Stories from Monday, October 28, 1996

The U.S. Small Business Administration's primary lending programs hit record levels in Fiscal Year 1996, $10.2 billion in loan guarantees. In addition, another $1.7 billion in financing and bonds to small businesses was made possible through other SBA programs, said SBA Administrator Philip Vader...

"Increasing Profitability of Farming Operations" will be the topic of a special Value Added Agriculture Conference Nov. 20 at Dexter. Grain farmers Jack Wieland of Dazey, N.D., and Todd Riesler of Minnesota will be guest speakers at the three-hour conference at the Hickory Log Restaurant from 6 to 9 p.m. Other speakers will include Kyle Vickers, Missouri deputy director of agriculture, and Kristi Livingston of the University of Missouri...

Fastenal Co. sales were up 31 percent during the third quarter of 1996. Fastenal, a national distributor of threaded metal products and related construction supplies, reported quarter sales of $76,212,000 up from the $57.9 million sales during the same period in 1995. Net earnings grew from $7.4 million in the third quarter of 1995 to $8.7 million during the third quarter of 1996, an increased of 18 percent. Earnings per share increased from 19 cents to 23 cents...

Dr. Charles Wiles, professor of marketing, spoke to students in his advertising and promotions class at Robert A. Dempster Hall. Aaron Rues of Springfield worked on an assignment in a computer lab at Robert A. Dempster Hall. Southeast Missouri State University's new master of business administration program is a summa cum laude success...

Elizabeth Helen Chastain has joined the Jackson law firm of Lichtenegger, Weiss, Hahn & Fetterhoff. Chastain recently graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor degree form the Southern Illinois University School of Law. She was sworn in and admitted to the Missouri Bar earlier this month...

WASHINGTON -- Sales of previously owned homes slipped 2.9 percent in September but continued to drive toward a new annual record. The National Association of Realtors said Friday that sales of existing single-family homes totaled a seasonally adjusted 4.02 million annual rate, down from 4.14 million in August...

WASHINGTON -- The number of new claims for jobless benefits dropped last week by an unexpectedly high 22,000 -- to 320,000. The decline was the largest in three months and clouded the degree to which the economy may be slowing.

Job search times get better with age. Older out-of-work executives find jobs faster than their middle-age colleagues, two recent studies of senior and mid-level executives show. One study, conducted by Drake Bean Morin Inc., an outplacement and career consulting firm, confirms that "things get better with age" for job-seeking seniors...

Scott Meyer, District 10 Engineer, Missouri Department of Transportation, will be guest speaker at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's annual Transportation Dinner at 6 p.m. Nov. 7, at Drury Lodge in Cape Girardeau. The dinner is sponsored by the chamber's Transportation Committee. Social hour sponsors are Delta Cos., Gregory Construction Inc., Penzel Construction Co. Inc. and Rose Concrete Products Inc...

PERRYVILLE -- Perry County residents will either keep or oust three county public officials and chose one new one, while the other three races will go uncontested Nov. 5. The sheriff and two county commissioners are fighting to maintain their positions while the assessor, coroner and surveyor can take it easy in their uncontested races. The current public administrator isn't seeking re-election and two men are vying for his vacated position...

Two Cape Girardeau lawmakers want the state to pay half the cost of a new $6.3 million vocational-technical school. State Sen. Peter Kinder sent a letter Friday to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requesting such funding for the next fiscal year...

World Wrestling Federation competitor Sycho Sid stormed away from the ring while fans strained to touch Sid after he pinned his opponent Goldust Sunday at the Show Me Center. World Wrestling Federation fans are arguably the most devoted on Earth. When the WWF came to Cape Girardeau on Sunday, 2,300 flocked to the Show Me Center to see the action. That number didn't come close to filling the seats, but the noise level belied the attendance...

The Trail of Tears State Park near Fruitland is adding more of what it's named for -- trails. For the first time in possibly 20 years park officials are opening paths through some of the scenic areas in the 3,000-acre park. Trail of Tears Superintendent Hershel Price said the park's two major trails, the Peewah and Sheppard Point, have been around as long as he can remember...

CARUTHERSVILLE -- Gambling produces thousands of losing tosses of the dice, but cities with casinos have hit the jackpot. Consider Caruthersville. The Mississippi River town of 7,200 residents, has 15 new city vehicles, including police cars and a dump truck...

Any day now, little ghosties and ghoulies and goblins are going to come begging for candy. I won't be home to see the little darlings this year, but I imagine Esmerelda, Quasimodo and various and sundry other Disney creations will be well represented...

I can almost feel it in the air. The only way to measure it is in hours, not days, for the event is too important to relegate to the back of my mind, and besides, it keeps coming to the front despite my best efforts. In a very short time, I will arise in the morning with a special feeling, a sense of purpose, an excitement that reminds me of Christmas morning or my birthday. I will get out of bed, for I know what I have to do...

A new Missouri law that permits clerks younger than drinking age to sell liquor in stores is an invitation to even more problems in a business that is tough enough to regulate as it is. The law contradicts the basic reasoning behind 21 being the legal drinking age, and that is that young people are not mature enough to drink alcohol. Why then should clerks 18 through 20 years of age be allowed to sell it when they can't legally drink it or even possess it?...

The Environmental Protection Agency, which ranks about as low in popularity as the IRS in the minds of most Americans, hasn't improved its image one bit by spending $1.4 million in questionable EPA-training expenses between 1993 and 1995. Congressional investigators found the EPA did such things as hold managers' productivity seminars at various resorts in West Virginia and Maryland, trained EPA lawyers at a beach hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to prepare for administrative hearings, and held an auditors' conference at a Breckenridge, Colo., lodge. ...

Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages and Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. have kicked off the 1996 Project ReDirectory program. The annual drive to collect old directories allows area residents to contribute to a better environment, said Linda Works of St. Louis, manager of printing and distribution and coordinator of Project Redirectory...

Five candidates are seeking to represent the 8th District in Congress. The Southeast Missourian asked all five candidates the same 14 questions, which we feel are major issues in this campaign. Their answers will appear in a candidate profile today through Friday. Ballot order was used to determine publication date...

This week the Southeast Missourian asked, "What do you like about Halloween?" Crystal Swain, Chaffee "The excitement of all the little kids dressing up in different costumes. The change of the trees ... the fall atmosphere basically." Mike Gerber, Cape Girardeau...

SCOTT CITY -- Leila Raines, 76, of Scott City died Sunday, Oct. 27, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City.

Sylvia Lee Tolbert, 74, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Oct. 26, 1996, at the Fountainbleau Lodge. She was born Dec. 5, 1921, in Ruble, the daughter of George O. and Ora Alice Pender. She married John Tolbert on Dec. 7, 1964, in Jackson. He died Feb. 23, 1989...

Riley W. Cardin, 62, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, Oct. 26, 1996, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born Dec. 17, 1933, in Vanduser, son of Alphas Henry and Mayme Cardin. He married Edna Moore on May 14, 1951, in Pocahontas, Ark. Cardin was a pipefitter with the Local 562 and taught welding at Cape Girardeau Vocational-Technical School for six years. He was a veteran of the Korean War and a member of the First Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau...

CHARLESTON -- Bessie Louise Pierce, 60, of Charleston died Friday, Oct. 25, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. She was born Jan. 14, 1936, in the Deventer Community, daughter of Walter and Mamie Housman. On May 29, 1952, she married Everett Pierce...

WYATT -- Freida Howell, 78, of Wyatt died Saturday, Oct. 26, 1996, at the Charleston Manor. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at the McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston.