Out of the past 4/15/07

25 years ago: April 15, 1982

Calling it a "bum law," Division III Associate Circuit Judge William S. Rader yesterday criticized a new law that gives public defenders in the state authority to declare defendants "indigent" rather than judges, who had that responsibility before; Rader made that assessment while speaking as part of a panel discussion during Criminal Justice Day of the Southeast Missouri State University campus.

Cape Girardeau County will pay the expenses of a new election in the Delta R-5 School district as a result of voting problems in the Delta-Randle precinct in the April 6 election, says County Court Presiding Judge Gene Huckstep.

50 years ago: April 15, 1957

Work on one section of the new municipal swimming pool at Capaha Park will be delayed three weeks because vandals turned on water and filled it over the weekend; the deep section of the pool was filled when the hose wasn't discovered running until Sunday.

Fire, apparently set by lightning in the evening, destroys the office and store building of the Niswonger Lumber Co. on Highway 61 south, one block outside the Cape Girardeau city limits.

75 years ago: April 15, 1932

Cape Girardeau officials, interpreting an order issued yesterday by the Missouri Public Service Commission, say they believe that the ruling means that the Missouri Utilities Co. must within 30 days place its new water plant here in operation.

The retail price of gasoline at all Cape Girardeau filling stations is hiked one penny; the price increase is general throughout the territory; prices range from 12.6 cents to 18.6 cents per gallon, according to grades of gasoline.

100 years ago: April 15, 1907

The Dreamland Theater opens in the evening, the first performance consisting of moving pictures and illustrated songs.

J.A. Hiller, manager of the Southwestern Fuel Co., a concern that has built up a big wholesale business in Southern Illinois, has moved his office to Cape Girardeau and in the future the business of the company will be conducted here; the company is agent for Carterville Big Muddy Coal in this territory.

-- Sharon K. Sanders