Stories from Tuesday, September 12, 2006

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A recently-implemented lineup shuffle paid immediate dividends for the Sikeston Lady Bulldog volleyball team. Sikeston opened its SEMO Conference season with a three-set win (25-14, 15-25, 25-18) over the host Cape Central Lady Tigers on Monday...

I was commenting on the SpeakOut concerning wages causing prices to increase. The other way to look at that is the more people make the more they have to spend, right? Now it is impossible for someone to make a living on minimum wage. Where's the complaint about the price of a gallon of gas has quad tripled and oil companies are making record profits. ...

SIKESTON - Miss Marjorie McCoy has opened a stenographic and bookkeeping service in the Paul Jones building. SIKESTON - Only two persons objected to the proposed plan to widen Highway 61 at a meeting in the Security National Bank Tuesday. The widened highway would run from the intersection with Business Route 61 south to the Greer Street intersection...

SIKESTON -- A Sikeston grandmother won $1 million from a promotional drawing Sunday at Harrah's Casino in Metropolis, Ill. Patsy Wise of Sikeston won the seven-figure prize during the casino company's "3 Million on the House" promotion. Wise found out she was the $1 million cash winner during the promotion's live video simulcast drawing Sunday from Harrah's Rincon Casino and Resort in San Diego...

CAPE GIRARDEAU - A Scott county man was sentenced to prison on felony drug charges Monday. Jimmy A. Jordan, 33, was sentenced to 70 months in prison on one felony count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute in U.S. District Court. Upon release from prison, Jordan will be placed on supervised release for a period of four years...

Staff Reports Standard Democrat SIKESTON -- Ferguson Medical Group has settled its differences with Dr. Anthony Poole. The dispute began in 2002 when Poole and four other physicians, Fred Thornton, Loring R. Helfrich, Fred K. Uthoff and Kevin P. Rankin, left FMG after which the group filed suit against the five doctors...

SIKESTON - Prep work for resurfacing improvements have started along Malone Avenue (Route 62) from Interstate 55 to Main Street with resurfacing to have gotten under way Monday evening, weather permitting. Only one lane will be closed at a time while the new asphalt is placed over the existing pavement. Flagging personnel will be stationed in the work zone to help direct traffic...

I intentionally have not weighed in on the heated race for the Missouri Senate featuring incumbent Jim Talent against Claire McCaskill. Through the years, I've had the privilege of meeting and getting to know both of these individuals and I have respect for both. McCaskill is both talented and feisty and that is more assuredly to her advantage. Talent is brilliant and can get the job done. That is to his advantage...

SIKESTON - Lowell Hemba Young, 94, died Sept. 11, 2006, at his home. Arrangements are incomplete with Nunnelee Funeral Chapel in Sikeston.

CHAFFEE -- Dorothy Jean Bass, 58, died Sept. 10, 2006, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at Amick-Burnett Funeral Home in Chaffee.

SIKESTON -- Donald Lee Ottinger Sr., 46, died at 4 a.m. Sept. 11, 2006, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Born March 2, 1960, in Sikeston, son of Betty Flanagan Ottinger of Bell City and the late James D. Ottinger, he was a farmer for Parker Brothers Farms and a member of Murray Lane Baptist Church...

CHARLESTON - Jessie Organ Cox, 93, died at 2:15 p.m. Sept. 11, 2006, at the Chaffee Nursing Center. Born April 20, 1913, in New Madrid County, to the late Louie Jackson and Mary Albertine Snider Organ, she moved to Commerce six years ago. She lived most of her life in the Bridges Community where she was a member of the Bridges United Methodist Church and had been employed with the Knights Department Store in Charleston...