Stories from Wednesday, January 4, 2023

The southbound U.S. 61 flyover bridge over Interstate 55 in Cape Girardeau at mile marker 93 will be reduced to one lane with a 14-foot width restriction as Missouri Department of Transportation crews perform bridge repairs. According to a MoDOT news release, work will take place from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 11, and Thursday Jan. 12...

A Cape Girardeau man has been charged with child molestation and sexual misconduct by the Scott County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Ryan Criddle, 20, was taken into custody by Sikeston (Missouri) Department of Public Safety officers Friday Dec. 30...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. — A Stoddard County associate commissioner has been removed from office after being found guilty of nepotism. According to Stodddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russell Oliver, on Friday, Dec. 30, the final judgment was made that Associate Commissioner Steve Jordan had committed the offense of nepotism in violation of the Missouri constitutional ban on such conduct, and he was permanently removed from the associate commissioner position...

The repaired retaining wall in front of the Oliver-Leming House, also known as the "Flag House", at 740 North St. on Tuesday, Jan. 3, in Cape Girardeau. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri's new Attorney General Andrew Bailey officially took office Tuesday, Jan. 3, during an inaugural ceremony at the state Supreme Court. Missouri Eastern District Appeals Court Judge Kelly Broniec swore Bailey in as his family flanked him...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Top priorities in the legislative session that begins Wednesday, Jan. 4, will be making it harder to amend Missouri's Constitution, sports betting, and education issues ranging from attending out-of-district schools to how children are educated about racism...

Cape Girardeau Public Library launched its redesigned website Thursday, Dec. 29. Library director Katie Earnhart said the new design has been in the works for months. "The last design update was in 2017," Earnhart said. "It was becoming outdated and no longer functioned properly. We were having a lot of errors, especially with our calendar system."...

WASHINGTON — Failing to elect party leader Kevin McCarthy as the new speaker of the House, Republicans adjourned in disarray Tuesday night, ending a raucous first day of the new Congress but hoping to somehow regroup on Wednesday from his historic defeat...

This story is updated. Effective on Sunday, Jan. 1, water rates rose in the Scott County city of Chaffee, Missouri, which recorded a 2020 Census Bureau population of 3,057. The first 1,000 gallons of used water have increased from $20 to $20.25, a 1.25% increase. The increase after 1,000 gallons amounts to 65 cents per every 100 additional gallons used...

Voter approval of recreational marijuana in Missouri will require Show Me State municipalities, such as Jackson, to make some decisions. Jackson's Building and Planning manager Janet Sanders prepared a three-page memo for city aldermen to review in their study session Tuesday, Jan. 3, laying out questions for city officeholders to answer when it comes to zoning...

The Jackson Lanes was dealt a tough blow late last month. The local bowling alley suffered extensive damage to its facility on Dec. 28, with representatives from the operation sharing on social media they were looking at a complete loss. Thankfully, no one was in the building at the time of the blaze...

O Father God, blessed be your name, the name about all names. Amen.

There is "no better place to find God, and to help others to find him, than in the hearts of the women and men" of our time. The assertion -- sometimes hard to believe, in today's social media-saturated age -- about opening our eyes to God in the lives of those around us is an insight of St. ...

China sent 71 aircraft and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour period, while Russia shelled the Kherson region more than 70 times. These acts of aggression -- occurring 5,000 miles apart, one in a grinding war of attrition, the other as part of an ongoing political and diplomatic struggle that may well result in open hostilities -- are related...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls. Jan. 2 n Medical assists were made at 2:04 p.m. on North Sprigg Street and 4:59 p.m. on Linden Street. n At 1:49 p.m., fire alarm on Yorktown Drive. n At 11:11 p.m., expanded traffic collision on South Park Drive...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Charles Thomas Wood, 82, of Perryville died Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, at his home. There is no service at this time. Burial will be at a later date at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. Ford and Young Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. — James Kenneth Steska, 96, died Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022, in Perryville. His funeral was Thursday, Dec. 29, and burial was in Timber Ridge Cemetery in Perry County. Follis and Sons Funeral Home in Fredericktown, Missouri, was in charge of arrangements...

Wayne C. Pressley, 78, of Jackson died Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5, at McCombs Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Jackson. The Rev. Herman Morse will conduct the funeral service at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 5, at the funeral home...

BENTON, Mo. — Roger Glen Morrow, 55, of Benton died Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023, in Scott County, Missouri. He was born Oct. 5, 1967, in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, to Roger D. and Glenda Lane Morrow. He was employed at Southeast Missouri State University as a boiler operator...

Carolyn Lorene Fiedler, 82, of Jackson passed away Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022, at Jackson Villas Memory Care. She was born April 11, 1940, in Shawneetown, a twin daughter of Arthur H. and Loraine N. Schlimpert Fiedler. Carolyn was baptized and confirmed at Trinity Lutheran Church in Shawneetown. She was a 1958 graduate of Jackson High School. After high school, she completed office training school...

Robert "Bob" Baldwin, 71, of Scott City passed away Friday, Dec. 30, 2022, at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Bob and Cyndi were married 51 years. Cyndi, and daughter Melissa Baldwin, were at his bedside. Bob fought the battle of devil cancer and won the battle going to see Jesus to spend eternity...

BONNE TERRE, Mo. -- A Missouri inmate was put to death Tuesday for a 2003 killing, becoming what is believed to be the first transgender woman executed in the U.S. Amber McLaughlin, 49, was convicted of stalking and killing a former girlfriend, then dumping the body near the Mississippi River in St. Louis. McLaughlin's fate was sealed earlier Tuesday when Gov. Mike Parson declined a clemency request...

VATICAN CITY -- A written account of the history-making papacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI will be placed alongside his body in his coffin for burial, the Vatican said Tuesday in revealing plans for the first funeral of a pontiff to resign in six centuries...

NEW YORK -- FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to charges that he cheated investors and looted customer deposits on his cryptocurrency trading platform as a judge set a tentative trial date for October...

HOUSTON -- Texas plans to use expired and unsafe drugs to carry out executions early this year in violation of state law, three death row inmates allege in a lawsuit. Prison officials deny the claim and say the state's supply of execution drugs is safe...

Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA's Apollo program, died Tuesday in Houston. He was 90. NASA confirmed Cunningham's death in a statement but did not include its cause. His family said through a spokesman, Jeff Carr, that Cunningham died in a hospital "from complications of a fall, after a full and complete life."...

The number of young kids, especially toddlers, who accidentally ate marijuana-laced treats rose sharply over five years as pot became legal in more places in the U.S., according to a study published Tuesday. More than 7,000 confirmed cases of kids younger than 6 eating marijuana edibles were reported to the nation's poison control centers between 2017 and 2021, climbing from about 200 to more than 3,000 per year...

BEIJING -- The Chinese government sharply criticized COVID-19 testing requirements imposed on visitors from China and threatened countermeasures against countries involved, which include the U.S. and several European nations. "We believe that the entry restrictions adopted by some countries targeting China lack scientific basis, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing Tuesday...

KYIV, Ukraine -- Emergency crews on Tuesday sifted through the rubble of a building struck by Ukrainian rockets, killing at least 63 Russian soldiers barracked there, in the latest blow to the Kremlin's war strategy as Ukraine says Moscow's tactics could be shifting...

JERUSALEM -- An ultranationalist Israeli Cabinet minister on Tuesday visited a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site for the first time since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new far-right government took office last week. The visit drew fierce condemnation from across the Muslim world and a strong rebuke from the United States...

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea confirmed Tuesday that Seoul and Washington are discussing its involvement in U.S. nuclear weapons management in the face of intensifying North Korean nuclear threats, after President Joe Biden denied that the allies were discussing joint nuclear exercises...

A group of video game testers has formed Microsoft's first labor union in the U.S., which will also be the largest in the video game industry. The Communications Workers of America said Tuesday that a majority of about 300 quality-assurance workers at Microsoft video game subsidiary ZeniMax Studios has voted to join the union...

WASHINGTON -- Democrats are again claiming the Senate majority, but much of the chamber's focus Tuesday was on the top Republican as Mitch McConnell became the longest serving Senate leader in history. McConnell, 80, surpassed Montana Sen. Mike Mansfield's record of 16 years as party leader when the Senate convened midday to begin the new Congress. ...

SEATTLE -- Two men have been arrested and charged with vandalizing electrical substations in Washington state, attacks that left thousands without power over the holidays, and one suspect told authorities they did it so they could break into a business and steal money, U.S. authorities said Tuesday...

STROUDSBURG, Pa. -- A criminology graduate student accused of the November slayings of four University of Idaho students agreed Tuesday to be extradited from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week, to face charges in Idaho. Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old doctoral student at Washington State University -- a short drive from the murder scene across the state border -- will be transported to Idaho within 10 days...

Forty-seven. That's how many days of child care Kathryn Anne Edwards' 3-year-old son has missed in the past year. RSV, COVID-19 and two bouts of the dreaded preschool scourge of hand, foot and mouth disease struck one after another. The illnesses were so disruptive that the labor economist quit her full-time job at the Rand Corp., a think tank. She switched last month to independent contract work to give her more flexibility to care for her son and 4-month-old daughter...

New McKendree United Methodist Church honors LeRoy and Velma McNeely as Christian role models during worship services; the two have been members of New McKendree for many years; LeRoy is a lifetime member, while Velma has been a member since 1936. Hundreds of soccer moms and dads have converged on the Show Me Center this weekend to cheer, and chauffeur, their sons and daughters during the Saint Francis Indoor Soccer Invitational; nearly 100 teams from several states are participating in the three-day tournament with total attendance estimated at 10,000.. ...