This afternoon on seMissourian.com

2009 air show canceled

Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival organizers announced this morning that the show will take a hiatus in 2009 as they begin to work toward a 2010 show. Airport manager Bruce Loy said negotiations to bring the Blue Angels demonstration team were unsuccessful, though he's optimistic the team could appear at the show in 2010.

Though Loy applies for a military air demonstration every year, he said it's nearly impossible to land one over the traditional date of the show, which is July 4th weekend. The last time the Blue Angels performed in Cape Girardeau was 1992.

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Dexter receives FEMA grant

The city of Dexter has received $80,695 in grant money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State Emergency Management Agency for storm clean-up from the remnants of Hurricane Ike. The storm's strong winds scattered trees, limbs and other debris on private and public property throughout the city on Sept. 11.

The city was then declared a disaster area and qualified for a 77 percent grant from FEMA, matched by 25 percent from SEMA for the city to clean up after the storm. The effort that included city crews and private property owners occurred from Sept. 11 to 24.

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Wanted: used Christmas trees

Christmas is only a day away and that means you probably will no longer need your tree. The city of Jackson is wanting to put those trees to good use.

For the second year, the city is asking residents to take their trees to the Jackson Recycling Center, where a special marked area will be set up to receive them. All ornaments, tinsel and other decorations must be removed before dropping off the trees. The project is designed to control a severe erosion problem along Hubble Creek.

Friday on seMissourian.com

Check back on Friday for more on the cancelation of next year's Cape Girardeau air show and a story on how families celebrated Christmas apart from unwrapping presents. The Southeast Missourian will not publish on Thursday because of the Christmas holiday but will post any breaking news at semissourian.com tomorrow.