Stories from Saturday, November 16, 2002

SUDBURY, Mass. -- The search is on for Babe Ruth's piano, thought to be at the bottom of a pond and perhaps the key to breaking the legendary curse that plagues the Boston Red Sox. John Fish of American Underwater Search and Survey combed the surface of Willis Pond on Friday with an advanced magnetometer, which can detect metal and pinpoint its location...

Cape Girardeau Saturday, Nov. 16 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests Joe W. Nunley Jr., 37, of 607 Maple Street was arrested Thursday on a Cape Girardeau warrant for failure to appear...

In Friday's Southeast Missourian, Liza Gray, 8, of Advance, Mo., was mistakenly left off the list of names of children who will dance in "The Great Russian Nutcracker" Monday night at the Show Me Center.

Jackson Saturday, Nov. 16 Firefighters responded to the following calls Friday: An emergency medical service on East Old Cape Road. A first alarm on South Bellevue.

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department Saturday, Nov. 16 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWI Jill Moore, 24, of Cape Girardeau was arrested Oct. 26 on suspicion of driving while intoxicated...

Each year, millions of Americans go to huge theme parks, and many of them wind up wet on a hot summer day after taking a ride on a park's whitewater-rafting ride. And millions more go to whitewater rivers for the real thing. What makes some people prefer a theme park's artificial river over an actual river in an area with stunning natural scenery?...

People today are so burdened with fears, anxiety and stress that they often forget to worship. But a call to "Come Together and Worship" is bringing people together across the country. A mix of music and devotional talks, the "Chevrolet Presents: Come Together and Worship" tour will make a stop in St. Louis Wednesday. The music of Christian artists Michael W. Smith and Third Day draws a blend of generations. Author and minister Max Lucado is the evening's featured speaker...

Enjoy cinnamon rolls and juice or coffee from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the fellowship hall Nov. 23 at St. Andrew Lutheran Church. Rolls are $2 each and also sold in a half-dozen package. The event is sponsored by the SEMO Lutheran Women's Missionary League Potter's Clay. Proceeds will go toward mission projects...

Nothing against Southeast Missouri State University, but Samford coach Bill Gray would love to put a damper on the Indians' breakout season -- and give his team something to build on before entering the Ohio Valley Conference. But Gray knows that's easier said than done as the Bulldogs, who join the OVC next year, conclude the Indians' season tonight with a 6 p.m. kickoff at Houck Stadium...

For seniors Emily Johnson, Emily Wahlman, Bobbi Carlile and Jessica Houpt, Friday night marked the final time they would pound spikes over the net at Houck Field House. With an emotional sendoff before the game, Southeast and its four seniors wasted no time in dispensing Eastern Illinois 30-19, 30-18, 30-23...

To the editor: Here are some hard numbers to demonstrate that elections really matter: 70 and 10. Seventy was the average League of Conservation Voters lifetime score of senators who chaired environment-related committees in the last Congress. Ten is the average score of the chairs to be sworn in on Jan. 7. That means the people who will have power over our energy policy, our national parks, our health and our air and water pollution laws voted against us nine out every 10 chances they got...

To the editor: I am writing to inform the public about the Fair Tax Act that has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives. It is a consumption tax that is designed to abolish all payroll and income taxes. According to the Fair Tax Act Web site, hidden income taxes make up 20 percent to 30 percent of all retail prices. ...

WASHINGTON -- Iraq fired on U.S. and British warplanes patrolling a no-fly zone Friday, an act the United States considers a breach of a U.N. Security Council resolution, officials said. Coalition warplanes bombed an Iraqi air defense site in retaliation for the firing, a Pentagon statement said...

WASHINGTON -- The FBI's warning about a "spectacular" terrorist attack could mean something bigger than Bali, where nearly 200 people died, says a former agency analyst. A psychologist who monitors law enforcement says it may be intended as a jarring caution not to be complacent...

EDMONTON, Alberta -- Anson Carter and Marty Reasoner each scored twice and Tommy Salo made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season as the Edmonton Oilers beat the St. Louis Blues 5-0 Friday night. Mike Comrie had a goal and two assists, and Ryan Smyth added three assists for the Oilers, who played their first game at home after a 3-3 road trip...

By Dinesh D'Souza ~ USA Today Critics of President Bush's policy toward Iraq often raise the same questions: Isn't it ironic that we're trying to get rid of Saddam Hussein when we once supported him? Doesn't history show that you cannot impose democracy at the point of a bayonet? Isn't it hypocritical for the United States to condemn Saddam as a dictator when it supports many unelected regimes? These criticisms of American foreign policy are not justified, however, and provide no basis for opposing a U.S.-led military campaign to liberate Iraq, assuming that Saddam's acceptance on Wednesday of the United Nations' terms proves duplicitous.. ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A former Ku Klux Klansman convicted in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls claimed in a letter from prison that the FBI was behind the crime. Much of Bobby Frank Cherry's letter, delivered this week to The Associated Press, was copied from a story by an alternative magazine, Media Bypass...

MOSCOW -- The head of Russia's nuclear regulatory agency says small amounts of weapons- and reactor-grade nuclear materials have disappeared from the country's atomic facilities. "Instances of the loss of nuclear materials have been recorded, but what the quantity is is another question," Yuri Vishnyevsky, head of Gosatomnadzor, said Thursday. ...

BEIJING -- Jiang Zemin relinquished his title as Communist Party leader Friday but held on to significant power -- including authority over China's military -- even as he ceded the party's top jobs to the enigmatic Hu Jintao and a younger generation of leaders...

HAVANA -- Cuba agreed to buy food from black American farmers under a U.S. law that allows direct sales of farm products to the island, an NAACP delegation announced Friday. The U.S. law passed in 2000 chips away at the U.S. embargo imposed in the early 1960s after Castro took power. ...

BALI, Indonesia -- Hoping to release the souls of the dead killed in last month's deadly nightclub bombing, thousands of Balinese worshippers -- joined by cabinet ministers, ambassadors and victims' relatives -- performed an elaborate "purification" ceremony Friday...

HEBRON, West Bank -- Palestinian militants raked Israeli troops and settlers with massive gunfire Friday in a carefully orchestrated ambush, killing 12 Israelis and wounding 15 in Hebron, a divided city long plagued by religious tensions and flashes of furious violence...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- They were the forgotten ones -- 49 people whose remains were stored in a metal cabinet for years, waiting for relatives to claim them. A funeral home service finally stepped in and donated a 50-foot plot in a Springfield cemetery, allowing them to be laid to rest Thursday. Some of the remains had been stored up to 30 years...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Charges were filed against two women Friday in the case of a show-and-tell animal attack where they lost control of a 144-pound Bengal tiger at an elementary school and it grabbed a 6-year-old boy's head in its mouth, according to witnesses...

REEDS SPRING, Mo. -- Seven municipal workers in Reeds Spring received paychecks after a federal bankruptcy judge released some funds from garnishment. The employees -- including four police officers -- were given two weeks of back pay Thursday after general operating funds were made available to officials in the southwest Missouri city...

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Texas A&M and Missouri defenses will have a common goal today, stopping freshman quarterbacks who can freeze defensive backs with a run or throw over them for a touchdown. Brad Smith has been leading the Tigers (4-6, 1-5) all season with his running and passing. Reggie McNeal is just getting started for the Aggies (6-4, 3-3)...

Patricia E. Davisson, 87, of Webb City, Mo., died Friday, Nov. 15, 2002, at The Meadows Care Center in Joplin, Mo. She was born Dec. 15, 1914, in Carl Junction, Mo., daughter of Elmer and Martha Herd Gibson. She married John C. Davisson, who died Nov. 1, 1997...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- John Barnhart, 67, of Sikeston died Thursday, Nov. 14, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born May 21, 1935, in Granite City, Ill., son of John and Mary Burnett Barnhart. He and Jewell Austin were married Feb. 4, 1964. Barnhart was a retired farmhand. He was a member of McGee Chapel near Glenallen, Mo., and Moose Lodge in Litchfield, Ill...

MIAMI -- Eight Cubans who flew a Soviet-built crop-duster to Florida this week were released from detention Friday. The eight, including a 2-year-old girl, were taken to a public clinic for routine medical tests and vaccinations, and were expected to be released to their families later Friday...

LOS ANGELES -- Gene Hackman will be honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at next year's Golden Globe Awards. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hosts the ceremony, announced Thursday the star of "The Conversation" and "Crimson Tide" will receive the honorary award for his career of nearly 80 films...

Enabling students to see and touch the past is the whole idea behind Old Fashion Day at Franklin Elementary in Cape Girardeau. The favorite part of Friday afternoon's activities for fourth-grader Owen Hill was rolling beeswax into candles. "I think it would be hard to live without electricity and have to use candles all the time because they had fires that weren't concealed, and once a candle was used up, you had to go buy a new one," Hill said...

FENTON, Mo. -- Before Friday, the Notre Dame Bulldogs had never even played for a chance to play in a state championship. But thanks to a a 2-0 victory over Marshall (23-3) Friday at the Anheuser-Busch Conference and Sports Centre, Notre Dame will be playing for its first soccer state championship today at 2 p.m....

The season hasn't even started yet and Brandon Griffin is already a crowd favorite at the Show Me Center. Griffin had the nearly 1,900 fans squarely in his corner Friday night as Southeast Missouri State University's men's basketball team wrapped up its exhibition schedule with a 92-52 rout of the Dream Builders...

B.J. Smith, Southeast Missouri State University's first-year women's basketball coach, knows the Otahkians are far from a finished product. But Smith came away from his team's second and final exhibition game feeling pretty good about things after Southeast dominated Division II Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 81-65 at the Show Me Center Friday night...

The men and women who served in the U.S. military during World War II have always been held in high esteem, but it wasn't until half a century had passed that they were recognized as what has become the well-known "greatest generation." But it wasn't just for their wartime efforts that so many of today's aging population are admired. They also exemplify an era when morality and ethics were highly valued and when an entrepreneurial spirit propelled America into the world power it is today...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Barely 6 percent of Missouri's townships that administer road programs have complied with a state law requiring they file financial statements with the Missouri Department of Transportation. Until recently, little attention had been given to the requirement, which dates to the early 1900s and affects townships in 22 mostly rural counties...

WASHINGTON -- Missouri Sen. Kit Bond is moving into a key chairmanship that will give him control over next year's multibillion dollar federal highway bill. Bond said Thursday he will oversee the transportation subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee next year, when Republicans take majority control of the Senate...

LARNACA, Cyprus -- Wanted. Cleaning crews for the U.N. inspectors' headquarters in Baghdad. No Iraqis need apply. The ban on local cleaners -- crews from Cyprus will be flown in to keep things tidy -- is only part of stringent security measures planned for the renewal of U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq, according to members of an advance team going to Baghdad on Monday...

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Cardinals on Friday edged closer to building a new stadium downtown, signing an agreement to pursue private financing for the project. It would be only the second privately funded ballpark in recent years. Pac Bell Park in San Francisco, which opened in 2000, was the other. Property Funding Group of Washington, D.C., will be responsible for obtaining the financing and structuring the plan...

10 years ago: Nov. 16, 1992 Eighty-eight-year-old woman was carried from her burning home by two passersby last night, action Acting Fire Chief Max Jauch says may have saved her life; Ruby Stone is rescued by Joseph Orr, member of cross country and track teams at Southeast Missouri State University, and unidentified man; she was treated and released at local hospital...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA on Friday delayed the launch of space shuttle Endeavour until late next week, giving engineers more time to evaluate a pair of potential problems. Space agency officials said Endeavour will lift off no earlier than Nov. 22...

SCURRY, Texas -- A shotgun-wielding man threatened a rural East Texas high school Friday morning until students and a teacher wrestled him to the ground, authorities said. The 18-year-old man, a former student at Scurry-Rosser High School, went into the school office and ordered students into the cafeteria, said principal Richard Sneed...

FROHNA, Mo. -- Dorothy Winter, 81, of Frohna died Thursday, Nov. 14, 2002, at Perry County Nursing Home. She was born Dec. 30, 1920, at Altenburg, Mo., daughter of Oscar and Concordia Lohmann Petzoldt. She and Herbert Winter were married May 31, 1942. He died March 6, 1989...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Pearl Marie Weith, 78, of Perryville died Friday, Nov. 15, 2002, at Perry County Nursing Home. She was born May 5, 1924, at McBride, Mo., daughter of Andrew B. and Jennie Mae Pullum Pillars. She married Homer Weith. Weith had worked in housekeeping at Perry County Memorial Hospital. She was a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church and VFW Auxiliary...

ADVANCE, Mo. -- The funeral for Charles W. "Bud" Schatte of Advance will be at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Morgan Funeral Home. The Revs. Keith Price and Earl Elfrink will officiate. Burial will be in Morgan Memorial Park. Friends may call at the funeral home from 5 to 8 p.m. today...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Charles Willis "Bill" Russell Sr., 69, of Marble Hill died Friday, Nov. 15, 2002, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girar-deau. He was born April 28, 1933, in St. Louis, son of James Delvert and Flossie Irene Ballard Russell. He and Dorcas Lawless were married Oct. 10, 1952, in Jeffersonville, Ind...

Wilson Daughter to Dr. Jim and Nicole Wilson of Ocoee, Fla., Arnold Palmer Hospital for Women and Children in Orlando, Fla., 10:31 a.m. Friday, Nov. 1, 2002. Name, Ashton Grace. Weight, 7 pounds 7 ounces. Second daughter. Mrs. Wilson is the former Nicole Heilman, daughter of Ken and Pat Heilman of Gainesville, Fla. Wilson is the son of James B. and Nancy Wilson of Cape Girardeau. He is a physician with Laurel Oaks Family Practice in Windermere and Clermont, Fla...

A story in Friday's edition should have reported that a fire started in a dryer at Tipton's Linen Service in Cape Girardeau Thursday night. The Southeast Missourian regrets the error.

Good movies to see I CAN understand being upset when parents leave children unchaperoned at movies like "Red Dragon." But it's so hard for parents to know about movies that are coming out. As a parent, I know for sure that "Tuck Everlasting" is appropriate for my children. ...

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Part of a parking garage under construction collapsed Friday, killing at least two workers, injuring another and leaving a fourth missing, fire officials said. Concerns about an additional collapse prompted the evacuation of surrounding buildings, said Pete Piringer, a fire department spokesman...

QUETTA, Pakistan -- Black flags flew over the sprawling family home of Aimal Kasi on Friday as relatives and friends mourned the convicted killer's execution in Virginia. Police were out in force in his hometown and security was increased at U.S. and international installations in Pakistan, but the streets were mostly quiet...

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Spurred by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a court ruling that declared the "under God" portion of the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, states increasingly are requiring that the pledge be said in schools. Twenty-eight states require the pledge to be recited during the school day, according to the Education Commission of the States, a nonprofit national association of state education officials. Another seven encourage schools to conduct the pledge...

Saturday The Rev. John J. Leibrecht, bishop of the Cape Girardeau-Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese, will visit St. Denis parish in Benton, Mo., and celebrate Mass at 4 p.m., at which time 37 candidates for confirmation will be presented. ...

Baseball Tom Glavine received his long-awaited offer from the New York Mets on Friday, a three-year deal worth about $31 million. The Philadelphia Phillies also have made a three-year offer to the 36-year-old left-hander, a contract worth between $27 million and $30 million...

Steps of faith leads Cape First Assembly church in new direction UPCOMING EVENTS Nov. 23-24: Celebration of heritage; last services at Mount Auburn Road. Dec. 1: First service in the new building at Silver Springs Road...

TEHRAN, Iran -- About 1,000 supporters of Iran's hard-line clerics took to the streets Friday calling for the execution of a reformist scholar convicted of insulting Islam. The sentence against Hashem Aghajari, a history professor who challenged the ruling clerics' interpretation of Islam, has touched off the biggest protests in Tehran in three years, with thousands of university students demanding the reversal of his death sentence...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombian army troops rescued one of Latin American's leading Roman Catholic bishops and another priest on Friday after a gunbattle with their rebel captors in an Andean mountain region. Laughing with joy and his face covered with several days' white stubble, Bishop Jorge Enrique Jimenez was flown in a military Huey helicopter to an army base in Bogota, where he was mobbed by family members, camouflage-clad soldiers and journalists...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Despite a bleak budgetary outlook, a state-appointed salary commission has recommended $5.6 million in pay raises for Missouri's top elected officials, state lawmakers and judges. But the recommendations by the Citizens' Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials are unlikely to take effect. That's because legislators can reject them or simply refuse to provide the money for the increases...

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has granted a conditional go-ahead to a Swiss company that wants to build the nation's largest cement plant in Missouri. An environmental group said the state caved in to pressure in granting clean-water certification to Holcim Inc. for the proposed plant 59 miles north of Cape Girardeau...

Carol Kibicho of Kenya, Nadine Aboul-Magd of Egypt, Albert Oko of Nigeria, Sachi Imuta of Japan, Sandra Liu of Taiwan and Chondamma Gummatira of India were among hundreds who jammed the University Center Friday afternoon for a show-and-tell-athon about different cultures represented at Southeast Missouri State University...

The staff, students and parents of Saxony Lutheran High School soon may witness the construction of a new building thanks to a sizable donation from a Jackson farmer. Gerhard Birk gave $569,000 to the school Friday morning at a check presentation to the school's board of regents. His gift will go toward realizing the school's proposed campus master plan, which includes a 36,000-square-foot building with classrooms, offices, worship space, music and athletic facilities...

Southeast Missouri State University may consider buying the First Baptist Church property that borders its Cape Girardeau campus, but school officials say they're far from making any decision. Rumors have been rampant for several weeks that the university would buy the property. But school and church officials insist there's been no transaction...

BLODGETT, Mo. -- A search warrant executed Thursday at the home of a Scott County couple uncovered the largest indoor marijuana growing operation seen in Southeast Missouri in more than a dozen years, said Kevin Glaser of the SEMO Drug Task Force. More than 1,200 marijuana plants were found growing in an elaborate hydroponic system inside the home of Darryl W. and Vicki L. McKnelly at Fox Meadows Estates, near Blodgett...

HARRIMAN, Tenn. -- The bride wore white bandages from head to broken foot. The groom, in a donated tuxedo, stood unsteadily at her hospital bedside. Jimmi Langley and Ronnie Ray, two 18-year-old survivors of a deadly tornado that swept through their mountain community on Sunday, exchanged vows in the intensive care unit Thursday...