Stories from Thursday, April 27, 2017

Nine members of the Portageville FFA chapter attended the 89th Annual State FFA convention on April 20-21. They joined the more than 8300 FFA members and guests that attended the convention  held in Columbia, Mo. While at the convention, the members worked on the State FFA courtesy corps, sang with the state FFA choir, performed talent and attended leadership workshops. ...

Three Rivers College has released its Dean’s List for the Fall 2016 semester. The honor is awarded to students taking 12 or more credit hours in a semester, who achieve a grade point average of 3.5 or above. Dean’s List honors are also used at graduation to help determine eligibility for honors or highest honors...

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). There must be a daily practice of confessing sins because we continue to do wrong. This confession can only be constant if we are listening to God and are sensitive to our sins...

Not quite like what you would see on the Sunday morning CBS show, but Ellie is “On the Road again!” Ellie is the name of the 2015 Mini Cooper S two door that was adopted by Scott and Linda Seal. We have been on Mini trips more this past year than any other time...

The House has approved legislation that contains several important tools to help better prepare Missouri’s workforce for high-paying jobs. The bill is a combination of two pieces of legislation that have already received House approval, and a third that has received committee approval.
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For the past 19 year, she has been a research associate at the University of Missouri Fisher Delta Research Center, now she is a Senior Research Associate in the soybean breeding program, and works with the soybean breeders. Melissa Crisel, of Puxico, makes her drive to work two maybe three times a week. ...

As the sun heats the ground during the day, warm air rises and is replaced by cooler air, which in turn warms and rises. This continual motion keeps air moving near the ground, producing wind. Sometimes, on very clear days, the air can become dangerously still. This happens most often as the sun sets and the ground cools and stops rising, resulting in a stable air mass hanging just above the ground, unmoving...

April is National Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Month and this week, the YMCA of Southeast Missouri has been hosting "Five Days of Action for Child Abuse Prevention" in an effort to inform the community about how to recognize, prevent and report child abuse...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- An appellate court affirmed the conviction of a former Bloomfield, Mo., pastor who is serving a 50-year sentence for attempting to kill his former wife and defrauding nearly $87,000 from his now deceased mother. The Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, issued a "per curiam order" Thursday in the case of Donald Lafferty, according to his attorney, Dan Moore, who explained none of the judges signed the order, but it was the unpublished opinion of the court...

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Three Mississippi County residents face felony charges after an investigation into an assault that took place in rural Mississippi County last week. Evelyn Shannon Hinkle, 40, and Kathryn Nicole Kirby, 33, both of East Prairie, are each charged with felony second degree assault and first degree endangering the welfare of a child...

Richland is one of several local schools taking part in the event on Friday and Saturday in Columbia, Mo. This year's theme is "Taking a Stand in History" and the top winners in each category at the state contest will earn the opportunity to serve as Missouri delegates to the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest in College Park, Md., in June...

SIKESTON -- As rain swept through the area Wednesday, residents should prepare for more in store this weekend. Multiple rounds of thunderstorms are expected Friday through Sunday in Southeast Missouri and portions of Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky, according to the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky. Heavy rainfall is expected over portions of the region...

SIKESTON -- Emily June "Granny June" Burnett, 82, died Thursday, April 27, 2017, at the Miner Nursing Center in Miner. Born Feb. 28, 1935, in Jerusalem, Ark., to the late Paul A. Ruff and Cleo Beavers Ruff, she was a member of Eastside Nazarene Church in Sikeston and had been a tax preparer for H&R Block and was a certified nursing assistant for Sikeston Health Care before retiring at the age of 75 years...