Stories from Thursday, December 22, 2022

Cape Girardeau County Commission 9 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 22 1 Barton Square, Jackson Approval of minutes n Approval of minutes of the Monday, Dec. 19, meeting n Approval of closed session minutes from Thursday, Nov. 17, meeting n Approval of closed session minutes from Thursday, Dec. 1, meeting...

The last-minute crunch before Christmas is upon us. Maybe you need one more side dish, or you didn't get the turkey out in time and need an alternate entree, maybe a sweet to serve at brunch or a casual beverage to serve to everyone as they visit and enjoy the holiday. Well, I've got you covered...

At a Cape Girardeau Noon Lions Club meeting Wednesday, Dec. 21, guest speaker Bill Kapp spoke about Fountain Life, his new data-driven preventive health care clinics. Fountain Life was cofounded two years ago by Kapp, a retired orthopedic surgeon and founder of the Landmark critical care hospitals, which has a branch in Cape Girardeau. ...

Foodies inherently have a deep and abiding interest in all things food. I enjoy seeing how food springs from various cultures, how it impacts traditions and holidays and how food even makes its way into art. Art created with food, such as pudding finger paintings when we were in kindergarten, haven't particularly interested me, but movies where food is the leading character, well those, those are intriguing...

The Cape Girardeau Police Department is looking for help in locating a wanted suspect. Christopher Allen Calicott, 42, has multiple arrest warrants. According to a department Facebook post, Calicott recently resisted arrest and fled from officers. Police are considering him armed and dangerous...

Jackson's Ward 2 Alderman Dave Hitt is lauding the efforts on Saturday, Dec. 17, to lay wreaths on veterans' graves at both Russell Heights and Jackson City cemeteries. Hitt, a veteran and active in Altenthal-Joerns American Legion Post No. 158, told the aldermanic council Monday, Dec. 19, that more than 1,400 graves were decorated and the weekend wreath-laying went quickly because of a sizeable group of volunteers...

Jackson Mayor Dwain Hahs has referred to the city's approved 2023 spending plan as "a good, solid budget overall, with realistic revenues projected." Hahs told city aldermen Monday, Dec. 19, that expected municipal revenues totals $39.5 million in the budget...

Southeast Missouri, along with much of the Midwest, is expected to be hit by a severe winter storm just a day after the winter solstice. Gov. Mike Parson has declared a state of emergency for inclement weather. The forecast wintry mix of rain, which will likely turn to snow, is projected to hit the area Thursday afternoon, Dec. ...

As we come to the end of the year my hope is that your life over the past 12 months has been filled with happiness, love, laughter, peace and fulfillment. I hope you look back and accept the things you could have done better, celebrate the things you did really well, and plan for a better future...

Today is Thursday, Dec. 22, the 356th day of 2022. There are nine days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Dec. 22, 1990, Lech Walesa took the oath of office as Poland's first popularly elected president. On this date: In 1858, opera composer Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy...

Would like to know when DEERS (Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System) will reopen in Cape so us retired veterans can get our ID Cards and not have to drive 2 or 3 hours. Our Government Officials need to take action. I am appalled at what Joe Biden has done since taking office. ...

2022 is about to end, and still no answer to the question: What caused the virus that's killed 1,096,000 Americans so far? The Washington Post asks, "What is China hiding?" The more answerable question is what is our own government hiding? House Republicans are promising that when they assume the majority in January, they will get answers using subpoena power. Better late than never. Learning more about the origins of COVID may be the most consequential outcome of the 2022 midterm election...

O Father God, may all experience your love and peace this Christmas and always. Amen.

Regarding Sen. Thompson-Rehder and Rep. Burger's recent legislation proposals to openly discriminate against transgender students participating in middle and high school sports in Missouri, a casual glance at the current MSHSAA handbook reveals that this issue has long been addressed. ...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls. Dec. 20 n Medical assists were made at 6:04 a.m. on Good Hope Street; 7:48 a.m. on South Sprigg Street; 8:35 a.m. on Yorktown Drive; 8:43 a.m. on North Pind Wood Lane; 11:19 a.m. on South Broadview Street; 6:42 p.m. on Good Hope Street; and 7:52 p.m. on Good Hope Street. ...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to the following calls. Arrest does not imply guilt. n A warrant arrest was reported on South Mount Auburn Road. Assaults n Second-degree domestic assault and armed criminal action were reported on North Street. ...

Due to the threat of bad weather, the family of Joyce Zschille has changed her arrangements as follows: Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 26, at McCombs Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Jackson. The Rev. Sam Roethemeyer will conduct the funeral at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 27, at the funeral home, followed by interment at Russell Heights Cemetery in Jackson...

Christopher Daniel Kight, 29, of Cape Girardeau departed this earthly home for his heavenly home Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022, at his home. He was born Sept. 7, 1992, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis to Christy Young of Cape Girardeau. Christopher meant the world to those who truly loved him. ...

David E. Grojean, 89, of Jackson died Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022, at Jackson Manor. Arrangements are incomplete at this time. A memorial visitation and service will be held in the spring. As per David's request, the family has entrusted McCombs Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Jackson with his arrangements...

Elwood Chester "Bud" Ellis, 96, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022, at Southeast Hospital. He was born Oct. 2, 1926, in Cape Girardeau to Oren and Mae Simmons Ellis. Elwood and Laverne Atchison were married July 2, 1949, in Cape Girardeau...

John Allen Buehler, 86, of Oak Ridge died Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022, at Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. Visitation will be from 10 to 11 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 29, at McCombs Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Jackson. Funeral will be at 11 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 29, at the funeral home, with the Rev. Jimmie Corbin officiating...

WASHINGTON -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked President Joe Biden, U.S. lawmakers and "ordinary people" of America for their support as he visited the White House on Wednesday. Biden told Zelenskyy that Ukrainians "inspire the world," before the two leaders began an Oval Office summit that was Zelenskyy's first known trip outside his home country since Russia invaded in February...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Taliban security forces in the Afghan capital on Wednesday enforced a higher education ban for women by blocking their access to universities, with video obtained by The Associated Press showing women weeping and consoling each other outside one campus in Kabul...

QAMISHLI, Syria -- Baran Ramadan Mesko had been hiding with other migrants for weeks in the coastal Algerian city of Oran, awaiting a chance to take a boat across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Days before the 38-year-old Syrian Kurd was to begin the journey, he received news that a smuggler boat carrying some of his friends had sunk soon after leaving the Algerian coast. Most of its passengers had drowned...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Elon Musk is defending his massive cost-cutting at Twitter as necessary for the social media platform to survive next year, due in part to debt payments tied to his $44 billion takeover of the company. "This company is like, basically, you're in a plane that is headed towards the ground at high speed with the engines on fire and the controls don't work," Musk told a late-night audience on a Twitter Spaces call Tuesday...

NASSAU, Bahamas -- Two associates of Sam Bankman-Fried have pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX in cooperation deals, a federal prosecutor announced Wednesday as Bankman-Fried was on his way back to the United States from the Bahamas...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. will send $1.8 billion in military aid to Ukraine in a massive package that will for the first time include a Patriot missile battery and precision guided bombs for their fighter jets, U.S. officials said Tuesday, as the Biden administration prepares to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Patrick Leahy lingered on a narrow balcony on the west side of the U.S. Capitol, soaking in a panoramic view of the National Mall, the Washington Monument and, beyond, the Lincoln Memorial. "Now this I will miss," he said. As Leahy closes out a Senate career that has spanned 48 years, the Vermont senator is saying goodbye to Washington with a mix of resignation and resolve, lamenting the hyperpartisanship that now grips Congress while expressing hope that the institution as he once knew it can someday return.. ...

WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration said Wednesday it will release doses of prescription flu medicine from the Strategic National Stockpile to states as flu-sickened patients continue to flock to hospitals and doctors' offices around the country...

KYIV, Ukraine -- Three days after the first Russian bombs struck Ukraine, Andrii Kuprash, the head of a village north of Kyiv, walked into a forest near his home and began to dig. He didn't stop until he had carved out a shallow pit, big enough for a man like him. It was his just-in-case, a place to lie low if he needed...

Concerns about illness or inflation aren't stopping Americans from hitting the roads and airports this holiday season. But a massive winter storm might. Forecasters predict an onslaught of heavy snow, ice, flooding and powerful winds from Thursday to Saturday in a broad swath of the country, from the Plains and Midwest to the East Coast. A surge of Arctic air will follow. The Christmas weekend could be the coldest in decades...

NEW YORK -- An arctic blast is bringing extreme cold, heavy snow and intense wind across much of the U.S. this week -- just in time for the holidays. The weather system, which may build into a "bomb cyclone," is expected to move east in the days leading up to Christmas, disrupting travel and causing hazardous winter conditions. Where is this winter weather coming from, and what's in store for the coming days?...

EL PASO, Texas -- Francisco Palacios waited for four hours with his wife and 3-year-old daughter at a border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego early Wednesday before going to a nearby hotel for a three-hour nap. They came back, bags packed, only to be disappointed again...

WASHINGTON -- Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy told cheering U.S. legislators during a defiant wartime visit to the nation's capital on Wednesday that against all odds his country still stands, thanking Americans for helping to fund the war effort with money that is "not charity," but an "investment" in global security and democracy...

Son to Seth Kristopher and Allison Brooke Metje of Jackson, Saint Francis Medical Center, 11:57 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022. Name, Benjamin Todd. Weight, 6 pounds, 10 ounces. Second child, first son. Mrs. Metje is the former Allison Harper, daughter of Andrea McWilliams of Desloge, Missouri, and Brian Harper of Cape Girardeau. ...

Dan Sebaugh may not be the kind of person who makes a big splash, but he's made a lot of quiet ripples on the Oak Ridge Board of Education during the last two decades; this month, Sebaugh announced to fellow board members that he would not seek an eighth term during the April elections; his announcement brings to an end a 21-year affiliation with the school district, but the former Jackson math teacher said he'll continue to work for the district in other ways...