Stories from Monday, February 24, 2014

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Candidates for Congress and state offices will be lining up at the secretary of state's office Tuesday to file for the 2014 elections. Filing opens on Tuesday and runs until March 25. Candidates showing up on Tuesday will participate in a random drawing to determine whose name shows up first on the August primary ballot...

ST. LOUIS -- The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday set an execution date of March 26 for Jeffrey Ferguson, convicted of abducting, raping and killing a 17-year-old girl in St. Charles 25 years ago. Missouri has executed three men since November. A fourth execution is set for Wednesday, when Michael Taylor is scheduled to die by injection for raping and killing a 15-year-old Kansas City girl in 1989...

ST. LOUIS -- The police chiefs in Missouri's two largest cities are asking the state Supreme Court for guidance on red-light camera ordinances, laws increasingly under court scrutiny. St. Louis chief Sam Dotson and Kansas City chief Darryl Forte wrote in an open letter Thursday that inconsistent rulings from lower courts have led to confusion for police and municipalities that operate red-light cameras...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A proposed overhaul of Missouri's loan industry would give borrowers more time to pay but could allow lenders to charge higher fees and interest. The state Senate sent legislation to the House last week that would prohibit a borrower from renewing a payday loan. Under current law, a loan can be rolled over up to six times...

ST. LOUIS -- Despite the snow still covering the upper Midwest, National Weather Service experts are optimistic that come spring, flooding will be minimal in the nation's Heartland. Several Midwestern branch offices of the National Weather Service released spring flood outlook reports late Thursday. None project significant flooding -- even the risk of minor flooding is below normal in many places...

Lori and Weston Whitt of Ardmore, Ala., are glad to be alive -- and have alligators cared for -- after an accident at 7:03 p.m. Saturday on Interstate 55 south at mile post 96. In a phone interview with the Southeast Missourian, the Whitts said the people around Cape Girardeau have been wonderful to them. The couple runs two barbecue restaurants in Alabama, and Weston Whitt farms alligators...

The case began with a young man claiming several people had kidnapped him at gunpoint on a July night in Sikeston, Mo., held him hostage and beat him for several hours. It ended with two men pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault charges. What happened in between provides a detailed look at how -- and why -- due process operates...

Before he was revered as a significant figure in civil rights history, Frederick Douglass was a bit of a rabble rouser, Dr. Debra Foster Greene, professor of American History at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., told an audience at the Cape Girardeau Public Library on Sunday...

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team completed a sweep of Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne in the final game of a three-game series Sunday at Capaha Park. The Redhawks (6-2) scored six runs on 10 hits to defeat the Mastodons 6-4. In its last two games, Southeast has scored eight two-out runs with runners in scoring position, a stat coach Steve Bieser said is key to his team's success this season...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A federal proposal to clean up the smoke wafting from wood-burning stoves has sparked a backlash from some rural residents, lawmakers and manufacturers who fear it could close the damper on one of the oldest ways of warming homes on cold winter days...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A free workshop at the Drury Conference Center in Cape Girardeau this month will teach employers how to reduce the costly effect of Obamacare on their businesses. The two-hour informational workshop titled "Escape From Obamacare" starts at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 28 at the conference center located at 104 Vantage Drive...

Sikeston Department of Public Safety will host the St. Patty's 5K Run for Special Olympics on Saturday, March 15. The run will begin at 9am at the Depot Museum parking lot in downtown Sikeston. Pre-registration is $20 and will be open until February 28. ...

Historic Downtown Sikeston will host the 3rd annual St. Patrick's Day Celebration March 15 at Malone Park in Sikeston. The event will feature beer tastings, music by the band Common Thread, homebrew competition, crafts, and great food. Net proceeds benefit Historic Downtown Sikeston renovation projects. ...

Eight-five 4-H youth and thirty-five adults from Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Mississippi, Perry, Scott, and Stoddard County gathered Saturday, February 15th at Kelly School for the Southeast 4-H Regional Energizer. The members spent the afternoon attending workshops titled 'Poison Look Alike', 'Flight', 'Food for Thought', and 'Leadership RAP'. After dinner 30 fleece lap blankets were assembled to be donated to Beacon Health in Cape Girardeau. The evening closed with a dance...

Orchid display at the Missouri botanical gardens runs through late March. If you can make it there, it is worth seeing!

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- A tea party-backed Kansas radiologist who is trying to unseat longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts has apologized for posting X-ray photos of fatal gunshot wounds and medical injuries on his personal Facebook page several years ago, but he called the revelation about the images the work of a desperate incumbent...

Today is Monday, Feb. 24, the 55th day of 2014. There are 310 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Feb. 24, 1864, according to the National Park Service, the first Union prisoners arrived at the Confederates' Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. During its 14 months of existence, the overcrowded camp ended up holding some 45,000 men, more than four times its intended capacity; nearly 13,000 prisoners perished from disease, starvation or exposure...

Roger D. Bryant, 66, of Cape Girardeau passed away Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014, at his home. He was born March 14, 1947, son of Chester "Toad" and Lula Wagoner Bryant. He and Pamela Vance were married March 3, 1966, in Chester, Ill. She survives. Roger was a member of Cape County Cowboy Church. He was a truck driver for Commercial Transport 18 years and for independently owned Bryant Transportation five years, retiring in 2009. He enjoyed camping and horseback trail riding...

Former U.S. senator Chic Hecht of Las Vegas, a native of Cape Girardeau, has been appointed ambassador to the Bahamas by President George Bush. John Mumford has been officially named the new defensive coordinator for Indians' football at Southeast Missouri State University; he replaces Kevin Cosgrove, who elected to take an assistant coaching position at Colorado State...

The Jackson Police Department released the following items. Thefts...

The insipid drivel presented in Mike Jensen's column "The folly of global warming (or climate change)" demands a response. After the obligatory, inane "Hey, it's cold! Where's my global warming?" remark, Jensen suggests Secretary of State Kerry must be drunk or stupid to suggest climate change is a national security threat...

Every sports season comes with great moments. This year's high school basketball season has been no exception. Jackson's boys, for example, won the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament and clinched a share of the SEMO Conference regular-season title Friday to go with their conference tournament championship. ...

The Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Arrests do no imply guilt. DWI...

The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act: Nothing is right when everybody is wrong. It is not good for either side or each and every citizen. Anything which divides the entire populous as much as this is not good. America is the most divided on an issue since the Civil War. There is no proof as yet the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act is more affordable, only that it is more available...

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Railroads that haul volatile crude shipments have reached an agreement with U.S. transportation officials to adopt wide-ranging, voluntary safety measures after a string of explosive and deadly accidents. The agreement between the U.S. Transportation Department and the Association of American Railroads was obtained Friday...

CELAYA, Mexico -- Mexico is on track to become the United States' No. 1 source of imported cars by the end of next year, overtaking Japan and Canada in a manufacturing boom that's turning the auto industry into a bigger source of dollars than money sent home by migrants...

WASHINGTON -- American agriculture has experienced a boom, with market values of crops, livestock and total agricultural products reaching record highs even as the amount of U.S. farmland declined, according to a new government survey. Continuing a long-term trend, the number of U.S. farms dropped to 2.1 million in 2012, about a 4 percent drop from five years earlier. But some of the bigger farms got bigger. The average farm grew from 418 to 434 acres...

Gabriele Ruggieri of Milan, Italy, is the new head chef at Steele Crest Winery. Ruggieri has traveled the world since he was 19 and plans to use the culinary experiences he gained by working in a variety of kitchens and establishments, as well as cooking with his family, to create unique dishes using fresh ingredients that are found locally or imported. The items will be featured on weekends...

CULIACAN, Mexico -- After fruitlessly pursuing one of the world's top drug lords for years, authorities finally drew close to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman using a cellphone found at a house where drugs were stored. The phone belonging to a Guzman aide was recovered with clues from a U.S. wiretap and provided a key break in the long chase to find Guzman, officials said Sunday...

ISLAMABAD -- Afghanistan's Taliban said Sunday they had suspended "mediation" with the United States to exchange captive Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five senior Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, halting -- at least temporarily -- what was considered the best chance yet of securing the 27-year-old soldier's freedom since his capture in 2009...

KIEV, Ukraine -- With an ally claiming presidential powers Sunday and the whereabouts and legitimacy of the nominal president unclear, newly freed opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko may feel her chance to take Ukraine's leadership has come. But even among protesters who detest President Viktor Yanukovych, Tymoshenko sparks misgivings...

WALL TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Kiss won't rock and roll all night -- or at any point during the day, either -- when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, the band said Sunday. The 40-year-old group is unable to agree on which lineup should perform during the April 10 ceremony in New York City, and has decided not to plug in at all...

WASHINGTON -- Industry groups and Republican-led states are heading an attack at the Supreme Court against the Obama administration's sole means of trying to limit power-plant and factory emissions of gases blamed for global warming. As President Barack Obama pledges to act on environmental and other matters when Congress doesn't, or won't, opponents of regulating carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases cast the rule as a power grab of historic proportions...

WASHINGTON -- The explosive politics of health care have divided the nation, but America's governors, Republicans and Democrats alike, suggest that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is here to stay. While governors from Connecticut to Louisiana sparred Sunday over how best to improve the nation's economy, governors of both parties shared a far more pragmatic outlook on the controversial program known as "Obamacare" as millions of their constituents begin to be covered...

FIREBAUGH, Calif. -- With California's agricultural heartland entrenched in drought, almond farmers are letting orchards dry up and in some cases making the tough call to have their trees torn out of the ground, leaving behind empty fields. In California's Central Valley, Barry Baker is one of many who hired a crew that brought in large rumbling equipment to perform the grim task in a cloud of dust...

NEW ORLEANS -- A 65-mile stretch of the Mississippi River, including the Port of New Orleans, was closed to all water traffic Sunday as crews cleaned up oil that spilled from a barge after it ran into a towboat between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the Coast Guard said...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- With possibly hundreds of thousands of rape kits untested across the country, a number of states are proposing legislation to address backlogs that in at least one case dates back nearly three decades. In Memphis, Tenn., alone, there are more than 12,000 untested rape kits going back to the 1980s, according to the New York-based Rape Kit Action Project, which has been tracking the backlogs nationwide. ...

Administrative Office Building 1 Barton Square, Jackson 9 a.m. today Open session Communications/reports, other elected officials Public comments Routine business Action items Appointments and possible action items Discussion and possible action items...

The Southeast Missouri State women's gymnastics team won a three-team meet against Texas Woman's University and Centenary College with a season-high score of 194.300 on Sunday in Denton, Texas. Texas Woman's was second with 193.825, while Centenary finished at 190.435...

The Southeast women's basketball team faces challenge tonight in Tennessee

The Cape Riverfront Market will hold a meeting for those interested in being a vendor for its upcoming season. The market is seeking a variety of vendors that offer farm goods such as fruits, vegetables, meats and cheeses, as well as specialty items such as baked goods, prepared foods and artisan crafts, according to a news release. Vendors must be located within 100 miles and produce their own goods...

O Father God, may your wonderful peace rule in our hearts always. Amen.