Stories from Wednesday, August 6, 1997

The Cape Girardeau City Council has kicked in another $10,000 in support of lobbying efforts for a proposed highway between Paducah and southern Missouri. Recent studies have suggested several alternate routes, including across Southern Illinois and the new Mississippi River bridge here that is under construction...

A national Teamsters Union strike against United Parcel Service is causing local businesses to feel the pinch where it hurts most: in their receivables. Union members went on strike at midnight Sunday after negotiations with UPS broke down. UPS has continued service using a skeleton staff. Competitors Federal Express and the U.S. Postal Service have set delivery limits in an effort to meet increased demand...

Clear your mind, breathe and focus on what is happening within your body. Now add motion or a few methodic positions and you have an oriental stress-reduction method. Yoga and tai chi, oriental ways of calming the mind through the motions of the body, are becoming more popular as stress-relievers in the West...

The leadership positions in some of Cape Girardeau's major institutions might have the best COMBINED talent that Cape has ever seen. Mayor AL SPRADLING III brings an intelligent, knowledgeable, open, fair-minded and objective leadership to our city government. He is supported by the low-key, professional, out-of- sight leadership of City Manager MIKE MILLER...

To the editor: I write in regards to the letter from Gilbert Degenhardt on Aug. 1. He is rather mistaken about who gets the money we earn. Yes, as citizens we must pay taxes. But we are being overtaxed. Yes, it's true. I go to work, each week I get my paycheck, and it's my money. ...

This strange business of state funding for family planning services and how a federal judge has, practically speaking, taken over the duties of both the legislative and executive branches of Missouri's government, continues to twist along a tortured trail...

Missouri Farm Bureau president Charles Kruse says he has learned a new phrase from the Total Transportation Commission. He calls it "Project Creep." Addressing the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee at the Show Me Center Friday, Kruse said Project Creep is partially blamed for the tremendous deficit cited by the commission in the state's 15-year highway program...

The 1997 YELL literacy campaign got under way with a kickoff breakfast sponsored by the Southeast Missourian and United Way at Drury Lodge Tuesday. Principals and representatives from Cape Girardeau public schools, Notre Dame High School and St. Vincent de Paul Grade School joined sponsors and volunteers for the official start of the Youth Education Literacy and Learning, or YELL campaign. The literacy project will provide teachers with free newspapers to aid in classroom instruction...

CHARLEST0N -- Eight months have passed since the general election, and many Mississippi County voters may have forgotten the furor that cropped up on Election Day 1996. The excitement concerned allegations of voter fraud in the state representative race between Gene Copeland of New Madrid and Lanie Black of Charleston...

SIKESTON -- Rick Young of Tickfall, La., gets a kick out of the rodeo and said he is real upbeat about today's start of the 1997 Sikeston Bootheel Rodeo. Or maybe he said he gets kicked at the rodeo and is looking forward to being beat up. Either way, Young, a professional barrel clown, is going to be right in the thick of this weekend's rodeo action. Young said he has a simple job: He plays mind games with infuriated 2,000-pound animals with horns...

JACKSON -- Jackson voters said yes to sewer and water improvements Tuesday. The $10.54 million bond issue passed 715 to 225 vote, including 19 absentee "yes" votes. With voter approval, the city has the funds to go forward with a sewer and water improvement plan...

MARQUAND -- Voters in the financially distressed Marquand-Zion School District in Madison County voted to raise their property taxes by 30 cents per $100 assessed valuation Tuesday. "That shows they want our school district to keep going," Randy Williams, president of the Marquand-Zion Board of Education, said after he heard the results...

CHARLESTON -- Mississippi County voters decided they would rather pay a higher sales tax now than pay interest later. They approved a one-half of 1 percent increase in their sales tax that will last for three years. The County Commission said the revenue will be earmarked to build a new courthouse to replace the one that burned Feb. 10...

There's nothing like a young mind to create its own fun. Get out your notebooks, kids. You're about to learn the vocabulary word of the day. It's "foodertainment." I'm not sure if my boss should be credited with this new word or if she picked it up on the street. Either way, she's the first -- and only -- person I've heard use it in a sentence...

First Church of the Nazarene, 2601 Independence, will have a homecoming celebration this weekend. The first service will be at 7 tonight, with a concert by The New Creations Quartet of Upland, Calif. Sunday activities will include a fellowship time at 9:30 a.m. with coffee and doughnuts. The homecoming service will be from 10 a.m. to noon. Speaker will be the Rev. Jerry W. Frye of Eldon, and music will be presented by The New Creations Quartet...

Fifteen South Korean Kunsan University students performed their country's national anthem Tuesday at Southeast Missouri State's University Center. The students provided entertainment as part of a celebration luncheon to mark the signing of a new student exchange program agreement between the two schools...

Before it has even held its first meeting, the Cape Girardeau Ethics Commission has lost a member. The City Council took William J. Donnelly off the commission Monday after it learned that he worked as a paddlewheeler for the Convention and Visitors Bureau and made $143 greeting boats, guiding tourists and registering participants in conferences and races...

Cliff Simmons recalls the day in early 1995 that a persistent Danny Sissom first walked into the Cliff's Rent To Own store that Simmons operates in Cape Girardeau. "At the time, I didn't know who he was and I didn't know a whole lot about auto racing, just what I'd seen on ESPN," said a chuckling Simmons...

CHAFFEE -- As host of the 1997 Mid-States Regional, Chaffee's Junior American Legion baseball team brought seven state championship teams to the area. Then, one-by-one, the host squad sent them packing. Minnetonka, Minn., proved to be the fourth and final team eliminated by Chaffee in the double-elimination tourney, when the local squad claimed a 5-1 championship victory Tuesday afternoon in front of a huge crowd at Harmon Field...

CHAFFEE -- After watching Minnetonka, Minn., pitcher Andy Davidson strikeout 16 Chaffee batters and allow only a bunt hit in an overpowering 2-0 win late Saturday night, Chaffee knew exactly who they were going to see on the mound Tuesday in the winner-take-all final...

SIKESTON -- Former NFL running back and Sikeston High School standout James Wilder has announced the First James Wilder Celebrity Sports Legends Weekend on Sept. 13-15 in Sikeston. The event will consist of a clebrity and sponsors welcome party, a basketball game a golf classic...

Southeast Missouri State University golf coach Carroll Williams is hoping his team can use a solid fall season as a major stepping stone into the spring, when the majority of the matches are played. Toward that end, Williams is anxiously awaiting the opening tournament of the fall -- which also happens to be Southeast's annual home meet...

ANNA, Ill. -- Graveside service for Raymond A. Jett of Anna, formerly of Mill Creek, will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at St. John's Cemetery. Masonic rites will be conducted at 12:30 p.m. Thursday at Hileman and Parr Funeral Home in Jonesboro. Jett, 86, died Monday, Aug. 4, 1997, at Illinois Veterans Home in Anna...

ORAN -- Voters in Oran approved a sales tax of one-half of 1 percent for capital improvements to fund a number of street repairs and construction projects. The issue passed 93 to 64. Mississippi County votes were not available on the issue. Oran Mayor Tom Urhahn said he was extremely pleased with the vote. He said it was the first time that the city had asked for this particular sales tax...

PERRYVILLE -- Memorial Mass for Carole R. Winschel of Eolia, formerly of Perryville, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Vincent's Catholic Church. The Rev. Kevin Fausz will officiate, with burial in St. Joseph Cemetery at Apple Creek. Miller Family Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements...

PERRYVILLE -- Funeral service for Eunice Zahner of Perryville was held Tuesday at Miller Family Funeral Home. The Rev. Willis Darling officiated, with burial in Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Centreville, Ill. Zahner, 81, died Saturday, Aug. 2, 1997, at Perry County Nursing Home...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Graveside service for Edith M. Schindler of Cairo will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at Calvary Cemetery in Villa Ridge. The Rev. Jerome Fortenberry will officiate. Friends may call at Barkett Funeral Home in Cairo from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Thursday...

Son to Darren and Beverly Ross of Rockford, Ill., St. Anthony Hospital there, 8:27 p.m. Thursday, June 26, 1997. Name, Blake Aaron. Weight, 8 pounds 2 ounces. First child. Mrs. Ross is the former Beverly Sue Ludwig, daughter of Joe and Loustell Ludwig of Jackson. Ross is the son of Jim and Joyce Ross of Jackson. He is a contracting nuclear engineer in Byron, Ill...

CHAFFEE -- Peter Anthony Morie, 92, of Chaffee, died Tuesday, Aug. 5, 1997, at the Chaffee Nursing Center. He was born Oct. 6, 1904, in New Hamburg, the son of John and Katherine Gosche Morie. On Oct. 29, 1929, he married Cecelia L. Legrand. He was a retired farmer...

August 4, 1997 Power and Light committee Accepted a petition for voluntary annexation for Pioneer Subdivision Unit No. 2 and set a public hearing for 7:30 p.m. on august 18. Accepted a water line easement from the county Court on Bainbridge Road. Street committee...

BENTON -- Mobile homes will remain in place as classrooms in the Kelly School District. Voters in the Scott County R-IV School District turned down a $1.6 million bond issue that would have allowed for new school facilities and equipment. The issue was defeated 217 to 173 voted yes...

The Southeast Missourian asked people about a proposal before Congress that would permit minting of quarters to commemorate the 50 states. Tina Weber: "I think it would be a good idea, and for Missouri, to put the Arch in St. Louis on it. It's so big, and when you think of the Arch you think of Missouri."...

Andrea Penzel of Jackson was recently crowned the 1997 Little Miss Missouri. The competition was held in mid-July in Mexico, Mo. She performed a gospel song, "I Start My Day," that wowed the crowd. Penzel is the daughter of Sandy and Phil Penzel of Jackson. Her grandparents are Ed and Sharon Pinkerton of Jackson and Gene and Sue Penzel of Jackson...

Slots are still available for parents and children wanting to attend the NAACP Back to School/Stay in School Family Summit Shut-In scheduled for Aug. 15-16. Michael Sterling, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Cape Girardeau chapter, said about 100 people have already registered for the event, which will be held at the Salvation Army, 701 Good Hope. Space is still available for about 50 more participants, he said...

"Of soup and love, the first is best," says an old Spanish proverb. An obvious overstatement, but it is true that soup can be alluring. And few things make a meal more elegant than a soup course, especially if the soup is properly garnished and served in style, say, in a crystal or silver cup, a hollowed out squash or other vegetable, or a bowl-shaped loaf of bread. ...