Stories from Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Aside from the New Madrid County Central Eagles, high school football as we know it in our area, is over for 2008. Not to take credit away from NMCC, because we all know they're pretty salty on the gridiron, but for those of you moving on to the next best thing, high school hoops begins real soon. The season is about to officially begin and the Riverbend Classic "rumbles" back into New Madrid for its 14th year to get things started...

HILLSBORO -- The Sikeston Bulldog soccer season came to an end on Tuesday evening as the Farmington Knights won in a shootout by a final score of 2-1. The Bulldogs played the No. 2 seeded Knights for 110 scoreless minutes, but could only manage one penalty kick goal by Hunter Williams in the shootout finale...

NEW MADRID -- A good thing about playing a team twice in the same season is that you know what to expect the second time around. The New Madrid County Central Eagles (8-2) saw the Potosi Trojans (8-2) in week three of the 2008 season and will be hosting them again in the first round of the Class 3 playoffs tonight at 7 p.m...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The state will no longer require gamblers to limit their losses at casinos, ending a rule that did not exist in any other state in the country. Removal of the loss limits and changes in other casino regulations was forecast to bring in millions more in revenue for the state's schools and local services -- all without raising taxes...

NEW MADRID - A large voter turnout and a number of write-in votes slowed the tabulation of Tuesday's general election. However, election officials noted that overall the day went smoothly. None of the candidates for county offices faced an opponent so most eyes were on the tallies for national and statewide offices. New Madrid County voters tended to split their votes across party lines Tuesday...

CHARLESTON -- A deputy assessor will replace her boss and prosecuting attorney will officially become a full-time job in Mississippi County. County Clerk Junior DeLay described the 63 percent turnout in his county as "the best we've had since Ronald Reagan ran."...

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) -- Democrat Jay Nixon claimed a mandate for change with a lopsided victory in Missouri's gubernatorial election. To make good on that, he will have to work with a Legislature still controlled by Republicans. Nixon, Missouri's longest-serving attorney general, racked up the state's largest gubernatorial victory margin since 1992 -- the last time a Democrat wrested control of the Governor's Mansion away from a departing Republican governor...

BENTON -- Scott County residents chose to keep their sheriff during Tuesday's Presidential Election. Democratic incumbent Rick Walter will serve another four years as sheriff in Scott County as he defeated his Republican challenger Wes Drury, 11,059 votes to 6,695 votes...

By the time you read this, barring any hanging chads or voter fraud, we will have a new president and the election season will have mercifully come to an end. Personally I hope I don't hear the word "change" again until four years from now and if I get one more phone call from a stupid political group I may have to disconnect my phone. Apparently in Missouri the no call list means absolutely nothing...

60 years ago Nov. 5, 1948 SIKESTON - Many additional officials have registered with the Missouri State High School Athletic Association for this season, according to the October list released by the organization. Two of the newly registered officials are from Sikeston. They are M.L. McElyea and Donnell Waggener...

Well go figure! The sun came up this morning just as it has every day. The world may have changed but it didn't end. And regardless of your feelings this morning, I would suspect that everyone agrees that the end of this long, maddening campaign comes as welcome news...

MINER -- Joanna Sharp is the parent of her second child, second daughter, born at 9:55 p.m. Sept. 26, 2008, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Lacy Marie weighed 5 pounds, 3 ounces, and was 17.5 inches long. Grandparents are Debbie and Darryl Sharp...

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. -- Timothy Shay Jones, 28, formerly of Sikeston, Mo., died Nov. 1, 2008, at Fort Walton Beach. Born Dec. 18, 1979, in Sikeston, son of Lenny C. and Brenda Kay Graham Hawkins of Bloomfield, Mo., he worked as a deck hand on oil rigs...

LILBOURN - Jearl Lee Lawrence, 66, died Nov. 3, 2008, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born June 15, 1942, in Appleton, Ark., to the late Mort and Opal Bramlett Tindle. On Feb. 16, 1968, in Lilbourn, he married Sue Lawrence, who survives of the home...

MOREHOUSE -- Lois Hughes, 78, died at 8:33 a.m. Nov. 1, 2008, at her home. Born Nov. 6, 1929, in Marktree, Ark., to the late Edgar and Lydia Sorters Powell, she was a homemaker. She was married to Thomas Hughes in the year 1952 in Piggott, Ark., and he preceded her in death on June 1, 1989...

CHARLESTON -- Johnny Ray "Cotton Chopper" Lishman, 65, died at 2:40 a.m. Nov. 2, 2008, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Born July 9, 1943, in Carroll County, Miss., to the late Wheeler and Minnie Lou Blakely Lishman, he had lived in Mississippi for 55 years, before living the past 10 years in Charleston. He was a retired truck driver and had worked for the Hankins Lumber Company at Grenada, Miss., for 37 years. He was a member of Unity Baptist Church in Duck Hill, Miss...

CHARLESTON -- Martha Emma Gunter Rolan, 76, formerly of East Prairie, died at 5:35 p.m. Nov. 3, 2008, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Born March 31, 1932, in Birdspoint, to the late Harvey Edward and Nancy J. Stewart Gunter, she had lived most of her life in Mississippi County...

SIKESTON -- Louis Thomas "L.T." Wiggins, 71, died Oct. 29, 2008, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Born Feb. 27, 1937, in Osceola, Ark., to the late Pruitt and Florida Leonard Wiggins, he had lived in Missouri for more than 63 years. ...

I heard that Sikeston has passed a law against sagging pants. Is this true? If so, how can you single out this one group for 'indecent exposure'? How about the ladies running around town with their breasts bulging out of their shirts? What about some of the men walking around with pants on so tight you can see their package? What about the women with their midriffs showing or shorts and skirts so short, you don't have to guess whether they are wearing underwear? Let's not just stop at the sagging pants issue. ...

CHICAGO (AP) -- A triumphant Barack Obama vowed to be a president for all America and asked for patience to address the nation's problems of war and finance that he called the greatest challenges of a lifetime. The first black president-elect cast his election as a defining moment in the country's 232-year history and a rebuke to cynicism, fear and doubt...