Rudi Keller

Attention political candidates — John Mehner, president and chief executive officer of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, knows how to put a positive spin on what could otherwise be viewed as seriously bad news.

A new publication hit the streets of Cape Girardeau this month.

A deal cooking in the Missouri Legislature to give $880 million in state tax credits to a Canadian company that wants to build an aircraft assembly plant near Kansas City has Sen. Jason Crowell asking questions.

The new owner of the building at 151 S. Spanish St. that formerly housed Spa 151 on the River knows the old home has a stigma.

So now we're a disaster area.

A deal that moved almost 12 acres on the southwest corner of Bloomfield and Mount Auburn roads in Cape Girardeau from Earl Norman to Jim and Jeff Maurer was the opening play in a plan for retail and office development of the property.

Are we dry yet?

Cape Girardeau's status as the retail hub of the region isn't in danger, but recent sales tax reports from the city and county governments show that the area isn't immune to the doldrums affecting the national economy.

The foreclosure sale of the Marquette Tower and Marquette Centre has been pushed back to April 1 as the state government considers whether to increase the leased space in the buildings, buy them or let Prost Builders dig out of their problems on their own, Lt. Gov.

Community and regional banks doing business in Southeast Missouri bucked at least one national trend during 2007 as 14 of 16 of such banks operating in Cape Girardeau, Perry, Scott and Bollinger counties reported increased profits for the year.

If everything promised for the region in terms of construction takes place, 2008 could be the beginning of one of the fastest periods of growth ever seen in our area.

Cape Girardeau city and economic development officials are working on a deal to finance the purchase of the Dana Corp. building, the 150,000-square-foot industrial building sitting idle as a result of Dana's closure due to a bankruptcy-mandated contraction...

A new Southeast Missouri State University class in entrepreneurship is so popular the Harrison College of Business is offering a second section.