Stories from Monday, April 20, 2020

City firefighters responded at 7:50 p.m. Friday, April 17, to a fire alarm at the Poplar Bluff Kindergarten Center, 1200 Camp Road. According to the report, it was a false alarm set off by steam from a dishwasher that was being worked on by maintenance personnel...

MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL A 60-year-old Clubb man was injured in a one-vehicle accident at 3:15 p.m. Friday, April 17, on Highway 34, six miles east of U.S. Highway 67. According to the report, Harold G. McGhee was operating a 1997 Lincoln Town Car eastbound when it crossed the center of the road, ran off the left side and struck a tree...

A 21-year-old Malden man was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash at 6:40 p.m. Sunday, April 19, on Highway J, two miles west of Malden. According to the report, Francisco Santos was operating a motorcycle eastbound when it ran off the right side of the road and overturned...

Butler County authorities are investigating the death of a man whose body was pulled from Black River Sunday afternoon. Just after 2:30 p.m., Sheriff Mark Dobbs said, a fisherman called to report he found what he believed to be a body in Black River, approximately one-half to one mile upstream from the Hargrove Road...

Autopsies will be performed later today on a Poplar Bluff woman and her infant daughter, both of whom died Sunday of apparent gunshot wounds. “I pronounced 31-year-old Angela Lemonds dead at the scene” at about 10 a.m. Sunday, according to Butler County Coroner Andy Moore. “I went to the emergency room for the child.”...

MISSOURI STATE HIGHWAY PATROL A 5-year-old Caruthersville girl was killed in a one-vehicle crash at 5:15 p.m. Sunday, April 19, on East Seventh Street at Maple Street in Caruthersville. According to the report, Joshua A. Lacey, 24, of Caruthersville was operating a 2000 Chrysler Town & Country van westbound when it ran off the right side of the road and became airborne. Lacey’s van then reportedly went through a fence and struck a tree...

City firefighters responded at 2:10 a.m. Monday, April 20, to an alarm at PetSmart, 3065 Oak Grove Road. It was investigation only. _ City firefighters provided medical assistance at 8:23 p.m. Sunday, April 19, when a woman came into station No. 3 on Highway 53 to report her son had been burned and was in the parking lot next to the station...

Dale Eugene (Gene) Truelove Sr., 90, of Neelyville, departed this life on April 19, 2020 in the Westwood Hills Healthcare of Poplar Bluff. He was born Aug. 17, 1929 at Etowah, Arkansas to the late Chester Harvey Truelove and Ruth Marie (Goss) Truelove. He had been a resident of Butler County for 56 years...

For more than 17 years Jo Ann Emerson represented the 8th District of Missouri in the United States House of Representatives, one of the first Republican women elected to Congress in the state and a political force who regularly won re-election with more than 70% of the vote. ...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is asserting that deaths from COVID-19 are much higher in China than in the U.S., when the opposite is true. China has more than four times the population of the U.S. yet reported far fewer deaths: about 4,600 vs. more than 32,000 in the United States as of late afternoon Friday...

As the Chinese coronavirus has ravaged the United States, upending nations in Europe, infecting nearly every single country on the face of the earth, one thing has been noticeably absent from the global conversation: China’s role in spreading this disease. ...

Farmers from Butler and Stoddard counties are encountering various challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gary Deardorff, who runs a cattle and farming operation in Stoddard County, said transportation already is becoming an issue. While he hasn’t encountered any problems shipping cattle, he said, some feed lots are getting backed up...

A body found in Black River Sunday afternoon has been identified as a local man who was reported missing by his mother more than a month ago. Butler County Coroner Andy Moore said the body was identified as John Bishop, 36, of Poplar Bluff. “He had identification on him, and we were able to match tattoos from pictures” to confirm ID, Moore said...

The Poplar Bluff Early Childhood Center is 99% complete with only some landscaping left.

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks awarded $11,235 to the Ripley County Senior Center through the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation in partnership with Commerce Trust. The grant is designated for kitchen appliances to help with food needs, including needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release from CFO...

Linda Kay Lutes, 58, of Poplar Bluff passed away on April 17, 2020 at her home in Poplar Bluff. Linda was born on November 15, 1961 to the late James and Eleanor (Bucarelli) Lutes in Kennett, Missouri. She was a homemaker who loved her family and friends...

Robert “Robbie” E. Fulton, 44, of Piedmont, died Saturday, April 18, 2020. Visitation is from 5-8 p.m., Wednesday, April 22, 2020, at Ruegg Funeral Home, Piedmont Chapel. A graveside service will be held at 1 p.m., Thursday, April 23, 2020, at Patterson Cemetery. ...

A bridge on South 11th Street reopened late last week, about nine months after it was closed due to dangerous conditions. The condition of the Pike Creek bridge had deteriorated over several years and the city was unable to afford to replace it until grant money became available, according to city manager Mark Massingham...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — In Monday’s COVID-19 briefing, Gov. Mike Parson announced over $47 million in additional expenditure restrictions to ensure a balanced budget and the necessary funds to deal with COVID-19 going forward. These restrictions include reduced funding for nine state agencies, Office of the Attorney General, and the General Assembly...

Editor's note: This is a daily briefing updating the latest information on the COVID-19 pandemic at 4 p.m. each day. Missouri health officials said Monday they're starting to see a positive trend in the number of new COVID-19 cases around the state...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — Saint Francis Healthcare System received approval from the Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board to use plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients for treatment with currently hospitalized patients with the coronavirus. When a patient has an active viral or bacterial infection, the immune system develops proteins, called antibodies, which help fight infections. ...

Butler County Coroner Andy Moore reports the deaths of a Poplar Bluff woman and her infant daughter were a murder-suicide. The deceased have been identified as Angela Lemonds, 31, and her 6-month-old daughter, Brooklynn Lemonds. “With the evidence at the scene and the result from the autopsies, we have determined that the incident on Sunday was a murder-suicide,” Moore said...