Stories from Friday, February 24, 1995

As attorney general, I have a constitutional responsibility to represent the taxpayers and citizens of Missouri. They are my clients in the Kansas City desegregation case. In January, I represented these clients in the U.S. Supreme Court and requested a court order that would lead to the end of federal supervision of the Kansas City public schools. ...

SCOTT CITY -- City employee paychecks today will include a five-day advance to carry employees through the new payroll system. In addition to the advances, 17 employees will receive $374. That's the remaining portion of a $1,000 bonus the city had been paying at the rate of $83 a month since the fiscal year began July 1...

U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond urged quick action Thursday on the National Highway System bill, during a hearing of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Bond is a member of the subcommittee and an original co-sponsor of the bill...

A risk assessment bill, which would require the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to calculate how much environmental regulations would cost to implement, has been voted out of the Senate Commerce and Environment Committee. Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, is sponsoring the measure which he believes will bring some "common sense" into rule-making by the department...

The White House, after months of turmoil trying to develop a political strategy to make it a player in Washington again, has decided to return to the blame game of calling Republicans extremists. It is the one strategy on which it and the Democratic leadership in the Congress can agree. If the current issues on the table are any indicator, however, the strategy is unlikely to have much resonance outside of liberal special-interest groups and the left wing of the Democratic caucus...

Missouri taxpayers are wondering if an agreement regarding Kansas City's school desegregation is, in the long run, a good deal. Since 1984 when U.S. District Judge Russell Clark ordered the state to begin paying for an outlandishly extravagant plan for new schools and programs to achieve racial balance, Missourians have forked over more than $1 billion in direct grants and legal expenses...

Dr. Chris Jung wants city fire protection for his home outside the Cape Girardeau city limits, and he is willing to pay for it. Jung used to pay $500 a year for city fire protection, but the city stopped providing protection outside the city limits last year. He wants the city to resume fire protection outside the city limits for a fee...

When voters go to the polls April 4 for annual municipal and school elections across Missouri, they also will vote on an amendment to the state constitution. The amendment was placed on the ballot following quick legislative action earlier this year in response to a Missouri Supreme Court decision that cast a cloud over more than 500 laws enacted over the years to help local areas...

Cape Girardeau business manager Larry Dew has taken an assistant superintendency at Poplar Bluff schools. The Poplar Bluff Board of Education voted to hire Dew Thursday night. He officially begins work July 1. Dew has been business manager in Cape Girardeau since 1981...

Meetings are planned at every Cape Girardeau elementary school to solicit ideas from parents and patrons for redistricting or reorganizing the school district. The meetings are tentatively set for March 6 at 7 p.m. Cape Girardeau's redistricting committee is hoping to compile a long list of possible scenarios to address an imbalance in enrollments at the various elementary schools in the district...

The death of Ercel Jones was little noted in your favorite hometown newspaper last week. She was "a retired teacher," the obituary said. Nothing about how her classroom career spanned more than five decades, nor how her prodding and endless enthusiasm for grammar and literature caught the attention of at least a few knuckleheads who later became distinguished journalists, jurists, doctors and educators...

A TAX to repair Cape Girardeau's badly depleted streets makes a lot of sense to me. But to widen some streets to four lanes makes no sense, for Cape Girardeans almost all use their part of a four-lane street as if it were just one, and nobody can pass them. ...

DEXTER -- Elmer V. Dutton, 84, of Dexter, died Thursday, Feb. 23, 1995, at Dexter Memorial Hospital. He was born Jan. 15, 1911, in Mexico, Mo., son of James and Clara Gray Dutton. On July 3, 1954, in Corinth, Miss., he married Bernice Thompson. Dutton was retired from the Missouri Highways and Transportation Department and lived in Dexter and Bloomfield for the past several years. He was a member of the Baptist Church and Bloomfield Lodge 153, AF&AM...

Paul R. Ross, 66, 301 Hillview, died Wednesday, Feb. 22, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center. He was born March 16, 1928, in Puxico, son of Arthur and Bessie Johnson Ross. He married Geraldine Eaker Oct. 15, 1948, in Cape Girardeau. Survivors include his wife; a brother, Thomas Ross, and a sister, Florence James, both of Cape Girardeau...

Funeral service for Glenn W. Priest, 8375 County Road 203, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel. The Rev. Otto Steinhaus will officiate. Entombment will be in Memorial Park Mausoleum, with military rites conducted by VFW Post 3838...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Nannie Belle Trevathan, 89, of East Prairie, died Wednesday, Feb. 22, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Jan. 22, 1906, in Syracco, Ky., daughter of Sam Best and Lillie May Nichols Williams. She and Burse L. Trevathan were married Aug. 19, 1925, at Charleston. He died Oct. 22, 1984...

SCOTT CITY -- Dru William Holder, 9, of Scott City, died Thursday, Feb. 23, 1995, at his home. He was born Aug. 24, 1985, in Norfolk, Va., son of Terry Lee and Tamra Smith Holder. Holder was baptized at Eisleben Lutheran Church in Scott City, and was a member of First Free Will Baptist Church in Olive Branch, Ill...

SCOTT CITY -- Virginia Springer, 75, of Scott City, died Thursday, Feb. 23, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Nov. 17, 1919, at Malden, daughter of John Henry and Mary Elizabeth Trylor Bolton. She and Fred Springer were married Dec. 10, 1939. He died Sept. 11, 1952...

MILLERSVILLE -- Graveside service for Ervin D. Niswonger of Millersville will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Niswonger Cemetery, with the Rev. Daniel Hale officiating. Friends may call at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson from 4-8 p.m. today. Niswonger, 83, died Wednesday, Feb. 22, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau...

JACKSON -- Helen M. Vickrey, 87, of Jackson, died Thursday, Feb. 23, 1995, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. She was born March 5, 1907, in Kansas City, Kan., daughter of Edwin A. and Ada Maddox Merrill. She and John N. Vickrey were married Sept. 3, 1926, in Hannibal. He died Feb. 4, 1978...

DELTA -- Graveside service for Alice Orene Poinsett of Delta will be held at 1 p.m. today at Russell Heights Cemetery in Jackson. The Rev. Glen Golden will officiate. Friends may call today at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m...

Janet M. Pettigrew, 59, 215 S. Louisiana, died Thursday, Feb. 23, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born July 2, 1935, in Cape Girardeau, daughter of Clarence and Hermina Millering Reiker. She and Jim Pettigrew were married July 13, 1957...

Curtis O. James, 80, 410 Mt. Auburn Road, died Thursday, Feb. 23, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

Son to Kevin and Janet Hogan of Jackson, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 8:19 a.m. Friday, Feb. 17, 1995. Name, Cory Lee. Weight, 7 pounds 5 ounces. Second son. Mrs. Hogan is the former Janet Kelley, daughter of Mary Lou Kelley of St. Louis. She is a registered nurse at St. Francis Medical Center. Hogan is a sales representative with Supervalu Inc. in Scott City. He is the son of Jean Hogan of Cape Girardeau...