Stories from Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Westbound Highway 74, from Siemers Drive to Silver Springs Road in Cape Girardeau, will be reduced to one lane with a 16-foot width restriction as Missouri Department of Transportation crews perform bridge maintenance. According to a MoDOT news release, work will take place from Monday, Dec. 5, through Friday, Dec. 9, The work zone will be in place 24 hours a day until the work is complete...

A pedestrian died Tuesday evening, Nov. 29, after being struck my multiple vehicles in Cape Girardeau, authorities said. Cpl. Ryan Droege of Cape Girardeau Police Department said in a release the unidentified victim was traversing South Sprigg Street at its intersection with State Highway 74 at about 5:30 p.m...

Cape Girardeau's Career and Technology Center is one of 51 state institutions receiving six-figure grants from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), according to a Tuesday, Nov. 29, news release. DESE's announcement follows an Oct. 24 vote by the Cape Girardeau Board of Education to ask for $400,000 for CTC — a request DESE said it will fulfill in full...

American Queen, the mammoth paddlewheeler from American Queen Voyages, is scheduled to arrive by 8 a.m. Friday, Dec. 2, at Riverfront Park in Cape Girardeau. The boat -- which American Queen Voyages's website says is the largest steamboat ever built -- is expected to have 276 passengers aboard when it docks, according to Josh Thompson of VisitCape, formerly known as Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau...

More than 60 seniors in Cape Girardeau County will be on the receiving end of Christmas gifts this year through the Cape Girardeau Jaycees's Christmas for the Elderly program. Tracy Haggerty is chairwoman for the program that combines local donations and grant funds from the Senior Citizens Service Board of Cape Girardeau County to help out the elderly in the area. Oftentimes, Haggerty said the "gifts" the program bestows on seniors are necessities...

Much of Southeast Missouri continues to be classified as drought-stricken, according to the latest Drought Monitor map released by U.S. Department of Agriculture and partnering agencies. In response, Gov. Mike Parson, in a statement released Monday, Nov. 28, has extended the state's drought alert until March 1 because of what he called Missouri's "abnormally dry conditions."...

For decades, parents have sacrificed and students have gone into debt to fund college degrees that lead nowhere. But the college scam may be up soon -- not thanks to any moral awakening on the part of college administrators. Instead, a tight job market is motivating more employers, including Google, IBM and some state governments, to scrap degree requirements and open up jobs to nondegree-holders. ...

Joe Biden 2024 is a bad idea whose time has come. If Democrats had gotten the shellacking that seemed to be coming their way in the midterms, Biden might have been wounded enough for elements of the Democratic establishment to begin to try to shoulder him into retirement...

Christmas is so much more than presents under a tree. But there's something special about seeing the smile on someone's face when they open gifts on Christmas morning. That's especially true for children. Yet for many children, gifts at Christmastime are not a foregone conclusion. Many families are operating paycheck to paycheck, just barely making ends meet...

Lord God, today we celebrate with expectation and hope and know Jesus will return one day. Amen.

The weather outside is frightful, so organizers of the fifth annual Christmas Parade of Lights postpone the big yuletide event until next weekend when they hope the clouds will be more cooperative and spirits less dampened by the outside conditions; with rain falling steadily and no immediate end to the precipitation in sight, Doc Cain, member of the Downtown Merchants Association and parade chairman, informs parade participants the festivities will be rescheduled for next Sunday evening...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls. Nov. 28 n Medical assists were made at 7:09 a.m. on Hickory Street; 8:48 a.m. on Themis Street; 8:59 a.m. on William Street; 9:50 a.m. on West Lorimier Place; 11:23 a.m. on Independence Street; 12:52 p.m. on Brenda Kay Court; and 4:03 p.m. on Cape Meadows Circle...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to the following calls. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests n A warrant arrest was reported. Thefts n Theft was reported on Siemers Drive. n Theft was reported. n Second-degree burglary was reported on South Hanover Street...

Darlene Kay Tuschhoff, 83, of Jackson died Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022, at Mercy South in St. Louis. Visitation will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Jackson. The Rev. Jason Shaw will conduct the funeral service at 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, followed by interment at Russell Heights Cemetery in Jackson...

Retha Louise Popp, 85, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, Nov. 28, 2022, at Lutheran Home. She was born June 22, 1937, in Greenwood, Indiana, to Ruben and Lucy Reynolds Whittaker. She and Edward "Ebby" Popp were married Feb. 22, 1958, at Monrovia, California...

Angie Lynn Perkins peacefully went to sleep for the last time Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, at around 7:15 a.m. Angie was 54 at the time and a resident of Egypt Mills. She was the daughter of Ronald D. Lohmann and Shirley A. Lohmann, wife of Timothy L. Perkins and mother of Brooke Gantt, Brittany Perkins-Price, Chloe Perkins and Timothy C. ...

The Rev. Thomas Martin Jackson was born Dec. 22, 1940, in Bollinger County and departed for Heaven on Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, at Cox Hospital in Branson, Missouri. He was the son of the late Rev. Verdell and Freda Mae Jackson of Bollinger County and brother to the late David V. Jackson...

Christopher Charles "Chris" Humburg II, beloved son, husband, father and Papa of Cape Girardeau passed away Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022, at the age of 83. Chris died peacefully surrounded by his beloved wife, Sandy, daughter, Renee, and several grandchildren by his side...

Shirley Ilene Prater Hale, 86, of Thebes, Illinois, died Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022, at Aspire Senior Living Advance in Advance, Missouri. Graveside services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 2, at Rose Hill Cemetery in Thebes, with the Rev. Jimmie Monahan officiating. Interment will follow at the cemetery...

George Harlan "Toby" Douglas, son of the late Amos Douglas and Marie Hedges Douglas, was born June 17, 1935, in Anniston, Missouri, and departed his life Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022, at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau at the age of 87 years. He was the owner and operator of Douglas Dry Cleaners in Advance, Missouri, from 1964 to 2002, and a member of Unity Baptist Church in Benton, Missouri. ...

JoAnn C. Bremer, 89, formerly of Grand Rapids, Michigan, died Saturday, Nov. 26, 2022, at The Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. Visitation will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4, at Langeland-Sterenberg Funeral Home, 315 E. 16th St. in Holland, Michigan...

JACKSON, Miss. -- The Justice Department made a rare intervention Tuesday to try to bring improvements in the beleaguered water system in Mississippi's capital city, which nearly collapsed in late summer and continues to struggle. The department filed a proposal to appoint a third-party manager for the Jackson water system. ...

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- The Biden administration declared the northern long-eared bat endangered on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to save a species driven to the brink of extinction by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease. "White-nose syndrome is decimating cave-dwelling bat species like the northern long-eared bat at unprecedented rates," said Martha Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...

NORFOLK, Va. -- A Walmart employee who survived last week's mass shooting at a store in Virginia has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the company for allegedly continuing to employ the shooter -- a store supervisor -- "who had known propensities for violence, threats and strange behavior."...

KYIV, Ukraine -- An uneasy calm hung over Kyiv on Tuesday as residents of the Ukrainian capital prepared for Russian missile attacks aiming to take out more energy infrastructure as winter approaches. To ease the hardships and ensure Ukraine's 43 million people can maintain their resolve in the 10th month of fighting against Russia's invasion, NATO allies are considering sending Patriot missiles and are boosting provisions of blankets, generators and other basic necessities...

NASA is canceling a planned satellite that was going to intensely monitor greenhouse gases over the Americas because it got too costly and complicated. But the space agency said it will still be watching human-caused carbon pollution but in different ways...

NEW YORK -- The U.S. gun death rate last year hit its highest mark in nearly three decades, and the rate among women has been growing faster than that of men, according to study published Tuesday. The increase among women -- most dramatically, in Black women -- is playing a tragic and under-recognized role in a tally that skews overwhelmingly male, the researchers said...

NEW YORK -- New York City's mayor on Tuesday said he was directing police and city medics to be more aggressive about getting severely mentally ill people off the streets and subways and into treatment, even if it means involuntarily hospitalizing some people who refuse care...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with a politically tinged dispute over a Biden administration policy that would prioritize deportation of people in the country illegally who pose the greatest public safety risk. It was not clear after arguments that stretched past two hours and turned highly contentious at times whether the justices would allow the policy to take effect, or side with Republican-led states that have so far succeeded in blocking it...

HILO, Hawaii -- The first eruption in 38 years of the world's largest active volcano is attracting onlookers to a national park for "spectacular" views of the event, and it's also dredging up bad memories among some Hawaii residents who have been through harrowing volcanic experiences in the past...

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia's environment minister said Tuesday her government will lobby against UNESCO adding the Great Barrier Reef to a list of endangered World Heritage sites, arguing that criticisms of government inaction on climate change were outdated...

LONDON -- Fewer than half the people in England and Wales consider themselves Christian, according to the most recent census -- the first time a minority of the population has followed the country's official religion. Britain has become less religious -- and less white -- in the decade since the last census, figures from the 2021 census released Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics revealed...

BEIJING -- Chinese universities sent students home and police fanned out in Beijing and Shanghai to prevent more protests Tuesday after crowds angered by severe anti-virus restrictions called for leader Xi Jinping to resign in the biggest show of public dissent in decades...

BUCHAREST, Romania -- NATO doubled down Tuesday on its commitment to one day include Ukraine, a pledge that some officials and analysts believe helped prompt Russia's invasion this year. The world's largest security alliance also pledged to send more aid to Ukrainian forces locked in battle with Russian troops...

WASHINGTON -- Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted Tuesday of seditious conspiracy for a violent plot to overturn President Joe Biden's election, handing the Justice Department a major victory in its massive prosecution of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection...

Twitter will no longer enforce its policy against COVID-19 misinformation, raising concerns among public health experts and social media researchers that the change could have serious consequences if it discourages vaccination and other efforts to combat the still-spreading virus...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday to protect same-sex marriages, an extraordinary sign of shifting national politics on the issue and a measure of relief for the hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples who have married since the Supreme Court's 2015 decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide...

OMAHA, Neb. -- Railroad unions on Tuesday decried President Joe Biden's call for Congress to intervene in their contract dispute, saying it undercuts their efforts to address workers' quality of life concerns, but businesses stressed that it is crucial to avoid a strike next week that would devastate the economy...

BONNE TERRE, Mo. -- A Missouri man convicted of ambushing and killing a St. Louis area police officer he blamed in the death of his younger brother was executed Tuesday night. Kevin Johnson, 37, died after an injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre. It was the state's second execution this year and the 17th nationally. Two more executions are scheduled in Missouri for the first few weeks of 2023...