Stories from Thursday, July 20, 2017

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens vowed Wednesday his administration and law enforcement at all levels will work together to tackle the opioid epidemic and take drug traffickers off the streets. Speaking before hundreds of federal, state and local law-enforcement officers standing in the hot sun on the tarmac of the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, Greitens said, "For too long in Missouri, we lacked a strong, coordinated effort across the state to stop these traffickers before they hit Missouri towns.". ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri Republicans have coalesced around Attorney General Josh Hawley as their favored candidate to challenge veteran Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2018, which would set up a marquee contest between a wily incumbent and an up-and-coming political novice in a state that has trended conservative...

At least one Perryville police officer has been disciplined for unspecified misconduct, a statement from the police department stated. A news release from the Perryville Police Department contained almost no details about the incident in question, but a former Perryville police chief said it involved two officers "covering [an] incident up."...

Former Sikeston, Missouri, Department of Public Safety director Drew Juden on Wednesday denied all knowledge of allegations made against a detective accused of threatening a witness the day before David Robinson stood trial for the 2000 murder of Sheila Box...

A 49-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene of an apparent homicide Wednesday in Cape Girardeau, police said. The victim, whom police have not yet identified, was a Cape Girardeau resident found shortly after 12:30 p.m. in the 200 block of South Lorimier Street, according to a news release issued by Cape Girardeau Police Department...

Today in History Today is Thursday, July 20, the 201st day of 2017. There are 164 days left in the year. Today's Highlights in History: On July 20, 1917, America's World War I draft lottery began as Secretary of War Newton Baker, wearing a blindfold, reached into a glass bowl and pulled out a capsule containing the number 258 during a ceremony inside the Senate office building. ...

Caring, competent teachers backed by top-notch facilities are key factors in the education of students. However, a grumbling stomach can trump all in the quest to expand minds. Hunger can stunt growth in more ways than one. It's the sort of matter Cape Girardeau public schools superintendent Neil Glass has prioritized since assuming his position July 1. ...

After the evacuation of the British from Boston, Washington moved his Continental Army southwest to confront the British and Hessian troops in New York. Washington's force occupied New York City and moved to stop the British advance toward the city in Western Long Island. ...

If you're like me, you've noticed a considerable recent rise in crime in our town. While many of us haven't been directly impacted, nevertheless it's something we should all be concerned with. So pick up your phone and dial 651-2265 and order tickets to the Sounds for Hounds concert to be held on Saturday, July 29 at 7:30 p.m. ...

Roy L. Meystedt Jr., 70, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, July 17, 2017, at Saint Francis Medical Center. He was born Oct. 21, 1946, in Cape Girardeau to Roy L. and Virginia Schlueter Meystedt. He served in the Army in Vietnam. He was a member of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3838 for over 20 years and the Knights of Columbus Council 1111 for 20 years...

SANTA FE, N.M. -- It's 2007, and Steve Jobs has just finished launching the first iPhone before an enraptured audience when he nearly collapses, exhausted by the illness that will kill him four years later. At this moment in Mason Bates' opera "The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs," a harrowing sound emerges from the orchestra pit, a crushing downward progression that's described in the score as an "electronic shutdown."...

Daughter to Willie Jason and Keiara Cherelle Humphrey of Cape Girardeau, Southeast Hospital, 7:51 a.m. Tuesday, July 11, 2017. Name, Harper Dallas. Weight, 6 pounds, 12 ounces. Second child, first daughter. Mrs. Humphrey is the former Keiara Lash, daughter of Marilyn Quarles of Madisonville, Kentucky, and Willie Lash of Greensboro, North Carolina. ...

WASHINGTON -- Dozens of advocacy groups on Tuesday urged state education officials to protect transgender students after the Trump administration rescinded Obama-era guidance on school bathroom use. The nation's leading civil-rights organizations said in a letter addressed to state education officials charged with civil-rights protection that schools must allow students to access restrooms in line with their stated gender identity, as the guidance had called for...

WASHINGTON -- An international robotics competition in Washington was in its final day Tuesday, with teams of teenagers from more than 150 nations competing. The team getting the most attention at the FIRST Global Challenge was a squad of girls from Afghanistan who twice were rejected for U.S. visas before President Donald Trump intervened...

Three workers from Lone Star, who were out on the Mississippi River doing some kind of tests, rescued a dog yesterday after it jumped from the Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau, pulling it into their boat after it plunged into the river. The dog was unharmed...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. and Chinese officials on Wednesday wrapped up high-level talks without announcing any breakthroughs on the contentious economic issues that divide them. The daylong talks at the Treasury Department began with prickly comments from both sides. Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said the world's two biggest economies need to cooperate and warned "confrontation will immediately damage the interests of both."...

LOVELOCK, Nev. -- O.J. Simpson once thrilled crowds as he ran for touchdowns and hurdled airport seats in car rental ads to achieve Hollywood celebrity before he was acquitted of murder in the 1995 "trial of the century" in Los Angeles. Now, an aging Simpson will appear as inmate No. 1027820 in a plain hearing room in a remote Nevada prison today to plead for his freedom...

WASHINGTON -- Members of the Trump campaign's inner circle, including his eldest son and son-in-law, are being called before Senate committees next week to talk about the 2016 election. The week has the potential to deliver the most high-profile congressional testimony involving the Russian meddling probes since former FBI director James Comey appeared in June...

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump told The New York Times in an interview Wednesday he never would have appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. In an extraordinary denouncement of one of his earliest backers in Washington, Trump said Sessions' decision to recuse himself from all matters related to Russia was "very unfair to the president."...

WASHINGTON -- Americans overwhelmingly want lawmakers of both parties to work out health-care changes, with only 13 percent supporting Republican moves to repeal "Obamacare" absent a replacement, according to a new poll. Although a deep partisan divide endures over the 2010 Affordable Care Act, people may be less far apart on what policymakers should try next, said the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A Saudi woman has been arrested for defying the kingdom's strict dress code by walking around in a miniskirt and crop top in a video that sparked public outrage. The woman, whose name was not given, was detained by police in the capital, Riyadh, for wearing "immodest clothes" that contradicted the country's conservative Islamic dress code, state media reported Tuesday...

WASHINGTON -- Industry has made more than 9.1 billion tons of plastic since 1950, and there's enough left over to bury Manhattan under more than two miles of trash, according to a new cradle-to-grave global study. Plastics don't break down like other man-made materials, so three-quarters of the stuff ends up as waste in landfills, littered on land and floating in oceans, lakes and rivers, according to the research reported in Wednesday's journal Science Advances...

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Chilean lawmakers took a major step toward legalizing abortion in some cases Wednesday, a dramatic development in one of Latin America's most traditionally conservative countries. In a marathon session lasting well past midnight, the Senate voted to allow abortions when a mother's life is in danger, when the fetus is not viable and in cases of rape...

CHICAGO -- After running away from his Minnesota home in 1976, 16-year-old Jimmy Haakenson called his mother, told her he was in Chicago, then disappeared forever. More than 40 years later, a detective from Illinois arrived at the family's home to tell Haakenson's relatives at some point after hanging up the phone, the teenager crossed paths with serial killer John Wayne Gacy...

MINNEAPOLIS -- Four days after a Minneapolis police officer fatally shot a woman who had called 911 to report a possible rape, the officer has yet to talk with investigators, and his attorney has given no indication he ever will. Some legal experts say the move is wise and well within the officer's rights. ...

TOKYO -- An underwater robot entered a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant Wednesday, capturing images of the effect of its meltdown, including key structures that were torn and knocked out of place. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the robot, nicknamed "the Little Sunfish," successfully completed the day's work inside the primary containment vessel of the Unit 3 reactor at Fukushima, which was destroyed by a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Hasbro now is offering a "Star Wars" Monopoly set for sale in the U.S. that includes the female character Rey after an uproar that began 18 months ago with an online plea by an 8-year-old girl to include her. The company began selling the set on its website a few days after The Associated Press reported Rey fans still were waiting to buy Monopoly sets that included the main character of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," after Hasbro promised in January 2016 to sell one...

PARIS -- A French woman captured in the Iraqi city of Mosul with her four children is facing possible prosecution in Iraq for allegedly collaborating with the Islamic State group in a test case for how governments handle the families of foreign fighters now the extremists are in retreat...

BANGKOK -- A Thai army general was one of dozens of people found guilty Wednesday in a major human-trafficking trial that included 103 defendants accused of involvement in a modern-day slavery trade. Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpaen was convicted of several offenses involving trafficking and taking bribes in the case involving migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said the Trump administration can strictly enforce its ban on refugees but is leaving in place a weakened travel ban that includes grandparents among relatives who can help visitors from six mostly Muslim countries get into the U.S...

WASHINGTON -- Arizona Sen. John McCain has been diagnosed with a brain tumor after doctors removed a blood clot above his left eye last week, his office said in a statement Wednesday. The 80-year-old Republican has glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer, according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix...

The Dr. Gwinn M. Lovel Memorial Scholarship has been established through the Southeast Missouri University Foundation. Ralph and Mary Kay Belter of Seadrift, Texas, made a $15,000 gift to the foundation to establish the award in memory of Lovel, Mary Kay's brother...

Ameren Missouri is pledging $50,000 to assistance agencies in Missouri to help families stay cool during summer's high temperatures. East Missouri Action Agency is the local contact for the Ameren program, said Shanna Yount, program coordinator with EMAA...

Ameren Missouri engineers Ray Perez, left, and Ken Kietzer release a weather balloon Wednesday from Ameren's operations center in Cape Girardeau. It was a test launch in partnership with St. Louis University before the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse. On that day, four instrumentation balloons will be launched to measure real-time data including temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and wind speed during the eclipse...

They're colorful, hand-painted and hidden, but they're not Easter eggs -- they're rocks, all over town for people to find. SEMO Rocks, a Facebook group started in March by Lisa Rose and her fiance, Mark McEachern, has "just exploded," McEachern said...

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- A Sikeston, Missouri, man is heading to prison for the shooting death of a friend. Tiarrius Gant, 19, was sentenced by Judge Fred Copeland on Tuesday to five years in the Department of Corrections on a charge of voluntary manslaughter and 15 years for unlawful use of a weapon with the sentences to run consecutively totaling 20 years...

Parents: Catina Ross and John Sloan Hometown: Marble Hill, Missouri Post-graduation plans: I'm attending Southeast Missouri State University to study music performance; I play the trumpet. High-school activities: High-school band, jazz band, Beta Club, FCCLA, track and field...

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. -- Calling 911 to report a stolen bag of cocaine probably wasn't the best idea for a self-described drug dealer. Okaloosa Sheriff's officials wrote on Facebook 32-year-old David Blackmon called 911 to report a robbery. Blackmon told the responding deputy someone entered his car and took $50 and about a quarter-ounce of cocaine from the center console. Blackmon was charged with possession of cocaine and resisting arrest without violence...

CAPE GIRARDEAU The Cape Girardeau Fire Department responded to the following calls Tuesday. n Medical assists were made at 2:24 a.m. on William Street; 7:53 a.m. on Cape Meadow Circle; 10:03 a.m. on South West End Boulevard; 11:26 a.m. on North Kingshighway; 1:11 p.m. on North Sprigg Street; 2:31 p.m. on South Sprigg Street; 6:13 p.m. on Independence Street; 10:22 p.m. on North Main Street; 11:41 p.m. on Bloomfield Street; and 11:48 p.m. on South Ranney Avenue...

SALEM, Mass. -- The Massachusetts community where 20 people suspected of witchcraft were put to death in 1692 unveiled a memorial to 19 of those victims Wednesday, promising never to forget the tragedy. The ceremony came 325 years to the day when Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Wildes were hanged at a site in Salem known as Proctor's Ledge. It was the first of three mass hangings at the spot. The 20th victim was crushed to death...

n Hard plastic 8-ounce baby bottle n Rubber nipple without hole n Alka-Seltzer n STEP 1: Fill the hard plastic baby bottle halfway with water. n STEP 2: Add two Alka-Seltzer to the baby bottle and securely attached the rubber nipple to the top of the bottle. Shake the bottle and observe. Describe and classify the contents of the bottle by its observable properties...

Darryl Holdiness resides in Cape Girardeau with her husband and 9-year-old daughter and will begin her third year of classes at Southern Illinois University School of Law this fall. She was named to the law school's dean's list for the fourth consecutive semester this spring. ...

JACKSON The Jackson Police Department released the following items. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests n Dustin Cook, 35, of Jackson was arrested on suspicion of second-degree domestic assault and endangering the welfare of a child. n Jennifer Burton, 32, of Jackson was arrested on a Jackson warrant for failure to appear...

CAPE GIRARDEAU The Cape Girardeau Police Department released the following items. Arrests do not imply guilt. Arrests n Dante D. Purl, 18, 615 S. Henderson Ave., was arrested at 918 William St. on a Cape Girardeau County warrant. n Emily Webb, 18, 269 N. Lorimier St., was arrested on suspicion of possession of drug paraphernalia...

Travis M. Davie, 35, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, July 17, 2017. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Funeral Home. A celebration of life service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home. Burial will be at a later date...

IRVING, Texas -- Shirley Kinder-Parsons, 73, of Irving, formerly of Jackson, died Wednesday, July 12, 2017, at Baylor Scott and White Hospital. Visitation will be from 11 to 11:45 a.m. Friday at Dayspring Family Church, 618 N. Belt Line Road in Irving...

If you are wondering why someone is flashing their brights in your face, its probably because you forgot to turn off your FOG lights. On a clear night they are as bad as brights. Between the vermin drawing chickens, the pan handling, and now the threat of allowing shipping crates for housing, who is in charge of Cape planning? Larry, Moe and Curly?...

Lord Jesus, we praise you for you are our healer and precious Savior. Amen.

The Cpl Mason O Yarbrough Marine Corps League Auxiliary is proud to announce Ella Valleroy and Zachary Brock have been awarded a scholarship to help them further their education. They will both receive a $250.00 scholarship. Congratulations Ella and Zachary...