Stories from Saturday, December 27, 2003

By Jill Sneathen Not too long ago, I could not tell which way was up. My friends marched to one beat, my parents to another, and I doggie-paddled alone in the sea of indecision. I knew what my family would think was right, but I could not nudge myself in their direction...

CHONGQING, China -- Technicians earlier today sealed a burst gas well in China's southwest that had spewed toxic fumes, killing at least 198 people and forcing 41,000 to flee the remote, mountainous area, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The disaster was China's worst recent industrial accident, leaving a 10-square-mile "death zone" strewn with bodies of adults and children, some overcome as they tried to flee...

Man stabbed on South Hanover Street in Cape Police and medical crews responded Friday afternoon to a stabbing at 317 S. Hanover. An unidentified man in his 20s suffered a small knife wound to the left flank of his lower back. Officers eventually located an unidentified female suspect, 32, and took her into custody. ...

ST. LOUIS -- Go here for testing, there for treatment and somewhere else for surgery. Because that kind of inconvenience only adds the burden placed on cancer patients, many hospitals are now working with architects to design treatment centers aimed at creating comfortable settings and eliminating the inconvenience...

NEW YORK -- Robert Ross, a former advertising executive who helped create the concept for the Pillsbury Doughboy, died Thursday in Hendersonville, N.C. He was 85. Ross, who worked for the Leo Burnett Company in Chicago, was one of the people who worked on the idea for Poppin' Fresh, the character featured in Pillsbury advertisements...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Prosecutors said Friday they would reoffer a 2001 plea deal, for three years in prison, to the teen convicted in the wrestling death of a playmate. The mother of Lionel Tate had rejected the original, resulting in a trial that led to the teen's life imprisonment...

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- Hearts were heavy Friday at Fort Leonard Wood as word spread that three combat engineers based at the central-Missouri Army post had been killed in Iraq. The fatalities were the first for the 5th Engineer Battalion. The military identified the victims Friday as Maj. Christopher Splinter, 43, of Platteville, Wis.; Capt. Chris Soelzer, 26, of South Dakota; and Sgt. Benjamin Biskie, 27, of Tucson, Ariz...

ATLANTA -- The remorse Dany Heatley felt was evident before he even spoke a word. The Thrashers' All-Star talked publicly Friday for the first time since the car wreck that killed teammate and friend Dan Snyder, a crash that left Heatley with a broken jaw and torn knee ligaments...

Shoppers descended on stores and malls on Friday in search of post-Christmas bargains as retailers reduced prices further, hoping to recoup business in a season that will likely turn out to be only modestly better than a year ago. Wal-Mart said Friday sales growth through Dec. 24 continues to be tracking at the low end of its projected range. Upscale retailer Sharper Image raised its earnings outlook on Friday, citing "outstanding preliminary" holiday sales...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Southern Baptist Convention is almost certain to withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance, after a task force concluded the organization was becoming too liberal. A study panel of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee announced its recommendation last week. The full Executive Committee will vote on the report in February, then will take the proposal to rank-and-file members at their annual meeting in June...

Rescuers seek seven caught in Utah avalanche PROVO, Utah -- Rescue workers were searching for up to seven snowboarders believed to have been caught in an avalanche Friday, authorities said. The avalanche occurred Friday afternoon in the Aspen Grove area of Provo Canyon, about 25 miles northeast of Provo and north of Sundance ski resort. ...

Cape Girardeau The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt. DWI Kimberly J. Heuring of 6122 Lakeview Drive, No. 86, Indianapolis, Ind., was arrested Thursday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and failure to register a motor vehicle...

LONDON -- Space scientists failed in two more attempts Friday to confirm if Europe's first probe to Mars had safely reached the Red Planet. The efforts by a NASA spacecraft and later by a British observatory were the third and fourth attempts to track the tiny Beagle 2 lander since it was to have arrived on Mars shortly before 10 p.m. ...

NEW YORK -- Stocks finished higher on Wall Street Friday as investors picked up bargains in an abbreviated post-Christmas session. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced for a fifth straight week. Despite the overall market gains, many stocks of companies that process or sell meat fell further on news of the nation's first case of mad cow disease...

KERMAN, Iran -- Entire blocks of buildings lay crushed and survivors lined up blanket-wrapped bodies in the street after a devastating earthquake leveled nearly three-quarters of the Iranian city of Bam on Friday, killing at least 5,000 people and injuring 30,000 others...

In 2003, the lowest interest rates in four decades sent Cape Girardeau County residents on a home-buying binge, pushing sales of previously owned houses up 21 percent over last year. "With rates being down right now, it's an excellent time to buy a home," said Lance Gragg, whose family on Wednesday looked at a home for sale on Gordonville Road in Cape Girardeau...

One short block of Dunklin Street in Cape Girardeau resembles a demolition derby with parked cars on both sides of the street getting sideswiped by passing vehicles, some residents say. The majority of residents whose small homes line the street want the city council to remove on-street parking on the north side of Dunklin between Perry and Penny avenues. More than 1,600 vehicles travel through that area daily, according to the city's latest traffic count...

Sometimes the love of the game can force high school hoops fans to make a tough choice. For instance: Sleep in the day after Christmas or get up early and go to the Show Me Center to watch the opening games of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament...

NEW YORK -- Michael Jackson is talking. CBS' "60 Minutes" will air an interview with the pop superstar on Sunday, marking Jackson's first public comments since his Nov. 20 arrest on suspicion of child molestation. Ed Bradley interviewed Jackson for about 30 minutes Thursday at a hotel in Los Angeles, CBS spokesman Kevin Tedesco said Friday...

Before Friday night's game, Dominitrix Johnson told his coach, David Heeb, he was going to break the all-time Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament record for most points scored in a game. Heeb laughed. Johnson was the one laughing after No. 5 Bell City's 97-76 victory over No. 12 Meadow Heights at the Show Me Center, because Johnson came up just three points short of his prediction...

Advance sophomore Jeremy Limbaugh has not made many big shots in his brief varsity career. But with his sixth-seeded Hornets down two points with less than 10 seconds on the clock, Limbaugh made three big free throws to help the Hornets squeak past No. 11 Woodland 50-49 in the first round of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament on Friday at the Show Me Center...

Top-seeded Charleston had no trouble with No. 16 Chaffee in Friday's first game of the Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament, rolling to a 65-21 victory at the Show Me Center. Charleston had 11 players score with only one in double figures. Marcus Biles led the Bluejays, ranked first in Class 3, with 22 points...

Winslet, Mendes welcome baby boy LOS ANGELES -- Actress Kate Winslet and her husband, director Sam Mendes, are the parents of a 7-pound, 13-ounce baby boy. Joe Mendes was born on Dec. 22 in New York. It is the first child for the couple, who were married in May. Winslet has a 3-year-old daughter, Mia, from her previous marriage to Jim Threapleton...

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. -- FAO Inc. will sell its flagship Manhattan toy store, FAO Schwarz, along with some other assets for $20 million, the bankrupt company announced Friday. The deal with VGACS Acquisition Inc., a subsidiary of D.E. Shaw Laminar Portfolios LLC, also includes a store in the Forum Shops in Las Vegas, as well as FAO Schwarz's signature clock towers and its Internet and catalog businesses...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Thirteen fugitives remain from the original "deck of cards" of top Saddam Hussein regime members, but U.S. forces are increasingly focusing on new lists of individuals thought to be taking a more active role in the anti-U.S. insurgency, military intelligence sources say...

Cape Girardeau Firefighters responded Friday to the following items: At 1:49 p.m., medical assist at Independence and Park. At 3:05 p.m., medical assist at North Sprigg and Lafayette. At 3:14 p.m., medical assist at 317 S. Hanover....

Once again, bureaucrats in Jefferson City, Mo., are looking for ways to get more Missourians to accept state-funded handouts. This time, it's the Missouri SenioRx Program. In recent years, the state also has had fewer than anticipated state residents sign up for a children's health-care program and for special benefits for veterans...

10 years ago: Dec. 27, 1993 Goose Creek bridge on Old Cape Road in Jackson, near closed Kasten Building Center, is scheduled to be replaced in late 1994; although existing bridge is still in good condition, it restricts flow of water when flooding occurs on Creek...

Perales Son to Cirilo Dale "Junior" Perales and Misty Dawn Boucher of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Missouri Hospital, 3:15 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 18, 2003. Name, Damian James. Weight, 8 pounds 2 1/2 ounces. Third child, first son. Ms. Boucher is the daughter of Kenny Hite and Vanessa Hite of Mound City, Ill. Perales is the son of Debbie Perales of Cape Girardeau...

Wall of separation THE UNITED States is a secular state. The Founding Fathers were greatly influenced by the French Enlightenment. They were generally religious only in a token sense. However, they respected protecting religious freedom immensely and constructed what they hoped would be an unbreakable wall of separation between government and religious practice...

Baseball Paul Owens, general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies' 1980 World Series championship team, died Friday. He was 79. Owens, nicknamed "The Pope" because of his resemblance to Pope Paul VI, also managed the Phillies' team that won the National League pennant in 1983. He signed and helped develop some of the team's major stars of the 1970s and 1980s, including Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, Bob Boone and Greg Luzinski...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- His request stunned the Elves of Christmas Present. Never in all their 14 years of Christmases had any recipient asked for this. The only thing Richard Montgomery said the elves could do for him this Christmas -- perhaps his last Christmas -- was to let him be an elf...

ST. LOUIS -- In a season of milestones, Rams receiver Torry Holt said Friday he most appreciates his teammates picking him as the team's most valuable player. "This means a lot," Holt said. "This shows me the respect they have for me as a football player. It tells me I've been steady, that I've been doing what an MVP and a leader has to do for this football team. It's a tremendous honor...

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- Searchers slogging through waist-high muck found seven people dead Friday and looked for at least nine others missing after mudslides engulfed two camps in the San Bernardino Mountains in a terrifying torrent of soil, boulders and tree trunks...

McLEAN, Va. -- When the CIA's secret gadget-makers invented a listening device for the Asian jungles, they disguised it so the enemy wouldn't be tempted to pick it up and examine it: The device looked like tiger droppings. The guise worked. Who would touch such a thing? The fist-sized, brown transmitter detected troop movements along the trails during fighting in Vietnam, a quiet success for a little-known group of researchers inside the world's premier intelligence agency...

SundayWatch Night service at 5 p.m. at First Baptist Church in Jackson. The event will begin at the bridge and participants are asked to bring a snack to share. WednesdayNew Year's Eve bash at 7 p.m. at Christian Faith Fellowship. The Christian Wrestling Federation will entertain. Tickets are available in advance. For information, call 339-1811...

Parkway South eliminated Perryville's girls basketball team 67-58 in the consolation semifinals of the Visitation Tournament on Friday. Perryville (6-4) led 29-27 at halftime but fell behind 47-41 by the end of the third quarter. April Lorenz scored a game-high 23 points for Perryville, which went 2-2 in the tournament. Samantha Lankford added 12 points...

ST. LOUIS -- Adam Foote's goal at 9:27 of the third period lifted the Colorado Avalanche into a 3-3 tie with the Blues on Friday night. Despite the tie, the Avalanche are winless in their last six games (0-3-3). The Blues are 12-2-3-0 at home and are unbeaten in their last eight games (5-0-3-0) at Savvis Center, where a season-high 20,045 attended Friday's game...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Sister Dorothy Feltz, 93, died Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003, at Anna House in Bridgeton, Mo. She was born May 26, 1910, in Perryville, daughter of Lawrence and Katherine Lukefahr Feltz. She was a member of the West Central Province of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul...

Robert L. Camp, 75, died Friday, Dec. 26, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City is in charge of arrangements.

The cartoon highlights the front page of the paper: old Father Time meeting the baby New Year at the beginning of another year. As they meet and pass each other, I wonder what words they exchanged. Did Father Time wish the New Year well? Did he offer the baby New Year words of wisdom? Did the New Year ask about the past?...

Ordinations don't often make national headlines but when the Episcopal Church ordained its first openly gay bishop in 2003, the story captured attention far beyond religious circles. But then so did gay marriage, a war in Iraq, the Ten Commandments and the pope's 25th anniversary. All made the list of top stories in 2003 chosen by members of the Religion Newswriters Association...

To the editor: I thought it was Kansas, not Missouri, that banned the teaching of evolution in its schools. I'm beginning to wonder. With two Missouri state representatives initiating a ballot measure to amend the state's constitution to officially declare homosexual Missourians second-class citizens, it seems the hominid development in Missouri isn't much further along than it is in Kansas...

To the editor: Evolving standards of decency have accelerated the nationwide movement to eliminate smoking tobacco from public-access buildings and transit facilities. Federal inmate non-smokers have the same right as free citizens to live in a safe, clean, healthy and smoke-free environment. However, federal prison administrators cannot and will not enforce the no-smoking policy. Eighty-five percent of inmates and staff smoke...

To the editor: We recently got a letter from our son, Brian Randolph, who is a private deployed in Afghanistan. War seems to mature rather quickly the invincible feeling that young males have. I just thought you might want to publish it this holiday season...

Victor G. Schuessler, 91, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, Dec. 25, 2003, at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He was born Jan. 26, 1912, at Frohna, Mo., son of Benjamin Martin and Susanna Lueders Schuessler. He and Josephine Ida Frank were married Sept. 9, 1945, at Hanover Lutheran Church...

Grace N. Williams, 96, of Cape Girardeau died Thursday, Dec. 25, 2003, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center. She was born Sept. 2, 1907, in St. Louis, daughter of Henry Odus and Mattie Willer Williams. Miss Williams received a bachelor's degree from Southeast Missouri State University and a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin...

John Alan Owen, 59, of Scott City died Thursday, Dec. 25, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Dec. 29, 1943, in Cape Girardeau, son of Francis Edward and Bertha Helen Cassout Owen. He and Patricia Mae Clark were married Oct. 10, 2002, at Benton, Mo...

Glen H. Friedrich, 80, of Oak Ridge died Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born May 13, 1923, in Advance, Mo., son of Charles and Agnes Barker Friedrich. He and Velma Corrine Gloth were married March 8, 1949. She died Aug. 1, 1997...

BERTRAND, Mo. -- Everett Cain, 76, of Bertrand died Thursday, Dec. 25, 2003, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, Mo. He was born May 15, 1927, in Osceola, Ark., son of Clarence and Nanny Roberts Cain. Cain had farmed and worked in construction...

Melvin Wayne "Mac" Smith, 77, of Scott City died Friday, Dec. 26, 2003, at Life Care Center in Cape Girardeau. Amick-Burnett Funeral Chapel in Scott City is in charge of arrangements.

WASHINGTON -- Though officials haven't yet estimated the financial fallout from the first U.S. case of mad cow disease, the Bush administration told Congress in 2001 that the beef industry could lose $15 billion. Food safety officials had earlier projected that as many as 300,000 cows could be destroyed if the disease spread like it did in Britain, a prospect diminished by safeguards implemented in response to the British experience with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE...