Stories from Saturday, June 3, 2006

An agreement local government leaders made over lunch to take a unified stance on the sales-tax holiday has not gone according to plan. The Cape Girardeau City Council voted May 15 on the first reading of the ordinance to opt out of the holiday, with Mayor Jay Knudtson saying Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Cape Girardeau County would maintain a "united front" on the issue...

With warmer weather, local police officials are gearing up to deal with more complaints, more crime and more work. "You can expect an increase in violence," Jackson police Lt. Rodney Barnes said. After months of being cooped up inside, criminals, like everybody else, take to the streets and enjoy the warmer weather, he said...

The only dentist operating in Scott City will have his license to practice suspended for 30 days beginning next Friday. Gary Riddle, 51, had been on a five-year probation that started Sept. 1, 2005, for ethical violations, including a conviction of spousal abuse and suspicion of use of a controlled substance. ...

MIAMI -- A year ago, the Miami Heat simply weren't good enough. Shaquille O'Neal knew it. Dwyane Wade knew it. So Pat Riley fixed it. And now, the Heat are headed to the NBA Finals for the first time. O'Neal had 28 points and 16 rebounds and Wade -- who spent part of his day in a hospital battling dehydration and flu-like symptoms -- added 14 points as the Heat ended the Detroit Pistons' two-year reign as Eastern Conference champions with an 95-78 win Friday...

MALIBU, Calif. -- Barry Enright pitched 7 1-3 strong innings, Brett Hunter got out of a ninth-inning jam and Pepperdine defeated Missouri 3-2 in Friday's second game of the NCAA's Malibu Regional. UCLA beat UC Irvine by an identical 3-2 score in the opening game...

HAMBURG, Germany -- Only a few minutes after the team arrived, it was easy to pick out the United States at the World Cup. The Americans got enhanced special security at Hamburg Airport early Friday, and their team bus -- unlike the other 31 -- didn't have the national flag on its rear...

BOSTON -- The Sevens, a beer-and-wine tavern with an oak bar worn smooth by decades of drinkers, has two amenities that set it apart: a real cork dart board and arguably one of the best jukeboxes east of the Mississippi River. From early Bruce Springsteen and Patsy Cline to rare Rolling Stones tunes, the jukebox -- more than the darts or the dark wood benches -- sets a rollicking mood that pulls people through the door...

WASHINGTON -- Airbus SAS on Friday asked a U.S. court to remove Boeing Co. lawyers from World Trade Organization deliberations on aircraft subsidies, saying one of the partners in Boeing's law firm has inside knowledge of Airbus strategy. Marco Bronckers, a partner in the Brussels office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, used to be an Airbus lawyer, according to the firm's motion in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Allstate Insurance Co. says it is dropping earthquake insurance to most of its 407,000 quake customers nationwide as a part of a larger move to reduce exposure to catastrophic losses. Allstate spokesman Mike Siemienas said four states require the company to offer earthquake coverage, but the company is in various stages of talks with regulators there...

GROTON, Conn. -- A Learjet registered to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson crashed in Long Island Sound while flying in heavy fog Friday, killing both pilots, authorities said. All three passengers escaped without serious injury. Robertson was not aboard...

ABUJA, Nigeria -- Eight foreign workers, including one American, were kidnapped from a drilling rig off Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta Friday in the latest incident highlighting the tenuous security of oil operations in Africa's largest crude producer...

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syrian anti-terrorism police fought Islamic militants near the Defense Ministry on Friday in a gunbattle that killed five people and wounded four, the government said. The shootout came after the police heard an "extremist terrorist unit" was in the area and engaged it, the Interior Ministry said. One police officer was killed and two were wounded, it said...

Saturday; Sunday; Monday; Wednesday; Auction, dinner planned at La Croix on Tuesday

Each year since 2003, the Spirit of America Award has been given by the Southeast Missourian to an individual who best embodies this nation's bedrock ideals. The honor, presented during Cape Girardeau's annual Fourth of July celebration, is the region's highest of its kind...

MONTREAL -- World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Dick Pound said Friday that a Dutch investigator's report clearing Lance Armstrong from doping allegations made by a French newspaper is full of holes. "They put as fact things that are suppositions, suspicions and possibilities," Pound said...

Carl Pettersson would have to consider this a good day. He made five birdies in the five hours he spent on the golf course on a rainy Friday at the Memorial in Dublin, Ohio. The best part of all was that he finished his round and was atop the leaderboard...

Cape Girardeau...

The Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau has released the schedule for the summer Steamboat and River Barge Dockings at Cape Girardeau. n June 2: River Explorer, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m...

When La Croix United Methodist Church youth director Mike Fitzpatrick announced his idea to invite acclaimed author/speaker Brennan Manning to Cape Girardeau, other leaders in the church were skeptical that it would happen. But thanks to a cancellation in Manning's schedule, it did...

Cape Girardeau...

For Ken and Nancy Strong, it never felt so good to be back in Father's Arms. The Scott City couple returned this week to the church they founded 12 years ago after a year at The School of Pastoral Ministry in Tulsa, Okla. On Sunday, the couple will return to the pulpit at Father's Arms Fellowship, where interim pastors Webster and Opal Eaker have served since last June...

And Jesus came and spoke to them (his disciples), saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20...

Connell wins PGA Junior Series event The Southeast Missouri PGA Gateway Junior Series played its first of eight summer events on Wednesday at the Kennett Country Club. Jack Connell won the Tour division for boys ages 16 to 19 with an 83, while Kassie Walker shot an 89 to win the 16-19 girls flight...

25 years ago: June 3, 1981 The ribbon is snipped in the morning at the new J.C. Penney store in West Park Mall before a crowd of shoppers and dignitaries; cutting the ribbon is Mrs. Lester Marlin, a former Penney employee who cut the ribbon for the first Penney store in Cape Girardeau in 1924...

Alfred Kaiser, 93, of Gordonville died Friday, June 2, 2006, at the Lutheran Home. Arrangements are incomplete at McCombs Funeral Home in Jackson.

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Lester Leo Loucks, 76, of Norman, Okla., died Thursday, June 1, 2006, at Norman Regional Hospital. He was born Nov. 17, 1929, at Malden, Mo., son of John Henry and Clara Mable Kincade Loucks. Loucks retired as a maintenance supervisor with the U.S. Post Office and was a retired mechanic with York Air Conditioners, both in Norman...

Pearl Statler, 98, of Jackson died Thursday, June 1, 2006, at Fountainbleau Lodge in Cape Girardeau. She was born Sept. 19, 1907, in Mayfield, Mo., daughter of David and Eva Ethel Mayfield Green. She and Grealey P. Statler were married Sept. 3, 1927. He died Feb. 27, 1980...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Terry Randall Simmons, 43, of Charlottesville, Va., died Wednesday, May 31, 2006, at his home. He was born Nov. 26, 1962, at Chaffee, son of Charles Franklin and June Harrell Simmons. Simmons was a truck driver with CR England Trucking Co. He was a member of New Caney Family Worship Center in Cleveland, Texas...

PUXICO, Mo. -- Patsy Croy, 77, of Boynton Beach, Fla., passed away Tuesday, May 30, 2006. She was born April 19, 1929, daughter of Lelland and Ella Townsend Kinnaman. She married Clarence Croy, who died Oct. 13, 1982. Croy was formerly of Puxico and Advance, Mo...

Double platinum; Don't get soft; Marriage vote; Dangerous sale; Thanks for help; Driving privilege; Wake-up call; Waiting for bulb; Government debt; Take a good look

To the editor: How blessed the students of Central Junior High School are to have the opportunity to work under Mike Dumey. He gives more than 100 percent of his time and effort as if he would make the profits of a Broadway production. Mike's profit is in the devotion of his students...

To the editor: Last week I had a doctor's appointment for 10 a.m. I arrived at that time and waited until 11 a.m. before being called back to the first room. During that hour of waiting, seven sales reps came in, and five were taken back. I waited until 12:25 p.m. ...

To the editor: It saddens me to see the topic "Cairo woes" and the number of articles written in the last six months about the place where I grew up. While it is indeed your responsibility to report the news, one would think that this city has been condemned and there are no newsworthy stories talking about the good that may be going on there. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Fulton woman is accused of injecting a chemical into her husband's IV bag while he lay in his hospital bed recovering from surgery. Millie R. Edwards, 35, was charged Thursday with first-degree assault hours after a duty nurse at a Jefferson City hospital discovered around 1:30 a.m. that someone had tampered with the man's IV bag...

ALTON, Ill. -- Services are set for Monday for a St. Louis-area doctor and the two young sons he threw from a Florida hotel balcony last week before plunging to his death -- a tragedy investigators still are trying to unravel. Edward Van Dyk, a radiation oncologist at Alton Memorial Hospital, died with his two boys -- Carl, 8, and Spencer, 4 -- May 27 in falls from a 15th-floor balcony at the posh Loews Hotel in Miami Beach, Fla., police there have said...

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A couple already accused of the videotaped sex killing of a suburban Kansas City woman were charged Friday with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 5-year-old southeast Kansas girl. Richard D. Davis, 41, and Dena D. Riley, 39, were charged with one count each of kidnapping. ...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A military investigation into allegations that American troops intentionally killed civilians in Ishaqi, a village north of Baghdad, has cleared them of misconduct, the United States said Friday -- even though it acknowledged the deaths of up to 13 Iraqis in the March raid...

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Cardinals delayed making a move with injured Jim Edmonds on Friday, at least for the weekend, although they added an outfielder to the roster. Edmonds hasn't played since Sunday and hasn't started in a week due to what the team described as a mild to moderate abdominal strain. He visited a specialist in sports hernia's on Wednesday, who ruled out that injury...

The balls have been selected for the First Annual Downtown Golf Tournament in Cape Girardeau and they look just like napkin rings. The Birdie Ball Limited Flight Golf Balls are hollowed-out plastic doughnuts with a maximum flight of 40 yards. That's as far as they'll go and they don't tend to roll when they hit the ground...

With a theme of "we delivered," Missouri lawmakers Jason Crowell and Nathan Cooper on Friday touted several achievements of the most recent legislative session, including combating violence against children, finding funds for high-profile projects and cutting back on government waste...

A man who fell asleep on a stranger's couch in Scott City while drunk was cited with trespassing Friday. Brandon S. Czik, 22, of Scott City, was found asleep on the couch around 5 a.m. Thursday, according to police chief Don Cobb. ...

PARIS -- As officials of the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext celebrated their proposed -- and revolutionary -- $9.96 billion union Friday, rival bidder Deutsche Boerse AG said it has no intention of abandoning its pursuit of Euronext and its four European stock exchanges...

ANKARA, Turkey -- The death toll from a methane gas explosion in a Turkish coal mine rose to 17 on Friday after firefighters, troops and miners worked through the night to recover the bodies. Another five miners were hospitalized with methane gas poisoning and 35 escaped unharmed. The blast collapsed one of two shafts in the mine near the western town of Dursunbey in Balikesir province late Thursday...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Four years ago, the Carolina Hurricanes surprised just about everyone by reaching the Stanley Cup finals. To listen to Rod Brind'Amour, that included themselves. "Looking back, we didn't really believe we could be there," he said...

MASKIOT, West Bank -- Israel has begun laying the foundations for a new Jewish settlement deep in the West Bank -- breaking a promise to Washington while strengthening its hold on a stretch of desert it wants to keep as it draws its final borders. The construction of Maskiot comes at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert seeks U.S. backing for eventually annexing parts of the West Bank as part of a plan to set Israel's eastern border with or without Palestinian consent...

KENNER, La. -- The five Gulf Coast states have good evacuation plans in place for tropical storms, but more work is needed to prepare for another major hurricane, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said Friday. "I feel the region has more work to do to ensure that all groups would know where to go, when they should leave and whether they should go by plane, train or bus if they cannot drive," Mineta said...

Cape Girardeau's Red House Interpretive Center and downtown murals have been honored with Legacy Awards from the Missouri Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission. The awards recognize projects that keep alive the legacy of Lewis and Clark's journey...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Seven family members, the youngest just 5 years old, were shot to death in their home during what appeared to be a robbery attempt, officials said Friday as police searched for at least two suspects in the attack. Police reached the house shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday after a witness saw one of the victims being dragged into the home and then heard gunfire...

ANKARA, Turkey -- Authorities at a Turkish Mediterranean oil port Friday loaded the first Caspian oil shipment from a new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline onto a tanker for Western markets. The shipment from Ceyhan marks a crucial step in completing a project designed to create alternative oil routes to ease the West's dependence on Middle East crude...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Department of Insurance has filed a complaint against a West Plains insurance dealer for allegedly selling fake policies. The complaint filed with the Administrative Hearing Commission was announced Friday. It alleges that licensed insurance producer David LaFevers accepted more than $17,000 for worthless insurance policies...

From staff and wire reports COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Episcopal Church is poised to apologize for failing to oppose slavery, but making up for its 19th-century inaction won't come without 21st-century controversy. At its national convention beginning June 13, the church is expected to approve a resolution expressing regret for supporting slavery and segregation. ...

LOS ANGELES -- Luis Hernandez just laughs as he sells fake driver's licenses and Social Security cards to illegal immigrants near a park known for shady deals. The joke, to him and others in his line of work, is the government's promise to put people like him out of business with a tamperproof national ID card...

ATLANTA -- Doctors are reporting a disturbing rise in the number of cancer patients getting chemo and other aggressive but futile treatment in the last days of their lives. Critics of the practice say doctors should be concentrating instead on helping these patients die with dignity and in comfort, perhaps in a hospice...

MADISON, Wis. -- A federal judge dismissed a Roman Catholic pharmacist's claim that he was fired by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for refusing to fill birth control prescriptions and that the dismissal violated his religious freedom. The ruling Thursday said Wal-Mart had accommodated Neil Noesen's religious opposition to birth control by having other pharmacists fill prescriptions...

America has a proud history of immigration. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. Like all sovereign nations, America has the right to determine who may enter our country and who may not. The American people have chosen to strike a balance in their laws between their desire to provide opportunities to new residents of diverse backgrounds and the economic reality that too much immigration too fast will depress the wages and diminish the hopes of millions of our own citizens.. ...

PARIS --American James Blake moved into the third round of the French Open by beating Nicolas Almagro of Spain 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 Friday in a match suspended the night before. Blake, the final U.S. man left in the tournament, had never advanced beyond the second round in three trips to Paris...

NEW YORK -- During pre-Katrina visits to New Orleans, Steve Lyons set aside a few hours for an errand that would probably only occur to the Weather Channel's hurricane expert. He'd wander through the city and ask residents whether or not they would evacuate if a hurricane was on its way. Last spring, he walked into a fast food restaurant and put the question to the young woman serving his soda...

ST. LOUIS -- Justin Knox bit down on the bitter-tasting wafer, probably not realizing the medicine in his mouth was more powerful than morphine and strong enough to kill pain for three days. As the gel on the fentanyl pain patch dissolved on his tongue, his craving for pain drugs was relieved. ...

The Jackson American Legion team won its opening game at the Dyersburg Tournament in Tennessee, while the Cape Girardeau Ford and Sons and Scott County Legion teams lost their pool-play openers. Cape Girardeau lost for the first time this season, dropping a 14-4 decision in six innings Friday night against Gallatin, Tenn...

ST. LOUIS -- Todd Walker's RBI grounder scored Juan Pierre with the go-ahead run in the 14th inning, lifting the Chicago Cubs to a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night. Closer Ryan Dempster (1-3) worked three innings and Pierre and Michael Barrett each had three hits for the Cubs, who got this month off to a better start than May, when they were an abysmal 7-22...

According to Plaza Tire Capahas manager Jess Bolen, it almost never fails. A player who has basically been idle all year is the team's top hitter during its opening game of just about every season. "We talked about that the other night," Bolen said. "It happens every year. A guy that hasn't hit all year will lead us in hitting that first game."...