Stories from Wednesday, July 4, 2018

BENTON, Mo. —  A Benton man was sentenced on Tuesday to 60 years in prison after being found guilty of statutory rape of a child in Scott County. Clayton Counts, 69, was sentenced Tuesday by Judge David Dolan following a two-day jury trial that occurred May 2-3...

SIKESTON — The Standard Democrat offices are closed Wednesday in observance of Independence Day. We wish everyone and their families a safe and happy Fourth of July. Our offices will reopen Thursday with regular hours of 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

History will not likely portray this time in our nation as our finest hour. We are indeed in the midst of an ideological civil war that threatens to undermine confidence in our federal government. Having spent the last half of the 1960s on a college campus, I am familiar with protests. Changing attitudes and policies on civil rights and the strong and growing opposition to the war in Vietnam combined to incite countless protests across this country from coast to coast...

Every year we read of infants left in hot cars. It’s totally accidental but babies die. Can’t our engineers figure out a way to protect them in the front seat?

SIKESTON — Shawn David Thompson, 45, died July 3, 2018, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Born May 7, 1973, in Eldorado Springs, son of Elizabeth McGrady Casey and Carl Casey of Sikeston, he was a member of Amen Center at Delta and had worked as a truck driver for PTI in Sikeston...

SIKESTON — Ronald Newton, 74, died July 4, 2018, at St. Clair Hospital in St. Louis. Born Nov. 13, 1943, in Marston, son of the late Roy and Opal (Fausett) Newton, Ron attended Tanner Street Church of God for 37 years, having served as an usher for 20 of those years, and he coached Sikeston Little League through American Legion Baseball teams for 15 years. ...

CHARLESTON, Mo. — Beachie Dean, 74, died July 4, 2018, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Born July 2, 1944, at Dorena, to the late Beach Albert Dean Sr. and Maxine Elizabeth Byassee Dean, he was a 1963 graduate of East Prairie High School. He had lived in Mississippi County his entire life and was a retired carpenter.