Stories from Friday, November 27, 2020

Santa Claus arrives at West Park Mall Friday, but this year his visits with boys and girls on his "naughty" and "nice" lists will be "socially distanced" due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Visits with Santa is such a time-honored tradition, and while 2020 has been challenging for everybody, we are glad to be able to offer Santa visits this year even if it will look different that it has in the past," said Stacey Keating, senior director of corporate communications with CBL Properties, the mall's management company.. ...

Standard Democrat SIKESTON -- Two Bertrand, Missouri, residents were killed in a two-vehicle accident Wednesday morning. According to the Missouri Highway Patrol, a vehicle driven by Delbert R. Parsons, 78, of Bertrand, was northbound on US 61, two miles south of Sikeston at 11:18 a.m., when he failed to stop at a stop sign and struck by a semi-truck driven by Dennis W. Swink, 52, of Anna, Illinois...

Sean and Nancy Barnes used to hold conventional jobs but now devote themselves to a business fixing mechanical clocks. Called S&N Clock Repair, the couple works out of a shop next to their home in Cape's Rolling Hills Subdivision. Sean, a Jackson High graduate, says early American timepieces used to be their specialty, but the fledgling business has since broadened its focus...

Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center officials have continuously tracked and posted COVID-19 data on social media throughout this ongoing pandemic, but that virus isn't the only health threat they are watching. With the influenza season still in the beginning stages, they will also be posting data on the flu...

Her story, though unusual, wasn't extraordinary. A single mother raising a teenage son. Another single mother with a teenage son comes to visit and asks to borrow her car to run errands. She never returned. Two mouths to feed were now three. Into the void -- the FISH emergency food pantry. As the mother and two teens were leaving with their box of food, overheard joy and gratitude...

O God, may we remember the true reason for the Christmas season. Amen.

The backlash is coming. It already seems clear that the first major political and culture eruption of the Biden years will be a roiling populist backlash against the next round of COVID restrictions. We saw this sentiment play out in sporadic anti-lockdown demonstrations last spring and it has driven ongoing resistance to masks, but it is, in all likelihood, about to reach an entirely new level -- fueled by exhaustion with the virus, elite hypocrisy and the shattered credibility of the public-health establishment.. ...

A big thank you to the girls that turned in my wedding ring at Aldi's after finding it in the store. I would like to have thanked you in person, but you didn't leave your names. Your kindness is really appreciated. May God Bless You. Congratulations to the Jackson High School Soccer team for their state championship and Notre Dame's soccer team's second-place finish. Both teams represented the progress in Southeast Missouri area soccer programs. All of us soccer fans are so proud of you!...

Every Thanksgiving, we make a conscious effort to give thanks. This year, even in the midst of a pandemic, I'd encourage you to be genuinely grateful for everything you may take for granted. There is still so very much. Let's be thankful that we continue to do so much better on a global scale. ...

The unofficial start to Christmas shopping begins this weekend. In recent years the Black Friday kickoff has consistently started earlier and earlier. Some would camp out overnight to be the first ones in a shopping center. Then instead of opening in the wee hours of the morning, stores started opening on Thanksgiving...

Donald Richard Schaefer, 73, of Cape Girardeau, passed away on Nov. 24, 2020, at Saint Francis Medical Center. Born Nov. 6, 1947, in Waukegan, Illinois, to Walter B. and Jean B. Fredrick Schaefer, Don was one of 11 children. He and Diane Mirly were married June 28, 1969, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Jackson. They proudly celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2019...

While the highlight of the third annual Christmas Parade of Lights had to be Jolly Old St. Nick, coming in a close second yesterday was the Budweiser Clydesdales; Alan Schneckcloth guided the 10-horse hitch down Broadway and Main Street last night in a 90-minute parade that featured 89 floats and 120 vehicles...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's two largest metropolitan areas are cracking down on restaurants that violate rules designed to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Kansas City's liquor control authorities found two dozen bars and restaurants in violation of the city's new COVID-19 restrictions after a weekend sweep of 185 establishments. The city's Department of Regulated Industries, which governs liquor licenses, used to rely primarily on complaints to enforce restrictions...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The infection of a single cafeteria worker was all it took to close classrooms in the small Lowellville school district in northeastern Ohio, forcing at least two weeks of remote learning. Not only did the worker who tested positive for the coronavirus need to quarantine, but so did the entire cafeteria staff and most of the transportation crew, because some employees work on both. ...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday, ending a yearslong prosecution in the Russia investigation that saw Flynn twice plead guilty to lying to the FBI and then reverse himself before the Justice Department stepped in to dismiss his case...

WASHINGTON -- With coronavirus cases surging again nationwide, the Supreme Court barred New York from enforcing certain limits on attendance at churches and synagogues in areas designated as hard hit by the virus. The justices split 5-4 late Wednesday night, with new Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the majority. It was the conservative's first publicly discernible vote as a justice. The court's three liberal justices and Chief Justice John Roberts dissented...

NEW YORK -- The balloons were in the sky and the marching bands took to the streets for the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, but coronavirus restrictions meant it was without the throngs of people usually scrambling for a view. Instead of the usual path through Manhattan, this year's parade was kept to the area in front of Macy's flagship store and aimed at a television audience instead of live crowds...

Millions of Americans took to the skies and the highways ahead of Thanksgiving at the risk of pouring gasoline on the coronavirus fire, disregarding increasingly dire warnings that they stay home and limit their holiday gatherings to members of their own household...

TOKYO -- Global stock markets were subdued on Thursday after significant gains in recent days and as U.S. trading remained closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. Investors have been in an upbeat mood this week, pushing the Dow above 30,000 for the first time, on news of the development of coronavirus vaccines and treatments...

ST. LOUIS -- A woman who as a child bounced among foster homes and often slept on the couches of friends in Missouri has been named a 2021 Rhodes Scholar. Mackenzie Fierceton, 23, is one of just 32 U.S. college students awarded a four-year scholarship for graduate studies at the University of Oxford in England, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported...