Stories from Monday, July 20, 1992

Laws against parental kidnapping have become tougher over the years. But a county prosecutor says most of the time, violators of child custody arrangements are never brought to trial. Parents can be charged with kidnapping their children if they don't have custody and refuse to return them to the parent who does...

Cape Girardeau officials are recommending changes in a construction trades licensing law that was adopted nine months ago. The city council tonight will consider the changes, which were ironed out in the months subsequent to the council's adoption of the licensing regulations last October...

The Southeast Missourian asked people if they thought President Bush should "dump Dan Quayle" and pick a new running mate for vice president. Derik Davis: "I feel it would help George Bush in the election if he would select a stronger candidate for vice president who has more influence and more potential than Dan Quayle. Clinton won't be a pushover in this election."...

Three men rescued a dog Sunday after it jumped from the Mississippi River Bridge at Cape Girardeau, pulling it into their boat after it plunged into the water. The dog was unharmed and is being taken to the Cape Girardeau County Humane Shelter today, said Patrolman Rob Ross of the Cape Girardeau Police Department...

To the Editor: Thomas Jefferson held that man made government, and the purpose of government is to secure inalienable rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that the government derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that man have a right to alter, or abolish government and to institute new governments." After more than two hundred years, these principles are as valid as when first announced in the Declaration of Independence...

The environment is a precious thing that deserves preservation. But it seems every time the government puts its bureaucratic finger into environmental protection, things go awry. Good intentions become strangling regulations, and the costs begin to soar...

PERRYVILLE -- Authorities said wet roads were a factor in an accident Saturday in Perry County that injured a motorcyclist. Daniel Whatley, 47, of Montgomery, Ala., was treated and released at Perry County Memorial Hospital after he sustained minor injuries in the impact...

MORLEY -- Betty D. Matz, 68, of Morley died Sunday, July 19, 1992, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Oct. 12, 1923, at Campbell, the daughter of Fred and Evelyn Jenkins Bruihl. On May 19, 1945, she married Andy Matz in New Orleans. He survives of the home...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Graveside service for Fredrick G. Schmidtke, 81, of Des Plaines, Ill. will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. John's Cemetery near Dongola. The Rev. Garnett Mitchell will officiate. He died Friday, July 17, 1992 at his home. Norris and Son Funeral Home in Jonesboro is in charge of the local arrangements...

JONESBORO, Ill. -- Funeral service for Lester Lewellyn, 63, of South Elgin, Ill. will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Norris and Son Funeral Home in Jonesboro. He died Saturday, July 18, 1992, at the Sherman Hospital in Elgin. He was born July 13, 1929, in Sullivan, Ind., the son of Lester and Mary Clerk Lewellyn. He was married to Janice Tweedy, who survives of the home...

CHAFFEE -- Lela J. Campbell, 69, of Chaffee died Sunday, July 19, 1992, at the Chaffee Nursing Center. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at the Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee.

KANALOU -- Ronald Eugene Stephens, 54, of Lenzburg, Ill., formerly of Kanalou, died Saturday, July 18, 1992 at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Louis. He was born March 11, 1938 in Kanalou, son of Herschel and Lillian Drake Stephens. He was employed by GTE Telephone Company and was a member of the Foursquare Pentecostal Church in Marissa, Ill...