Out of the past: April 4

1991

CAIRO, Ill. -- Federal officials are silent regarding the FBI's seizure of absentee ballots in the Cairo election Tuesday night; Alexander County Clerk Sue Harrington said about 30 FBI agents and some agents from the Illinois Department of Criminal Investigation were on hand while absentee ballots were counted; once tallied, the agents seized the ballots.

Boardings at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport are lagging well behind last year's pace, prompting fears the port won't get the 10,000 boardings needed to receive $300,000 in annual Federal Aviation Administration entitlement funds for airport development.

1966

Cape Girardeau County chalked up the worst forest fire in this region this weekend, with a 65-acre woods fire near Oriole, reports Norman Runyon, district forestry for the Perryville Fire Protection District; the blaze was the largest in the six-county district.

A low bid of $5,269 for the sale of three police cars to the city of Cape Girardeau is submitted by Cape GMC-Pontiac, one of five bidders; the bids were received and opened by city manager Paul F. Frederick, who, with the police department, will study them and make a recommendation to the city council.

1941

An agreement has been reached between the city governments of Cape Girardeau and Jackson, and representatives of the Federal Food Stamp administration by which the last obstacle has been removed from beginning the project in this county; because the administration couldn't enter into an agreement with the merchants who are funding the program here, since they aren't incorporated, the cities of Jackson and Cape Girardeau have agreed to act as sponsors.

Hundreds of youngsters, their teachers and parents are in Cape Girardeau for the second day of contests in the music division of the annual Southeast Missouri School Meet at the Teachers College campus.

1916

CAIRO, Ill. -- Cairo Mayor Walter H. Wood, addressing about 50 residents who appear before the city council in the interest of "lifting the Sunday lid," declared, "The saloons are now closed on Sunday, and so far as I am concerned, they will remain closed."

COMMERCE, Mo. -- Charles I. Anderson, prominent businessman of Commerce and one of the big landowners and farmers of Scott County, dies at his home in the morning at age 57; Anderson was born on a farm south of Oran, Missouri, on Jan. 3, 1859, his parents having migrated to the area from Kentucky; for 30 years, he was a merchant in Commerce.

-- Sharon K. Sanders