Stories from Monday, June 16, 2014

JEFFERSON CITIY (AP) -- A dispute between Missouri's largest power company and its largest electric consumer is being heard by state regulators. An administrative judge for the Missouri Public Service Commission is to hear testimony Monday on a request by Noranda Aluminum to reduce the electric rates it's charged by Ameren Missouri...

sports@standard-democrat.com CHARLESTON -- An opening round loss may have ensured the Charleston Fighting Squirrels wouldn't be in the championship hunt at their namesake Fighting Squirrel Classic, but that didn't stop them from making the most of their weekend...

sports@standard-democrat.com FELTON -- The Charleston Fighting Squirrels finished up their first day of the William Woods Alumni Coaches Showcases in Fulton with a win and a tie in the round robin style tournament. Their first game of the evening, against Fulton Legion, was still knotted up 1-1 after nine innings, resulting in the unusual tie due to the two-hour time limit...

CARUTHERSVILLE- Pemiscot County USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Executive Director, Mike Blankenship, announced that county committee election nominations begin June 15, 2014. Farmers, ranchers and landowners are encouraged to nominate farmer and rancher candidates to serve on their local FSA county committee by the August 1, 2014 deadline...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. BERGDAHL SWAP DEAL MEANS LITTLE FOR AFGHAN-TALIBAN TALKS Any peace negotiations between Kabul and its fundamentalist foes are on hold till a new president takes over in Afghanistan...

The Sikeston Corporate Games are in full swing with teams taking to the sand volleyball courts Saturday for coed volleyball play.

While visitors disembarked from the American Queen riverboat Sunday to learn about New Madrid by visiting the New Madrid Historical Museum, Higgerson School Historic Site and Hunter-Dawson Home, local residents came down to the riverfront for a look at the boat...

BENTON -- A Sikeston man and Perryville woman are in custody after an incident at the Scott County Courthouse on Thursday. According to Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter, Matthew Carmack, 23, of Sikeston and Nicole Layton, 30, of Perryville were arrested by Scott County deputies outside the Scott County Courthouse in Benton...

DONIPHAN (SMNS) -- Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop E marine operations officers recovered drowning victim Jeremy Evans from the Current River in Ripley County, Missouri, Sunday afternoon. A report came in about 2:30 p.m. that Evans, a 32-year-old from Chaffee, Missouri, never resurfaced after jumping into the river at Deer Leap Recreation Area, an officer from Troop E said...

VAN BUREN (SMNS) -- The value of off-campus sites came up during a Three Rivers College board of trustees workshop last week to review a proposed $35.9 million budget for the 2015 fiscal year. Out-of-district tuition and credit hours have outpaced those of in-district students, according to college leaders, who say they may look to replace an underperforming partnership in Cape Girardeau...

SIKESTON -- Edith Hicks, 86, died June 14, 2014, at the Sikeston Convalescent Center. For the complete Standard Democrat obituary log in to our electronic edition.

ST. LOUIS -- Louis Eugene "Buddy/Bud" Barber, 86, died June 2, 2014. For the complete Standard Democrat obituary log in to our electronic edition.

This would-be dictator that occupies the White House is becoming fanatical in his effort to try and destroy America and establish his own socialistic country. We have EPA regulations, that he imposed earlier that are about to come to reality, that will destroy the coal industry and most of our electrical supply and at least double or triple our electrical rates. ...

scottw@standard-democrat.com SIKESTON -- Whether or not the city will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax revenue in the next fiscal year or not will remain unknown until September. Gov. Jay Nixon last week vetoed 10 bills passed at the end of the legislative session's close providing special tax exemptions. The Missouri General Assembly will have the opportunity to overturn those vetoes during a veto session in September...