Stories from Thursday, October 12, 2017

A man escaped police custody and ran through St. Denis school in Benton Tuesday, prompting a brief lockdown, principal Karen Powers said Wednesday. "It happened all so quickly," she said. "It was a very scary situation ... but we didn't really have the time to realize how scary it was at the time ... he was probably in and out of the school in 20 to 30 seconds."...

The Poplar Bluff Police Department is seeking the public's assistance in locating Joseph Earl Rick, 47, of Poplar Bluff, Mo. According to Detective Andrew Cleaveland, Rick is wanted in connection with a stabbing investigation and should be considered armed and dangerous...

The smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted through Twin Rivers High School Tuesday morning. It signalled the opening of Royally Roasted Coffee Shop. Several transition students at the high school are gaining real world work experience by serving their fellow classmates coffee and pastries twice a week before the beginning of the school day...

A staggering number of infants born in the Missouri Bootheel are not living to celebrate their first birthday and the Bootheel Babies & Families organization is working to lower this record setting number of infant deaths. Over the past eight years, 135 babies have died in Dunklin, New Madrid, Mississippi, Pemiscot, Stoddard and Scott Counties, where the infant mortality rate ranges as high as 11.7 deaths per 1,000...

Butler County commissioners are expected to decide Friday to rebid a $4 million railroad overpass project that came in over budget in July. The 90-day deadline expires Saturday to accept Robertson Contractors apparent low bid for the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park project, officials say...

By GEORGE F. WILL DETROIT -- Bending metal, slapping on chrome and marketing an empowering product and status marker that mesmerized 20th-century America, the automobile industry typified the Old Economy, of which General Motors was emblematic. As was its bankruptcy. ...

The Trump tax plan is currently under investigation and, some keen analysts are finding, could do more to revitalize the economy, lift up the poor and middle class, and simplify outrageous complexities than anything seen in a long, long time. That's simply intolerable by the standards of many in D.C. and must stop now, we're told...

As George Orwell said, "some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them." Many stupid ideas originate with academics on college campuses. If they remained there and didn't infect the rest of society, they might be a source of entertainment, much in the way a circus is. Let's look at a few stupid ideas peddled by intellectuals...

By PAUL DAVIS Outdoors Editor Poplar Bluff High School's trap team showed its depth during Saturday's annual PB Fall Classic at the Poplar Bluff Gun Club, with the B Squad topping the entire field and earning the high overall score. Composed of Jon Pike, Jacob Berry, Franklin Davidson, Conner Hendricks and Andrew Miller, the squad shot well enough to beat out two other Poplar Bluff teams, plus those from Alton, Naylor, Twin Rivers, Greenville, Richland and Doniphan...

MALDEN, Mo. -- Lue Emma Clopton, 84, of Malden, died Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017, at her residence. Visitation will be at noon until services Saturday at Bradshaw Funeral Home. The funeral will be at 1 p.m., Saturday, at Bradshaw Chapel in Malden with Rev. William Johnson. Burial in Macedonia Cemetery in Malden...

By FRANK CAMPA Mo. Dept. of Conservation With our fall Missouri archery deer and turkey season well underway and the firearms deer portion just around the corner in November, there are more and more people taking to the woods as our temperatures slowly cool down in the mornings and evenings...

Ogden Elijah Wheelis, 92, of Poplar Bluff, Mo. died Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017, at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center. Mr. Wheelis was born June 7, 1925, in Poplar Bluff. He married Mary Lucille Wheelis July 18, 1969, She died July 26, 2014. He was of the Pentecostal faith and was a member of the Midland Church. ...

PIEDMONT, Mo. -- Keith Ryan Enyart, 32, of Park Hills, Mo. died Monday, Oct. 9, 2017 at his residence. Visitation will be from 12:30 - 230 p.m., Sunday, at Trinity United Methodist Church near Piedmont. Funeral services will begin at 2:30 p.m. also at the church. Burial will follow at Patterson Cemetery...

Lucas Carroll Foster is the name chosen by Dustin and Jessica Foster of Poplar Bluff for their 6-pound, 15 ounce son born at 11:04 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Lucas was 20" long. Grandparents are Dennis and Micaela Gebelhardt, Carroll and Debbie Foster, and Dale and Bridgette Ellis, all of Poplar Bluff. Great-grandparent is Claire Gebelhardt of Poplar Bluff...

Marilyn Kay Jewell, 55, of Poplar Bluff, Mo. died Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017 in Poplar Bluff. Visitation will be held from 12:30-2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14 at the First United Methodist Church at 500 N. Main St. in Poplar Bluff. A Celebration of Life will be held immediately following visitation at 2 p.m. in the church Sanctuary. Burial will follow at the Poplar Bluff City Cemetery...

MALDEN, MO. -- Brenda Carroll Clowers, 74, of Williamsville, Mo., died Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017, at Cedar Hills Boarding Home in Williamsville. Visitation will be from 10 -10:45 a.m. Friday at the Bradshaw Funeral Homes Inc. in Malden. A graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Memorial Park Cemetery in Malden with Chaplain Bill Skaggs officiating followed by burial...

Miracle R. Washington, 7 weeks old, of Sikeston, Mo., passed away Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017 at St. Francis Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo. She was born in Sikeston Aug. 17, 2017 to parents Darius Washington and Holley Hawes. Miracle is survived by four brothers, Izaiah Jones, Arnez Hawes, Xavior Washington, all of Sikeston, and Braylin Stovall of Charleston, Mo.; two sisters, Majesty Washington of Sikeston, and Alayaha Ray of Cape Girardeau; grandparents, Victor and Sonya Hawes of Poplar Bluff, Tawanda Bell and Andrew Bell of Cape Girardeau.. ...

Ogden Wheelis -- Poplar Bluff, Mo. Keith Ryan Enyart -- Park Hills, Mo. Lue Emma Clopton -- Malden, Mo. Marilyn Kay Jewell -- Poplar Bluff, Mo. Miracle R. Washington -- Sikeston, Mo. Brenda Carroll Clowers -- Williamsville, Mo.

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The Chaffee softball team was down but never out. A drama-filled comeback victory sent Chaffee past Dora with a walkoff winner by junior first baseman Carlie Milz in a Class 1 sectional on Wednesday night. The Red Devils trailed from the first inning all the way until Milz's final at-bat gave Chaffee the 8-7 victory...

The last time the Poplar Bluff football team was 8-0, the Mules entered the final game of the regular season ranked sixth in the state but lost to an unranked Tigers team. On Friday -- the 13th, no less --the sixth-ranked Mules get a shot to join two other unbeaten, untied teams in program history when they face the unranked Festus Tigers on the road...

AVA, Mo. -- The Doniphan softball team's historic playoff run and late-inning magic came to an end. Coming off back-to-back comeback wins in the district tournament, the Donettes rallied again and even put the tying run at the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. But the big hits they'd become accustomed to never came in a 9-7 loss to Ava in the MSHSAA Class 2 playoffs Wednesday night...

The Malden Green Wave have scored more than 40 points in each of their wins and have won by at least 20 in all seven, as well. In their lone loss, 33-7 against Caruthersville, Malden had trouble with turnovers and Dexter coach Kevin Goltra isn't taking much away from the performance...

NEELYVILLE, Mo.-- Ethel L. Smoot peacefully departed this life Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, at home with her family at her side after a long fight with Amyloidosis. She was born Jan. 11, 1941, in Neelyville, Mo., and was raised, along with five sisters and two brothers, by her parents Arthur and Opal Cassinger. ...

IRMO, S.C. (AP) -- A South Carolina bar has canceled its NFL package over players not standing for the national anthem. WIS-TV reports that manager Kim Lanier says Lucky's Burger Shack nixed its package after conversations with customers over current events. Lanier said the Irmo establishment would show a game playing on a local channel if a customer asked to watch it...