Region/state digest 10/03/04

Businesses at Cape airport to stay open

The Landing Place restaurant and other businesses at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport including two car rental firms will remain open while the runways are closed to air traffic later this fall because of construction work, airport manager Bruce Loy said. The airport terminal will also remain open. The runways will be closed to commuter and general aviation traffic from 8 p.m. on Oct. 31 to 5 a.m. on Nov. 10. But Arch Air Medical Service, based at the airport, will continue to fly its ambulance helicopter and respond to medical emergencies, Loy said. The airport's two runways will be closed for 10 days to allow a contractor to make improvements to the intersection of the two runways and construction of a new taxiway and earth work at both ends of the main runway.

Presidential election topic of lectures at SEMO

The 2004 presidential election will be the topic of two lectures at Southeast Missouri State University on Wednesday. Gary Jacobson, a professor of political science at the University of California-San Diego, will present the lectures. He will speak at noon in Crisp Hall Auditorium. He also will speak from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Dempster Hall's Glenn Auditorium. Both events are free and open to the public.

Mother sentenced for kidnapping daughter

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A woman who took her premature daughter from an intensive care unit of a Springfield hospital was sentenced Friday to 17 years in prison. Machelle Slavens, 27, was convicted in July of kidnapping, interfering with custody and endangering the welfare of a child. Slavens took her baby, Taylor Kelley Martin, on Nov. 9, 2000. The 4-pound baby was on a feeding tube to keep her from being dehydrated. Machelle Slavens was charged with kidnapping because Division of Family Services had notified her the day before the abduction that it was taking custody of the baby, prosecutors said.

-- From staff, wire reports