Stories from Friday, April 9, 2021

The Missouri Department of Economic Development announced this week it has awarded Scott City $685,125 in a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). "The grant is for long-term recovery," said Ashton Kever, communications director for MDED. According to a release, the city plans to address drainage issues and damage resulting from previous storms and flooding disasters along the city's Main Street...

Jackson School District superintendent John Link, who will retire from the district at the end of June, won't be retired long. On July 1, he will become the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's supervisor of instruction in Southeast Missouri, serving as a liaison between DESE and public school systems throughout a 16-county area...

Cape Girardeau County commissioners Thursday received the 2020 annual report from Riverside Regional Library. Library director Jeff Trinkle told commissioners he and the rest of the library administration were very proud of the fact they were able to remain open once the statewide shutdown ended...

With GovHR USA consultant Mark Peterson present, the Cape Girardeau City Council, meeting in closed session, selected five finalists Monday in its search for a successor for retiring city manager Scott Meyer. Peterson, a former longtime city manager of Normal, Illinois, specializes in advising cities and counties in recruiting candidates for executive positions...

The 800 block of Broadway, closed since March 31 when fire damaged the vacant Broadway Theatre building, could reopen "in the next few days," according to Molly Mehner, Cape Girardeau's deputy city manager. The fire caused extensive damage to the roof and second floor of the 100-year-old theater near the building's north entrance facing Broadway...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri's Republican-led Senate on Wednesday voted to ban so-called vaccine passports in the state. Senators voted 26-7 in favor of a wide-ranging bill that includes a ban on vaccine passports to travel in the state. Vaccine passports are documentation showing travelers have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus. Technology companies and travel-related trade groups are developing and testing out vaccine passports to encourage travel...

DELTA, Mo. — A Scott County man was killed in a two-vehicle crash early Thursday in Cape Girardeau County. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the crash occurred at 7:10 a.m. on Route N at Route U, four miles west of Delta, as the westbound vehicle driven by a 17-year-old male of Whitewater, Missouri, failed to yield to the northbound vehicle driven by Alfred “Paul” Friga, 67, of Chaffee,Missouri, and was struck by Friga’s vehicle...

The Rose Garden in Cape Girardeau's Capaha Park, originally established in 1954, will be back but it's going to take a little while, reports Julia Jones, the city's director of parks and recreation. Rosebushes were removed from the site Jan. 11 by city workers, but not before some roses were saved and preserved by local residents...

Losing Rush has been tough. Until a few very long weeks ago, he was always in my life. Like other siblings growing up in the same home, we shared experiences that were exclusive to us. Our parents instilled in us -- and we thoroughly absorbed -- their Christian values: their love of God; their unconditional love for each other and for us; their belief in moral absolutes, of truth, of right and wrong; the paramount importance of family; the critical necessity of personal character and integrity; the value of human life; and the uncompromising duty to treat others with respect and compassion. ...

LONDON (AP) -- Prince Philip, the irascible and tough-minded husband of Queen Elizabeth II who spent more than seven decades supporting his wife in a role that both defined and constricted his life, has died, Buckingham Palace said Friday. He was 99...

Thursday is the day many Missourians have been awaiting. The state enters Phase 3 of its COVID-19 vaccination plan today, meaning all Missourians are eligible to receive the vaccine. To accommodate various groups, area health care providers are sponsoring several vaccine clinics and making vaccine doses otherwise available...

Today is Friday, April 9, the 99th day of 2021. There are 266 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On April 9, 1939, Marian Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after the Black singer was denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution...

Five gymnastics teams will compete this weekend in Cape Girardeau as part of the USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate National Championships. Along with host Southeast Missouri State, programs from Air Force, Centenary, Lindenwood and Texas Women's will be on hand...

The state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta should sue MLB for breach of contract for breaking an agreement to play the MLB all star game in Atlanta. It has been said the city will lose at least $100 million in revenue due to this decision. MLB should have to compensate the state and city for this loss. It is time to take politics out of sports...

The controversy surrounding the new voting law in the state of Georgia raises important issues regarding the governance of our country and the role of corporations. Corporations are big and have a lot of economic clout, so there is justified concern about them abusing this economic power...

O Lord Jesus, we praise you for you are the way, the truth and the light. Amen.

LA RUSSELL, Mo. -- Local elections in April generally attract few voters but a small southwest Missouri town hit a new low this week when not one of its 70 residents cast a ballot. Jasper County Clerk Charlie Davis said his office checked several times to confirm no votes were cast Tuesday in La Russell in an election to decide whether it should annex itself into the Avilla Fire Protection District...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's top Republican state senator on Thursday said he doesn't want lawmakers to pay for government health care for thousands of newly eligible low-income adults. Missouri voters last year amended the state Constitution to extend eligibility for Medicaid to thousands more low-income adults under former President Barack Obama's national health care law...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Thomas Glenn Tygett, 60, of Scottsdale, formerly of Cape Girardeau, died Tuesday, April 6, 2021, at his home. Arrangements are incomplete at Ford and Sons Funeral Home.

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Joshua Ryan Taylor, 32, of Marble Hill passed away April 2, 2021. He was born June 6, 1988, to Alfred Taylor and Robin Joyce at Carbondale, Illinois. Joshua is survived by his mother, Robin Joyce; two brothers, Joshua Proffer and Johnny Joyce; three sisters, Shontell Boyer, Nikki Stern and Heather Muse; numerous nieces and nephews, and great-nieces and -nephews, Courtney Boyer, Trenton Boyer, Kenley Boyer, Molly Boyer, Alexis Boyer, Landon Boyer, Kali Proffer, Jerry Proffer, Aiden Proffer, Derek Proffer, Caleb Proffer, Eli Muse, Adam Muse, Robyn Stern and Ivy Joyce.. ...

Ben Raines, 73, son of the late Lester and Leila Inez Taylor Raines, was born June 1, 1947, in Cape Girardeau and departed this life Wednesday, April 7, 2021, at Landmark Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Ben was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, serving in the Vietnam War. He was a former carpenter for Columbia Construction in Cape Girardeau. He was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Scott City, the Knights of Columbus and Clinton Sherman Wingers...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Kevin William Margrabe, 56, of Chaffee died Tuesday, April 6, 2021, at his home. He was born May 8, 1964, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Herman William and Marcella Reynolds Margrabe. He worked at Southeast Missouri State University doing custodial work...

Patricia Laws, 69, daughter of the late Paul C. and Billie Jean Bendel Durbin, was born Aug. 16, 1951, in Cape Girardeau and departed this life Wednesday, April 7, 2021, surrounded by her family at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. On July 25, 1969, she was united in marriage to Eddie Earl Laws Sr., in Portageville, Missouri. He preceded her in death July 7, 2004...

NEW YORK -- One of the few copies of the comic book that introduced Superman to the world has sold for a super-sized, record-setting price. The issue of "Action Comics" No. 1 went for $3.25 million in a private sale, ComicConnect.com, an online auction and consignment company, announced Tuesday...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Celebrity zookeeper and animal TV show host Jack Hanna has been diagnosed with dementia and will retire from public life, his family said. In a news release Wednesday, his family added it's believed he now has Alzheimer's disease that has quickly progressed in the last few months...

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Authorities in Northern Ireland sought to restore calm Thursday after Protestant and Catholic youths in Belfast hurled bricks, fireworks and gasoline bombs at police and each other. It was the worst mayhem in a week of street violence in the region, where Britain's exit from the European Union has unsettled an uneasy political balance...

DETROIT -- The global shortage of semiconductors has forced General Motors and Ford to further cut production at their North American factories as chip supplies seem to be growing tighter. The shutdowns likely will crimp dealer inventory of vehicles made at the plants...

WASHINGTON -- Without coming right out and saying it, President Joe Biden seems ready to let lapse a May 1 deadline for completing a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Orderly withdrawals take time, and Biden is running out of it. Biden has inched so close to the deadline his indecision amounts almost to a decision to put off, at least for several months, a pullout of the remaining 2,500 troops and continue supporting the Afghan military at the risk of a Taliban backlash. ...

Ambulances filled with breathless patients lined up in Brazil as nations around the world set new records Thursday for COVID-19 deaths and new coronavirus infections. The disease surged even in some countries that have kept the virus in check. In the United States, Detroit leaders began making a plan to knock on every door to persuade people to get vaccine shots...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government picked up nearly 19,000 children traveling alone across the Mexican border in March, authorities said Thursday, the largest monthly number ever recorded and a major test for President Joe Biden as he reverses many of his predecessor's hardline immigration tactics...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden put on a modest White House ceremony Thursday to announce a half-dozen executive actions to combat what he called an "epidemic and an international embarrassment" of gun violence in America. But he said much more is needed. And for Biden, who proposed the most ambitious gun-control agenda of any modern presidential candidate, his limited moves underscored his limited power to act alone on guns with difficult politics impeding legislative action on Capitol Hill...

CAPE GIRARDEAU The Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls. April 6 n Medical assists were made at 2:02 a.m. on North West End Boulevard; 5:48 a.m. on Scherer Lane; 6:05 a.m. on Jefferson Avenue; 9:39 a.m. on Thilenius Street; 11:13 a.m. on William Street; 12:11 p.m. on Independence Street; 1:37 p.m. on Southern Expressway...

In 1902, on a small farm along the Little Muddy Creek in Bollinger County, Missouri, a passion for the law first stirred in a 10-year-old boy; 14 years later, he set out on a legal career that spanned eight decades; yesterday, the lifetime love affair between the man and the law ended; Rush Hudson Limbaugh, one of Cape Girardeau's favorite sons and the nation's oldest practicing lawyer, died Monday afternoon at his home here; he was 104...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Assaults n Assault was reported in the 600 block of Boxwood Drive. n Assault was reported at South Kingshighway and Shawnee Parkway. n Assault was reported in the 500 block of Timon Way...