Stories from Wednesday, December 28, 2022

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — State governments emerging from the coronavirus pandemic built historic cash surpluses as inflation in prices and wages drove up sales and income tax collections. Now many states are reaping another reward: banking millions of dollars off those surpluses as the Federal Reserve fights inflation with higher interest rates...

Missouri Dry Dock, a longtime staple of Cape Girardeau, will be closing, according to an article from the Waterways Journal. The article stated the businesses would be closing at the end of the year, but owner Rob Erlbacher II disputed that timing,characterizing it as "incorrect," on a Tuesday, Dec. 27, phone call...

Legends apartment complex in Cape Girardeau dealt with numerous pipe bursts in its sprinkler system Monday, Dec. 26. The Cape Girardeau Fire Department shut down the buildings' sprinkler system until the pipes could be repaired. Cape Girardeau fire marshal Greg Hecht said the breaks were caused by the extreme cold last week, which froze water in the pipes causing them to burst. When temperatures rose to more moderate winter levels, that water thawed, causing leaks in the system and building...

When Wesley Tew became the new pastor at First Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau he knew the congregation was a little "different," but in a good way. Not long after taking over the pulpit there was a funeral at the church and they had a motorcycle in the sanctuary. He said he'd never seen that before...

Inflation has remained one of the top news stories throughout 2022. By themselves, the monthly inflation reports released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics have captured front-page headlines and triggered immediate reactions in financial markets. Concerns about high inflation have been present in many noteworthy stories this year, such as last winter’s Omicron COVID-19 wave, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, high gasoline price during summer, the infant formula shortage and the ongoing tensions between railroad operators and labor unions.

Today is Wednesday, Dec. 28, the 362nd day of 2022. There are three days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Dec. 28, 2014, the war in Afghanistan, fought for 13 bloody years and still raging, came to a formal end with a quiet flag-lowering ceremony in Kabul that marked the transition of the fighting from U.S.-led combat troops to the country's own security forces...

Missouri will have a new state treasurer, and the man filling the position for at least the next two years has connections to Southeast Missouri. Vivek Malek was announced by Gov. Mike Parson just before Christmas. The appointment of Malek, the fifth by Gov. Parson to statewide elected offices since 2018 -- fills a vacancy created by former Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick's election victory in the state auditor's contest...

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that by grace we are saved through faith in you. Amen.

We don't fight our wars to win anymore. We fight them to get to a stalemate. We've risked untold lives and wasted trillions of dollars to poorly fight wars for decades in places like Afghanistan and Iraq and Vietnam. Then we negotiate and leave. And then the countries where we had been at war quickly revert to the way they were before our soldiers and weapons showed up...

It didn't surprise me when, backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, Father Thomas Joseph White began telling me that while he enjoyed touring with his band the Hillbilly Thomists, which consists of musical friars, he enjoys writing more. When not playing banjo in Nashville, White is the rector of the Angelicum in Rome; the school's most famous alumnus is Pope John Paul II. His latest book is an authoritative study of the Holy Trinity...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls. Dec. 26 n Medical assists were made at 10:27 a.m. on North Middle Street; 11:44 a.m. on William Street; 11:51 a.m. on North Kingshighway; 1:54 p.m. on Walnut Street; 3:55 p.m. on South Ellis Street; and 3:58 p.m. on Huntington Drive...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to the following calls. Arrest does not imply guilt. Arrest n A warrant arrest was reported. Assault n Third-degree domestic assault was reported on North Sprigg Street. Miscellaneous n Leaving the scene of an accident was reported on Siemers Drive...

Stephen Rose, 68, of Cape Girardeau, passed away at 6:23 p.m. Friday, Dec. 23, 2022, at Southeast Hospital He was born Sept. 1, 1954, to Tom and Helen Canfield Rose in Cape Girardeau. He worked in the print industry for 46 years. Survivors include girlfriend, Lucinda Myers, and brothers, Jeff (Debbie) Rose and Mike Rose. He also leaves behind his pride and joy labs, Sammy and Lacey...

VIENNA, Va. — Kay Margraf Ancell, 77, of Vienna and a native of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, in Falls Church, Virginia. Services are planned for the spring of 2023 in Cape Girardeau. Money & King Funeral Home in Vienna is in charge of arrangements...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The co-leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in prison for conspiring to abduct the Democrat and blow up a bridge to ease an escape. Adam Fox's sentence is the longest of anyone convicted in the plot so far, though it's significantly shorter than the life sentence that prosecutors sought...

BRASILIA, Brazil -- Jair Bolsonaro told supporters that the future could only bring him three possibilities: arrest, death or a second term as Brazil's president. None of those outcomes came to pass. And his Oct. 30 loss to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva set off two months of relative silence for the self-styled standard-bearer of the Brazilian conservative movement...

ECATEPEC, Mexico -- On a November afternoon, Monica Citlalli Diaz left home in a sprawling suburb of Mexico's capital and headed to the school where she'd been teaching English for years. It seemed an ordinary day, but on this one, she never arrived at work...

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's president appealed to the country's citizens Tuesday not to accept holiday handouts and gifts from drug gangs, after videos posted online showed garish pickup trucks handing out loads of gifts while bystanders described the drivers as members of the Jalisco drug cartel...

BEIJING -- Foreign companies welcomed China's decision to end quarantines for travelers from abroad as an important step to revive slumping business activity while Japan on Tuesday joined India in announcing restrictions on visitors from the country as infections surge...

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's president on Tuesday called for stronger air defenses and high-tech stealth drones while the military apologized for failing to shoot down North Korean drones that crossed the border for the first time in five years...

DAKAR, Senegal -- The accounts are haunting. Abductions, torture, rapes. Scores of civilians including women and children have been killed by the M23 rebels in eastern Congo, according to a U.N. report In addition, the M23 rebels have forced children to be soldiers, according to the report by a panel of U.N. ...

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The ghostly form floating in a large jar had been the robust reddish-brown of a healthy organ just hours before. Now it's semitranslucent, white tubes like branches on a tree showing through. This is a pig liver that's gradually being transformed to look and act like a human one, part of scientists' long quest to ease the nation's transplant shortage by bioengineering replacement organs...

WASHINGTON -- When he ran for the White House, Joe Biden told voters his presidency would be a bridge to the next generation. His first two years on the job have revealed it to be a much more ambitious venture. As he nears the halfway mark on his first term, Biden is pointing to legacy-defining achievements on climate change, domestic manufacturing and progress on the COVID-19 pandemic -- all accomplished with razor-thin majorities on Capitol Hill and rather dim views from the public...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court is keeping pandemic-era limits on immigration in place indefinitely, dashing hopes of immigration advocates who had been anticipating their end this week. In a ruling Tuesday, the Supreme Court extended a temporary stay that Chief Justice John Roberts issued last week. Under the court's order, the case will be argued in February and the stay will be maintained until the justices decide the case...

Taken together, they can convey the feeling of a world convulsing -- 150 Associated Press images from across 2022, showing the fragments that make up our lives and freezing in time the moments that somehow, these days, seem to pass faster than ever...

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- State and military police were sent Tuesday to keep people off Buffalo's snow-choked roads, and officials kept counting fatalities three days after western New York's deadliest storm in at least two generations. Even as suburban roads and most major highways in the area reopened, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz warned that police would be stationed at entrances to Buffalo and at major intersections because some drivers were flouting a ban on driving within New York's second-most populous city.. ...

DALLAS -- Southwest Airlines scrubbed thousands of flights again Tuesday in the aftermath of the massive winter storm that wrecked Christmas travel plans across the U.S., and the federal government said it would investigate why the company lagged so far behind other carriers...

Scriptural Evangelical Lutheran Church, 3605 County Road 635, has installed a new stained-glass window in its bell tower; the window depicts an angel announcing Christ's birth to the shepherds; it was installed by Parsons' Stained Glass Co. The University of Missouri-Columbia Tiger football team won't be the only MU students playing in the Holiday Bowl on Monday in San Diego; more than 200 members of the Marching Mizzou band will play in the first bowl game MU has attended in 14 years; Trent Redfearn and Chrissie Conklin, both of Cape Girardeau, are performing with the band at various times throughout the weekend; on game day, they will march in the Holiday Bowl parade, participate in the "Battle of the Bands" after the parade, appear at tailgate parties and perform in pre-game and halftime shows.. ...