Out of the past: July 28

1994

With a signed contract in hand and three possible sites on the horizon, Lady Luck Gaming Corp. is charging full steam ahead in a quest to be the first company to open a riverboat gambling facility in Southeast Missouri; Lady Luck officials will meet Saturday or Sunday with four commissioners and the executive vice president of Little River Drainage District to begin negotiations over use of the channel.

At a dinner in his honor, retiring Cape Girardeau County Sheriff Norman Copeland is praised as a man of character and integrity, an example of professionalism who restored public confidence in the sheriff's office in his eight years at that post; a crowd of 250 people turns out to pay tribute to Copeland.

1969

Property assessments within incorporated towns will be increased 5% and all other real estate will be increased 30% for 1969; the County Board of Equalization, which has been grappling with a State Tax Commission order to increase real estate assessments by $7,000,000, adjourns in the afternoon after ordering the increase put on the books.

Groundbreaking for a 12-unit trailer court on the State College farm for married students is underway; college workers are laying sewer lines to the area, off Bertling Street near the North Sprigg Street intersection, and bulldozing away brush and dirt to prepare for actual construction.

1944

The windstorm of Wednesday night was definitely tornadic in character, and it is apparent Cape Girardeau had a narrow escape from disaster, professor A.C. Magill told the Optimist Club last night; Magill, a scientist at State College, said examination of trees revealed the twisting effect, which accompanies tornadoes, was very evident here.

Conservation agent Edward A. Hartell has discovered three deer living in the hills north of Neelys Landing; they enjoy the protection of residents of that sector; they think so much of these deer up in that country anyone killing one of these animals would start a riot, Hartell says.

1919

There will be no Common Pleas Court in Cape Girardeau for a day or two, as Judge John A. Snider sustained a broken wrist Saturday evening when the Ford car he was cranking back-fired, the crank lever striking his wrist violently; likewise, Claude Clark of the Thomas E. Clark Music Co. suffered a broken arm earlier that day, when he was cranking his Ford car.

Herman Schulenberg's saloon in Dutchtown was robbed some time Saturday night, and quite a lot of whiskey stored there was stolen; robbers gained entrance by breaking out the saloon's front window; it was reported in Dutchtown on Sunday morning several young men brought suspicion on themselves by going on a drunken spree.

-- Sharon K. Sanders