Stories from Saturday, July 19, 2003

ST. LOUIS -- Low-cost air carrier Southwest Airlines is considering expanding operations at Lambert Airport, smelling an opportunity in American Airlines' plans to soon halve its departures from the city, city officials said Friday. Southwest chairman Herb Kelleher told Mayor Francis Slay by telephone Friday the Dallas-based airline was "very interested" in discussing the matter here next week, said Slay's chief of staff, Jeff Rainford...

CINCINNATI -- Ken Griffey Jr. had surgery to repair a shredded tendon in his right ankle Friday, his sixth major injury since he joined his hometown Cincinnati Reds in 2000. Griffey also is expected to have surgery in the next few weeks to repair his right shoulder, which he dislocated while trying to make a diving catch on April 5...

LOUDON, N.H. -- Jerry Nadeau could hardly sleep the night before his first trip back to the race track. It could have been nerves or excitement -- after all, it's been 11 weeks since he was critically injured in a wreck. Nadeau said it was neither...

ENDICOTT, N.Y.-- Unfazed by a sore neck and a five-hour rain delay that prevented him from finishing the second round, Steve Lowery moved into a tie for the lead Friday at the B.C. Open. With darkness falling, Lowery was at 4 under par through 11 holes and was 12 under for the tournament to tie Pat Bates, Alex Cejka, and Brett Quigley atop the leaderboard...

An appeals court rebuffed a government effort Friday to halt a lower court's order reducing water levels on the Missouri River, and the lower court scheduled a contempt hearing for Monday morning. Conservation groups are suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the Endangered Species Act, saying the river must be restored to more natural spring rise and low summer flows to encourage fish spawning and bird nesting by threatened and endangered species...

WASHINGTON -- The public has grown increasingly uneasy with President Bush's handling of the economy and the situation in Iraq, a new poll suggests. Bush's overall job approval dropped 8 points since May to 55 percent, according to a CNN-Time poll released Friday. ...

WASHINGTON -- The music industry has won at least 871 federal subpoenas against computer users suspected of illegally sharing music files on the Internet, with roughly 75 new subpoenas being approved each day, U.S. court officials said Friday. The effort represents early steps in the music industry's contentious plan to file civil lawsuits aimed at crippling online piracy...

Cape Girardeau's July sales tax check was down $38,211 from a year ago, but the checks received by the city of Jackson and Cape Girardeau County this month are up slightly, officials said. The sales tax checks from the state of Missouri reflect sales from May, said John Richbourg, Cape Girardeau city finance director...

Cape Girardeau Saturday, July 19 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests Demetrius D. Clary, 35, of 3838 Themis, Apt. 4, Cape Girardeau, was arrested Thursday on Cape Girardeau County warrants for contempt of court...

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department Saturday, July 19 The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWIs Candace S. Rose, 24, of Delta was arrested July 12 on suspicion of driving while intoxicated...

Cape Girardeau Saturday, July 19 Firefighters responded Thursday to the following items: At 7:03 p.m., medical assist at 723 N. Henderson. At 9:22 p.m., mutual aid for structure fire in Jackson. At 11:02 p.m., alarm sounding at 1115 Woodland. Firefighters responded Friday to the following items:...

With the highly visible growth in rural areas of Cape Girardeau County, it is appropriate that the county's health department and commission should work together to develop some guidelines regarding septic tanks. Without proper septic tank usage, there is danger of a mess seeping onto neighbors' property or into the creeks, where it becomes everyone's problem...

It's impossible: The Missouri's Legislature simply can't predict every issue that individual counties will have to contend with in the regular course of business. First, the state's 114 counties are extremely diverse, from mountain country with just a few thousand people to the urban areas to the Bootheel's farmland...

DIXON, Ill. -- A bully who terrified residents of a tiny western Illinois town snapped when a sheriff's deputy came to arrest him, shooting the lawman at such close range that the blast burned the finish off his badge, prosecutor James Owens said Friday...

Gateway Arch fire started by faulty switch ST. LOUIS -- AmerenUE said Friday it suspects a faulty low-voltage switch caused the previous day's fire near the Gateway Arch that temporarily closed the St. Louis landmark and forced the evacuation of 3,000 tourists...

SOUTHMOOR, England -- A body found in the Oxfordshire woods added a dark twist Friday to questions about the intelligence Prime Minister Tony Blair used to justify war in Iraq. Police tentatively identified the dead man as David Kelly, a Defense Ministry expert suspected of being the source of media claims that the government hyped its reports on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction...

I recently paid my quarterly estimated taxes, so I have taxes on my mind. Tax Creep(s): Like old age, tax complexity has been creeping up on us. Today, taxpayers must wade through 126 pages of instructions for the standard 1040 form, more than triple the number in 1975...

DIEHLSTADT, Mo. -- The sun's getting hotter in a Southeast Missouri cornfield about 900 miles from the nation's capital, and Kenny Hulshof bangs his head on a small metal roof that is shading a diesel engine. "You gon' end up tearing that tin off this building," says Bob Pemberton, who is working alongside...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- As American casualties mount in Iraq, so do questions about who is behind the guerrilla campaign. The list of suspects, which already includes Saddam Hussein loyalists, freelance Arab fighters and Iraqis angered by the U.S. occupation, is growing each day...

There are so many catchy songs to belt out when one is feeling particularly patriotic. "America the Beautiful." "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." "Welcome Home USA." Or, at least, Cape Girardeau songwriter David Barberis hopes Americans one day will think of that last one. He wrote it on scrap paper in less than two hours earlier this year...

Cape Girardeau's new federal courthouse will be a four-story, window-filled, brick building that federal officials say will blend in with the city's historic downtown architecture. The federal General Services Administration, the agency in charge of building and maintaining federal buildings, released an artist's rendering of the final design late Friday afternoon...

A building co-owned by a former volunteer Jackson firefighter storing antique fire trucks and fire service collectibles caught fire Thursday night and suffered extensive smoke and heat damage. The Jackson Fire Department dispatched to 1130 Lenco Ave. at 8:50 p.m. On arrival, firefighters found heavy smoke coming from both ends of the building...

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Rams solved one big offseason dilemma Friday with the signing of wide receiver Torry Holt to a seven-year contract. Now, attention turns to another star unhappy with his contract -- offensive tackle Orlando Pace. The Rams also said they signed their two fourth-round picks in the 2003 draft -- wide receiver Shaun McDonald and cornerback DeJuan Groce...

CAP'DECOUVERTE, France -- An exhausted Lance Armstrong is the first to admit it: He's no longer the man to beat in the Tour de France. Parched and weak after a ride on a scorching day, the four-time champion ran out of energy -- and water -- on a key stage leading to the Pyrenees...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Presidential contender Dick Gephardt, who stumbled in the money chase, now has to worry about Democratic rivals using his fund-raising woes to siphon off labor support. The former House minority leader came in $1 million less than his campaign had predicted in the latest quarter, and his lead in Iowa polls has shrunk. ...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A charter pilot resigned Friday after a videotape surfaced apparently showing him sleeping during a flight from the Bahamas while a co-pilot flew the plane. The man was the captain on a Walker's International flight from Walker's Cay to Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport last Sunday. Fifteen passengers were onboard...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- A group representing moderate Southern Baptists who split from the conservative leadership of their denomination has been granted membership in the Baptist World Alliance. The alliance -- an association of Baptist faiths around the globe -- voted at a July 11 meeting in Brazil to approve the application of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, based in Atlanta, Ga., over the objections of the Southern Baptist Convention...

MONROVIA, Liberia -- Rebels pushed within six miles of Monrovia on Friday and threatened to overrun the capital unless President Charles Taylor ends attacks on the insurgents. Liberians pleaded Friday for Americans to come to their rescue. The government accused the insurgents of attacking its positions, while the rebel movement Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy said they were being pushed into a corner...

"There is a great need to have an awareness of the Bible" and teach biblical literacy in U.S. public schools, says Meera Viswanathan of Brown University, who believes that other sacred traditions should be taught as well. Viswanathan, who is Hindu, not Jewish or Christian, made the remark at a significant symposium at the Freedom Forum's nonpartisan First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., on "Teaching About Religion in Public Schools: Where Do We Go from Here?"...

Almost everyone believes a smile is nice to see. Children are given smiley faces in school when they exhibit good performance or behavior. We smile when we are happy, and to express humor. Smiles are given because it is considered good manners to smile when greeting others. ...

LOS ANGELES -- The elderly driver who plowed through a farmers market, killing 10 people and injuring dozens more, might have been fleeing the scene of another collision at the time, police said Friday. Investigators are looking into the possibility that Russell Weller, 86, hit a Mercedes after leaving a post office, then sped less than a block west toward the street market, California Highway Patrol spokesman Tom Marshall said. Details about the Mercedes crash were not immediately available...

DENVER -- Federal agents said Friday they are investigating the theft of 1,100 pounds of an explosive chemical from construction companies in Colorado and California in the past week. Both thefts involve ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in the bomb that destroyed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995...

PORT LAVACA, Texas -- President Bush declared five Texas counties disaster areas Friday in the wake of Hurricane Claudette, while officials considered whether the storm's severity should be posthumously upgraded. Claudette was downgraded to a tropical depression Wednesday, and by Friday its remnants weakened into a few rain showers over Arizona and California. But the National Hurricane Center said some wind measurements and damage indicate the hurricane was stronger than originally classified...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Police found a second rifle and two handguns in the truck of a school maintenance worker accused of shooting a teacher and dousing two other people with gasoline at a county school board meeting. Several members of the audience at Thursday night's meeting of the Kanawha County Board of Education grabbed the suspect and knocked him to the ground...

PHILADELPHIA -- A woman found slain in a park was identified as a medical student who had vanished while out running last weekend, authorities said Friday. An autopsy confirmed the body found late Thursday was Rebecca Park, a student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine from Olney, Md., police Inspector William Colarulo said. He said the cause of death was homicide...

LOS ANGELES -- At Jackson Browne's demand, two TV programs have edited out scenes referring to allegations the singer beat up Daryl Hannah during their romance. The Fox Television Production of "America's Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story," which aired on TNT in January, will be modified to delete references to Browne in two scenes, Browne publicist Michael Jensen said Thursday in a statement...

EDGEWATER, N.J. -- Jessica Keyes' classroom is an office in a condo directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Her lectern is a Hewlett-Packard laptop. Her students receive their lectures via the Internet, and -- increasingly -- are adult professionals...

LOS ANGELES -- Desperately in need of offense, the Los Angeles Dodgers made a couple moves during the All-Star break. Newcomers Rickey Henderson and Jeromy Burnitz didn't do much in their debuts with the Dodgers, but they weren't needed thanks to the efforts of pitcher Hideo Nomo and light-hitting Adrian Beltre...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents targeting the U.S. occupation of Iraq attacked a convoy with explosives and killed an American soldier Friday, while a prominent Shiite cleric urged Iraqis to politically oppose a U.S.-appointed government. Muqtada al-Sadr, addressing thousands at a mosque in the central holy city of Kufa, vowed to establish a council "of the righteous" that would rival the new government...

On May 6, the tornado that devastated parts of Jackson damaged Immaculate Conception School so badly that classes were canceled for the rest of the 2002-2003 school year. With demolition of the two main buildings to begin next week, school officials plan to bring in eight modular classrooms before classes begin Aug. 20...

TOKYO -- When he stepped off the plane from North Korea wearing a communist lapel pin, Kaoru Hasuike had never seen a mobile phone. In fact, he tried ringing up a friend using the television remote control in his Tokyo hotel room. Nine months later, he has shed the communist badge, picked up his own cell phone, an e-mail account and even a new automobile. But still missing are the two children left behind in the North -- remains of a family fractured by one of the Cold War's last frontiers...

VIENNA, Austria -- The U.N. atomic agency's chief called North Korea "the most serious threat" to nuclear proliferation Friday while urging Iran to let inspectors investigate suspect nuclear facilities. Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he was concerned about reports that North Korea is reprocessing fuel rods...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- They adore him like a favorite uncle, idolize him like a rock star and revere him like a religious icon. South Africans of all races and ages breathlessly praised Nelson Mandela as he -- and the entire nation -- celebrated his 85th birthday on Friday...

WASHINGTON -- The White House released excerpts from a classified October 2002 intelligence document on Friday to demonstrate how flawed intelligence on Iraq's nuclear-weapons ambitions wound up in President Bush's State of the Union address. The document cites "compelling evidence" of such a program -- but it also reflects prewar divisions within the U.S. ...

Cape Methodist VBS program set for August Maple United Methodist Church will hold its vacation Bible school Aug. 4 to 7. Registration deadline is July 27. The theme is "SCUBA" and includes a meal at 5:30 p.m. and the program from 6 to 8:30 p.m. each evening...

Briefly Baseball Northern Virginia's attempt to land a major league baseball team was dealt a serious blow when Arlington County said it will not build a pro baseball stadium. Northern Virginia is competing with Washington, D.C., and Portland, Ore., to be the new home for the Expos, who are owned by major league baseball. The team is playing part of its home schedule this year in Puerto Rico while the league attempts to find the club a permanent home...

To the editor: I want to say before I let any more time slip by how much I enjoy Paula Kempe's letters to the Southeast Missourian. She writes beautifully, and her letters never fail to hold my interest and teach me a little about days gone by. Several years ago, when Kempe's family home was up for auction, I had the honor of meeting her. ...

To the editor: On June 26, our family lost our home to a fire that was started when a stray firework landed in our landscape. The events since that night have strengthened our belief that the move we made here five years ago was a great decision. In the days following the fire, the support we received from friends, neighbors, our co-workers at Proctor & Gamble and the community was astounding. ...

Recipe for disaster I CAN'T think of a better recipe for getting us out of this meaningless war in Iraq than the ideas which were suggested by a Speak Out contributor: Send in several hundred thousand more troops. Then reinstitute the draft and blend in several hundred thousand more troops. Add 10 years and 30,000 or 40,000 dead American soldiers. Mix...

Jean Bell Mosley, 89, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, July 11, 2003, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She was born Sept. 21, 1913, in Elvins, Mo., daughter of Wilson and Myrtle Casey Bell. She spent her formative years in St. Francois County near the St. Francis River, where the wildlife, wide meadows, fields and waterways provided the backdrop for her writing later in life. The farm home where she grew up was designated a literary landmark by the Missouri Association of Teachers of English...

Anna Y. Heckathorn, 94, passed away Friday, July 18, 2003, at Chateau Girardeau in Cape Girardeau. She was born Nov. 22, 1908, in Wapwallopen, Pa., daughter of Michael and Katerina Pavlovic Young. She and the Rev. Fred A. Heckathorn were married Nov. 18, 1942. He passed away Jan. 15, 1991...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- Kelly W. Ward, 64, of Marble Hill died Thursday, July 17, 2003, at his home. He was born July 17, 1939, in St. Louis, son of Jerald and Virginia Pickett Ward. He and Eva Swift Warntz were married April 8, 1979, in Waterford, Mich...

BENTON, Mo. -- Mabel Earlene Graham, 56, of Benton died Friday, July 18, 2003, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. She was born Feb. 6, 1947, in Biggers, Ark., daughter of Peter M. and Opal Johnston Daniel. She and Wayne Graham were married Sept. 23, 1972, at Morley, Mo...

Welmar E. Koenig, 78, of Pembroke Pines, Fla., formerly of Farrar, Mo., died Wednesday, July 16, 2003, at Memorial Pembroke Hospital in Pembroke Pines. He was born Nov. 29, 1924, son of John and Amanda Lorenz Koenig. He and Delores Bergman were married Oct. 26, 1947, in Pembroke Pines...

10 years ago: July 19, 1993 Foster home program for pets has greatly reduced stress and trauma area's domesticated animals are undergoing because of flood of 1993, say animal welfare and animal control officials; organized by Cape Girardeau County Humane Society, foster home program matches stranded pets with volunteers willing to give them home until their owners again have permanent housing...

Borgfield Daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Terry Borgfield of Porter, Texas, Kingwood Medical Center in Houston, Texas, 8:50 a.m. Tuesday, June 24, 2003. Name, Catherine Sue. Weight, 6 pounds 9 ounces. Fourth child, third daughter. Mrs. Borgfield is the former Christa Gilder, daughter of Herbie Gilder of Victoria, Texas, and the late Brenda Gilder of Jackson. Borgfield is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Cletus Borgfield of Jackson. He is employed by Packard International...

Today Xtreme Xperience youth event from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Osage Community Centre. The event, sponsored by Dimensions Unlimited, which is a division of Greater Dimension Ministries, will include team-building activities based on a military theme. For information call 334-0616 or 334-8027...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Democratic State Treasurer Nancy Farmer is days away from announcing her intentions on a potential challenge to Republican U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, her campaign manager said Friday. "She is really close to making a decision," said Farmer's campaign manager, Judi Roman. "It will be a decision that makes a lot of people happy."...