Stories from Wednesday, August 30, 1995

To the editor: It is once again time for school to begin. For interested parents of public school pupils, and especially for any who have read Peter Kinder's columns aimed against Outcome Based Education and perhaps wonder what he is so concerned about, I offer documented samplings from actual OBE curricula used in five other states:...

PERRYVILLE -- Sabreliner now has contracts with the Army, Air Force and Navy. The latest military contract is with the Navy. It calls for Sabreliner to provide periodic structural inspection, heavy maintenance, modification, repair and painting of Navy T-2C and TA-4J training aircraft...

MORLEY -- The Morley Community Betterment Club will sponsor the town's annual Fall Festival Sept. 8 and 9. Activities begin at 6 p.m. Sept. 8 at the city park. A number of pageants are planned Sept. 8. They include a cutest-baby contest from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., a Tiny Mr. and Miss Morley contest at 6:30 p.m., a Little Mr. and Miss Morley contest at 7:30 p.m., Junior Miss Morley contest at 8:30 p.m., and Miss Morley contest at 9:30 p.m. A baby crawling contest will also be held Friday...

Back-to-school means change on the home front. Closets are rearranged, schedules are brand new and notebooks and pencils are untested. But back-to-school brings change to the streets and sidewalks too. Children get to school in many ways and glimpses of those buses, bicycles and youngsters at crosswalks drive home the importance of safety rules for everyone...

Effective immeciately, the E-mail address for the Southeast Missourian's opinion page is changed to: capenews@ldd.net Readers who want to submit letters, questions or comments and have access to on-line E-mail are encouraged to use this address. Mailed letters and telephone calls also are welcomed...

This is the last week as president of Southeast Missouri State University for Kala Stroup. On Sept. 5, she starts as Missouri's commissioner of higher education in Jefferson City. Stroup has served Southeast and the region well these past five years. She can look back with pride at the accomplishments the university has achieved during her tenure at the helm. She did a great job of lobbying governors and legislators in Jefferson City, a quality that will be important in her new job...

A change in leadership always brings uncertainty, but it is hard to tell at Southeast. The university is all smiles since the announcement that enrollment had indeed made a turnaround. On the first day of classes, the count stood at 7,783 students, up 110 from a year ago. ...

To the editor: Jay Eastlick falsely imagines (in his Aug. 26. column) that if he sets up a straw man, he won't need to bother with facts and evidence. That straw man is almost always some form of liberalism or secular humanism or, in the case of his most recent column, relativism and situation ethics...

The title of a small collection of essays proved so irresistible to me, I succumbed to Quality Paperback's offer without considering that books on language are already stacked three-deep behind a chair in a corner of my living room. THE GUTENBERG ELEGIES, subtitled "The Fate Of Reading In An Electronic Age," consists of brief but cogent essays by Sven Birkerts. ...

SCOTT CITY -- Despite some rain delays early this spring, construction is continuing as planned on the Nash Road extension project. The Missouri State Highways and Transportation Commission is expected to award a contract later this week for construction of a bridge crossing Ramsey Creek...

The hot, dry days of August have baked pastures and crops and have left area farmers begging for rain. Rain has been a rare commodity this month. It's the 12th driest August in 78 years, said Dr. Al Robertson, a climatologist at Southeast Missouri State University...

Classes in the Cape Girardeau School District will be dismissed early for the rest of the week due to the continuing heat wave. School officials made the decision Tuesday in declaring a weather emergency. Elementary classes will dismiss at noon. Secondary classes will dismiss at 11:20 a.m. A cold lunch will be available to all elementary and seventh-grade students before being dismissed...

British humorist Douglas Adams wrote that it is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes. He was writing about a fictional society so excessively violent that in order to calm everyone they decided anyone who carried a weapon as part of their normal work -- police officers, elementary school teachers -- had to spend some time each day punching a sack of potatoes to work out their aggression...

Group tour operators will arrive in Cape Girardeau this evening for a visit to the River Heritage Region. The group is participating in the Missouri FAM Tour, hosted by the Missouri Division of Tourism. The objective of the tour is to familiarize tour group operators with Missouri attractions...

A West Plains company will be rolling scud buster transport trailers off their assembly line next year for the Saudi military under an $18.9 million contract. U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, made the announcement Tuesday, saying the contract between Southwest Mobile Systems and Saudi Arabia was two years in the making...

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, will discuss the farm bill, Medicare and other congressional matters Friday at 7:30 a.m. as guest speaker at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee at Drury Lodge. He will discuss what Congress has done this year and will talk about the Contract With America, which includes 10 specific pieces of legislation, including a balanced-budget amendment, welfare reform and economic growth...

Union Electric customers in Southeast Missouri will see a 2.4 percent decrease in their gas bills next month. The Missouri Public Service Commission said UE made the reduction Monday to reflect a decrease in the wholesale cost of natural gas. The rate reductions affect about 22,000 customers in Southeast Missouri, mainly Cape Girardeau, Stoddard and Scott counties...

With stiffer penalties against juvenile offenders part of Missouri law, public schools throughout the state have been enlisted to relay the message. House Bill 174, passed during the last session of the Missouri General Assembly, mandates tougher treatment of juveniles who commit serious crimes. ...

OAK RIDGE -- Students in the Oak Ridge School District will benefit from $67,000 in state grants for two new programs during the 1995-96 school year. With the help of a $4,000 incentive grant, Wayne Bock, an industrial arts teacher, will develop a program using satellite weather information for his modern technology course...

Three people were injured in separate accidents Tuesday. Marcus Brown, 26, and Melvin Johnson, 27, both of Cape Girardeau were injured when the vehicle in which they were riding ran a stop sign, the Missouri Highway Patrol said. The accident occurred at 2:05 a.m. on Route N at Route K, about two miles east of Scott City...

MOUNDS, Ill. -- George W. "Buddy" Harrell Jr., 42, Mounds Route 1, died Tuesday, Aug. 29, 1995, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born Aug. 8, 1953, in Cairo, son of George W. and Elaine Hamilton Harrell Sr. Harrell was a pilot with Tennessee Valley Towing Co. in Paducah, Ky...

Pauline T. Bartlett, 80, 342 Hillview, died Monday, Aug. 28, 1995, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born July 22, 1915, in East St. Louis, Ill., daughter of David and Katherine Branson Toler. She first married Charles Carl Pulley, who preceded her in death. She and George Bartlett were married June 3, 1976, in Houston, Texas...

BERTRAND -- Winona Evonne Walker, 67, of Bertrand, died Tuesday, Aug. 29, 1995, at her home. She was born July 17, 1928, in Bertrand, daughter of Grady Donald and Mary Lena Winslow McAdoo Sr. She and Leroy Walker were married July 26, 1948. Walker had been a housekeeper at Bertrand Nursing Center, and member of Bridges United Methodist Church...

EAST PRAIRIE -- Former Police Chief Jake Abner, 84, of East Prairie, died Tuesday, Aug. 29, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born July 20, 1911, at Bell City, son of Frank and Carrie L. Tibby Abner. He and Pearl Marie Simpkins were married May 16, 1932...

A memorial mass for Clyde F. LeGrand of St. Louis was held Saturday at All Saints Catholic Church in St. Louis. LeGrand, 69, died Sunday, Aug. 20, 1995, at his home, following a brief illness. He was born Aug. 27, 1925, in Cape Girardeau, son of Mr. and Mrs. Nick LeGrand...

ANNA, Ill. -- Belinda Jo Blessing, 41, of North Dupo, died Sunday, Aug. 27, 1995, at her home. She was born April 6, 1954, in Anna, daughter of James and Lois Caraker. Blessing was a supervisor at Mercantile Bank in St. Louis, Mo. She was a member of First Baptist Church in Dupo...

CHARLESTON -- Willis Henry Cox, 65, of Charleston, died Friday, Aug. 25, 1995, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born Jan. 12, 1930, in Charleston, son of Ernest and Gearldine Folkes Cox. He and Alberta Betts were married July 24, 1953...

Anna M. O'Donnell Panhorst, 96, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, Aug. 29, 1995, at the Missouri Veterans Home. She was born March 1, 1899, at Leopold, the daughter of Henry and Anna Steiner Tenholder. She and James O'Donnell were married Feb. 12, 1918. He preceded her in death Jan. 20, 1961. She married Edward Panhorst Dec. 21, 1975. He also preceded her in death July 10, 1987...

Cape Girardeau County Gerald and Catherine Stoverink to John Ziegler; Bernard and Alice Proffer to Verda and Robert Minton; Lyle Henderson to Ronald and Kay Creecy; Dan and Brenda Meehan to Lawrence and Tina Bill; Francis Stangel to Kevin and Reena McDonald...

MILLERSVILLE -- Vernon "Diamond" Monroe, 58, formerly of Millersville and East Cape Girardeau, Ill., died Monday, Aug. 14, 1995. He was born Dec. 17, 1936, in Fruita, Colo., son of G.A. and Fanny Monroe. Monroe was a carpenter and had been a car salesman in East Cape. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army...

Son to James Vinson and Michelle Linn Wingo, 1451 Pemiscot, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 5:20 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22, 1995. Name, Elijah Phoenix. Weight, 9 pounds 1 ounce. First child. Mrs. Wingo is the former Michelle Howell, daughter of Barbara and Gary England of Malden and Kenneth and Cindy Howell of Poplar Bluff. She is employed in social services at Regency Management. Wingo is general manager of Huna Research. He is the son of Otha and Ann Wingo of Cape Girardeau...

We were sitting in our breakfast room, minding our own business, when suddenly an iridescent object caught our eye. Suddenly it stopped, hovering in midair and wavering above the hanging basket of Purple Wave petunias. It seemed too large to be a bee, too small to be a bird -- or so we thought. ...