LOCAL LEGISLATIVE PANEL TO APPEAR AT FRIDAY COFFEE

Cape Girardeau County's three members of the Missouri General Assembly will join legislators from Perryville and Dexter for a legislative update of the past session, at the Cape Girardeau First Friday Coffee at 7:30 a.m. Friday.

Appearing on the panel will be: Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau; Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau; Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson; Sen. Jerry Howard, D-Dexter; and Rep. Pat Naeger,R-Perryville.

The legislative panel will bring chamber members up to date on the issues and happenings in Jefferson City.

Jan Newton, president of Missouri Southwestern Bell, will also attend and meet with a group following the coffee to discuss the telecommunications future.

Legislators, Cape Girardeau county and city officials, chamber officials and other community leaders will sit in on Newton's 9 a.m. session.

Newton will discuss digital subscriber line (DSL), which will be offered in Cape Girardeau this year.

DSL features high-speed Internet access and telephone and fax service on the same lines.

Equipment is current being installed at the Southwestern Bell Telephone office at 800 Broadway, which will allow the company to hook up a number of Cape Girardeau residents by late summer.

Cape Girardeau will be the first area for the new system in Southeast Missouri.

First customers to be installed will be businesses and residents within a three-mile area of the SWB office on Broadway.

Once the first phase is operational in Cape Girardeau, SW Bell will be looking at Jackson, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff and Farmington areas.

Newton, who was appointed to her present position last year, has been with Southwestern Bell since 1976 and has held many management positions in regulatory, legislative, government and external affairs, as well a community and industry relations, throughout Missouri.

Before being appointed, Newton served as executive director in the office of the SBC Communications Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edward E. Whittler Jr.