Stories from Monday, July 24, 2000

Commerce Bancshares Inc. has announced record earnings for the second quarter of 2000. Earnings for the three months ending June 30, was $45.6 million, compared to $41.8 million during the same period in 1999. Per share earnings were 74 cents, up 14 percent from the 65 cents of a year ago...

Harvesting mature Eastern Cottonwoods will start next year or in early 2002 in Southeast Missouri. "We'll start harvesting after the sixth growing season for the cottonwoods," said Terry Long, manager of the Westvaco Fiber Farm, along Missouri's Route 77 in Scott County...

This "Financial Focus" column is prepared by Edward Jones Investments, headquartered in St. Louis. Jones includes branches throughout the nation, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson. Here's the good news: With the trend toward longer life spans, you may be able to enjoy two or three decades of retirement. That means time spent with your family, traveling, pursuing your hobbies or doing whatever you choose...

Some things could start happening soon at Prestwick Plantation. Final approval of plans for construction of the Prestwick Plantation's 27-hole golf course could come as early as next month. Plans for the links have been completed by Nicklaus Design. Prestwick's management team will meet with Gary Nicklaus in August...

General Motors Corp. squeezed out a 1 percent increase in earnings for the second quarter, as a variety of higher costs in its automotive business offset growing revenues. GM earned $1.75 billion, or $2.93 a share, compared to $1.73 billion, or $2.66 a share, from continuing operations in the year-ago period. Including discontinued operations, GM earned $1.92 billion last year...

Advocates of a House bill to ban "cyber casinos" contend it is needed to curb the proliferation of Internet sites offering casino games and sports betting to everyone with a credit card and a computer, regardless of whether gambling is legal where they live...

The 10th annual Missouri Rice Field Day will be held Aug. 16 at the Missouri Rice Research Farm, west of Malden. Research and extension specialists from Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Missouri, will discuss current research and recommendation related to rice varieties, rice weed, insect and disease control...

Mounds, Ill. has received funding to construct a business access road and expand utilities to the Mounds Business Park. The city received a $150,000 Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG), presented by the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development in Illinois...

Dana Corp., headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, has announced second quarter sales results for the period ended June 30. Sales were approximately $3.3 billion, down slightly from record sales of $3.4 billion during the second quarter last year. Operating income for the quarter totaled $154 million, or $1.01 per share, including non-recurring expenses of $90.68 million after tax, reported net income for the period was $145 million, or 95 cents per share. ...

Bobby Ward is retiring from Missouri Foundation Seed (MFS) Aug. 31 after a 32-year career at the University of Missouri Delta Center in Portageville. Gregg Stafford will succeed Ward, Stafford has worked at the foundation seed and testing center 13 years...

A number of area Medicap pharmacists were honored recently during the national annual Medicap Pharmacies Inc. convention, held in West Des Moines, Iowa recently. Ben Tally of Cape Girardeau, Dave Charlier of Scott City and Ronnie Hamra of Sikeston were included on the list of the President's Club, an honor presented to Medicap Pharmacy franchises with outstanding accomplishments in sales...

Shane Glover of Cape Girardeau has joined Ford Groves at Cape Girardeau as a sales representative. Glover has more than 10 years experience in auto sales, in Cape Girardeau and Perryville.

Jane Lysell has joined Century 21 Dutch Realty, 528 E. Jackson Blvd., in Jackson. Lysell has several years real estate experience, and was a 1999 multi-million dollar Summit Level producer.

How do you quickly teach 12 girls what a high school flag corps performance is all about? Send them to camp, of course. That's what Kathleen Crader did when Sikeston High School in Sikeston, Mo., formed a flag corps. She had taught the girls basic movements and techniques for auditions in early spring, but the group needed more instruction before a full-blown performance...

A state law enacted more than two decades ago, designed to preserve and improve health-care funding, is still in operation, monitoring proposed projects that cost millions of dollars annually. The program, known as the Missouri Certificate of Need Program, is supervised by a nine-member, non-salaried committee, composed of private health-care experts and four members of the General Assembly...

Training new leaders for Cape Girardeau will soon start with students at the city's public and parochial schools. The Cape Girardeau Student Leadership Academy will begin its first class this fall. The course will be open to 20 juniors from public and parochial schools...

The League of Women Voters of Southeast Missouri will sponsor a candidate forum form 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Glenn Auditorium in Dempster Hall at Southeast Missouri State University. Candidates for Cape Girardeau County coroner and public administrator, 158th district state representative and U.S. Congress have been invited to speak...

The three Cape Girardeau Republicans running for state representative of the 158th District favor tax cuts and oppose abortion. The candidates are City Councilman Jay Purcell, lawyer Jason Crowell and businessman Stan Wicks. The winner faces Cape Girardeau City Councilman Tom Neumeyer in the November election to succeed retiring Republican state Rep. Mary Kasten. The legislative district encompasses most of the city of Cape Girardeau...

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Dunklin County and Chaffee Medicap Pharmacy each won three games against the other this year, but Dunklin County prevailed in the contest that counted the most. Taking advantage of four Chaffee errors that accounted for six unearned runs, Dunklin County captured its fourth straight American Legion District 14 Tournament title Sunday with an 8-4 victory in the championship game at Hillhouse Park...

STE. GENEVIEVE -- The Perryville American Legion baseball team won its second straight District 13 Tournament title, beating Imperial 2-1 in 11 innings late Saturday night. Perryville will take a 21-10 record into the Zone 4 Tournament that begins Thursday in St. Louis...

Most of us are afraid of Big Government until we find out how inefficient and incompetent it really is. It cost U.S. taxpayers more than $2 million to send Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba. That the most the country has spent on foreign travel since NASA sent John Glenn into orbit...

With a growing number of social-service programs and a burgeoning state budget brought on in part by those programs, the fact that spending for social services now exceeds spending for education shouldn't surprise many Missourians. A recent analysis of Missouri's fiscal year 1999 spending showed social services accounted for 32.2 percent of all non-capital spending by the state...

Since methamphetamines have become popular among illicit drug users, Southeast Missouri has gained the reputation as the region that produces the most meth in the state. The main reason for it is because the area offers so many isolated areas in which methamphetamines can be made in labs out of public view...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Charles G. Brown, 76, of Perryville died Saturday, July 22, 2000, at the Perry County Nursing Home in Perryville. He was born Sept. 7, 1923, at Chicago, son of Arthur and Jeanatte Decoch Brown. He was a veteran of World War II, having served in the U.S. Navy. He worked as an armored car driver for Brinks for 20 years...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- O. L. "Bud" Daugherty Jr., 83, of Sikeston died Saturday, July 22, 2000, at his home. He was born March 8, 1917, in Matthews, Mo., son of Oliver L. and Florence Cardwell Daugherty Sr. He and Clauda V. Tribbey were married April 3, 1948, in Sikeston...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Clifford T. Murray, 83, of Cairo died Sunday, July 23, 2000, at his home. Arrangements are incomplete at Barkett Funeral Home in Cairo.

SHAWNEETOWN, Mo. -- Elton Dost, 72, of Shawneetown died Sunday, July 23, 2000, at his home. Arrangements are incomplete at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson, Mo.

CYPRESS, Ill. -- Maurine Aldrich, 93, of Cypress died Sunday, July 23, 2000, at her home. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Wilson Funeral Home in Karnak, Ill.

COBDEN, Ill. -- Donald Eugene Hartsock, 69, of Cobden died Saturday, July 22, 2000, at his home. He was born Aug. 22, 1930, in Alto Pass, Ill., son of Daniel and Minnie Irvin Hartsock. He and Dorothy Hubbs were married June 17, 1950. He was a member of Immanuel Baptist Church in Cobden and had worked as a mental health technician at Choate Center in Anna, Ill., before retiring...