Stories from Monday, November 22, 2021

A group of children get supplies to make s'mores and hot dogs during Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreations Department's Fall Family Festival on Sunday at Shawnee Park Center in Cape Girardeau. ...

Many people can point to what is colloquially referred to as their personal "tip of the spear," an important life event causing a change in direction. For Melissa Stephens, a 2014 graduate of Jackson High School and an alumnus of Southeast Missouri State University, that moment came the day her paternal grandfather died Sept. 11...

Students in Southeast Missouri State University's Dobbins Conservatory of Theatre and Dance showcased a variety of techniques in the Fall for Dance performance over the weekend. The annual performance was held in the Bedell Performance Hall on the River Campus from Thursday through Sunday and featured original choreography by SEMO faculty, students and guest artists, providing a range of dance for the audience...

Tamara Zellars Buck, professor and chairwoman of the Department of Mass Media at Southeast Missouri State University, was awarded the President's Volunteer Service Award on Friday for her service to the Cape Girardeau community in a surprise award ceremony at the university...

Zonta Club of Cape Girardeau Area Foundation recognized five women for their lasting impacts on the region at this year’s Women of Achievement event. The 17th annual Women of Achievement Expo, Luncheon and Awards Ceremony returned Friday to Drury Plaza Hotel Conference Center in Cape Girardeau, after last year’s event was held virtually because of COVID-19, with all proceeds benefiting the Zonta Club of Cape Girardeau...

July 10 felt like a typical Saturday for 18-year-old Kaeli Wells until 120 mph winds blustered through Dexter, Missouri, at approximately 8:18 that night. Wells and four other members of her church's youth group held a Saturday-night jam session at First Pentecostal Church. They played instruments and sang songs, but then around 8 p.m., the group noticed heavy rain began to pound on the church's windows...

The City of Jackson has added 20 businesses that created at least 80 new jobs in the past year, according to Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce vice president Jen Berti in remarks Nov. 15 to Jackson's Board of Aldermen. n Blazin' Car Wash, 3103 E. Jackson Blvd...

Today is Monday, Nov. 22, the 326th day of 2021. There are 39 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Nov. 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was shot to death during a motorcade in Dallas; Texas Gov. John B. Connally, riding in the same car as Kennedy, was seriously wounded. Suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president...

Lord Jesus, we give thanks today, especially for the gift of salvation through you. Amen.

The Washington, D.C.-based Federal Bureau of Investigation has lost all credibility as a disinterested investigatory agency. Now we learn from a whistleblower the agency was allegedly investigating moms and dads worried about the teaching of critical race theory in their kids' schools...

President Joe Biden has united the American people — in disapproving of his performance, with 70% of Americans disliking the direction the economy is going and over 6 in 10 blaming him for it. The impact of inflation on people's pocketbooks and concerns over the expanding role of government are important in explaining those low approval numbers. A good time to change course is now...

As you're enjoying leftovers from Thanksgiving celebrations later this week, there will be several Christmas celebrations kicking off locally. On Friday night, Old Town Cape will host its third annual Christmas Tree Lighting in the Vasterling Suites Courtyard featuring a 30-foot tree. ...

Two business license applications have been received by the City of Cape Girardeau's community development office. n Elizabeth Gray to open Scooters Coffee, 2404 William St., as a drive-through coffee kiosk. Opening date is listed as Dec. 13...

Amen Center, a Christian-based interdenominational transitional center for homeless adults, families and families with children recently received a $600 donation from the Jana Jateff unit of Mary Kay Cosmetics. Amen Center is inside the former Delta Elementary School along Route N...

After a one-year hiatus because of COVID-19, Old Town Cape will host the 29th Parade of Lights beginning at 5 p.m. Sunday in downtown Cape Girardeau. The parade route will begin at the intersection of Broadway and North West End Boulevard, will continue east on Broadway, turning right onto Main Street and ending at the parking lot across from Hutson's Big Sandy Furniture...

The Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce is telling its members via email the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has granted a motion to stay the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) order known as the "COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS)."...

The Census Bureau's 2020 report shows Hartville in Wright County, Missouri, is the closest town to the new population center of the United States. The previous center was in Plato in neighboring Texas County. According to the Associated Press, the 11.8 mile move to Hartville is the smallest population center shift in a century...

The 2021 Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) annual Bridge Building Competition award ceremony for the Southeast District — open to high school juniors and seniors — will be held virtually Dec. 9. It is the second consecutive year the awards event will not be held in-person...

For the fourth consecutive year, Blanton, Nickell, Collins, Douglas and Hanschen LLC, a law firm founded in 1914 in Sikeston, Missouri, has been recognized in U.S. News and World Report's "Best Lawyers" edition. The magazine designated the attorney group, which operates in 30 counties in Missouri's southeastern region and in St. Louis, a "Tier 1 law firm for Medical Malpractice Law -- Defendants and Commercial Litigation in the St. Louis Market," according to a news release...

Renee Brueckner, operations director of the Association of the Miraculous Medal in Perryville, Missouri, is among three Missourians and 33 community leaders overall selected for the 2022 cohort of the Delta Leadership Institute's Executive Academy...

Tim Arbeiter, the founding director of Missouri's Office of Broadband Development, is leaving his state post in January after three years for an as-yet unannounced role in the private sector. Arbeiter, a graduate of Cape Girardeau Central High School and Southeast Missouri State University, spent a decade as vice president of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce, later becoming president of the Lee's Summit Chamber of Commerce in the Kansas City area...

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) will hold a meeting Dec. 2 at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau to hear public comment on MoDOT's "unfunded needs list," according to the department's Mike Brandon. Brandon said a presentation will be made and there will be a time for questions during the session, scheduled for 3 to 5 p.m...

After months of heated negotiations, Congress passed the federal infrastructure bill Nov. 12 — formally, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — containing $1.2 trillion for roads, bridges, ports, rail transit, broadband internet, the power grid and more...

Missouri boasts the third most cost-effective highway system in the U.S., according to the New Jersey-based Reason Foundation, comparing dollars spent and highway performance. In Reason's 26th annual highway report, the Show Me State is behind only North Dakota and Virginia in its latest rankings...

The American Automobile Association said Friday that Thanksgiving travel will likely rebound to pre-pandemic levels as AAA estimates 53.4 million Americans will travel over the holiday, a 13% increase from 2020. Transportation Safety Administration administrator David Pekoske told CNN "without a doubt" the number of people flying for Thanksgiving will break the pandemic record of 2.2 million travelers in a single day...

The price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline, as noted Tuesday by Gas Buddy, has actually fallen for the first time in months. The average national price went down 2.6 cents from the week prior to $3.40 per gallon. However, the price of a gallon remains $1.28 higher than it was at this time in 2020...

Robinson Transport Inc. of Harrisburg, Illinois, has closed on a 7.7-acre parcel in the 1800 block of Rust Avenue in Cape Girardeau, where the company, the bus vendor for the Cape Girardeau School District since 2015, intends to construct a steel building to house its 32 buses...

If you skipped holiday travel last year (or haven't traveled at all during the pandemic), your travel skills might be rusty. Plus, some travel etiquette has changed. Recent history indicates this holiday travel season will be challenging, as evidenced by chaos seen over this year's holiday and summer weekends. ...

HUNTINGTON, N.Y. -- Add Christmas trees to the list of items facing shortages and higher prices this year. Several factors are driving the trend, Newsday reported, including over-the-top sales last year during the first Christmas during the COVID-19 pandemic and supply-chain issues this year...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Two of 17 members of a missionary group who were kidnapped more than a month ago have been freed in Haiti and are safe, "in good spirits and being cared for," their Ohio-based church organization announced Sunday. Christian Aid Ministries issued a statement saying it could not give the names of those released, why they were freed or other information...

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- On a recent afternoon, Tina Singh watched nearly a dozen students at a suburban Los Angeles truck-driving school backing up their practice big rigs into parking spaces. Many had never operated a manual transmission before. "It's an exciting time to be a truck driver right now because there's so much demand for drivers," said Singh, the school's director. "Our yards are busy, and they're very vibrant with a lot of activity."...

WAUKESHA, Wis. -- An SUV driver sped through a police line and into a parade of Christmas marchers on Sunday, hitting more than 20 adults and children in a horrifying scene captured by the city's livestream and the cellphones of onlookers. Waukesha Police Chief Dan Thompson said "some" people had been killed but would not give an exact number. A person was in custody, he said, but he did not give any indication of motive...

Johnnie Marie Withrow, 69, of Cape Girardeau passed away Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, at the Heartland Care and Rehab Center. She was born Jan. 23, 1952, in Advance, Missouri, the daughter of Richard and Betty Alton McCain. Johnnie worked for 20 years with the disabled for the State of Missouri at Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in Bellefontaine Neighbors, Missouri. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star in Berkley, Missouri...

Our beloved the Rev. Bill L. Burke entered into God's Kingdom on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021. The Rev. Burke was born on March 6, 1952, to Daniel and Geraldine Burke in Beloit, Wisconsin. Bill graduated from Olivet Nazarene University with a B.S. in religion in 1974 and proceeded to minister for 47 years. ...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Maxine M. Abernathy, 94, of Perryville died Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021, at Delmar Gardens South in St. Louis. Visitation will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Tuesday at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the church, with the Rev. Matthew Marks officiating. Burial will be at Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery in Perryville...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — All adults in Missouri are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster, the state health department announced Friday. All adults in Missouri now can receive a booster shot within six months of their last Pfizer or Moderna dose. Johnson & Johnson boosters were already approved for adults at least two months after the shot...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Partisan tensions have been flaring on a pair of commissions in charge of redrawing Missouri's state House and Senate districts, with Democrats and Republicans at odds over their interactions with the public. The disagreements have raised questions about whether the panels will be able to find consensus by a Dec. 23 deadline to adopt tentative maps...

Schnucks Food & Drug was rededicated last night; Craig Schnuck, chairman and chief executive of Schnucks Markets Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, was here to help celebrate the grocery store's 20th anniversary in Cape Girardeau; Schnuck was also on hand in November 1976, when the ribbon was cut to open the store at 19 S. Kingshighway...

The Jackson R-2 School District thanks Zonta Club of Cape Girardeau Area Foundation for the donation of $500 for the support of supplying girls restrooms at Jackson High School with feminine hygiene items needed. The items are located in comfort carts that contain extra items for students such as deodorant and other needed supplies. ...

Welcome to Zickfield’s Jewelry & Gifts! Zickfield’s has provided the region with quality jewelry and gifts for over 82 years. This family-owned and operated business can offer you exemplary customer service, quality fine jewelry and engagement rings, and gifts for any occasion...