This afternoon on seMissourian.com

Teen accused of rape appears in court

Back in December we wrote about the Sikeston, Mo., teenager who was charged with the shocking crime of raping an 80-year-old woman in her south Cape Girardeau home — a story that was widely read and talked about.

The teenager, Mitchell West, appeared in a Cape Girardeau courtroom today and waived his right to a preliminary hearing. We'll have more on this story later, but click here for the details we have right now.

And in other area crime news, the Louisiana murder suspect who was arrested in Cape Girardeau earlier this week after a high speed chase will be back on his way to his home state. We'll have more on that story later today.

Temperature bottoms out in Cape Girardeau

Depending on where you took your measurement, the temperature in Cape Girardeau may or may not have reached zero degrees last night.

We took measurements this morning at our weather station at the Cape Girardeau City Hall building, which said the low last night reached 2 below zero. However, the National Weather Service registered a slightly higher low at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

Meanwhile the temperature in northern part of the state reached 10 below or lower.

Purcell brings up books

Several months have passed since we heard a peep out of the county commission about Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle having links to information about his books on the county website.

But in this morning's commission meeting, commissioner Jay Purcell brought the issue up again, saying he'll ask Swingle to voluntarily remove the links.

Click here for more on the story, and check back later today for updates.

Later today and Friday on seMissourian.com

Check seMissourian.com this afternoon for updates to the stories mentioned above and a story on how Gov. Jay Nixon's policy of awarding license offices by competitive bid will affect offices in Southeast Missouri.

Come back Friday for full versions of these stories and an update on construction progress at Jackson schools.