Stories from Saturday, August 6, 2005

Pujols becames first to hit 30 home runs in each of his first five seasons. ST. LOUIS -- The Atlanta Braves appreciated Albert Pujols' milestone home run a lot more than he did. Pujols became the first player in major league history to hit 30 home runs in each of his first five seasons, helping Mark Mulder and the St. Louis Cardinals end John Smoltz' eight-game winning streak with an 11-3 victory on Friday night...

HELSINKI, Finland -- Olympic champion Justin Gatlin climbs into the blocks for the 100-meter preliminaries, the American men go for a shot put sweep and Britain's Paula Radcliffe begins her quest for atonement after her Athens debacle. The world track and field championships, one of the largest athletic gatherings outside the Olympics, begin today with the first of nine days of suspense, surprise and subplots...

Parts of the new policy will be implemented in February. INDIANAPOLIS -- Fed up with what it considers "hostile" and "abusive" American Indian nicknames, the NCAA announced Friday it would shut those words and images out of postseason tournaments, a move that left some school officials angry and threatening legal action...

HIROSHIMA, Japan -- Minoru Hataguchi gently opens a box in his office and pulls out a corroded belt buckle -- the one his father wore the day he died with tens of thousands of others in the American atomic blast that wiped out Hiroshima. For Hataguchi, who was still in his mother's womb on Aug. 6, 1945, the context of the A-bomb -- Tokyo's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, America's reluctance to invade Japan by land -- takes a back seat to the human suffering it caused...

The federal highway bill doesn't involve "pork barrel" projects in Missouri, but rather needed transportation improvements, U.S. Sen. Kit Bond said Friday. Meeting with about 30 Southeast Missouri civic and city leaders at the Jackson City Hall, Bond defended the five-year, $286.5-million highway bill...

Kenneth Bender can still recall the ring of fire that burned at the outskirts of Nagasaki. A conversation with Kenneth Bender can make history unfold. Like many veterans of World War II, Bender has a plethora of stories, but one in particular still stands out clearly in his mind. ...

The class of 2005 made project presentations at the First Friday Coffee. Imagine a half-hour television program that highlights scenic vistas and off-the-cuff interviews with local characters, all with an underlying theme of promoting Cape Girardeau...

PLATTE CITY, Mo. -- A federal judge's decision to override a jury conviction in an Internet sex case has called into question a law enforcement tactic used to nabbing potential child molesters across the country. A federal jury convicted a 42-year-old lawyer, Jan P. Helder, of using a chat service to solicit sex from someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missourians are living longer lives and having fewer abortions, the latest state health statistics show. The state hit a record for life expectancy, increasing four-tenths of a year to 76.8 years in 2004, but still lagging behind the national figure of 77.6 years in 2003, the state Department of Health and Senior Services said, citing provisional data...

LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed strict anti-terror measures Friday that would allow Britain to expel foreigners who preach hatred, close extremist mosques and bar entry to Muslim radicals. "The rules of the game are changing" following last month's bomb attacks, he declared...

JERUSALEM -- The 19-year-old who killed four Israeli Arabs on a bus deserted the army to protest Israel's impending withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and took refuge in a militant Jewish settlement with his military-issued rifle. Israeli security forces missed that and other warning signs -- including a plea by his father to find him -- raising questions about Israel's ability to rein in Jewish extremists even as it demands Palestinian leaders act against Muslim radicals...

Estimates of how long the sailors could continue to breathe ranged from 18 hours to a couple of days. VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Trapped under countless crushing tons of frigid water, seven sailors waited to see if their mates far above could find a way to pull them to safety before the oxygen in their tiny craft gives out...

CHICAGO -- Stanley Cup-winning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin signed a four-year, $27 million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, leaving the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Khabibulin played in 55 regular-season games for the Lightning during 2003-04, posting a 28-19-7 record with three shutouts, a 2.33 goals against average and a .910 save percentage...

LAS VEGAS -- The NBA is going "all-in" with its All-Stars. The 2007 NBA All-Star game is headed to Las Vegas, the first time a city without a franchise has been chosen to host the event. The festivities will take place just off the Strip, at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus...

ST. LOUIS -- The learning curve remains steep for St. Louis Rams backup quarterback Jeff Smoker. With No. 2 quarterback Jamie Martin sitting out with a groin pull, Smoker received the bulk of the repetitions during Friday morning's workout at Rams Park...

Is it the food? The competition? A special date with a special someone? Maybe it's the midway and the thrilling carnival rides. What do you remember about the SEMO District Fair? The SEMO District Fair board and the Southeast Missourian are looking for old fair photos from the 1800s to the 1950s...

Lobbyists gave to defense funds despite bans; Prison for one WorldCom exec, probation for another; Jurors: Death row inmate not mentally retarded

U.N. appeals for $80 million for Niger; Delegation pays respects to new Saudi king

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Sixty years ago, the world became a different place with the test detonation of the atomic bomb on July 16 and its first use as a weapon on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6. The path that led to Lennie Whitworth of Sikeston being part of the team that developed the atomic bomb started when he joined the U.S. Army in 1943 after serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...

Cape Girardeau Firefighters responded to the following calls Thursday: * At 5:50 p.m., emergency medical service in the 1900 block of Delwin Street. * At 7:14 p.m., emergency medical service in the 700 block of William Street. * At 7:45 p.m., water rescue on North Main Street at First Street...

Three area people, including an elderly woman and the son she shared a house with, succumbed to the heat wave that engulfed the Midwest last month with heat indexes above 100 degrees. The circumstances in the first case were unusual. The mother and son kept their windows closed because the son suffered from asthma. The Cape Girardeau house was not air conditioned. The occupants depended on fans to keep them cool...

Driving along Highway 25, it's hard not to notice the brick and white steeple set against a backdrop of green trees and blue sky just outside Gordonville. The steeple, topped with a white cross, has stood on that spot for 90 years. The history of the church it belongs to goes back five decades further though, to a group of farmers intent on founding a strong German liturgy in Southeast Missouri...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Jack Roush can hardly wait until Sunday. Heading into the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, the owner of Roush Racing's five-car Nextel Cup juggernaut likes his chances of winning the event he considers second only to the Daytona 500 in prestige...

PITTSBURGH -- What a time to be a rookie in Pittsburgh. Ben Roethlisberger enjoys the best season by a rookie quarterback in NFL history on a 15-1 Steelers team. Jason Bay is the NL rookie of the year, the Pirates' first such recipient. Hockey wunderkind Sidney Crosby is on his way to the Penguins, first stopping over for a Thursday night visit with Jay Leno...

Cape Girardeau...

Andrew Williams glanced up from his "Got Jesus?" T-shirt with a look of dawning realization on his face. "It's just seven days, Ms. Teresa," he said. "Just seven days." Williams and another local teen, Amanda Myer, have gathered in Teresa LeGrand's office at St. Mary Cathedral on a Wednesday night to talk about a trip that has been in the making for three years...

Homecoming service set at Lutesville church; KMHM radio marks 10th anniversary this week; Westminster presents five-day family VBS; Today; Sunday; Friday

Baseball...

To the editor: Recently I witnessed a gas station attendant asking a man to put out his cigarette. The guy was astounded and puzzled, unable to figure out what the problem was. As a public service, I thought I would prepare this list that smokers could cut out of the paper and read before heading into a gas station:...

To the editor: Sex education -- more-or-less comprehensive or more-or-less rigorously limited -- has been around in human societies since the dawn of time. The cultural background of that education, however, has changed, and thus the type and kind of education has changed. Even chimps practice a sort of sex ed, and young tortoises have to learn ... well, you get the picture...

To the editor: Alan Journet writes that, thanks to President Bush, the government is promoting teen pregnancy, single mothers and sexually transmitted diseases with its abstinence-only education policy. He advocates continuing the disastrous sex-education programs of the past 32 years as a solution for these increasing problems, in spite of the evidence they don't work. All of these problems have increased dramatically since sex education was first introduced...

To the editor: Passage of the new five-year federal transportation bill will provide added impetus and the additional funding necessary for Southeast Missouri to achieve the safer and more efficient transportation system toward which we are all working. ...

WEST FRANKFORT, Ill. -- Hosea Auburn Thomas, 84, of West Frankfort died Friday, Aug. 5, 2005, at Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion, Ill. He was born Dec. 23, 1920, in Hamilton County, Ill., son of William C. and Etta Engram Thomas. He and Jylonda Irene Murphy were married May 29, 1945...

Thursday-night games; Talking, not stopping; Stand makes sense; Ill-conceived marketing; For better health; Restored standing; Even more pork; Misplaced subsidies; Better lease deal; A citizen in wartime; Sign would help; Sharing the pie; Guilty pleasure; Time to wake up

Southeast Missourian The Roy Lee All-Stars boys basketball team for 13-and-under boys won its first three games Friday in the Mid America Youth Basketball national tournament in Wichita, Kan. The Roy Lee All-Stars, based in Southeast Missouri, completed pool play with a 3-0 mark and has a first-round bye in the bracket, which includes all 56 teams at the tournament...

PERKINS, Mo. -- Carl "Punkin" Schott, 55, of Perkins died Friday, Aug. 5, 2005, at his home. He was born April 24, 1950, in Cape Girardeau, son of Leo and Faye McDaniel Schott. He and Mary James were married July 11, 1970. Schott was a 1968 graduate of Oran High School. He was a farmer and owner of Schott Trucking Co. in Advance, Mo. He was a member of Knights of Columbus and Guardian Angel Catholic Church in Oran...

Meyer; Gruenewald

The graveside service for Darcy J. Gaffigan of Baton Rouge, La., has been changed to 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Cape County Memorial Park. The Rev. Ron Watts will officiate. Gaffigan, 61, died Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2005, at her home. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements...

25 years ago: Aug. 6, 1980 When all the vote counting had been completed last night, Cape Girardeau County Clerk Rodney Miller was smiling; the county's new punch-card voting system was used for the first time in the primary election, and the reaction from both voters and election officials appeared to be one of enthusiasm...

ORAN, Mo. -- Rosann Mansker, 57, of Shiner, Texas, formerly of Oran, died Thursday, Aug. 4, 2005, at Geary Community Hospital in Geary, Kan. Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel at Oran is in charge of arrangements.

Run with "ShowMe results Aug6" RUN WITH PICTURE OF CARLY SMITH (Mug) and standalone of Brett Slaten, golfer. ** Smith goes on run in Australia Carly Smith, a recent graduate of Meadow Heights High School and a 99th-place finisher last fall at the Missouri Class 1 cross country meet, competed in the International Sports Specialist Inc. Down Under International Games in Australia...

code for z-rec standalone listing ** Show-Me Games results for local teams, as posted on the Show-Me State Games Web site. The event concludes this weekend. ** July 22 to 25 Basketball Twin City Jays (12 and under boys competitive) -- Coached by Tommy Delph, silver medal...

A citizen in wartime...

There aren't many players who make more eagles and birdies than Billy Mayfair. And there aren't any tournaments that reward below-par shooters the way the International does. Mayfair, who ranks second behind only Vijay Singh in birdies and eagles this season, rolled in a 70-foot putt for eagle on No. 17, then finished with a birdie to take the lead after the first round of one of the tour's most unique events Friday in Castle Rock, Colo...

Southeast Missouri State football coach Tim Billings and his staff always try to keep a wary eye on the heat when preseason practice begins every summer. And as the Redhawks prepare for today's opening workout -- set for 5:30 p.m. at Houck Stadium -- coaches and trainers will perhaps be even more on the lookout due to the recent death of Missouri's Aaron O'Neal during a voluntary summer conditioning drill...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Has Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest private employer, grown too big for the U.S. justice system? That provocative question is the key to Wal-Mart's defense against a lawsuit filed on behalf of 1.6 million former and current women employees. Attorneys pursuing the class action claim Wal-Mart systematically denied raises and promotions to women and paid them less than their male counterparts...

I have long been a seeker, seeking to create a peaceful existence where I might experience calm amid the clamor of daily life. It was only after searching within myself that I finallysaw how I could love with the world as it is today. It wasn't that I changed so much on the outside, but I changed within. ...

SPACE CENTER, Houston -- NASA is investigating whether repairs to a small crack in the foam on Discovery's fuel tank may have caused a 1-pound section of the insulation to break off during liftoff, officials said late Friday. The shallow crack -- just six-tenths of an inch long and two-tenths of an inch wide -- was sanded away at the Louisiana manufacturing plant before the tank was shipped to Cape Canaveral, Fla. No new foam was applied to the spot...

U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, spent Friday afternoon with representatives of Missouri growers. Goodlatte, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, and Emerson toured the Delta Center in Portageville, Mo., and met with members of groups representing rice, soybean, corn and cotton growers as well as the Missouri Cattlemen's Association and the Missouri Farm Bureau. ...

CRAWFORD, Texas -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's second trip to the hospital in less than a month raises new questions about whether his battle with cancer will force him to leave the bench -- and who will fill his seat if he steps down. Already, President Bush's decision to nominate John Roberts to the Supreme Court has been scrutinized for clues into the type of candidate he'd pick if he got a chance to name a chief justice...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri officials have opted to rely on the good will of a Montana woman to point confused Medicaid callers to a state help line instead of telling them directly about a typographical error in a toll-free telephone number. Hundreds of Missourians have called Sharon Rivera of Columbia Falls, Mont., after the Department of Social Services mistakenly listed her number for the hearing- or speech-impaired to call about impending cuts to Medicaid benefits...

Jog growth in May and June proved to be stronger than was previously thought. WASHINGTON -- Hiring shifted into a higher gear in July, with the largest expansion of payrolls in five months. The unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent. The latest snapshot, released by the Labor Department on Friday, offered strong evidence that the job climate is improving considerably, good news both for the overall economy and those seeking work...

After a short ceremony and lots of tearful goodbyes, about 50 soldiers left Friday morning from the Missouri National Guard Armory in Cape Girardeau for training that will eventually take them to Iraq. The soldiers, mostly from the 1140th Engineer Battalion, will join the 110th Engineer Battalion in Kansas City before traveling to Fort Riley, Kan., to complete their training. They could be sent to Iraq anytime within the next one to three months. They will remain there for about a year...

Two cases have renewed scrutiny of the death penalty in Missouri. ST. LOUIS -- Many death row inmates proclaim their innocence, but Roy "Hog" Roberts, a big man, loud and profane, was adamant. In the waning days before his 1999 execution for the murder of a prison guard, he demanded a polygraph test...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. Marines and Iraqi troops pounded insurgents with bombs and tank cannons Friday during a major offensive along a stretch of the Euphrates River valley where 22 Marines were killed this week. About 800 U.S. Marines and 180 Iraqi soldiers moved into Haqlaniyah, one of a cluster of western towns in Anbar province around the Haditha Dam that is believed to be a stronghold of Iraqi insurgents and foreign fighters...