Stories from Saturday, February 23, 2008

Police have charged Tambra Turner, 29, of Sikeston, Mo., with the first degree murder of Chabreshea R. Egson. Egson was shot early Friday morning after an alleged confrontation with Turner the night before, according to Sgt. Barry Hovis of the Cape Girardeau Police Department...

Tambra T. Turner, 29, of Sikeston, Mo., is charged with first degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Chabreshea R. Egson. Egson was shot and killed early Friday morning at the 1523 N. Spanish st. residence where she lived. According to a probable cause statement written and signed by Lt. ...

Slick roads with patches of black ice caused six vehicle crashes Friday morning in Cape Girardeau, but by 3 p.m. public works crews had headed home, satisfied conditions had cleared. "We're keeping our eye to the sky as to what may or may not happen this weekend. Crews are on call," said Steve Cook, Cape Girardeau's assistant public works director...

The annual Addy Awards showcase the best in regional advertising talent and provide an example of how the marketing game has changed -- many of the winning entries rewarded work done for companies and cities far from the area. The Wright Group, Red Letter Communications, KFVS12 and the Southeast Missouri State University advertising campaign class for fall 2007 each took a best in show award in their categories Friday at the 13th annual awards banquet. ...

Police are investigating a fatal shooting that occurred early Friday morning and left a 20-year-old woman dead in her Cape Girardeau home. The Cape Girardeau-Bollinger County Major Case Squad, activated for the first time this year, spent all day Friday investigating the death of Chabreshea R. Egson...

Though police have not named any suspects in Friday's shooting death of 20-year-old Chabreshea Egson, they may have found the car used to flee the scene. Now, they're looking for a bumper. The Cape Girardeau-Bollinger County Major Case Squad requests the help of the public in locating the front bumper from a 2000 royal blue Ford Mustang. ...

Police released the name of the victim of a shooting homicide that occurred early Friday morning. Chrabreshea R. Egson, 20, was found in her home at 1523 N. Spanish St. around 5:20 a.m. She was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead...

LA CROSSE, Wis. -- For as long as he can remember, Brad Williams has been able to recall the most trifling dates and details about his life. For example, he can tell you it was Aug. 18, 1965, when his family stopped at Red Barn Hamburger during a road trip through Michigan. He was 8 years old at the time. And he had a burger, of course...

ATLANTA -- The picture of the smiling little girl on the flier was more than Laura Bolan could take. The 8-year-old on the pamphlet needed a kidney transplant, and Bolan knew she could help. She did a quick Web search on the surgery and talked it over with her husband. Then she made a phone call to offer one of her kidneys to Sarah Dickman...

CHICAGO -- Amid the search for a former police officer's fourth wife, an autopsy on the exhumed body of the man's third wife found what her relatives have long suspected -- her death was no accident. Kathleen Savio died by drowning and her death was ruled a homicide, Dr. Larry W. Blum said in an autopsy report released Thursday by the state's attorney's office. It was the second autopsy performed on Savio...

YANGON, Myanmar -- Sylvester Stallone's Rambo character looks like a fat lunatic in his new movie, a Myanmar magazine said this week, bucking local public opinion that has glorified him for his exploits fighting the ruling junta's unpopular soldiers...

Lonnie R. Woolley, 56, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Arrangements are incomplete at McCombs Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau.

Show Me Center sells out Thursday concert The bands with Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Seether and HURT played in front of a crowd of 6,597 Thursday night, making the show a sell-out for the Show Me Center The sell-out came despite icy weather conditions that impaired travel around the area...

WASHINGTON -- Republican Rep. Rick Renzi was charged Friday with extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and other crimes in an Arizona land swap that authorities say helped him collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs. A 26-page federal indictment unsealed in Tucson accuses Renzi and a former business partner of extortion and conspiring to promote the sale of land that buyers could swap for property owned by the federal government...

WASHINGTON -- Two top Bush administration officials said Friday that some telecommunications companies are resisting wiretapping orders for terrorists because a surveillance law expired nearly a week ago. National Intelligence director Mike McConnell and Attorney General Michael Mukasey made the assertion in a letter to Congress, the latest salvo in a rhetorical war between the White House and Capitol Hill over the law's expiration and the refusal of House Democrats to adopt a Senate-passed bill in its place.. ...

As they have for more than 88 years, women from more than 170 countries will gather together in prayer March 7 for World Day of Prayer. Throughout the day, women collectively pray all over the world, beginning with the first sunrise and ending at the last sunset. Their prayers follow the sun's path around the globe...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Matt Blunt has transferred gubernatorial authority to Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder until next week. Blunt left Friday morning for a National Governors Association conference in Washington, D.C. He returns Wednesday afternoon. Kinder spokesman Gary McElyea said the lieutenant governor likely will make several appointments and sign a bill in Kansas City and Columbia. ...

The Hamptons, Gloryroad Travelers to sing at Ill. church The Gloryroad Travelers of Mounds, Ill., and The Hamptons of Burma, Ky., will sing at 7 p.m. March 1 at Shiloh Baptist Church in Villa Ridge, Ill. Ordination to be conducted at Abbey Road Christian Church...

Cape Girardeau Cape Girardeau police department released the following items. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests n Carl R. Cartwright, 35, 392 Valley View Lane, was arrested. n Nicole M. Greable, 31, 324 S. Lorimier St., Apt. A, was arrested on a Cape Girardeau County warrant for obstructing a court order...

WASHINGTON -- The Democratic superdelegates are starting to follow the voters -- straight to Barack Obama. In just the past two weeks, more than two dozen of them have climbed aboard his presidential campaign, according to a survey by The Associated Press. At the same time, Hillary Rodham Clinton's are beginning to jump ship, abandoning her for Obama or deciding they now are undecided...

HAGATNA, Guam -- The Air Force says a B-2 stealth bomber crashed on Guam, but the pilots ejected safely. The Air Force said Friday the pilots are both in good condition. Emergency responders are on the scene at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. A board of officers will investigate the crash...

Sales promotion Catalog: The Wright Group for its Graffiti Non-Branded Custom Headwear catalog; The Wright Group for its Graffiti EASTON Headwear 2007/08 catalog. Sales kits: The Wright Group for the RiverWest Partners L.C. Walden Park press kit; Abby Ink LLC for the His GEM press kit...

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo -- Violent protests rocked Serb-dominated northern Kosovo on Friday, as mobs chanting "Kosovo is ours!" hurled stones, bottles and firecrackers at U.N. police guarding a bridge that divides Serbs from ethnic Albanians. The scenes evoked memories of the carnage unleashed by former Serb autocrat Slobodan Milosevic the last time Kosovo tried to break away from Serbia, which considers the territory its ancestral homeland...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Charles R. James Sr., 72, of Jonesboro died Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008, at Union County Hospital in Anna, Ill. He was born April 14, 1935, in Cottonwood, Ill., son of Harrison "Jimmy" and Velma Stallings James. He and Kay F. McCord were married May 14, 1975, at Crossville, Ill...

Gaono; Tuschhoff; Bluford; Adams

LOS ANGELES -- A federal judge on Thursday ordered Britney Spears' pal Sam Lutfi to stay away from the struggling pop star. U.S. District Court Judge Philip Gutierrez extended a restraining order against Lutfi until March 17, when a hearing was scheduled on the matter...

BAGHDAD -- Muqtada al-Sadr kept the Iraqi nation on edge for two days, raising the possibility he would not renew a six-month cease-fire of his powerful Mahdi Army and that the country would plunge back into spasms of sectarian killing. Then, in an Oscar-worthy dramatic touch, the radical Shiite cleric sent 200 sealed envelopes to be opened at Friday's prayer services across Iraq. The answer was inside, he promised...

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force is likely days away from handing out one of the biggest Pentagon contracts in years -- a deal valued at up to $40 billion to replace 179 planes in its fleet of aerial refueling tankers. For the three companies bidding, there is more at stake than just the monetary award: jobs and reputation...

BENTON, Mo. -- Barbara Jean Meadows, 64, of Benton died Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, at home. She was born March 24, 1943, at St. Louis, daughter of Lester Alfred and Violet Rodgers Parris. Meadows was a member of the First Assembly of God Church in Scott City...

Dorothy A. Thomas, 89, of Cape Girardeau, formerly of Quincy, Ill., and Bonita Springs, Fla., died Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center. Friends may call from 9 to 10 a.m. Tuesday at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Chapel. Funeral will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the chapel...

Companies that want to build the plant insist they're looking for a way to build the plant in Mattoon, Ill. MATTOON, Ill. -- In the days after a coalition of power and coal companies announced it would build a low-pollution power-plant here, a trip to the grocery or drugstore meant backslapping congratulations for Angela Griffin...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Power & Light says financing problems are forcing it to put off the construction this year of a 100-megawatt wind farm that is part of a deal to build its newest coal-fired power plant. KCP&L and the Sierra Club announced a comprehensive energy plan last March where the environmental advocacy group said it would cease its objections to the Iatan 2 power plant, under construction near Weston, in exchange for the utility agreeing to build 400 megawatts of wind energy by 2012 and implement greater conservation and pollution-cutting strategies.. ...

Norbert Robert Schlegel, 86, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, at the Missouri Veteran's Home. He was born March 8, 1921, in Cape Girardeau County, son of George and Emma (Grossheider) Schlegel. He and Viola M. Exler were married June 24, 1951, in Egypt Mills, Mo. She died April 26, 2007...

DALLAS -- A police motorcycle officer died after a crash while escorting Hillary Rodham Clinton's motorcade to a campaign rally. "We are just heartsick at this loss of life in the line of duty," a subdued Clinton told reporters after the Dallas rally...

Back in 1992, a new bishop was assigned to serve Missouri in my religious denomination. Because she was unknown to most of us, an audiotape of one of her sermons was sent to me and every other United Methodist pastor in the state. In it, Bishop Ann Sherer used Isaiah 6:1-8 as a text. She focused on verse 8, which says: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I; send me!'"...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Attorney General Jay Nixon's gubernatorial campaign has sent the state an additional $8,618 for the political use of state employees and vehicles after the state auditor found his initial payment insufficient. The campaign had repaid more than $47,000 for using state vehicles and employees for political purposes from November 2004 to October 2007. But Gov. Matt Blunt's administration had complained that was insufficient and not backed up by records...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Yielding to legislative concerns, Gov. Matt Blunt on Friday scrapped plans to start a government-subsidized health insurance program for the working poor next month. Enrollment had been scheduled to begin next week for the governor's "Insure Missouri" plan. It was projected to expand health coverage to about 54,500 low-income parents when its services were to begin March 14...

Missy Sutton lives on adrenaline and optimism. She got into the habit by racing a 1967 Camaro, once traveling a quarter-mile in 6.59 seconds, with a top speed of 156 miles an hour. But no drag race rush compared to seeing her daughter, then 4, sit up for the first time...

THEBES, Ill. -- Rueben Leonard Hull, 70, of Thebes died Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008, at his home. Hull was born April 3, 1937, at Robertsville, Mo., to William Henry Hull and Blanche Hull. Hull was retired from Spartech Plastics Co. in Cape Girardeau. He worked there for 20 years...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A veteran politician with a reputation as a consensus builder emerged Friday as the favorite to become Pakistan's next prime minister under an agreement by the two biggest opposition parties to form a new government together...

Thanks for hard work; Potential firewood; Such great help; Feel-good people; Children will suffer; Great service

This was the question that I and so many others asked over and over again this previous week. It didn't matter if we lost power for seven minutes or seven days. As soon as the lights went off of their own volition, we wanted to know, "When will the power come back on?"...

Bobbie "Bob" Melton Merrick, age 80, entered into eternal life at 6:15 a.m. Friday, Feb. 22, 2008, at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau. Bob Merrick was born to Benjamin Emory and Virginia Ethel Melton Merrick on May 8, 1927. He grew up in the Anniston, Mo., area and graduated from Anniston High School in 1945. He entered the U.S. Navy on June 1, 1945, and was honorably discharged as a seaman first class on July 30, 1946. He served in the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign...

NEW YORK -- For many black Americans, it's a conversation they find hard to avoid, revisiting old fears in the light of new hopes. They watch as Barack Obama moves ever closer to becoming America's first black president. And they ask themselves, their family, their friends: Is he at risk? Will he be safe?...

Jackson Firefighters responded to the following call Thursday: n Emergency medical service on Washington Street. Firefighters responded to the following call Friday: n Emergency medical service on East Adams Street.

The most important games of the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball season will take place next week. Today, the Redhawks hope to gain some momentum for their key stretch run when they visit Eastern Michigan. The 3 p.m. contest in Ypsilanti, Mich., is part of the ESPNU BracketBusters series, in which all 11 Ohio Valley Conference squads participate...

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team is coming off its most lopsided Ohio Valley Conference win of the season. But the Redhawks don't expect a repeat tonight when Eastern Kentucky visits the Show Me Center for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff. "They have a very athletic, good team," senior guard Ashley Lovelady said. "It will be a tough game."...

PINE BLUFF, Ark. -- The Southeast Missouri State baseball team outscored the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff 32-3 in sweeping a three-game series last season. But any thoughts the Redhawks had of similar success against the Lions this year went out the window in a hurry...

Dexter jumped on Perryville early in their Class 4 District 1 girls basketball semifinal at the Perry Park Center on Friday, and the Pirates never had a chance to mount a rally. The Bearcats opened an 11-point lead after the first quarter, and cruised to the 64-31 victory...

Southeast Missouri State won seven events Friday night as it hosted the Broadway Prescription Invitational track and field meet at the Student Recreation Center. No team scores were kept. The highlight was sophomore Brandon Colbert reaching the NCAA provisional qualifying standard in the shot put with a distance of 58 feet 4 1/2 inches...

JACKSON -- The Jackson High School boys basketball team anticipated a close game with Poplar Bluff. Why wouldn't the Indians? After all, when the squads met a little more than a month ago, Jackson won by five points. Nothing that happened in the first quarter of Friday night's Class 5 District 1 championship game suggested that the rematch would be any different...

JACKSON -- Poplar Bluff's Jasmin Sumrall was unfazed when Jackson staged a late comeback against her team Friday night. The Indians, after trailing by as many as 12 points in third quarter, stormed back to make it a one-point deficit with 5 minutes, 45 seconds left in their Class 5 District 1 girls basketball championship game...

LOS ANGELES -- Kevin Federline has agreed to give ex-wife Britney Spears visitation rights with their two sons, his lawyer said Friday. Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan said in a statement the former couple has agreed to a modification of a court order that had stripped Spears of her visitation rights. The statement did not provide more details...

Stories published Wednesday and Friday on Cape Girardeau County's chip-and-seal test plan erred in naming the roads scheduled for paving. Portions of county roads 273, 316, 380, 422, 425, 439, 440 and 522, are slated for the test plan, according to Scott Bechtold, county highway administrator. The Southeast Missourian regrets the error...

The River Campus -- the Holland School of Visual and Performing Arts at Southeast Missouri State University -- has landed several more high-quality performances for next year. Among the productions on the schedule are Battleworks Dance Company and the Russian National Ballet. A few more blockbuster Broadway productions are under negotiation, including the musicals "Footloose," "Stomp," "Chicago" and "The Putnam County Spelling Bee."...

More details of a proposal to move the state mental health hospital from Farmington, Mo., to Cape Girardeau County are discussed at a news conference in the morning; under the plan, a 150-bed hospital would be built in Klaus Park; it would create hundreds of permanent jobs and bring millions of dollars into the area...