Stories from Saturday, August 16, 2014

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor The section of Shelby Road between Oak Grove Road and Larry Hillis Dodge will reopen to traffic tonight, according to interim city manager Mark Massingham. Shelby Road was closed so dirt could be moved from the west side to the east side and the dip raised to the same elevation as the adjoining commercial properties...

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor The city of Poplar Bluff has agreed to pay Carsan Investments $112,750 for the purchase of .18 of an acre for the widening of Oak Grove Road. Carsan Investments also will be paid $5,000 for a temporary easement to use .13 of an acre during the construction period. The land is on the north side of the 2900 block of Oak Grove Road...

By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH Associate Editor Authorities believe the Texas man whose body was found earlier this week in a wooded area behind the Poplar Bluff Junior High School succumbed to the elements due to his mental health issues, dying in early July...

By MIKE JENSEN Publisher Sikeston Standard Democrat With the countdown ticking toward the all-important November midterm elections, the Republicans can't seem to adopt a strategy that will guarantee election success. Judging from the level of discontent and frustration in this country, you would think their strategy would be simple...

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN U.S. air strikes since Friday have opened a corridor through which tens of thousands of Yazidis, trapped and starving on a mountain in Iraq, have escaped to safety in Kurdistan. The Kurds, whose peshmerga fighters were sent reeling by the Islamic State last week, bolstered now by the arrival of U.S. ...

Putin as bad as Hitler Yeah, I'm watching these hearses on TV carrying all the bodies back from that airplane crash there. Let's never forget this, people. Always remember and I hope that Putin is watching it knowing that he is the low-life evil murderer. ...

The boat idles like an angry grandfather clock, with a monotonous gurgle that roars away each second until its ready to put its 1,000-horsepower engine to use. This speed demon and a couple dozon others will be making their way to Brick's Off Road Park this weekend for the complex's first boat race. Unlike the ones Poplar Bluff is used to -- the drag boat variety on Wappepello Lake -- this is a track race, with boats that turn and bank and kick water well beyond the shallow banks...

Although it officially begins this season, the Missouri State High School Athletic Association's changes to the football playoff schedule began taking its initial roots two years ago, and it's biggest proponents were internal. A 12-member panel, known as the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, met in December 2012 to study a new preseason practice format that would allow players to better acclimate themselves to heat during practices...

Darwin L. Davis Sr. NEELYVILLE, Mo. -- Darwin L. "Vern" Davis Sr., 86, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., died Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014, at Westwood Hills Healthcare in Poplar Bluff. He was a building contractor and also farmed. Mr. Davis was born March 7, 1928, in East Carter County. He married Doris Ann Kiser on March 5, 1955, in Hernando, Miss., and she survives...

Dist. 153 meeting is Wednesday The 153rd Legislative District Republican Committee will have a reorganizational meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20, in the Ripley County Courthouse at Doniphan, Mo. Questions may be addressed to Eddy Justice at 573-300-1845...

Oliver "Ollie" Hagy DEXTER, Mo. -- Oliver "Ollie" Hagy, 71, of Fisk, Mo., died Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014 at his home. Visitation will begin at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Watkins & Sons Funeral Home in Dexter with the funeral service beginning at 1 p.m. in the funeral home chapel...