Stories from Thursday, February 7, 2008

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) -- Three adults have been charged with felony child endangerment after investigators removed four children under the age of 5 from what they described as a filthy home. One of the children, a 4-year-old boy, weighed only 22 pounds, 8 ounces...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri once again had more meth lab seizures than any other state in 2007. The Missouri Highway Patrol said Wednesday that the state has had that dubious distinction for more than a decade. Law enforcement in Missouri seized 1,285 active and former methamphetamine labs last year...

Flu outbreak on rise ST. LOUIS (AP) -- St. Louis-area hospitals report they are being overwhelmed by hundreds of people suffering from the flu. The outbreak that started three weeks ago shows no signs of slowing down. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch says St. Louis County reported nearly 800 new flu cases in just the last week. Actual illnesses are believed to be much higher...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Mayor Francis Slay says the city of St. Louis will help try to find new jobs for 850 Macy's employees who were laid off. Slay says losing the jobs is a blow to the city's downtown economy, but won't stop massive redevelopment that is under way...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Missouri House approves money for new medical buildings at two University of Missouri campuses. Not a single lawmaker dissented as the House voted Thursday. More than $31 million would go to a cancer hospital at the Columbia campus, and $15 million would go to a pharmacy and nursing complex at the Kansas City campus...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group on Thursday announced plans to hold its 2009 national convention in Chicago. The National Council of La Raza voted Oct. 20 to pull the conference from Kansas City because a woman on the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board was also a member the anti-illegal immigrant Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. The member, Frances Semler, resigned from the parks board last month...

People planning spring and summer getaways might try one of 12 unusual places such as Ste. Genevieve, Mo., which "has the most significant collection of French colonial architecture in the U.S," according to a preservation group. Each year starting in 2000, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has named a "Dozen Distinctive Destinations" appealing to tourists' taste for historic places. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The longest serving State Board of Education member is confirmed to another term. The confirmation from the Senate came despite objections from St. Louis senators angry with a state takeover of the city's schools. Peter Herschend started on the board in 1991, and his term now runs out in 2015. The Branson Republican founded a company that owns Silver Dollar City...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder outlines a plan to provide more state aid to military veterans. Kinder wants to create scholarships for children and spouses of National Guard and military reservists who are killed or seriously injured. He also is proposing a job training program through the Missouri Veterans Commission for military people returning from active duty...

Jackson firefighters responded to a report of a structure fire on North Farmington Street in the early morning hours on Thursday. The fire was reported by someone who saw the smoke form across the street, said Jackson Fire Department Capt. Steve Grant...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri pollution regulators want to expand the state's oversight of agricultural odors to more farms. The Missouri Air Conservation Commission is proposing that concentrated animal feeding operations with more than 3,000 pigs, chickens, turkeys, cattle and dairy cows face odor standards. The current rules only apply to livestock operations with more than 7,000 animals...

The Southeast Missourian's Peg McNichol is reporting from Chaffee that Loretta Mohorc has decided not to resign as mayor after all. Earlier today the Southeast Missourian received a letter from Mohorc to the Scott County Signal, a sister publication of the Southeast Missourian, that announced her plans to retire. According to the letter, the city council asked for her resignation. She said she was resigning to protect her family from the backlash...

In the end, the Cape Girardeau school board decided to hire a local. Dr. Jim Welker, currently assistant superintendent of finance in Jackson, beat out two other finalists to be named Cape Girardeau's new superintendent Thursday. His three year contract will begin July 1...

Feb. 7, 2008 Dear Ken, St. Augustine, Fla., calls itself the Ancient City. It is America's oldest continuously occupied European city, those qualifiers being necessary to differentiate it from all the American Indian cities that were ancient before Europeans arrived...

Republican state Rep.-elect Mary Kasten would have had a much larger margin of victory than the 605 votes by which she defeated Democrat Mike Keefe on Tuesday had she been able to hold on to the votes of everyone who voted in the Republican presidential primary...

The owner of Spa 151 on the River promised Wednesday to refund all outstanding gift cards or gift certificates, an amount she estimated to be $50,000. Spa 151, at 151 S. Spanish St. in Cape Girardeau, closed last week amid a divorce dispute between owner Ashli Rowland and her estranged husband, Scott Rowland. ...

Denise Lincoln approached her staff with a "scrambled brain and broken heart" Wednesday as she informed workers the Family Resource Center might have to discontinue its after-school program. On Tuesday, state fire and sanitation workers inspected the building, finding several issues of noncompliance, including missing sprinkler heads, a leaky basement and furnaces that need to be better encapsulated. ...

After nearly four hours of deliberation Wednesday, a jury of five men and seven women decided that Samuel Taylor, 30, of Cape Girardeau, was guilty of a forcible rape committed in 2004. The jury voted Taylor not guilty of the first-degree robbery charge he'd been facing...

Medicaid cuts; Where are the police?; Keep day care open; Corn for ethanol; Thanks, road crews; Think before buying; School worries; Broadcast meetings; Prepare for future; Working to exist; Four-wheeler problem; Paying teachers

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Home birth supporters returned to the Capitol on Wednesday in yet another bid to legalize lay midwives -- this time without the late-night maneuvers that briefly cost a top Republican lawmaker his Senate leadership position. A bill sponsored by Sen. ...

High school students in our area continue to demonstrate high levels of accomplishments in many areas. Recently, academic teams from Poplar Bluff to Festus competed at Jackson High School. Notre Dame Regional High School, Jackson High School, Cape Girardeau's Central HIgh School and Festus High School were the top winners...

Now that Southeast Missouri State has moved to the top of the Ohio Valley Conference women's basketball standings, the Redhawks don't want to relinquish their post. This week's road trip to Kentucky will go a long way toward determining whether that happens...

To say that Morehead State caused Southeast Missouri State's current funk would be an overstatement. But the Eagles didn't help things. On Jan. 24 at the Show Me Center, MSU built a 20-point second-half lead and held on for an 82-78 victory. That was Southeast's fifth straight loss in what has become a dismal 1-7 stretch for the Redhawks, who have tumbled since starting Ohio Valley Conference play with six consecutive wins...

Central Middle School will spend $12,000 to buy more SMART Boards and $6,000 on a "MAP Academy" to prepare students for state tests, under a school improvement plan approved by the Cape Girardeau School Board Wednesday. The plan is required by the state because the middle school failed to make adequate yearly progress on state tests the past two years in math and communication arts...

Half-cent sales tax will be topic for First Friday The proposal to increase sales taxes in Cape Girardeau by a half-cent will be the subject of this month's First Friday coffee. Postponed due to the snowstorm last week, members and guests of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce will meet at 7 a.m. ...

Two dedication ceremonies will be held this week for memorial highways. The Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. Memorial Highway will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Friday at the National Guard Armory in Dexter, Mo. The section of U.S. 60 in his honor runs from Route ZZ to Highway 25 in Dexter. Before joining the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Graham was a Dexter police officer, according to a news release from the Missouri Department of Transportation...

LAFAYETTE, Tenn. -- One man pulled a couch over his head. Bank employees rushed into the vault. A woman trembled in her bathroom, clinging to her dogs. College students huddled in dormitories. Tornado warnings had been broadcast for hours, and when the sirens finally announced that the twisters had arrived, many people across the South took shelter and saved their lives. But others simply had nowhere safe to go, or the storms proved too powerful, too numerous, too unpredictable...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Missouri voters have long been divided among Democrats and Republicans and urban and rural residents, making them an uncannily reliable predictor of presidential elections. Missouri's primary elections revealed another divide that played a pivotal role: Age...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Delivering what is likely the final mandatory annual update on the Missouri Department of Transportation, director Pete Rahn touted accountability and safety records Wednesday while asking lawmakers for more money. "While the public has filet mignon expectations, MoDOT has Filet-O-Fish funding," Rahn told a joint session of the legislature. ...

Mark Winkler knew early in the day Tuesday that the Southeast Missouri region he oversees for SEMA could be hit hard by storms. But he didn't expect to spend part of his night in a basement on the campus of the Immaculate Conception parochial school in Jackson, a school that was partially destroyed by a tornado in May 2003...

Gov. Kit Bond appoints two new members to the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents, taking the place of members whose terms have expired; appointed are Anne R. Bradshaw of Cape Girardeau and Hazel K. Schilly of Crystal City, Mo. The Rev. Bascom L. Patrick, 86, of Cape Girardeau died yesterday at his home following an 18-month illness; Patrick was a retired Southern Baptist minister who preached at various churches in Illinois and Missouri between 1920 and 1970...

n A teacher identified as Shana Kight in a story and photo about international teachers in Wednesday's edition should have been identified as Leanne Thele. The Southeast Missourian regrets this error.

Norm Rechenberg, 73, of Millersville died Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008, at his home. He was born Feb. 19, 1934, in Chicago, son of Theodore and Thea Rechenberg. He and Irene Gliem were married July 23, 1960, in Niles, Ill. She died Sept. 24, 2005. He and Mary Koeberl were married Nov. 24, 2007, at St. John's Lutheran Church in Pocahontas...

GLENNON, Mo. -- Marie Caroline Rellergert, 89, of Glennon passed away Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Aug. 5, 1918, in Leopold, Mo., daughter of the late William J. and Bertha Lenderink Nenninger. She and Robert J. Rellergert were married April 19, 1947, at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Glennon. He passed away Nov. 9, 2006...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Everett S. Schnurbusch, 87, of Perryville died Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, at his home. He was born Dec. 31, 1920, at Apple Creek, Mo., son of August and Theresa Leible Schnurbusch. He and Alma C. Buchheit were married Aug. 17, 1946. She died Jan. 26, 2008...

SWINTON, Mo. -- Billy Dean Davis, 75, of Swinton died Monday, Feb. 4, 2008, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born March 4, 1932, in Humboldt, Tenn., son of Luther and Flossie Cagle Davis. He and Elodie Dixon were married Oct. 10, 1971, in Advance, Mo...

SEARCY, Ark. -- Carol Marie Blankenship, 72, of Searcy died Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. She was born Nov. 14, 1935, in St. Louis, daughter of Grady and Estelle Burt. Carol is survived by her husband, Richard Blankenship of the home; a daughter, Amy Blankenship Sewell and husband Scott of New York City; two sons, Richard Blankenship and wife Vickie of Norcross, Ga., Eric Blankenship of St. Louis; and two grandchildren, Cathey and Emily Blankenship...

Ruth F. Teeters Miller, 91, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, at Saint Francis Medical Center. She was born Jan. 11, 1917, in Grassy, Mo., daughter of William Lorance and Emma Elizabeth Patterson Francis. She and Robert Claude Teeters were married May 8, 1939. He died March 26, 1964. She then married Truman J. Miller in March 1990...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Ronald P. Hoff, 65, of Perryville died Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Sept. 5, 1942, in Cape Girardeau, son of Harry W. and Myrtle C. Lintner Hoff. He and Nancy A. Schremp were married April 5, 1986, in Perryville...

MOUNDS, Ill. -- Jesse F. Mize Jr., 81, of Mounds died Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Jan. 20, 1927, at Mounds, son of Jesse F. and Edith Sims Mize Sr. He married Betty Jean Mize, who died in 1997...

Lukefahr

Arrests; Summonses

An exotic animal arrived at Deer Ridge Animal Hospital recently after the Humane Society contacted them to serve as a foster facility until "Coty," a coatimundi, can be transferred to a rescue group or one of two zoos interested in adopting him. Coty was brought in by Cape Girardeau Animal Control on a routine stop made at the Humane Society of Cape Girardeau...

Members of area Rotary Clubs are sponsoring the annual Camp Enterprise summit for high school junior and seniors Friday at Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center. Students will gain business experience in making business decisions assisted by area business leaders who work with teams of 10...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A tornado caused extensive damage as it roared across southern Ripley, Butler and Stoddard counties in Southeast Missouri Tuesday night, but no injuries were reported Wednesday morning. Houses, mobile homes and barns were destroyed, trees were ripped apart and power poles were snapped off, causing power lines to block traffic...

Meals with Friends served at Salvation Army The Salvation Army will serve free meals from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Feb. 25 to 29 at 701 Good Hope St. in Cape Girardeau. All desserts include cake or pie. The menu for Monday is turkey and noodles, green beans, applesauce, bread and butter; Tuesday's menu is shepherd's pie, mashed potatoes, applesauce, bread and butter; Wednesday's menu is burritos, refried beans, applesauce; Thursday's menu is chicken, corn, mashed potatoes, rolls and butter; Friday's menu is hot dogs, pork and beans, chips, applesauce.. ...

Not-for-profit group looking for volunteers Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship, a not-for-profit organization serving children and adults with disabilities, is seeking more volunteers because of its lesson expansion schedule. Duties include assisting riders, office work, light construction, special events and stable chores. ...

WASHINGTON -- The fate of $600 to $1,200 rebate checks for more than 100 million Americans is in limbo after Senate Democrats failed Wednesday to add $44 billion in help for the elderly, disabled veterans, the unemployed and big business to the House-passed economic aid package...

Hillary Clinton disclosed she'd lent $5 million to her campaign WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain padded his commanding delegate lead in the Republican presidential race Wednesday and urged conservative critics to cut him some slack. In a Democratic surprise, Hillary Rodham Clinton disclosed she'd lent $5 million to her cash-short campaign...

WASHINGTON -- Politicians have finally found an issue they all can agree on: Telemarketers calling at dinnertime are a scourge that must be repulsed. Congress sent President Bush two bills Wednesday that would make permanent a program to protect consumers from unwanted phone calls from telemarketers. Its hallmark is the national "do not call" list...

TAMPA, Fla. -- Harry Richard Landis, who enlisted in the Army in 1918 and was one of only two known surviving U.S. veterans of World War I, has died. He was 108. Landis, who lived at a Sun City Center nursing home, died Monday, according to Donna Riley, his caregiver for the past five years. He had recently been in the hospital with a fever and low blood pressure, she said...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Two Chinese businesses and a U.S. company were indicted Wednesday in the tainted pet food incidents that killed potentially thousands of animals last year and raised worries about products made in China. Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co.; Suzhou Textiles, Silk, Light Industrial Products Arts and Crafts I/E Co.; and Las Vegas-based ChemNutra Inc. were charged in two separate but related indictments...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base, separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have been locked up for years, is a place even more closely guarded -- a jailhouse so protected that its very location is top secret...

QUITO, Ecuador -- Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano shot columns of ash miles into the air Wednesday, as officials ordered the evacuation of 3,000 villagers living near its slopes. Some 1,000 villagers from the western flanks of the 16,575-foot volcano fled their homes for shelters at dawn, said Mauro Rodriguez, director of Civil Defense. He said 11 families who refused to leave, fearing looters, were removed by force...

BAGHDAD -- Boys in soccer jerseys don black masks and grab weapons. They scramble over mud-brick walls, blast down doors and hold guns to the heads of residents inside. The U.S. military said videos seized from suspected al-Qaida in Iraq hideouts show militants training children who appear as young as 10 to kidnap and kill. It's viewed as a sign that the terror network -- hungry for recruits -- may be using younger Iraqis in propaganda to lure a new crop of fighters...

UNITED NATIONS -- On Wednesday the U.N. Security Council deplored the widespread violence in Kenya and urged political leaders to resolve the crisis over disputed elections "through dialogue, negotiation and compromise." The presidential statement was the first response by the U.N.'s most powerful body to the fighting that erupted after the Dec. 27 presidential election, which has killed more than 800 people...

NEW YORK -- Actor Heath Ledger died from an accidental overdose of six drugs -- painkillers and sedatives -- the medical examiner said Wednesday, leading doctors to warn of the dangers of mixing prescription drugs. The 28-year-old film star died Jan. 22 "of acute intoxication" from the combination of two strong painkillers, two anti-anxiety medicines and two sleeping aids, according to the medical examiner's office...

LOS ANGELES -- Britney Spears was quietly released Wednesday from a hospital where she had been undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, a police official said. "It occurred without any law enforcement intervention, and for the public that's a good thing," said Capt. Sharyn Buck, commander of the North Hollywood police station, which covers the area of Spears' home...

Southeast Missouri State football coach Tony Samuel decided to try his luck with another junior college quarterback. Dustin Powell, who played at Bakersfield Community College, was one of 11 players who signed a national letter of intent Wednesday to play for the Redhawks next season...

Joan Sanders still remembers when her son, Antonio Garritano, showed the first sign of his true dedication to football by dieting briefly after he joined the Jackson Area Youth Football League in fifth grade. "He has always been taller than the kids, but he was just a little bit chubby and the bigger kids [were not allowed to] run the ball, so he dieted so he could run the ball," Sanders said. ...

Perryville's Kris Cottner signed to play football at Southeast Missouri State University on Wednesday after receiving a partial scholarship offer from the program. Cottner, who played both running back and defensive back during his high school career for the Pirates, rushed for 1,157 yards on 221 carries and scored seven touchdowns this past fall...

PERRYVILLE -- When Notre Dame sophomore Jane Morrill attempted a jump shot a few feet from the basket with 1 second left in a tied game Wednesday, she had no idea how much time was left on the clock. All she knew was that she was struggling offensively in the second half, with only four points and an 0-for-3 performance from the free-throw line...

The Perryville girls basketball team wrapped up the Jefferson County Conference title with its 74-33 victory over Windsor on Wednesday. The Pirates jumped ahead 55-20 at halftime and never looked back. Alicia Kueker led the way for the Pirates with 27 points, including four 3-pointers, and four rebounds. Alyssa Bauwens added 15 in the win...

After Jackson's Chelsea Dale gave her verbal commitment to play soccer at Southeast Missouri State University last July, she was happy to finally officially sign Wednesday. "It is a relief," she said. Dale, a first-team all-state forward last spring for the Indians, also received offers from Hannibal, Northern Alabama and William Penn University in Iowa. But she did not take much time to commit to Southeast after being offered a scholarship at the end of her junior year...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- In the not too distant past, Missouri had almost no shot at enticing a top recruit to change his mind and pick the Tigers. The school has seven prospects who had verbally committed elsewhere on their 23-player list announced Wednesday. Heading the class is Blaine Gabbert of Parkway West in suburban St. Louis, rated the top pro quarterback prospect in the country by Rivals.com...

1. "Duma Key" by Stephen King 2. "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert 3. "Atonement" by Ian McEwan 4. "Eat This Not That!" by David Zinczenko, Matt Goulding 5. "Three Cups Of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Reli...

"Across the Universe" Songs by the Beatles and wild visuals crafted by director Julie Taymor take center stage in this musical romance set against the social upheaval of the 1960s and the Vietnam War. Evan Rachel Wood stars as a sheltered American teen whose eyes are gradually opened to the era's injustices and idealism, while Jim Sturgess plays a working-class Brit who comes to America searching for his father and falls for Wood...

On Feb. 15, the area's music collage gets a little bigger and considerably more colorful with the addition of Minneapolis-based jazz act Atlantis Quartet. Guitarist Zacc Harris, a Carbondale, Ill., native and member of defunct local rock group Broken Glass, said Atlantis Quartet is comparable to a rock band playing jazz...

ST. CHARLES, Mo. -- About two hours in a car and a detour around St. Louis brings you front and center for B.B. King on Wednesday at the Family Arena in St. Charles. The weekday performance is the only Missouri stop scheduled on his 2008 tour. King has been in the music industry for more than 60 years, but has only gotten better with age...

Nearly four and a half years after his death, Johnny Cash is still everywhere, man. His distinctive voice resounds in ubiquitous commercials promoting a hotel chain, and a show coming to Cape Girardeau on Wednesday aims to bring the legendary singer to life on stage using his music...

'Fool's Gold'; 'Spiderwick Chronicles'; 'Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show'; 'Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins'; '27 Dresses'; 'Alvin and the Chipmunks'; 'Atonement'; 'The Bucket List'; 'Cloverfield'; 'Enchanted'; 'First Sunday'; 'How She Move'; 'I Am Legend'; 'Juno'; 'Mad Money'; 'Meet the Spartans'; 'National Treasure: Book of Secrets'; 'Over Her Dead Body'; 'Rambo'; 'The Eye'; 'Untraceable'

Book celebrates Ozark water mills In the rerelease of his book recounting the stories of 20 Ozark water mills, Southeast Missouri State University professor emeritus of history George G. Suggs Jr., provides a glimpse of the past. "Water Mills of the Missouri Ozarks" describes the evolution of water mills from Europe to North America and the social roles they played in the early life of the Missouri Ozarks. ...

Saying goodbye is never easy. But here I am, saying it: "goodbye." Not that I'm really going anywhere, but you'll be seeing a lot less of me starting next week. For three years I've been the go-to guy for arts and entertainment news in Cape Girardeau and the surrounding area, but that time is coming to an end. This is the last issue of SE Live in which I'll hold the dubious title of "editor."...

NEW YORK -- Some things John Grisham knows: He got 15 rejections before his first book, "A Time to Kill," was published. He made $9 million last year. He's not James Joyce or William Faulkner. He's an entertainer. "I'm not sure where that line goes between literature and popular fiction," the mega-selling author said. ...

"Over Her Dead Body" is a silly trifle of a film. It's sweet and cute and huggable. The actors mug for the camera, the comedy is heavy handed and the afterlife is unexplored but neat-o. It beats me why this film is on the big screen and not a cable original movie...

Friday Live music Classic Country Band @ American Legion Hall, Jackson Live piano music by Jennifer Jolls @ Royal N[']Orleans SEMO Jazz Band @ Buckner Brewing Co. Strange Brew @ Broussard[']s Steve Ewing Band and The Level @ Club Moxy Largemouth Expedition @ Rude Dog Pub...

VISUAL ARTS Cat Ranch Art Guild, WESTRAY studio The Guild canceled its First Friday reception due to weather, instead opting for this Friday to feature the handmade jewelry of Carol Poole. When: 5 to 9 p.m. Friday Where: WESTRAY Studio, 1930B Broadway...

The bestselling CDs at PMac Music from Jan. 21-27. 1. Bullet For My Valentine -- "Scream, Aim, Fire" 2. Protest the Hero -- "Fortress" 3. The Mars Volta -- "The Bedlam in Goliath" 4. Crucial Conflict -- "Planet Crucon" 5. Airbourne -- "Runnin' Wild"...

Less than 2 hours away Margaret Harwell Art Museum, Poplar Bluff, Mo. The Margaret Harwell Art Museum in Poplar Bluff displays the art of New Orleans artist Robert Ketchens through Feb. 24. "The Magniolia Projects -- Reflections of a Native Son" is a compilation of Kethcens' paintings that use a variety of color to reveal his Southern roots. ...

Dreaming up a dessert, meeting your mate and gathering in a comfortable place: What do all of these have in common? The answer is The Li'l Red Barn, a local cafe. Husband and wife Jerry and Julie Farrow and a young businesswoman, Shawna Klingel, own the restaurant. The the owners enthusiastic about their endeavor; Shawna admits adding a dessert to the menu after dreaming about it...

On Feb. 14, Cape Girardeau County commissioners will talk about making a huge leap with the county's Internet presence. Last week, Commissioner Jay Purcell broached the idea of broadcasting meetings live online. He wants to upgrade the county's Web site so visitors can watch and interact by sending e-mails or instant messages. It's a way of creating a more accurate record, he said, and of ensuring transparent government...

Sgt. Bradley Skelton of Gordonville was killed in Iraq Wednesday, a spokesman for the Missouri National Guard in Farmington said. Skelton was serving with the Missouri National Guard's 1138th Engineer Battalion in Baghdad. The 1138th is involved in route clearance in Baghdad...

Dr. James Welker, currently assistant superintendent of finance in Jackson, has been named Cape Girardeau's new superintendent. He will be paid $135,000 for the first year of his three year contract. For more details, check back at semissourian.com or tomorrow's issue of the Southeast Missourian...

If Bell City was going to come out of South Iron on Saturday night with a victory against the state's top-ranked team in Class 2, Cubs senior Ethan Watkins was going to have to hit his free throws. He did just that. The point guard went to the free throw line 14 times in the fourth quarter and hit 13, allowing Bell City to hold off the previously unbeaten Panthers 72-60...