Stories from Wednesday, August 2, 2006

SHREVEPORT, La. -- Ted Armes, 80, formerly of Vanduser, Mo., died at 6:50 a.m. Aug. 1, 2006, at his home in Shreveport. Arrangements are incomplete and will be announced later at Nunnelee Funeral Home in Sikeston.

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Devlin Ron Newton, 37, formerly of Portageville, died July 31, 2006, at The Manor in Poplar Bluff. Born June 12, 1968, in Chaffee, to Markia Newton Gribble of Dyersburg, Tenn. and the late Stanley Sullivan, he had been employed at the Jimmy Dean Factory...

SIKESTON - Phyllis Ann Freeman, 56, died at 11:55 a.m. July 31, 2006, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. Born Feb. 11, 1950, in Pottsville, Ark., to the late Ray and Jewell Kesler Vick, she was a member of the Heartland Harvest Church of God of Prophecy in Sikeston. She had worked for Venture Products in Oran for six years, and as a tractor-trailer truck driver, licensed beautician and a nurses assistant at several nursing homes...

BENTON -- Scott County commissioners are looking into options for using county jail inmates to help clean up the county. During their regular meeting Tuesday, commissioners said they will soon begin a program using inmates to pick up trash on county roads...

CHARLESTON -- With only three witnesses called by the defense, the murder trial for a Charleston man accused of beating his fiancee and her son to death ended Tuesday. Andre Clark, 43, is now awaiting a decision from Judge Fred W. Copeland, circuit judge for New Madrid County's 34th judicial circuit, on two counts of second degree murder and one count of first degree assault...

YMCA of Southeast Missouri Executive Director Jeff Partridge shows the designs for the planned expansion for the YMCA of Southeast Missouri to Jaycees Cal Crader and Jason Pounds. The Sikeston Jaycees pledged $500,000 for the building Tuesday night. ...

Emily Bowman, daughter of Lee and Cathy Bowman, is the Standard Democrat's Calendar Girl for August. Bowman, a finalist in the 2005 Miss Sikeston Contest and 2006 graduate of Sikeston High School, plans to attend the University of Missouri-Columbia in the fall and major in journalism...

BENTON - Retiring state legislators are proud of the work they have done to help farmers, especially dealing with eminent domain. "It could be improved - it's not perfect," said Peter Myers. "But it's a very good bill." Pressed by groups like Missouri Farm Bureau, Missouri's eminent domain laws were reformed during the 2006 legislative session to protect private property rights and increase compensation to individuals. ...

SIKESTON - Tips from neighbors ended with the arrest of three Sikeston residents on drug charges. According to Sikeston Department of Public Safety Director Drew Juden, around 2 p.m. Friday members of the department's Special Operation Group and detectives served a warrant at 707 Aspen Trace. A small quantity of a substance believed to be cocaine, prescription pills and drug paraphernalia were found...

SIKESTON - Tommy McClure, son of Dr. and Mrs. T.C. McClure, who is stationed in Korea, has been promoted to staff sergeant. McClure has been there since last September. SIKESTON - Ground breaking ceremonies for the new Missouri Delta Community Hospital wing will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday. A program for the ceremony has not been developed yet...

I was wanting to respond to the SpeakOut entry on July 28 entitled "Inmates are human too." I hope this takes care of this entry and it doesn't turn into some big ordeal. I believe the prisoners lost their right to being treated with a lot of respect when they committed their crime. ...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Aaron Waters, son of Ray and Umeka Waters, dominated the Tae Kwon Do competition of the boys 12-13 year-old division at an AAU national event in Knoxville, Tenn., July 3-8. Waters, 13, won gold medals in Olympic and point sparring and a bronze medal in forms...

The heated debate over illegal immigration, I suspect, will rage on until there are sufficient numbers of illegal immigrants here to change the political process. Then the doors will swing open and remain that way until you can tell little difference between the United States and Mexico. That is not a doomsday prophecy but a prediction based on fact...

SIKESTON -- Here are the results from the Sikeston Drag Strip from Saturday. Junior Dragster Class 1st Place - Taylor Bowman Cape Girardeau, MO DI - 7.57 ET - 7.579 MPH - 86.67 RT - .503 2nd Place - Cody Wiggins Kevil KY DI - 7.98 ET - 7.952 MPH - 82.56 RT - .474...

Nobody asked me but...the St. Louis Cardinals get a new stadium which is filled to capacity every night and all they can do to reward the loyal Redbird fans is to acquire also-ran pitcher Jorge Sosa and infielder Ronnie Belliard. Don't give me the line of "we're not going to mortgage the future" baloney. The Cardinal ownership is all about maximizing profits. They could care less that the average Missouri family has a hard time coming up with the money to attend a game...

I love cell phones because at any time of the day or night I can be reached. I also hate cell phones for the same reason. While cell phones are great and all, I wish some people would observe some etiquette when using a cell phone. So, never fear, David is here with some suggestions that will make everyone's cell phone experience better...