Stories from Friday, June 27, 1997

To the editor: The plan of the environmental group, American Rivers, to declare certain rivers as National Heritage Rivers failed to gain support in Congress. Last month President Clinton published a request for comments in the federal register for 10 rivers he intends to designate by executive order as American Heritage Rivers...

To the editor: Universal health care through health maintenance organizations looks better than it did before. Procedures that used to cost $5,000 now cost $25,000, and the health-care recipient puts off taking medications and follow-up visits. Yes, universal health care is national socialism and would require strict, aggressive scrutiny to protect the quality of health care and to eliminate greed...

Although it is nearly halfway down a 20-item priority list of planned street improvements in Cape Girardeau, the Broadway widening project is bound to get a good deal of attention. The street is a main thoroughfare from the Kingshighway corridor to the downtown area and riverfront, and it handles much of the traffic going to and from Southeast Missouri State University and Southeast Missouri Hospital...

Youth from 10 Bootheel towns headed to Columbia Thursday to learn more about government- and youth-related issues and their role as community leaders. Sherry Maxwell, coordinator of the Lilbourn-based Kids Beat program, said about 90 young people affiliated with the organization she founded will attend the 12th annual Missouri Legislative Black Caucus Youth Leadership Workshop in Columbia through Saturday. Six of the 90 Bootheel participants are Cape Girardeau residents...

The Cape Girardeau Police Department wants to expose as many people as it can to methamphetamine. "The more awareness we create the more producers we're going to find," Cape Girardeau Police Chief Rick Hetzel said. Hetzel co-sponsored a seminar Thursday morning at the Ozark Center to tell business owners what to look for when selling common products used in the production of the drug...

Today is National HIV Testing Day, and the Missouri Department of Health is promoting HIV testing as an important step in controlling AIDS. Its purpose is to encourage all at-risk Missourians to test for the HIV virus, which leads to AIDS. The Missouri Department of Health suggests people be tested if they are sexually active with partners of unknown HIV status; have ever injected IV drugs; are pregnant and are at risk for HIV infection; or have received a blood transfusion, blood components or tissue prior to 1985.. ...

Gov. Mel Carnahan Thursday approved funding for construction of two vocational-technical buildings in the region, but vetoed funding for a new technology center at Southeast Missouri State University. Carnahan signed spending bills in Jefferson City that included $1.5 million toward construction of a vocational-technical school in the Cape Girardeau School District and an identical amount for construction of a Sikeston Area Higher Education Center that would be owned and managed by the university.. ...

Sometime this fall, TCI Cablevision could turn over operation of Cape Girardeau's and Jackson's cable television systems to Falcon Cable. In a potential $300 million deal involving more than 1 million cable subscribers in five states, Tele-Communications Inc. and Falcon Holding Group L.P. announced that they have signed a letter of intent to establish a partnership...

The pioneers had roaming deer, buffalo and the starry skies of summer. Good for them. I'll take thermostat-controlled air. For a couple of hours, we were pioneers, my wife and I. We endured the hardships of those times gone by. We suffered in the oppressing heat and stifling humidity. We agonized over the brutality of Missouri in summer...

Chaffee's Junior American Legion improved to 24-0 Thursday with a doubleheader sweep of the SEMO Bank Junior Legion at Capaha Field. Chaffee won by scores of 5-2 and 8-5 as Cape dropped to 5-17. Chaffee got two complete game wins on the mound from two Dustins. Dustin Glastetter went the distance in the first game and Dustin Dannenmueller went all seven innings in the 8-5 nightcap, striking out 10...

The Southeast Missouri State University youth football camp scheduled to begin today has been canceled. The camp, for youths entering grades 4-12, was canceled due to lack of numbers. If anyone has any further questions about the cancellation, contact Jeff Richards at 651-2530...

Southeast women's basketball coach Ed Arnzen has announced the hiring of Dawn Barnes as an assistant basketball coach for the Otahkians. Barnes comes to Southeast from Eastern Kentucky, where she was involved in both the volleyball and women's basketball teams...

BENTON -- Randy Sellars prevailed Wednesday night in rain-shortened action at Missouri International Racepark as the UMP Million Dollar Summer Nationals for late model cars got under way. Sellars, of Mayfield, Ky., earned $5,000 for the win and also jumped atop the points standings for the 20-stop Summer Nationals that were scheduled to continue Thursday night at the Tennessee Motor Speedway in Baxter, Tenn...

Daughter to Fred Lee and Cassandra Michelle Harris Jr., 2867 Whitener, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 6:05 p.m. Friday, June 20, 1997. Name, Breanna Michelle. Weight, 7 pounds 5 ounces. First child. Mrs. Harris is the former Cassandra Carter, daughter of Albert and Joyce Carter of Cape Girardeau. She is an accounting clerk at the Southeast Missourian Newspaper. Harris is the son of Willene Harris and Fred Harris Sr. of Cape Girardeau. He is a cell technician at Dana Corp...

Charles Earl Lewis, 78, of Henderson, Ark., died Wednesday, June 25, 1997, at Baxter County Regional Hospital in Mountain Home, Ark. He was born Sept. 27, 1918, at Malden, son of Willie Jackson and Pearl Mae Pearman Lewis. He and Virginia Tilley were married Feb. 23, 1943, in Cape Girardeau. She died Dec. 17, 1982. He and Clara Prevor were married June 14, 1983, in Colorado Springs, Colo...

JACKSON -- Josephine Mary Jones, 91, of Jackson died Wednesday, June 25, 1997, at the Lutheran Home in Cape Girardeau. She was born June 8, 1906, at Fairfax, daughter of Moses Christopher and Mary Elizabeth Clevenger Hedrick. She and Herman L. Jones were married Feb. 7, 1927. He died in 1973...

PATTON -- Ellouise F. Smith, 76, of Patton died Thursday, June 26, 1997, at the home of a son. She was born July 31, 1920, in St. Louis, daughter of Francis W. and Lena Dettmer Evans. She and R.W. "Dub" Smith were married Jan. 21, 1939. He died Feb. 20, 1981...

PERRYVILLE -- Joseph A. "Bub" Gibbar, 70, of Perryville died Wednesday, June 25, 1997, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born May 12, 1927, in Perry County, son of Louis Ferdinand and Mary Loretta McLain Gibbar. Gibbar had worked at VIP Industries. He was a former member of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church at Silver Lake...