Stories from Thursday, August 10, 2000

The heart is a muscular pump that pumps approximately five quarts of blood per minute through the body to supply it with oxygen and energy. The heart's work is an incessant job, and one that is generally taken for granted until it begins to show signs of failure...

Cleaning the refrigerator can be an eye-opening experience. That green fuzz growing on -- well, whatever it used to be -- might make a good science project. That's what you get past the expiration date. Unfortunately, cosmetics do not carry that same warning. Just as you wouldn't drink milk a month past its expiration date, you may want to think twice about using a tube of lipstick that's been under the car seat for the last year...

Fewer than one in four of Cape Girardeau County's registered voters went to the polls in Tuesday's primary election. Only 10,794 of the county's 46,867 voters went to the polls, or about 23 percent, election officials said. Turnout was higher in the Jackson School District where 31 percent of the voters went to the polls or 5,365 of the district's 17,007 registered voters...

Over the past month, Holly and Layne and Jordan Finnegan have watched the old shed in their grandmother's back yard turning into the summer playhouse of a child's dreams. The architect of this dream is artisan Tim Roth, who used to own an art gallery in Cape Girardeau...

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- An autopsy will be performed today on the body of a Scott City woman who had been missing since July 27. Authorities believe Willie Mae Vasquez was the victim of a homicide. Two suspects are in custody. Vasquez' buried body was found by Scott County sheriff's deputies Wednesday in an area east of the city near the Mississippi River...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Old habits die hard, but the Sikeston Department of Public Safety and Sikeston Jaycees hope local residents will accept this year's change in traffic flow at the Sikeston Bootheel Rodeo. The rodeo opened Wednesday and runs through Saturday...

Aug. 10, 2000 Dear Leslie, At the end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s, millions of American kids sat before TV sets each week to watch "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," a show that told us everything we needed to know about love and life. You hate to admit that a TV show had any effect on you, especially one as purposefully numbskulled as "Dobie Gillis." But if you were a middle-class kid growing up somewhere in the middle of America, a sitcom about a middle-class kid struggling to figure out girls and parents and friends was like having a support group.. ...

Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Perryville school districts are among 45 selected to receive new state grants to help improve reading instruction in young students. The three districts received a total of $224,000 during the first round of the Read to Be Ready early literacy grant program. Cape Girardeau School District received $140,000 to fund the program in Blanchard, Clippard, Franklin and Jefferson schools...

Board of Education Cape Girardeau School District Thursday, Aug. 10, 2000 12 p.m. Board of Education Office, 61 N. Clark Action items: Jackson Special Board of Education Meeting Thursday, Aug. 10, 2000 7:30 p.m. Jackson Board of Education office, 614 E. Adams...

Whether it's at the grocery store, a repair shop or on official business, Tammy Gwaltney continues to hear stories from people who have been sexually abused and assaulted. "Everybody has had an experience," she said. "It permeates our society." Gwaltney is the director of the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence (NASV), a nonprofit organization that began serving the area about three years ago...

Nancy Jernigan wants the area's nonprofit organizations to have all the resources they need to complete their work, so she is always looking at ways "to help them do a better job." Jernigan, executive director of the Area Wide United Way, found just that in a eight-session seminar, "Excellence in nonprofit leadership and management."...

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- The decisions on who will fill the offices in January were all made on the Democratic ticket Tuesday in New Madrid County with none of the candidates facing opposition in November's general election. In making their selection for county office holders, Democratic voters chose to bring in new persons to fill two offices, returned a former officeholder and kept one incumbent according to unofficial tallies from County Clerk Jim W. Farrenburg...

A Cape Girardeau man wanted for possessing cocaine was arrested after a struggle with police on Tuesday. Solomon P. Sides, 17, of 413 S. Benton St., was stopped in the 300 block of south Hanover Street Tuesday afternoon, Cpl. Kevin Orr said. Police were searching for Sides on a warrant for cocaine possession, Orr said...

The city's planning commission tabled Wednesday its third request in two months for rezoning and special-use permits for mini-storage units. Members of the Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously to table the request of Michael L. and Debra K. Annis to rezone 1217 William St. from an R-3, two family residential district, to C-1, local commercial district, and for a special-use permit for mini-storage units at that location...

Area emergency response officials unveiled a hazardous materials trailer Wednesday that will serve a seven-county area. The trailer and a decontamination tent were unveiled at Cape Girardeau Fire Station No. 1. Cape Girardeau County's new communications van also was displayed at the fire station...

U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., said Wednesday that this fall's Senate race in Missouri offers voters a clear choice. Ashcroft, a Republican, is opposed in November by Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan. Ashcroft said the election offers a choice between "the old ways of Washington" and those who have worked to reform government...

The first national tire recall since the early 1970s will keep local dealers of Firestone tires busy, said Mark Rhodes of Plaza Tire Service. "It has created quite a bit of traffic for us already," said Rhodes, president of Plaza Tire Service. Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. is recalling 6.5 million tires on sport utility vehicles and light trucks as the government pursues an investigation into whether the tires caused hundreds of accidents and at least 46 deaths...

Southeast Missouri State University football player Isaac Powell is proud that he was recently honored as a 2000 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar by the publication 'Black Issues in Higher Education.' In order to be nominated for the award, athletes must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.3 or higher. Powell qualified easily with a 3.523 cumulative GPA. He acknowledges that the accolade is something special, and it means a lot to him...

Two members of last season's Southeast Missouri State University men's basketball team are currently hooping it up overseas, including one professionally. Roderick Johnson, a 6-foot-6 forward who was the leading scorer and rebounder for the 1999-2000 Indians, recently signed a professional contract to play in Poland...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Jon Younghouse, a 1996 graduate of Cape Central High School, advanced out of the Olympic trial swimming preliminaries in the 400 freestyle Wednesday morning, but finished eighth in the finals Wednesday night. Only the top two in each event go to the Olympics...

BERNIE, Mo. -- Herman Alexander Davis, 82, of Bernie died Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2000, at his home. He was born May 21, 1918, at Malden, Mo., son of Joe C. and Lena H. Jann Davis. He and Mara Lee Lindsay were married Feb. 3, 1943, in Piggott, Ark. Davis farmed from 1932 until retiring in 1985. He was a member of Bernie National Guard...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Richard D. Peeler, 63, of Dongola died Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2000 at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Lutz & Rendleman Funeral Home in Anna, Ill.

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- Bernice Bledsoe Clutts, 67, of Olive Branch died Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2000 at home. Arrangements are under the direction of Crain Funeral Home in Tamms, Ill.

UNIONTOWN, Mo. -- Marie A. Reese, 76, of Florissant, Mo., died Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2000, at DePaul Health Center in St. Louis County. She was born Jan. 2, 1924, at Uniontown, daughter of Hugo and Anna Marie Meyer Winkler. She married Troy Reese. Survivors include her husband; a son, Donald Reese of Florissant; a daughter, Dr. ...

ANNA, Ill. -- Arawayne Gillespie, 81, of Anna died Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2000, at her home. She was born Sept. 17, 1918, in Murphysboro, daughter of Norman and Minnie Johnson Rushing. She and Clarence Gillespie Jr. were married Aug. 23, 1939, at Jackson, Mo...

Son to Charles Allan and Michele Elaine Livesay of Chaffee, Mo., Southeast Missouri Hospital, 12:48 p.m. Friday, Aug. 4, 2000. Name, Logan Allan. Weight, 8 pounds 3 ounces. Third son. Mrs. Livesay is the former Michele Kortz, daughter of Earl and Brenda Kortz of Paducah, Ky. She is a secretary at Griffin Distributing in Sikeston, Mo. Livesay is the son of John and Fern Livesay of Metropolis, Ill., and the late Wave Livesay. He is an accountant at Galaxy Cablevision in Sikeston...

This is an open letter to Gary Rust, David Limbaugh and Peter Kinder. For several years, I have read your journalistic tirade against liberalism. So far, you have not blamed the holocaust on liberals, but you and your right-wing cohorts have managed to convince many of your readers that liberalism is evil. Do you know the definition of the word? The dictionary offers this definition:...

I'M CALLING about the comment "Breaking the law." If the caller would bother to read the newspaper, he would know that the special prosecutor has cleared Clinton in the FBI file investigation. He has also cleared Clinton on Whitewater, on Travelgate and other investigations...

The Postal Service is looking at ways to become a big player in e-mail services. Some of the ideas it is considering, such as the ability to send to a postal facility e-mail which is, in turn, printed on paper and delivered to recipients without a computer, have merit...

In the early 1940s, youngsters rode their soapbox racers down the hill on Perry Avenue alongside Capaha Park. The races were pretty exciting for those drivers, and those who are still around have vivid memories of building their race cars and competing in Cape Girardeau's own Soapbox Derby...

To the editor: I would like to suggest to Coach Gary Garner at Southeast Missouri State University that the banners won by the 1999-2000 SEMO basketball team be dedicated in a public ceremony at the Show Me Center commencing approximately 30 seconds before the scheduled tip-off of the SEMO-Murray State basketball game this year...

To the editor: Instead of idealizing or romanticizing about life, Sam came to a point. In his life he was given a vision. However short, it was still a vision. Life could be more. You might say the Detour Angel visited Sam, and through that intervention of reality, truth trumped his delusion...