Stories from Saturday, September 30, 2000

Diana Siebert listened to the evangelism presentation at Notre Dame High School. Ellen Shuck enjoys the Catholic Church more all the time, and that makes her want to share her faith and the good news with others. "I think the church has gotten bogged down. It's becoming more open. The laity is getting more involved," said Shuck, who attends St. Mary's Cathedral in Cape Girardeau. "I don't think people really knew what we stood for."...

JACKSON, Mo. -- Teachers and parents should be more aggressive in learning about youngsters' computer habits and recognizing the telltale signs of Internet predators, a group of computer experts said Friday. "Child porn is traded every hour of every day. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- While the Republican Party has its sights on taking control of the Missouri Senate, state Sen. Peter Kinder of Cape Girardeau is gunning for the chamber's top leadership post. With Democrats currently holding a 19-17 majority, Republicans need to pick up just two seats to end a more-than-50-year run as the Senate's minority party...

MCCLURE, Ill. -- There's only one rice farmer in Illinois, and even he is a relative novice in a state where corn and soybeans prevail. But Blake Gerard says he has high hopes for his unique crop this year. He planted more than 300 acres of rice near McClure. Employees at the state's farm statistics service had to search before they came up with Gerard's name and acreage. They initially forgot about him...

-- Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. -- Proverbs 22:6 Since I began tutoring and mentoring youth about seven years ago, I have noticed more and more children who haven't received the gift of home training. Somehow, the adults raising these kids did not impart their home training gift, also known as good manners, deportment or etiquette, as they were supposed to...

Southeast Missouri State University's Board of Regents granted a five-year charter Friday to a St. Louis neighborhood group to operate an elementary and middle school near the Missouri Botanical Garden. The regents approved the Garden School application with two conditions: Any building to be used for the school must first meet with the university's approval, and the Garden School Board of Directors must provide Southeast and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education a plan for repaying debt.. ...

A steel caisson larger than a river barge is stationed in the middle of the Mississippi River, ready to begin a descent that eventually will end 50 feet below the river bed. The procedure, to begin Tuesday inside the coffer dam at pier 3 of the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, is considered a milestone in the construction of the bridge...

Nearly one month into an annual capital campaign, the Area Wide United Way has raised close to 15 percent of its $925,000 goal. The total got a big bump Friday when Saint Francis Medical Center announced the results of its fund drive. The hospital set a goal to raise $62,000 from employee contributions this year and surpassed it by $500...

COMMERCE, Mo. -- Residents in Commerce, Mo., are celebrating life along the Mississippi River banks with the community's fourth annual Flood Fest. About 200 people are expected for the activities that include a cakewalk, outhouse race, children's and adult pageants and horseshoe competitions. The events run today and Sunday...

Graves County quarterback Stephen Hatchell was sacked by Cape Central linebacker Casey Dwyre during the first quarter Friday at Houck Stadium. It wasn't morning breath. That bad taste that the Cape Central Tigers woke up with this morning was the flavor of another close loss, another game of missed opportunities...

Southeast Missouri State University's football team will attempt to reverse a lopsided trend when the Indians play their first Ohio Valley Conference road game of the season tonight. The Indians have never beaten Eastern Kentucky -- losing all 10 meetings -- and the five games played at Roy Kidd Stadium have been particularly gruesome, the Colonels holding a combined 163-23 scoring edge...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Southeast Missouri State University's volleyball team remained perfect in Ohio Valley Conference play, sweeping to an impressive victory over a winless Tennessee State squad Friday night. Southeast allowed just 10 total points in the match, defeating Tennessee State 15-5, 15-0, 15-5...

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- The Chaffee Red Devils may have been outmanned in size, strength and depth, but certainly not in heart. Scott City, the sixth ranked team in the latest Missouri Class 2A poll, kept its record unblemished at 5-0 with a 36-21 win Friday night at Scott City High School. But the Rams knew they were in a battle with their longtime rivals and county neighbors...

Bridgett Riley held the Lady Bulldogs to five hits as Kelly continued its stellar softball season with a 5-2 road victory at Notre Dame High School. Riley struck out six batters and allowed just single runs in the second and third innings. Riley, who walked four, received all the run support she would need in a three-run first that featured two Notre Dame errors, a walk and a hits batsmen. Kelly added two insurance runs in the fifth...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Robert Eugene Lee Sr., 73, of Sikeston died Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born Oct. 17, 1926, in Success, Ark., son of Robert Ernest and Ada Elrod Lee. Survivors include two sons, Robert Lee Jr. of Larkspur, Colo., Paul Lee of Hinsdale, Ill.; two brothers, John Lee of Virginia, Billy Lee of Kimberling City, Mo.; two sisters, Ermadean Emmons of Sikeston, and Roberta Zalinski of Naperville, Ill...

Daughter to Randy Lee and Mary Elizabeth Sebastian of Peoria, Ill., Aug. 10, 2000. Ana Maria Marisol Bain was born Dec. 10, 1999, in Antigua Guatemala, Central America. She arrived in the United States Sept. 8, 2000. Third child, second daughter. Mrs. ...

DUDLEY, Mo. -- Ludia J. Love, 79, of Dudley, Mo., died Friday, Sept. 29, 2000, at Beverly Health and Rehab Center in Poplar Bluff, Mo. She was born Oct. 11, 1920, near Wardell, Mo., daughter of Rolla and Eva Miller McGrath. She and Milford Maurice Love were married Nov. 19, 1942. He died May 5, 1974...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- May Louise Flynn, 92, of Perryville died Thursday, Sept. 28, 2000, at Perry County Memorial Hospital. She was born Oct. 6, 1907, in Perryville, daughter of Joseph and Mary Ellen Pouyer Miget. She and Wilson H. Flynn were married May 30, 1939. He died Feb. 2, 1964...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Funeral for Alden "Al" Vaught of Sikeston will be held at 2 p.m. today at Ponder Funeral Home. Charles Johnson will officiate. Friends may call from noon until service time. Vaught, 70, died Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000, at his home. He was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Walnut Log, Tenn., son of Almus and Courtna Dunn Vaught. He and Rosealine DeNoyer were married Sept. 25, 1954, in Wayne, Mich...

BROWNWOOD, Mo. -- Eva Lena Ashcraft, 99, of Brownwood died Thursday, Sept. 28, 2000, at Advance Nursing Center in Advance, Mo. She was born June 24, 1901, in Advance, daughter of Benjamin F. and Florence F. Brown Musgraves. She and Raymond Ashcraft were married July 10, 1919, in Jackson, Mo. He died Feb. 21, 1967...

To the editor: I am writing to correct statements made by Foeste Masonry Inc. in your newspaper concerning the reasons pickets were withdrawn from the Southeast Missouri State University construction project. Only after Foeste agreed to pay, both retroactively and in the future, the additional $3 per hour in question did we agree to take down our pickets. ...

Long before anybody was talking about the Y2K bug and the coming computer-induced apocalypse, a group of Cape Girardeau residents saw the year 2000 as an opportunity. It was 1987, and some local elected officials, community leaders and concerned citizens gathered to create Vision 2000, the name of their organization and the name of the plan they conceived for the city. They believed they could shape the next decade and enter the next century living in an ideal community...

Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri State University are both in the process of developing some sort of emergency warning system, but there doesn't seem to be much coordination. Representatives of an Iowa siren company were in town last week to demonstrate a siren system to the university. It delivers tone sirens and spoken warnings that can be heard well beyond the campus...

We need to take the White House back. The American people need to recapture the executive branch. The executive branch is bereft of leadership and out of control. It is being held hostage to the political interests of Bill Clinton. The resulting chaos is a national embarrassment...

THERE ARE two things that are undermining the moral and cultural superiority of this nation. The first one is the wholesale murder of babies. I refuse to be silent concerning the horror they call abortion. This mutilation and murder of tiny babies is killing on demand. ...

To the editor: In 1996, Congress outlawed the use of federal funds for stem-cell research, which always results in the death of the tiniest human beings. President Clinton promised that no federal funds would be used in this way. Before our congressman and senators adjourn to return to their hometowns to campaign for re-election, they will be asked to vote on a bill that has been introduced by Sen. ...