Stories from Friday, February 1, 2019

Cape Girardeau city officials believe a new pothole-patching truck puts them in the driver's seat when it comes to paving over pitted streets. They also hope it will smooth over plentiful complaints of motorists who have endured bone-jarring rides over potholed pavement...

The nearly 7-foot-tall wooden Indian sculpture that kept watch outside the Jackson Chamber of Commerce for more than a decade now stands inside the front window of the nearby Cape Girardeau County History Center, protected from the elements. With its somber expression and crossed, weathered arms, the figure faces the direction of Trail of Tears State Park...

It's quite the packed next few days, Southeast Missouri! First of all and most importantly, it is Super Bowl weekend. But I didn't have to tell you that, right? If that's brand new information for you, it's OK. I used to be the same way before I realized it's literally another food holiday for many Americans...

A Cape Girardeau woman has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the dog-mauling death of a 13-month-old girl she was baby-sitting. Erica Jordan, 33, pleaded guilty in December just before a bench trial in the case was scheduled to begin at the Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau...

Today is Friday, Feb. 1, the 32nd day of 2019. There are 333 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Feb. 1, 1960, four black college students began a sit-in protest at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they'd been refused service...

La Croix Church is working with prison officials to love two birds with one stone, to bend a metaphor. By setting up a program where prisoners can pack meals for impoverished children, the church is helping not just impoverished children in barren countries, it is also helping inmates experience the joy of giving...

"Project Runway" is going home, back to its original network with several new twists. The biggest change is new host and executive producer Karlie Kloss, who takes over from the departed duo of Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn when the show returns to Bravo on March 14. The model grew up in St. Louis watching the original version...

CHICAGO -- Detectives have recovered more surveillance footage of "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett walking in downtown Chicago before and after he said he was attacked by two masked men, including video of him arriving home with a rope around his neck, but they're still searching for footage of the attack, a police spokesman said Thursday...

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration's case against Beijing is blunt: The Chinese have gone on a commercial crime spree, pilfering trade secrets from seed corn to electronic brains behind wind turbines. China has stripped the arm off a T-Mobile robot, the U.S. says, and looted trade secrets about robotic cars from Apple...

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration is poised to announce today it is withdrawing from a treaty that has been a centerpiece of superpower arms control since the Cold War and whose demise some analysts worry could fuel a new arms race. An American withdrawal, which has been expected for months, would follow years of unresolved dispute over Russian compliance with the pact, known as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces, or INF, treaty. ...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. employers likely kept adding jobs at a healthy pace in January even in the face of threats ranging from weakening global growth to the Trump administration's trade war with China to the partial shutdown of the government. Today, the Labor Department will issue the monthly employment report, the first major economic report to cover most of the 35-day shutdown period...

WASHINGTON -- After a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School seven years ago, the FBI released 1,500 pages of documents from its investigation. Its report on the 2017 massacre in Las Vegas was just three pages...

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared Thursday there'll be no "wall money" in any compromise border security deal as she and President Donald Trump signaled congressional negotiators may never satisfy his demands in a new government spending bill...

WASHINGTON -- As the Trump administration pushes for peace in Afghanistan, a new U.S. watchdog report says Afghan security forces are shrinking, gaps in security are growing and the Taliban are largely holding their own despite a surge in American bombing...

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis prosecutor's criticism of how police investigated a male officer's alleged Russian roulette-style fatal shooting of a female colleague drew an angry response Thursday from Police Chief John Hayden. Hayden, speaking at a news conference, raised his voice and pounded his fist in responding to a letter Monday from Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner. ...

A new report estimates nearly half of all U.S. adults have some form of heart or blood vessel disease, a medical milestone mostly due to recent guidelines expanding how many people have high blood pressure. The American Heart Association said Thursday more than 121 million adults had cardiovascular disease in 2016. Taking out those with only high blood pressure leaves 24 million, or 9 percent of adults, who have other forms of disease such as heart failure or clogged arteries...

LOS ANGELES -- Big corporations forced into bankruptcy by liability lawsuits often take the offending product off the market and try to move on. That's what happened with the Dalkon Shield birth control device, asbestos and silicone breast implants...

WASHINGTON -- One of the key drivers of the world's climate is an area in the North Atlantic Ocean where warmer and colder water mix and swirl. When scientists went for their first close look at this critical underwater dynamo, they found they were looking in the wrong place...

CHICAGO -- The painfully cold weather system holding much of the Midwest in a historic deep freeze sent temperatures plunging to a record low in northern Illinois on Thursday, but a dramatic swing of as much as 80 degrees is expected by early next week...

RICHMOND, Va. -- A pitched debate about late-term abortions in Virginia erupted into all-out political warfare Thursday as Republicans, including President Donald Trump, sought to capitalize on Democratic missteps. Republicans accused Democratic Gov. ...

PHOENIX -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced Thursday their biggest fentanyl bust ever, saying they captured nearly 254 pounds of the deadly synthetic opioid from a load of Mexican produce heading into Arizona. The drug was found hidden Saturday morning inside a tractor-trailer after a scan during secondary inspection indicated something else was in the load, Nogales CBP Port Director Michael Humphries said...

LINCOLN, R.I. -- Given their team's success, die-hard fans of the New England Patriots have made Las Vegas like a winter home during Super Bowl week so they can enjoy a fair-weather party while placing bets on the team's chances. Their destination this time around is a lot closer...

Bill Hopkins, women's gymnastics coach at Southeast Missouri State University, has filed for a seat on the Cape Girardeau Board of Education; he is the fifth candidate to file for two seats on the school board. Dredging and fill work on an 80-foot scour hole is underway along a breached Mississippi River levee in Alexander County near Miller City, Illinois; meanwhile, work on a 1,000-yard-wide, 50-foot deep scour hole has been completed in Perry County, Missouri, where levee work has been underway since November.. ...

CAPE GIRARDEAU The Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls: Sunday n Medical assists were made at 2:11 p.m. on Maria Louise Lane and 5:40 p.m. on William Street. n At 7:46 a.m., detector activation was reported on South Ellis Street...

Timothy M. Briner, 60, of Cape Girardeau passed away Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019, at Saint Francis Medical Center. He was born July 10, 1958, in Saint Joseph, Missouri, to Marvin E. and Shirley J. Glidewell Briner. He and Janelle M. Smith were married June 16, 1979, in Auburn, Nebraska. Unto that union, three children were born...

MALDEN, Mo. -- Mardi Gras is upon us and as the Cajun expression goes, "Laissez les bons temps rouler!" The good times will roll at the annual Bootheel Youth Museum's Mardi Gras fundraiser at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. A warehouse behind the Museum will be transformed into a little slice of New Orleans, complete with jazz music, Cajun seafood, King Cake and lots of fun...

Lord Jesus, we give you praise and honor for through you we have victory. Amen.

The shutdown is over. Will the Democrats realize this or will they do nothing on border security as always? They have 3 weeks to do something, but will probably go on vacation again instead. As the two major political parties claim victory for ending the partial government shutdown, there was only one winner -- Congress. ...

Lana Annette Durham, 55, of Millersville died Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. Visitation will be from noon to 1 p.m. Monday at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau. A memorial service will follow at 1 p.m. Monday at the funeral home, with the Rev. Aaron Boyd officiating...