Stories from Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Missouri Department of Transportation longtime employee Mark Shelton of Jefferson City has been promoted to the job of Southeast Missouri district engineer. Shelton, 41, replaces Scott Meyer, who resigned to take a job as director of facilities management at Southeast Missouri State University...

Should a disaster destroy a water plant, the other city would be able to provide emergency water. Cape Girardeau and Jackson share many things. They share the same county, the same industrial recruiter and the same interstate. Soon, both cities will have the ability to share water too...

The high school students are spending a week volunteering. For most high school students, traveling nearly 400 miles on a school bus to do heavy labor in the hot sun and then sleep on a floor at night may not sound like a summer vacation, but some suburban Chicago students have done just that...

Are you fed up with the litter around town? And excited about the strides the community has already taken the past several months in tackling the unsightly mess? We need your help. First, the mayors of Cape Girardeau and Jackson have issued challenges to their communities to be litter-free by Independence Day. Cleanup help around your home and workplace is appreciated. By each of us pitching in a little, we can make great strides together...

It began on a perfect Florida spring morning, when I glanced out my back window to see the most remarkable bird. It stood on long legs, well over a foot tall, with black, white and yellow markings and a tuft of feathers on its head...

A Cape Girardeau County family has started a farm founded on chemical-free, natural principles Family Friendly Farm got started because Rachel Fasnacht wanted to make homemade chicken soup. Rachel and her husband, Matt, a chemistry professor at Southeast Missouri State University, moved from Maryland two years ago, and bought a big old-fashioned farmhouse on Route V outside Cape Girardeau near the Trail of Tears State Park. Rachel said she was ready to settle in and be a good wife...

Detroit trimmed San Antonio's series lead to 2-1. AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- The NBA Finals aren't looking so lopsided anymore, thanks to a burst of life from the defending champion Detroit Pistons that took them three games to summon. Playing with a level of energy that was nowhere to be found in the first two games, Ben Wallace and Richard Hamilton led the way as the Pistons thoroughly outplayed the San Antonio Spurs in the second half and won 96-79 Tuesday night in Game 3...

LOS ANGELES -- Phil and Kobe, together again. Phil Jackson is back with the Los Angeles Lakers following a breakup that took a year to mend, and back to coaching Kobe Bryant -- a player he once called "uncoachable." "This is something I never thought could possibly happen," Jackson said Tuesday at a Staples Center news conference. "It's a pleasure to come back."...

The pitcher made a statement to his former team in St. Louis' 7-0 victory. TORONTO -- Chris Carpenter had a dominant response for a fan that mocked him in his return to Toronto. Carpenter pitched a one-hitter in his first start against the Blue Jays since they cut him in 2002, leading the Cardinals to a 7-0 victory on Tuesday night...

Lights will be added to the bridge where a gap looks smaller than it actually is. BRIDGETON, Mo. -- Transportation officials will light the underside of the Discovery Bridge to eliminate an optical illusion that has contributed to at least five people jumping or falling from the bridge since 1992...

The explosion, killing at least 23, came as the Kurdish-dominated region got its first president. KIRKUK, Iraq -- A crowd of elderly men and women, some with grandchildren in tow, were lined up at the bank to cash pension checks. Street vendors hawked their wares nearby. A young man strode calmly into their midst and detonated his suicide belt, blasting himself and others to pieces...

It's summer, and that means baseball and softball games nearly every night of the week. Trying to keep up with each child's schedule, I find myself turning to quick recipes. Sometimes that includes the slow cooker. I have pulled out several slow-cooker recipes to share with you today...

Warning to motorists this summer: Rough road ahead. From New England to the Deep South, repaving projects are being canceled or postponed because of the rising price of oil, which is used to make asphalt as well as diesel for dump trucks, steamrollers and other heavy equipment...

SHELLEY, England -- Archaeologists trying to exhume the remains of the sister of one of the founders of the first permanent English settlement in North America have found what they believe is her burial shaft. They want to use DNA from the remains to find out whether a skeleton unearthed in Virginia is that of Capt. Bartholemew Gosnold, who oversaw an expedition that led to the founding of Jamestown in 1607...

TEHRAN, Iran -- The campaign manager for front-runner Hashemi Rafsanjani said Tuesday he expects his candidate to win Iran's presidential election, although it may take an unprecedented run-off ballot. Opinion polls show Rafsanjani, who was president from 1989 to 1997, with a narrow lead heading into Friday's vote. But candidates and analysts are increasingly speculating the contest will go to a run-off one week later...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan capital is on the verge of a cholera epidemic, with more than 2,000 cases of the disease and at least eight deaths reported in recent weeks, a health expert warned Tuesday. Afghanistan's Health Ministry on Monday confirmed up to 300 cases, but claimed they have been dealt with and there had been no fatalities. It said there was no risk of the disease spreading...

A famous mantra for the U.S. Open is that it seeks to identify the best players, not embarrass them. At times, Tom Meeks has been known to infuriate them. Tom Lehman berated him for the silly pin placement on the 18th hole at Olympic Club. Nick Price challenged him for making the fairway nearly impossible to reach on the 492-yard 10th hole at Bethpage Black. A long list of players ridiculed him for the seventh green at Shinnecock Hills last year...

ATHENS, Greece -- Asafa Powell broke the world record in the 100 meters Tuesday with a 9.77 clocking at Olympic Stadium, where the Jamaican didn't fare nearly as well during the Athens Games last summer. Powell shaved one hundredth of a second off Tim Montgomery's record of 9.78 set in Paris in 2002 -- a mark that already was at risk because Montgomery faces doping charges...

NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees will announce detailed plans today for a new $800 million ballpark, which would be built adjacent to the current Yankee Stadium and could be ready by the 2009 season. The team has spent years planning the new stadium, which will have a capacity of at least 50,800 -- approximately 6,000 seats fewer than the current ballpark -- but could be expanded to about 54,000. ...

WASHINGTON -- A major free trade agreement with Central American nations moved forward in the Senate Tuesday, although senators put off for another day how to deal with the sugar industry opposition that is the biggest obstacle to passage. The Senate Finance Committee accepted one change in conjunction with the Central American Free Trade Agreement, known as CAFTA, extending to service workers a federal program to assist workers displaced by trade competition...

WASHINGTON -- Wholesale prices fell by the largest amount in more than two years in May, helping to ease concerns that a big spike in energy costs earlier in the year might spell inflation troubles. Meanwhile, May retail sales tumbled for the first time in nine months, a decline that was blamed on unusually cool weather during the month and not seen as evidence that consumer spending, the engine that drives the economy, was threatening to sputter out...

Tampering charge in trooper death dropped VAN BUREN, Mo. -- Charges are no longer pending against the wife of a man accused of shooting a state trooper, after the Carter County prosecutor dismissed a tampering charge on Monday. Coree Shockley, 23, of Van Buren had been charged with evidence-tampering in April. ...

Cape Girardeau Firefighters responded to the following calls Monday: * At 3:55 p.m., motor vehicle crash at Kingshighway and William Street. * At 9:55 p.m., emergency medical service at 2000 Kenneth St. * At 10:06 p.m., citizen assist at 3200 Themis St...

Mary Deal Drake, 101, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, June 14, 2005, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Arvel J. Claye, 81, of Jackson passed away Tuesday, June 14, 2005, at Monticello House in Jackson. He was born Sept. 1, 1923, in Malvern, Ark., son of Andrew J. and Ollie M. Aker Claye. He and Mary "Marie" Ross were married July 4, 1948, in Malvern...

Backbiting gossips; Just like Truman; Foreign and domestic; Sex crimes; Blame the union; Concert canceled; Dirty pool; Unfinished roof?; Cougars in Leopold; Our rights too

Football...

Like sheriffs in the Old West who told troublemakers to get out of town before sunset, community leaders in our area a few months ago vowed to clean up their towns by July 4. The area- wide anti-litter campaign appears to be working. People at least are thinking more about how litter affects the quality of our lives...

Cape Girardeau ...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Leon Gates, 46, died Wednesday, June 8, 2005, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Sept. 11, 1958, in Hayti, Mo., son of Joe Gates and Lula Mae Owens. Gates graduated from Matthews High School in 1978 and was a groundskeeper at Memorial Park Cemetery in Sikeston. He was a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps...

Edwards; Mayfield; Williams

EAST PRAIRIE, Ill. -- Donald Ross Garner, 66, of East Prairie died Monday, June 13, 2005, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, Mo. He was born July 16, 1938, near East Prairie, son of Charlie and Zella Faire Garner. He and Willene McCloud were married July 18, 1961...

BENTON, Mo. -- Theodore Edgar "T.E." Hicks, 65, of Benton died Monday, June 13, 2005, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born March 30, 1940, at Blodgett, Mo., son of A.Y. and Viola Isabel Webber Hicks. He and Georgia Alice Sloniker Jacox were married Jan. 2, 1970...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Harland Gilbert Maxwell, 91, of Sikeston died Tuesday, June 14, 2005, at his home. He was born April 29, 1914, in Bertrand, Mo., son of Walter and Nettie Holland Maxwell. He and Gladys Stallings were married April 12, 1941. She died Nov. 26, 2000. He and Clara Presson were married July 12, 2003...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Tracy L. Neubauer, 34, of Piedmont, Mo., died Friday, June 10, 2005, at her home. She was born March 22, 1971, in St. Louis, daughter of Gordon and Charlotte Moore. She married Steven Neubauer. She was formerly of Marble Hill. Survivors include her husband; a son, Conner Crites of Illinois; her father of Forsyth, Mo.; a brother, Wade Moore of Missouri; a sister, Tina Cray of Cartersville, Ga.; and grandmother, Elva Lincoln of Marble Hill...

THEBES, Ill. -- Charles E. "Eddie" Mathis, 61, of Thebes died Monday, June 13, 2005, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born July 10, 1943, in Ozark, Ill., son of Cletis and Alice Fern Marshall Mathis. He married Nancy Simmons...

ANNA, Ill. -- Clola Mayberry, 97, of Anna died Monday, June 13, 2005, at her home. She was born Nov. 5, 1907, at McClure, Ill., daughter of Elzie and Bessie Brown. She and the Rev. Charles Mayberry were married Oct. 22, 1924, in Jonesboro, Ill. He died March 24, 1985...

25 years ago: June 15, 1980 Moving day is a large task, but when moving day means packing 90,000 books it's an event; volunteers at the Cape Girardeau Public Library were knee deep in that event yesterday, as packing began in earnest; the library will be closed until June 23 while the moving process is completed...

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan -- A cleric on Tuesday disputed FBI allegations that his 22-year-old grandson received jihadist training at his Islamic seminary near Pakistan's capital, calling the charges "a pack of lies." Qari Saeed-ur Rehman said his grandson, Hamid Hayat, and son-in-law Umer Hayat, 47, were wrongfully arrested in California last week, and he dismissed suggestions they were linked to an al-Qaida cell. ...

ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Police joined by two FBI bloodhounds launched a new search on a beach near a Marriott Hotel on Tuesday for a missing Alabama teen after a former security guard alleged that one of three youths seen with her had lied to police. Antonius "Mickey" John, who was released Monday, said he was detained in a cell adjacent to one of the young men and that the two talked...

WELDON, N.C. -- Charles Jenkins, who deserted his U.S. Army unit and crossed into North Korea in 1965, arrived Tuesday in the United States for his first visit in 40 years. A smiling, gray-haired Jenkins, 65, stood arm-in-arm with his frail, 91-year-old mother, Pattie, on the front porch of his sister's home in this community 30 miles northwest of his hometown, Rich Square...

NEW YORK -- Critics of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are gaining new allies, including a few conservative congressmen and a West Point professor, as they press on multiple fronts to overturn the ban on out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians in the armed forces...

The Cape Girardeau American Legion junior baseball team split a doubleheader with visiting Jackson on Tuesday night. Brett Heischimdt had two hits and was the winning pitcher in a 7-6 win in the opener. Abe Dirnberger, Luke Moll and Kory Kitchen added two hits apiece for Cape (8-3)...

Advance's baseball team started the season with little fanfare, only to reel off 14 straight wins and eventually knocking off defending district champion Oran en route to its first district title since 2002 and an 18-3 finish...

It was a tale of two games Tuesday night as the Cape Girardeau Senior Babe Ruth baseball team battled Jackson in a doubleheader at Jackson Legion Field...

The Coalition to Fund Excellent Schools, a group of Missouri school districts suing the state, and an education lobbying group, the Missouri National Education Association, are claiming that more than half of Missouri's school districts will be harmed by an "error" in the new school funding formula...

When I was a little girl I was so jealous of my grandmother's pillows. Some children ran around their houses in capes made of bath towels. My cousins and I draped my grandmother's pillowcases over our hips and pretended to be high-class ladies...