Stories from Friday, June 28, 1991

Legislators involved in reapportionment efforts over the years have generally demonstrated little shyness for political audacity. However, one lawmaker is conducting a lobbying effort on this year's redistricting model that may set a new standard for nerve. The legislator is urging and not exactly covertly the drawing of some House of Representative district lines according to skin color, which doesn't particularly strike us as in the spirit of democratic representation...

JACKSON -- The developer of Bent Creek Golf Course said Thursday he was surprised that the Missouri Department of Natural Resources announced this week that it's recommending legal action against his firm. Tracy Mehan, director of the DNR, released a statement this week requesting that the Missouri Attorney General's Office take legal action against Litz Brothers Inc. of Cape Girardeau for alleged violations of the Missouri Clean Water Law...

The Center for Earthquake Studies on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University received a financial shakeup Thursday. About a third of its budget $65,000 was vetoed by Gov. John Ashcroft. Director Michael Coe said the funding represented "a pretty big chunk" of the center's operating budget. But he said the action would not close down the center...

Cape Girardeau's public schools get a new boss Monday morning. Neyland Clark says he's ready anxious, in fact to guide the city's public educational system. Seated in the living room of his Woodland Hills home, Clark talked about his hopes for Cape Girardeau schools...

Gov. John Ashcroft vetoed nearly $65,000 from the budget of the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau Thursday. But Bob Buckner, executive director of the state's veterans home system, said it won't have an impact on the veterans home here. "We should have adequate funds to fully staff and fill the facility," he said. "All the beds should be filled in less than two months."...

Southeast Missouri State University officials said they must look for ways to slash $936,000 from the university's operating budget following major budget cuts enacted by Gov. John Ashcroft in approving the 1992 state budget Thursday. "I consider this very serious," said Kala Stroup, university president. "I would say that it is going to be very difficult for us to operate at the same level of service that we have been operating at."...

After nearly three consecutive months of high water levels on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Cairo, Ill., the National Weather Service says the river will drop to near mid-summer levels during the next 60 days. At St. Louis Thursday, the Mississippi was at 18.5 feet. It was forecast to fall to 16 feet by Sunday...

Son to Mr. and Mrs. Donald H. Howard Jr., 1100 Ranney, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 10:49 p.m. Friday, June 21, 1991. Name, Matthew Blake. Weight, 6 pounds. Mrs. Howard is the former Margaret Walter, daughter of Alfred Walter, Jackson Route 1, and the late Arlene Walter. She is a CNA at Cape LaCroix Nursing Home. Howard is self-employed, and is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Donald H. Howard Sr., 706 S. Sprigg...

Funeral mass for Ferdinand M. "Fred" Steimle, 3217 Kage Hills Drive, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Mary's Cathedral. Msgr. Richard Rolwing will officiate, with burial in Fairmount Cemetery. Friends may call at Lorberg Memorial Funeral Chapel from 5-8 p.m. today. Parish prayers will be at 7:30...

PERRYVILLE - Oscar L. Seabaugh, of Perryville, died Thursday, June 27, 1991 at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was 79. Seabaugh was born Aug. 18, 1911 in Sedgewickville, the son of the late William R. and Ellen Hilderbrand Seabaugh...

The Mississippi River carries a lot of sand and sediment that is suspended in the water. Most of it the result of soil erosion caused by poor soil conservation practices along the river and its major tributaries, said Claude Strauser, chief of Army Corps of Engineers...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Mucie B. Hodges, 85, of East Prairie, died Tuesday, June 25, 1991, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Sept. 12, 1905, in Kentucky, daughter of William and Ada Furgerson Massey. She married Rube Hodges July 19, 1978. He died April 23, 1982...

CHAFFEE -- Florine Mary Dudley, 84, of Chaffee, died Wednesday, June 26, 1991, at her home. She was born April 22, 1907, in Makanda, Ill., daughter of John Webster and Ida Malissa Lobeck Skelton. She married Jesse Forrest Dudley Dec. 30, 1923. He died Dec. 8, 1981...

SIKESTON -- Odena B. Clary, 77, of Sikeston, died Thursday, June 27, 1991 at the Missouri Delta Medical Center. She was born Oct. 13, 1913 in Swinton, Mo., the daughter of Homer and Maude Cooper Brewer. She was a member of the Christian Family Church in Sikeston...

A segment featuring a Cape Girardeau toddler who contracted a rare, tropical disease is scheduled to air on CBS's "True Detectives" program tonight at 7:30 p.m. A film crew from the television program was in Cape Girardeau for four days in February to tape the segment about the child, Katie Wolz...

LEBANON - Any Missourian who fishes for smallmouth bass is also acquainted with the rock bass. It's the miniature, turbo-charged smallmouth imitation that's likely to come hurtling out from under almost any available cover in Ozark Missouri streams to attack your bait, often before its larger cousin can get there...

PUXICO - Webster's New World Dictionary lists six definitions for the word "flier." None of them involves a skinny little sunfish native to Missouri ponds in southeastern Missouri. But thanks to one young man's encyclopedic knowledge of angling lore, Missouri has a new state-record flier...