Stories from Thursday, August 21, 2014

By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH Associate Editor NEELYVILLE, Mo. -- A review of available financial options to make building repairs Monday led the Neelyville School Board to look at borrowing the needed funds. Fewer than two weeks after the district fell 27 votes short of passing its first bond measure in more than 40 years, the board looked at the district's future. ...

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor The city of Poplar Bluff closed Monday morning on purchasing the Wealth Management office building after agreeing to pay $850,000 to the owners, Robert and Robin Whelan. "I'm very happy," said Robert Whelan, who has been in business in Poplar Bluff for 32 years. "I'm glad it is over with. It has been a stressful two years."...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer Members of the Twin Rivers R-X Board of Education took time Tuesday to recognize the academic achievement of an outstanding student. It was part of an ongoing effort to ensure youth receive equal attention for their work in school as they do for their athletics, according to administrators...

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor The Barron Road Improvement Agreement between Larry Hillis and the Poplar Bluff Regional Transportation Development District was approved by the Poplar Bluff City Council Monday night. Weather permitting, Barron Road will be extended back to Highway W within 80 days. The new road will be north of the former one and it will have two turns...

By PAUL DAVIS Outdoors Editor Poplar Bluff, Mo., has a new national champion in trap shooting, and she's not even officially on the school team yet. "We're very proud of her," said trap team coach Kathryn Clark of freshman Hannah Cash. "She is very coachable and always working hard to improve her score."...

Like you, I have watched and read news reports on the surge of unaccompanied children from Central America who are arriving in record numbers in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. These young people are making this dangerous passage through Mexico assisted by smugglers and then entering the United States. Make no mistake about it, the crisis at our southern border is directly connected to President Obama's refusal to enforce current immigration laws...

By GEORGE F. WILL WASHINGTON -- This far into the human story, only the historically uninstructed are startled by what they think are new permutations of evil. So, when Russia sliced Crimea off Ukraine, Secretary of State John Kerry was nonplussed: "You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext." If, however, Vladimir Putin is out of step with the march of progress, where exactly on history's inevitably ascending path (as progressives like Kerry evidently think) does Kerry, our innocent abroad, locate the Islamic State?. ...

PUXICO, MO. -- As part of the new Mingo National Wildlife Refuge Hunt Plan, the 2014 season is the first year the refuge will be opening up portions of the land for raccoon hunting. The raccoon hunts will take place through a random draw process in which parties will be issued a free special use permit that outlines their hunt area and hunt dates...

PUXICO, Mo. -- A 30-day comment period for Mingo National Wildlife Refuge's Draft Amended Hunting Plan and Draft Environmental Assessment will begin on Aug. 8. The draft documents are being revised and include proposed changes related to hunting opportunities on land owned and managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Migratory game bird, big game, and upland game hunting are allowed on the refuge during the Missouri state seasons...

Flossie Presley MALDEN, Mo.-- Flossie Mae Presley, 91, of Malden, died Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014, at the Golden Living Center in Malden. Visitation will be at 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Thursday at the Bradshaw Funeral Home. Funeral will follow at 1 p.m. at the Bradshaw Chapel...

By PAUL DAVIS Outdoors Editor The number of people at Saturday night's 22nd annual SEMO Friends of NRA banquet may have been down a little, and the money raised may have fallen short of last year's record, but the event still was deemed a success. "As my regional director said: 'We definitely hit a home run ... we're just used to hitting grand slams,'" said SEMO Friends of NRA Committee Chairman Andrew Heuiser. "I would imagine nowhere in the state will be where we were last year."...

Two Dexter, Mo., students have been awarded healthcare scholarships by the Saint Francis Foundation and the Saint Francis Medical Center Auxiliary. They are among more than 20 area students who will receive $2,000 scholarships toward a degree in a healthcare-related profession...

By PAUL DAVIS Outdoors Editor When talking with Missouri Department of Conservation fisheries biologist Paul Cieslewicz the other day, he relayed an interesting fish story. Most people know some species of fish migrate great distances - the salmon, steelhead and sturgeon of the Pacific Northwest or the Atlantic salmon of the Northeast come to mind - but around here, fish migration typically means short-distance jaunts for spawning, like the white bass in Clearwater and Wappapello lakes do in the spring.. ...

Edith Paquette DONIPHAN, Mo.- Edith Paquette, 87, of Doniphan, died Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, in the Current River Nursing Center in Doniphan. Visitation will be held from 5-8 p.m. Wednesday at the Edwards Funeral Home in Doniphan. The funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at the First Christian Church in Doniphan...

These Bearcats are light years ahead of where they were last year. Last August, new Dexter football coach Justin Peden was overly optimistic about his new system at a new school. The Bearcats were athletic, but growing pains and a front-loaded schedule left the team injured both physically and mentally. They eventually limped to a 2-7 record...

Mitchel Threlkeld Mitchel E. (Mitch) Threlkeld, 91, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., died Tuesday, Aug. 19. 2014, at the Missouri Veterans Home in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Arrangements are pending and will be announced by Cotrell Funeral Service.

Mae Deloris Barnes Coursey GULFPORT, Miss, -- Mae Deloris Barnes Coursey, 74, died Wednesday, Aug.16, 2014. Visitation will be at 6-8 pm, Thursday, Aug. 21, at Lockett-Williams Mortuary, Inc. in Gulfport, Miss. The funeral will begin at noon, Friday, Aug. 22, at Lockett-Williams Mortuary, Inc., with a visitation beginning at 10 am. Burial will be at the Biloxi National Cemetery...

The Aug. 14 meeting of the Missouri Star Quilters' Guild was called to order by President Dori Caldwell with 20 members present. The minutes from the July meeting were approved. These minutes are distributed via email. Cheryl Maples presented the treasurer's report...

Carol Stewart NEELYVILLE, Mo. -- Carol June Stewart, 82, of Naylor, Mo., died Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014 at Landmark Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo. She was born May 26, 1932 in Bloomfield, Mo. On Aug. 10, 1959, she married Franklin James Stewart in East St. Louis, Mo. He survives...

Michael Hawkins DEXTER, Mo.--Michael Thomas "Tee" Hawkins, 54, of Dexter, died Monday, Aug. 18, 2014 at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, Mo. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Thursday, at the Lighthouse Christian Center in Dexter. Funeral services will be conducted at 1 p.m. Thursday at the Lighthouse Christian Center with Rev. Tim Russell officiating...

Between eight graduating sophomores, one returning starter, a trio of redshirted freshman, a late-season addition, an incoming freshman class heavy on out-of-state players and NJCAA restrictions on offseason contact with players, the Lady Raiders are just one big ol' question mark headed into the school year...