Stories from Wednesday, June 7, 2023

City of Cape Girardeau Parks division manager Brock Davis has been promoted to assistant director of Public Works. Davis said his promotion feels "great" and his job feels "similar" but "bigger." "It's very similar because before I was dealing with maintenance personnel and projects and construction and maintenance, and now kind of doing the same thing. It's just a bigger scale, a little more responsibility. So, it's all going good," Davis said...

A suspect who fled from police twice Tuesday, June 6, ultimately collided with another vehicle, and police are still searching for the person. A social media post from Cape Girardeau Police Department said the first pursuit began shortly after 4 p.m. ...

Youth Entrepreneurship Day will celebrate small businesses and young entrepreneurs at Cape Riverfront Market from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, July 8. This year's event SendA Friend will provide six $250 grants to be awarded to aspiring teenagers ages 13 to 18 with ideas of starting a business or improving their own. ...

Matt Hildesheim, left, and Jonathan Kapp walk back furniture Tuesday, June 6, into a corner of the new location of Last Mile Liquidators at the River and Rails Building on William Street. Last Mile Liquidators is set to have their reopening from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 10...

The trial of a former captain with Sikeston (Missouri) Department of Public Safety who was involved in a fatal crash in February 2020 began Tuesday, June 6, in a Butler County, Missouri, courtroom. Andrew Cooper is facing several felony charges -- driving while intoxicated with the death of another not a passenger, armed criminal action, first-degree involuntary manslaughter and three counts of DWI with serious physical injury -- connected to the death of a Sikeston woman in a two-vehicle, head-on crash Feb. ...

Cape Girardeau City Council members appointed Aaron Modrow to the city's Historic Preservation Commission at their meeting Monday, June 5. Modrow is a Southeast Missouri State University graduate and works at Mac Con Co., a construction and maintenance company...

The fifth annual pub crawl in memory of Marcellus Jones is set for Saturday, June 10. Jones was a well-known bartender and bar manager in the downtown Cape Girardeau scene for many years. He passed away in June 2018 from natural causes at the age of 50...

Work has begun to reconstruct the former Broadway Theatre building in Cape Girardeau. Municipal officials have approved a redevelopment plan offered by developer Brennon Todt to shore up the historic structure, damaged badly in a 2021 fire, and develop retail and residential spaces...

With an homage to comedian Larry the Cable Guy's most famous phrase, Git-R-Done, the city of Jackson has decided to finish up a multiyear water meter replacement program more quickly by seeking an outside firm's help. At Jackson Board of Aldermen's meeting Monday, June 5, the council voted unanimously to contract with St. Louis-based Horner & Shifrin for engineering services...

Pam Vargas has been a rule follower ever since she was a little girl. Growing up in South Bend, Ind., she says she feared both God and her parents, which kept her out of trouble, for the most part. But if there was a way to work within a rule, she figured it out. Like the time her parents told her not to roller skate up the bumpy driveway, so she cleverly roller skated down the driveway, instead. Unfortunately, this action still resulted in a broken arm...

DEXTER, Mo. -- An Endangered Person Advisory has been issued for an Advance, Missouri, child. The incident occurred on Oak Street in Advance. Authorities said Jackson Cole Morgan is 11 months old, and he could be with his biological mother, Gretchen Mollie Boston, 37...

Today is Wednesday, June 7, the 158th day of 2023. There are 207 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On June 7, 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Griswold v. Connecticut, struck down, 7-2, a Connecticut law used to prosecute a Planned Parenthood clinic in New Haven for providing contraceptives to married couples...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls. June 5 n Medical assists were made at 7:10 a.m. on Independence Street; 7:15 a.m. on South Silver Springs Road; 10:38 a.m. on South Mount Auburn Road; 12:08 p.m. on Sailer Circle; 3:02 p.m. on North Kingshighway; 3:02 p.m. on North Kingshighway; 3:34 p.m. on Kingsway Drive; 5:50 p.m. on Independence Street; and 8:06 p.m. on South Kingshighway...

CAPE GIRARDEAU Cape Girardeau Police Department responded to the following calls. Thefts n Theft was reported. n Burglary was reported on South Pacific Street. n Theft of a firearm/explosive weapon/ammonium nitrate from a motor vehicle was reported on Whitener Street...

CHAFFEE, Mo. — Betty Walton of Chaffee, daughter of the late Wilson and Lorene Sides Windeknecht, was born April 17, 1935, in Cape Girardeau County and departed her life Sunday, May 28, 2023, at Chaffee Nursing Center at the age of 88 years. She was affiliated with First United Methodist Church in Chaffee, and was a former employee of Home Health Care...

Tyler Scott Stone of Jackson, 31, passed away Saturday, June 3, 2023, surrounded by family and friends. Tyler loved big, lived hard and fought for happiness. He strongly professed his faith in God through his posts and the Scriptures tattooed on his body. He strove to be the best he could be every day, even when that meant chaos...

Geraldine L. Crites, 97, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, June 4, 2023, at Chateau Girardeau. A memorial service will be announced and held at a later date. Inurnment will be at Russell Heights Cemetery in Jackson. Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. — Rick Beck, 60, of Perryville died Sunday, June 4, 2023, at Perry County Memorial Hospital. Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, June 9, and from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Saturday, June 10, at Ford and Young Funeral Home. Rosary will be recited at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, June 10, at the funeral home...

O Lord God, may those in turmoil experience your perfect peace. Amen.

Context. Perspective. Background. It's not news to anyone that the major media consistently fail to provide any of those things when covering the burning political issues of the moment. Take, for example, the compromise the House of Representatives and the White House just made to settle the federal budget and debt-ceiling crisis...

How much independence is your child really ready to handle, and how willing are you to grant it? "Mom, can I walk to Courtney's house?" My daughter asked me. She was 10 years old. "Is there a parent home?" I asked. There was. I considered the route. Courtney lived in the neighborhood, a cul-de-sac, just down the street and around the corner. There are no busy streets to cross, the streets have sidewalks, and I knew this family well...

President Joe Biden's fall at the end of the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony was a brief event. He tripped, got helped up, and walked off under his own power. Sometimes, though, a small thing is fraught with meaning — and with peril. Biden's stumbles are not minor incidents, or a laughing matter. ...

When was the last time you heard about a government initiative coming in under budget? It certainly doesn't happen often, but the rare occurrence did take place recently. The Cape Girardeau County Archive Center reported last month that a plan to digitize more than 200 years of county records came in about $4,500 under the expected $35,000 estimate...

KHERSON, Ukraine -- A major dam in southern Ukraine collapsed Tuesday, flooding villages, endangering crops and threatening drinking water supplies as both sides in the war scrambled to evacuate residents and blamed each other for the destruction. Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station, which sits on the Dnieper River in an area Moscow has controlled for more than a year. ...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, saying in a Tuesday ruling that gender identity is real and the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment...

UNION, Mo. -- A 67-year-old man has pleaded guilty to strangling a woman in Missouri and leaving her bound body in the woods three decades ago, a newspaper reported. Kirby R. King pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter and felonious restraint in the death of 22-year-old Karla Jane Delcour, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday. She was found dead with her wrists and neck bound by a cord in Franklin County woods near the city of St. Clair...

DETROIT -- A judge on Tuesday ordered a Detroit gas station clerk to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter, saying his decision to lock the door and then taunt an angry customer contributed to the fatal shooting of a bystander. Al-Hassan Aiyash "continued to pour gasoline on the fire," said Judge Kenneth King, who found enough evidence to move the case to trial...

SEATTLE -- A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request to block a new Washington state law banning the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles, one of three measures recently signed by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in an effort to reduce gun violence. The law, which took effect immediately when Inslee signed it in April, prohibits the sale, distribution, manufacture and importation of more than 50 types of guns, including AR- and AK-style rifles. ...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration said Tuesday that three dozen migrants whom the state flew from the U.S. southern border to California on private planes all went willingly, disputing allegations by California officials that the individuals were coerced to travel under false pretenses...

ATLANTA -- Within hours of a U.S. Supreme Court decision dismantling a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, Texas lawmakers announced plans to implement a strict voter ID law that had been blocked by a federal court. Lawmakers in Alabama said they would press forward with a similar law that had been on hold...

SALEM, Ore. -- Oregon Democratic lawmakers stood on the steps of the state Capitol Tuesday and implored Republicans, who have been boycotting the Senate, to return and vote on a number of bipartisan bills that are at risk of dying because of a political standoff that has now lasted a month...

WASHINGTON -- House conservatives staged a mini-revolt Tuesday in retaliation for Speaker Kevin McCarthy's leadership on last week's vote to raise the debt ceiling, the right wing banding together to block progress on a mixture of bills and vent their frustration...

NEW YORK -- One passenger was a caretaker from Jamaica known for her generous portions of plantain porridge. Another was a luxury real estate broker, returning from a family visit with her 2-year-old daughter. The man behind the controls of the plane, last seen slumped in the cockpit, was a skilled aviator with decades of experience...

TOPEKA, Kan. -- Abortion providers sued Kansas on Tuesday over a law enacted this year and existing restrictions, including a decades-old requirement that patients wait 24 hours after first seeing a provider to terminate their pregnancies. Besides the waiting period, the lawsuit challenges a law set to take effect July 1 that will require providers to tell patients that a medication abortion can be stopped using a regimen that major medical groups have called unproven and potentially dangerous...

NEW YORK -- Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani says a woman's lawsuit alleging he coerced her into sex and owes her nearly $2 million in unpaid wages is "a large stretch of the imagination" filled with exaggerations and salacious details "to create a media frenzy."...

OCALA, Fla. -- Authorities came under intense pressure Tuesday to arrest and charge a white woman who killed a Black neighbor on her front doorstep in a case that has put Florida's divisive stand your ground law back into the spotlight. About three dozen mostly Black protesters gathered outside the Marion County Judicial Center to demand that the shooter be arrested in the country's latest flashpoint over race and gun violence. ...

NEW YORK -- Francoise Gilot, a prolific and acclaimed painter who produced art for well more than a half-century but was nonetheless more famous for her turbulent relationship with Pablo Picasso -- and for leaving him -- died Tuesday in New York City, where she had lived for decades. She was 101...

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors are using a grand jury in Florida as part of their investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents at former President Donald Trump's Palm Beach property, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday night...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Seven people were shot, two fatally, when gunfire rang out Tuesday outside a downtown theater where a high school graduation ceremony had recently concluded, causing attendees to flee in panic, weep and clutch their children, authorities and witnesses reported...

ON OMAHA BEACH, France -- An overwhelming sound of gunfire and men's screams. That's how World War II veteran Marie Scott described D-Day, as Tuesday's ceremonies got underway in honor of those who fought for freedom in the largest naval, air and land operation in history...

BONNE TERRE, Mo. -- A Missouri man who shot and killed two jailers nearly 23 years ago during a failed bid to help an acquaintance escape from a rural jail was executed Tuesday evening. Michael Tisius, 42, received a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre and was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted of the June 22, 2000, killings of Leon Egley and Jason Acton at the small Randolph County Jail...

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Republican former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie kicked off his presidential campaign Tuesday evening, promising to be the only candidate in a crowded GOP primary field willing to directly take on former President Donald Trump. Christie, who also ran for president in 2016, began his bid under the slogan "Because the truth matters" with a town hall in New Hampshire, which holds the nation's first Republican primary following Iowa's leadoff caucuses. ...

The Rev. J. Michael Davis has been appointed as pastor of Hobbs Chapel United Methodist Church; he will begin work June 14; Davis has served as pastor of Sedgewickville-Crossroads (Missouri) United Methodist Church for the last four years. ST. LOUIS -- Senior U.S. ...

A temporary Memorial was dedicated to the memorial veterans whose headstones at Jackson City Cemetery can no longer be read. The Memorial consists of U.S. Flag, P.O.W./M.I.A flags in the background and flags and wreaths for the six branches: Army, Marine, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard. ...