WOLF LAKE, Ill. — Students in the Shawnee School District in Wolf Lake will begin a "hybrid" learning model, with four days of in-person learning and one day of online instruction each week, starting Oct. 5. The district's board of education voted 4-1 in favor of the hybrid model Thursday night...

Cape Girardeau County’s death toll attributed to COVID-19 grew by five Wednesday and Thursday. Cape Girardeau County health officials reported one death Wednesday and four Thursday, by far the largest one-day death total from the disease associated with coronavirus. The deaths increased the county’s virus death toll to 23. ...

Southeast Missouri State University announced revised plans for fall 2020 commencement, which will include in-person events and the inclusion of spring and summer 2020 graduates. Fall commencement was rescheduled from its original Dec. 19 date to Nov. 21 to better align with the conclusion of in-person classes. In-person instruction will end Nov. 24 and will begin remotely Nov. 30, concluding with online final exams...

Three area residents died of COVID-19 Tuesday and/or Wednesday. The deaths came in Cape Girardeau, Scott and Stoddard counties and were among several dozen new cases of the disease associated with coronavirus. Active cases in Cape Girardeau County grew to 411 Tuesday as the county reported 24 new cases, pushing the county’s total number of cases to 1,632. Eighteen county residents have died because of the virus...

Plasma from whole blood donations made through the American Red Cross that test positive for COVID-19 antibodies can potentially help more coronavirus patients in need of plasma transfusions thanks to changes initiated this week in blood collection and testing protocols...

Our nation needs prayer. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only cost thousands of lives, but it's left many in fear and kept others in isolation. The country has dealt with numerous examples of unrest in the streets with law enforcement facing dangerous situations...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Hospitals in Missouri's third-largest city are approaching capacity due to a surge in coronavirus cases. Officials at Springfield's two major hospital systems, CoxHealth and Mercy, told the City Council on Tuesday they were running out of staff and capacity, the Springfield News-Leader reported...

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Iowa regulators have issued their first citation to a meatpacking plant with a large coronavirus outbreak that sickened its workforce -- a $957 fine for a minor record-keeping violation. The outbreak at the Iowa Premium Beef Plant in Tama in April resulted in 338 of the plant's 850 workers testing positive for the virus, 80 more than the state previously acknowledged, according to inspection records released Thursday...

Cape Girardeau County’s mask mandate, initiated in mid-July by the county health department’s board of trustees, will continue at least one more month. Board members voted unanimously to extend the order Tuesday and will review it at their next meeting, set for Oct. 27. However, they agreed the order could be reconsidered sooner should conditions warrant, something they said is not likely...

O'FALLON, Mo. -- The mostly rural Bootheel region of Missouri is seeing high numbers of confirmed cases of the coronavirus, but unlike many other hard-hit areas, the surge isn't tied to any particular place or demographic. Information from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services shows several Southeast Missouri counties have some of the state's worst rates of confirmed cases per capita. ...

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 200,000 Tuesday, by far the highest in the world, hitting the once-unimaginable threshold six weeks before an election that is certain to be a referendum in part on President Donald Trump's handling of the crisis...

UNITED NATIONS -- Kept apart by a devastating pandemic and dispersed across the globe, world leaders convened electronically Tuesday for an unprecedented high-level meeting, where the U.N. chief exhorted them to unite and tackle the era's towering problems: the coronavirus, the "economic calamity" it unleashed and the risk of a new Cold War between the United States and China...

Law enforcement authorities in Cape Girardeau County will soon be able to scan individuals for hidden weapons and contraband thanks to full-body scanning technology that will soon be in place at the Cape Girardeau and Jackson police departments and the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Office...

Nearly 120 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Cape Girardeau County over the past three days, and county health officials attributed two deaths to the disease associated with coronavirus. According to the county’s Public Health Center, 49 new cases were reported Saturday — 36 in Cape Girardeau, six in Jackson and seven elsewhere in the county. ...

LONDON -- As the U.S. closed in on 200,000 coronavirus deaths Monday, the crisis deteriorated across Europe, with Britain working to draw up new restrictions, Spain clamping down again in Madrid and the Czech Republic replacing its health minister with an epidemiologist because of a surge of infections...

Southeast Missouri State University has again been recognized among the top 100 "best regional universities in the Midwest," according to the latest rankings by U.S. News & World Report's "Best Colleges" rankings for 2021. Southeast, which was ranked 78th among the Midwest's best regional universities in 2020, improved to No. ...

In what is apparently a budget-cutting move, the Missouri Department of Revenue seems to have stopped sending notices to retailers, restaurants and other businesses to let them know about changes in sales-tax rates. Cape Girardeau County Treasurer Roger Hudson discussed the matter last week during a County Commission meeting...