Stories from Friday, July 4, 2014

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor Voters may cast absentee ballots for the Aug. 5 primary election in the office of Butler County Clerk Tonyi Deffendall on the second floor of the Courthouse. The county clerk's office is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, except for July 4. It also will be open from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Aug. 2, and until 5 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 4, for absentee voting...

By EMILY PRIDDY SEMO News Service The note -- written on torn, now-yellowed paper in a traditional, slightly shaky cursive -- arrived in a postage-paid business reply envelope marked, "Please give to man who wrote articles on Huffman case." It implored a reporter to visit its author at her home north of Benton, Missouri, "and please keep plans quiet."...

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor Exhaustion, a high heart rate, leg scrapes, a sore knee, weak arms, numb fingers, equipment delays, wildlife, a thunderstorm and mud did not prevent Jeff Shawan, Kellis Thompson Jr. and Dustin Berry from completing a grueling 240-mile bike ride on the Katy Trail to raise funds for the Butler County Veterans Memorial Wall...

By MONA CHAREN The major media's account of the Supreme Court's decision in the Hobby Lobby case was typical of the way the case has been misreported from the start. The New York Times headline read, "Supreme Court Rejects Contraceptives Mandate for Some Corporations." Politico led with "SCOTUS sides with Hobby Lobby on birth control." Others were similar...

Office counts This citizen shows up for council. You know all that name calling that is just absolutely sickening. I thought Poplar Bluff was above that! But apparently whoever this is calling people Pesky Pearson, Mimi Johnson, Tricky Tinsley and Mama's Boy Rushin and Baboon Brannum-- that is absolutely childish! No wonder you're not on the council. ...

By DAN K. THOMASSON McClatchy-Tribune News Service WASHINGTON _ Here's the situation as it now stands in this capital of the Western world, if it still is. The president has had his knuckles rapped by the Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled that he couldn't get away with making recess appointments when the Senate was still in session, which it technically was when he made some to the National Labor Relations Board. ...

By MICHELLE MALKIN Three cheers for right-wing obstructionism. Can we have more, please, and louder? This week's unanimous Supreme Court ruling on President Obama's illegal recess appointments is a double smackdown. First, it's a rebuke against arrogant White House power-grabbers who thought they could act with absolute impunity and interminable immunity. Second, the ruling is a reproach of all the establishment pushovers on Capitol Hill who put comity above constitutional principle...

ByPhyllis Flannigan University of Misaouri Extension Corn-on-the-cob is going to be served to my family this July 4th holiday. We all enjoy this delicious veggie. You should be finding fresh sweet corn at your favorite roadside stand or grocery store...

By NOREEN HYSLOP SEMO News Service BERNIE, Mo. -- Three of four men who allegedly fled first from Bernie police and later from Malden, Missouri, police Sunday night are in custody at the Dunklin County Jail. At 11:30 p.m. Sunday, Bernie police attempted to stop a red Dodge Ram pickup truck believed to have been stolen from Cape Girardeau. ...

Michael Brown DEXTER, Mo. -- Michael A. "Mike" Brown, 52, of Dexter died Monday, June 30, 2014, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Visitation will be after 1 p.m. Saturday at the Watkins & Sons Funeral Home in Dexter, followed by the memorial services beginning at 2 p.m. in the funeral home chapel with Rev. Karen Oldham of Dexter officiating...

Charles Dwaine Hoggard, Sr. DEXTER, Mo.- Charles Dwaine Hoggard, Sr., 71, of Dexter, died Tuesday, July 1, 2014 at SoutheastHEALTH Center of Stoddard County in Dexter at the age of 71. Visitation will be held 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, at the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter. Funeral services will follow at 1 p.m. Burial with full military honors will take place afterward in the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery in Bloomfield, Mo...

Ronald Brown HAMBURG, Mich.- Today we celebrate the home going of Pastor Ronald A. Brown. Born July 20, 1959 and departed this life on Saturday, June 28, 2014 with his loving family and girlfriend Betty Garcia by his side. Jesus took Ron's hand and guided him on his journey to heaven to be reunited with the New Hope Family and other loved ones who were there waiting for him. ...

In a Lucas Oil Drag Boat Racing Series event that will be shown on national television later this fall, Poplar Bluff's own Slug Hefner was ever-so-slightly too fast in his Dirty Duck drag boat. In the championship of the Pro Outlaw division at the Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheaton on June 15, Hefner ran a 5.49 on a 5.50 index to finish second, despite crossing the line first...

PINEHURST, N.C. -- Carr Vernon is enjoying the front 9 at at Pinehurst Country Club No. 8. The back 9 not so much. The Poplar Bluff golfer shot another 2-over-par 73 in the second round of the 114th North & South Amateur Championship. He rallied Wednesday with three consecutive birdies starting at No. 1, his 10th hole of the day...