Stories from Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Capt. David Uptmor, left, and Greg Foote of Cape Girardeau Fire Department respond to a debris fire Tuesday afternoon behind U.S. Bank on North Kingshighway.

Chris Obery, left, and Jared Miller, employees of MNT Industrial Underground, dig concrete along South Sprigg Street where ongoing repairs have shut off sections of the roadway, resulting in detours for drivers.

According to Missouri Coalition for Highway Safety, the 598 roadway fatalities thus far statewide in 2022 are tracking to meet or exceed the 1,016 who died on state thoroughfares in 2021. Last year's figure reversed a 15-year trend of steady declines in the death rate...

The Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center Board of Trustees voted unanimously at Tuesday's meeting to adopt the 2022 tax levy rate as a part of the health center's 2023 budget. The property tax levy, which was first approved by county voters in August 1986 to form the health department, has a current rate of 96 cents per $1,000 of property valuation. The levy is below the threshold of Missouri state law, which allows for the rate to be raised to $1 per $1,000 of property valuation...

Cape Splash Family Aquatic Center will shutter operations early this year, citing staff shortages. The waterpark located at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau has a traditional season running from May through Labor Day, open only on weekends the last few weeks. ...

Work to build a substantially renovated Houck Stadium on the Southeast Missouri State University campus will begin Sept. 1 after SEMO's Board of Governors on Tuesday unanimously OK'd a $15,978,100 bid from Fager-McGee of Murphysboro, Illinois, for Phase I of what is being termed "a new transformational multiuse complex."...

More students are participating in sports in the Cape Girardeau School District, according to its athletics director. Tyson Moyers told school board members Monday night that student-athlete participation numbers are growing. Moyers spoke at the Cape Girardeau School Board meeting Monday night for the first time in his new role...

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 24, the 236th day of 2022. There are 129 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Aug. 24, A.D. 79, long-dormant Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in volcanic ash; an estimated 20,000 people died...

SEOUL, South Korea -- Dozens of South Koreans adopted by Danish parents decades ago have formally demanded the South Korean government investigate their adoptions, which they say were marred by widespread practices that falsified or obscured children's origins...

KYIV, Ukraine -- The sense of dread deepened Tuesday in Ukraine because of warnings that Russia may try to spoil the country's Independence Day holiday and mark the war's six-month point with intensified attacks. The U.S. reinforced the worry with a security alert citing "information that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine's civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days." As it has done previously, it urged American citizens to "depart Ukraine now.". ...

IMBABA, Egypt -- For Mariam Habeib, the grief seems never ending: She lost her older sister, two nieces and a niece's three young children in an intense fire that engulfed a church in Egypt's capital during a recent service and killed 41 people. The Coptic Christian community is one of the world's oldest, and no stranger to sadness. ...

BEIJING -- With China's biggest freshwater lake reduced to just 25% of its usual size by a severe drought, work crews are digging trenches to keep water flowing to one of the country's key rice-growing regions. The dramatic decline of Poyang Lake in the landlocked southeastern province of Jiangxi had otherwise cut off irrigation channels to nearby farmlands. ...

VILLAGE OF TEWA, Ariz. -- They skateboarded on basketball courts and in parking lots, through highway intersections and down roads that twist from the mesas that rise above the high desert. They set up tricks with old railroad ties and lumber, sometimes using their own skateboards to move the materials in place. During a pandemic that led to lockdowns, curfews and mask mandates on the Hopi reservation, the solo nature of skateboarding was a comfort...

A former head of security at Twitter alleged that the company misled regulators about its poor cybersecurity defenses and its negligence in attempting to root out fake accounts that spread disinformation, according to a whistleblower complaint filed with U.S. officials...

WASHINGTON -- The National Archives and Records Administration recovered more than 100 documents bearing classified markings, totaling more than 700 pages, from an initial batch of 15 boxes retrieved from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year, according to newly public government correspondence with the Trump legal team...

MIAMI -- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to learn the identity of his general election opponent on Tuesday as Democrats choose between a man who spent a lifetime in politics -- much of it as a Republican -- and a woman casting herself as "something new" as she seeks the energy of her party's resurgent base...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- A jury on Tuesday convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, delivering swift verdicts in a plot that was broken up by the FBI and described as a rallying cry for a U.S. civil war by anti-government extremists...

Lord Jesus, we praise you for you are our Savior, rescuer, deliverer, protector and healer. Amen.

In Southeast Missouri, students attending many of the area's schools returned to the classroom over the last week. For some parents, back to school week came all too soon. For others, they were more than ready to send their kiddos back to the classroom...

Gov. Ron DeSantis nails it when he demands that teachers "educate children, not indoctrinate." As schools reopen, a war is raging to control the minds of students. On one side, the nation's largest teachers unions are pushing race consciousness, demonization of American history and graphic sex education, even in elementary school...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to the following calls. Arrest does not imply guilt. Assault n Third-degree domestic assault was reported on Merriwether Street. Thefts n Theft was reported on North Lorimier Street. n Theft of a motor vehicle/watercraft/aircraft was reported...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls. Aug. 22 n Public service calls were made at 4:28 a.m. on South West End Boulevard; 12:44 p.m. on Fairview Drive; and 10 p.m. on Timon Way. n Medical assists were made at 4:29 p.m. on Pioneer Drive; 5:20 p.m. on Lakeshore Drive; 6:10 p.m. at North Louisiana Avenue and Independence Street; and 8:53 p.m. on Mimosa Drive...

GLEN ALLEN, Mo. — Elizabeth A. Leadbetter, 80, of Glen Allen died Monday, Aug. 22, 2022, at StoneBridge Nursing Home in Marble Hill, Missouri. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Ford and Liley Funeral Home in Marble Hill. Funeral will be at 10 a.m. Friday at the funeral home, with Pastor Jamie Hovis officiating. Burial will be in the Kinder Cemetery near Glen Allen...

Stanley Wade Holland, 81, of Jackson passed away Monday, Aug. 22, 2022, at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born July 29, 1941, in Wolf Island, Missouri, son of Pearl "Doc" and Nettie Belle Husk Holland. He and Virginia Meyers were married Nov. 1, 1958, in Wolf Island...

TUNICA, Miss. — Robert Eugene Hester, son to the late John Rossell and Eula Marie Schearf Hester, was born May 20, 1934, in Delta and departed this life to be with the Lord on Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, in Tunica at the age of 88 years. He proudly served in the U.S. Air Force, both domestically and overseas, for more than 20 years until his retirement in 1975...

ADVANCE, Mo. — Minnie Ava Green of Advance passed on from this life Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, surrounded by family, at her son's home in Trinity, Texas. She was 86 years old. She was born Sept. 24, 1935, in Randles to the late Paul and Eva Lynn Schiwitz...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Protesters gathered at a Springfield high school after a principal asked teachers to remove gay pride flags from their classrooms just as the school year was beginning. Two protests were held Monday at Kickapoo High School in Springfield, where teachers were told last week to remove the pride flags because of a school district policy on employee speech and conduct, the Springfield News-Leader reported...

ST. LOUIS — Eight years after Michael Brown's death pushed the St. Louis region front and center into the national debate over police accountability, the city's elected officials and its police associations are at odds over a new oversight plan. St. ...

New McKendree United Methodist Church in Jackson has entered into a "big sister" relationship with Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church in Montgomery, Alabama; two pastors and a lay member -- the Rev. Scott Lohse, the Rev. Richard Northcutt and Walt Pierce -- attended a Church Growth Seminar at Frazer Church Aug. 1-3; Frazer Memorial is one of the fastest growing United Methodist churches in America...

Welcome back students, parents, faculty, staff and Fr. Kelly. The first day of the 2022-2023 school year was Wednesday, August 24 at Guardian Angel School in Oran. After the 8 am Mass, Fr. Kelly came to the school and gave a blessing to all the students, teachers, and staff and a blessing for the school building. He walked down the student & teacher filled halls, sprinkling holy water on everyone and then into the cafeteria to bless the cooks. Father welcomed everyone back to school!...

Premier Physical Therapy started a scholarship program beginning this year for team members with the job title of "Junior." A junior here at Premier Physical Therapy is a unique position with various duties, including, but not limited to: cleaning, organizing, running errands, assisting at the front desk, and helping with large events. ...