Stories from Monday, February 5, 2001

Missouri is the 6th-fastest state in connecting to the Internet, according to a U.S. Department of Commerce report. While the number of Missouri households owning a personal computer grew by nearly 11 percent between 1998 and 2000, the number of households connected to the Internet almost doubled, jumping more than 19 percent, to 43 percent. Among surrounding states, Missouri ranked third for households owning personal computer, and second for households with Internet access...

More than 100 watermelon growers an shippers attended the annual Melon Growers Conference, held more than a week ago at Kennett. Paul Teague, president of the Missouri-Arkansas Watermelon Association, was a guest speaker. Teague said that Southeast Missouri/Northern Arkansas growers raised about 5,000 to 5,500 acres of watermelons...

Westfield America Inc., which operates a number of shopping centers, including Westfield Shoppingtown West Park in Cape Girardeau, has announced increased earnings for the fourth quarter and year. Funds From Operations (FFO) was $42.8 million, or 49 cents per share in the fourth quarter, up from $49.7 million a year ago...

More consumers are requesting services from the Better Business Bureau serving Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois about firms' customer experience records. During the past year, 370,084 calls were logged, up 27 percent form the calls received in 1999. More than 212,00 calls were from persons inquiring about companies. A total of 14,422 of the calls were complaints against companies...

Gary Slater has resigned as Missouri State Fair director. Slater has accepted a position as the fair manager for the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. He will officially leave the Missouri State Fair April 1. Slater has served as the director of the Missouri State Fair since January 1997...

In just a few hours last week, some of the nation's largest employers -- Black & Decker, Brunswick, JCPenney, Sara Lee and Standard Register -- announced they would collectively eliminate nearly 16,000 jobs. That came just days after Lucent Technologies announced 16,000 job cuts...

Darrell Aufdenberg has been appointed vice president and branch manager for the new Capaha Bank Jackson center, which will open later this month. Staff members for the new center were announced by Kevin Essner, senior vice president of Capaha Bank. Aufdenberg, of Jackson, Mo., has been with Capaha Bank since July 2000. He will be responsible for all agricultural, retail and business lending in the Jackson market. Previously, Aufdenberg was a lending officer with Bank of America...

Dan and Kathy Tuschhoff, of Harold's Jewelry Store in Jackson, Mo., recently attended the national Retail Jewelers Organization Spring Buying Show, at Fort Worth, Tex. The Tuschhoffs attended two day of seminars, followed by two days of buying. More than 125 manufacturers and suppliers had booths at the show...

Mike Smythe, who has been serving as general sales manager at KFVS12 Television, has been named the new vice president and general manager of the Cape Girardeau station, replacing Howard Meagle, who was recently promoted to WMC-TV, the Raycom Media Inc. station at Memphis, Tenn...

Ford & Sons Funeral Home has renewed its membership in the Selected Independent Funeral Homes (SIFH) group, formerly known as National Selected Morticians. Selected Independent Funeral Homes, founded in 1917 as National Selected Morticians, is an international association of independently owned and operated funeral homes and mortuaries...

The Small Business Development Center will conduct counseling sessions at Cape Girardeau, Sikeston and Perryville in February. The counselor, Gil Degenhardt, will be available Feb. 14 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office. The counseling sessions (about one hour) are free. Call 335-3312 for appointment...

Ernie Gibson, vice president and CEO of Lee Mechanical Contractors Inc., in Park Hills, Mo., has been named Contractor of the Year the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. (ABC). Gibson will receive his award during the ABC national conference in San Antonio, Texas, in March...

Remember when a rear-view mirror was just a mirror? You could glance in the mirror to tell if another car was in back of you, or in some cases, at night, you could adjust the mirror to downplay glaring headlights from the rear. And, in 1982, Gentex developed an automatic, motorized mirror that moved from its "bright" to "dim" position when glare was present...

"Porgy and Bess" has been called the quintessential American opera, yet the Metropolitan Opera House didn't get around to mounting a production until 1985, 50 years after "Porgy and Bess" debuted in Boston. Credited with breaking down the color barrier on the American stage and with desegregating theaters during its early tours, "Porgy and Bess" sometimes has been criticized as patronizing and for promoting racial stereotypes. ...

City officials tonight will revisit the issue of installing video cameras at one Cape Girardeau intersection as a means of preventing serious crashes and punishing red-light runners. The City Council has discussed automated red light technology since February 2000, but differing opinions about personal freedom and lingering doubts about the system's effectiveness as a deterrent have prevented the group from coming to a consensus...

Some children aren't welcome at the doctor's office, says Dr. Scott Weiner. It has nothing to do with picking on little ones who bite dentists' fingers or howl at the sight of a needle. These children are covered by Missouri's fastest growing health insurance, Medicaid. But since physicians lose money on Medicaid patients, many are unwilling to treat them...

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The initial goal of every Ohio Valley Conference basketball team -- men or women -- each year is to win the league's regular-season championship. But probably the ultimate goal for OVC squads is to capture the conference tournament, which means an automatic berth in the Big Dance -- the NCAA tourney...

Notre Dame High School will have a Hall of Fame night Tuesday in conjunction with its home boys basketball game against Scott County Central. New members to Notre Dame's Hall of Fame will be inducted.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- A trip to California for Southeast Missouri State University's gymnastics team was well worth it as the Otahkians won a triangular meet Saturday night. Southeast scored 189.050 to knock off California-Davis (188.650) and host California-Santa Barbara (184.775)...

Ruhe Rudd Pringle, 78, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, Feb. 2, 2001, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center. She was born Jan. 15, 1923, at Belpre, Kan., daughter of Herbert and Mayrella Windhorst Rudd. She and Douglas Pringle were married Dec. 7, 1943, at Tribune, Kan...

Monday, Feb. 5, at 7 p.m. Council Chambers, City Hall, 401 Independence Study session at 5 p.m. Public Hearings n Regarding the request of D & D Cape Investments to rezone an 18.17-acre tract at the southeast corner of Interstate 55 and Shawnee Parkway from R-1 single family residential district to C-2 general commercial district...

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. -- Mandy Hammontree Blyzes, 73, of Friedheim, Mo., and formerly of East Prairie, Mo., died Saturday, Feb. 3, 2001, at Perry County Memorial Hospital in Perryville, Mo. She was born Nov. 27, 1927, in Birmingham, Ala., daughter of William and Ida Bell Simpson Hammontree. She and Thurman Edward Blyzes were married, and he died April 30, 1990...

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. -- Chester D. Furgerson, 80, of East Prairie, Mo., died Saturday, Feb. 3, 2001, at his home. He was born March 29, 1920, in Dorena, Mo., son of James and Effie J. Crow Furgerson. He was a retired truck driver and lived in East Prairie the past 10 years, having moved there from Quincy, Ill...

Rose Bud Spencer, 89, of Cape Girardeau died Sunday, Feb. 4, 2001, at the Day Star Care Center in Cairo, Ill. Arrangements are pending at Ford and Sons Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau.

I CAN give you the reason that people with advanced degrees are shifting to the Democratic Party in a few words: Reaganomics, and the idea that the Republicans are trying to peddle tax cuts and not paying down our national debt. This group of leading thinkers is slightly larger now than all college graduates were in 1950. ...

KENNETT, Mo. -- Missourians concerned about the future of their state, and in particular about the efficacy of programs designed to improve the state of their state, should view the political events that have been occurring in Jefferson City and Washington with at least a mild degree of optimism, even pleasure...

Those who debate proposed tax cuts seem to fall into two camps: Those who think deep cuts will produce more federal revenue in the long run, and those who think paying off the national debt is the first -- and, possibly, only -- priority. Both sides, of course, assume there will be enough surpluses over the next decade to pay for tax cuts or retiring the debt, which currently stands at $3 trillion...

To the editor: I recognize the enormous influence a TV news anchor has in today's society. Coupled with power, however, comes responsibility. When a well-known newswoman served as a substitute anchor for the 6 o'clock newscast Jan. 26 on Cape Girardeau's local TV channel, I was troubled by some off-the-cuff remarks she made following a segment involving the hunting of coyotes...