Stories from Monday, April 20, 2020

Southeast Missouri Food Bank will hold another series of COVID-19 Response Mobile food distributions to respond to the increased need for food assistance following temporary layoffs and school closures ...

Southeast Missouri State University’s annual Cindy Gannon Walk for Women, now in its 13th year, normally draws hundreds of participants to Houck Field House to show support for Southeast’s student athletes by donating and fundraising to help fund athletic scholarships. When preventive COVID-19 measures led to campus closing and the spring sports season being canceled, walk organizers hit upon a solution: Take the event online...

As social distancing helps to slow the spread of COVID-19, churches are finding creative ways to reach the community while being physically apart. Saturday evening, First Baptist Church in Scott City served close to 300 families with large pizzas, providing a hot meal. Volunteers in masks and gloves gave away boxes of pizza in the parking lot of the church, which was set up similar to a fast-food drive through...

Shelly Lane and her partner Heather Summers co-own Summers Lane Boutique, one of several small shops in uptown Jackson trying to keep going in the wake of the current pandemic. The impact of the coronavirus has been a shock to all businesses, particularly those such as Summers Lane on South High Street, which usually are heavily dependent on foot traffic for sales...

A plan to "kick-start" the area's economy in the weeks and months after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides is being developed by the chambers of commerce in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City along with Cape Area Magnet and Visit Cape (the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau)...

I reached a milestone last week. I began working at home March 17, which meant Friday was my one-month anniversary of "home officing" as I avoid as much physical contact as possible with the outside world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything I've written and all the interviews I've done via email and on my cellphone over the past month have all taken place in what was once my youngest daughter's bedroom...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced thousands of businesses to temporarily -- and in some cases permanently -- close, but the home improvement business is apparently booming because of it. That's because homeowners, abiding by "stay at home" orders in almost every state, are tackling various home repair and fix-up projects they may have been putting off for years...

It’s been said time and again: The purpose of a homemade face mask is to prevent an asymptomatic carrier of the coronavirus from infecting others, not to protect the wearer. But one way wearers of homemade face coverings can protect themselves is by making sure to observe proper hygiene protocols to care for masks...

Last week’s uptick of COVID-19 cases in Scott County continued over the weekend with two new positives reported Sunday, raising the countywide total to 51 cases, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services...

I’ve done quite a bit of traveling by airplane during my life, and always in the business/economy section. This is the same thing as saying that I’ve had a lot of truly bad meals in my time. Yes, airline food can often go beyond mediocre and run the gamut of truly bad. ...

Today is Monday, April 20, the 111th day of 2020. There are 255 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On April 20, 1971, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools. On this date: In 1836, Congress voted to establish the Wisconsin Territory...

The liberal media are urging Joe Biden to form a shadow government to upstage President Donald Trump's crisis response effort, which illustrates its consuming partisanship -- and its insufficient attention to the health and welfare of the American people...

An irony of the coronavirus debate is that the more successful lockdowns are in squelching the disease, the more vulnerable they will be to attack as unnecessary in the first place. A growing chorus on the right is slamming the shutdowns as an overreaction and agitating to end them. ...

The Southeast Missourian has reported on several individuals with local ties who have battled the novel coronavirus and are now donating plasma to help other patients recover. Walter Lamkin, a Cape Girardeau Central graduate who now resides in St. Louis, contracted the virus while in Vail, Colorado. ...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Travis Deti has been working the phones to try to get government support for the U.S. coal industry during the coronavirus pandemic. Between recent calls, the head of the Wyoming Mining Association tried to unclog a sink at home. But unlike Deti's sink, which eventually started flowing again with help from a plumber, aid remains stubbornly clogged for an industry whose already rapid decline is accelerating because of the economic effects of the virus...

WERNECK, Germany -- Werneck Brewery has survived a lot: world wars, economic crises and decades of declining beer consumption. But after 400 years in existence it has finally met a challenge it can't overcome: the coronavirus outbreak. The brewery, which traces its history to 1617 and has been owned by the same family since 1861, is closing for good, taking with it 15 full-time jobs and more part-time positions. ...

CONCORD, N.H. -- At a time of great uncertainty, even the seasons seem scrambled. Christmas lights in springtime? Wrapped around a tree trunk in Colorado, fashioned into a heart in Alabama and hung high over Main Street in a New Hampshire town, holiday lights are going back up. As the coronavirus spreads, the displays are providing a bit of emotional and actual brightness. And they're especially easy to enjoy from a safe social distance...

NEW YORK -- We might not be totally free these days, but there's a lot out there that is. Companies like Pure Barre and Peloton are offering free access to fitness classes. Amazon is giving away book classics like "The Call of the Wild" and "Emma," and MasterClass has experts offering their wisdom for nothing...

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. -- As millions of gallons of crude oil spewed into the blue water of the Gulf of Mexico from a blown-out BP well in 2010, coastal residents wondered whether their home would ever be the same. A decade later, it's not: The Deepwater Horizon disaster changed the five-state region dramatically, with a flood of post-spill spending and memories of the catastrophe altering landscapes and attitudes along bayous and beaches...

WASHINGTON -- The global health crisis is taking a nasty political turn with tensions worsening between governments locked down to keep the coronavirus at bay and people yearning to restart stalled economies and forestall fears of a depression. Protesters worrying about their livelihoods and bucking infringements on their freedom have taken to the streets in some places. ...

TORONTO -- A gunman disguised as a police officer shot people in their homes and set fires in a rampage across the Canadian province of Nova Scotia that killed 16 people, the deadliest such attack in the country's history. Officials said Sunday the suspected shooter was also dead...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Severe thunderstorms pounded parts of the Deep South with hail, high winds and drenching rains Sunday as forecasters warned residents to brace for possible overnight tornadoes and flooding across a region reeling from a deadly twister outbreak one week ago...

NEOSHO, Mo. -- A Christian health care sharing ministry sold "inherently unfair and deceptive health plans" to Missouri residents and failed to provide them with coverage, a class action lawsuit alleges. The federal lawsuit against Aliera Companies and Trinity Healthshare comes as millions of people who are unable to afford private insurance are attracted to the low prices offered by health care sharing ministries, KCUR-FM reported...

ST. LOUIS -- The coronavirus outbreak has now claimed nearly 200 lives in Missouri and sickened thousands more. COVID-19-related deaths in Missouri rose to 198, up 13 from Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering, which has been tracking cases worldwide. The data also showed the number of confirmed cases in the state increased to 5,991, up 219...

Bonnie L. Smith, 89, of Jackson passed away Saturday, April 18, 2020, at Monticello House. She was born June 14, 1930, in Sedgewickville, Missouri, to Harry F. and Eula Mae (Seabaugh) Seabaugh. She and Richard L. "Dick" Smith were married Aug. 13, 1955. They had been married nearly 24 years when Dick passed away June 23, 1979...

JoAnn Schott, daughter of the late Benjamin H. Hennemann and Luvina Winkler Hennemann, was born Aug. 16, 1937, in Perry County, Missouri, and departed this life Friday, April 17, 2020, at Monticello House in Jackson at the age of 82 years. Mrs. Schott was a former administrative assistant for General Contract Loan Co. in Sikeston, Missouri, and retired from First Commercial Bank in Morley, Missouri. ...

Dolores Ann Myer, 84, of Jackson, with her children by her side, met her Lord and Savior on Saturday, April 18, 2020, at the Arbors in Cape Girardeau. She was born June 17, 1935, in Perry County, Missouri, daughter of Edmund H. "Bud" and Mildred Klaus Ruesler. She and Robert Eugene "Bob" Myer were married Jan. 18, 1957, in Jackson. He passed away Dec. 15, 1998...

Doloris Emily Meyr, 89, of Cape Girardeau passed away suddenly Friday, April 17, 2020, at SoutheastHEALTH. She was born June 13, 1930 in Pocahontas to William Joseph and Elsie Bachmann Reisenbichler. She and Harold R. Meyr were married Sept. 23, 1950, at Zion Lutheran Church in Pocahontas. He passed away March 1, 2007...

Mark Daniel Lincoln, 44, of Cape Girardeau died Friday, April 17, 2020. He was born Oct. 29, 1975, in Cape Girardeau to Jim Lincoln and Joyce Gary Bentley. He was an avid sports fan. He worked at Manac Trailers in Oran, Missouri. Mark loved spending time with his daughter, Haley...

We give thanks to you, O Lord Jesus, for your steadfast love endures forever. Amen.

Dr. Harold Hager, Al Pannier and Brenda Dohogne have added their names to the list of potential appointees to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education; they join David Goncher, Jenny Strickland, David Rosener and Jaynee Browning, who previously announced they want to serve on the board...

Learning the Cuts: 4-H Meat ID “I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service and my health to better living for my club, my community, my country and my world,” chorused the 51 competing 4-H members from across the state. ...