Region briefs 3/22

Reception planned to welcome sheriff home

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- He's home from the the Middle East and ready to assume the helm of the county's law enforcement agency again.

Stoddard County Sheriff Steve Fish returned this week from service with the Missouri Air National Guard in Kuwait as a part of military action following terrorist attacks on America.

To welcome the sheriff back to Stoddard County, there will a reception from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Monday at the Stoddard County Justice Center in Bloomfield.

Pot, illegal gun seized; Bluff residents arrested

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Two Poplar Bluff residents may face drug distribution and weapons charges after officers seized about a quarter pound of suspected marijuana and a sawed-off shotgun at their residence.

Heather Vanessa Price, 23, and Lejon Antoinne Watkins, 19, were arrested Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of possession of more than 35 grams of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of an altered firearm.

Poplar Bluff police began monitoring the house after learning there was a lot of foot and vehicle traffic there.

Police seized about one-quarter pound of suspected marijuana, which included 25 smaller bags bundled up for distribution and two bags containing bulk weight.

Two hypodermic needles, rolling papers, "float scales" and more than $300 cash were also seized.

Matthews residents file petition in school issue

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- The New Madrid County Board of Education has formally accepted Matthews area residents' petition opposing consolidation of the district's three elementary schools.

The petition, with some 361 names, will be considered as the feasibility study continues on the proposed consolidation of the elementary schools at Matthews, Lilbourn and New Madrid. While the petition was accepted during the board's March meeting this week, the board denied the citizens' request to "promise" not to close the Matthews school.

Dr. Mike Barnes, school superintendent, said the feasibility study would take two to three months and that no decision would be made until late summer or fall.

Husband to fill late wife's term on board

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Stoddard County commissioners have appointed Gary Crites of Essex, Mo., to fill an unexpired term of his late wife, Cissy Crites, on the Stoddard County Industrial Development Association board.

That term will expire June 30, as will the terms of Mack Mullins of Dudley, Mo., John Pruitt of Dexter, Mo., and Julian Steiner of Bell City, Mo.

Panel mulls taking Potter books from schools

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A Springfield school district committee is assessing if the popular Harry Potter books can stay in school libraries after a grandmother complained about their content.

The special review committee is expected to spend next month assessing the complaint. A decision is expected the first week of May.

The woman asked that the books be removed from schools because of content involving witchcraft.

Passer-by uses clothes to save burning man

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A man on his way to donating old clothes to charity used the garments to smother flames that had engulfed a man on a Kansas City ice cream store's parking lot.

Daryl Haley was driving his clothes to a Goodwill store Wednesday when he saw the man burning underneath a trailer on the parking lot east of downtown.

Haley pulled the man from under the trailer and began to smother the flames with the clothes. The 46-year-old man was hospitalized Wednesday night in critical condition with burns on more than 60 percent of his body.

-- From wire and news service reports