Stories from Saturday, August 12, 2006

A number of low-lying streets around Cape Girardeau looked like canals Friday as 2.7 inches of rain were dumped on the area in about two hours, according to the public works department. The department closed off 26 intersections or sections of streets. By 4:30 p.m. all the streets had been reopened, but in the meantime a number of motorists found themselves in trouble...

The SEMO Regional Crime Lab in Cape Girardeau has been folded into the Missouri State Highway Patrol, eventually eliminating fees for local law enforcement agencies, officials announced Friday. For the past several years, law agencies needing DNA or ballistics testing had the option of paying for tests at the area lab or running over to Jefferson City, Mo., for the nearest, and free, patrol lab...

A nationally known conservative preacher will be joined by former presidential candidate Alan Keyes for a Cape Girardeau rally against a state constitutional amendment protecting embryonic stem-cell research. Rick Scarborough, leader of the Texas-based Vision America, will lead the rally at 7 p.m. Thursday at Notre Dame Regional High School. Scarborough, a Baptist preacher, said in a telephone interview that the stem-cell measure, Amendment 2 on the Nov. 7 ballot, is a life-destroying proposal...

Clutching tiny American flags and holding their right hands to their hearts, 25 immigrants became Americans Friday in Cape Girardeau. The second naturalization ceremony ever held at the Federal Building included people from 11 countries across the world petitioning to become United States citizens...

ALTON, Ill. -- Just at the edge of the St. Francis of Assisi Church cemetery in Portage des Sioux, steps away from the shrine marking the graves of two parish priests, William "Deaf Bill" Lee finally lies at rest. His flat, gray, granite grave marker shows his name, a figure of a fisherman and three dates: 1863, the year he was born; 1915, the year he died; and June 24, 1996, the day he was buried...

ST. LOUIS -- In the battle for the St. Louis Rams' No. 3 quarterback position, Dave Ragone knows he might have dropped back in his bid to unseat Ryan Fitzpatrick. All four St. Louis quarterbacks saw action in Thursday's preseason-opening 19-17 win over Indianapolis. Starter Marc Bulger, playing the first two series, was 3-for-6 for 51 yards. Backup Gus Frerotte also played just two series, going 2-for-3 for 32 yards...

PITTSBURGH -- Zach Duke waited nearly all season to pitch like he did last year. Maybe it helped that the St. Louis Cardinals don't currently resemble their 100-win team of a year ago. Duke struck out seven in his second complete game of the season, Nate McLouth drove in three runs with a home run and a triple and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cardinals 7-1 Friday night to end a five-game losing streak...

The best part of Patrick Sheehan's day was playing with Ian Leggatt and Chris Riley through the tall pines, thin air and steep hills of the Rocky Mountains in Castle Rock, Colo. -- before the rains came. "When you got two guys that you really like ... ...

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. -- Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne did what they had to do. Greg Biffle didn't, and now faces a difficult road ahead. Busch won his second straight road course pole on Friday, wheeling his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge through the 11-turn Watkins Glen International course at 122.966 mph to knock Kahne (121.845 mph) to second. ...

LAS VEGAS -- When Jamie Gold bluffed, his opponents folded. When he had the best hand, they threw in all their chips. With a run of cards, a huge chip stack and an uncanny knack for reading other players, Gold, a talkative former Hollywood talent agent, cajoled his way to victory Friday at the World Series of Poker for the $12 million grand prize...

WASHINGTON -- Shoppers got back in the buying mood in July, propelling sales at the nation's retailers up by 1.4 percent, the most in six months. The snapback reported Friday by the Commerce Department came after shoppers hunkered down in June, depressing retail sales by 0.4 percent, according to revised figures. June's sales turned out to be even weaker than the 0.1 percent dip reported a month ago...

Scott City church will have radio show; First Assembly hosts worship seminar; Teen Challenge choir to be at Grace UMC

Additional charges were filed Friday against three family members accused of ransacking a Cape Girardeau County home. Dana L. Sheldrake, her husband, Stephen D. Sheldrake II, and his uncle, William D. Porter, were charged in July with one count each of felony burglary...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Republican Sen. Jim Talent on Friday criticized President Bush's administration as indifferent -- even unfriendly -- to agriculture. Talent, facing a tough re-election challenge from Democrat Claire McCaskill, rattled off one complaint after another with the Republican president's agricultural policies as he spoke to members of the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation's political action committee...

LONDON -- Investigators on three continents worked to fill in the full, frightening picture Friday of a plot to blow U.S. jetliners out of the Atlantic skies, tracking the money trail and seizing more alleged conspirators in the teeming towns of eastern Pakistan...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Mike Douglas, whose affable personality and singing talent earned him 21 years as a television talk show host, died Friday on his 81st birthday. He died at 5:30 a.m. in a Palm Beach Gardens hospital, said his wife, Genevieve Douglas. She wasn't sure of the cause, but said he had been admitted Thursday...

Former Wal-Mart exec sentenced for theft FORT SMITH, Ark. -- A former No. 2 Wal-Mart executive who began his career as the company's theft prevention chief was sentenced Friday to 27 months in home detention after pleading guilty to stealing money, merchandise and gift cards from the retailer. ...

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution Friday that calls for an end to the war between Israel and Hezbollah, and authorizes 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws...

BEIJING -- The most powerful typhoon to hit China in a half-century killed 105 people and left at least 190 missing Friday after it blacked out cities and smashed more than 50,000 houses in the southeast part of the country. More than 1.6 million people were evacuated from the path of Typhoon Saomai before it struck late Thursday with winds gusting up to 170 mph, the official Xinhua News Agency said...

Cape Girardeau...

Jackson...

Earthquake rocks Mexico City; no injuries reported; Bodies of two U.S. troops found in western Iraq

Judge: Ky. gov. can't be prosecuted while in office; 101st Airborne soldiers return to Fort Campbell; Immigration rules eased to reunite Cuban families; Court upholds random NYC subway searches

HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- The antique Bible market is hot. But if you don't have the money to buy a first edition King James Version you still can get your hands on one at the Christian Heritage Museum, whose owner invites visitors to touch and purchase some of the 20,000 pieces in his collection...

25 years ago: Aug. 12, 1981 Tobacco is taboo; that is one of the points contained in a student conduct code, part of the high school administrative handbook which was approved by the Jackson Board of Education last night; in the past, student use of chewing tobacco in classrooms and on school property had been a problem...

When the new Crossroads Fellowship building in Jackson is finished, it will be immediately recognizable. But it won't look like a church. And that's the way the congregation wants it. Ken Lucy, co-chairman if Crossroad's building team, says every square inch of the 22,000-square-foot steel building "is going to be multipurpose in intent."...

Gerald N. "Jerry" Kissel, 67, of Cape Girardeau died Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2006, at his home. He was born Sept. 12, 1938, in St. Louis, son of Julius F. and Dora C. Spathelf Kissel. He married Joan Eye in 1967. Mr. Kissel retired from Friendship Village Retirement Community as director of purchasing and inventory control...

ANNA, Ill. -- Mary Patricia "Tricia" Hertenstein, 60, of Anna died Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006, at her home. She was born Jan. 1, 1946, in Zanesville, Ohio, daughter of Thomas Lawrence and Hilda Weigand Finan. She and the Rev. Dr. Richard R. Hertenstein were married Feb. 25, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio...

The Ohio Valley Conference released its preseason women's soccer poll Friday and Southeast Missouri State has been picked to finish third. Southeast received one first-place vote and 128 total points in voting by the league's head coaches and sports information directors...

CAIRO, Ill. -- George L. Reid III, 60, of Cairo died Friday, July 28, 2006, at Veterans Administration Medical Center in Marion, Ill. He was born Oct. 11, 1945, in Cairo, son of George Leslie and Virginia Mae Parker Reid II. Reid was a retired insurance salesman...

BENTON, Mo. -- James Louis LeDure, 71, of Benton died Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006, at Washington County Memorial Hospital in Potosi, Mo. He was born Feb. 26, 1935, in Cape Girardeau, son of Louis Clemen and Lucille Irene Schaefer LeDure. LeDure was a member of St. Denis Catholic Church...

Phone scam?; Don't judge; Cheap supplies; Attractive schools; Children in church; Wipers and lights; Monday is better; Wider coverage; School uniforms; Not acceptable; Time to act; Professional growth

Missourians who remember the 1950s are old enough to have used the mill, a plastic token worth one-thousandth of a dollar. Mills were used to pay sales taxes, which back then could amount to less than a cent. The mill disappeared when inflation made it almost worthless and cities and counties started adding sales taxes of their own...

MEXICO CITY -- The leftist presidential candidate who campaigned on a policy that nations should not meddle in each others' affairs urged the international community Friday to push for a full recount of votes in Mexico's disputed July 2 election. In a New York Times opinion piece, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also defended his supporters' disruptive daily street protests, saying he didn't have the money for mass advertising and "we can only communicate our demand to count all the votes by peaceful protest.". ...

STEELE, Mo. -- A home where a fire killed five children and injured three adults is so severely damaged that investigators may not be able to determine a specific cause for the blaze, a fire official said Friday. Assistant state fire marshal Greg Carrell said the second floor of the house in Steele, where the occupants slept, collapsed on the main floor early Thursday. The collapse may not have left enough of a scene to adequately determine a cause, he said...

After necessary family expenses, Mindy Harper figured she'd only have $25 left to buy school supplies for her son. With the cost of school supplies, Harper knew she didn't have enough money to equip her son for school. But Harper, whose husband had to declare personal bankruptcy earlier this year, said her prayers were answered...

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- On paper, Haven Herrin seems to be an ideal candidate for military recruiters. She can easily run five miles and was valedictorian of her college class. "Frankly, I'm exactly the kind of person the military says it wants," she said...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Greyhound driver reported a gunman aboard an Orlando-bound bus Friday, forcing the evacuation of the vehicle and a partial closure of Interstate 95, officials said. No one was hurt and no weapon was found. The man initially refused to surrender but came off the bus after members of the sheriff's SWAT team surrounded it...

Heartland Nationals drop opener The Heartland Nationals 12-and-under softball team, an all-star team made up of players from Kelso, New Hamburg and Oran, dropped its pool-play opener 7-3 to Lodi, Calif., Friday at the Babe Ruth 12U World Series in Varina, Va...

After somewhat easing into preseason practice -- per NCAA regulations -- Southeast Missouri State will kick things up several notches today with its first two-a-day, full-contact session. The Redhawks will work out at 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Two-a-days will continue on alternating days until classes begin Aug. 21...

Tim Holloman acknowledges there was a time when he thought he might never play football for Southeast Missouri State again -- or even attend the university again, for that matter. But Holloman had faith that things would work out -- and now the Redhawks' tailback is ready to build on his impressive freshman season...

CARO, Mich. -- Three men were arrested Friday on charges of supporting terrorism after they purchased 80 prepaid mobile phones from a Wal-Mart store, police said. The men, all from the Dallas area, were being held on charges of soliciting or providing material support for terrorism and obtaining information of a vulnerable target for the purposes of terrorism, police Sgt. Dale Stevenson said. They were being held in Tuscola County Jail and were scheduled to be arraigned today...

Hardy Billington, who led a petition drive to bring President George W. Bush to Poplar Bluff, Mo., in 2004, will hold a signing for his book "The Election by Faith in '04" from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 5 p.m. today at Hastings Books, Music & Video, 2136 William St. in Cape Girardeau. Billington's self-published book recounts his experience with the petition drive and his religious conviction that Bush would save the country...

WASHINGTON -- Federal investigators are pursuing leads in the United States related to the foiled plot to blow up flights from Britain but so far have found no evidence of terrorist activity, Bush administration officials said Friday. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, meanwhile, said he would adjust new flight restrictions to try to make air travel for passengers "as simple and as easy as possible, as quickly as possible."...