters responded to the following item Wednesday: At 5:45 p.m., a medical assist at North Sprigg Street and Lafayette Place.Firefighters responded to the following items Thursday: At 2:07 a.m., a citizen assist at 611 S. West End Blvd...

Department of Conservation Thousands of Missouri families are enjoying turkey dinners, compliments of hunters age 15 and younger. The harvest during Missouri's third youth spring turkey season April 12 and 13 totaled 3,660 birds. The youth harvest topped last year's figure by 558 and was 1,130 more than the first year the youth hunt was offered. As in the two previous years, youth hunters got the job done without a single hunting accident...

Cape Girardeau Friday, May 2 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests A suspect was taken into custody Wednesday pending filing of formal charges on suspicion of possession of crack/cocaine and drug paraphernalia...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- For nearly 10 years, I served as a Missouri Supreme Court judge, including two years as the chief justice. During that time, I signed death warrants for three individuals who were convicted of murder and ultimately executed. I also worked as a special assistant to the Missouri attorney general and argued for the death penalty in 15 cases prior to being appointed to the Supreme Court in 1983 by then-governor Christopher Bond...

MALDEN, Mo. -- Two Malden women died as a result of injuries sustained in a two-vehicle crash Thursday morning in New Madrid County on Interstate 55, said the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Driver Christine Mitchell, 83, and her passenger, Pamela Harrison, 42, were southbound in a 2002 Buick Century on the roadway. Mitchell attempted to turn left from the right-hand lane and pulled into the path of a southbound 2001 Volvo tractor trailer driven by William Gibbs, 62, of Desoto, Mo...

Five Fruitland-area churches are planning a prayer service to honor their heroes. Though the event is being held after the National Day of Prayer, observed Thursday, it is tied to that event. The churches will hold the service at 6 p.m. Sunday at Fruitland Community Church...

Failed to cut spending REPUBLICANS WERE put in control of both houses of the Missouri Legislature in large part to cut spending. In that endeavor they have failed so miserably it makes the Democrats seem miserly. Spending priorities IT'S IRONIC that when you ask the managers of Duck Creek Wildlife Area why they didn't plant crops for the ducks, they tell you they don't have the money, but they can spend millions on a nature center at North County Park...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Although annual tuition at Southeast Missouri State University increased by nearly one-third over the past five years, it is among the most affordable of Missouri's 13 four-year public colleges and universities, according to a state audit released Thursday...

To the editor: I think the Southeast Missourian does a very good job in all the diverse sections of the paper. It has something of interest for all ages, young and old. The Missourian tells you about what a reader would be interested in, such as church, school, real estate, grocery ads, sports, world news, TV, comics, theater, history, crossword puzzle, bridge column, horoscope and "Dear Abby."...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans suffered a second loss Thursday in their push to confirm a contested judicial nominee when Democrats blocked a Texas Supreme Court justice picked by President Bush for a federal appeals court. Democrats already have thwarted majority Republicans by stalling the nomination of Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada and now are also delaying a vote on Priscilla Owen...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush emerged from the war with Iraq with higher poll ratings, especially in areas such as handling the war, terrorism and homeland security, a new poll suggests. He appears, however, to have significant vulnerability on domestic issues, including the economy...

WASHINGTON -- New claims for jobless benefits clocked in at the second-highest level of the year and manufacturing shrank, fresh signs that the postwar economy is still struggling. The stagnant job market and the battered manufacturing sector are sore spots for the fragile recovery...

The Associated Press MIAMI -- Alonzo Mourning expects doctors to soon clear him to play next season after missing the past year because of kidney disease, his agent said Thursday. The approval for the Miami Heat star should come in the next few weeks, agent Jeffrey Wechsler said...

WASHINGTON -- The House on Thursday passed a $15 billion bill that would more than double U.S. contributions to the worldwide fight against AIDS. Supporters, led by President Bush, said the money could bring relief to millions of people with AIDS and prevent the deadly disease from infecting millions more...

By Ralph D. Russo ~ The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS -- After shooting a 29 on the front nine, rookie Akio Sadakata started thinking about making history. "I was thinking about the 59, but I didn't go that deep," he said...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Almost all of Missouri's major rivers and lakes are labeled "impaired" by pollutants on a list released Thursday by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The pollutants run the gamut -- from insecticides in the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to low water-oxygen levels in the Lake of the Ozarks, fecal contamination in the Jack's Fork River and high mercury levels in other lakes and rivers...

By Josh Dubow ~ The Associated Press NEW YORK -- Baseball players agreed to a two-year experiment Thursday to give home-field advantage in the World Series to the league that wins the All-Star game. Owners approved the proposal Jan. 17, and union lawyers have discussed it with players since then before agreeing to it on a trial basis...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- As soon as Cassie Bigham got her drivers license, she began driving carloads of friends around town. Bigham insists she can concentrate on safe driving, even with four other teenagers in the car. "You should know not to act stupid," said the 17-year-old Northlake resident...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Legislature gave final approval Thursday to a bill creating a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions. The measure now goes to Democratic Gov. Bob Holden. He has threatened to veto any "anti-choice" legislation, specifically citing the bill requiring pregnant women to wait 24 hours between a first consultation with a doctor and performance of an abortion...

MOSCOW -- Anxiety is high for this weekend's return of three international space station residents who will be making the first spacecraft landing since the Columbia disaster and NASA's first touchdown on foreign soil. "I think we are all going to be paying a little bit more attention to landing operations," said Dr. Terry Taddeo, a NASA flight surgeon who will monitor the event from Houston...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair canceled Northern Ireland's elections Thursday, saying deepening divisions among Catholic and Protestant voters threatened to bring "complete and total chaos." Blair said he planned to move the May 29 election for Northern Ireland's dissolved legislature to the autumn. ...

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Ahead of a new round of negotiations, Nigerian navy ships and private helicopters prepared Thursday for a possible evacuation of 97 foreigners and 170 Nigerians being held hostage on oil rigs by striking workers. The rigs' owners were to meet today with Nigerian labor leaders, including representatives chosen by the hostage-takers, in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, according to Peter Akpatason, president of the country's largest oil union...

HAVANA -- Fidel Castro accused the United States of wanting to attack Cuba, speaking at a May Day celebration on Thursday that aimed to defend the island's socialist system against criticism from abroad. "In Miami and Washington they are now discussing where, how and when Cuba will be attacked," the Cuban president told a crowd of thousands gathered for the celebration in Havana's Plaza of the Revolution...

SAULSPOORT DAM, South Africa -- A bus packed with passengers headed to a May Day celebration plunged into a reservoir Thursday, killing at least 52 people on board, police said. The bus was pulled ashore hours after it plunged into the reservoir near the town of Bethlehem with 90 people inside. Some bodies were found on the bus; others were pulled from the water...

There is just one week left before the Missouri Legislature's deadline to complete work on the state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Legislative leaders had hoped to send a budget to the governor earlier than the May 9 deadline, but that now appears unlikely...

JIEZISHI, China -- Zhang Qiulian usually welcomes tourists to her bed-and-breakfast in the Lianhua mountains, an hour's drive north of Beijing. But with SARS spreading in China's capital, she sat beside a makeshift roadblock Thursday with a hand-lettered sign saying, "Terribly sorry, no access to outsiders."...

CELTIKSUYU, Turkey -- Listening for small voices, rescuers early Friday searched for dozens of children buried in the rubble of their dormitory after an earthquake struck southeastern Turkey. At least 100 people were killed and 1,000 injured. Search teams working all day Thursday and into the early hours Friday were in contact with four of the children, state-owned TRT television reported from the scene. But there was little sign of 80 other children trapped in the collapsed four-story building...

LONDON -- Local and regional elections caused British Prime Minister Tony Blair some nervousness Thursday, but it was the leader of the opposition who was sweating the vote count. Iain Duncan Smith, leader of the Conservative Party, likely would face yet another round of internal carping and even plotting if his once-mighty party failed to make significant gains against Blair's Labor Party...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli troops stormed a Hamas stronghold on Thursday, setting off the most intense gunbattle in the Gaza Strip in 2 1/2 years of fighting, just a day after mediators presented a Mideast peace plan. Twelve Palestinians were killed, including two children and a top bombmaker...

MADRID -- Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Israel and the Palestinian Authority on Thursday against letting violence "immediately contaminate the road map" toward peace that President Bush has offered. Opening a three-day trip built around Middle East peace efforts, Powell said much work remains before Bush's goal of a Palestinian state by 2005 can be met. That work includes ending suicide bomb attacks and harsh defensive actions by Israel, he said...

This week is National Volunteer Week as proclaimed by President Bush. It is the 30th year for this special recognition of volunteers. Even though a special week has been set aside for volunteer recognition on local, state and national levels, the millions of Americans who find ways to make volunteer contributions in ways small and large are busy all year long...

HOUSTON -- The probe into the collapse of energy trading giant Enron Corp. broadened Thursday with 31 new charges against former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow and indictments of fraud and insider trading against his wife and nine other former executives...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The family of a liquor store worker who was shot and killed during an apparent robbery filed a wrongful death lawsuit against sniper suspects John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. Muhammad, 42, and Malvo, 18, face capital murder charges for the Sept. ...

Fox Sports Net show hit with harassment lawsuitLOS ANGELES -- A hairstylist on Fox Sports Network's "The Best Damn Sports Show Period" has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against co-host and former NBA player John Salley and others involved with the show...

Flipping through the TV channels the other night, I saw a commercial for Spam. For those of you who are computerized, I must explain that there are two kinds of Spam. There's Spam. And there's spam. If your eyes haven't been wasted by endless glaring at the screen of a computer monitor, you will see that one Spam has a big S and the other spam has a little s...

If Larry Eustachy is forced out at Iowa State, his real sin won't be that he was photographed like the star of some "Coaches Gone Wild" video, with a beer in one hand and a student half his age in the other. It will be that he lost. In the tournament, in the conference, on the road -- just enough losses to embolden his critics to call for his job...

Whether it's the war in Iraq or Afghanistan or the threat of terrorism, the signs are obvious: prayer is essential. Or is it? asked Pastor Gary Brothers of Cape First Assembly of God in Cape Girardeau. Brothers spoke during the noon "prayer on the square" service for the National Day of Prayer on Thursday...

Procter & Gamble Co.'s local plant is getting a manager. Rick McLeod, who has been working for P&G in Venezuela since 2000, will take over effective June 1, replacing Kathy Brown, who is transferring to a different position within the company. The company would not provide any details about where Brown is going, saying that is company policy, said human relations manager Mike Jennewein...

The songs she writes and sings sometimes are concerned with peace and social justice, but Amy Martin takes care not to step over the line into self-righteousness. "It's annoying to listen to somebody preach," she says. If she writes an anti-war song she examines the war and aggression in herself...

A section of North Sprigg Street will serve as a race track Saturday for the fourth annual All-American Soap Box Derby in Cape Girardeau. Thirty cars and drivers are scheduled to take part in the competition in front of Blanchard Elementary School that will take place on both lanes of the roadway. ...

Missouri Gov. Bob Holden says he won't enact the Missouri Senate's "doomsday budget" because it would drastically cut state services. In a visit to the Cape Girardeau Senior Center on Thursday, Holden urged the GOP-led Missouri Legislature to put his tax plan before the voters in August rather than cut millions of dollars out of school district, university and state agency budgets...

If it had gone unnoticed at Tipton Linen & Uniform Service, it could easily have become laundered money. Or if people less honest than Mary Sample or Roberta Brown had found $3,500, it could have become pocketed money. Instead, in the two recent instances when Brown and Sample found $2,000 and $1,500 respectively, they turned it in and the money found its way back into the hands of the rightful owners...

Though the construction phase of Cape Girardeau's $17.5 million Cape Rock water plant expansion project is nearly finished, the work of supplying the future water needs of the city is far from over. The 10 new wells drilled on the banks of the Mississippi River don't have the capacity to adequately supply the city in a hard drought without continuing to supplement the system with water directly pulled from the river, say public works officials. ...

Charges of theft and paying for sex with crack cocaine and city dollars were filed Thursday against a former Cape Girardeau narcotics detective. Paul E. Tipler, 35, of Cape Girardeau became the subject of an internal investigation that indicated he stole department money and evidence, said police chief Steve Strong. Tipler was fired in December after being placed on suspension in November. An arrest warrant was issued Thursday...

Turning soil on the River Campus grounds means that Southeast Missouri State University and the city of Cape Girardeau aren't turning back on the visual and performing arts center. Though the project has been stalled by lawsuits in the past, the city and university are ready to move ahead. ...

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN -- President Bush, aboard an aircraft carrier homebound from war, said Thursday night "the United States and our allies have prevailed" against Saddam Hussein's Iraq and will confront any other threatening nation suspected of terrorist ties...

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. international staff returned to Iraq's capital Thursday for the first time since the war and will immediately begin to assess emergency humanitarian needs. The 21-member team was led by the humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, Ramiro Lopes da Silva, and included representatives of the World Health Organization, the World Food Program, the U.N. Children's Fund and the U.N. Development Program...

By Susan Skiles Luke ~ The Associated Press CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University on Thursday named assistant men's basketball coach Matt Painter to the head coaching job. Painter will replace Bruce Weber, who was named head coach Wednesday at the University of Illinois...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The strongest Kentucky Derby favorite in 11 years might have an Achilles' heel. Empire Maker's bruised foot was again the focus at Churchill Downs, two days before the race. Trainer Bobby Frankel proclaimed his 6-5 favorite "100 percent" after a jog Thursday morning, but opposing trainer Ron Ellis said, "It's not an ideal situation."...

After coming ever so close to winning the Ohio Valley Conference indoor track and field meet, Southeast Missouri State University's women have their sights set on capturing the OVC outdoor title this weekend. Host Tennessee State, which captured the indoor championship and has also won the past two outdoor titles, figures to battle Southeast and Eastern Kentucky for the top spot when action is held today and Saturday in Nashville...

By R.B. Fallstrom ~ The Associated Press ST. LOUIS -- Steve Kline, who used to be Mr. Reliable out of the St. Louis Cardinals' bullpen, can't seem to buy an out right now. The left-hander has allowed at least one run in three of his past four outings, and six runs overall in 6 1-3 innings. During that span he has two losses, a victory and a blown save, his second in five chances as the stand-in closer for injured Jason Isringhausen...

ST. LOUIS -- Jim Edmonds was tired and eager to end the game. Edmonds homered off Scott Strickland with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning as the St. Louis Cardinals completed a three-game sweep of the New York Mets with a 6-5 victory on Thursday...

Dear Tom and Ray: I, along with about 20 friends, am determined to go to the Burning Man festival in Nevada this summer. We would like to purchase or rent a school bus capable of making the round trip from Seattle. Is this feasible? Where should we go to find an affordable school bus? If the bus is not used for commercial purposes, do we still need a special license to drive it? Are we running a HUGE risk of breaking down, with no mechanic for miles, in the middle of the desert? How can we resell the thing after we buy it? Thanks. ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Democratic Gov. Bob Holden chided the Republican-led Missouri Legislature on Friday for advancing its conservative agenda instead of the state budget, which must be sent to his desk in one week. Holden has been touring the state this week criticizing the spending cuts in the Republicans' proposed budget and touting his own plan, which would ask voters to raise taxes to avoid the cuts...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Supporters of a bill that would allow Missourians to carry concealed guns forced the measure to Senate passage Friday by employing a rarely used procedure. After more than 11 hours of debate over two days, proponents voted to abruptly end debate, then passed the bill over objections from those who had been trying to block it...

Developers will push for tax-increment financing for a 900-acre residential subdivision when they meet with the city of Cape Girardeau's TIF Commission on May 15. The commission is scheduled to meet at 8 p.m. at the Osage Community Centre. "It will be more of a status meeting to bring everyone up to date as to what has been going on," said Al Spradling III, Cape Girardeau's former mayor and the chairman of the commission...

Construction crews on Cape Girardeau's new Mississippi River span bridged the gap between the towering Missouri shore pier and high ground on Friday, marking a new milestone for the $100 million project that is scheduled to be competed before year's end...

LONDON -- The United States and Britain are preparing a resolution that would give the United Nations a role in humanitarian relief but not peacekeeping in Iraq, a senior Bush administration official said Friday. Separately, the United States has decided to divide the military and humanitarian relief mission in Iraq into three parts under American, British and Polish command, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In what is purported to be his last known wartime speech -- a video never before televised -- Saddam Hussein appears exhausted, at times confused and seemingly resigned to defeat, but he tells Iraqis that God, somehow, will help them expel the American-British occupiers...

WASHINGTON -- A federal court struck down most of a ban on the use of large corporate and union contributions by political parties Friday, casting doubt on a new campaign finance law that was supposed to take big money out of politics and govern next year's elections...

10 years ago: May 3, 1993 U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh has ruled that provisions of federal law supersede Missouri Constitution provision preventing public schools from being used to transport parochial school students to special education classes; judge handed down order in response to lawsuit filed against Cape Girardeau School District and Missouri Department of elementary and Secondary Education by Charles and Pamela Felter family...

Castile Daughter to Billy Joe and Juanita Louise Castile of Cape Girardeau, St. Francis Medical Center, 5:14 a.m. Tuesday, April 29, 2003. Name, Karolyne Sophia Marie. Weight, 7 pounds 11 ounces. Second daughter. Mrs. Castile is the former Juanita Fornkohl, daughter of Cindy Stoverink and Edgar and Cori Stoverink, all of Leopold, Mo. Castile is the son of April Legate of Blue Springs, Mo., and the late Jimmy Castile. He is self-employed with Castile Construction...

MALDEN, Mo. -- Christene House Mitchell, 83, of Malden died in an automobile accident Wednesday, April 30, 2003, on Interstate 55 south of Sikeston, Mo. She was born Dec. 23, 1919, in Bear Creek, Ala., daughter of Arley L. and Helen Butler Woodham. She and Henry House were married Oct. 15, 1938, at Kennett, Mo. He died March 1, 1979...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Mella Quay Batts, 62, of Sikeston died Thursday, May 1, 2003, at her home. She was born March 9, 1941, at Lilbourn, Mo., daughter of James Turner and Waymon Mary Louise Brewer Copous. She first married Kenneth Joe Parker Sr. She and Harry Eugene Batts were married in August 1991. He died April 19, 2002...

Virgie Bernetha McCann, 75, of Springfield, Mo., died Friday, May 2, 2003, at her home. She was born April 6, 1928, at Whitewater, daughter of the Rev. George Lewis and Myrtle Irene Jackson Ventres. She and John T. McCann were married in November 1971. She was formerly of Jackson...

Henry Charles Kirn, 78, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, May 1, 2003, at the Lutheran Home. He was born Oct. 31, 1924, in Cape Girardeau, son of Charles and Gertrude Warnaka Kirn. He and Isabel A. Stricker were married July 11, 1953, at Charleston, Mo...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Dale Hicks, 78, of Jonesboro died Friday, May 2, 2003, at his home. He was born Jan. 3, 1925, in Carnell, Ill., son of Robert Frank and Effie Wilson Hicks. He and Jewell Lindsey were married July 10, 1948, in Catlin, Ill. Hicks was a truck driver many years, and also worked at Anna IGA. He was a member of the Church of the Nazarene in Fairmount, Ill...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Max Robert Miller, 80, of Sikeston died Wednesday, April 30, 2003, at Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau. He was born April 23, 1923, at Puxico, Mo., son of Ethridge and Nettie Patterson Miller. He and Colleen Alsup were married Nov. 29, 1945, in St. Louis...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Margaret A. Patterson, 78, of Sikeston and formerly of Dexter, Mo., died Friday, May 2, 2003, at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Aug. 7, 1924, in Clarence, Mo., daughter of Arthur and Mayme Clay Maupin. She and Darrell Eugene Patterson were married June 10, 1940. He died in November 1959...

Joseph R. Burciaga, 75, of Plano, Texas, died Monday, April 28, 2003, in Dallas, Texas. Survivors include his wife, Georgianna; two daughters, Julie Burciaga of Plano, Toni Chalfant of Sugarland, Texas; a son and daughter-in-law, Joe and Carol Burciaga of Sunrise, Fla.; a brother, the Rev. John Burciaga of Phoenix, Ariz.; a sister and brother-in-law, Mary and John Miller of Cape Girardeau; and two granddaughters, Brandi and Nikki Chalfant of Sugarland...

Soup analogy LET'S SAY a soup company comes out with a new brand of soup. It tastes good but has the side effect of impairing you vision, motor skills and ability to make sound judgments. It has a warning label about these side effects. Not all people who eat this soup have the bad side effects. ...

To the editor: Recently someone wrote, "Either quit complaining about public school schedules or pay to put your kid in a private school. Public schools are not responsible for catering to your religious needs." I would like to ask the author of the above-quoted comment if it has occurred to him that all schools take a Christmas vacation. ...

Briefly Baseball A minor league baseball team thought better of holding a promotion poking fun at Larry Eustachy after realizing the Iowa State basketball coach acknowledged being an alcoholic. The Quad City River Bandits on Friday called off "Larry Eustachy's Iowa State Night at the Ballpark," which was to include cheap beer and a kissing booth...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Larry Eustachy, already suspended by Iowa State for his behavior at late-night parties, was suspended for one game by the NCAA on Friday for a secondary rules violation. The NCAA found Iowa State guilty because Eustachy twice paid players for making free throws. The university was ordered to suspend Eustachy for one game, but that might become moot because athletic director Bruce Van De Velde has recommended Eustachy be fired...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Helped in large part by standout performances from Central High School graduates Courtney Haman and Heather Jenkins, Southeast Missouri State University's women's track and field team got off to a big start Friday as the Ohio Valley Conference outdoor meet began...

Oran's baseball team continued to live up to its No. 1 state ranking Friday at home, routing Portageville 10-4. The Eagles (11-1) jumped out to a 9-1 lead after three innings and cruised from there. Ryne Wood pitched a complete-game five-hitter for the win. Wood struck out 10, walked two and allowed one earned run. Wood helped his cause with a double and three RBIs. Joey Bickings was the offensive star for the Eagles, going 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs...

Rain continued to plague the start of the SEMO conference baseball tournament on Friday, washing out all but one game. In the only game played on Friday, Poplar bluff defeated Dexter 8-7 in Poplar Bluff, Mo. The rest of the tournament is scheduled to begin at noon today at Harmon Field in Chaffee, Mo., and at Notre Dame Regional High School...

ATLANTA As soon as she was old enough, third-grader Ellen Clarke joined the first wave of girl altar servers, helping break up a club reserved for Roman Catholic boys for centuries. Seven years later, the 15-year-old is still serving, but now she's surrounded by other girls helping out priests and deacons on Sundays at Atlanta's Our Lady of the Assumption church...

Today Life of Faith club for girls 8 to 14 will meet at 11 a.m. at Gospeland Bookstore at Westfield Shoppingtown West Park. The event includes games, crafts and lessons on faith. Grace Bible Evangelical Free Church will host Chris Belle at 7 p.m. at the church's One Way Cafe...

Editor's note: Stratton Tingle of Cape Girardeau has returned from eight months in Africa. He is spending May in Arizona to work on a film project before returning to Cape Girardeau for the summer. Well, I'm back in the good, ol' U.S. ...

With little fanfare save a short media advisory, The St. Louis Civil War Roundtable, a group of about 100 Civil War historians and aficionados, came to Southeast Missouri State University's Kent Library last week with more than 50 documents from a Civil War battle in Cape Girardeau in the spring of 1863...

When the Federal Trade Commission made its announcement about Internet spam this week, no regular e-mail user was surprised. The FTC merely confirmed the hassle that e-mail users experience every day. Spam, in short, is the electronic version of junk mail. ...

Cape Girardeau Saturday, May 3 Firefighters responded Thursday to the following item: At 18:04 p.m., citizen assist at 1240 Linden, Apt. 4. Firefighters responded Friday to the following items: At 6:42 a.m., alarm sounding at 430 Broadway. At 6:45 a.m., alarm sounding at 1516 Amblewood...

Cape Girardeau Saturday, May 3 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWI Tony A. Preston Sr., 35, of 720 Jefferson, Cape Girardeau, was arrested Friday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and no proof of insurance...

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department Saturday, May 3 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests Nicholas A. Miller, 23, of Valles Mines, Mo., was arrested April 27 on a St. Francois County warrant for passing bad checks...

Friday Approved an ordinance accepting the dedication of a sanitary sewer easement deed and approved an associated agreement with William J. Penrod regarding the East Main Street Interceptor Sewer Project. Tabled the bid of Robinson Mechanical Contractors Inc. of Perryville, Mo., in the amount of $744,990, regrading the Well No. 7 project...

Part of Route A to be closed for railroad repairs Route A west of Dutchtown will be closed to traffic today for railroad crossing repairs, Missouri Department of Transportation officials said. The road will be closed to traffic from 7 a.m. until evening. Additional work is planned on Monday and traffic will be restricted to one lane, MoDOT officials said...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. forces working with friendly governments in the Horn of Africa have captured members of the al-Qaida terrorist network, a senior U.S. officer said Friday. It was the first public disclosure that the anti-terror hunt in that impoverished region -- including Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Yemen -- had yielded results...

WASHINGTON -- Some of the big companies caught up in accounting allegations have a simple request for the government: When they reported inflated profits, that made their taxes rise; now they want the tax money back. WorldCom, Enron, Qwest Communications and HealthSouth are either pursuing or considering filing for federal tax refunds or credits for payments made on billions of dollars falsely claimed as earnings. ...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. authorities say they have uncovered an al-Qaida plot to crash an explosives-laden small aircraft into the American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. That prompted the Homeland Security Department to warn about possible attacks in the United States...

ROBINSON SENT DOWN TO MEMPHIS The Cardinals optioned outfielder Kerry Robinson, used sparingly the first month, to Triple-A Memphis on Friday. The team also put reliever Russ Springer on the disabled list and called up a pair of relievers, right-hander Mike Crudale and left-hander Kevin Ohme...

WASHINGTON -- A politically connected Chinese-American woman accused of being a double agent had 2,100 contacts with Chinese officials during her time as an FBI informant, documents show. Law enforcement officials are examining whether those meetings compromised investigations into possible Chinese influence on U.S. elections through campaign contributions...

NEW ORLEANS -- Scott Verplank shot a 9-under 63 Friday for a 36-hole tournament record and a three-stroke lead in the HP Classic. Verplank was at 16-under 128 after two trips around the 7,116-yard English Turn, three strokes ahead of Brian Gay and Todd Barranger...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Terry Labonte won his first pole in more than three years in qualifying before Jerry Nadeau was critically injured in a crash while practicing Friday at Richmond International Raceway. Nadeau, who qualified 12th, was airlifted from the track with what doctors said was "the potential for serious injuries" after slamming his Pontiac into the wall. NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said Nadeau was in critical condition at the nearby Medical College of Virginia Hospitals...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Eight people were shot, three fatally, in two unrelated shootings early Friday. Police were called about 12:40 a.m. by residents in a south Kansas City neighborhood who reported hearing gunshots. When officers arrived, they found Jamal Moore, 20, of Kansas City, wounded on the ground. He was taken to a hospital, but later died...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Popping rifle shots into the air and hoisting bodies over their heads, tens of thousands of Palestinians filled the streets Friday to mourn 12 people killed in an Israeli raid, and warned their new prime minister against any attempts to disarm militant groups...

BEIJING -- An accident on a Chinese diesel-powered submarine killed all 70 sailors aboard, the government said Friday, in a rare admission of a military disaster. The accident occurred "recently" in the Yellow Sea off China's northeast coast, the official Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report that didn't explain how the sailors died. It said the vessel had been towed back to an unidentified port...

BINGOL, Turkey -- Police fired warning shots Friday as angry Kurds stoned official vehicles to protest a shortage of earthquake relief supplies while searchers pressed the hunt for children still buried in a collapsed school dormitory. One boy was pulled alive from the rubble Friday morning, 30 hours after the quake, but funerals began for dozens of youngsters already found dead...

NEW DELHI, India -- After a two-year gap marked by mobilization for war, nuclear-armed India and Pakistan agreed Friday to hold talks to settle five decades of disputes and to restore full diplomatic ties. The rapprochement comes ahead of an impending visit to the region by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, and both sides suggested that the trip helped bring them together...

TEHRAN, Iran -- A leading Iranian cleric urged Iraqis to use suicide attacks to expel U.S. forces from Iraq and learn from Iran's Islamic revolution to set up a new government. "The Iraqi people have reached the conclusion that they have no option but to launch an intefadeh and resort to martyrdom operations to expel the United States from Iraq," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told worshippers during Friday sermons in Tehran...

Accused in Peterson case hires prominent lawyer MODESTO, Calif. -- A prominent Los Angeles lawyer who has represented celebrities and served as a television commentator in coverage of Laci Peterson's murder said Friday he will defend her accused husband...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The advertisements that showed up on taxis and buses in San Francisco this week are meant to be as provocative as they are purposeful. "Today we rode a cable car, visited Alcatraz and supported a drug habit," reads one featuring a tourist couple at Fisherman's Wharf...

NEW SWEDEN, Maine -- The church poisonings that killed an elderly man this week could have been far worse without an arsenic antidote stockpiled after the Sept. 11 attacks, health officials said Friday. Fifteen other people were sickened by drinking arsenic-laced coffee after Sunday's service at Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church. Two remained in critical condition Friday at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor...

CHICAGO -- DNA tests show a boy abandoned at a suburban hospital is not the same boy who vanished in North Carolina 2 1/2 years ago, the FBI said Friday. Thomas Kneir, FBI special agent in charge, said the results were conclusive that the boy is not Tristen "Buddy" Myers. Authorities said the boy's DNA had been compared with Buddy's mother, Raven Myers...

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- The climber who amputated his own arm to free himself from beneath a boulder had no other choice if he wanted to survive, one of his rescuers said Friday. Aron Ralston, 27, of Aspen would have died had he stayed where he was, in remote Blue John Canyon near Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah, Emery County sheriff's Sgt. Mitch Vetere told NBC's "Today" show...

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. -- Hard time calls for hard rock -- at least that's the view of Metallica, who performed a free hourlong concert at San Quentin State Prison. The heavy metal band, which is based just up the road in Marin County, agreed to perform Thursday for about 800 inmates after spending 18 hours at the prison Wednesday filming the video for the title track to its new album, "St. Anger."...

Southeast coach says 6-foot-3 Chandra Brown should be an impact player in OVC. By Marty Mishow ~ Southeast Missourian Southeast Missouri State University women's basketball coach B.J. Smith didn't try to hide his glee Friday...

Southeast opens three-game series today with Tennessee-Martin. By Marty Mishow ~ Southeast Missourian Wednesday's 11-10 loss at nationally ranked Missouri was disappointing, but Southeast Missouri State University baseball coach Mark Hogan doesn't expect any kind of carry-over effect when the Indians resume Ohio Valley Conference play this weekend...

SALT LAKE CITY -- John Stockton left the Delta Center on the verge of tears Friday, all but certain it is time for him to retire. Stockton, the NBA's career leader in assists and steals, met with Jazz coach Jerry Sloan and owner Larry Miller and told them he was not planning on coming back for a 20th season...

ST. LOUIS -- Another fast start kept the St. Louis Cardinals rolling. Jim Edmonds' homer highlighted a five-run first, and Jason Simontacchi threw eight sharp innings in an 8-1 victory over the Montreal Expos on Friday night. Fernando Vina homered and went 3-for-3 for the Cardinals, who extended their winning streak to a season-best five games. Mike Matheny also homered and drove in three runs, and Edmonds had three hits...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Bobby Frankel stood atop a low brick wall alongside his barn Friday morning and issued a challenge to anybody who thinks Empire Maker won't win the Kentucky Derby: "Bet against him at your own risk." Foot bruise? "He's fine," he said...

PARIS -- They look as alive as the day Leonardo da Vinci painted them: tasty cherries, ripe, red, ready to eat; crackle-fresh peas popping from their pods; a raspberry, so simple, so enticing. Turn a page in the 500-year-old manuscript and marvel as da Vinci rushes on. ...

The first Lollapalooza festival was held in 1991 to celebrate all things alternative, from music to lifestyles. Founder Perry Farrell of the band Jane's Addiction supposedly took the name from a Three Stooges movie. The Stooges could have inspired many of the events in Friday night's first-ever "Semopolluza" at the Student Recreation Center. ...

A cool demeanor, a professional attitude and qualifications to match. For those reasons, Jackson police chief hiring committee members voted 6-0 to recommend that Lt. James Humphreys be promoted to police chief. The recommendation was followed by a 9-0 vote by Jackson's Board of Aldermen at a meeting Friday afternoon...

The Area Wide United Way has devoted more than $240,000 over the past three years to address "critical needs" in Southeast Missouri, but executive director Nancy Jernigan told a group of business leaders on Friday that there's plenty more to do. "Get involved," Jernigan said at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce-sponsored First Friday Coffee. ...

WASHINGTON -- The nation's unemployment rate swelled to 6 percent in April, returning to an eight-year high as employers slashed payrolls even deeper. The ailing economy has lost a half million jobs in the past three months. The rate was up two-tenths of a percentage point from March, with payrolls falling by 48,000, the Labor Department reported Friday...

Cape Girardeau city officials continue to search for a new fire chief eight months after the vacancy occurred. Mayor Jay Knudtson said the search was delayed by funding issues that were linked to the fee and tax package on the April 8 ballot. "We made a conscious decision to slow this process down to allow for the election to occur," the mayor said...

DEWEY, Ill. -- David Deem's handiwork can be seen throughout University of Illinois buildings, from the standard dorm couches in residence hall lounges to the leather sofas in the library at Allerton House. He's put his touch on everything from the simple desk chairs in the Grainger Engineering Library to the Chippendale dining room chairs at the President's House...

CHICAGO -- As the newly appointed president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Deborah Card knows that she's going to be under a very hot spotlight when she assumes the post Sept. 1. She takes over one of the world's most celebrated orchestras at a time when classical music is facing serious financial challenges...

UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. -- At Blueberry Hill, photos of famous musicians line the walls: Paul McCartney, Aretha Franklin, Steven Tyler. The restaurant, known for its juicy burgers and monthly performances by Chuck Berry, sits in The Loop -- a neighborhood popular with students for its record stores, coffee shops and trendy storefronts...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Senate has always taken to heart the motto inscribed in its chamber: "Free and fair discussion is the firmest friend of the truth." While in the House of Representatives debate is cut off whenever a majority of members have had enough, the tradition is different in the upper chamber...

Before the war, the Bush administration pressured U.N. inspectors to question reluctant Iraqi scientists as part of the hunt for unconventional weapons. Once Saddam Hussein was removed, U.S. officials expected the scientists and others would feel free to reveal secrets about Iraq's suspected hidden arsenal...

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush said Saturday it is a matter of when -- not if -- weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq while suggesting that task is getting little help from Saddam Hussein's captured confederates. "We'll find them," Bush said of Iraq's suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. "It'll be a matter of time to do so."...

The scene has become familiar: a tearful reunion as a smiling soldier kisses his wife or a beret-wearing mother hugs her daughter. With the fighting in Iraq over, many military loved ones are coming home to a happy ending. But for others -- those who still haven't heard from their family members overseas, in some cases for months -- a joyous reunion remains elusive...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The winner was a gelding, the first in 74 years. The favorite finished second and his foot was fine. Baffert and Lukas hardly mattered. There sure was a Funny Cide to this Kentucky Derby. "People just didn't believe in this horse because he is a gelding," said jockey Jose Santos. "This is an excellent horse. I can't believe we won the Kentucky Derby."...

OMAHA, Neb. -- Chief executives of some major companies are overpaid, Warren Buffett, the investment wizard who turned Berkshire Hathaway into a multibillion-dollar holding company, told his stockholders Saturday. And at a time of criminal investigations of corporations such as Enron, Buffett cautioned stockholders to give careful attention to company financial reports...

FRANCONIA, N.H. -- New Hampshire awoke Saturday to find its stern granite symbol of independence and stubbornness, the Old Man of the Mountain, had collapsed into indistinguishable rubble. The fall ended nearly a century of efforts to protect the 40-foot-tall landmark from the same natural forces that created it. Only stabilizing cables and epoxy remained Saturday where the famous ledges had clung...

LONDON -- The U.S. company that invented blue jeans and a distinctive cloth tab to go with them has accused a British clothing company of violating its 65-year-old trademark. Levi Strauss & Co., the 150-year-old San Francisco maker of all things denim, has warned Wales-based Howies to stop selling jeans with a gray, cloth tab label bearing its brand name...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Verizon customers could have a little extra spending money starting this summer. The phone company, the Citizens Utility Board and state officials announced Thursday a settlement that eventually would save 850,000 Illinois Verizon customers more than $25 million a year...

DECATUR, Ill. -- Saying they shared the same priorities, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced Thursday that he has chosen Macon County Sheriff Roger E. Walker Jr. to run the state prison system. "His priorities are the same as mine -- to operate and maintain the best, the safest and the most efficient correctional system in the country," Blagojevich said at an afternoon news conference here...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Court officials estimate there will be up to 3,000 restitution claims from victims and their families in the Robert R. Courtney drug dilution case. "In the last week, we've gotten several hundred a day as the deadline got closer," said Paige Wymore-Wynn, chief deputy clerk. "We're still getting quite a few."...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Walt Disney World officials marked the fifth anniversary of Animal Kingdom on April 22 by announcing plans to build a new coaster-like ride for the park, which has lagged behind its sister parks in attendance. The "Expedition Everest" ride will open in 2006...

VADUZ, Liechtenstein -- Liechtenstein is so small that the whole state can be hired for corporate events and the entire population is invited to drinks at the royal castle on the national holiday. The capital doesn't have a railway station, let alone an airport, and a nationwide tour takes just two hours...

Part of the American tradition is to have a piece of land to call your own. Space at a reasonable price can be found at 115 Paul Dow, about five miles outside the Jackson city limits. This house is about three years old and comes with three acres of land for $167,900...

Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Hobeck of Friedheim recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. They were honored with an open house held in the fellowship hall at United Methodist Church in Daisy, Mo. Hosts were their children and spouses, Patsy and Larry Ford of Oak Ridge, Mo., Jim and Diana Hobeck of Oak Ridge, and Randy and Trish Hobeck of Friedheim...

Judith Christa Leigh Long and Dale Robert Burger of Scott City announce their engagement. She is the daughter of the late Leo and Suzanne Long. Burger is the son of Mike and Judy Burger of Scott City. Long is a 2002 graduate of Meadow Heights High School at Patton, Mo. She is employed at JCPenney...

Cara M. Jauch and Brandon A. Raines announce their engagement. She is the daughter of Doug and Carol Rees of Jackson and Radley and JoDean Jauch of Oak Ridge. Raines is the son of Alan and Cathy Raines of Scott City. Jauch is a 1994 graduate of Jackson High School, and is pursuing a degree in finance at Southeast Missouri State University. She is a cash flow manager at VTG Audio Inc. in Jackson...

Robert and LaDonna English of Louisiana, Mo., announce the engagement of their daughter, Katherine Maureen English, to Daniel Eugene Heberlie, both of Cape Girardeau. He is the son of Gary Heberlie of Perryville, Mo., and Michelle Aye of Mooresville, N.C...

Ed and Darlene Serandos of Cape Girardeau announce the engagement of their daughter, Lisa Serandos, to Josh Adams. He is the son of Gerald and Nancy Adams of Jackson. Serandos received a degree in family life from Southeast Missouri State University in December 2002. She is employed at Target...

David and Charlotte Maybry of Memphis, Tenn., announce the engagement of their daughter, Joanna R. Maybry, to Phillip J. Shaver, both of Cape Girardeau. He is the son of William and Sara Shaver of St. Louis. Maybry received a bachelor of science degree in sociology from Southeast Missouri State University in 2000, and is pursuing a master's degree. She is a residence hall director at Southeast University...

Jeff and Marcella Schnakenberg of Buffalo, Mo., announce the engagement of their daughter, Beth Erin Schnakenberg, to Craig Kurre Ringwald. He is the son of Mike and Judy Ringwald of Cape Girardeau. Schnakenberg is a 1999 graduate of Republic High School. She expects to receive a degree in exercise science from Murray State University in Murray, Ky., in May 2003. She was a member of the Lady Racers basketball team...

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Elledge of Cape Girardeau announce the engagement of their daughter, Aimee Marie Elledge, to Garren Joseph Crowell. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Crowell of Jackson. Elledge is a 1999 graduate of Eagle Ridge Christian School, and 2001 graduate of Metro Business College. She is employed at Urology Associates...

Mearlin and Darlene Allen of Cape Girardeau announce the engagement of their daughter, Amy Darlene Allen, to Daniel Milton Wilson. He is the son of Joe and Jan Wilson of Cape Girardeau. Allen is majoring in accounting at Southeast Missouri State University. She is a cashier at Amerimart...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Michelle Lynn Soots and Larry Wayne Dreyer were married Oct. 12, 2002, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, Mo. The Rev. Matthew Marks performed the ceremony. Vocalists were Stacey Kinikin and Dennis Hacker of Longtown, Mo. Parents of the bride are J.T. Price of Altenburg and Shirley Richardson of Perryville. The groom is the son of Lowell and Irma Dreyer of Perryville...

BENTON, Mo. -- Sarah Marshall and Keith Gregory exchanged vows April 18, 2003, at Christian Mission in Benton. Teresa Williams performed the ceremony. Pianist was Victoria Malone of St. Louis. Parents of the bride are the Rev. William and Loretta Marshall of Benton. The groom is the son of James and Mildred Gregory of Benton...

Rebecca Jean Luebbers and Charles Wayne Sullivan were married Feb. 15, 2003, at Bethany Baptist Church. The Rev. Raymond McAfee performed the ceremony. Soloist was Danetta Held of Cape Girardeau. Parents of the couple are Mr. and Mrs. Bob Luebbers of Cape Girardeau, and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Martin of Scott City...

Danielle Kristine Cotner and Michael Jason Powers were married Oct. 26, 2002, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Egypt Mills. The Rev. Mark Martin performed the ceremony. Organist was Judy Beal. Ron and Karen Cotner of Cape Girardeau are parents of the bride. The groom is the son of Judith Kirk of St. Louis...

10 years ago: May 4, 1993 Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce beautification committee's proposal for lighting new Mississippi River bridge is "doable" project, say members of committee; John Layton of committee says group has talked to highway department personnel and recently obtained endorsement for project from chamber board...

St. Mary Cathedral School A Honor Roll 8th Grade -- Allison Bode, Jackie Boos, Abe Dirnberger, Aimee Ha, Shannon James, Hannah Schaefer, Laura Simmons, Jack Wedemeier, Kaci Westrich, Ayesha Zuberi 7th Grade -- Christy Borgman, Christina Chastain, Cody Farrow, Emily Matthews, Nick Ostendorf, Adam Parker, Jenni Tenholder...

St. Vincent De Paul Parish School A Honor Roll 8th Grade -- Claire Bira, Emily Blattel, Hailey Brown, Brett Heischmidt, Meridith Medlin, Chrissy Renick, Megan Robert, Beth Schnurbusch, Christine Stokes, Dana Wozniak 7th Grade -- Elizabeth Buchheit, Beth Caldwell, Matthew Clements, Aaron Essner, Mark Himmelberg, Neil Kanneberg, Matt Kiblinger, Parker Kohlfeld, Kristen McLain, Blake Palmer, Aaron Schmidt, Paige Schumer, Jordan Seabaugh, James Thompson, David Westrich, Mark Zimmer...

Kelly Middle School A Honor Roll 8th Grade - Samantha Barber, Rachel Burnett, Kylie De Witt, Brittany Ditto, Zachary Hamm, Amanda Hopper, Cassie Jackson, Jennifer McDonough, Summer Proctor, Hannah Rolwing, Heath Rolwing, Kourtnie Smith, Emily Strobel, Dallas Tew, Davina Watson...

New Salem Baptist Academy A Honor Roll 11th Grade - Hannah McCormick, Daniel Poole 10th Grade - MacKenzie Jones 7th Grade - Brett Jones 5th Grade - Ethan Allen, Trent Jones, David Poole 4th Grade - Martha Poole 2nd Grade - Jared Cook 1st Grade - Caitlin Cook, Valerie Lewis, Rachel Poole...

St. Augustine School A Honor Roll 8th Grade - Kyle Essner, Chad Friend, Valerie Gibbons, Andrew Glueck, Lindsey LeGrand, Luke Rayfield. 7th Grade - Allyson Atchley, Brittney Diebold, Whitney Eftink, Logan Glueck, Kaitie Henley, Micheala Hobeck, Drew Koeppel, Brittany Layton, Chelsey Menz, Allison Peters, Madelyn Ressel...

South Elementary School A Honor roll 5th Grade - Bailey Abbott, Justin Bader, Karlee Bauknecht, Kelsey Bierman, Sarah Brown, John Cargle, Mackenzie Childs, Matt Crader, Trent Dickerson, Allyson Duncan, Jennifer Fellows, Blake Fields, Hannah Floyd, Kara Goodier, Kyle Goodier, Jake Hanna, Donny Henson, Courtney Keifer, Kayla Lawson, Jessica McCallister, Wynn McClellan, Austin McRaven, Brittany Overbeck, Audrey Peters, Jenna Robinson, Julia Rodenas, Jill Rushin, Lauren Scuette, Stephen Sladek, Katie Stephens, Devon Trowbridge, Landon Wachter.. ...

Scott City High School High Honor roll 12th Grade - Chris Bradshaw, Jack Dannenmueller, Ashley Davis, Amanda Eades, Audrey Heisserer, Loretta Holmes, Holly Lambert, Maria Lett, Katie Mirgeaux, Hannah Robert, Jessica Stickel 11th Grade - Renee Compass, Jessica Estes, Jessi Glueck, Loren Groves, Kieran Healy, Amanda Raines...

Scott City R-1 Middle School High Honor roll 8th Grade - Austin Robinson, Daniel Schuenemeyer 7th Grade - Brittany Dohogne, Emilee Glueck, Donielle Howell, Derek Laxton, Ryan Miller, Brooke Rhymer, Lauren Schaefer, Tricia Straub, Kristin Yetman 6th Grade - Samuel Irvin, Amy Lawman...

ST. MARY, Mo. -- Ronald E. "Ronnie" Kiefer, 44, of St. Mary died Thursday, May 2, 2003, in Perry County. He was born Aug. 15, 1958, at Perryville, Mo., son of Lester and Ella Ruth Graff Kiefer. He and Glenda M. Kramer were married May 15, 1993. Kiefer was the owner/operator of Ronnie's Automotive. He was a member of St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church...

Melvin D. Bacon, 83, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, May 2, 2003, at the Missouri Veterans Home. He was born Nov. 18, 1919, at Cape Girardeau, son of Robert Troy and Ann Geldmacher Bacon. He and Marie Helen Telle were married Nov. 18, 1945, at Cape Girardeau. She died June 28, 1997...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Mary Jean Wilder Rudd, 25, died Friday, May 2, 2003, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born on May 8, 1977, at Kennett, Mo., daughter of Allen McCallister of Holcomb, Mo., and Donna Cureton of Sikeston. She worked as a dispatcher for Freedom Taxi in Sikeston...

OLMSTED, Ill. -- Virginia E. Grisham, 80, of Olmsted died Saturday, May 3, 2003, at Union County Hospital in Anna, Ill. She was born on Aug. 27, 1922, daughter of Horace and Florence Holdman Grisham. She lived for many years in Fort Wayne, Ind., where she owned and operated restaurants before her retirement...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Jarrell D. Griffin, 73, of Mesa, Ariz., died Friday, May 2, 2003, at Mesa General Hospital. He was a retired banker from Sikeston. The funeral is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday. Blanchard Funeral Chapel in Sikeston is in charge of arrangements...

Reason for no vote I WOULD like to tell the city why I voted no against the taxes. I knew what I was voting for. I understood the ballot. After the last school election, the taxes on my home went up $127 a year. That's the reason I voted against the city tax increases and the reason I'll vote against every tax increase that comes up in the future. ...

Another critical legal issue is being raised as the result of a judge's ruling in Cape Girardeau County. This time the rights of motorists suspected of driving while intoxicated are at stake. A Jackson woman who was stopped by police refused to take a Breathalyzer test. ...

The effort to combat the manufacture, sale and use of methamphetamine, an illegal drug that is highly addictive and can be made from chemicals available in easily obtained products, is a messy one. Whenever law enforcement agencies find and shut down meth labs, they are faced with the dangerous task of cleaning up what amounts to a chemical wasteland that can cause toxic poisoning, explosions and fires...

Cape Girardeau Sunday, May 4 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWI Faith Blackman of 613 Indian Hills St., St. Charles, Mo., was arrested Saturday on suspicion of failing to yield and driving while intoxicated at Broadway and Sprigg...

Cape Girardeau Sunday, May 4 Firefighters responded to the following calls on Saturday: At 1:02 a.m., a medical assist at 24 S. Spanish. At 7:44 a.m., a medical assist at 316 S. Lorimier. At 8:30 a.m., a smoke detector sounding at 1400 S. West End Blvd., Apt. 14...

Until the mid-1990s, Spam was nothing more than a canned meat product. Today, spam is the derisive term for the unwanted e-mails that are the bane of Internet users. So how did the word evolve from the trademarked name of a perfectly legitimate, if sometimes ridiculed, loaf of spiced ham and other pork components to its present, quite different usage?...

ORAN, Mo. -- A 5-year-old boy was struck by a car on Main Street in Oran on Friday, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said. Gage Hosey of Sikeston, Mo., suffered moderate injuries in the accident, the patrol said. He was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. A condition report was unavailable on Saturday...

WASHINGTON -- In a strongly worded letter, Secretary of State Colin Powell has urged Pentagon officials to move faster in determining which prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay can be released, defense officials said Saturday. Powell's April 14 letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld questioned the continued detention of some 660 prisoners from 42 countries who were captured during the war against al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations...

CHICAGO -- You start your trip on the shore of Lake Michigan, inside a white marble hall decorated with whimsical figures of sea creatures. An eight-second elevator ride later, you're standing on the brown, sandy shores of Apo Island in the Philippines...

FULTON, Mo. -- A former Fulton municipal payroll clerk has been charged with stealing at least $10,000 over one year. Dora Stone, 37, was the city's only payroll clerk until March 31, when she was fired because of the allegation. An investigation found at least $10,000 in city funds were missing...

ST. LOUIS -- A St. Louis judge has ordered that a convicted rapist be freed from a mental hospital for adjudged sexually violent predators, apparently making him just the second person released from the 5-year-old site. Eddie Thomas, 50, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 1982 to 23 years in prison for raping and sodomizing two women. He was scheduled for parole in 2000 but was ordered confined under a then-new sexual-predator law...

BUCKNER, Mo. -- In a bid to deal with a bleak financial situation, the city of Buckner has had to cut its police force -- drastically. "What do you do when the bill comes? You have to pay it," said city administrator Doug Brock. "With all the cuts we made, it was obvious that the only place left to make cuts was labor."...

CHICAGO -- The parent organization for a hospital that declined to help a wounded teenager dying just outside its doors in 1998 has agreed to pay $12.5 million to the victim's family. The parents of Christopher Sercye and his two brothers will share the money paid by Advocate Health Care to settle a lawsuit filed against the now-closed Ravenswood Hospital...

WASHINGTON -- The United States needs to spend at least $7.4 billion to completely clean some of the most contaminated sites on the Great Lakes, according to a report released Thursday by the commission monitoring the work. Canada and the United States have agreed to clean up 43 contaminated sites -- 26 in the United States, 12 in Canada and five in channels shared by both countries...

LINCOLN, Neb. -- A $700,000 verdict against Farmland Industries in a tainted-feed case was reduced Thursday by a federal appeals court A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a case filed by a Mason City dairy farm. Bob, Debra, Greg and Joyce Racicky run Elk Creek Dairy, an award-winning commercial Holstein dairy farm in central Nebraska's Sherman County...

GENESEO, Ill. -- An F-15 pilot has been disciplined because he failed to get permission for a February flyover that sent a prewar scare through this western Illinois city, military investigators have ruled. The two-month probe also found that Maj. Whitney Sieben did not violate any flight safety regulations and that witness reports of acrobatic maneuvers were unfounded, military officials said Thursday...

CHICAGO -- A federal magistrate has thrown out misdemeanor charges brought against the parent company of a large electrical contractor in the deaths of two employees. U.S. Magistrate Judge Geraldine Soat Brown ruled on Thursday that Rolling Meadows-based MYR Group Inc. could not be held criminally liable for the deaths of two men who were electrocuted in separate incidents while working on steel towers supporting high-voltage power lines in Chicago's suburbs...

CELTIKSUYU, Turkey -- Hanefi Beldek picked up scraps of paper and notebooks scattered around the rubble of a dormitory that collapsed in an earthquake three days ago, killing at least 79 of his schoolmates. "What I'm really looking for is my diary that was signed by all my friends. There is nothing in the world that I want more right now," the 15-year-old boy said, crying...

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday outlined for Syria's president the policy changes the United States believes he must make to survive alongside a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq that has friends in Washington. Powell and Bashar Assad met for three hours in Damascus, Syria's capital, and Powell left immediately for Beirut to try to sell Lebanon on the U.S.-sponsored "road map" for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. ...

JERUSALEM -- Israel destroyed a weapons-smuggling tunnel in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, hours after a British journalist was killed filming the operation. A Palestinian youth was also shot after troops returned fire at a crowd throwing hand grenades and fire bombs, the army said...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The rocket-propelled grenade cut right through the turret of his Bradley Fighting Vehicle, spraying him with hot gas and shrapnel. That was more than three weeks ago, and Staff Sgt. Thomas Slago's physical wounds have healed. On Saturday, though, Slago did something that the U.S. military increasingly views as an important part of an American warrior's recovery: He got to talk about it...

Gunshot victim linked to arsenic poisonings CARIBOU, Maine -- Investigators have information linking a farmer who died of a gunshot wound to the arsenic poisonings at a church lunch that killed one person and sickened more than a dozen others, authorities said Saturday...

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- Hundreds of hostages left the offshore oil rigs where striking oil workers held them captive for weeks -- signaling a peaceful end to the standoff Saturday. Some essential staff would remain behind on the four oil-drilling platforms, but "everyone else, they are departing in phases" over the weekend, said Guy Cantwell, spokesman for rig owners Transocean Inc., based in Houston...

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. -- Angela Lansbury -- very much in character as her renowned snoopy sleuth Jessica Fletcher -- walks briskly up to a police car as cameras roll. "Mum, hold it one second going in," suggests the director, who happens to be Lansbury's son, Anthony Shaw...

LOS ANGELES -- Saying it's time to take on new challenges, Aaron Sorkin has announced he is leaving NBC's "The West Wing," the Emmy-winning White House drama he created four years ago. Thomas Schlamme, an executive producer, also is leaving. The show will continue with John Wells, another executive producer, in charge. Wells' other series include NBC's "ER" and "Third Watch."...

PITTSBURGH -- About 2,000 friends, celebrities and strangers gathered Saturday to celebrate the life of Fred Rogers, the television pioneer whose "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" has been watched by generations of children. John Rogers said his father met Ralph Waldo Emerson's definition of success: "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children ... to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived."...

All he had to do was say yes. It was the 1980s, and Maher Hatout needed money for the Muslim community in Los Angeles. Saudi Arabia, Libya and other foreign governments were offering millions of dollars to help build mosques and Islamic schools in America...

PHILADELPHIA -- The Rev. Judith Heffernan doesn't let herself worry about whether celebrating Mass will mean getting excommunicated. Papal rulings to the contrary, Heffernan has performed baptisms, heard confessions, celebrated Mass and participated in last rites as a Catholic priest for 23 years, since a Jesuit priest ordained her before her church, the Community of the Christian Spirit in Philadelphia...

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. -- Grinning from ear to ear in his Army dress uniform, former prisoner of war Spc. Joseph Hudson waved from the back of a red convertible Saturday as his hometown celebrated his return with a parade. Hundreds of Alamogordo residents shouted "Welcome home, Joe!" and waved American flags as the soldier, his wife, Natalie, and 5-year-old daughter, Cameron, cruised down a main street of the yellow-ribbon-plastered southern New Mexico city...

LONDON -- Madonna is tired of reading newspaper articles saying that she doesn't like England anymore. She insists she still loves the place, especially its ale and London's nightlife. But that doesn't mean she likes the capital's mayor, whom she condemned as "Red Ken" on Friday. As far as she's concerned, the new road toll he's imposed in the city is undermining her privacy...

NEW YORK -- A New York Times reporter resigned Thursday after he was accused of appropriating without attribution material from another newspaper's story about a Texas woman whose son was killed in combat in Iraq, the Times said. A Times review of the story by Jayson Blair has "been unable to determine what original reporting he did to produce it," Times Executive Editor Howell Raines said in a statement Thursday night...

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- Eleven fraternity brothers have been charged in the death of a pledge who police say was forced to drink pitchers of water through a funnel until he vomited. The Psi Epsilon Chi members are accused of criminally negligent homicide and hazing for the March 12 death of Plattsburgh State University of New York student Walter Dean Jennings, 18...

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- At the Cinco de Mayo celebrations of his childhood, John Zamora remembers the sound of mariachis, the taste of tamales and mischievous kids cracking confetti-filled eggshells on each other's heads. When Zamora became a father, he brought his own children to the celebrations, then his grandchildren. But the crowds got bigger and people were drinking too much. Finally, he stopped going...

The AssociatedPress MOORESTOWN, N.J. -- Blair Hornstine's latest report card had four A-plus grades in five courses. She scored a 1570 out of 1600 on the SAT and is deciding whether to attend Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Princeton or Cornell -- all of which have accepted her...

BOSWELL, Pa. -- Maybe $45 a month isn't enough, or the job is thankless. Whatever it is, this tiny borough is having a hard time finding a mayor. Regina Felice resigned as Boswell's part-time mayor in March, and the council has been scrambling to find a replacement to serve out the final two years of her term...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- For graduate students at Yale University, the question was supposed to be elementary: Did they want to form a union that would fight for more money and benefits for them? Instead of the resounding "Yes" that people on both sides of the issue had been expecting, the initiative was narrowly rejected...

Hundreds of people throughout the area joined Thursday to pray for our country and its leaders as part of the National Day of Prayer. I was at the morning gathering at the Osage Center, hosted by Mayors Paul Sander and Jay Knudtson, where thoughtful prayers and uplifting music started the day in a godly way. Former secretary of state Bekki Cook delivered the featured address in warm, inclusive style...

jkoch By Dr. John Koch Question: A young tomcat recently started coming to my door step. He was a cute little fellow, and I felt sorry for him. We have started letting him into the house now, and it looks like we have a new pet. I am a little concerned about spraying. Everyone tells me I should have him neutered before this bad habit starts. Neutering seems sort of mean spirited. I was wondering if I had him vasectomized, would that accomplish the same thing?...

ST. LOUIS -- Authorities once bent on curbing thefts of anhydrous ammonia often required for methamphetamine have a new dilemma: Savvy makers of the drug apparently are crafting the ammonia on their own. Authorities this year raided a lab making anhydrous ammonia in Lemay, a St. ...

Southeast Missouri State University has had one of the Ohio Valley Conference's top track and field programs since the school moved up to Division I and joined the OVC in 1991. But entering the weekend, Southeast had not added to its total of 10 OVC championships since 2000 when the women captured both the indoor and outdoor titles...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Checking your e-mail these days can bring to mind a chant from an old Monty Python sketch: "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam." The overload of spam -- unsolicited and unwanted e-mail -- is frustrating to those who aren't interested in exciting and lucrative work-from-home opportunities, the latest can't-miss investment scheme or increasing the size of their naughty bits...

Briefly Baseball The Mets placed struggling slugger Mo Vaughn on the 15-day disabled list Saturday and recalled catcher Jason Phillips from Triple-A Norfolk. Vaughn was sidelined with inflammation in his left knee...

What's the story? ON WEDNESDAY, Kelly's baseball team had a big win over rival East Prairie, and nothing was in the paper, not even a score. But when they lose to a bigger school like Central or Jackson, it gets front-page headlines. Where's the fairness?...

MARTIN, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State University baseball coach Mark Hogan warned his players to not take struggling Tennessee-Martin lightly. The Indians evidently took the message to heart Saturday as they pounded out a doubleheader victory over the Ohio Valley Conference's last-place team, romping 9-1 and 14-2...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Larry Eustachy, recently suspended by Iowa State for his behavior at college parties and slapped with a one-game suspension by the NCAA for rules violations, is deciding what approach to take in the fight to keep his job. Eustachy's attorney, Doug Gross, said the coach has until close of business Monday to choose whether he will appeal the university's decision. Gross said Saturday he was meeting with Eustachy to "evaluate the issues the university has raised."...

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Mike Price was fired by Alabama without coaching a single game because of behavior including a night at a topless bar -- another embarrassment for a once-proud football team. University president Robert Witt said Saturday that Price failed to live his "personal and professional life in a manner consistent with university policies."...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State University's women began the Ohio Valley Conference outdoor track and field meet with a bang on Friday and never let up. The result was the Otahkians' first OVC title since 2000 after they finished the two-day meet on Saturday with 193 points to ease past Eastern Kentucky (174)...

RICHMOND, Ky. -- Southeast Missouri State University and host Eastern Kentucky split an Ohio Valley Conference doubleheader Saturday, meaning the Otahkians can still finish in a tie for second place in the league. After Southeast won 4-0 and lost 4-1, the Otahkians need a win in today's series and regular-season finale to tie both EKU and Tennessee-Martin for second place. A loss means Southeast will finish fourth in the eight-team conference...

There was not a special promotion at Notre Dame Regional High School Saturday afternoon, but it sure had the appearance. It looked like "Left-hander Day at the Ballpark" as the rain-hampered SEMO Conference Baseball Tournament finally got rolling. The promotion might have read: Any left-hander taking the mound would be guaranteed a season highlight as well as a complete-game victory...

Jackson's girls track and field team took first place at Friday's Poplar Bluff Invitational, slipping past second-place Central. The Indians scored 160 points to 139.5 for the Tigers. Trisha Kluesner won both hurdle events, and Heather West won the long jump and triple jump to lead Jackson. Rachel Lowes captured the 400. Jackson also dominated the relay events, winning all but the 3,200...

Two eggs showed children the reason for wearing seat belts at the Jackson Noon Optimist Safety City program at City Park Saturday. Optimist member Anita Sievers used the eggs in a mock demonstration of a car wreck. Two toy cars traveled down a ramp separately, headed for a brick. One egg was strapped in with first aid tape while the other was not. The unrestrained egg jumped the brick...

Gravity propels Soap Box Derby drivers across the finish line By Mark Bliss ~ Southeast Missourian They crouched low in their red and blue cars. Helmets fastened on their heads, eyes fixed on the finish line, the young drivers raced downhill two cars at a time in the fourth annual Cape Girardeau Rotary Club Soap Box Derby...

ST. LOUIS -- The risk of playing Albert Pujols with a sprained right elbow seems worth the reward for the Cardinals. Pujols hit his third home run in five games, and Garrett Stephenson worked eight strong innings as the Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos 3-1 Saturday for their sixth straight win...

NEW ORLEANS -- Scott Verplank shot a 5-under 67 Saturday to remain three strokes ahead of the low-scoring field after the third round of the HP Classic of New Orleans. Verplank's 195 total put him 21 under through 54 holes -- nearly matching the course record for 72 holes -- as English Turn remained defenseless with little wind, fast fairways and soft greens,...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Joe Nemechek overcame a pit-road blunder that cost him 24 spots by gambling on tires and getting help from late-race cautions and rain to win the Pontiac Excitement 400 on Saturday night. Nemechek was declared the winner during a red-flagged stoppage with 6 1/2 laps to go when rain showers that caused the pause persisted. The red flag followed three cautions in the last 30 laps that also helped the Hendrick Motorsports veteran prevail despite his challengers' fresher tires...

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- In a relief for NASA, two American astronauts along with a Russian cosmonaut returned to Earth from the international space station earlier today in a cramped Russian capsule, getting home the only way they could after the Columbia space shuttle disaster...

You've got to hand it to Scott Ginsberg. He's made a name for himself. And to think he did it with something as simple as a handwritten, slap-it-on-your-shirt name tag. Ginsberg sees it as a conversation starter, a simple way to get people to talk to each other rather than stare blankly at the floor...

The Associated Press NEW MARKET, Va. -- Want to work on the railroad? Then become a gardener. Many families are crossing gender and generational lines to make model railroading and gardening into one year-round landscaping project. "It combines some varying interests," says Paul Busse, a landscape architect from Alexandria, Ky., who specializes in designing railroad gardens. ...

Unless well acquainted with all the back roads and where to ford the creeks and river, one would have a difficult time finding our early farm home. Grandma was always willing to give precise directions. When Aunt Lydia called, said she was coming to visit us, and needed a reminder as to how to get there, Grandma was more than willing to be helpful...

10 years ago: May 5, 1993 Written remarks in Regional Commerce and Growth Association executive director's report suggest that "powerful and vindictive" forces are trying to keep Scott City from participating in industrial recruitment group have drawn fire from several members; "I think it's a classic case of paranoia," says Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Gene Huckstep in response to remarks written by RCGA executive director Walt Wildman...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Renada White, 94, of Chaffee, formerly of St. Louis, died Sunday, May 4, 2003, at Chaffee Nursing Center. Arrangement are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee.

FARMINGTON, Mo. -- Geraldine "Jeri" Detring, 73, of Farmington, Mo., died Saturday, May 3, 2003, at Mineral Area Regional Medical Center in Farmington. She was born April 6, 1930, at Flat River, Mo., daughter of Lewis Cole and Anna Belle Meredith Shannon. She and Walter Charles Detring were married May 25, 1948, at Farmington...

Dr. Steven Frederic Roth, 56, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, May 2, 2003, at his home. He was born Jan. 18, 1947, in Cape Girardeau, son of Raymond T. and Opal Sample Roth. He was a 1965 graduate of Illmo-Fornfelt-Ancell High School and of Southeast Missouri State University. He was a 1974 graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Elizabeth Ann "Betty Ann" Crouthers Nelson, 72, died Saturday, May 3, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born June 22, 1930, in Lilbourn, Mo., daughter of the late Pearl James and Ethel Campbell Stearns, she was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Sikeston...

Church family I AM sorry for all you so-called Christians saying hateful things to those people who have been hurt by churches. I recently was invited to church. The person who invited me said half the members were going to hell. Where does he get off judging people like that? It is called a church family, and you need to be there for your fellow man and not just two hours a week. ...

It came as a shock to many parents with children in the Gordonville Attendance Center: The school's three classrooms will be reduced to two next year as a result of declining enrollment. As it stands, Gordonville children only attend grades 1 through 3 there. ...

Jackson High School officials recently unveiled a program that will help students who need it most. There are many teenagers with good attitudes, good attendance and good work ethics, but they suffer from disabilities that keep them from writing resumes and having strong job interviews...

Suedekum named VP at 1st Community Bank Roger Suedekum has been appointed to the position of vice president-real estate loan specialist for 1st Community Bank, which was effective May 1. Suedekum has more than 30 years of experience in real estate lending in the Cape Girardeau area as the former real estate lender for Union Planters Bank...

Cape Career Center to hold open house The Cape Girardeau Career Center at 760 S. Kingshighway is inviting the public to its open house from 1:30-3:30 p.m. May 13. Refreshments and door prizes will be offered. The public will learn about the center's new Web site -- greathires.org. Information will be available on business resources, local training services, tax credit information, labor market data by industry and county and how to advertise job openings at no cost to the business...

Cape Girardeau Monday, May 5 Firefighters responded to the following items Saturday: At 5:58 p.m., a medical assist at 1411 Themis. At 7:32 p.m., an alarm sounding at 717 N. Sprigg St. At 8:32 p.m., a medical assist at 616 Koch. At 11:32 p.m., a medical assist at 308 W. Lorimier,Apt. 101...

Cape Girardeau Monday, May 5 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWIs Ann Marie Jordan of 921 Hackberry, Apt. 210, CapeGirardeau, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated...

As the weather gets warmer, Cape Girardeau gets louder. That's the consensus among police and residents who point out that the number of noise violations is on the rise with the temperatures. The problem is being taken so seriously by police that chief Steve Strong recently addressed the city council about his concerns, telling them 27 tickets were issued for noise violations in the previous three weeks...

Second Missionary Baptist Church actually formed out of the congregation of First Baptist Church, which organized in 1834. Many of the servants or slaves who had been meeting at First Baptist Church formed their own congregation. They gathered in homes for about eight or nine years after the Civil War...

Several county roads and major intersections throughout Southeast Missouri were flooded when heavy rains fell around 9 p.m. Sunday night. A severe thunderstorm dropped .83 inches of rain on the region in under an hour, according to the National Weather Service's Web site...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- An Arkansas man was killed and several other people injured in a multivehicle accident Saturday afternoon north of Poplar Bluff. David Pierce, 46, of McDougal, Ark., was thrown from the motorcycle he was driving just after 3 p.m. Saturday on Route T in Butler County. He was taken by ambulance to Three Rivers Medical Center where he later died...

Monday, May 5 7 p.m. City Hall, 401 Independence Study session at 5 p.m. Public Hearings A public hearing regarding the request of Agan Alkan to rezone 2605-2607 Themis Street from R-3, two-family residential district, to C-2, general commercial district. The Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended a special-use permit...

Cape County chapter of AARP to meet today The Cape Girardeau County chapter of AARP 4041 will meet at 1:30 p.m. today at Grace United Methodist Church, Broadway and Caruthers, Cape Girardeau. The program will be "A Word From Our U.S. Representative" by JoAnn Emerson or a staff member. There will be a drawing for a door prize and refreshments...

Name: Ken Lipps Lives in: Cape Girardeau Family: Wife Jennifer and four grown children. Job: Director of volunteer services, public relations, fund raising at Missouri Veterans Home, Cape Girardeau...

Submitted photo Heartland Care and Rehab Center resident William Scott received military honors for his service in World War II from Capt. Craig Gatzemeyer and Sgt. Daniel Heberlie of the 1140th Division of the Missouri Army National Guard recently.Residents at rehab center receive honors...

Residents and organizations in Southeast Missouri received $199,325 in fraternal assistance from Modern Woodmen of America in 2002. Through various volunteer programs, camp and youth members conduct service projects to meet the needs of their communities...

WASHINGTON -- In the American hunt for Iraq's banned weapons, drums of suspicious chemicals turn out to be crop pesticide; a cache of white powder is found to be explosives. More than six weeks into the Iraq campaign, there has been a string of false alarms but no discovery of what the Bush administration said was its main justification for going to war -- chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Leticia Spehr easily recalls the frustrations she endured after arriving in the United States from her native Mexico and trying to earn her Missouri cosmetology license. "It was very difficult to understand," Spehr said of the test she took 18 years ago. "I felt like I was going to be a doctor to learn all these technical terms in English."...

WASHINGTON -- Women are more educated and employed at higher levels than ever before but remain largely confined to traditional "pink-collar" jobs, a study by the American Association of University Women finds. The highest proportions of college-educated working women are in teaching and nursing. For college-educated men, neither occupation appears on their list of the 10 most common...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Meet Tony Meyer, a 30-year-old white man serving a 10-year prison sentence for making and selling drugs. Growing up in rural west-central Missouri, Meyer started smoking marijuana at age 14. He dropped out of school two years later while still in eighth grade. And he began using cocaine and speed when he started driving to weekend parties in Sedalia, the biggest city around...

RIVERSIDE, Mo. -- A powerful tornado that stayed on the ground for at least 2 1/2 hours hit the Kansas City area Sunday afternoon, killing at least one person and injuring an unknown number. The victim's name and other details were not immediately available...

CHICAGO -- The man picked to lead the state's Department of Children and Family Services is taking a big job at a tough time, and many child welfare advocates who don't even know him are jumping to offer suggestions. Provide more mental and physical health services for children in the agency's care. Improve educational services. Hire additional case workers...

MURPHYSBORO, Ill. -- A belt is a required part of the wardrobe for defendants at almost all criminal trials in Jackson County. But not just any belt, a stun belt designed to deliver thousands of volts of electricity that can drop people to their knees...

GULFPORT, Fla. -- Like most Americans who were alive at the time, Vaughn Meader remembers exactly where he was when he heard President John F. Kennedy was killed. Meader, who got rich quick impersonating the president on a wildly successful comedy record album, was climbing into a cab in Milwaukee, Wis., to go do his Kennedy spoof at a Democratic Party event on Nov. 22, 1963...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The man who considers himself Iraq's finance minister holds forth from an unlighted office on Massbah Street, amid workers with no work to do, proving again that nature abhors a vacuum -- especially human nature, and especially a vacuum with power and money attached...

BAIJI, Iraq -- U.S. soldiers emerged into sunlight after exploring one of Saddam Hussein's most elaborate tunnel complexes Sunday, bewildered by a single question: Why did the Iraqi leader build an entire oil refinery inside a mountain? Blueprints scattered on the floor of a dusty office in the complex indicate construction started in December 1980, three months after the start of the Iraq-Iran war. ...

KHAN AL-RUBEA, Iraq -- Haidar Mohammed al-Atwan was 29 years old when he was blindfolded, tied up and shot in the back of the head following a failed Shiite uprising against Saddam Hussein in 1991. Sabah Amir Mohammed al-Tamimi was 19. So was Amna Ali...

JERUSALEM -- The "road map" that the world has unfolded for Israel and the Palestinians is the latest in a long line of grand designs for the Middle East. Despite enormous hurdles and a dismal record of past peace efforts, some see opportunity this time around...

MADRID, Spain -- Showing unusual energy, Pope John Paul II proclaimed five new saints Sunday before a crowd of 1 million people as he urged Spaniards to remain faithful to the Roman Catholic Church. Facing the vast crowd spread out in the form of a cross, John Paul spoke in a strong and clear voice in the major event of his weekend visit to Spain...

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- A Russian capsule safely returned two astronauts and a cosmonaut from the international space station on Sunday, but the landing, nearly 300 miles off target, triggered a nerve-racking two-hour search in the steppes of central Asia...

Four bombs explode in southern Turkish city ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Four bombs exploded in the southern Turkish city of Adana late Sunday, shattering the windows of several shops and homes. Police said no one was injured. One of the bombs went off on a street behind the U.S. Consulate, but authorities do not believe the Consulate was the target...

PThe pact is the first of its kind between the United States and an Asian country. By Alexa Olesen ~ The Associated Press SINGAPORE -- Singapore's prime minister left Sunday for Washington to sign a free trade agreement -- the first such pact between the United States and an Asian country...

PARIS -- Two men attacked the director of a Paris theater Sunday, punching him and slashing his face, apparently because of a play he is staging that criticizes President Bush, the theater said. Attilio Maggiulli, director of the Theater of Italian Comedy, was attacked in the building's entrance on Sunday, said Claudine Simon, his assistant. One man held him down, while another cut his face. They also splashed paint on the theater's walls, she said...

Supporters and opponents agree London's ambitious traffic charge is working -- for now By Jill Lawless The Associated Press LONDON -- Nearly three months after the city started charging motorists to drive into the center of London, traffic jams have shrunk, taxis are unusually abundant and red double-decker buses zip along at 7.5 mph...

NEW YORK -- A group of investors said Friday they want to start a television network aimed at the interests of an estimated eight million Muslims living in the United States. The network, to be called Bridges TV, would begin in summer 2004. Omar Amanat, founder of the Internet brokerage firm Tradescape Corp., leads the group. Bridges TV says it has $1 million and is seeking 10,000 Muslim-Americans to pledge $10 a month for the service to convince cable and satellite operators of a demand...

LOS ANGELES -- Look! Up on the screen! It's ... a superhero! A surplus of superheroes, to be more precise. Along with the new sequel "X2: X-Men United," other comic book-inspired films this year include the already released "Daredevil" and "Bulletproof Monk" and upcoming adaptations of "The Hulk" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."...

LOS ANGELES -- The mutants of "X-Men" are stronger than ever, showing even more box office power than in their first outing. The superhero sequel "X2: X-Men United" debuted with $85.85 million domestically, the fourth-best opening-weekend gross ever and a 58 percent increase over the $54.5 million first weekend of the original "X-Men" three years ago...

TACOMA, Wash. -- Rumors of violence had haunted police chief David Brame's career, but the department and city officials stood by him and he rose through the ranks. By the time Brame shattered the silence with two quick shots from his service weapon, it was too late for anyone to hear the cries for help...

Judge awards $1 to student in prayer case HOUSTON -- A federal judge has awarded $1 in damages to a former high-school student who secured a restraining order allowing her to pray over a public address system before her school's 1999 home football games...

MODESTO, Calif. -- Thousands of people packed a church Sunday to remember Laci Peterson on what would have been her 28th birthday, nearly three weeks after her body washed ashore along with the remains of her unborn son. Many mourners who had never met the young woman filled the sanctuary of the First Baptist Church in Modesto for a nationally televised service that reflected the extraordinary way in which Peterson's story has touched so many Americans...

CHICAGO -- Obese and overweight women face significantly increased risks of having babies with heart abnormalities and other birth defects, according to a government study. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said their study also confirmed an already reported link between pre-pregnancy obesity and neural tube birth defects including spina bifida...

BOSTON -- Ben Davis is bemoaning the loss of his favorite lunchtime activity, sitting down at Coogan's in downtown Boston for a martini and a cigarette. "I probably won't be coming back here, and not just because I'm retiring," the 67-year-old stockbroker said as he sat in the bar last week...

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- A student pulled from a dormitory fire early Sunday had what appeared to be stab wounds, and arson investigators were trying to determine if the blaze was set, the state fire marshal's office said. "Apparently this is a crime scene," said Ken Meredith, a spokesman for the state fire marshal's office. "There is a young woman suffering from stab wounds, and it appears that the fire was set deliberately."...

GREEN RIVER, Utah -- It came, like it sometimes does -- the call about an overdue climber. Sgt. Mitch Vetere had gotten used to the news. Usually it meant tracking down someone who had gotten lost. Occasionally, a fall led to broken bones or even death...

ALBANY, Ga. -- Like many Filipinos, Anna Resurreccion grew up eating peanut butter, an inexpensive food in a poor country where more than a third of children have vitamin A deficiency, a major cause of childhood blindness. Decades later, she and other University of Georgia food scientists have found a way to fortify peanut butter with vitamin A without hurting the taste. ...

NEW YORK -- Winning back the trust of investors will require more than education classes and warning labels on stock-research reports. Those are among the many mandates detailed Monday in the $1.4 billion settlement between regulators and investment firms accused of conflicts of interest in their company research...

For the unemployed these days, scanning the Help Wanted section must be akin to reading the book of Revelation. You know things are going to get better, but you have to endure some pretty scary parts until they do. It's never good to be unemployed, but these are especially scary times...

KENNETT, Mo. -- Perhaps it's due to our remarkable heritage from immigrants seeking new lives in an uncharted land, or the modern fast-food industries that promise to meet our hunger demands in mere seconds, or perhaps it can be traced to an affluent age in which virtually every item and commodity can be purchased just by walking into a store and flashing a small piece of plastic that is guaranteed to deliver our wish in less time than we spend in preparing ready-to-heat meals...

Maybe you'll find yourself listening to "Ave Maria" by Bach or "Rustle of Spring" by Sindig. You might even hear some ragtime, like "The Entertainer" or "Maple Leaf Rag" by Scott Joplin. But if you have Van Robinson tune your piano, he will show you how good it can sound...

SAN FRANCISCO -- After years of ridicule and ruin, Internet stocks are recapturing their charm and seducing investors again. The handsome stock market gains posted so far this year by eBay Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and other Internet companies have sparked a debate over whether the surge heralds a dot-com comeback or another investment bubble...

NEW YORK -- Visa and MasterCard's multibillion-dollar settlements with thousands of U.S. retailers should mean lower prices for consumers because it will cost stores less to process their debit cards, experts say. A key element of the deals -- struck this week just before the retailers' huge antitrust suit was to go to trial -- calls for Visa and MasterCard to lower the debit-card transaction fees they charge stores by roughly one-third to one-half, beginning Aug. 1...

Most dance performances occur indoors on a stage with lighting and often with recorded music, providing the dancers with a controlled environment to express themselves in. In "Site Works: Dance on Tour," dancers from Southeast Missouri State University will perform at five different locations in four days this week. Three of the sites are outdoors, and the dance surface will vary in every case. They will dance on floors, grass and, at Riverfront Park east of the flood wall, cobblestones...

Driving down East Jackson Boulevard, the drive-through possibilities are numerous. Taco Bell, McDonald's, Burger King ... and Union Planters, Commerce, First National. In Jackson, the banking business has been super-sized since the early 1990s. Today, there are more banks, 10, than fast-food franchises, nine (and that includes a drive-through-only Dairy Queen)...

It took faith, dedication and commitment to keep Second Baptist Church going for more than 130 years. And it is faith that will lead Second Missionary Baptist Church into the future, its members say. Members of the second-oldest black church in Cape Girardeau celebrated the completion of its new building at 285 Beaudean on Sunday with a dedication service...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The University of Missouri system is reviewing its overtime policy after a state audit suggested that some employees were mistakenly classified as exempt from mandatory overtime pay. Overtime-exempt employees, who often work in management, get flat salaries. Federal law requires that nonexempt employees, who usually work in lower-level positions, are to receive overtime pay after 40 hours per week...

NEW YORK -- When Wall Street's biggest brokerage firms settled charges this past week that they issued biased research, their own stocks suddenly became higher-risk bets. Analysts say investors are concerned that the brokerages, which include Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, will face a possible deluge of investor lawsuits at the same time they're being forced to change the way they do business -- both of which could hurt their profits...

BENTON, Mo. -- Joe Morris of Galatia, Ill., is on a roll in the late model class at Auto Tire and Parts Racepark. Morris won his third straight feature race in the division late Saturday to stretch his lead in the point standings. Jimmy Burwell of Mt. Vernon, Ill., was second. Third was Brian Maynard of Benton, Ky...

Briefly Baseball Darren Baker, the 4-year-old son of Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker, sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Sunday's game against Colorado, drawing loud cheers from a standing crowd. ...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Larry Eustachy saga at Iowa State could be just about over. Then again, it might drag on for weeks. Eustachy has until the close of business today to formally appeal a recommendation that he be fired as the Cyclones' basketball coach...

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The post-Bear Bryant history at Alabama includes three losing seasons, two major scandals and only one national title. The firing of Mike Price on Saturday for his off-field conduct left the school searching for its seventh coach since Bryant retired in 1982...

MARTIN, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State University's baseball team concluded a power-packed weekend Sunday by posting its third consecutive rout of host Tennessee-Martin. Brian Hopkins and Denver Stuckey both had monster games to lead the Indians to a 20-5 victory and a sweep of the three-game series...

NEW ORLEANS -- Steve Flesch made a 35-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole Sunday to win the HP Classic of New Orleans for his first career victory. Flesch, who began the day seven shots behind leader Scott Verplank, shot a final-round 65 to finish tied with Bob Estes at 21-under 267...

SAN ANTONIO -- Tim Duncan has trouble thinking of himself as an individual on the basketball court. Apparently, the voters for the NBA's MVP award don't. The 7-foot San Antonio Spurs forward edged the Minnesota Timberwolves' Kevin Garnett to win that honor for the second straight season Sunday...

ST. LOUIS -- The Cardinals' weak link, a beleaguered bullpen, was kept out of the mix during a perfect 6-0 home stand. The NL Central leaders parlayed the usual combination of stingy pitching and explosive offense in a 6-2 victory over the Montreal Expos on Sunday, getting a six-hitter by Matt Morris and a two-run home run by Scott Rolen. The Cardinals outscored the Expos and Mets 49-16, and the starters posted a 2.06 ERA...

Larry Eustachy has until today to formally contest the move for his dismissal from athletic director Bruce Van De Velde. The move, if there is one by Eustachy, would come exactly one week after the Des Moines Register published the infamous photos of his party in Columbia, Mo...

By Dan LeBetard ~ Miami Herald How much shame is enough? It isn't enough that one wife must pick up the newspaper and see pictures of her drunk husband kissing college girls. It isn't enough that another wife must read about her husband punctuating a strip club visit with a mystery woman ordering $1,000 of room service the next morning to his room (one of everything, boxed to go)...

10 years ago: May 6, 1993 For those living along Mississippi River near Cape Girardeau, this week must seem like deja vu; 20 years ago, on May 1, 1973, river at Cape Girardeau crested at all-time high of 45.6 feet, causing widespread flooding and property damage along both sides of river; 10 years later, river stood at 45.1 feet, and now, river is expected to crest Saturday at 38.5 feet; it will be fourth crest since March...

White Son to Nicole LuAnne White of Chaffee, Mo., Southeast Missouri Hospital, 6:04 p.m. Sunday, April 27, 2003. Name, Deytan Mark Paul. Weight, 3 pounds 15 ounces. Second child, first son. Miss White is the daughter of Tonya Harrell and Danny White of Chaffee. She is a student at Stage One the Hair School...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Jarrell D. Griffin, 73, of Sikeston died Friday, May 2, 2003, at Mesa General Hospital in Mesa, Ariz. He was born July 1, 1929, in Enola, Ark., son of William Henry and Gladys Matthews Griffin. He and Lilly Faye Sitzes were married Dec. 22, 1951, in Sikeston...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Renada White, 94, of Chaffee died Sunday, May 4, 2003, at Chaffee Nursing Center. She was born Aug. 8, 1908, in Stoddard County, daughter of Alfred Henry and Julia Dunn Browning. She married Clark White, who preceded her in death. White lived in St. Louis many years, and retired as a floor supervisor at Wagner Electric Corp. She was a member of Grace United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau...

Jane Seyer, 46, of Jackson died Monday, May 5, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson is in charge of arrangements.

Henry E. Deimund, 76, of Jackson died Monday, May 5, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Nov. 30, 1926, at Lixville, Mo., son of Christian and Hester Seabaugh Deimund. He and Ida Barbee were married June 13, 1951. She died April 18, 1997...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Charles Wade Husher, 80, of Sikeston died Saturday, May 3, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born July 13, 1922, at Crowder, Mo., son of Charlie and Alice Page Husher. He married Virginia LaRue, who died Jan. 21, 1995...

ST. MARY, Mo. -- Mary H. Klobe, 75, of St. Louis died Sunday, May 4, 2003, at Green Park Nursing Home in Affton, Mo. She was born May 22, 1927, at St. Mary, daughter of Emil J. and Louise Schroeder Klobe. Klobe had been an administrative assistant with the Aircraft Project Office for the U.S. Army Aviation and Systems Command 45 years. She was a member of St. George Catholic Church and National Association of Retired Federal Employees in St. Louis...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Emily S. Hale, 86, of Sikeston died Saturday, May 3, 2003, at Clearview Nursing Center. She was born March 19, 1917, at Kennett, Mo., daughter of Irvin D. and Lula Hutchens Smith. She and George Loy Hale Jr. were married Jan. 21, 1940, in Bruceton, Tenn. He died May 31, 1989...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Deytan White, 1 week, of Chaffee died Sunday, May 4, 2003, at Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis. Arrangements are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Edward Brice Gates, 81, of Sikeston died Saturday, May 3, 2003, at his home. He was born Sept. 22, 1921, in Peach Orchard, Ark., son of John William David and Margarete Whitson Gates. He and Marguerite I. Tucker were married June 9, 1940, in Peach Orchard. She died Sept. 25, 1998. He and Ramona Williams were married Jan. 6, 2001, in Sikeston...

Doris DeBoe, 76, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, May 4, 2003, at Monticello House in Jackson. She was born Sept. 30, 1926, in Cape Girardeau, daughter of L. Milton and Willie Harris Cobb. She and Zack DeBoe were married March 30, 1946, in Cape Girardeau. He died April 19, 1976...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Elta Liley, 87, of Marble Hill died Sunday, May 4, 2003, at her home. She was born Sept. 16, 1915, near Lutesville, Mo., daughter of Charles U. and Lillie B. Eaker. She and Orville B. Liley were married Sept. 16, 1933. He died Jan. 7, 1993...

Dr. Joseph Nicholas Jaeger, 86, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, May 5, 2003, at the Lutheran Home. He was born Nov. 30, 1916, in Jackson, son of Charles Boniface and Floy Dean Howard Jaeger. Jaeger was a graduate of Jackson High School and a 1949 graduate of Washington University...

Not at my cabin SOME LOCAL teenagers asked me if they could borrow my cabin in the woods for a party after the prom. The first thing they started talking about was a safe place to drink alcohol. That is illegal. If you think I'm going to supply a place for you to drink illegal liquor, you're wrong. So this is a public notice. If anybody sees teenagers at my cabin after the prom, call the sheriff. I will call the sheriff. We don't need illegal activities...

To the editor: I want to thank principal Frank Ellis for the wonderful leadership at the new Central Middle School. I also want to thank Pam Dumey, director of the CMS Panthera Tigris fifth- and sixth-grade choir. Dumey teaches at CMS full-time and also teaches music before and after school every day, gratis, so students have the opportunity to learn performing arts. ...

To the editor: State legislators recently passed a bill in both houses creating a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions. It is understood our elected representatives in Jefferson City represent the will of the people who elected them. Yet here is another Democrat deciding he is going to bypass the people's desire and force his will and that of his abortion friends down our throats. Gov. Bob Holden has decided he is going to veto this bill...

To the editor: A hidden tax can be one placed on the manufacturers and suppliers of goods and services. What Gov. Bob Holden fails to mention is that this tax is eventually passed on to the consumers. The additional cost of the tax is passed along to all consumers regardless of their income. Taxes on goods and services generally impact the low-income earner's standard of living more than it impacts the wealthy...

One more daily round-trip flight out of Cape Girardeau Regional Airport to St. Louis may not sound like a big deal, but it is. Economic-development recruiters will tell you transportation is one of the first things businesses look at when deciding to locate or relocate to a community. Business people who are already here will also tell you that getting to St. Louis and back -- often in one day -- is sometimes crucial...

New business The city council accepted bid of Hurst Jaws of Life for fire department rescue equipment. Members of the city council designated a design by Councilman Norman Brant as the city flag.

Some civic and business leaders who have waited for years for Nash Road to be extended west to Highway 25 could easily have come to the conclusion that it would never happen. They are mistaken. State and local authorities say the extension project it is still a priority and are working to make sure that the new road -- which would extend Nash Road 3.5 miles west to Highway 25 -- is finished by the scheduled completion date of 2006...

Southeast Missouri State University will graduate a record number of students at the spring commencement ceremony on May 17, school officials said. In all, 1,024 students are scheduled to graduate in commencement exercises at 2 p.m. in the Show Me Center, including 881 undergraduates and 143 graduate students...

Student presents research project Rashida Wilson of Cape Girardeau was among students presenting undergraduate research projects recently at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Wilson is the daughter of Richard and Patricia Wilson. She is a 2000 graduate of Central High School and is studying biology...

NEW YORK -- Sure, teenagers might prefer to read about a fantasy world like Harry Potter lives in, but when these youngsters write, they write about reality: their families. Shannon Burke, 18, used a journalism class assignment to write a personal narrative as a cathartic experience to remember and honor her father, who died of cancer a few months earlier...

As the weather becomes more and more bearable (even, dare I say, likable), my life in France is becoming more fulfilling and busy. Opportunities such as municipal band concerts, as well as jazz concerts and a trip to England with my host Rotary Club are upcoming, so my time during the weekend is quickly filling up...

Rappers wrestling. Wrestlers rapping. It's the strange world of "Def Jam Vendetta," a new title for PlayStation 2 and GameCube from AKI and EA Sports Big that's an excellent example of what can come of some novel thinking. Instead of making "Wrestle-O-Rama 27," developers came up with a great idea -- putting some of Def Jam Records' biggest stars in the ring...

Cape Girardeau Tuesday, May 6 Firefighters responded Sunday to the following items: At 6:47 p.m., emergency medical service at 1122 Landgraf. At 7:22 p.m., emergency medical service at 316 Independence. At 8:54 p.m., alarm at 900 Broadway. At 9 p.m., fire alarm at 1701 Lacey...

Cape Girardeau Tuesday, May 6 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWI Michael G. Lix, 44, of 1324 Carolyn, Cape Girardeau, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and failure to use headlights...

Monday, May 5 Public Hearings Heard the request of Agan Alkan for a special use permit to operate a motorcycle business at 2605-2607 Themis Street. Heard a public hearing on an application for funding to operate the city's taxi coupon public transit program...

WASHINGTON -- Federal officials received requests Monday to declare large parts of Missouri and Kansas disaster areas, which would clear the way for government aid to people and places hurt by the deadly Midwestern tornadoes. In Kansas City, Mo., the regional Federal Emergency Management Agency office set up a command center Sunday evening to track damage reports from both states. ...

DYERSBURG, Tenn. -- Two tornadoes destroyed a mobile home park before cutting a swath of destruction through Dyersburg Sunday night. A third vortex swept across the west side of the city, uprooting trees and downing power lines. No one was killed, but several were injured...

WASHINGTON -- It won't stop those annoying phone calls at dinnertime, but the Supreme Court set new limits Monday for telemarketers who solicit money for charities. If the telemarketer lies or misleads about where the contributions go, states can take them to court...

WASHINGTON -- A top Iraqi scientist has been taken into custody, according to U.S. officials who say they suspect she has information about a banned biological weapons program. Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, who has advanced degrees from two U.S. universities, was taken into custody on Sunday, a Defense Department official said. He had no other details about her detention...

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon released 22 prisoners Monday from the high-security compound for terrorist suspects in Cuba, possibly including some teenagers. Before the releases, some 660 prisoners from 42 countries were being held at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, many captured during the war against al-Qaida in Afghanistan. U.S. officials have declined to identify them or their countries or even say exactly how many are held...

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said Monday he will draft a bill to reduce taxes on dividends paid to corporate shareholders. The decision by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, moves the GOP-led Senate a step closer to supporting the centerpiece of President Bush's tax cut, although the president's position would eliminate taxes on dividends altogether...

WASHINGTON -- Two wars in a row, the second-guessers were out early: The military's plan for Afghanistan was not innovative enough. The Americans did not put enough ground troops in Iraq. It did not take long for commanding Gen. Tommy Franks to quiet the talk with military victory...

PIERCE CITY, Mo. -- Staring at the rubble of her tornado-ravaged hometown, Janice Flehmer lifted up her eyes and couldn't believe it: the old metal cross on the steeple of First United Methodist Church was crazily twisted. But it wasn't broken. Flehmer had to wipe away a tear...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Four years after voters narrowly rejected the idea, the legislature gave final approval Monday to a bill letting qualified Missourians carry concealed guns -- without putting the issue on a statewide ballot. The legislature's action, however, may not be the end of the matter...

ROME -- Silvio Berlusconi, the first sitting Italian premier ever to stand trial, told a Milan court trying him on bribery charges Monday that he intervened in a contested business deal only to serve the nation's interests. The billionaire media mogul is accused of bribing judges in Rome to influence a ruling on the sale of former state-controlled food company SME in the 1980s, before he was a politician. ...

PARIS -- The al-Qaida terror network remains a serious threat, with sleeper cells and agents who "are always ready to act," the world's top justice and interior ministers said Monday. "Terrorism continues to present both a pervasive and global threat to our societies," ministers from the Group of Eight nations said in a statement...

VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II tried only a few feeble steps during his weekend trip to Spain, sat in a hydraulic chair and was wheeled on a trolley down a red carpet. But his clear voice and animated expression delighted crowds that reached 1 million, and the frail pontiff passed the physical test posed by foreign travel. Now he's preparing for a trip to Croatia -- the 100th international visit of his long papacy -- and, later, a summer pilgrimage to faraway Mongolia...

Strong quake jolts China; one death reported BEIJING -- A strong earthquake jolted a northwestern region of China still recovering from a temblor earlier this year, flattening houses, killing livestock and causing a 72-year-old man to die of heart failure, officials said Monday...

CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARK, Utah -- Thirteen park rangers lugged equipment into this southeastern Utah park and lifted an 800-pound boulder that trapped a mountain climber and forced him to amputate his arm to escape. After hiking 3 miles to the remote canyon Sunday, the crew was able to lift the egg-shaped boulder and push it into a space where it fit securely. ...

DAVENPORT, Wash. -- Monday is Divorce Day in the Lincoln County Courthouse. In the morning, a clerk brings bins and mailbags from the post office full of new filings for dissolution of marriage. In his office one floor up, Superior Court Judge Philip Borst gets writer's cramp signing final decrees in marathons that can last six hours or more...

'Friends' star, fiancee wed on Hawaiian island LOS ANGELES -- "Friends" star Matt LeBlanc has said "How you doin'?" to marriage. The 35-year-old actor, whose dimwitted character on the popular NBC sitcom purrs that catch phrase to woo women, married fiancee Melissa McKnight on the Hawaiian island of Kauai on Saturday...

The city of Jackson will collect extra garbage next week as part of its spring cleanup program. From May 12-6, the sanitation department will pick up all refuse placed at the curb on the regularly scheduled trash pick-up day. The three-bag limit will not be enforced, so additional bag stickers will not be required for household waste...

Matt Tygett thought he was just another victim of two-time defending Iron Chef champ John Jenkins. Losing by less than a point, he would pack up his cutlery set and go back to Mollie's. But in a turn of events that will forever be remembered in local Iron Chef lore, Tygett learned several hours later that he won the event...

Natural gas offers relief from long, blustery winters and air conditioners offer relief from stifling summer heat. Using both has caused many low-income Southeast Missouri families to fall behind on their utility bills. AmerenUE is now offering a different kind of relief -- financial, in the form of a one-time program that will pay past-due bills for customers who have trouble paying and fall below the poverty line...

Students from three Cape Girardeau high schools were honored at the John L. Blue Academic Excellence Dinner on Monday at the Southeast Missouri State University Center. The dinner is sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club to honor the late Blue, editor of the Southeast Missourian for 20 years and a leader in church and charitable organizations. He began the academic excellence program in 1959...

Searchers using dogs and heavy equipment went from one crumbled home to another Monday after tornado-packed storms flattened communities in three states and killed at least 38 people. Ten people were missing, including eight in the southwest Missouri town of Pierce City...

Two female students at Southeast Missouri State University reported being raped at a Cape Girardeau apartment during the weekend. The women, aged 19 and 20, first contacted the campus Department of Public Safety, but because attacks are alleged to have happened off campus the matter was referred to the city police department, said patrolman Jason Selzer...

Residents of Scott City whose property flooded during Sunday night's thunderstorms are being asked to submit damage estimates to city administrator Ron Eskew. About 10 residents came to Monday night's city council meeting to complain about the high water that flowed into a number of houses, businesses and at least one church, resulting in cars floating in garages and three feet of water in some basements. ...

Nearly five months after a Cape Girardeau woman reported being the victim of road rage, a French native living in Cape Girardeau has pleaded guilty to grabbing her. Nicolas Raudin, 33, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault May 1 in Jackson, admitting he reached into another driver's car Dec. 10, jerked her seat belt and grabbed her face in an effort to force her to look at him as he spoke to her...

A Cape Girardeau man admiring the late-night boat traffic floating down the Mississippi River Saturday night perhaps wasn't paying attention to his car when it began making its way down to the water's edge. John Kelly had gotten out of his white 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix at Honker's Boat Dock on North Main Street to watch the barge traffic, police said. Before long, he noticed his car was quickly rolling down the boat ramp. It floated for a moment and then sank...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- In order to change how gambling proceeds are distributed to fund education, supporters might have to agree to repeal the legal limit on how much gamblers can lose in Missouri casinos. Since taking a chamber majority in January, House Republicans have pushed for the creation of the Classroom Trust Fund, under which gambling revenue would be distributed equally to local school districts on a per pupil basis. ...

Cape Girardeau residents who live near schools and churches won't have to worry about breaking the law if they shoot off fireworks this Fourth of July. The city council Monday night gave initial approval to an ordinance that lifts the current ban on the sale or discharge of fireworks within 600 feet of a church or school...

Somebody always pays. The latest somebody turned out to be Paul Silas, who was fired Sunday, less than 48 hours after the New Orleans Hornets failed to reach the second round of the NBA playoffs. He wasn't the first or last man in the league to get stuck with the tab for a collective flop -- remember, there's several rounds and more than a few disappointments left -- and Silas was even further from being the most famous...

Briefly Baseball Closer Antonio Alfonseca was activated from the disabled list Monday by the Cubs, who designated pitcher Alan Benes for assignment. Alfonseca began the season on the DL with a strained right hamstring, which he injured in spring training. He made three appearances for Triple-A Iowa in a minor league rehab assignment, allowing two runs in 3 2-3 innings...

Brian Hopkins has been impressive virtually all season, but Southeast Missouri State University's senior left fielder has been particularly potent in the past month or so. And Hopkins' recent play caught the country's attention after Collegiate Baseball Newspaper selected him its Louisville Slugger national player of the week Monday. Hopkins also won Southeast's first Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week award this season, also announced on Monday...

AMES, Iowa --Larry Eustachy insisted he would never resign as basketball coach at Iowa State. On Monday, he and the school agreed to sever ties and avoid a costly, drawn-out legal fight. Eustachy resigned one week after the publication of embarrassing photos of him drinking and partying with students...

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Miami Dolphins assistant coach Mike Shula and Carolina Panthers assistant Richard Williamson have emerged as top candidates to replace fired coach Mike Price at Alabama. Alabama athletic director Mal Moore and president Robert Witt met Sunday with Shula in Miami, and with Williamson in Atlanta on Monday, according to newspaper reports...

Fans of the Central Tigers are well versed in the skills of junior Mitch Craft's arm after Craft quarterbacked the Tigers to the state football quarterfinals in the fall. Craft showed fans what his legs could do Monday when he stole two bases and scored on a throwing error in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the second-seeded Tigers a 7-6 win over sixth-seeded Jackson in the semifinals of the SEMO Conference baseball tournament at Capaha Park...

Perryville scored first, but visiting Notre Dame responded with four straight goals to prevail 4-1 Monday in girls soccer. The Bulldogs, who tied Perryville early in the season, claimed their 11th straight victory and improved to 13-1-1. "We've been playing really good," Notre Dame coach Jeff Worley said...

ST. LOUIS -- Rams running back Marshall Faulk had beaten the mother of three of his children on several occasions, the woman's lawyers told a jury Monday in opening statements of a civil case. They said testimony this week would come from emergency room doctors and other witnesses, according to stltoday.com, the Web site for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch...

CINCINNATI -- For whatever reason, the Cincinnati Reds are at their best at the end of close games. That's when Aaron Boone shines. Boone led off the bottom of the ninth with a homer off Dustin Hermanson for a 5-4 victory Monday night that stopped the Cardinals' winning streak at seven games...

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Rafael Palmeiro leaves the struts and home run poses to others. He does quite nicely without all the bluster. The Texas Rangers' first baseman simply goes out and plays. And few have done it with such proficiency and consistency...

By Laura Johnston ~ Southeast Missourian More and more students entering college today are searching for extra money to help pay for their education. With rising tuition costs, textbook fees and room and board, a college education can eat up a quarter of a low-income family's annual budget. And tuition is rising faster than parents can keep up...

Editor's note: Please submit your club news information either typed or printed. It is sometimes very difficult to make out people's names. Please use members' first and last names instead of formal titles. For instance, Jane Smith, not Mrs. John Smith. Thank you...

NEW YORK -- There was nothing quite like plunging a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie into a big glass of milk after school, or before bedtime, or any time you could get your hands on one. Now that you're grown up -- well, old enough to bake cookies for your own children -- you've been trying to replicate the experience...

FAIRFAX, Va. -- Sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo's laughing confession to two of the deadly attacks can be used against him at trial this fall, a judge ruled Tuesday in a decision experts say gives prosecutors a key weapon in their push for a death sentence...

BEIJING -- China's handling of the SARS virus has generated public outrage and laid bare the weaknesses of its communist system. But China's new rulers could emerge even more powerful, armed with tighter central government rule and heightened social controls, all in the name of fighting the disease...

and Bob Miller ~ Southeast Missourian Dazed Jackson residents walked down their debris-strewn streets late Tuesday, flashlights their only illumination as they surveyed damage from a tornado that cut a northeasterly path through the city...

Associated Press Writer DE SOTO, Mo. (AP) -- Students and their coaches, just back from a track meet, huddled in their school Tuesday night as a violent storm bore down on De Soto. Their bus arrived just as the storm reached its peak. The coaches hurried the boys inside the De Soto Junior High building, where they sought refuge in the teacher's lounge beneath the gym...

Mayberry Daughter to Rusty D. Mayberry and Dawn L. Hoover of Zalma, Mo., Southeast Missouri Hospital, 3:02 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, 2003. Name, Janel L. Weight, 7 pounds 5 1/2 ounces. Ms. Hoover is the daughter of Debbie Colbert of Marble Hill, Mo., and Danny Hoover of Billings, Mont. He is the son of Pam Mayberry and Rodger Mayberry of Zalma. He is employed at Mayberry Sawmill...

10 years ago: May 7, 1993 Owners of about one-third of Cape Girardeau County's 30,000 parcels of real estate are receiving Impact Notices advising them of increase in their property assessments; Missouri statutes require county assessors' offices to update real estate values in odd-numbered years as way of maintaining statewide reassessment that took effect in 1985...

Bobby Martin Banks, 63, of Catoasa, Okla., and formerly of East Prairie, Mo., died Tuesday, May 6, 2003, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born June 19, 1939, in New Madrid County, son of Shirley Martin and Mildred Rosalie Blyzes Banks...

The Rev. Roger L. Leveillee, 53, died Tuesday, May 6, 2003, of cancer. He was born March 30, 1950, in Providence, R.I., son of Donald O. and Estelle Larocque Leveillee. Leveillee was ordained June 9, 1979, in West Warwick, R.I., for the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau by then Bishop Bernard F. Law...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Martha Mae Sheeley, 82, of Chaffee died Tuesday, May 6, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Jan. 11, 1921, at Chaffee, daughter of Luther Lee and Anna Johnson Arnold. She and Ray Surface were married Feb. 2, 1936. He died Oct. 28, 1959. She and John Sheeley were married May 22, 1965. He died March 9, 1966...

Lawrenetta D. "Nettie" Daub, 60, of Jackson died Monday, May 5, 2003, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born March 6, 1943, in Lebanon, Pa., daughter of David and Elsie Mark Walmer. She and James Daub were married Aug. 31, 1963, in Palmyra, Pa...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Lynn Allan Colley, 57, of Sikeston died Sunday, May 4, 2003, at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. He was born Oct. 31, 1945, in Sanford, Maine, son of Leonard and Phyllis Treadwell Colley. He and Saundra Cumpton were married Dec. 14, 1974...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Deytan Mark Paul White, 1 week, of Chaffee died Sunday, May 4, 2003, at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis. He was born April 27, 2003, in Cape Girardeau, son of Nicole LuAnne White and Brian Cayce. Survivors include his mother of Chaffee; his father of Cape Girardeau; a sister, Lexis White of Chaffee; grandparents, John and Tonya Horrell and Danny White of Chaffee; and great-grandparents, Paul and Betty Asbridge of Chaffee and Clara White of Cape Girardeau...

The graveside service for Henry E. Deimund, 76, of Jackson, will be Wednesday, May 7, 2003, at 1 p.m. at Russell Heights Cemetery in Jackson. Survivors include a son, Robert Deimund of St. Peters, Mo.; three daughters, Margie Williamson of Jackson, Joyce Deimund of Fenton, Mo., Sally Steuerwald of Sedgewickville, Mo.; five sisters, Mary Schmandt and Goldie Meurer of St. ...

Jane L. Seyer, 46, of Jackson passed away Monday, May 5, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born July 23, 1956, in Cairo, Ill., daughter of Cornelius and Dorothy Halter Rolwing. She and David W. Seyer were married Aug. 18, 1984...

MILITARY TROOPS returning from their missions are the real Americans who lay their lives on the line for their country, not the politicians, celebrities or protesters who blame America for everything while being protected. These great young people preserve our freedom. I thank them and also the veterans who did more than their share for America. We owe them all so much, especially the ones who gave their lives...

To the editor: War is war, whether it is large and lasting or a number of smaller ones -- if any battle can be termed small. Such was the feeling of my great-grandmother, Kathryn Doll, when, back in the 1800s, thanks to her quick thinking, right response and will of God, she lived through one of the smaller Civil War battles that was fought in the Hanover community of Cape Girardeau...

To the editor: I have one question for the mayor and city council of Cape Girardeau. All we read about is revitalizing the downtown area. It's only going to get worse if Cape keeps moving everything to the west end of town. Take the water park. A proposed site is next to the Osage Community Center. ...

To the editor: My son, John E. Hill, attended Franklin Elementary School and Schultz Middle School in Cape Girardeau through the seventh grade. At that time we moved to Florida, and he is graduating this year from Andrew Jackson High School in Jacksonville. He has been named the valedictorian of his class and is student body president and National Honor Society vice president. He has been accepted to the honors program at the University of North Florida...

There were more headlines last week about credit-card abuses by government employees. In this case, another audit of how University of Missouri employees use credit cards revealed lots of questionable charges, not to mention lax accountability. There were 23 audits of the university's credit cards in 2001 and 2002, and problems were found in 18 of those checks...

Cape Girardeau Tuesday, May 7 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWIs Kathleen A. Drennan, 19, of 9939 Heatherton, St. Louis, was arrested Monday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated...

IN THE GARDEN Pinch azaleas and rhododendron blossoms as they fade. Double flowered azaleas need no pinching. Fertilize azaleas after bloom, using a formulation which has an acid reduction. Don't remove spring bulb foliage prematurely or next year's flower production will decline...

Jackson man sentenced for firearm possession A Jackson man was sentenced Tuesday in federal court for unlawful possession of a firearm. Mark J. Lampe, 35, received a 46-month prison sentence for being a previously convicted felon in possesion of a firearm...

Standard Democrat SIKESTON, Mo. -- Both dogs and cats will soon be required to wear leashes while outside in Sikeston. The new leash provision is just one of the changes to the city's animal ordinance approved by council members during their regular meeting Monday...

WASHINGTON -- Republican tax writers in the Senate included a dividend tax cut in the first draft of their legislation, putting it a step closer to President Bush's outline for economic growth. Bush welcomed what he called "some progress" in Congress but argued for more...

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve, keeping a close eye on the fragile, postwar economy, held a key interest rate steady at a 41-year low Tuesday. But policy-makers opened the door to a possible rate reduction in the future in the event that business conditions take a turn for the worse...

WASHINGTON -- Scientists have genetically altered a common cold virus so that it can destroy the most lethal type of brain tumor while not harming healthy tissue nearby. The experiment worked so well in mice that researchers hope to begin studying it in people with this aggressive brain tumor, called a glioblastoma, late next year...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush named L. Paul Bremer, a former ambassador and head of the State Department's counterterrorism office, to be his special envoy to Iraq and oversee its transition to democratic rule. The appointment resolved a debate between the State Department and the Pentagon over the administration of Iraq, with Secretary of State Colin Powell pushing for greater civilian control and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld seeking a strong hand for the military...

WASHINGTON -- Former education secretary and family values advocate William Bennett says he is giving up high-stakes casino gambling. "My gambling days are over," the "Book of Virtues" author said in a written statement responding to news reports...

WASHINGTON -- A prosecutor and defense lawyer are lined up for military tribunals that might try some of the accused terrorists who have been captured across the globe. Courtroom rules are set, too. All that's needed now are the defendants. Lawyers familiar with the matter say they believe only a small number of the approximately 660 detainees captured in the war on terrorism and held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will ever appear before the tribunals. No one is certain who would be the first...

CHARLOTTE -- Winning the Masters comes with perks that Mike Weir never even considered. It started the next night, when he dropped the puck for the ceremonial faceoff at a Stanley Cup playoff game in Toronto, drawing a cheer that was louder than anything he heard at Augusta National...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Several tornadoes were reported in Missouri and Kansas as a storm system with strong winds and large hail moved across the region on Tuesday, two days after tornadoes extensively damaged several communities in both states. The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for more than 30 counties Tuesday afternoon and into the evening as the storms made their eastward trek from the southeast Kansas border...

FRANKLIN, Kan. -- Mary Sayre spent Tuesday helping relatives salvage what they could from the rubble that once was home. She did it for the simplest of reasons. "Wouldn't you? I would hope they would help if it was me," she said. "With things like this, you've got to pull together."...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Luckytown soon could be looking a little run down. The mythical city that is home to Missouri Lottery winners is taking a hit in the proposed state budget. House and Senate negotiators agreed Tuesday to cut the lottery's advertising budget by more than half for next fiscal year. The decision was among the first items addressed by conferees trying to settle on a final version of the budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Members of the Illinois House, meeting in a rare "committee of the whole" Tuesday, grilled Gov. Rod Blagojevich's budget director about plans to shuffle the state's limited education dollars. The House took the unusual step after frustrated members said they were unable to pin down the administration on specifics about the budget. ...

ST. LOUIS -- Trustees at St. Louis University have given the go-ahead for a new $80-million research facility at the university's Health Sciences Center, SLU officials said Tuesday. The move allows the university to begin site selection and design on the research center, which has been planned for several years...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- All Molly Manes could think as she took shelter Tuesday in the basement of the Missouri Capitol was: "Not again." The 14-year-old girl from Fair Play was still getting over the tornado that destroyed four of her family's barns Sunday when a tornado warning went up for the capital city, where Molly was on a class trip...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Several small tornadoes were reported in Missouri and Kansas as a storm system with strong winds and large hail moved across the region on Tuesday, two days after tornadoes extensively damaged several communities in both states. Joy Moser, spokeswoman for the Kansas Division of Emergency Management, said a tornado touched down briefly around 4 p.m. east of Chanute in eastern Kansas. She said the tornado did not cause any damage...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- South Africans on Tuesday mourned the passing of anti-apartheid hero Walter Sisulu, a quiet, dignified man who dedicated his life to bringing equality to South Africa. "We have lost a remarkable man," said former South African President Nelson Mandela, one of Sisulu's closest friends...

HEIDELBERG, Germany -- A court cleared a Turkish man and his American girlfriend Tuesday of charges that they planned to bomb a U.S. military base in Germany around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, but sentenced the man to 18 months in prison on lesser charges...

JERUSALEM -- Israel turned 55 Tuesday with more than a few aches and pains. The country is in the grip of one of its worst recessions and there is no sign of a letup in 31 months of fighting with the Palestinians. Independence Day celebrations were held amid high security, as police said they had warnings of dozens of planned Palestinian attacks. As a precaution, Israeli closed its borders, banning all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering the country...

DUBLIN, Ireland -- The Irish Republican Army accused the British and Irish governments Tuesday of "an abuse of trust" by making public the outlawed group's letter on peace and disarmament. Britain Prime Minister Tony Blair last week canceled an election on Catholic-Protestant power-sharing in Northern Ireland, saying that the IRA position on peace remained far too murky...

LONDON -- Looming political battles overshadowed Prime Minister Tony Blair's 50th birthday Tuesday, although approval ratings boosted by his handling of the war in Iraq were a welcome present. Instead of celebrating his birthday, Blair spent much of the day trying to head off a possible revolt within his ruling Labor Party over plans to give Britain's leading hospitals more autonomy...

MONROVIA, Liberia -- Liberia's defense minister said his troops killed a notorious Sierra Leone warlord, but a war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone expressed doubt Tuesday that Sam Bockarie was really dead. The U.N. Security Council, meanwhile, voted unanimously to extend an arms embargo against Liberia and threatened to ban its lucrative timber trade unless the government stops supporting rebel groups that are destabilizing the region...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The European Union's top humanitarian aid official came to Iraq on Tuesday and said assistance to the country should be coordinated primarily by the United Nations rather than the United States. The 15-member EU plans to open an aid office in Baghdad by month's end, EU Development Commissioner Poul Nielson said as he arrived to assess humanitarian needs...

NEW YORK -- Saddam Hussein ordered that nearly $1 billion be taken from Iraq's Central Bank shortly before the United States began bombing Baghdad, and sent his son Qusai to grab the cash in the middle of the night, a newspaper reported Tuesday. The amount of money -- some $900 million in U.S. $100 bills and $100 million in euros -- was so large it had to be taken from the bank in three tractor-trailers, The New York Times reported...

NAJAF, Iraq -- Like a suspect posing for a mug shot, Col. Hilal al-Obeidi holds up identification as the camera shutter clicks. But al-Obeidi isn't a crook. He's a cop -- or, at least, he wants to be. He is the first of 613 men, most of them Najaf police officers under Saddam, to register for training by U.S. Marines. They'll form a new, American-watched police force -- if they pass a background check that examines just how close they were to Saddam's fallen regime...

VIENNA, Austria -- A top Iranian official denied his country had a nuclear weapons program but told the United Nations on Tuesday Iran was not willing to submit to tougher inspections of its facilities. The United States has accused Iran, which is building a centrifuge plant at Natanz in southern Iran, of having secret plans to make nuclear weapons. It fears Iran could enrich weapons-grade uranium at the site...

MEDELLIN, Colombia -- Colombian rebels began shooting hostages as soon as they heard military helicopters flying overhead, one of the captives said, describing a botched rescue attempt in which a state governor, former defense minister and eight other captive soldiers were killed...

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine government withdrew Tuesday from informal talks with Muslim rebels after a guerrilla attack killed 22 soldiers and civilians. Government negotiators were scheduled to meet with Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the meeting will wait "until we can establish more auspicious circumstances to move the peace process forward."...

STAR CITY, Russia -- A computer error is suspected of sending three spacemen on a wild ride home that was so steep and forceful their tongues rolled back in their mouths and they could hardly breathe. Then antenna problems blocked their ability to announce a safe arrival, albeit one that was far short of the targeted touchdown site. ...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan restored transportation links and full diplomatic ties with rival India on Tuesday, and pressed for peace talks to include discussion of the two countries' nuclear arsenals. Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali also said he hoped the South Asian rivals could resolve their decades-long differences over Kashmir, the divided Himalayan region that has been the cause of two wars between them...

Retailer Kmart officially emerges from bankruptcy TROY, Mich. -- Kmart Corp. emerged from bankruptcy Tuesday after more than 15 months of Chapter 11 protection. The Troy-based retailer has 600 fewer stores and new leadership since filing for protection from its creditors in early 2002. It also has a $2 billion loan to compete against bigger retailers like Wal-Mart and Target...