Stories from Friday, December 28, 2012

By SHARON RANDALL Scripps Howard News Service Once, when I was very young -- with lots more energy and less experience than I have now -- I volunteered to direct the Christmas pageant at church. "What?" said my husband, as if I'd just announced I was moonlighting for the Pentagon splitting atoms in the blender...

Raiders great program Recently an article in "Speakout" condemned the Raiders basketball team. Back in an earlier day, 1993 I believe, a similar article appeared in the DAR and it was brought to the Raider dressing room for discussion. A fine young man by the name of Anthony Rodebush from Van Buren commented on the article with wisdom beyond his age. He said, "Coach, people like success but they don't like successful people."...

By GEORGE F. WILL WASHINGTON -- At the end of this year in which election results reinserted immigration into the political conversation, remember that 2012 is the 150th anniversary of "the first comprehensive immigration law." This is how the Homestead Act of 1862 is described by Blake Bell, historian at the Homestead National Monument of America near Beatrice, Neb., one of the National Park Service's many educational jewels that make the NPS one of just two government institutions (the other is the U.S. ...

The holidays can be exhausting! Do you need to save some time and money this holiday season? Then try making the Missouri Mix. It's the University of Missouri Extension's make-at-home version of baking mixes that you can buy at the grocery store. Having this mix helps speed up the process when you want to make anything from biscuits to muffins to banana nut bread...

Five, four, three, two, one... Happy New Year! Each Dec. 31st, we gather with friends and family to usher in the new year - but how did these traditions begin? The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all modern holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4,000 years ago. ...

Paul Harris Paul Kenneth Harris, 68, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., died Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. A memorial Service for Mr. Harris will be held in Buchanan, Tenn., at a later date. Cotrell Funeral Service of Poplar Bluff is in charge of arrangements...