Stories from Monday, January 23, 2006

The only ivory-billed woodpecker Bill Eddleman saw during a two-week search for the rare bird was on souvenirs littering the gift shops in Arkansas. The Southeast Missouri State University biology professor even brought the bird home -- on a hat, T-shirt and a pair of earrings for his wife...

The future for cable television and Internet giant Charter Communications is anything but certain. Despite a stock price that has fallen steadily since its initial public offering in 1999 and despite the doubts about the future of cable television, the nation's third-largest cable provider is seeking to shed some fat and look toward the future...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The reception to the "Fair Competition in Video Act" was at times a little fuzzy as the cable and telephone industries, consumer advocates and city government representatives each tried to channel lawmakers toward their way of thinking...

DENVER -- The wildest road trip since "Animal House" rocks on. The next stop for Big Ben, The Bus and all those Terrible Towels will be the Super Bowl in Detroit, thanks to a 34-17 dismantling of the Denver Broncos on Sunday in the AFC title game...

ST. LOUIS -- The notion is ridiculous. Yet it works for Albert Pujols. The NL MVP, coming off a typical 41-homer, .330-average, 117-RBI season, will not rest on his laurels heading into spring training next month. No, he'll show up early with the pitchers and catchers hoping to -- heh, heh -- secure a spot on the roster...

SEATTLE -- With their MVP back in business, a fierce defense and all the comforts of playing at home, the Seattle Seahawks had everything they needed to get to their first Super Bowl. And they did, easily. Shaun Alexander came back from last week's concussion to rush for a team playoff-record 132 yards and two touchdowns Sunday, and Seattle pressured Carolina stars Jake Delhomme and Steve Smith into oblivion in a 34-14 rout for the NFC championship...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In death, 14 West Virginia coal miners have achieved something that just a month ago seemed an unlikely goal: Labor, industry and lawmakers are united in demanding that a dangerous subterranean occupation be made safer. One day after the bodies of two missing miners were found in Aracoma Coal's Alma No. 1 mine at Melville, Gov. Joe Manchin was crafting legislation that he wanted lawmakers to approve by Monday night...

A proclamation signed by Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt announcing Earthquake Awareness Week, Feb. 3 to 8, will mean education and awareness for Sikeston, Cape Girardeau and other Missouri cities. With the potential for an earthquake to cause chaos similar to that of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Missourians who understand the earthquake hazard are better prepared to protect their families and property if a major earthquake occurs...

LONDON -- Some passengers on the Queen Mary 2 are threatening a sit-in when the cruise ship reaches port in Brazil to protest a last-minute change in itinerary, the vessel's operator said Sunday. The world's largest and most expensive ocean liner left New York on Jan. 15 and was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Feb. 22. Carrying more than 2,500 passengers, it hit the side of a Florida shipping channel Jan. 18, damaging a motor and reducing its speed...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- A single-engine plane eases into the sky above the corn and onion fields west of Rochester, and its underside opens like the bay of a World War II bomber. The gap exposes an eight-inch opaque glass prism that fixes on the landscape below, like a bug's round eye...

A former Cape Girardean has chosen his hometown to launch an ambitious plan to bring the propane gas industry into the 21st century with satellite technology. Rick Humphrey, chairman and CEO of NASCorp, believes he's offering a product that propane dealers will snap up to make monitoring customer gas use and routing deliveries more efficient...

ST. LOUIS -- Ford Motor Co. is expected to unveil a massive restructuring plan today that could close the company's factory in Hazelwood, cutting some 1,400 jobs. The odds for Hazelwood aren't considered good because Ford almost closed the suburban St. Louis plant three years ago...

Parents Without Partners has announced its activities for February. Call 335-0797 for more information on all activities...

n Name: Geoff Parker...

Oak Ridge PTO offers chili/stew supper...

HOUSTON -- Denver offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak will be hired by the Texans to take over the worst team in the league and help decide what Houston should do with the first pick in the draft. Texans owner Bob McNair said during a Sunday news conference that the hiring won't be completed until later in the week because the Texans could not negotiate a contract with Kubiak until the Broncos were eliminated from the playoffs...

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Blues defenseman Eric Brewer will undergo surgery for a dislocated shoulder that could sideline him for the rest of the season, the team said Sunday. Brewer, the key player acquired in a trade for Chris Pronger in the offseason, opted for the surgery two days after receiving a second opinion from Dr. Anthony Miniaci of Cleveland that reaffirmed the diagnosis of team doctors. No date has been set for the operation...

LOS ANGELES -- Kobe Bryant scored a staggering 81 points -- the second-highest total in NBA history -- and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Toronto Raptors 122-104 Sunday night. With the fans at Staples Center chanting "MVP! MVP!" Bryant made two free throws with 43.4 seconds remaining for his final points, putting him behind only Wilt Chamberlain on the all-time scoring list...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at the home of an Iraqi police officer Sunday, killing his four young children and his brother and wounding his wife. Bombings and shootings around the country killed at least eight other people, officials said...

25 years ago: Jan. 23, 1981 NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Action is threatened by Puxico, Mo., farmer Wayne Cryts, who says he needs the money from embargoed soybeans stored in a grain elevator here to plant his crops this spring; Cryts, a member of the American Agriculture Movement, says that unless the matter is resolved in the courts by Feb. 16, he will attempt to take his share of the grain...

Waldemar C. "Wally" Spomer, 86, of Cairo, died Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006, at Daystar Care Center in Cairo. Spomer was a retired states attorney in Alexander County. Funeral arrangements are incomplete with the Barkett Funeral Home in Cairo.

Patsy Pyeatte, 78, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006 at Chateau Girardeau in Cape Girardeau. Funeral arrangements are incomplete with Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau.

Movie interest; Taxpayers' employees; Clear guidelines; Public spending; Will of the public; Damaging facts; Require driver's ed; Keep your advice; Marriage is special; Tardy co-workers; Memories of Speedy; E-mail input

To the editor: Urgent attention is needed regarding home oxygen. The U.S. House of Representatives will soon vote on a controversial budget bill (S. 1932). Unfortunately, the bill includes drastic changes to home-oxygen policy that will affect older and disabled Americans on Medicare...

Hockey...

Larry Ferrell didn't have to go to Iraq. An assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District in Cape Girardeau for the past 14 years, Ferrell volunteered to be one of eight prosecutors chosen to go to Baghdad. There, before the Iraqi High Tribunal, they will help Iraqi prosecutors try the former Baathist leaders who were in league with Saddam Hussein...

Jackson manager named staging professional Carmen Shadron has recently been awarded the designation of accredited staging professional at Realty Executives of Cape County. Shadron, the Jackson office manager for Realty Executives, completed a detailed course and passed an examination on preparing homes for sale. ...

Business to organize homes opens in Cape People who put off organizing the garage, a cluttered closet or the basement can now get some help. Heather Gaston of Cape Girardeau has opened Let's Get Organized, a business to help people put their homes in order. ...

Galvin Lloyd Dillingham, 84, of Cape Girardeau, died Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006 at his residence in Cape Girardeau. He was born April 14, 1921, in Neelys Landing, Mo. Funeral arrangements are incomplete with Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau.

MATTHEWS, Mo. -- Walter Lee Beck Jr., 52, of Matthews died Friday, Jan. 20, 2006 at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born on May 12, 1953, son of Walter Lee Sr. and Virginia Lee Lathom Beck. Beck was the owner and operator of Lee's Lawn Irrigation. He was a graduate of Matthews High School and a member of the Sikeston Jaycees, serving as rodeo chairman in 1981...

To the editor: In response to the letter "Missouri should remove illegal aliens": Missouri's illegal-alien problem has been a problem for Texans for years. The immigration buses run daily. Just days after the illegal aliens get off in Mexico, they are back in the United States illegally. ...

The Cape Girardeau County Jail was partially evacuated Sunday afternoon after carbon monoxide was discovered leaking in from a malfunctioning natural gas exhaust vent. Sheriff John Jordan said officials determined atmospheric conditions initiated the incident. The wind and barometric pressure caused an exhaust vent to malfunction, and rather than releasing the gas, carbon monoxide was sucked into the jail's F-pod and two employee areas...

Even with overall crime falling in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, local law enforcement agencies are preparing for 2006 and are not letting their guard down. While figures could change by the end of the month as local police file their complete figures for December 2005, tentative statistics on the Missouri State Highway Patrol Web site show crime in Cape Girardeau and Jackson to have decreased between 2004 and 2005...

City Hall, 401 Independence St. Consent Ordinances (Second and Third Readings) New Ordinances (First Reading) Appointments Other n A motion approving the revised exhibit H to the development agreement for the Sears Grand project; accepting the public improvements, the street, water and sewer lines that will be maintained by the city; and authorizing the administrative close-out of this project, which will enable the city manager to execute the certificate of reimbursable project costs...

CLEVELAND -- A jury on Sunday recommended life in prison without parole for a former graduate student who killed another student and wounded two others during a seven-hour siege inside Case Western Reserve University's business school. Biswanath Halder was convicted last month of killing Norman Wallace during the 2003 shooting spree and standoff...

DALLAS -- Veggie burgers and tofu might not be so great at warding off heart disease after all. An American Heart Association committee reviewed a decade of studies on soy's benefits and came up with results that are now casting doubt on the health claim that soy-based foods and supplements significantly lower cholesterol...

WASHINGTON -- Most people, particularly senior citizens, say they are having a hard time understanding the new Medicare prescription drug program, an AP-Ipsos poll found. The drug benefit requires people to choose from among dozens of competing private insurance plans. Along with senior citizens, those most likely to acknowledge difficulties live in rural areas or are college graduates...

LOS ANGELES -- The immigrant day laborers who wait for work on street corners across the United States have families and attend church regularly, and the people who hire them are more likely to be individual homeowners than construction contractors...

Cape Girardeau...

Cape Girardeau...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- U.S. sailors boarded a suspected pirate ship in the Indian Ocean and detained 26 men for questioning, the Navy said Sunday. The 16 Indians and 10 Somali men were aboard a traditional dhow that was chased and seized Saturday by the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, said Lt. Leslie Hull-Ryde of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain...

WASHINGTON -- A top Republican lawmaker said Sunday that America must explore alternate energy sources to avoid being held hostage by Iran or by "wackos" in Venezuela -- an apparent reference to Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's populist president. Sen. John McCain, a potential presidential contender in 2008, said recent action by "Mr. Chavez" and by Iran's leaders make it clear that the United States will be vulnerable as long as it remains dependent on foreign energy...

WASHINGTON -- Troops and civilians at a U.S. military base in Iraq were exposed to contaminated water last year and employees for the responsible contractor, Halliburton, couldn't get their company to inform camp residents, according to interviews and internal company documents...

WASHINGTON -- Several lawmakers said Sunday they will press President Bush to justify his decision to allow domestic eavesdropping, rebuffing GOP suggestions their criticism of broad executive authority puts the nation at risk. During the Sunday talk shows, lawmakers were responding to efforts by White House aide Karl Rove to make national security the top partisan issue in the November midterm elections. ...

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, took office on Sunday with a promise to lift his nation's struggling indigenous majority out of centuries of poverty and discrimination. Morales, a former leader of Bolivia's coca growers and a fierce critic of U.S. policies, raised a fist in a leftist salute as he swore to uphold the constitution...

DAMADOLA, Pakistan -- Sympathy for al-Qaida has surged after a U.S. airstrike devastated this remote mountain hamlet in a region sometimes as hostile toward the Pakistani government as it is to the United States. A week after the attack, villagers insist no members of the terror network were anywhere near the border village when it was hit. But thousands of protesters flooded a nearby town chanting, "Long live Osama bin Laden!"...

Canadian election offers options for change; U.N. says 20,000 flee fighting in Congo; Atheist sues priest, wants proof Jesus existed

SEATTLE -- The images are so detailed you can tell whether a neighbor's hedge was recently trimmed or whether the car parked in front of a favorite local eatery might belong to a friend. Such views are available online for anyone to see from some of the biggest names on the Internet, including Amazon.com, Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc...

Cape Genealogical Society plans meeting The Cape Girardeau County Genealogical Society will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Riverside Regional Library in Jackson. Guest speaker will be Jack Smoot, site administrator at Bollinger Mill. There will be a presentation on the history of the mill. Nonmembers welcome at all meetings. For more information, call Bill Eddleman at 335-1507...

The number of U.S. colleges with endowments topping $1 billion has jumped to 56, a new study says, with nine schools joining the elite club in what was an average year for university investments overall. Harvard remained the richest, with $25.5 billion, followed by Yale with $15.2 billion...

Chad Campbell shot a scrambling 71 Sunday to outlast Scott Verplank and Jesper Parnevik and win the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Campbell's 1-under closing round put him at 25-under 335, three shots in front of Verplank and 2000 Hope champion Parnevik...

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Andy Roddick thought he'd get it right at the Australian Open. Stung by a first-round exit at the U.S. Open last August, Roddick skipped the Masters Cup in November to give himself extra weeks to peak for the season's first major...

Rodeo Show Me Center Championship (final results) Girls barrel racing -- 1. Amanda Claymer, 11.75 seconds, $633.97; 2. Becky Nix, 11.91, $551.28; 3. Laura Hyde, 11.99, 468.59; 4. Amanda Mulvanicy, 12.03, $385.90 Bareback riding -- 1. Scotty Nesmith, 76, $592.80; 2. Jared Keylon, 70, $371.50; 3. A. Carter, 70, $370.50; 4. Jason Paris, 69, $74.10; 4. Terry Coleman, 69, $74.10...

A new coach, a new system and a key new player have not hindered Bell City's pursuit of a familiar goal: winning a state championship. Bell City has won two state titles and reached the state final four three times in the last four years, all under former coach David Heeb. They finished fourth in the state last season...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Ingrid Ozols Perdue runs several miles a week, lifts weights, cycles, does Pilates and even gets in an occasional kickboxing workout -- a regimen she credits with keeping her free of colds and the flu. "I really haven't been ill," said the 50-year-old dermatologist from the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel. "I think I'm healthier when I exercise. I think it's positive for me."...

ST. LOUIS -- A new poll shows Gov. Matt Blunt trailing potential Democratic challenger Attorney General Jay Nixon in the race for governor, based partly on overwhelming opposition to Medicaid cuts that Blunt's administration has championed. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch/ KMOV-TV poll released Saturday found no clear leader in the race for the U.S. Senate between State Auditor Claire McCaskill and incumbent Sen. Jim Talent...

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Thousands of pro-life supporters massed outside Minnesota's Capitol on Sunday in one of several protests nationwide on the 33rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling, amid heightened hopes and fears over what a new face on the Supreme Court will mean for the decision establishing abortion rights...

For 174 years, the Vincentians have offered up the bread of life in Cape Girardeau. Nearly two centuries in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One college, two churches, an elementary school. A long legacy. And after 174 years, the Vincentians are leaving Cape Girardeau for much the same reason they originally came: to fulfill their calling to God...