Stories from Friday, April 2, 1999

To the editor: The suit against gun manufacturers gives us an idea of how to get millions of dollars more. Let's sue auto makers whose cars murder thousands each month, though the auto makers don't mean for them to kill. But gun makers don't either. So don't sue one manufacturer alone...

Current and potential employees of area businesses can now improve industrial skills using state-of-the-art equipment recently received by the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School. School director Harold Tilley said the school received production equipment valued at some $80,000 from Allen-Bradley, a subsidiary of Rockwell Automation. The company donated PLC5s, or programmable logic controllers, and accompanying software...

BENTON -- Scott County R-4 School District voters will decide Tuesday if the Kelly school board needs a $4.5 million bond proposal to build and furnish a new high school. School superintendent Don Abner said a new high school is needed because the district's enrollment has outgrown the high school's capacity. The district has had gains in enrollment of as much as 5 percent annually since 1993...

Voters in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties will elect candidates for boards of education when they go to the polls on Tuesday. Most area school districts are seeking to fill three, three-year terms. Election polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday...

MARBLE HILL -- Contested school board races are on Tuesday's election ballot in the Woodland and Meadow Heights school districts. Incumbents Myra K. Underwood, Jo Ann Shrum and Gary L. Roberts are seeking re-election to three-year terms. They face a challenge from two other candidates -- Mark McCormick and Barry Arthur Booth...

Next week I will be traveling to a deeply rural area on the island of Jamaica to provide care for people who live in or around the community of Carron Hall. Most of these people have never seen a physician nor received any type of medical or dental care. I will be traveling with two other physicians and a dentist as well as many nurses and other lay people who, like I, have long held a dream if giving something back...

Mention technology and the symbol Y2K immediately comes to mind. Call it what you may -- Y2K, the Y2K bug, the Y2K Time Bomb, the Millennium Monster or whatever -- it is real. Austin Kiplinger, author of the "Kiplinger Washington Letter," said in a recent article that the bug will be a windfall for lawyers. ...

A new support group for burn victims, their family and friends is being formed by the SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence. The first meeting of the Burn Recovery Support Group will be held from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday in the SADI Community Room, 121 S. Broadview Plaza Suite 10...

Morley citizens are being asked to pass a $750,000 revenue bond Tuesday to aid construction and improvement of the city's water and sewage system. If the revenue bond is passed, the city will increase its bond amount to $1.3 million. A $600,000 bond passed in November 1994...

SCOTT CITY -- Voters in Scott City will decide Tuesday if the city needs a $1 million revenue bond to improve and extend the existing sewer system. The bond would allow the city to acquire, construct and improve the city sewer system and help defray maintenance and operating expenses...

Local law enforcement authorities will implement sobriety checkpoints this weekend in an attempt to curtail drunken driving. The effort will include officers with the Cape Girardeau Police Department, Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol...

Last week, Joe Lankheit truly enjoyed a cup of coffee for the first time in a decade. Lankheit, 52, has suffered tremors in both arms -- most severe on his right side -- since 1988. In all that time he hadn't been able to eat or drink without assistance or write at all. He'd been right-handed all his life...

DEAR JOE Sullivan: Every week I look forward to the newest Page 2 commentary and enjoy them so much that I send them on to friends in other cities. You, sir, are like fine wine. You keep on improving with age. Thank you. BILL CLINTON is a wild man who acts in a rash and ill-rational manner without a thought or care for the consequences. ...

Everyone has weighed in on whether the United States should have led NATO in the military operation against Serbia and its autonomy-seeking province of Kosovo. Since we are already there, that subject is moot -- this time around. But what about future use of the U.S. military in foreign conflicts?...

The lessons learned about right, wrong, morality and penalties -- or lack of them -- for ignoring standards of decency have been tough to accept in these, the final years of the Clinton White House. While the nation's attention has been commandeered by the president's behavior and subsequent attempts to punish him, there have been other, more ordinary occasions when other, more ordinary Americans have risen to the challenge to uphold standards and adhere to the law...

Cape Girardeau is blooming. More than 42,000 daffodils are in bloom across the city, part of an ongoing beautification project of Vision 2000. "The flowers are beautiful," said Melvin Gateley, coordinator of Vision 2000. "We hope that people take the opportunity to drive around the city this weekend and enjoy the beauty."...

More than a fourth of Cape Girardeau County's 45,000 registered voters may go to the polls Tuesday. That's the estimate of Cape Girardeau County Clerk Rodney Miller. Statewide, an estimated 900,000 or 25 percent of Missouri's 3.6 million voters are expected to go to the polls. That dismays Secretary of State Bekki Cook, Missouri's chief election official...

First Alfred Hitchcock created "The Birds." Now the Audubon Society of Missouri is bringing us "The Birders." An estimated 100 bird watchers from around the state will congregate at Southeast Missouri State University April 23 through 25 for the organization's spring meeting. They're coming to check out the region's birding sites and hoping to spot the fish crows, Mississippi kites and warblers found along this stretch of the Mississippi flyway...

There's going to be barn-raising over yonder at the Sullivan place, so why don't y'all come on over. Bring a hammer. My two favorite seasons of the year are spring. First comes early spring, when green things poke up out of the ground and promise to turn into golden daffodils or calla lillies...

Arts Council Executive Director Daniel North was sitting at a desk in the gallery one day when an 82-year-old visitor named Lou Varro began talking to him about art. North soon discovered that Varro had taken many life drawing classes back in the 1940s, unusual for anyone except professional artists. North asked to see the drawings...

International science and engineering winners at the Southeast Missouri Regional Science Fair were announced Thursday night. From left are David Walls, who teaches winner Mandi Jarred of South Pemiscot High School; Elizabeth Ellis, who teaches winner Caitlin Walls of South Pemiscot; winner Amanda Busby of Kennett High School; and her teacher, Robert Gill...

CHAFFEE -- Notre Dame's baseball team strolled onto Harmon Field Thursday with an ambition to prove that it is deserving of a No. 1 seed in the upcoming district tournament. The Bulldogs took a step in the right direction, spanking Chaffee -- a team generally regarded as one of the three best in the district -- 11-1 in six innings...

The 18th annual ALL SPORT Relays, the area's premier collegiate track and field event, will be marked by a more spectator-friendly approach when the competition kicks off today at noon at Southeast Missouri State University's Abe Stuber Track and Field Complex...

Southeast Missouri State University's walking wounded baseball team is bracing for another important Ohio Valley Conference home series. The Indians and Austin Peay will square off in a three-game set at Capaha Field starting with today's 2 p.m. doubleheader. There will be a 2 p.m. single game Saturday...

Southeast Missouri State University's softball team swept a pair of Ohio Valley Conference games Thursday against Eastern Illinois at the Southeast Complex. In the opener, Southeast parlayed a four-run fourth into a 5-2 triumph. Then in the nightcap, Debbie Schmelz (6-7) permitted one earned run on seven hits as Southeast eked out a 3-2 win...

BLOOMFIELD -- Kelly's Justin Simpher held Bloomfield to four hits and also knocked in three runs as the Hawks rolled to a 12-1, five-inning victory over Bloomfield Thursday. Kelly (2-1-1) banged out 11 hits, including three home runs. Bradly Kolwyck went 3-for-3 with two home runs and four RBIs, while Jason Glastetter accounted for the other home run...

DEXTER -- Freeda Rodgers, 90, of Dexter died Thursday, April 1, 1999, at Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Center in Dexter. She was born Jan. 2, 1909, at Rombauer, daughter of John and Pearl Kimes Powell. She and John W. Rodgers were married July 3, 1925, at Mingo. He died July 4, 1973...

CHARLESTON -- Dorothy Hearnes, 86, of Charleston died Thursday, April 1, 1999, at Bertrand Retirement Facility. She was born April 15, 1912, at Charleston, daughter of A.S. and Ora J. Johnson Brown Sr. She and Richard W. Hearnes were married Dec. 7, 1935, in Cape Girardeau. He died in January 1967...

Funeral for Edwin Kyle Farrow of Cape Girardeau will be held at 1 p.m. today at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Chapel. The Revs. Bill Kitchen and Alvie Surface will officiate. Entombment will be in Memorial Park Mausoleum. Farrow, 31, died Tuesday, March 30, 1999, at St. Francis Medical Center following a brief illness...

SCOTT CITY -- Funeral for Shirley Jean Corn of St. Louis will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City. The Rev. Charles Lance will officiate. Burial will be in Lightner Memorial Cemetery. Friends may call at the chapel from 4-8 p.m. today...

COBDEN, Ill. -- Margaret Elizabeth Arter, 65, of Bloomington, Ind., died Thursday, April 1, 1999, at Brown County Community Care Center in Nashville, Ind. She was born Jan. 24, 1934, at Cobden, daughter of Adolph J. and Agnes M. Bradac Flamm. She and Richard W. Arter were married Dec. 27, 1956, in St. Louis...

ALTO PASS, Ill. -- Lois Henze, 91, of Seal Beach, Calif., died Saturday, March 20, 1999, at her home. She was born July 31, 1907, in Alto Pass, daughter of Charles and Annie Bilderbeck Hardin. Survivors include a son, Charles Henze of California; two sisters, Lela Cavaness of Texas, Mary Taylor of Arkansas; two brothers, Charles Hardin of St. Louis, and Will Hardin of Murphysboro...

DELTA -- Eula M. Hester, 90, of Delta died Thursday, April 1, 1999, at St. Joseph's Hospital in Highland, Ill. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Chaffee.

Daughter to Michael Shane and Jessica Lee Ferguson of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 3:39 p.m. Thursday, March 25, 1999. Name, Sydney Paige. Weight, 8 pounds 12 ounces. First child. Mrs. Ferguson is the former Jessica Arias, daughter of John Arias of San Jose, Calif., and Brenda Kincade of San Martin, Calif. Ferguson is the son of James Ferguson and Mary Ferguson of Marston. He is employed at Lids...

A Cape Girardeau man apparently set fire to his home Thursday afternoon just moments before taking his own life. At approximately 12:45 p.m., the Cape Girardeau Fire Department was dispatched to 1010 Sturdivant St. for a house fire. Upon their arrival, firefighters found Allen Hammond, 36, lying on a downstairs couch unconscious...

ORAN -- Funeral for Stanley Clayton Perdue of Viola, Ark., will be held at 2 p.m. today at Viola Assembly of God Church, Eddie Passmore and Alan Cartwright will officiate. Burial will be in Viola Cemetery. Cox-Estes Funeral Home in Salem, Ark., is in charge of arrangements...