Stories from Thursday, March 29, 2018

Presiding commissioner contests top the list of races this year in Cape Girardeau, Scott, Perry and Bollinger counties. Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy faces a Republican primary challenge. All of the other contested races in Cape Girardeau County are for positions where the current officeholders are not seeking re-election...

A federal case with national and international implications for three of the world's largest chemical companies will be held in Cape Girardeau before Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. Dozens of lawyers filled a courtroom at the courthouse Wednesday afternoon as Limbaugh heard preferences from several of the attorneys about procedural and scheduling matters...

Cape Girardeau police and the area's major case squad are investigating two deaths following a shooting Wednesday morning at Cape Meadows apartments. The second death was discovered while police were investigating the first shooting, according to police public information officer Sgt. Rick Schmidt...

The Cape Girardeau/Bollinger County Major Case Squad today released the names of two men who were fatally shot Wednesday at a local apartment complex. They were identified as Quincy R. Lucious III, 18, of St. Louis, and Leslie C. Williams, 20, of Cape Girardeau...

Today is Thursday, March 29, the 88th day of 2018. There are 277 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On March 29, 1943, World War II rationing of meat, fats and cheese began, limiting consumers to store purchases of an average of about two pounds a week for beef, pork, lamb and mutton using a coupon system. (The Associated Press noted, "From the customer viewpoint, the unrationed oasis of food will be the restaurant or other public eating place.")...

We've all seen the stories about kids suffering from cancer or other life-threatening diseases. Maybe you have donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or another pediatric medical system. But one local boy wanted to take the good will a step further...

WASHINGTON -- Dealing with an issue affecting elections across the country, Supreme Court justices wrestled Wednesday with how far states may go to craft electoral districts giving the majority party a huge political advantage. But even as they heard their second case on partisan redistricting in six months, the justices expressed uncertainty about the best way to deal with a problem several said would get worse without the court's intervention...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump fired Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin on Wednesday in the wake of a bruising ethics scandal and a mounting rebellion within the agency. Shulkin is the second Cabinet secretary to depart over controversies involving expensive travel, following former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's resignation last September...

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge Wednesday allowed Maryland and the District of Columbia to proceed with their lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of accepting unconstitutional gifts from foreign interests, but limited the case to the president's involvement with the Trump International Hotel in Washington...

WASHINGTON -- An enigmatic North Korean leader takes a secretive train trip to China to affirm fraternal ties and declare a commitment to denuclearization. It sounds like Kim Jong Un's visit this week, but his father and predecessor Kim Jong Il made similar declarations on a trip to Beijing, months before he died in 2011. Yet North Korea's nuclear weapons development only speeded up...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A blinding national spotlight is shining on the family of Stephon Clark, the 22-year-old unarmed black man killed by Sacramento police last week. "You don't know what it's like until you experience it," Clark's uncle, Curtis Gordon said. "You can see it on TV, it's totally OK to deal with those realities when it's just through a television and they're not in your home. It's different now."...

ATLANTA -- Women running for governor in Wisconsin and Maryland breastfeed their infants in their campaign videos. Another in Georgia tells voters "the folks who have held the office of governor don't look like me." The record number of women expected to run for office this year are already breaking barriers, upending traditional campaigning by emphasizing their gender as they introduce themselves to an electorate they hope is eager for change...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence faced a firestorm of criticism three years ago after signing a "religious freedom" law critics decried as anti-gay. Now emails released this week to The Associated Press illustrate similar backlash from fellow conservatives when the eventual vice president agreed to change the law in the face of widespread boycott threats...

WASHINGTON -- Omarosa Manigault Newman once predicted "every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump." The question now for the former White House aide and "Apprentice" contestant is whether her words apply to her, too. Starring in another reality TV show after resigning from the West Wing, Manigault Newman unleashed one criticism after another of her longtime friend Donald Trump and former White House colleagues, testing the widely held view few people are ever really exiled from Trump's orbit.. ...

WASHINGTON -- Cranking up pressure on the president, porn actress Stormy Daniels wants Donald Trump to answer her attorney's questions under oath about a pre-election payment aimed at keeping her quiet about their alleged tryst. If she's successful, it would be the first deposition of a sitting president since Bill Clinton in 1998 had to answer questions about his conduct with women...

JOPLIN, Mo. -- A battered but stately tree has fallen after standing for nearly seven years as a symbol of hope for the tornado-stricken Joplin community. Artists and residents painted the Spirit Tree in bright colors and memorialized it in connection to the 2011 tornado that ripped through Joplin...

BAGHDAD -- On a desolate highway in northern Iraq last week, nine federal police officers packed into a large SUV were stopped at a checkpoint they had never seen before. Behind them, a taxi carrying a handful of other officers lagged behind on the long drive from the northern city of Kirkuk back to the capital, Baghdad...

BEIJING -- With smiles and firm handshakes, North Korea and China used a surprise summit this week to show, despite recent tensions, Pyongyang still has a powerful backer and Beijing will not be sidelined in discussions about the fate of its unpredictable neighbor...

NEW YORK -- Most Easter Sundays, you can find John Legend at home, helping cook a big dinner for family and friends. Except this Easter. He'll be a little busy -- being Jesus Christ in front of millions. Legend leads a cast including Sara Bareilles and Alice Cooper in a live NBC version of the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A federal judge reopened fact-finding in a wrongful-death civil lawsuit over a former St. Louis police officer's fatal shooting of a black man. Attorney Al Watkins, who represents Anthony Lamar Smith's family, on Wednesday confirmed U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton's decision to reopen discovery. It comes after an attorney general's office report found DNA evidence was withheld from lawyers for Smith's family...

A Fredericktown, Missouri, man died Monday from injuries sustained days earlier during an attempted suicide in the Perry County Jail, Sheriff Gary Schaaf said Wednesday. Ryan C. Fadler, aka Shawn Wakefield, 39, was being held in the Perry County Jail on a 150-day commitment order for forgery...

Gifted junior and senior high students throughout the region will compete in the 37th annual Southeast Missouri Regional Science Fair next week at the Show Me Center; more than 200 entries in 22 categories will be judged. When the Pharoahs motorcycle group was taken off the roads of Southeast Missouri in early 1990, so was a majority of the supply of methamphetamines, say local drug enforcement officials; but now, as agencies work aggressively to curtail the widespread use, production and sale of crack cocaine, methamphetamines -- commonly called crystal, crank or ice -- are making a comeback on city streets.. ...

LONGTOWN, Mo. -- Herbert A. Weinrich, 89, of Longtown died on Tuesday, March 27, 2018, at Independence Care Center of Perry County in Perryville, Missouri. He was born Sept. 10, 1928, in Longtown, son of Rudolph Walter and Esther Ochs Weinrich. He and Ruth Brickhaus married June 7, 1953. She survives in Perryville...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Mildred M. Terbrak, 93, of Perryville died March 28, 2018, at Perry County Memorial Hospital in Perryville Visitation will be from 10 a.m. until time of funeral Mass Monday at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. Rosary will be recited at 10:30 am...

Billie J Mabrey, 84, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, March 27, 2018, at Saint Francis Medical Center. He was born March 25, 1934, in Allenville to John H. and Marie Brucker Mabrey. He and Cora A. Miller married Aug. 17, 1963, at Riverton, Missouri. She preceded him in death March 2, 2018...

NEW LENOX, Ill. -- Gene Kitchen, 88, of New Lenox, formerly of Cape Girardeau, died Tuesday, March 27, 2018, at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. until service time Saturday at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau...

Donna Jean Hitt, 69, of Jackson died Tuesday, March 27, 2018, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born April 9, 1948, in St. Louis, daughter of Richard and Betty Lou Byrd Williams. She and Gerald Hitt married July 5, 1969, in Gordonville...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Jurors deliberated Wednesday whether the widow of the Orlando nightclub shooter lied to the FBI and helped her husband in the attack killing 49 people or was an abused wife who knew nothing of his plans. Noor Salman, 31, is charged with obstruction and providing material support to a terrorist organization. She faces up to life in prison if convicted of all charges...

A strip mall development is in the works between Cape Girardeau and Scott City on East Outer Road, near the truck-driving school, and it's looking for potential tenants. Todd Wasilewski, physical therapist and co-owner of Garret Customs in Scott City, said he's looking for people interested in having a business in that area...

TOPEKA, Kan. -- Kansas plans to conduct a full audit of a water park's inspection records before it reopens this spring, a state official said Wednesday, after criminal charges were filed over the decapitation of a 10-year-old boy on the world's tallest waterslide there in 2016...

SEATTLE -- Take two tablets and a selfie? Your doctor's orders may one day include a smartphone video to make sure you took your medicine. Smartphone apps monitoring pill-taking are now available, and researchers are testing how well they work when medication matters. Experts praise the efficiency, but some say the technology raises privacy and data security concerns...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy grew at a solid 2.9 percent annual rate in the final three months of last year, a sharp upward revision capping three quarters of the fastest growth in more than a decade. The Trump administration is hoping the economy will accelerate further this year, aided by sizable tax cuts and increased government spending...

O Lord Jesus, we praise you for you are the King of kings. Amen.

CAPE GIRARDEAU The Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests n Rausheda Rose, 20, of Cape Girardeau was arrested on two Butler County (Missouri) warrants. n Lamarcus Steward, 22, of Sikeston, Missouri, was arrested on a Cape Girardeau warrant...

It’s not much but it might help a frustrated President Trump get a start on his heretofore failed effort to get the wall built along the Mexican border if Cape would allow him to relocate to that area of our river wall. I realize this proposal will likely be met with a flood of objections...

CAPE GIRARDEAU The Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls: Tuesday n Medical assists were made at 2:40 a.m. on Grandview Drive; 9:59 a.m. on St. Francis Drive; 1:27 p.m. on David Street; 1:46 p.m. on Gordonville Road; 2:21 p.m. on Doctors Park; 2:26 p.m. on Bloomfield Road; 7:02 p.m. on Elm Street; 7:50 p.m. on South Benton Street; and 10:13 p.m. on South West End Boulevard...

JANESVILLE, Wis. -- Some Wisconsin students who took their demonstration against gun violence on the road reached their destination Wednesday -- House Speaker Paul Ryan's home turf. About 50 students set out Sunday from Madison on their "50 Miles More" march. They reached their destination in Janesville and demonstrated in a park for stricter gun laws. Ryan, a Republican who has opposed gun restrictions, is in the Czech Republic on an official visit and was not there when the marchers arrived...

Son to Nicholas Michael and Alyssa Gayle Hermann of Jackson, Southeast Hospital, 10:21 a.m. Thursday, March 15, 2018. Name, Karson Nicholas. Weight, 6 pounds, 15 ounces. First child. Mrs. Hermann is the former Alyssa Wills, daughter of Alan and Karen Wills of Jackson. She is a pre-school teacher with the Jackson School District. Hermann is the son of Michael Hermann of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. He is a high school physical education teacher with the Chaffee School District...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Anna Marie Enderle, 68, formerly of New Hamburg, Missouri, passed away Tuesday, March 27, 2018, at Independence Care Center in Perryville. She was born Nov. 28, 1949, in Cape Girardeau to the late Paul Peter and Alma Laura Bucher Enderle...

Since arriving to the River City, I have had some tasty burgers from local places such as Stevie's Steakburger and Hamburger Express. However, the joint that has impressed me the most resides a bit north of us (local is relative, right?). Mary Jane Burgers and Brew has it all -- fresh ingredients, unique menu and the tasty food is served by a friendly staff in a fun environment. ...

The Brain Injury & Stroke Resource Group of Cape Girardeau delivered 'Eggs of Hope' Saturday March 24th to Heartland Care and Rehab and to the Lutheran Home Assistant Living West. Then on March 27th they delivered to Saint Francis Medical Center Neuro Rehab floor, Southeast Missouri Hospital Neuro Rehab floor, and their last stop was the Missouri Veterans Home for this Easter season. ...