Stories from Wednesday, August 22, 2007

As I sat in front of my laptop, trying to come up with a topic for this week's column, my dog kept putting his ball in my chair. Just like our daily routine I would throw it and he would bring it back again. After a while it got a little bit aggravating, and fearing rotator cuff surgery I took the ball away, ignored the disappointed stare of my dog and turned on the television...

BLOOMFIELD -- William A "Sandy" Gill, 84, died Aug. 21, 2007, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born July 9, 1923, at Clines Island, son of the late Clyde and Lulu Kelley Gill, he was a 1943 graduate of Bloomfield High School and a retired truck driver...

JACKSON - Wesley Leon Jones, 51, died Aug. 20, 2007, at his residence in Jackson. Born March 26, 1956, at Fulton, Mich., to the late Lester Monroe Jones and Dollie Clark Jones, he was the general manager of the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store at Cape Girardeau...

ORAN -- Harold "Bud" Sietman, 79, died at 2:04 p.m. Aug. 20, 2007, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Born Aug. 13, 1927, in Oran, son of the late Henry B. and Anna Marie Swingler Sietman, he was a retired farmer. He was a member of Guardian Angel Catholic Church in Oran and the St. Joseph Sodality...

ESSEX - Charles Taylor, 86, died Aug. 21, 2007, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Born Dec. 29, 1920, to the late W.R. Taylor and Mary Caroline McMullin Taylor, he attended Essex Public Schools and graduated with the Class of 1939. On Jan. 24, 1942, at Bloomfield, he married Merle Smith, who survives...

BERNIE - Lois Mae James, 72, died Aug. 21, 2007, at her home in Bernie. Born Jan. 27, 1935, at Dexter, daughter of the late Herbert Lewis Haney and Lucille Hargett Haney, she was a homemaker and had attended the General Baptist Church of Bernie. On Jan. 28, 1952, at Piggott, Ark., she married Clarence Edward James, who preceded her in death on May 29, 1988...

SIKESTON -- Mattie L. Riggs, 104, died Aug. 16, 2007, at her home. Born Nov. 4, 1902, in Greenwood, Miss., daughter of the late Sidney P. and Ella Pearson Woods, she was a resident of Missouri for more than 95 years. She was employed as a nurse-midwife in Scott County for over 32 years and a member of Green Memorial Church of God in Christ, where she was a missionary...

SIKESTON - Leota Anderson Calvin, 87, died at 2:50 a.m. Aug. 21, 2007, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. Born Dec. 28, 1919, in Wyatt, to the late Alvie and Ada Belle Crews Anderson, she graduated from Charleston High School, was a lifelong member of the Bess Truman Club and volunteered at Sells Rest Home for 10 years. She was a housewife and a member of the First Baptist Church in Sikeston, where she had been a Sunday school teacher for many years...

CHARLESTON -- Mabel Givens Hunsperger, 79, died Aug. 21, 2007, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced later by McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston.

My name is Cindy Taylor and I am the Founder/President of Sikeston Action Sports Inc and Sikeston Skate Committee we are a nonprofit organization and if you don't mind I would like to take just a minute of your and your reader's, viewer's and listener's time to ask a very important question...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Sikeston mixed martial arts fighters had a rough time in the latest Absolute Fighting Challenge held Saturday at the Osage Community Centre. The night started out with a lightweight match between Joe Davis of Miletich Fighting Systems of Southeast Missouri in Sikeston and Josh Williams of Kapeller's Fight Team from northwest Tennessee...

ORAN -- The Oran High School softball team kicked off it's first fall season, defeating Perryville St. Vincent, 11-1 in six innings due to the 10-run mercy rule. The win is first for Oran first-year head coach Sara Heisserer. The pitching win went to senior Callie Kielhofner who threw six innings, allowing one hit, one earned run and had two strikeouts and one walk...

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Sikeston Lady Bulldogs girls tennis team opened its season on the road Tuesday at Carbondale, losing to the Terriers 6-3. The match marked the beginning of another tennis season for Sikeston standout Jenni DeWitt. For DeWitt, it could be the first match of many toward a possible state title run during her senior year...

SIKESTON -- The Return 2 Sunset event was organized for community fellowship for the past six years. And this year for the seventh annual event, organizers are expanding the activities to include field days, which they hope will give children greater involvement...

BENTON -- Scott County's bridges are in good shape. County commissioners reviewed with Norman Brant, highway superintendent for Scott County, the Missouri Department of Transportation's report on the county's bridges during their regular meeting Tuesday...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - The three men captured in a bank robbery at Lilbourn could now face federal charges in connection with the making of bomb threats and placement of hoax devices in Cape Girardeau, including a U.S. Post Office. Stephen L. Morris, acting special agent in charge, stated in a press release that the investigation into the Aug. 17 bank robbery at Lilbourn determined the subjects initially had intended to rob a bank in the Cape Girardeau area...

Soap Operas have never been known for their story lines of high morality, but now, CBS has taken it even lower. Evidently there has been an ongoing relationship between two young men of the homosexual nature. This event came to a high point Friday with these two men kissing. ...

SIKESTON - The Alpha Chapter of Delta Phi fraternity of the College of Mortuary Science in St. Louis has announced that William C. Colwick and J.E. McMikle of Sikeston have been recently initiated into its membership. SIKESTON - Several city stop signs, street signs and speed limit signs have been taken down apparently by youths, Police Chief Arthur Bruce reported today...

NEW HAMBURG -- With the engine idle, Tim Essner sat in his pickup truck and waited for his cue. "Truck ready to roll ... and action!" the director yelled through a walkie-talkie radio. Essner sped down the dirt road in his pickup truck, leaving a cloud of dust for the camera to capture. He repeated this about 10 times...

I know many of you will disagree but I have issues with the popular Dateline NBC program "To Catch a Predator." But let me be clear. Any law enforcement scheme that removes child predators from society is fine in my book - the sooner the better. But "To Catch a Predator" crosses far too many lines and blurs the relationship between journalism and law enforcement...