Out of the past: July 7

1992

One of seven bills passed this year, designed to make health care more accessible and affordable for Missourians, was signed into law here yesterday by Gov. John Ashcroft. The measure is a small-employer health-insurance program.

Thirteen members of the Missouri National Guard's 1140th Engineer Battalion at Cape Girardeau recently aided federal authorities in finding drugs at checkpoints along the U.S.-Mexico border. A cooperative effort with the California National Guard, the four-month operation also included the construction of a road to patrol the border area better.

1967

Asphalt work has begun on 3.5 miles of Route V between Cape Rock Drive and Egypt Mills. Wendell Kerr, a State Highway official, says the improvement of the route will extend for 5.9 miles north of Cape Girardeau to Egypt Mills and will involve widening of the road, realignment and reduction of grade.

The political implications of the 1958-1962 audit of Cape Girardeau County's books seems to grow each day, and it appears only a third party would be entirely free to throw accusations around. Those who would hurl charges about find it hard to attach a party label to alleged overpayments, but state auditor Haskell Holman, a Democrat, is taking his share of criticism. His office completed the audit in July 1963 but didn't return its findings to the county until February of this year.

1942

With the Mississippi River dropping another six-tenths of a foot from yesterday, most of the overflow water has cleared the Smelterville suburb, and families forced to leave the area are being moved back to their homes. On the heels of this come preparations by city officials and the city health board to immunize 350 Smelterville residents against typhoid.

Mayor Hinkle Statler has been accepted for service in a branch of the U.S. Navy and will start training at Dartmouth College at Hanover, New Jersey, about July 15.

1917

Ed Barlow, owner of the Standard Baking Co. of Marshalltown, Iowa, spent yesterday in Cape Girardeau visiting the Nu-Way Flour Mill Co. After seeing a few mills in the course of construction, William Leming, manager of the company, took Barlow to Marble Hill, Missouri, to see a Nu-Way mill in operation.

At the request of residents of Delta, the Cape Girardeau Commercial Club has appointed a committee made up of M.D. Wilson, Fred Groves and L. E. Comer to assist in getting signers to a petition to bring a good road from Cape Girardeau to the Delta area.

-- Sharon K. Sanders