Stories from Sunday, November 19, 2006

Cody Sandusky lets his hands do the singing when it comes to praising Jesus. The 15-year-old is part of a group of teenagers at Calvary United Pentecostal Church in Jackson called Holy Hands. The seven-member group uses sign language to "sing" about God...

Like many Americans, Jennifer Vandeven does a lot of her shopping at Wal-Mart. That doesn't change when it comes to Christmas presents for her nieces, but that doesn't mean she's not beyond bargain hunting. "If it's a special toy I'm going to buy, I'll see what the prices are at different places," said the 25-year-old Chaffee, Mo., resident...

Family is what it's all about. Children at the Bikers Against Child Abuse adoption ceremony at Cape County Park on Saturday were given denim vests with their "ride" names (chosen themselves), a trinket, a do rag and a handmade angel, but most importantly, "our love," said Molly Auer, of Cape Girardeau, Bikers Against Child Abuse member and child liason for the group. ...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Glen and Corliss Meyr of Chaffee announce the engagement of their daughter, Callie Noel Meyr, to Kyle Andrew Perry. He is the son of Jim and Sue Perry of Jackson. Meyr is a 2002 graduate of Chaffee High School. She received a bachelor of science degree in architectural studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2006. She is employed at Jacobs Engineering n St. Louis...

Stephanie Ann Stone and Kent Roger Zimmerman were married April 22, 2006, at Centenary United Methodist Church. The Rev. Ron Watts performed the ceremony. Reader was Betsy Richey. Music was provided by Trio Girardeaux. Vocalists were Shari Boxdorfer and Tyson Zahner...

KELSO, Mo. -- Amy Leigh Murphy and Randy Vincent Essner exchanged vows Aug. 5, 2006, at St. Augustine Catholic Church. The Rev. Oliver Clavin performed the ceremony. Organist was Betty Ressel of Kelso, and vocalists were Renee Reinagel of Kelso and Jim Simmons of Benton, Mo...

Fruitland Community Church was the setting Nov. 4, 2006, for the wedding of Amanda Wright and Brad Schafer. The Rev. Mike Parry performed the ceremony. Parents of the bride are Sandra Wright of Ridgway, Ill., and Steve and Connie Wright of Jackson. The groom is the son of Bob and Shirlene Schafer of Cape Girardeau...

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Brandi Kendra Lobb and Tory Dixon Meyr were united in marriage Aug. 20, 2006, at Scottsdale Family Church in Scottsdale, Ariz. Joe Gordon performed the ceremony. Vocalist was Kristen Adams of Scottsdale. Kim and Janice Lobb of Scottsdale and Sheri Lobb of Cameron Park, Calif., are parents of the bride. The groom is the son of Larry and Judi Meyr of Chaffee, Mo...

Melissa Pauline Wise and Simon Chardin Dirnberger were united in marriage Nov. 3, 2006, at Fairmont Banff Springs in Banff National Forest in Alberta, Canada. Parents of the couple are Paul and Pat Wise of Sikeston, Mo., and Bernard and Beverly Dirnberger of Cape Girardeau...

Come for the turkey, stay for the cranberry sauce. And Sprite. And Crest toothpaste. At least that's what grocery stores are hoping customers will do as they prepare to absorb a hit from higher turkey prices. The wholesale cost of the birds was 96 cents per pound in October -- a key turkey-buying month for retailers -- up 17 percent from the previous year, according to the Agriculture Department...

Ten years have gone by. Maybe it's 15 or five, but no matter, it's now time for that bizarre ritual known as the class reunion. Many people dread this. And it's no wonder -- willingly returning to a time when we were more pimpled and less intelligent seems crazy, especially if your school wasn't the most welcome environment...

THEBES, Ill. -- Richard and Terrie Harter of Thebes and Brad Enke of St. Louis announce the engagement of their daughter, Jennifer Enke, to Robb Wilson, both of St. Louis. He is the son of Bob and Trisha Wilson of Wildwood, Mo., and Barbra Wilson of Monroe, N.J...

The turkey's still not done after cooking in the oven for more than four hours. The stuffing is dry, and you've burned the pumpkin pie. Your Thanksgiving guests, who are waiting to be served dinner, are impatiently starring your way. You nervously glance back at them, and wonder if you've ruined Thanksgiving dinner...

To the editor: Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and families everywhere are making plans for how they will celebrate the holiday season that culminates on New Year's Eve. This is a time for family, friends and festive celebrations, happiness, joy and hopes for the future. Unfortunately, it can also be a time of enormous tragedy simply because someone chooses to drive while impaired or forgets to buckle his safety belt...

To the editor: I have lived in Cape Girardeau all of my life. This past May I graduated from Central High School. I am now a student at Le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas, and it is such a change. I never realized how sheltered I was living in Cape until I left and had to experience real life. Now I am struggling to pay rent, go to school and work at the same time. But I am not complaining. This is a great experience for me. But I can't wait to come home...

A year-old federal law called the Motor Carriers Safety Improvement Act is aimed at drivers who lose their licenses in one state and attempt to avoid the penalties of suspended or revoked licenses by obtaining new licenses in another state. Until last year, that was fairly easy to do, because states did not share information about driving infractions. ...

Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Magnet industrial recruitment organization, and Dr. Bonnie Stepenoff, history professor at Southeast Missouri State University, will be the featured guests today on KRCU's "Going Public."...

On the Southeast Missouri State College campus 38 years ago, a young man from St. Louis led the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. Today James T. Conway leads a different kind of brotherhood -- the U.S. Marine Corps. Conway, a 58-year-old Arkansas native, was sworn in as the 34th commandant of the corps on Monday. He has risen from leading a platoon to leading one of the most feared and respected fighting forces in history...

Toys for Tots agrees to take talking Jesus doll LOS ANGELES -- The Marine Reserves' Toys for Tots program has decided to accept a donation of Bible-quoting Jesus dolls, reversing course after saying earlier this week that it couldn't take them. "The talking Jesus doll issue has been resolved," the organization announced on its Web site Wednesday. ...

LAWTON, Okla. -- Betty Lee Abernathy, 85, of Lawton, formerly of Jackson, died Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006. She was born June 9, 1921 at Oak Ridge, daughter of Ora and Agnes Goodson Kinnison. She and Ralph D. Abernathy were married Sept. 5, 1944, in Jackson. He died Jan. 10, 1995...

Charles Hays Raglin, 87, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, Nov. 17, 2006, at his home. He was born on Dec. 26, 1918, at Cape Girardeau, son of Robert Clint and Rose Mae Martin Raglin. He and Carmelita M. Stone were married April 14, 1944, at Blytheville, Ark...

Robert Alyn Spalding, 69, of Scott City died Friday, Nov. 17, 2006, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born on July 3, 1937 at Cape Girardeau, son of Richard Oscar and Dora Marie Hagar Spalding. He nad Juanita Lee were married Jan. 8, 1973, at Cape Girardeau...

James W. "Jay" Slinkard, 85, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, Nov. 17, 2006, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Feb. 27, 1921, in Burfordville, Mo., the son of Jess and Carrie Overbeck Slinkard. He and Alma Lee Hill were married on Nov. 29, 1941, in Cape Girardeau. She died March 18, 2006...

Ben G. Capshaw, 83, of Cape Girardeau died Nov. 17, 2006, at the Missouri Veterans Home. Born July 27, l923 in Chaffee, Mo., Capshaw was the son of Ira H. and Leora Prosser Capshaw, both deceased. He and the former Peggy Ann Wilkinson were married May 4, 1947, in Chaffee. She preceded him in death on April 5, 1997...

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. -- A Rock Island County circuit judge denied a motion Friday to reduce the 48-year-sentence for a convicted 18-year-old Milan woman's role in the 2005 murder of a fellow teen. Sarah Kolb has been charged with first-degree murder and concealment of a homicidal death in last year's slaying of Adrianne Reynolds, a classmate at an alternative school. In August, Kolb was sentenced to 48 years in prison...

MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican government on Saturday released a long-awaited report that for the first time officially blamed "the highest command levels" of three former presidencies for the massacres, tortures and slayings of hundreds of leftists from the 1960s to the 1980s...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An hours-long street battle pitted Iraqi and American forces against Sunni insurgents Saturday in the increasingly violent city of Baqouba. City police said at least 18 people were killed and 19 wounded. Nationwide, police and morgue officials said the death toll was 53, including those killed in Baqouba...

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga -- International troops secured the airport in riot-scarred Tonga and commercial flights were to begin evacuating frightened foreigners from the island on Sunday, Australia's foreign minister said. Police and soldiers from Australia and New Zealand arrived on the impoverished Pacific island on Saturday following street violence Thursday that killed at least eight people and destroyed most of the capital's business district...

WASHINGTON -- House Dem¿ocrats are targeting billions of dollars in oil company tax breaks for quick repeal next year. A broader energy proposal that would boost alternative energy sources and conservation is expected to be put off until later...

RAYTOWN, Mo. -- Fire struck twice in the same night at the home of a Raytown family, authorities said. The first blaze, at about 6:24 p.m. Thursday, left two children, both younger than 10, with serious leg burns. They were taken to the hospital. The second fire occurred about 8:40 p.m. while the family was at the hospital, causing extensive damage to the house...

NEW YORK -- Mothers deciding to place their infants for adoption deserve better counseling, more time to change their minds, and more support in trying to keep track of the children they relinquish, a leading adoption institute recommends in a sweeping new report...

NEW YORK -- The woman was widowed when her husband died in the terrorists' attack on the World Trade Center, whose twin towers once would have been seen from the windows of the meeting room where she sits with her attorney. But this Sept. 11 widow is an illegal immigrant -- one of about 25 identified as having lost a family member in the disaster -- and she could face deportation at any time. ...

Mark Foley gives eulogy at father's funeral ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla. --Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley sobbed Saturday as he delivered a eulogy at his father's grave, alluding to his resignation from Congress amid a sex scandal as disheartening to his dad. "I disappointed him so much," said Foley, surrounded by about 50 friends and family. "But he was so good of a man." Edward Foley, a longtime educator, died Tuesday of complications from cancer. He was 85...

AURORA, Ill. -- An hours-long standoff with an armed patient at a suburban Chicago hospital Saturday ended with the gunman dead of a gunshot wound, according to authorities who also said they were uncertain of the source of the fatal shot. The 58-year-old Aurora man, whose identity was not released by authorities, died of a gunshot wound to the head...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A man charged with failing to tell sexual partners he was HIV-positive was granted more privacy recently when a judge closed a court proceeding to the public. Citing a 1988 Missouri law, attorneys for 40-year-old Albert L. Spicer succeeded in barring two spectators and a reporter Tuesday from a hearing in which the defendant was scheduled to plead guilty to some of the charges...

ST. LOUIS -- Following his fourth trial for crimes he always denied, a St. Louis man was acquitted of murdering two people and shooting a young boy in what prosecutors called the planned robbery of a fellow drug dealer. A jury ended nine hours of deliberation Friday night by finding 29-year-old Ronnie Lucious not guilty of first-degree murder, assault and armed criminal action...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- A 13-year-old boy is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the fatal shooting of a Dexter man. The teen, whose name is not being released, is in the Stoddard County Juvenile Detention Center, said Sheriff Carl Hefner...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Investigators hunted Saturday for what they believed was a lone gunman in a quadruple homicide at a home near the city's midtown section. More than 24 hours after the killings, police still had not suggested a motive or released the names of the two men and two women fatally shot just before 2 a.m. Friday...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- When it comes to popular spots for grandmother-grandson bonding, cemeteries probably aren't high on the list. But on a recent morning, Sonja Nordyke and Ken Hainsworth stomped around Walnut Grove Church Cemetery in rural Boone County...

For most of Saturday's season finale, it looked like Southeast Missouri State's 25 seniors would be able to end their college careers with a win. But that was before Tennessee Tech staged a furious comeback to stun the Redhawks and 3,422 fans at Houck Stadium...

University project SOUTHEAST MISSOURI State University can do whatever it wants with its retail, research and residential development because it all falls under the University Foundation. The university for the past several years have been controlling the city. Now it appears it has the mayor as a lap dog. I don't agree that the university should be involved in such developments. it hired an out-of-town firm to do most of that. It would have been nice to use local people for this...

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. -- Southeast Missouri State's surprising run in the Ohio Valley Conference volleyball tournament ended one victory short of an NCAA tournament berth. The Redhawks, the last seed for the six-team event, had upset third-seeded Murray State and No. 2 Tennessee State in the opening two rounds...

FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- In a state where dog mushing is the No. 1 sport and a town where it seems that sled dogs outnumber people 2-1, Southeast Missouri State coach Scott Edgar just couldn't help but use an Iditarod analogy. The Iditarod is 1,000-mile dog sled race across Alaska, and a musher, the person who commands the team, needs a cohesive, strong, confident brood of huskies to be competitive...

FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- With 9 minutes still showing on the Carlson Center scoreboard, Michael Rembert sat at the end of the Southeast Missouri State bench, a white towel loosely draped over his head, hiding his face. It was that type of night for the Redhawks, where the best they could hope for was just to hide from the action on the court, an 83-51 loss to the Centenary Gents in the consolation semifinals in the BP Top of the World Classic on Saturday...

Editor's note: The Associated Press was recently given extensive access to the largest archive of Nazi prison camp records, which has been closed for 50 years, on condition that names of the victims remain protected. By ARTHUR MAX The Associated Press...

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Cardinals, coming off their first World Series title in 24 years, open the 2007 spring training schedule in Jupiter, Fla., on Feb. 28 against the Florida Marlins. The Cardinals will play 19 games at home, including an exhibition against Florida Atlantic University on Feb. 26 and six meetings against the Marlins, who are co-tenants at Roger Dean Stadium. St. Louis will mark its 10th season in Jupiter...

The Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls on Friday: n At 10:46 a.m., an assist on the Mississippi River. n At 4:29 p.m., a traffic accident at William Street and St. Francis Drive. n At 6:54 p.m., stand-by at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport...

The following items were released by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. Arrests do not imply guilt...

25 years ago: Nov. 19, 1981 After serving one three-year term on the Cape Girardeau City Council, Councilman Gail D. "Woody" Woodfin says he will seek a higher office, that of 156th District state representative. Cape Girardeau County officials are negotiating proposed changes in a contract with Cape County Private Ambulance Service; the current one-year, $119,500 contract expires Dec. ...

HANOI, Vietnam -- Lobbying world leaders, President Bush sought China's support today for pressuring long-defiant North Korea to prove it is serious about dismantling its nuclear weapons program. "China is a very important nation and the United States believes strongly that by working together we can help solve problems such as North Korea and Iran," Bush said as he sat down for talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Like North Korea, Iran also is suspected of pursuing nuclear weapons...

The soap opera that is Southeast Missouri State women's basketball right now just keeps getting better and better. First, head coach B.J. Smith is placed on mysterious paid administrative leave. University officials do not give the reason, although sources say it's just a matter of time before Smith is terminated...