Stories from Friday, April 6, 2012

A Bollinger County man charged with drug and firearms offenses as a result of a joint investigation by local and federal agencies pleaded not guilty Thursday. The Bollinger County Sheriff's Department, Bollinger County prosecuting attorney's office, SEMO Drug Task Force, Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives participated in an investigation targeting Jackie Lee Payne, Sr., 59, of Bollinger County...

Matt Harris had a totally forgettable experience the last time he was in Cape Girardeau. Except Harris didn't forget it, which he said helped fuel his most recent visit that he enjoyed infinitely more. Harris pitched into the eighth inning for his third consecutive impressive Ohio Valley Conference start, and Eastern Kentucky beat host Southeast Missouri State 9-1 in Thursday's opener of a three-game series at Capaha Field...

Karen Eustis never intended to say anything publicly about why her business relationship with John Buckner failed. But when the New Orleans artist heard that someone suggested she left Buckner in the lurch, she felt she couldn't stay quiet. "I was trying not to cause any difficulty," Eustis said Thursday. "But I felt like my name was being wronged and my character is very important to me. To have someone say that was so false, I couldn't hold back anymore."...

Donna Caldwell, 54, of Wappapello, Mo., recently won $100,000 in the Missouri Lottery on a "10X The Money" Scratchers ticket. She bought tickets at Calhoun's Foods in Poplar Bluff, Mo., and won $17 before uncovering the $100,000 top prize. She plans to use the money to fix up one of her houses and help her children...

Attorneys for Heartland Materials LLC say the quarry company will take legal action against being included in the proposed Fruitland village and that Cape Girardeau County does not have the authority to approve Fruitland's incorporation petition. David R. ...

For one North Elementary parent, a study guide sent home by their child's teacher last spring threw up a red flag. "I was a little shocked that there would be a study guide for a standardized test," the parent wrote in an email sent to principal Shauna Criddle in April 2011. In the parent's eyes, the purpose of the test was to measure how students do individually and how the school does as a whole...

Industries that dot its famous banks add to the amount of lead in its waters. Agricultural runoff contributes a variety of other harmful pollutants. Shudder at the thought, but even fecal coliform bacteria, found in the intestinal tract of humans and other mammals, can be found in the messy mix that makes up the largest river system in North America...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Missouri judge has dealt a setback to supporters of a ballot proposal that would limit interest rates on payday loans. Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green ruled Thursday that the ballot summary and financial estimate for the initiative are "inadequate" and "unfair" and "likely to deceive petition signers."...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri House members have approved legislation that would allow advertising on school buses to help districts cover transportation costs. The legislation would allow school districts to lease space on the inside and exterior of school buses for private advertisements. Ads could not feature gambling, alcohol or tobacco. And the state Board of Education would be responsible for developing rules for the school bus ads...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Hundreds of Christians will line two Missouri highways on Good Friday to create the largest live cross this Easter season. Set for 7 to 11 a.m. Friday along highways 60 and 63 in Missouri, the Carry the Cross movement aims to raise awareness of Jesus Christ as volunteers stand with 10-foot tall crosses every quarter-mile to make a make one giant cross...

The Cape Girardeau County Commission on Thursday verified bids from three paving companies for highway and parks department projects Pace Construction Co. of St. Louis and Apex Paving Co. of Cape Girardeau submitted bids to lay "plant mix bituminous" or "blacktop" paving on county roads 233, 436, 411 and possibly 325, depending on project costs. Also included were patching projects for roads throughout the county...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Missouri Senate committee searching for ways to restore health care benefits to the blind is targeting cuts at other social services, including the foster care system and state staff who screen applicants for Medicaid and food stamps...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Many of Missouri's public school teachers would need to work longer before getting tenure under legislation endorsed by the state Senate. Teachers generally receive tenure after teaching in a district for five years. The Senate legislation would require teachers who have not received tenure by Aug. 28 to work 10 years. Teachers who have tenure when the law takes effect in late August would keep their tenure...

Today is Good Friday, April 6, the 97th day of 2012. There are 269 days left in the year. The Jewish holiday Passover begins at sunset. Today's Highlight in History: On April 6, 1862, the Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee as Confederate forces launched a surprise attack against Union troops, who beat back the Confederates the next day...

The mild winter and early spring has led to some early beauty in Southeast Missouri. One place to visit this time of year is the Pinecrest Azalea Garden near Oak Ridge. The azaleas are absolutely stunning right now. To see the flowers, check out the photo gallery at semissourian.com. Enjoy the photos, but we also encourage you to see the beauty in person...

The temperatures earlier this week made it feel more like summer than spring. And though it's still a few months until we celebrate our nation's Independence Day, a local group organizing July 4 festivities in Cape Girardeau is looking for your support...

CONGRATULATIONS to the business team from Southeast on its recent win at an international competition, a first by any U.S. school. This is proof that our university is graduating top-notch students capable of competing with the best in the world. How sad that this great accomplishment received only a short mention in our local paper on the very same day a former beauty pageant winner from China made the front page of Good Times...

Some things bear repeating. That's a lesson most of us learned as students. That's a lesson Gary Rust convincingly teaches with his column of collected thoughts from other notables and not-so-notables. In the past few days, there have been a couple of items in the Southeast Missourian that bear repeating. If you missed them the first time around, you'll learn something. And if you've already read them, I think you'll enjoy them again...

Ben Fainer, a Holocaust survivor, will be the guest speaker Wednesday as Southeast Missouri State University commemorates Holocaust Remembrance Day. His presentation is from noon to 1:15 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom. The event is free and open to all Southeast students, faculty and staff, and the community. ...

FIRST FRIDAY RECEPTIONS The Artist Studio The works of studio owner and instructor Judy Westrich will be showcased. Schedules will be available for her spring watercolor and acrylic classes. 38A N. Main St.; 651-4464 Arts Council of Southeast Missouri...

O Lord Jesus, today we remember the way of the cross and your sacrifice for us. Amen.

Dear residents of Cape Girardeau, I have been hesitant to go public with my reasons for closing Eustis Studios in Cape Girardeau. After reading the story in the Southeast Missourian, I feel a need to clear my name with the truth of why I closed Eustis Studios there...

JOPLIN, Mo. -- The contractor hired by the Joplin School District to demolish three schools destroyed in last year's tornado has sued the district, claiming it is owed more than $500,000 and has been required to do work not included in its original contract...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Police said Thursday they were investigating the possibility that a gunman who killed seven people at a tiny private Christian college was seeking multiple intended targets in his rampage. A day earlier, police said the apparent target had been the director of the nursing program at Oikos University...

NEW YORK -- Retailers from discounter Target to department-store chain Macy's reported better-than-expected sales in March in the latest sign that Americans are feeling better about the economy. A combination of warm weather and high demand for spring fashions boosted revenue for the month, but analysts say there's much more than higher temperatures at play: Americans who cut back on spending in the slow economic recovery are encouraged by the improving job market...

CHICAGO -- One child doesn't talk, rocks rhythmically back and forth and stares at clothes spinning in the dryer. Another has no trouble talking but is obsessed with trains, methodically naming every station in his state. Autistic children like these hate change, but a big one is looming...

NEW YORK -- Two months into J.C. Penney's transformation, its workers are starting to feel the pain. The midpriced department store chain said Thursday that it has laid off 600 workers, or 13 percent of the staff at its headquarters in Plano, Texas, as the company looks to streamline its operations amid a major reinvention of the business...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Gunmen attacked an outpost of a government-sponsored militia and killed 10 members of the security force in western Afghanistan, officials said Thursday. The Taliban are targeting Afghan and NATO security forces as they fight to assert their power and undermine U.S. efforts to try to build up the Afghan military, which will take the lead in combat responsibility over the next couple of years...

TOKYO -- As the U.S. and its allies decry North Korea's planned rocket launch, they're also rushing to capitalize on the rare opportunity it presents to assess the secretive nation's ability to strike beyond its shores. If North Korea goes ahead with the launch, expected to take place sometime between April 12 and 16, the United States, Japan and South Korea will have more military assets on hand than ever to track the rocket and -- if necessary -- shoot it out of the sky...

JERUSALEM -- A former Israeli negotiator and key architect of the 1990s peace effort that established the Palestinian Authority says the self-rule government should be dismantled because it is enabling Israel to continue its occupation of the West Bank...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- It was one of the most brazen moves in the chess world since the Najdorf Sicilian Defense, perhaps even the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit. Fresh off her second straight national championship, the legendary chess coach at Texas Tech is jumping to another school and taking all the top members of the team with her. No one has ever seen anything like it in intercollegiate competition, not even among powerhouse basketball and football teams that are worth many millions of dollars...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is laying groundwork to make the majority-conservative Supreme Court a campaign issue this fall, taking a political page from Republicans who have long railed against liberal judges who don't vote their way...

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has commuted on military aircraft to his home in northern California more than two dozen times since he took over the Pentagon in July, paying about $630 per trip for a round-trip flight that costs the Pentagon about $32,000...

WASHINGTON -- The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits fell to a four-year low last week, suggesting employers kept hiring in March at a healthy pace. Weekly applications dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 357,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's the fewest since April 2008...

Gladys I. Bond, 93, of Shell Knob, Mo., passed away Wednesday, April 4, 2012, in her home. She was born March 28, 1919, in Advance, Mo., the daughter of David Guy and Ollie Lillian McClain Slinkard. On Nov. 16, 1942, in Washington, D.C., she was united in marriage to George W. Bond, who preceded her in death Oct. 19, 2001...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Leonard Bailey Shackles, 88, of O'Fallon, Mo., passed away Sunday, March 25, 2012, at Garden View Care Center in O'Fallon. He was born June 21, 1923, in Chaffee, son of William Leonard and Gladys Irene Bailey Shackles. He and Betty Points were married Sept. 8, 1945...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Ruth Bernice Nations Carroll, 93, of Chaffee died Wednesday, April 4, 2012, at Ratliff Care Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Jan. 19, 1919, in Morley, Mo., to Braxton Edward and Minnie Bell Stanley Nations. She married Leonard N. Carroll Oct. 12, 1946, in Mayfield, Ky. He preceded her in death Oct. 3, 2003...

Daughter to MeKisha Renee McClard of Jackson, Southeast Hospital, 5:18 a.m. Monday, March 26, 2012. Name, Seanna Lillie Renee. Weight, 6 pounds, 12 ounces. Second child, first daughter. Ms. McClard is the daughter of Randy and Sharon McClard of Jackson. She is a hairstylist at Regis Salon and a student at Southeast Missouri State University...

Margaret Earlene Marlin Burger, 95, of Cape Girardeau, died Wednesday, April 4, 2012, at Saint Francis Medical Center. Ford and Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

REYNOLDSVILLE, Ill. -- George E. Tucker, 88, of Addison, Ill., formerly of Reynoldsville, passed away Wednesday, April 4, 2012. He was born Oct. 1, 1923, in Reynoldsville, to Francis and Olie Darway Tucker. George served his country proudly in the U.S. Army...

Speaking to an ad hoc group of area business and civic leaders, Dr. John Crowe promotes a flood-control project for Cape Girardeau involving development of a green belt area for parks and recreational use, patterned after one in Scottsdale, Ariz. Use of the name SEMO as an acronym for Southeast Missouri State University no longer may be used in university-generated formal text under a new policy adopted by the university board of regents...

The Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWI...

The Jackson Police Department released the following items. Arrests do not imply guilt. Summonses Jackson Firefighters responded to the following calls Thursday:...

Some say dance is becoming a lost art. But whatever has been lost can be easily found at Southeast Missouri State's River Campus. The annual "Spring into Dance" dance concert, coming to Bedell Performance Hall April 12 to 15, will be performed by students in Southeast's Department of Theatre and Dance and continues the tradition of interesting variety and diversity of dance styles...

BUFORD, Wyo. -- Buford is a small place for sure, but so is the world. A remote, unincorporated area along busy Interstate 80 that advertised itself as the smallest town in the United States, Buford was sold at auction for $900,000 Thursday to an unidentified man from Vietnam...

All the local high school events reported Thursday to the Southeast Missourian.

Two assistants will not return to the Southeast men's basketball program

The Joey Haines Invitational doesn't have the abundance of teams it once did. But according to Southeast Missouri State track and field coach Eric Crumpecker, the Redhawks' annual outdoor meet has continued to feature top-flight competition. Crumpecker expects no different when the 31st annual Joey Haines Invitational takes place today and Saturday at the Abe Stuber Complex...

Emo-pop band Hawthorne Heights will bring its "Stripped Down to the Bones" tour to Pitter's Cafe and Lounge Monday, April 9. They will be joined by guests Guy Morgan and The FT Crew, Mark Rose, Sandlot Heroes and Tim Godlove. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show begins at 8 p.m. There will be a $10 cover at the door and a $3 surcharge for minors. Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.brownpapertickets.com...

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday the crisis in Syria is getting worse and claiming more lives every day even though President Bashar Assad's government insists it is withdrawing troops ahead of a U.N. deadline to end the violence...

NEW YORK -- A defiant Russian arms dealer dubbed the Merchant of Death for his history of arming violent dictators and regimes was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison, far short of the life term prosecutors sought for his conviction on terrorism charges that grew from a U.S. sting operation...

OVER THE GULF OF ALASKA -- The long, lonely voyage of the Japanese ghost ship is over. A U.S. Coast Guard cutter unleashed cannon fire on the abandoned 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru on Thursday, ending a journey that began when last year's tsunami dislodged it and set it adrift across the Pacific Ocean...

Route BB between routes ZZ and Y in Scott County will be reduced to one lane Wednesday and Thursday as Missouri Department of Transportation crews perform shoulder repairs from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. The work zone will be marked with signs and motorists are urged to use caution while traveling in the area. For more information, contact MoDOT's Customer Service Center at 1-888-275-6636 or visit www.modot.org/southeast...

Highway 51 in Bollinger County will be reduced to one lane for bridge repairs Monday through Thursday as Missouri Department of Transportation crews will perform bridge repairs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. The section of roadway is located between County Road 878 and County Road 376. ...

Route Z between U.S. 61 and County Road 480 in Scott County will be reduced to one lane Monday and Tuesday as Missouri Department of Transportation crews perform shoulder repairs from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. The work zone will be marked with signs, and motorists are urged to use caution while traveling near the area. For more information, contact MoDOT's Customer Service Center at 1-888-275-6636 or visit www.modot.org/southeast...

Highway 34 between highways 25 and 72 in Cape Girardeau County will be reduced April 16 as Missouri Department of Transportation crews replace a pipe under the roadway. The repairs will be performed from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The work zone will be marked with signs, and motorists are urged to use caution while traveling near the area. For more information, contact MoDOT's?Customer Service Center at 1-888-275-6636 or visit www.modot.org/southeast...

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A St. Louis museum can keep hold of a 3,200-year-old mummy's mask, a federal judge has ruled, saying the U.S. government failed to prove that the Egyptian relic was ever stolen. Prosecutors said the funeral mask of Lady Ka-Nefer-Nefer went missing from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo about 40 years ago and that it should be returned to its country of origin. ...

Chances are the Red Headed Stranger will be familiar to many area residents when he rides through town Sunday evening. Known as an expert performer with a relaxed and poignant style, Willie Nelson's outlaw charm and humor have won him fans for more than 50 years. And Sunday, he's coming back to the Show Me Center after a canceled date in 2011 and a memorable performance in 2005...

In 2003, Dr. Jean Chapman changed the Cape Girardeau arts community forever by forming the Visual Arts Cooperative and pushing First Fridays with the Arts. "Don't put a basket over your candle," Chapman said to the Southeast Missourian on March 14, 2003. "Most artists have few opportunities to show their art."...

Cardinal baseball season has begun. The weather is more summer than spring. It's officially time to get out and have fun, and April offers many opportunities, no matter your entertainment preference. The music portion kicks off Saturday night with St. ...

Along with the CH-47's, we also had this Air Force T-6 "Texan 2" drop in for a refuel. The guys were headed for Niagara Falls, on a training mission from Shepard AFB in Texas. This turbine-engined trainer is replacing the familiar T-34c in all 3 service branches...

These Hercules/Chinook CH-47 Helicopters were picked up by their crews in Savannah, Georgia, and are on their way to Wainwright, Alaska...a trip that they estimate will take them 7 days. They were loaded heavy with crew gear, and trying to manage the aircraft's weight, so each took only a measly 700+ gallons of our fine Jet-A fuel. Really thirsty Chinooks can empty our 2200 gallon truck REAL fast, and make us do runs to the fuel farm between fill-ups!...

My Great Niece Ellie loved playing the new "P-Bone", a plastic trombone. My brother Mike is her grandpa and he first taught her how to buzz her lips. Then he held the trombone for her, and she could get the sound. It was hilarious. She absolutely loved it. The tone was far from beautiful, but she was intrigued with how she could make something so loud...

Jackson native, Marvelless Mark Kamp is an award-winning motivational speaker, professional emcee and entertainer, who travels nationally on the speaking circuit and has now just authored his first book, "Opportunity Rocks!" Mark will be hosting his book Launch Party for "Opportunity Rocks!", a must-read, how-to guide on being a "rock star" in Business and in Life! Learn the 7 Chords of fine tuning your talents, goals, motivation, and managing change...

The Cape Girardeau ADHD Support Group will hold its first meeting on May 19th at the Cape Girardeau Public Library from 1:00 - 3:00 PM. The meeting is open to anyone who is affected by ADHD. This meeting will provide an opportunity to get to know each other, share resources and decide what areas the group would like to focus on in the future...

Make and model: 1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV Owner(s): Linda and Bob Banger Owner's hometown: Burfordville Missouri Names of people in photo: N/A "Lipstick Edition" Less than 75 of this edition sold in 1976. Red/white leather interior with red carpet in passenger and trunk areas. 460 cubic inch V/8-Very thirsty, but a wonderful ride...