SPEAKOUT

I WOULD LIKE to know why it is that a police officer cannot pull over a person who is in obvious violation of the seat belt or seat restraining law when it comes to children. When a child is in a car running about the car, and a cop sees this, why is it that he cannot pull that car over and fine the driver of the car? It is against the law not to have your child in the safety seat or buckled in. People violate this law all of the time and I have seen police cars sitting next to these people at stop lights and yet somebody has told me that the law cannot pull these people over although they are obviously and blatantly breaking a law. I would like to know why it is that they cannot pull these people over and ticket them? Thank you.

Sgt. Al Moore, who heads the traffic division at the Cape Girardeau Police Department, said an officer can stop a vehicle and charge the driver if a child under 4 years of age is not restrained. But he said after that age a child falls under the state's seat belt law. Under that law an officer can only charge a person with a seat belt violation if the vehicle is stopped for a separate violation. Moore said it is sometimes hard to judge the age of a child. If that age is questionale, an officer can stop a vehicle to check on the child's age, he said, but the officer has to rely on the information as provided by the parent.

I'M A LIBERAL and a Democrat and very proud of it. So maybe that's why I feel obligated to respond to remarks made in this paper by a 20 year old college student. The caller felt that because the student's facts were incorrect, he must of course, be a liberal Democrat. Now I know inflation is not high compared to the 70s, unemployment is not over 8 percent, it's 7 percent or less and interest rates are relatively low. But what I say here is that the caller is wrong because he's a conservative Republican. No, I would say that he is uninformed and he should brush up on his own knowledge of economics, quit playing politics with statistics and let George Bush play the role of a fool. He is more experienced at it.

IT'S DEJA VU time and now the $64,000 question. Who has ordered the plans for the addition to the Show Me Center and will they be in progress prior to the final decision of the City Council? If the university wants a pet project, then fund it without my taxes. I don't live here to support its wish list. The university would be using my taxes toward incurring more debt for the benefit of the university. Don't sugarcoat it. I fail to see how an addition can benefit those fitting the bill. Return the revenue to the residents. And lastly, is it just coincidence that in the same breath it is announced, that a staunch university supporter has thrown her mortar board in the ring for the position of Cape council? I'm still choking back the bile from the original Show Me Center mess. The public has learned its lesson and don't try to sneak this one by us.

HOW COME THEY took the garbage pickup away on Thursday now? They used to pick it up on Monday and Thursday. Now they quit it on Thursday, just take it up on Monday. I was putting my garbage out a while ago and they told they don't take it but once a week. I asked them did they come down on the prices, and they said no, they didn't come down on the prices. They were recycling now. You see, I've been on vacation for about six months out there in Hawaii and I was wondering how come they went and took off the garbage. Well, they told me they're recycling now so I should recycle.

In parts of the city where garbage had previously been collected on Monday and Thursday, general collections are now on Monday only, with recyclable items only being collected on the same routes on Thursday.