Stories from Thursday, August 24, 2017

Nearly 50 employers from the area are preparing for the 20th Annual Butler County Job Fair to be held from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Friday at the Bess Activity Center on the Three Rivers College campus. The event is sponsored by the Butler County Community Resource Council, with added support from the Missouri Job Center and TRC. CRC Executive Director Karen Crook said the fair is open to the public and on average, approximately 300 job seekers are in attendance each year...

A Butler County judge issued an order Wednesday saying the testimony of four former female students of a Naylor science teacher/assistant principal, who they allege touched them inappropriately, will be allowed as evidence in his upcoming trial. Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett issued his order "sustaining in part (the) state's motion to admit propensity evidence" in the case of John Franklin Mullins...

In his first official action as a member of the State Board of Education, 8th District representative Eddy Justice visited the students and staff at Shady Grove State School Wednesday morning. Shady Grove is a Missouri school for the severely disabled. Located near O'Neal Elementary, it opened in 1980 and serves disabled students from multiple school districts...

Classes at Three Rivers College began last week, and in its first meeting since, the TRC Board of Trustees discussed various happenings around the campus yesterday. According to Chief Financial Officer Charlotte Eubank, despite changing enrollment patterns, TRC ended the 2016-17 fiscal year with a positive bottom line...

When boat enthusiast Kenny Rowland received the opportunity to go on a boat trip, he worked out the details to make it happen, even though the destination was not his ideal place to visit. "There are happier landing places to stick your feet in the sand other than Cuba," Rowland said...

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. -- Douglas George Bauer, 68, of Crawfordsville, Ark., beloved father, grandfather, brother and friend died Monday, Aug. 21, 2017 following a brief illness. He leaves his daughters August Rose (DeWayne) of Marion, Ark. and Autumn Bauer of Wynne, Ark.; granddaughters: Jaden and Julia Guiltner; grandsons: Gavin and Gates Rose. He is also survived by three sisters: Lorita Lee, Poplar Bluff, Donna Bauer, Cape Girardeau, and Lisa Selvidge, Schoolcraft, Mich...

By PAUL DAVIS Outdoors Editor A victory for firearms enthusiasts in November's presidential election may have kept the number of attendees at the 25th annual SEMO Friends of NRA banquet down a little, but organizers still were pleased with the event...

The first hunting season opener is soon upon us and marks the beginning of the 2017. That's right, Sept. 1 is just days away. Dove season will officially open on that day, along with snipe, sora and Virginia rails. To participate in these sporting events, each hunter must have a small game hunting permit (unless you qualify as a landowner or lessee hunting on your own property) and a migratory bird hunting permit. ...

By PAUL DAVIS Outdoors Editor A new regulation restricting the collection of live bait below the Wappapello and Clearwater dams will go into effect next Wednesday (Aug. 30), according the Department of Conservation Fisheries Management Biologist Paul Cieslewicz...

By STEPHEN MOORE One lesson I've learned from working with Donald Trump is that you have to pay attention to what he does, not what he says. The left and the media are accusing Trump of being racist and a Nazi-sympathizer because of his words in response to the horrid events in Charlottesville, Virginia...

By GEORGE F. WILL WASHINGTON -- When John Adams wrote into Massachusetts' Constitution a commitment to a "government of laws and not of men," he probably assumed that the rule of law meant the rule of laws, no matter how many laws there might be. He could not have imagined the modern proliferation and complexity of laws, or how subversive this is of the rule of law...

SEATTLE (AP) -- A Washington state high school football coach took advantage of his position when he prayed on the field after games, and he's not entitled to immediately get his job back, a federal appeals court said Wednesday. The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals unanimously held that Bremerton High coach Joe Kennedy's prayers did not constitute protected free speech because he was acting as a public employee, not a private citizen, when he conducted them...

NEELYVILLE, Mo. - Mary Evelyn Turner, 70, of Doniphan, Mo., died Monday, Aug. 21, 2017 at the Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., Friday, Aug. 25 at the Fowler-Sullivan Memorial Chapel in Neelyville, Mo. The funeral will follow at 1 p.m. in the chapel with Donnie Fowler officiating. Burial will be in the Naylor Memorial Cemetery...

Anne Baldwin, 87, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., died Thursday, August 24, 2017 at her residence. Arrangements are pending with Cotrell Funeral Service of Poplar Bluff.

Robert Charles Schimweg, 81, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., passed away Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017 at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. Robert, the son of the late Henry A. and Loretta Helen Colvin Schimweg, was born Jan. 9, 1936 in St. Louis, Mo. ...

Carolyn Ann Sides, 67, gave up her long lived fight of cancer on July 26, 2017 at her home away from home at Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Carolyn with her positive outlook, beat the doctors odds more times than we can count. Whether it was singing along to Neil Diamond and the Beach Boys, playing video poker, cutting a rug on the dance floor or hanging at the pro shop, she loved life with family and friends by her side...

The Bearcats haven't beaten Poplar Bluff since 2006. If they don't accomplish it Friday, they are going to have to wait awhile. Starting in 2018, Dexter will swap out the Mules in week 2 for Salem. "It's one thing to have a rivalry and stuff. But playing Class 5 against Class 3, we just felt like physically it wasn't fair to our kids at times," Dexter coach Kevin Goltra said. "Playing well against (Salem) will hopefully give us an advantage come playoff time."...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Richard "Rickey" Kelley, 56, of Bloomfield, died at his home Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., Friday, when services will be held at the Chiles-Cooper Funeral Home in Bloomfield. Burial will follow at the Missouri Veteran's Cemetery in Bloomfield with full military honors...

The Green Wave host the Tigers as both teams look for leverage in the Class 2 rankings. Malden jumped up a spot after defeating New Madrid Central to open the season last week, 50-12, and is on the bubble of breaking into the state rankings at No. 11. Caruthersville hasn't enjoyed a win over Malden since 2013, a losing streak that spans six games...

In the midst of remodeling a facility to help better the lives of area women, the Recycling Grace Ministries had items taken from their property. "For someone to come along and steal from us when we are working so hard is sad," Recycling Grace Ministries CEO Sandra Mick said...

The Ozark Foothills Conference baseball landscape is changing for the first time in 35 years. Last October marked the final fall baseball game for Doniphan, which joined the conference in 1982 but scratched the sport in place of its newly rejuvenated football program at the start of this school year...

Sidney Cochran, 79, of Poplar Bluff, passed away on August 21, 2017 at St. Francis Hospital in Cape Girardeau, MO. He was born on October 8, 1937 to Russell and Violet (Whitmer) Cochran in Poplar Bluff, MO. Sidney was the owner and operator of Cochran Truck and Salvage in Poplar Bluff...