Stories from Thursday, February 14, 2019

Dexter, MO – A group of volunteers with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is the winner of the agency’s Central Region Group Volunteer Award. The Missouri Delta Soil Health Alliance was recognized for its efforts to promote the benefits of soil health management in southeastern Missouri. It was selected by a national panel that reviewed nominations from groups within NRCS’ 12-state Central Region...

We give much emphasis to the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. But there is also a definite work that the Spirit does in relation to the church as a whole. Since the church is made up of individual believers and since the Holy Spirit is at work in believers one might equate that work as one and the same with his work in the church. ...

In their final home game of regular season, the Portageville boys basketball team outscored the Bloomfield Wildcats 36-22 over the middle two quarters Tuesday night in a 59-48 victory at Portageville High School. Bloomfield led 12-11 after one quarter, but the Bulldogs pulled ahead 29-24 by halftime and led 47-34 after three quarters. ...

SIKESTON — First grader Tyler Morgan (right) watches as his classmate, Mac Straton, places a valentine in his Spiderman-themed box Thursday during the Valentine’s Day party at Lee Hunter Elementary in Sikeston. A 15th-century Frenchman Duke of Orleans, is credited for committing the earliest surviving Valentine’s greeting to paper. ...

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. — Joseph Albert Dixon, 65, formerly of East Prairie, Mo., died Feb. 5, 2019, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. Born April 16, 1953, in Charleston, Mo., son of the late John and Ella Mae Wilson Strayhorn, he had attended Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Wolf Island. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Donald Eugene Dixon, 61, formerly of East Prairie, Feb. 9, 2019, at Capital Region Medical Center in Jefferson City. Born May 28, 1957, in Charleston, son of the late John and Ella Mae Wilson Strayhorn, he attended Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Wolf Island. ...

SIKESTON — Modena Mae Hastings, 96, died Feb. 12, 2019, at Delta South Nursing Center in Sikeston. Born May 30, 1922, in Sikeston, she was the daughter of the late William and Maudia Beck Hastings. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by three brothers, William Hastings, Donald Ray Hastings and Ralph Hastings; and seven sisters, Dorothy Alley, Leta Settles, Mary Hopper, Lucille Pruett, Lizzie Campbell, Opal Pruett and Ozeal Jones...

For fathers who have child support cases and may be struggling to make payments or have a criminal record, there’s help: a project through the Community Caring Council called EDGE, or Empowering Dads to Gain Employment. EDGE program coordinator Christian Freeman said the project came about last fall, when a grant came through, and she stepped into the leadership role...

PADUCAH, Ky. — A winter storm could impact travel throughout Southeast Missouri Friday. According to the National Weather Service, a winter storm system will bring freezing rain, sleet and snow to the region Friday through Friday night. The NWS said confidence in some ice, sleet and snow accumulations is increasing but the expected amounts still haven’t been determined...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — A Sikeston man was sentenced to nearly five years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery and other charges. Joshua T. Kerr, 40, was sentenced to 57 months imprisonment on one felony count of Interference with Commerce by Robbery, one felony count of Carjacking, and one felony count of Possession of Ammunition by a Felon, according to the United States Attorney’s Office. He appeared Wednesday before United States District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr...