Local briefs 12/10/04

Latest bridge lighting problems fixed

The decorative lights once again are illuminating the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge. A blown transformer turned off the lights in October. Missouri Department of Transportation officials said a new transformer had to be ordered. The contractor received the new transformer in late November and work was completed earlier this week. The lights on the Cape Girardeau bridge were turned on Wednesday, MoDOT officials said. The bridge has been plagued with lighting problems almost since the lights first were turned on Feb. 21. Problems with moisture caused them to be turned off March 11 and they remained off until a component on the light fixtures was replaced. The lights came back on May 7.

Oliver House Museum open on Sunday

The Oliver House Museum, 224 E. Adams St., Jackson, will be open for tours at 1:30 p.m. Sunday and Dec. 19.

Marble Hill church plans Christmas bazaar

First Church of God in Marble Hill, Mo., will hold a Christmas bazaar from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in the church fellowship hall at 105 Second St. in Marble Hill. There will be a bake sale and a trash-to-treasure sale. A luncheon of soup or chili, dessert and drink will be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Spider, insect bite cause of boot camp death

KINGSTON, Mo. -- A teenager who died while attending a private boot camp was probably killed by complications from an insect or spider bite, possibly a brown recluse, Caldwell County officials said. The 15-year-old boy died Nov. 3. Sheriff Kirby Brelsford said his office got a 911 call from the Thayer Learning Institute in Kidder, reporting that a juvenile boy was unresponsive. He was taken to a hospital in Cameron, where he was pronounced dead about an hour after the emergency call was made.

Ex-boyfriend held in death of woman, three children

ST. LOUIS -- The man suspected of killing his live-in girlfriend and her three children in suburban St. Louis was arrested Thursday in Kentucky. Leonard Sheldon Taylor, 40, was captured without incident just before 11 a.m. in Madisonville, Ky., about 120 miles west of Louisville. Taylor had been sought since the bodies of Angela Rowe, 28, daughters Alexus, 10, and Aqura, 6, and son Tyrese, 5, were found inside their Jennings, Mo., home Dec. 3. Taylor was not the father of the children.

Student suspended after sharing ADHD meds

JOPLIN, Mo. -- A fifth-grade student in Joplin has been suspended for 10 days for offering classmates a taste of a prescription drug commonly used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. No students were harmed, a school official said Thursday. The student took one capsule of Adderall to Joplin's Kelsey Norman Elementary School, said Jim Simpson, superintendent for the Joplin School District. The student broke open the capsule and poured the powder on his desk in what Simpson described as a "show and tell" Tuesday for his friends. "The student told them it was a happy pill," Simpson said.

Brain-damaged boxer seeks judgment

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A brain-damaged boxer deserves a legal rematch against the hotel that hosted his bout if the Missouri Supreme Court overturns a $13.7 million jury judgment for his career-ending injury, the boxer's attorney argued Thursday. But an attorney for the St. Louis hotel contends Mexican boxer Fernando Ibarra should lose both the money and the chance to win it a second time. Thursday's arguments marked the second time in seven months the Supreme Court has considered Ibarra's injury lawsuit against Gateway Hotel Holdings Inc. The court has not yet ruled.

-- From staff, wire reports