Stories from Saturday, November 11, 2006

Students are encouraged to take phone calls in areas marked by signs. By MARK BLISS Southeast Missourian Loud chatter from Southeast Missouri State University students conversing on their cell phones has been an increasing nuisance to staff and other students in the school's Kent Library. ...

By TJ GREANEY Southeast Missourian Sen. Jim Talent's staff members are finding out after a disappointing election that transition is not always easy. "When I first worked for Bill Emerson in the early '80s, I learned that I was serving at the pleasure of a person who had to reapply for his job every two years," said Lloyd Smith, who took a leave of absence from his post with Rep. ...

By SCOTT MOYERS Southeast Missourian "Want to see what a hero looks like?" Jim Shank asked the question to the auditorium full of wide-eyed Scott City school children Friday morning. Shank then pulled out a poster-sized picture of a handsome 18-year-old young man...

The eventual addition of up to 400 jobs is good news for the Cape Girardeau area, not just for the boost in employment, but because the old Sears building on William Street, vacant since Sears Grand opened on Siemers Drive just over a year ago, will have a tenant...

E.J. I wrote this essay after taking Brad and Chris to see the Moving Wall, a small traveling version of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. Let me know how all goes with your Veterans Day event. And please extend our deep gratitude to all the planners and participants...

Thanks for wallet SPECIAL THANKS to the woman who turned in my checkbook/wallet at Dents and Cans. My heart as truly overjoyed. May God bless you always. Respectful drivers MANY ACCIDENTS would be avoided if drivers would follow the basic rules of driving. If you are turning or switching lanes, put on your turn signal. If you are not turning or switching lanes, turn off your turn signal...

Guardsmen said that, after a year away from home, Veterans Day means more to them than it did before. By SCOTT MOYERS Southeast Missourian 1st Lt. Allan Sharrock scanned a sea of waving U.S. flags, wild applause and tender moments between reunited loved ones Friday as he and more than 50 area National Guard soldiers returned home after more than a year in Iraq...

Editor's note: The Associated Press has combed through the results of 2 1/4 years of investigations and uncovered some startling findings about the death of Pat Tillman, a football player who walked away from an NFL contract to serve in the U.S. Army Rangers. This is the second of three parts...

Cape Girardeau...

Tamil politician killed in Sri Lankan capital...

Southeast Missourian A heavy rainstorm blitzed through Southeast Missouri Friday night. The severe weather dumped 0.62 inches of rain on Cape Girardeau Regional Airport in about 30 minutes. Gusts of up to 37 miles per hour downed trees on Cape Rock Drive and Sherwood Drive, briefly halting traffic...

By KYLE W. MORRISON Southeast Missourian The trial date for an accused killer of a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer was pushed back as the local judge overseeing the case recused himself. Prosecutors and public defenders for Lance Shockley were scheduled to present arguments on a defense motion for a continuance on the trial date...

Cape Girardeau...

Paul Edward Blattner, 82, of Gordonville died Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Oct. 29, 1924, in Cape Girardeau, son of Charles Frederick and Helen Kies Blattner. He and Marion E. Hager were married May 18, 1946, in Ste. Genevieve, Mo...

Juline M. Windisch Cheek, 77, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006, at the Lutheran Home. She was born Nov. 20, 1928, in Cape Girardeau, daughter of Otto Henry and Violet Marguerite Maloy Windisch. She and Aubrey Roy Cheek were married Oct. 23, 1954, in Smithville, Texas...

Arraya Hope Jackson, 3 months, daughter of Frank Jackson and Brigitte Wilson, died Friday, Nov. 10, 2006, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- Cecile E. Willis, 75, of Olive Branch died Friday, Nov. 10, 2006, at Daystar Care Center in Cairo, Ill. She was born Jan. 29, 1931, in McClure, Ill., daughter of Roy and Vesta Benefield Hopkins. She and Chesley K. Willis were married May 18, 1947...

Treadwell...

25 years ago: Nov. 11, 1981 Jackson lawyer Albert C. Lowes is the guest speaker at the Veterans Day program at Cape Girardeau's city hall in the morning; about 70 people, including members of various veterans organizations and auxiliary groups, attend in the program...

Study: Americans with HIV can live 24 years...

By LOLITA C. BALDOR The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is developing plans that for the first time would send entire National Guard combat brigades back to Iraq for a second tour, the Guard's top general said in the latest sign of how thinly stretched the military has become...

The Associated Press ST. LOUIS -- Ameren Corp. has received a set of state permits that will allow it to build an experimental concrete plant that could pave the way to rebuilding the Taum Sauk reservoir, which collapsed last year. The new concrete plant is part of a pilot project whereby Ameren will grind up the remains of the ruined Taum Sauk reservoir walls and turn them into concrete to build a new basin...

By BOB THOMAS The Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in "Shane," "Sudden Fear" and other films who turned successfully to comedy in his 70s with his Oscar-winning self-parody in "City Slickers," died Friday. Palance died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, said spokesman Dick Guttman. He was 87...

By BASSEM MROUE The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Mortar battles have erupted between Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad, and the once-mixed city is reeling as the two sides adopt the weapons and tactics of urban civil war. Throughout the capital and in towns and villages within a 50-mile radius of Baghdad, whole populations have shifted as Shiites and Sunnis flee violence from death squads and suicide bombers to the safety of places where their Islamic sect is the majority...

The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A new recording Friday attributed to the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq mocked President Bush as a coward whose conduct of the war was rejected at the polls, challenging him to keep U.S. troops in the country to face more bloodshed...

By KRISTEN HARE St. Joseph News-Press ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- On an October morning, when the sky hangs gray with cold rain, an old man in overalls shakes a coffee can full of corn. "C'mon zeeb," he calls out and his voice travels across the soggy hills...

The Associated Press SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A chain-reaction wreck involving a school bus, two tractor-trailers and a passenger car killed a southwest Missouri couple and injured 10 other people Thursday afternoon, but none of the students on the bus was seriously injured...

The narrow passage of Amendment 2 has the life-science industry scrambling to recruit renowned scientists. By ANDALE GROSS The Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It may be years before embryonic stem-cell research pays off with the kinds of treatments or cures many in the scientific community are hoping for, but one development after Tuesday's vote will be immediately noticeable...

ST. LOUIS -- The Southeast Missouri State womens soccer team's postseason came to a rainy and dreary end. Playing in the program's first NCAA tournament game, the Redhawks were ousted by third-seeded Illinois 2-0 Friday night at Robert R. Hermann Stadium on the campus of St. Louis University...

Hall of Famer Juli Inkster birdied two of her last three holes for a 3-under 69 and a share of the second-round lead Friday with Moira Dunn in the LPGA Tournament of Champions. The 46-year-old Inkster made a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th and closed with a par to match Dunn (67) at 8-under 136 on Magnolia Grove's Crossings Course in Mobile, Ala...

Traveled the Midwest, played a lot of baseball and secured a Division I offer. Meyr, a senior at Jackson, played baseball this past summer for Jerry Daniels' Rawlings Prospects, a select team out of St. Louis that played at tournaments in Fayetteville, Ark.; Dallas; Wichita, Kan.; West Lafayette, Ind.; Lincoln, Neb.; Mobile, Ala.; and Columbia, Mo...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- There was no upset in the cards Friday night as Scott Edgar coached his first official basketball game for Southeast Missouri State. Arkansas, where Edgar spent 1985 through 1991 as an assistant, treated its former employee rudely with a 92-52 thumping in front of 11,952 fans at 19,000-seat Bud Walton Arena...

The Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- NASA's Mars Global Surveyor has been out of contact with Earth for nearly a week and engineers tried Friday to re-establish communication with the craft, which may be showing its age after 10 years in space. The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena lost contact with the probe for two days last week, then received a weak carrier signal with no data on Sunday. ...

From staff and wire reports Auto parts maker Dana Corp. plans to close eight U.S. plants and downsize three others in North America, the company said Thursday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But company spokesman Chuck Hartlage would not say if the Cape Girardeau facility, which employs about 250 people, is among those to be closed. ...

Fire destroys thousands of chicks at broiler house BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Tyson Foods is investigating a fire at one of its area facilities that killed about 24,000 chicks. The fire occurred around 12:30 p.m. Nov. 3 at one of seven broiler houses at Tyson Complex No. ...

By JENNIFER LOVEN The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- President Bush opened the Oval Office Friday for a second day in a row to Democrats who will rule Capitol Hill next year, and both sides promised cooperation. But Democrats' heads were shaking over Bush demands for the current lame-duck GOP Congress to enact measures they oppose...

By BETH GARDINER The Associated Press LONDON -- British authorities are tracking almost 30 terrorist plots involving 1,600 people, the country's domestic spy chief said in remarks released Friday, warning that young British Muslims are at risk of being radicalized by extremists...

By IBRAHIM BARZAK The Associated Press GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Friday he would be willing to sacrifice his job if the international community would lift economic sanctions that have crippled his Hamas-led government...

The railroad hoped to restore full service on the east-west corridor over the weekend. By DON THOMPSON The Associated Press BAXTER, Calif. -- The bodies of two workers were recovered Friday from the smoldering wreckage of a derailed train, and investigators said the dead crew members had tried to stop the locomotive with emergency brakes as it barreled down a Sierra Nevada slope...

By MATT SLAGLE The Associated Press After years of hype and speculation, the latest round of video game console wars is finally about to begin. Unlike past battles waged since the 1970s, consumers this time around will have some truly distinct options among three contenders, as each device is tuned to different tastes and budgets...

FENTON, Mo. -- A three-hour delay could not slow down Notre Dame's boys soccer team Friday night, as the Bulldogs marched on to the Class 2 final with a 2-0 win over West Plains. Notre Dame (25-1) will face St. Dominic (16-11) in the championship today at 2 p.m...

The Southeast Missourian baseball player of the year for 2006 is staying in Southeast Missouri. Central pitcher Brad LaBruyere signed a letter of intent this week to play baseball at Southeast Missouri State University. LaBruyere, a right-handed pitcher, was 11-1 as a junior -- his only loss came in relief -- with an earned run average of 0.79 in 71 innings. He struck out 95 and walked 15 to earn first-team all-state honors in addition to Southeast Missourian player of the year...