Region/state digest 10/05/02

Regulators, Laclede reach agreement on upping rate

ST. LOUIS -- Customers of Laclede Gas Co. will see their average monthly bills increase by $1.80 after the utility reached a settlement with the Missouri Public Service Commission.

The rate increase that takes effect Nov. 1 should total $14 million, but the company said it wouldn't seek another rate increase for 16 months.

"It's a reasonable solution for all parties involved in the case," Kevin Kelly, a PSC spokesman, said Thursday.

Laclede Gas provides natural gas service to more than 630,000 customers, primarily in the St. Louis area and Southeast Missouri.

The rate increase will allow Laclede Gas to recoup its distribution costs, despite unpredictable weather. In the past decade, St. Louis has seen abnormally warm winters, resulting in lower demand for natural gas, said Richard Hargraves, a utility spokesman. As a result, Laclede Gas didn't recoup its distribution costs, he said.

SONiA to perform at Cape Senior Center

Recording artist SONiA will perform Oct. 16 at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center.

Her appearance is sponsored by the lesbian organization Insisterhood/Equal Footing.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Advance tickets are available by calling 651-6220.

Annual lecture to cover women's history

Dr. Mary Kahl, a professor at State University of New York-New Paltz, will deliver the eighth annual Weis Lecture on Oct. 16 at Southeast Missouri State University.

The lecture, titled "The Contested Rhetorics of Women's History: Public Memory and Political Lessons at Seneca Falls," will be held at 7 p.m. in Dempster Hall's Glenn Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Kahl will talk about the design and messages of the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y. The historical park is the site of the women's rights convention that launched the women's suffrage movement.

The annual lecture is funded by an endowment in honor of Emil C. Weis who earned a bachelor's degree from Southeast in 1918.

Columbia man sentenced in teenager's death

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- One of three men accused in the stabbing death of a Columbia teenager has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Anthony Graves, 21, of Columbia, pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder and armed criminal action and was sentenced to life in prison, plus 10 years.

Graves was the first person to be convicted and sentenced in the stabbing death of Dexter Bradford, 17, whose body was found Jan. 3 on a frozen creek.

Two other defendants, Larry Cain and Shannon Gregory, are awaiting trial later this year.

Graves' attorney, Kim Shaw, said he entered the plea after learning that the prosecution intended to upgrade the charge to first-degree murder.

Assistant prosecutor Dan Knight said Graves and his co-defendants feared Bradford would testify against them in a Dec. 22 shooting.

As part of the plea agreement, Knight agreed not to prosecute Graves on that shooting and three others in which he was a suspect.

Court delays execution date for Kansas City man

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court has delayed by almost a month the planned execution of a Kansas City man convicted in a 1986 murder.

The state's highest court on Friday quashed the original Oct. 23 execution date for William R. Jones and rescheduled it for Nov. 20 after Jones' attorneys requested more time to prepare a clemency petition to Gov. Bob Holden.

Jones, 37, was sentenced to death for the shooting death of Stanley Albert, whose body was found wrapped in a blanket near Independence.

Albert had been shot five times in the neck and chest.-- From staff, wire reports