BUSINESS MEMO

Father and son physicians, Dr. Melvin C. Kasten and Dr. Mark C. Kasten, both of Cape Girardeau, were elected to posts in the Missouri State Medical Association (MSMA) during the group's annual convention.

Melvin Kasten was elected president-elect of the 6,000-member MSMA. He is a past chairman of the MSMA Council and has served on the council since 1983. He will assume the presidency of the association at its 1993 annual meeting.

Mark Kasten was elected MSMA vice councilor from the Southeast Missouri region. He is also current president of the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians.

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JACKSON The Jackson Chamber of Commerce will hold its April general membership meeting Monday at the Main Street Center here.

Nominations for board positions for both the chamber and the Jackson Industrial Development Company will be accepted during the meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. A final vote on the new board position will be held during the May meeting.

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SIKESTON The Bank of Sikeston became AmeriFirst Bank Monday.

"There are no new owners, no new employees, just a new title," said President Rick Adams.

"We are merging with our sister bank in Cape Girardeau, AmeriFirst Bank," said Adams. "The Cape Girardeau bank will be a branch of our Sikeston bank."

AmeriFirst Bank opened in Cape Girardeau in May 1990. AmeriFirst and Bank of Sikeston were owned by the same holding company but were two different banks with two different names.

The Sikeston bank was known as Bank of Sikeston for 105 years.

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CARBONDALE, Ill. Richard R. Johnston is new publisher at the Southern Illinoisan newspaper at Carbondale.

Johnston, previously publisher of the Ottumwa (Iowa) Courier, replaced Peter W. Selkowe, who was named publisher of the Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota.

The Southern Illinoisan, Bismarck Tribune and Ottumwa Courier are all owned by Lee Enterprises, Inc., a Davenport, Iowa-based media corporation that owns 19 daily newspapers and seven television stations.

Johnson, a journalism graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been with the Lee group 17 years, starting as an advertising sales representative in 1975. He remained in advertising until 1985, when he was appointed publisher at the Star Courier in Kewanee, Ill. He transferred to Ottumwa in 1987.

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KANSAS CITY Construction is under way on a new Internal Revenue Service Center here.

The 35,000-square-foot structure will serve as the pilot site for the new IRS Service Center Support System that includes 10 regional centers nationwide.

The new center is scheduled for completion in January of next year.

The IRS's tax systems modernization program is a long-range strategy to prepare for future information systems needs and to provide improved customer service.

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ST. LOUIS Boatmen's Bancshares, Inc., reported that first quarter net income for 1992 increased 31.7 percent to $45.6 million, from $34.6 million the year before.

Earnings per share, reflecting a common stock offering in April of 1991, rose 20 percent to $1.20 per share, from $1 per share.

"These results are encouraging and reflect continued strength in net interest income and non-interest income," noted Andrew B. Craig III, chairman, president and chief executive officer.

On March 31, total assets stood at $18.6 billion, up from $16.3 billion a year ago. The increase was primarily attributable to purchase acquisitions of First Interstate Bank of Oklahoma, Founders Bancorporation and Superior Federal Bank.

Boatmen's, the 34th largest U.S. bank holding company, has the leading market share position in Missouri. It has operations in more than 300 locations in Illinois, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri, including Boatmen's Bank of Cape Girardeau.

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Schnucks has added six new products to its GreenMark line ultra laundry detergent, automatic dish detergent, bath tissue, one-ply towels, napkins and facial tissues.

The GreenMark line was developed in 1990 to provide products with emphasis on the environment in either the manufacturing process or the materials used.

"Our intent is to offer our customers environmentally safer, high-quality product alternatives whenever possible," said Scott Schnuck, company president and chief operating officer.

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ST. LOUIS Mercantile Bancorporation, Inc., reported income of $19,250,000 for the first quarter of 1992, an increase of 25.7 percent over the $15.3 million in earnings for the same period a year ago.

"Mercantile carried its strong earnings performance from 1991 into the first quarter of 1992 despite an overall sluggish economy," said Thomas H. Jacobsen, chairman and chief executive officer.

Total assets as of March 31 reached a record level of $8.3 billion, up from the $7.4 billion a year earlier. The increase reflects the acquisition of the insurance deposits of five branches of Home Federal Savings Association of Kansas City from the Resolution Trust Corp. in March.

Mercantile, headquartered in St. Louis, owns 28 banks in Illinois and Missouri, including Mercantile Bank of Cape Girardeau.