Stories from Tuesday, March 27, 2001

Teaching science can be a challenge when students want to see practical lessons that apply today. But Nancy Hey, who heads the science department at Cape Girardeau Central High School, found a way for lessons on Newton's laws of force and motion to really sink in...

Matt Taylor and John Brookover developed a hypothesis, spent hours testing oils and riding skateboards and then drew a conclusion for a science project that will take them to the Southeast Missouri Regional Science Fair competition today. The eighth-graders at Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School are among the 251 students who have entered projects in the fair...

Editor's note: This is an installment from a chapter of Jean Bell Mosley's book "Wide Meadows" that was first published in 1960. Last week: Molly arrived. So Molly stayed for the canning, and then the threshers came and she stayed on to help cook, and then it was time to put up the peaches. ...

JACKSON, Mo. -- The cell doors at Cape Girardeau County's 21-day-old jail close with the touch of a finger on a computer screen. But getting the doors open can be harder. A jailer pushed a door symbol on his screen Monday after a female inmate asked by intercom to leave the women's holding area to see a nurse. It didn't open, so he pushed the button again. The door was still closed...

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- The popularity of a scholar-athlete who committed suicide in the parking lot of Charleston High School was apparent in the shock and grief etched on the faces of students and faculty. The school's principal found Ben Hopper, 17, in the student parking lot just outside the school's south entrance on Monday. Hopper was slumped over in the front seat of his grandmother's car, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, his .22-caliber rifle lying nearby...

A 28-year-old woman escaped without injury after she was kidnapped Sunday night from a Cape Girardeau parking lot, police said. The woman returned to her car about 11:15 p.m. after shopping at Cape Girardeau's Wal-Mart at 3439 William St., Cpl. Rick Schmidt said...

UPN 9/24 Television, serving Southeast Missouri, West Kentucky and Southern Illinois, is on the air. "We hope to be on cable here next month," said Steven B. Engles, president of Engles Communications Inc. of Santa Barbara, Calif. Engles was in Cape Girardeau this week to announce his newest communications endeavor, which includes WQWQ 9 and WQTV 24...

The Cape Girardeau Public Works Department says if it gets warm weather this week -- 50 degrees or more -- it can make some paint meet some asphalt. And then local drivers might find it easier to get around town. Tim Gramling, assistant public works director, said a Cape Girardeau City Council decision in November prohibited parking at the curbs of Mount Auburn Road, opening the thoroughfare for expansion. ...

For hummingbird lovers, the watch has begun. Hummingbirds have begun their migration from Central America and the Caribbean. A Web site tracking the trek north records a siting as far north as Jackson, Tenn. "In two or three weeks you will see them coming back to Missouri," promises Dr. Bill Eddleman, an ornithologist at Southeast Missouri State University...

As dominant as Southeast Missouri State University pitcher Todd Pennington has been so far this year, the Ohio Valley Conference probably has no choice but to keep honoring him. For the third time since the baseball season began a little more than a month ago, Pennington has been named the OVC Pitcher of the Week...

The Notre Dame Bulldogs battered the Kelly Hawks 11-1 at the Notre Dame Sports Complex on Monday. Getting good offensive production from the top of the order, the Bulldogs (2-3) pounded 14 hits in the game which was halted in the bottom of the sixth by the 10-run mercy rule...

ST. LOUIS -- CBC capped a wild game with a pair of two-out, bases-loaded singles in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat Cape Central 11-10 in baseball action. Cape Central (2-1) carried a 10-8 lead into the seventh inning but saw CBC score three runs in their final at-bat...

Daughter to Christopher M. and Clara L. Lape of Marble Hill, Mo., Southeast Missouri Hospital, 3:41 p.m. Monday, March 19, 2001. Name, Shaina Elaine. Weight, 7 pounds 11 ounces. First child. Mrs. Lape is the former Clara Jones, daughter of Richard and Janet Jones of Marble Hill. She is a medical technologist at Southeast Hospital. Lape is the son of Darwin and Nancy Lape of Marble Hill. He is a police officer in Marble Hill...

Homer Welta Rood, 93, of Cape Girardeau died Saturday, March 24, 2001, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center. He was born July 29, 1907, in Braceville, Ohio, son of Welta Trace and Ruth Maltbie Rood. He and Kathryn Elizabeth Hurd were married July 12, 1933, in Hiram, Ohio. She died Dec. 13, 1998...

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- George E. McGowan, 82, of Calvert City, Ky., formerly of Poplar Bluff, died Saturday, March 24, 2001, at Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, Ky. He was injured in an automobile accident Jan. 26 in Calvert City. He was born Sept. 14, 1918, in Jefferson City, Mo., son of James and Johnnie Myrtle Wyrick McGowan. He and Mary Maxine Epps were married April 9, 1950, in Poplar Bluff...

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Funeral for Nancy Dewitt of Sikeston will be held at 11 a.m. today at Ponder Funeral Home. Johnny Hester will officiate. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Dewitt, 60, died Sunday, March 25, 2001, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo...

MARQUAND, Mo. 00 Johnnie E. Fergie, 60, of Marquand died Sunday, March 25, 2001, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 15, 1940, in Quincy, Ill., son of George and Ida Mae Brewer Fergie. He and Florence L. Green were married Jan. 6, 1962...

MOUND CITY, Ill. -- Graveside service for Robert "Bobby" Clanahan of Carterville, Ill., will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Rose Hill Cemetery in Pulaski, Ill. The Rev. F. Jerry Herring will officiate. Friends may call at Barkett Funeral Home in Mound City from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Wednesday...

To the editor: The residents of the Scott City School District will have an opportunity to show their support for our future on April 3 when an election for a proposed $3.5 million general-obligation bond issue will be held. The space that was once available for regular classrooms has steadily decreased with the growing demands for specialized classes...

Congress is trying to reform bankruptcy laws for the first time since the early 1980s.. The House has already passed one version of new rules and regulations. The Senate has adopted similar changes. President Bush has indicated he wants to sign the new legislation...

Most Americans have come to expect modern medicine to come up with a cure for just about anything. But doctors continue to be leery of overusing antibiotics to treat ailments for which there is no cure other than time and perhaps some over-the-counter remedies to provide some comfort...

THE GRANDMOTHER who called in regards to the 14-year-old girl whose baby was found buried made an excellent point. Unfortunately, in cases of teen pregnancy, the girl is ostracized while the father goes scot-free or in some cases is even treated like a hero. ...

To the editor: Michael Pryor of the Taste Lounge in Cape Girardeau represents a large and growing number of the American public today. He is ignorant of the meaning of that flag. Countless young men and women have died preserving his right to own his own business as well as his right to show such ignorance. Countless others serve still to keep those freedoms. It is this attitude which is losing the freedoms we all take for granted...