Out of the past: April 28

1994

Mid-South Steel and Cape Girardeau's sewer system are the direct beneficiaries of $75,000 worth of state emergency flood aid awarded yesterday by the Department of Economic Development; through an Emergency Flood Infrastructure Grant, the city will be able to make sanitary sewer improvements necessary for Mid-South Steel Products to relocate from a flood plain along the Mississippi River to an industrial park here.

Academic freedom wasn't an issue in the firing of Southeast Missouri State University science professor David Stewart, a Faculty Senate committee has concluded; the committee also concluded there was no evidence university procedures had been violated in Stewart's case.

1969

A wild chase through Cape Girardeau streets yesterday morning had a wet ending for a 27-year-old Cape Girardeau man; police pulled him from the Mississippi River near the traffic bridge after he drove a car into the river near the Themis Street floodgate; the automobile belonged to B&M Auto Sales, 438 Broadway.

A Cape Girardeau County grand jury files its final report in the morning, citing the citizens role in law enforcement, commenting on Cape Girardeau Police Department problems, taking the news media to task for some reporting and recommending changes in the local courts.

1944

Surging upward, the Mississippi River reaches 38.9 feet at 8 a.m. in Cape Girardeau with no relief in sight; the high water brings suspension of work at the shoe factory for its 1,500 employees, speeds up protection work at the power plant and the cement plant, and causes more business houses on Main Street to move; in Illinois, hundreds of state militiamen and volunteers are working on the dikes near Wolf Lake and Aldridge.

Highway 25, between St. Marys and Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, is closed due to the high stage of the Mississippi River; highways 61, 25 and 74 remain open in the Cape Girardeau area, and Illinois roads to Anna and Cairo are in use.

1919

The courthouse at Jackson is jammed with men trying to get before the board of appeals to object to their property assessments; at noon, the line extends from the county clerk's office through the corridors to the front door of the courthouse.

Twenty-three young men who served in the Army or Navy in the recent World War in some capacity gathered at the courthouse in Jackson on Saturday to take the initial steps toward organizing a county unit of the American Legion; it was resolved to wait until the other boys have returned home from overseas before organizing permanently.

-- Sharon K. Sanders