Stories from Monday, November 7, 2022

Gas prices moved upward in Cape Girardeau, Perry and Scott counties late last week as ongoing recession fears impact the cost of oil -- making it more expensive to fill the tank, analysts said. The average price of gas Saturday, Nov. 5, in Perry County was $3.53; Cape Girardeau County, $3.54; and Scott County, $3.55, according to AAA...

It is no secret certain businesses are having more trouble these days attracting and keeping employees. Many employers are offering higher pay, signing bonuses and flexible hours given the scarcity in the workforce. Getting paid on the same day you work, not having to wait for compensation, is fast becoming a popular way to attract workers...

A judge has issued a preliminary injunction halting parts of a new Missouri law that puts limits on what can be done to help register voters and reach out to absentee voters. Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem sided with the League of Women Voters of Missouri and the state chapter of the NAACP in blocking parts of a law adopted by Missouri's Republican-led Legislature and signed into law by GOP Gov. Mike Parson...

KENNETT, Mo. — Chad Stone, owner/operator of Sweet Mayhem Bakery & Bistro in Kennett, is returning to Food Network next week in a new holiday gingerbread challenge. Stone recently shared on the special and reflected on his career as a chef. "A couple of years ago I competed in the 'Holiday Gingerbread Showdown' on the Food Network," Stone said. "It was the first of its kind and I was on the first episode."...

Lisa Mills is relatively new to her position with the City of Cape Girardeau but not the area. The longtime resident of Cape Girardeau joined the municipality in the role of finance director midway through October. She first arrived with her family in the Cape Girardeau area as a freshman in high school. Before coming to Southeast Missouri, Mills's family moved around a lot before her father's retirement from the Air Force...

O Lord God, we praise you, for your grace is sufficient. Amen.

Lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina are exposing the crude and dehumanizing racial sorting that goes on in the admissions offices at elite universities. The application form asks young people to check a box identifying themselves as either "(1) Asian, (2) Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, (3) Hispanic, (4) White, (5) African American or (6) Native American." White Hispanics with ancestors from Spain are lumped in with Central American immigrants. ...

As the midterms approach, one way of looking at America's current disaster is that we, the American people, were lab rats. And since 2021, the Left were the mad scientists, eager to try out their crackpot leftist experiments on us. The result is that the housing market is tottering on the verge of collapse...

The final numbers are in for Cape Splash Family Aquatic Center's most recent fiscal year, and the totals paint a nice picture of the city facility. The report, which includes visits from July, August and September 2021 and May and June 2022, showed nearly 59,000 people came through the gates. That total doesn't include after-hours parties, which can be booked four days a week during the pool season. The report notes the facility took in $752,201.13 in revenue...

Here's a collection curated by The Associated Press's entertainment journalists of what's arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week. n Did you follow all the "Don't Worry Darling" fuss and forget to watch the film behind it all? Well, don't worry, darling, Olivia Wilde's mid-century styled psychological thriller will be streaming on HBO Max starting Monday ...

City of Cape Girardeau's Community Development Department has received a business license application from Valerie Ann Scheffer and Mark Lee Scheffer of Ozark, Missouri, for Overflow Mobile, a food truck.

Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce will host Business After Hours at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, at Southern Bank, 727 W. Main St. n Perryville Area Chamber of Commerce will hold Coffee & Connections at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, at Robinson Event Center, 2411 Walters Lane, sponsored by Southeast Missouri Food Bank and The Mortgage Place...

The Rev. Robert Farr was reassigned Thursday, Nov. 3, as bishop of the Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church. Farr was initially elected to the episcopacy and assigned to the Show Me State in 2016. Bishops are ordained elders who are called to lead and oversee UMC's spiritual and temporal affairs in their assigned episcopal areas...

Jacob Fish, a member of Southeast Missouri Realtors and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, discussed safety on the job with real estate colleagues Wednesday, Nov. 2, at Cape Girardeau Country Club. Fish, a former USMC infantry machine gunner, said a Realtor's "most important tool available is your brain," adding, "you win every fight you don't get into."...

Amy Coney Barrett, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, again on Friday, Nov. 4, declined to block President Joe Biden's plan canceling billions of dollars in U.S. student debt in a request made from borrowers in the state of Indiana...

Employees of Leet Eye Care in Cape Girardeau in preparation for their recent office move. Leet has moved to 3140 Blattner Drive from its previous location at 3230 Blattner Drive. ...

Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence (SEMO-NASV), has been awarded a new five-year reaccreditation by National Chlldren's Alliance. SEMO-NASV, which moved its offices earlier this year to Jackson, was founded in 1997 and is the only dual child advocacy center and rape crisis center in Southeast Missouri, assisting more than 12,000 survivors of sexual violence in a 25-year period...

Saint Francis Healthcare System received a 2022 Level 8 achievement from College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. Noted for acute and ambulatory results, the recognition comes from CHIME's Digital Health Most Wired Survey.

SoutheastHEALTH, in an effort to help meet a growing shortage of practical nurses, is launching a new bi-level PN track beginning in January at its College of Nursing and Health Sciences. The hospital system's Vickie Schnurbusch said a 2021 Missouri Hospital Association Workforce study showed PNs have a highest vacancy rate — 17% — compared to other health care professions in Missouri...

Good Feet Store, at 3069 William St., Suite 100, in Cape Girardeau, is open for business offering orthotics and prosthetics services. According to LinkedIn, there are more than 175 Good Feet Store locations in the U.S. and internationally, offering arch supports manufactured in Carlsbad, California, and supplied exclusively to Good Feet's retail locations...

Southeast Missouri Food Bank will have staff operating out of its new Jackson satellite office at 4536 E. Jackson Blvd. before the end of the year, officials announced last week. The building, formerly Sappington Pro Outdoor, was purchased by the Sikeston-based food bank via grant funding and reserve funds, according to Heather Collier, donor relations and communications manager...

Mark Croarkin, district engineer of Missouri Department of Transportation's Southeast region, said Wednesday, Nov. 2, his Sikeston, Missouri-based office is operating with fewer people. "We are down 39 people from the same time last year," said Croarkin, in remarks to the state Highways and Transportation Commission meeting at the Drury Plaza Conference Center in Cape Girardeau...

Unemployment in the U.S. rose two-tenths of 1 percent in October to 3.7%, while adding 261,000 jobs. CNN Business said Friday, Nov. 4, a series of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve designed to "cool" the economy "has so far had a limited impact on employers' desire to hire workers."...

Genevieve Pearl French passed away peacefully surrounded by family and in her loving parents' arms Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022. Genevieve was born Oct. 22, 2022. During her short stay of 13 days here on Earth, she quickly touched many lives and was deeply loved by her family, friends and medical team. Her brief life was a great gift to all of us and her memory will live on in the hearts of those who knew her until her last few precious hours...

ADVANCE, Mo. — Thomas Enderle, 48, of Advance died Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee, Missouri. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, at the funeral chapel. Interment will follow in St. Ambrose cemetery in Chaffee...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Iowa authorities say an 18-year-old sex trafficking victim who pleaded guilty to killing a man she said raped her escaped from a women's center where she was serving her probation sentence. Pieper Lewis was seen walking out of the building at the Fresh Start Women's Center in Des Moines shortly after 6:15 a.m. Friday, and at some point that day her GPS monitor was cut off, according to a probation violation report...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Dr. Frank Annie sees desperation in his hospital, where 30- and 40-year-olds come in with organ failure after injecting opioids with dirty needles. Joe Solomon finds it in the faces of those who line up in the church gyms and parking lots where he passes out overdose reversal drugs. Sheena Griffith encounters it on the streets she navigates with a car packed with HIV test kits and disinfectant for sanitizing syringes...

CATANIA, Sicily -- The captain of a charity-run migrant rescue ship refused Italian orders to leave a Sicilian port Sunday after authorities refused to let 35 of the migrants on his ship disembark -- part of directives by Italy's new far-right-led government targeting foreign-flagged rescue ships...

NAIROBI, Kenya -- A plane crashed Sunday morning into Lake Victoria as it approached an airport in Tanzania, killing 19 people on board, the country's prime minister said. A senior policeman said it was raining when the aircraft plunged into the water...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Better catch the moon's disappearing act Tuesday -- there won't be another like it for three years. The total lunar eclipse will be visible throughout North America in the predawn hours -- the farther west, the better -- and across Asia, Australia and the rest of the Pacific after sunset. As an extra treat, Uranus will be visible just a finger's width above the moon, resembling a bright star...

PHILADELPHIA -- Pariss Chandler built a community for Black tech workers on Twitter that eventually became the foundation for her own recruitment company. Now she's afraid it could all fall apart if Twitter becomes a haven for racist and toxic speech under the control of Elon Musk, a serial provocateur who has indicated he could loosen content rules...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A record Powerball jackpot grew to an even larger $1.9 billion after no one won the lottery drawing on Saturday night. The numbers for the drawing were: white balls 28, 45, 53, 56, 69 and red Powerball 20. The next chance for someone to get lucky will be Monday night...

NORMAN, Okla. -- Summer Boismier was living her childhood dream. She grew up a bookworm, became a high school English teacher, and filled both her classroom and home with her favorite literature. She taught her students: "Stories are what is fundamental about the human experience. We all have them."...

MILWAUKEE -- On break in the hallway between St. Marcus Lutheran Church and its attached school, eighth grader Annii Kinepoway had no hesitation in explaining what she's learned to love best here -- the good Lord and good grades. "I like knowing there's somebody you can ask for help if you need it. Somebody is there and looking over you," she said of her newly found faith, while proudly wearing the tie indicating her academic honors...

Across America, faith leaders have squeezed in some final messages about the midterm elections during their worship services this weekend. Some passionately took stands on divisive issues such as immigration and abortion; others pleaded for an easing of the political polarization fracturing their communities and their nation...

BOSTON -- Elon Musk tweeted Sunday that Twitter will permanently suspend any account on the social media platform that impersonates another. The platform's new owner issued the warning after some celebrities changed their Twitter display names -- not their account names -- and tweeted as 'Elon Musk' in reaction to the billionaire's decision to offer verified accounts to all comers for $8 month as he simultaneously laid off a big chunk of the workforce...

In California, lawyers accused staff at the Los Angeles County jail of chaining mentally ill detainees to chairs for days at a time. In West Virginia, people held in the Southern Regional Jail sued the state, saying they found urine and semen in their food. ...

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- When Planned Parenthood decided four years ago to open a new clinic in a medically underserved working-class neighborhood here, it envisioned a place that would save women living nearby from having to take hourslong bus rides to obtain birth control, testing or an abortion...

NEW YORK -- On a quiet weekend in movie theaters before the upcoming release of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," Warner Bros.' "Black Adam" topped the box office for the third straight weekend with $18.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday...

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's military said Monday its recent barrage of missile tests were practices to attack its rivals' air bases and warplanes and paralyze their operation command systems, showing Pyongyang's resolve to counter provocative U.S.-South Korean military drills "more thoroughly and mercilessly."...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A pregnant Arkansas woman who thought she was going to a job interview was instead killed in Missouri by a woman who wanted to claim her baby, federal authorities said Friday. The baby was also found dead. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Missouri said Amber Waterman and Jamie Waterman, both 42, of Pineville, Missouri, were charged in the death of Ashley Bush, 33, of Siloam Springs, Arkansas...

KYIV, Ukraine -- The mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, is warning residents that they must prepare for the worst this winter if Russia keeps striking the country's energy infrastructure -- and that means having no electricity, water or heat in the freezing cold cannot be ruled out...

YONKERS, N.Y. -- President Joe Biden pilloried Republicans up and down ballots across the nation as election deniers who reveled in political violence, while his predecessor, Donald Trump, urged voters to oppose "growing left-wing tyranny" on the final Sunday before midterm elections that could reshape Washington's balance of power...

IDABEL, Okla. -- Residents in southeastern Oklahoma and northeastern Texas began assessing weather damage Saturday, working to recover and thankful to have survived after a storm stretching from Dallas to northwest Arkansas spawned tornadoes and produced flash flooding, killing at least two people, injuring others and leaving homes and buildings in ruins...

The discourse was never all that civil on Twitter. The loudest voices have often drowned out softer, more nuanced takes. After all, it's much easier to rage-tweet at a perceived enemy than to seek common ground, whether the argument is about transgender kids or baseball...

WASHINGTON -- Mailers designed to look like official government forms. Buses sporting scam pitches for Medicare websites. TV commercials featuring celebrities who encourage people to sign up for Medicare plans that do not always include their current doctors...

Local preservationist Brian Driscoll says it will take a community effort to restore the old Reynolds House; Driscoll, who serves on Cape Girardeau's Historic Preservation Commission, says the city could apply for a government grant to help fund restoration of the 140-year-old brick house at 623 N. ...

Three hours ago, I was playing the last home volleyball game of my career. It was Senior Night. There were posters with pictures of me plastered all over the walls and multiple selfies of my face taped to popsicle sticks for the crowd to flail around. ...

As a former English teacher, I know more than a few people would agree with Queen Elizabeth’s character’s comment early in “The Uncommon Reader” by Alan Bennett that reading is a “duty.” Countless others — myself included — would concur instead with the queen’s later realization that reading is actually many different things. ...

7 Things To Know To Help Aging Veterans By Dana Taylor, LCSW, Veterans Home Care The month of November honors veterans and their families, and families should be aware of seven ways they can help these wartime heroes navigate the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and receive the benefits they earned and deserve...

Elite Travel, Inc. attends ALG Ascend Conference in Cancun CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. --- Elite Travel, Inc. advisors Tonya Blunt, Jamie Shultz and Katherine Businaro attended the ALG Vacations Ascend Conference in Cancun October 21-23, 2022. The Ascend conference is an annual learning opportunity for leaders in the travel industry. ...

I’ve known Big Awe a few times. I play my memories of it like social media videos, though there’s nothing small-screen about them. It’s a summer night when I’m 10 years old. I’ve cast myself down on a carpet of grass in the deepest shadow I can find so I can study the constellations. ...

Days of Novembers past saw a scandalous president, a thrilling “King of Pop” and an ill-fated “King of the World.” On Nov. 7, incumbent President Richard Nixon was re-elected in a landslide by winning 49 states. Nixon resigned two years later due to the Watergate Scandal. ...

American Queen, a 436-passenger riverboat, will delay its planned Friday, Nov. 18, visit to Cape Girardeau’s Riverfront Park until 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 2. VisitCape, which promotes paddlewheeler visits to Cape Girardeau, said the boat’s owner, American Queen Steamboat Company, did not give a reason for the postponement but river levels on the Mississippi remain low because of continuing drought conditions...