Stories from Sunday, July 10, 1994

CAIRO, Ill. -- Harry W. Armstrong, 73, of Cairo, died Saturday, July 9, 1994, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. The Barkett Funeral Home in Cairo is in charge of arrangements, which are incomplete at this time.

We're approaching Cliffhanger III for the Clinton administration. The first one was the 1993 budget fight which was won by one vote. Then came NAFTA -- another squeaker. Impending Cliffhanger III is health care, and it may be the toughest battle of all...

The march toward the unionization of government employees proceeds. Missouri's contribution to this movement involves a policy put in place to supply labor unions with the names and home addresses of state workers, among other information. While this is hardly sensational in itself, since the information is generally available for those who care to look, what it represents is extraordinary and highly political. ...

The Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department is holding its second annual Card, Comic and Coin Collector Show this weekend. The show, which began Saturday, is being held at the A.C. Brase Arena Building. The event continues today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m...

Secretary of State Judy Moriarty stands indicted of two misdemeanors by a Cole County Grand Jury. Proceedings were initiated by Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Richard Callahan, a Democrat with a good reputation in state legal circles. She pleaded innocent this week to accusations that she illegally manipulated records of the candidacy filing of her son, who sought a seat in the state House of Representatives. (Her son, Tim Moriarty, has since withdrawn from the race.)...

Grace Trickey Retherford, 94, of Cape Girardeau, died Saturday July 9, 1994 at Fountainbleau Lodge. She was born Sept. 15, 1899 at Pocahontas, the daughter of Marion and Nettie Metlock McClard. On May 2, 1918 she married Walter A. Trickey. He died on Feb. 1, 1953, and she later married Thomas F. Retherford on Oct. 13, 1956. He died in 1976...

Etta Rose Young Mason, 70, of 805 S. Ranney, died Thursday, July 7, 1994, at her residence. She was born July 11, 1923, at Cape Girardeau, daughter of Albert and Hazel Shepard Rogers. She married Percy Mason. Mason was active with the American Cancer Society and worked as a precinct clerk in Ward 3 of Cape Girardeau...

SIKESTON -- Minnie Marie Clayton, 82, 101 Cresap in Sikeston, died Saturday July 9, 1994 at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. She was born Sept. 25, 1911 in Lutesville, the daughter of John and Alcy Fowler Bragg. On Nov. 4, 1933 she married William Clayton in Charleston, and he preceded her in death on Dec. 7, 1958...

BENTON -- The summer peach-picking and canning season is getting off to a slow start this year because a hard freeze in March destroyed almost all of the early variety peaches in many area orchards. But later varieties of peaches were not affected by the freeze, and growers said that although there may not be as many peaches as there were last year, this year's peaches will be bigger and the quality better...

Cape Girardeau police detective Rick Price wears a pager wherever he goes, awaiting calls from informants. Federal Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Shirley Armstead is required to carry a gun at all times. Assistant U.S. attorneys Larry Ferrell and Mike Price used a drug-task-force grant to hire extra help to handle an increasing number of drugs and weapons cases...

A decision on whether further studies should be done on a trans-America corridor being promoted as I-66 is in the hands of Congress. But before members of Congress have an opportunity to review the conclusions of a feasibility study that was recently finished, state highway department officials serving on a study steering committee must approve the study. It will then be sent to the Federal Highway Administration for another review...

JACKSON -- Fifth-grade teacher Martha Short knows how performance-based assessment works; she's been testing parts of the new system in her classroom over the past year. Short, who teaches at Jackson's North Elementary School in Fruitland, is among senior leaders in Missouri learning how it works...

There probably is not a person in the country who wasn't surprised when NFL ex-superstar O.J. Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife and her friend. Similarly, surprise was generally the reaction locally following the arrest of Edward L. Downs for buying cocaine from an undercover drug agent, and in Poplar Bluff with the arrest of Robert R. Wisdom on charges of drug trafficking and arson...

Cape Girardeau is one of three cities where Gov. Mel Carnahan will sign House Bill 1547, a major welfare-reform bill. Carnahan will sign the bill at 4 p.m. Monday at the Private Industry Council office, 760 South Kingshighway. The governor, who will also hold signing ceremonies in Kansas City and Mexico, Mo., will be joined by Senate President Jim Mathewson, D-Sedalia, who pushed the legislation through the Senate, and Rep. Joe Maxwell, D-Mexico, who sponsored the bill in the House...

SIKESTON -- As debate raged a year ago over Senate Bill 380, Kathy McClellan listened with interest to talk of unconstitutional funding mechanisms and changes in the way Missouri schools would receive state money. She didn't hear much discussion about the reforms built into Senate Bill 380. ...

Every Tuesday night Mike Pind's neighbors are treated to a dog show. That's when Pind teaches an advanced obedience class in the cul-de-sac in front of his home at 11 Rivercrest Drive. The neighbors gather around to watch the dogs do "figure eights" around each other and perform "heel drills" around a circle...

Just as some of us used to have physical islands of safety such as up the wagon tongue and into the wagon bed or up the ladder to the loft when the barnyard animals got rambunctious, so we all now need mental islands of safety when the world's affairs get too oppressive and threaten irreversible cynicism and sadness...