Stories from Wednesday, February 13, 2008

It's not as destructive as the ice that coated the region Monday and Tuesday, and it's a lot prettier. Snow flurries were falling this morning in the Cape Girardeau area, and the National Weather Service says they might continue through mid-morning...

Officials with the Southeast Missouri chapter of the American Red Cross estimate about 80 people stayed the night Tuesday at shelters in Cape Girardeau and Jackson. The Red Cross operated overnight warming shelters at the Osage Community Centre in Cape Girardeau and Immaculate Conception church in Jackson to help those left without power to their homes...

AmerenUE is making steady progress toward getting power restored to customers in the Cape Girardeau area and in other parts of Southeast Missouri. As of 6:10 a.m. today, 6,400 AmerenUE customers were still without power in the 63701 and 63703 Cape Girardeau ZIP. ...

Crews from the Department of Conservation are working on clearing enough of the ice from gravel roads in rural parts of Cape Girardeau and Bollinger Counties today, said Susie Stonner, spokeswoman for the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). Stonner explained that the workers won't be able to remove the ice, fallen power lines and trees from the gravel roads, just push enough out of the way so one lane of traffic is relatively clear...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- An attorney defending Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company says it shouldn't have to pay the husband of a Kansas City-area woman who smoked for decades. The case is on appeal after Barbara Smith's family filed a wrongful death suit against the company. The Lee's Summit woman died in 2000 from a heart attack. In 2005, a Jackson County jury awarded her husband, Lincoln Smith, more than $20 million...

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) -- A 3-year-old boy left alone by his mother at a St. Louis-area mall will now live with his father. The father was granted custody at a family court hearing today. His attorney did not release the man's name but describes him as stable and capable of caring for the boy...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A 21-year-old man is dead after being stabbed at the New Life Evangelistic Center, a St. Louis facility that helps and shelters the homeless. The victim is identified as Jeremy Dunlap. He was stabbed late Tuesday at the center. It was the second attack in the past month at one of the facilities operated by the Rev. ...

MoDOT sent out a news release this morning saying Highway B in Bollinger County from Highway 34 to Scopus is closed. In Cape Girardeau County, Highway Y from Highway W to Highway V and Highway V from Highway Y at Oriole to Highway 177 at Trail of Tears State Park are closed.

PINEVILLE, Mo. (AP) -- A southwest Missouri sheriff's deputy who made headlines last year by helping find the body of a missing child plans to plead not guilty to unrelated charges of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, his lawyer says. Charles R. Rhoades, the attorney for McDonald County Deputy Jacob Boles, declined further comment Wednesday on the case. Boles' first court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday in McDonald County Circuit Court...

KIRKWOOD, Mo. (AP) -- City Council member Connie Karr was remembered Wednesday as a faithful public servant who was determined to serve the common good. Karr, 51, was one of five Kirkwood city employees gunned down last week by a disgruntled resident...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Senators vote to give military veterans a tuition break at Missouri's public colleges and universities. The bill endorsed Wednesday would cap tuition at $50 per credit hour for veterans who served in armed combat after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks...

The warming shelter at the Salvation Army building, 701 Good Hope St., was forced to close late this morning due to loss of power, the City of Cape Girardeau reported in a news release. The release said the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority is transferring people from the shelter to the Osage Community Centre until power can be restored to the Salvation Army building...

With a boost from 1,000 extra workers battling ice and fallen trees to restore power, the number of Cape Girardeau residents left in the dark has fallen by about 50 percent. More could see a return of power tomorrow as temperatures are expected to surge to a high of around 50 degrees...

The ice that has paralyzed so many in the Southeast Missouri region since Monday could be completely gone by Friday, according to meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky. Though not much, if any, melting is expected today, quite a bit of warm air is moving in Thursday, said meteorological technician Michael York...

Though power is being restored rapidly within the city of Cape Girardeau, spotty outages are expected to last throughout Thursday. Temperatures will dip into the 20s tonight, according to the National Weather Service. Several warming centers and storm shelters have opened (list below)...

Thirty National Guard soldiers were mobilized late Wednesday by Gov. Matt Blunt to assist Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties recover from the ice storm that coated the region in four to six inches of sleet and snow. The guard soldiers will begin their work Thursday morning doing door-to-door checks on the welfare of area residents in the hardest-hit communities...

Power is being restored to homes and businesses in Cape Girardeau County and Southern Illinois, but tonight thousands are still without electricity. As of 9:20 p.m., 2,483 meters in AmerenUE's Cape Girardeau service area were still without power, far less than the 6,400 without power Wednesday morning. The company services over 20,000 customers in the area...

Safety is the top priority. "We really, truly want to stress individual safety inside the home," said Mark Hasheider, the city of Cape Girardeau's emergency operations coordinator and assistant fire chief. He said the risk of using heating devices the wrong way is death...

When Kara Koebler-Freeman heard the doorbell ringing Monday night at her Jackson residence, she assumed her was neighbor coming to check on her. She answered the door to find the tree in her front yard had collapsed under the weight of several inches of ice and had fallen against the doorbell, waking her up...

A windy night Tuesday was threatening to keep utility crews scurrying to restore power before another round of winter weather later in the week presented the potential for undoing their work. National Weather Service forecaster Kevin Smith said skies would clear sometime today, leading to a warming day Thursday...

The State Emergency Management Agency has been activated to aid Southern Missouri in its response to the ice storm that's left a chunk of the region without power, according to a news release from Gov. Matt Blunt. Both Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties took part in a conference call to SEMA on Tuesday morning, said Susie Stonner, spokeswoman for SEMA...

For a swath from northern Bollinger County through Cape Girardeau County and on into Illinois, the ice and rain didn't stop from midmorning Monday until Tuesday afternoon. Reports of an inch to two inches of ice accumulation were common, downing power lines, sending trees crashing to the ground and keeping emergency crews at bay as roads remained unplowed in rural sections and timber blocked streets in towns...

Tens of thousands of people could be without power for days following a 24-hour winter storm that walloped Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois with sleet, freezing rain and snow. Utility crews are having trouble keeping pace as tree limbs continue to fall. The number of outages reported in Cape Girardeau and the surrounding areas increased during the day Tuesday...

Dr. Karl L. Barth, president of Concordia Seminary, visited Cape Girardeau this week, meeting with 15 Cape Girardeau and area Lutheran pastors; Barth was named president of the seminary in July 1982. After a million or more snips, Ed Unger is putting away his hair clippers and razor and retiring from the barber profession; Unger began barbering in 1935 on Main Street; he has been associated with several shops virtually all over Cape Girardeau...

Southeast Missourian The Cape Girardeau County Courthouse in Jackson will be closed today. All court proceedings scheduled to take place at the courthouse are postponed. The courthouse should reopen Thursday. The Schnucks/KZIM Valentine Party scheduled for Thursday at the Arena Building has been canceled. There are currently no plans to reschedule...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The cartoonish plastic frog with bulging eyes could be a children's toy -- but for the torch-like flame that bursts from the novelty lighter's head. "They look like something you would get in a McDonald's Happy Meal," said John Dean, president of the National Association of State Fire Marshals, who often shows off the device. "They're cute, they're little" -- but they can be deadly...

BALLWIN, Mo. -- The Kirkwood police chief, whose community was rocked by the recent deaths of six people at a city council meeting, called for an end to violence Tuesday. Separate funerals were held Tuesday for two of those killed, police Officer Tom Ballman and councilman Michael H.T. Lynch...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Some Missouri lawmakers want to make it illegal for sex offenders to take pictures of children. Rep. Tim Jones told a House committee Tuesday that criminal penalties might make sex offenders wonder whether it's really worth it to take snapshots or video recordings...

ST. LOUIS -- The superintendent of schools in St. Louis will leave her job at the end of the school year. Diana Bourisaw made the announcement Tuesday after the special administrative board overseeing the long-troubled district said it was initiating a nationwide search for a superintendent, though Bourisaw was encouraged to apply...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Taxpayers in Kansas and Missouri will be happy to get their $600 rebate checks from the federal government as part of a stimulus package heading toward President Bush's desk. But leaders in those two states aren't as excited about the tens of millions of dollars they stand to lose as part of the plan because of two business tax cuts, according to the Kansas City Star...

NEW YORK -- Wall Street finished mostly higher Tuesday after billionaire investor Warren Buffett offered to help out troubled bond insurers, easing some of the market's concerns about further deterioration in the credit markets. The Dow Jones industrials rose more than 130 points...

Barbara Jean Schlue, 73, died at her home on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, with God, Jesus and loving family by her side. She was born to Elizabeth Bowman and Harry F. Schlue of Cape Girardeau. Barb was a lifelong resident of Cape Girardeau and a graduate of Cape Central High School. She worked as an assistant manager for Libson's for 32 years and was a manager at Hecht's Too for 18 years. She retired from retail sales in 2000 with a combined experience of 50 years...

Joshua Keith Holshouser, 32, of Scott City died Monday, Feb. 11, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, Mo. He was born Sept. 7, 1975, at Cape Girardeau, son of David Keith and Joy Bowen Holshouser. He married Donna Mae Ramsey on October 2, 2004, at Cape Girardeau...

STURDIVANT, Mo. -- Ricky Limbaugh, 52, of Sturdivant died Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008, at his home. He was born March 25, 1955, at Advance, Mo., son of Troy Lee and Ramona Cooper Limbaugh. Survivors include his parents, Troy and Ramona Limbaugh of Sturdivant, and a brother, Doug Limbaugh of Advance...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Mabel I. Johnson, 88, of Perryville died Tuesday. Feb. 12, 2008, at Independence Care Center in Perryville. She was born March 1, 1919, at Perryville, daughter of Charles and Leona Shrum Herron. She and Lawrence Johnson were married on Dec. 7, 1945. He preceded her in death on Dec. 13, 1988...

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Linda Hobbs Thurman died Feb. 11, 2008, at her home in New Madrid at the age of 63. She was born in Cape Girardeau on Nov. 11, 1944. She was the daughter of the late Stowell and Louella Hobbs. She was a member of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in New Madrid and a member of the New Madrid County Country Club and the Ladies Golf Association...

The graveside funeral service that was scheduled for Feb. 11, 2008, for Eva Mae Townes has been rescheduled. A graveside service for Townes will now take place at 1 p.m. Thursday at the Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery. McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson is in charge of arrangements...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Cople Lillie Evans, 89, of Austin died Monday, Feb. 11, 2008, at South Austin Medical Center. She was born Oct. 3, 1918, in McGee, Mo. Arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Funeral Home.

Paula A. Hodge, 78, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, Feb. 11, 2008, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. She was born June 13, 1929, in Ettlingen, Germany. Arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Funeral Home.

The visitation and funeral for Jerry Probst has been changed due to weather. Visitation will now be at noon today at McCombs Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau. The funeral will follow at 2 p.m. These times are tentative due to weather conditions.

Ruth Ann Blair, 79, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008, at The Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. She was born June 28, 1928, at Cairo, Ill. Arrangements are incomplete with Ford and Sons Funeral Home.

FRESNO, Calif. -- Eighteen vehicles piled up in a chain-reaction accident in dense fog Tuesday, scattering mangled cars along a highway and sending 10 people to hospitals, the California Highway Patrol said. The crash, reported just before 8:20 a.m., temporarily shut down part of the southbound lanes of Highway 99 south of Fresno. The CHP had initially said 50 vehicles were involved...

OXNARD, Calif. -- A 15-year-old boy was shot and wounded in a junior high school computer lab Tuesday and another eighth-grader was taken into custody, authorities said. Worried parents gathered outside the 1,150-student E.O. Green Junior High School, which was locked down. Students were released classroom by classroom...

WASHINGTON -- Astronomers took pictures of a far-off lumpy galaxy just forming 13 billion years ago, putting it among the earliest and most distant cosmic objects ever photographed. Though the black-and-white images are fuzzy, they are the most detailed and best confirmed look back in both time and distance that humans have seen, said Johns Hopkins University astronomy professor Holland Ford. ...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama won primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia with ease Tuesday night in a determined drive to erase Hillary Rodham Clinton's delegate lead in the Democratic presidential race. "Tonight we're on our way," he told cheering supporters in Madison, Wis. "But we know how much further we have to go on," Obama added, as he celebrated eight straight victories over Clinton, the former first lady now struggling in a race she once commanded...

WASHINGTON -- A Bush administration plan to crack down on contract fraud has a multibillion-dollar loophole: The proposal to force companies to report abuse of taxpayer money will not apply to work overseas, including projects to secure and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Tuesday approved new rules for government eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails, giving the White House much of the latitude it wanted and granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped in the snooping after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks...

JERUSALEM -- Israel announced plans Tuesday to build more than 1,000 homes in disputed east Jerusalem, infuriating the Palestinians and triggering a new crisis in already troubled peace talks. Palestinian officials accused Israel of undermining efforts to reach a peace agreement by the end of the year and urged a halt to the project...

BEIJING -- Seeking to ferret out online games considered overly violent or unhealthy, China has targeted illegal Web sites, computer markets and Internet cafes as part of a campaign to rein in juvenile crime. The crackdown, christened "Operation For Tomorrow," is also aimed at Web sites offering unregistered playing platforms or services for gamers that can be downloaded, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday...

It's been years since most of the Southeast Missourian's coverage area was walloped by a major ice storm. There are so many power outages and fallen trees and limbs that it's easy to get overwhelmed by it all. But it's not too early to praise crews who persisted throughout Monday afternoon and night and then did it again all day and night Tuesday to clear roads and streets and begin the task or repairing power lines...

Today is an important day in my small world. Today my father turns 82 and my son turns 30. We've always taken some level of pride in these shared birthdays. You can never truly plan such a coincidence, so that makes it all the more special when it occurs. Naturally, my mind turns to the twin birthdays, and I am at once struck by how remarkably different a world these two men share...

More than luck; Delta school; County responsibility; A Winter Cold; Huckabee; That is not; Rather, will; the GOP; end all of; this congestion?; Jumping the gun; All for seven cents; Community investment

I have a nice variety of recipes for you today. There is no across-the-board theme, just a mixture of several good recipes that you will want to keep for future use. I know many of you are recipe clippers, so get out your scissors and enjoy these recipes this week...

To report an outage or a downed line:n AmerenUE: 800-552-7583 n Jackson Utilities & Public Works: 243-2300 n Black River Electric Cooperative: 800-392-4711 or 888-461-2667 n Citizens Electric Cooperative: 877-876-3511 n SEMO Electric Cooperative: 800-813-5230 or 573-471-5821...

ST. LOUIS -- Monsanto Co. increased its full-year 2008 earnings per share outlook Tuesday, citing strong demand for its seeds and traits business as well as for Roundup and other herbicides. Its shares rose 4 percent in morning trading. The St. Louis-based company expects full-year earnings in the range of $2.70 to $2.80 per share. Previously, the company expected earnings in the range of $2.50 to $2.60 per share...

LOS ANGELES -- A screenwriter has sued Mel Gibson and his production company, claiming he was misled by the actor-director into accepting a small payment for writing "The Passion of the Christ" and was refused extra money when the film became a blockbuster...

WASHINGTON -- The sun is always shining, or so it seems, when baseball teams gather in Florida and Arizona to begin spring training, as they're doing this week. Everyone is undefeated; hope abounds. And sometime today, a player here or there might just flip on a TV and tune in to see the spotlight shine on the sport's seamy side, to watch while celebrated pitcher Roger Clemens and the man who accused him of using steroids sit in a wood-paneled hearing room in the cold nation's capital to testify to Congress.. ...

Is your floor or furniture feeling sticky these days? That could be a sign of an insect pest on your houseplants, one that you'd hardly notice otherwise. That sticky stuff is a sugary "honeydew" secreted by so-called scale insects, who typically start multiplying faster and faster as spring approaches...

NEW YORK -- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Sen. Arlen Specter are to meet today to discuss the Spygate case involving the New England Patriots. The NFL said Tuesday the afternoon meeting will take place in Specter's office in Washington. The Pennsylvania Republican has asked Goodell to explain his decision to destroy the tapes and notes from the case, which go back to 2002...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Moments after pole qualifying for the Daytona 500 ended, Toyota official Lee White was asked how he felt about the Japanese automaker's results that day. "Disappointed," replied White, senior vice president and general manager of Toyota Racing Development...

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. -- Upon hearing Richard Zednik's recovery from a life-threatening neck laceration could last six to eight weeks, Olli Jokinen checked his calendar. That would be playoff time in the NHL. And suddenly, the Florida Panthers have a huge source of postseason motivation...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri guard Stefhon Hannah, the central figure in a nightclub fracas that led to the suspension of five players, was kicked off the team Tuesday Hannah's jaw was broken outside the Athena nightclub about 1 a.m. Jan. 27, hours after the Tigers returned from their first road victory of the season at Colorado. Missouri's leading scorer, a senior, was dismissed a day before the Tigers' game at Nebraska today...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- There's a reason former walk-ons Jonathan Cox and Adam Emmenecker landed at Drake. The Bulldogs were the only Division I team that wanted them. How fitting, then, that one of college basketball's most unlikely stories would include two such unlikely stars...

PITTSBURGH -- The Duquesne Dukes don't list it as a goal on their locker room chalkboard. If they discuss it, they do so only when notepads or cameras aren't around. Regardless, one of the nation's worst Division I basketball programs since the early 1980s is one victory away from its first winning season in 14 years and only its second in 21 years...

By DOUG FERGUSON The Associated Press PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Pebble Beach is paradise for most, a burden for many. Look beyond the playoff between Steve Lowery and Vijay Singh, two guys who have combined to play more than 900 events on the PGA Tour, and there were three rookies in the top 10 who might have been at Pebble Beach more out of necessity than desire...

HAZELWOOD, Mo. (AP) -- A woman who left her 3-year-old son at a mall has turned herself in to Hazelwood police. Police Captain Gregg Hall says 28-year-old Shameka Taylor of St. Louis blames miscommunication for the child being left behind on Saturday. The boy, Cortez Bass, was one of eight children attending a birthday party with his mother and an aunt...

I've always liked a challenge, so when family friends Ron and Patti Lessman described how they made crme brle several weeks ago, I immediately asked to borrow their blowtorch. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my mom cringe. I use her kitchen for my cooking experiments because it's more spacious than the one at my house. With a blowtorch involved in this recipe, I could definitely understand her fear...

We want to hear about your experiences with this week's winter weather. This page is open for stories written not by us, but by you. To share your story just leave a comment.

Central junior swimmer Annie Wolpers cruised to two first-place finishes at the Show Me Conference meet last week at the Perry Park Center in Perryville, earning two state cuts and picking up meet MVP honors. She won the 50-meter freestyle (29.13 seconds) and 100 freestyle (1:03.70), earning her first state-qualifying mark in the latter...