Stories from Wednesday, March 12, 2003

I am, first and foremost, an American. Then, I'm a conservative. And finally, in the political arena, I am a Republican. Yet I too have reservations over the impending war in Iraq and, more importantly, I am beginning to question the imminent timing of that confrontation...

SIKESTON - Babies were born to Mr. and Mrs. Luther Freeland, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Dame of Bertrand, Mr. and Mrs. Lester Buchs and Mr. and Mrs. Dan Wilson of Matthews. SIKESTON - Dr. John L. Doggett and Leroy Parmenter have filed for election to the Sikeston School Board...

UNIVERSAL CITY, Texas - Shirley Stigall Guiling, 67, died March 11, 2003, in San Antonio. Born Sept. 27, 1935, in Oran, Mo., daughter of Lucille Stigall of Universal City and the late E.M. "Bud" Stigall, she was employed by Bri-Lane of San Antonio and was of the Baptist belief...

DEXTER - Richard George Bath died March 7, 2003, in Milledgeville, Ga. Arrangements are incomplete at Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter.

SIKESTON - Dorothy Williams, 65, died March 12, 2003, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at Blanchard Funeral Chapel.

SIKESTON - Christopher Howard and Rosemarie Shannon Harper are the parents of their third child, second daughter, born at 12:11 p.m. Feb. 23, 2003, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Christa Rose Harper weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 18-inches long...

SIKESTON -- The Delta Lady Bobcats showed no mercy in their Class 1 Sectional game at the Sikeston Field House on Tuesday. Delta raced out to a 22-2 first quarter lead and never looked back, thoroughly dominating Naylor 83-31 to advance to the quarterfinals...

The second grade Sikeston Bulldogs traveling soccer team recently played in the Shooting Stars Valentine Classic in St. Louis. They placed second, beating the St. Louis Busch team and the St. Louis Webber team. Team members are front row, from left: Spence Vaughn, Logan Hawkins, Trey Tiagart, Josh Hampton, Cord Sheehy and Tyler Anderson. ...

SEARCY, Ark. - Former Sikeston resident Brandon Dodds signed a national letter of intent to play football for Harding University. Dodds, a 6-foot-5 senior, played for Harding Academy in Searcy, Ark. There he earned all-conference honors as a three-year starter on Harding Academy's championship team, which finished the season with a 15-0 record...

SIKESTON - For those Sikeston property owners who haven't heard of the Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority, its commissioners have a message: "Clean up your property or we'll own it." Brian Menz, Mike Bohannon and Herman Gardner visited with the Sikeston Housing Authority commissioners during the Housing Authority's regular meeting Monday and with the Board of Municipal Utilities' members on Tuesday...

SIKESTON - Despite Clarkton's lofty No. 3 ranking in the Class 1 state poll, the Reindeer weren't given much of a chance against the defending state champions. Overrated? Try overlooked. The Reindeer made believers out of the area and made the state pollsters look like geniuses with a 63-60 win against No. 5 ranked Bell City on Tuesday at the Sikeston Field House in a Class 1 Sectional game...

Heading into Tuesday's Class 1 sectional game at Sikeston, I thought I had Clarkton figured out. Great record, weak schedule, overrated team. Boy, was I wrong. How wrong? On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most outrageous, absurd, ludicrous take on a team you can think of...this one was about a seven...

I'm calling about the investigation at Tom Brock's Salvage Yard. It said there were pieces of eight vehicles discovered from 1992-2003. Over an 11-year period they found eight pieces. That's less than one a year. When a salvage dealer buys a wrecked vehicle from insurance, he has no way of knowing if an engine, transmission or any other part of that car may have been replaced from another salvage yard, or whether the parts in this vehicle may have been from a chop shop like they have around the big cities where a lot of vehicles are stolen. ...

SIKESTON - Here are the results from the Sikeston Drag Strip on Saturday. Steve Pearson won the season opener with a 6.95 run on a 6.93 dial at 98 mph. His reaction time was .512. Runner up was Avery Sneed, who ran 6.27 on a 6.23 dial at 108 mph with a reaction time of .664...

SIKESTON -- Sikeston Public Schools Superintendent Steve Borgsmiller will attend a meeting March 19 at the Tinnin Auditorium on the campus of Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff concerning equity funding issues at the state level. "There again is a push, as there was in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in regards to funding for the schools and full funding of the foundation formula," said Borgsmiller at the Board of Education meeting Tuesday. ...

Briana Gadberry, 2, plays at the Sikeston Sports Complex Tuesday. While rain is expected today, tempratures through the weekend will be in the 60s and 70s giving many children an opportunity to enjoy the warmer temperatures.

MINER - The City of Miner has joined the list of area governments placing their all-hazard mitigation plan in the hands of the Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission. The Miner Board of Aldermen passed a resolution during their regular meeting Tuesday authorizing the Bootheel Regional Planning Commission to prepare their plan...

Clad in purple and white, hundreds of Clarkton Reindeer fans filled the Sikeston Field House Tuesday night to cheer on their boys basketball team. Clarkton defeated the defending Class 1 State Champion Bell City Cubs, 63-60.