Stories from Thursday, December 8, 2016

My dad, Harold Illers, is a veteran and currently resides at the Missouri Veteran's Home in Cape Girardeau. Over the years he has enjoyed a number of woodworking projects, but one of his favorites were constructing buildings that he was familiar with. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Wednesday blocked millions of dollars of planned Medicaid spending and bonding authority in a move to balance the budget during the final weeks of this term. The outgoing Democratic governor restricted $51 million of budgeted spending, including nearly $43 million for the Medicaid health-care program and nearly $9 million in bonding authority...

WASHINGTON -- Repealing President Barack Obama's health-care law without a replacement risks making nearly 30 million people uninsured, according to a study released Wednesday. Separately, a professional group representing benefit advisers warned congressional leaders of the risk of "significant market disruption" that could cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance...

A deadly fire such as the one that occurred last week in Oakland, California, could happen in Cape Girardeau, fire chief Rick Ennis said Wednesday. Ennis said such fires can occur despite the best efforts of city building and fire inspectors to ensure public safety...

Today in History Today is Thursday, Dec. 8, the 343rd day of 2016. There are 23 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Dec. 8, 1941, the United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Imperial Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor...

O Heavenly Father, may daily speak of your faithfulness and gift of salvation. Amen.

Many know that for all the damage done to the U.S. Navy on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese fleet failed to destroy the most important targets in the Pacific fleet. Conspiracy theorists have wondered why there were no U.S. aircraft carriers in Pearl Harbor during the attack. ...

Marcia Southard-Ritter "was the glue who held our council together," according to former Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson. Southard-Ritter, a lifelong Cape Girardeau resident and former city council member, died on Nov. 27 at the age of 73. "She was an absolute servant," Knudtson said. "She didn't play politics."...

It sounds like a recipe for disaster: pans of Jell-O, marshmallows and toothpicks in the hands of third- through sixth-graders. In reality, it was a lesson in how to avoid disaster. The after-school project, led by Alma Schrader teacher Rhonda Young, was providing insight into how best to construct a building to withstand an earthquake, and the students were attempting to build structures with marshmallows and toothpicks that ultimately could withstand the jiggles of the Jello-O...

BENTON, Mo. -- Lawrence W. "Bobo" Ervin, 74, of Benton died Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. He was born Jan. 23, 1942, in Morley, Missouri, to H. Wilburn and M. Marie Ervin. He had worked on the railroad and for Knight Oil Equipment and then owned and operated Ervin Oil Equipment from 1975 to 1985. He retired in 2008 from Thompson Culvert Co. in Sikeston, Missouri...

NEW YORK -- Hop on a virtual sleigh ride to the North Pole. Stand on the "Naughty or Nice O'Meter." Snap a selfie and see your face on a dancing elf. The Santa experience has gotten a makeover as many malls install shows and games they hope will lure shoppers who are buying more online...

WASHINGTON -- Senators questioning the logic of a proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner turned their focus to the nickels and dimes of the issue, at least as to how the $85.4 billion mega-deal would affect Americans: Namely, will it reduce prices consumers pay?...

WASHINGTON -- Military leaders are trying to fix the lengthy, inconsistent process for investigating senior officers accused of misconduct, The Associated Press has learned. They are seeking to change a hodgepodge system in which investigations can drag on for years while taxpayers pay six-figure salaries to officers relegated to mid-level administrative posts...

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas could be the epicenter for the nation's next major fight over stricter requirements for immunizations as rates of schoolchildren who refuse shots for non-medical reasons climb in America's second-largest state. The number of Texas kindergarten through 12th grade students who reported filing conscientious exemptions for at least one immunization last school year increased 19-fold since 2003 -- though that is still less than 1 percent of enrolled students, according to the Immunization Partnership, a pro-vaccination Texas not-for-profit.. ...

Cape Girardeau County Commission 1 Barton Square, Jackson 9 a.m. today Approval of minutes n Minutes of the Dec. 5 meeting Communications/ reports -- other elected officials n None at this time Public comments n Items listed on agenda Routine business...

John Lichtenegger, an attorney from Jackson, has been elected to a one-year term as president of the University of Missouri Board of Curators. Top issues facing the board during the coming year include reducing personnel, balancing spending with resources and hiring key new leaders, according to Lichtenegger...

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A survivor of last year's massacre at a black South Carolina church testified Wednesday her Bible study group had just closed their eyes and begun praying when a loud sound shattered the stillness. The basement room went dark. When Felicia Sanders opened her eyes, she saw a young white man the parishioners had welcomed to the study only a half-hour earlier. Dylann Roof was mowing down the pastor and eight others with gunfire and hurling racial insults...

NEW YORK -- Donald Trump embraced new Cabinet officers Wednesday whose backgrounds suggest he's primed to put tough actions behind his campaign rhetoric on immigration and the environment, even as he seemed to soften his yearlong stance on immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children...

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Earl Wanbaugh was reading a magazine and waiting for the 8 a.m. presentation of colors on the battleship Pennsylvania when he heard the first explosion. He rushed on deck and saw the ship's band members racing toward him in panic and a Japanese plane flying low across the fantail. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor had begun, 75 years ago Wednesday...

AMERICUS, Ga. -- A man fatally shot one Georgia police officer and wounded a second before fleeing an apartment complex near a college campus that went on lockdown as a precaution, authorities said. They said the suspect is believed to be armed and dangerous...

BEIRUT -- Syria's government ignored a rebel cease-fire proposal for Aleppo on Wednesday as its forces captured new neighborhoods around the city center and squeezed about 200,000 tired and frightened civilians into a shattered and rapidly shrinking opposition enclave...

MOSUL, Iraq -- Iraq special forces captured a new neighborhood Wednesday from the Islamic State group in eastern Mosul, according to a senior commander -- the latest gain in a massive military operation its seventh week. The commander of a joint operations center that oversees the Mosul campaign, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarellah, said troops had "fully liberated" the al-Elam neighborhood and raised the Iraqi flag over its buildings. Yarellah said IS militants "suffered losses" without elaborating...

MEUREUDU, Indonesia -- Thousands of people in the Indonesian province of Aceh took refuge for the night in mosques and temporary shelters after an earthquake Wednesday killed nearly 100 people and destroyed dozens of buildings. Some were homeless after the quake made their houses unsafe, and others were too scared to return home. ...

WASHINGTON -- Time magazine on Wednesday named Donald Trump its Person of the Year, bestowing what the president-elect called an "honor" even as he derided the idea he'll lead "the Divided States of America." That was a reference to Time's cover line -- "Donald Trump: President of the Divided States of America" -- that was positioned next to a photograph of the president-elect sitting in his residence at Trump Tower...

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan -- A plane belonging to Pakistan's national carrier crashed and burst into flames Wednesday with 48 people on board, killing all of them, the airline chairman and police said. According to senior police officer Khurram Rasheed, the plane crashed in a village in the district of Abbottabad, 45 miles northwest of the capital, Islamabad. The small twin-propeller aircraft was travelling from the city of Chitral to Islamabad when it crashed shortly after takeoff...

ROME -- Italian Premier Matteo Renzi resigned Wednesday evening, his self-inflicted penalty for staking his job on constitutional changes voters resoundingly rejected earlier in the week. He will stay in a caretaker's role at the request of Italy's president until a new government can be formed...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Authorities on Wednesday charged two juveniles in an East Tennessee wildfire that killed 14 people and destroyed or damaged more than 1,700 buildings in an iconic tourism spot at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains. Officials offered few other specifics about how they think the two started a fire that leveled buildings into charred scraps, carving a deadly path through the Gatlinburg area...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The fire that killed 36 people during a party at an Oakland warehouse started on the ground floor and quickly raged, with smoke billowing into the second level and trapping victims whose only escape route was through the flames, federal investigators said Wednesday...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Opponents on Wednesday sued to stop a new Missouri constitutional amendment to end unlimited political giving in the state, an effort that comes as donors have continued to write six-figure checks to candidates during a monthlong window between the election and when the ban takes effect...

KENNETT, Mo. -- Missouri's biggest peach producer is suing Monsanto Co. over illegal herbicide users suspected of causing widespread crop damage in Missouri and neighboring states. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said last month's lawsuit in Southeast Missouri's Dunklin County by the operator of Bader Farms near Campbell seeks what Bader's lawyer suspects will be millions of dollars in compensation for damage to the farm's peach trees over the past two years...

The Perry County school district is seeking opinions from community members as it creates a plan to relieve crowding and make structural improvements to its campus. Two public forums will be held Monday at the Perry Park Center Theater in Perryville, Missouri. The first session will run from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and the second from 7 to 8 p.m...

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii -- Thousands observed a moment of silence and watched jets streak across the clear blue sky at a ceremony Wednesday at Pearl Harbor marking the 75th anniversary of the attack that plunged the United States into World War II and left more than 2,300 service people dead...

EPHRATA, Pa. -- A police department said a black cat was lucky for one of its officers tracking a fugitive. The Ephrata Police Department posted on its Facebook page officers were searching for Jonathan Michael Steffy, 23, last month over an outstanding bench warrant. They found the man in a backyard, but he fled. As they searched the area, one officer saw a black cat in a nearby yard staring intently at a shed. The officer opened that shed and found Steffy...

CAPE GIRARDEAU The Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests n Deonandrea M. Stainback, 26, 534 N. Fountain St. No. 2, was arrested at West End Boulevard and Jefferson Avenue on two Cape Girardeau warrants for seat-belt violation and improper registration...

CAPE GIRARDEAU The Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls Tuesday. n Medical assists were made at 12:29 a.m. on Independence Street; 1:19 a.m. on Boxwood Drive; 7:54 a.m. on South Middle Street; 1:44 p.m. on Linden Street; 3:08 p.m. on South Kingshighway; 4:32 p.m. on South Sprigg Street; 4:56 p.m. on William Street; and 7:13 p.m. on Nash Road...

Whitley Keith Dabbs, 28, of Cape Girardeau died Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016, in Jackson. Visitation will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday at Crain Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau. Funeral service will be at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the funeral home. Interment will follow at Lorimier Cemetery in Cape Girardeau...

n Bicycle pump with rubber stopper n 1 liter clear plastic bottle n Polystyrene packing peanuts n STEP 1: Completely fill the clear plastic bottle with polystyrene packing peanuts. Describe the packing peanuts by using their observable properties. n STEP 2: Attach the pump to the rubber stopper. Attach the stopper to the clear plastic bottle...

Several local students were awarded scholarsips to attend Southeast Missouri State University: Marianna Below of Cape Girardeau was awarded the Residence Life Leadership Award. Below is the daughter of Tim and Meghan Below of Cape Girardeau and will be a 2017 graduate of Notre Dame High School. ...

Twin sons to Matt Ryan and Danielle Monique Torbet of Cape Girardeau, Saint Francis Medical Center, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016. Blaine Christopher was born at 8:20 p.m., and weighed 5 pounds, 10 ounces. Brody Stephen was born at 8:21 p.m., and weighed 6 pounds, 7 pounds. ...