Stories from Thursday, July 24, 2014

By MEG BENSON SEMO News Service KENNETT, Mo. -- A Blytheville, Arkansas, businessman suspected of abandoning the renovation of the Kennett Country Club swimming pool was scheduled for an initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon at the Dunklin County Courthouse in downtown Kennett...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer It was clear at public forum Tuesday night, feelings run deep on both sides of the debate surrounding Missouri's "Right to Farm" constitutional amendment. Amendment 1 will go before voters Aug. 5. Supports and critics of the measure say they want to protect family farms, which one legislator described as not just a part of Southeast Missouri heritage, but part of its family structure...

By EMILY PRIDDY SEMO News Service PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- A man who tried to run for police chief last winter has been fired from the Perryville Police Department amid a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation into an allegation of fraud. In a news release Tuesday, chief Direk Hunt announced the Missouri State Highway Patrol was conducting a criminal investigation into a complaint against a Perryville police officer...

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor Three months have passed since an appeal was denied and still no legal action has been taken to collect the $206,787 Poplar Bluff Internet, Inc. (PBI) owes the city of Poplar Bluff. "I left it in the hands of the city attorney to see what action needs to be taken," said Mark Massingham, the interim city manager...

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor OSAGE BEACH, Mo. -- Poplar Bluff Attorney Wally Duncan of the Duncan & Pierce law firm was honored Saturday with the Lou Czech Award at the Missouri Municipal Attorney Association annual meeting in Osage Beach, Mo...

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor The city of Poplar Bluff, Mo., has hired a St. Louis, Mo., law firm to help interim city attorney Robert Smith with its lawsuit challenging the contract of former city manager Doug Bagby. Brown & James law firm is the same one that is representing Mayor Angela Pearson, who is being sued in a defamation lawsuit filed by Bagby...

Earlier this month, the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act was celebrated. During the act's legislative debate, then-Sen. Hubert Humphrey, responding to predictions, promised, "I'll eat my hat if this leads to racial quotas." I don't know whether Humphrey got around to keeping his promise, but here's my question: Is it within the capacity of black Americans to make it in this society without the special favors variously called racial preferences, quotas, affirmative action and race-sensitive policies? What might a "yes" answer to that question assume and imply about blacks? Likewise, what would a "no" answer assume and imply? Let's look at it.. ...

Lindell Hunter Lindell Hunter, 72, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., died Tuesday, July 22, 2014. Arrangements are pending with Fowler-Sullivan Funeral Home in Poplar Bluff.

By PAUL DAVIS Outdoors Editor The Heartland Gobblers chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation will host a unique event in Poplar Bluff, Mo., on Aug. 8. The inaugural "Gun Bash" will be a casual gathering beginning at 6 p.m. at the Brown-Mabry American Legion Post 153 off Kanell Boulevard...

Loyd Matthews WINONA, Mo.- Friends and family are invited to a memorial service with urn burial for the late Loyd Matthews at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 2, in the Mount Zion Cemetery in Winona. Pastor Steve Matthews will officiate. Immediately following the service, all family and friends are invited to join the Matthews family for a luncheon at the Winona Senior Citizens Center at 212 Sapper St...

Silas Rhodes MALDEN, Mo.- Silas Asa Rhodes, infant, of Bloomfield, Mo., died Saturday, July 19, 2014, at St. Mary's Hospital in St. Louis. Graveside funeral service will be 10 a.m. Saturday in Bloomfield Cemetery. Bradshaw Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements...

By PAUL DAVIS Outdoors Editor Members of the Indian Creek Bowhunters organization and the Poplar Bluff Heroes team are gearing up for the fourth annual St. Jude Shootin' for a Cure archery event on Aug. 9. Each year, the event gets bigger and bigger, said Heroes Team Captain Miranda Fickert, with $18,000 raised last year for the children's hospital in Memphis, Tenn...

Former Poplar Bluff seniors Jake Pulliam and Collin Jones took part in the 38th annual Missouri Lions All-Star football game Saturday. Pitted on two different teams, the friends got the chance to go against each other for one of the few times in their lives, and the smack talk was plentiful. The pair were even lined up across from each other on a few plays and Pulliam took the chance to call out Jones' name...

Bob Board Sr. FISK, Mo. -- Robert "Bob" Board Sr., 70, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., died Tuesday, July 22, 2014, at Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Mr. Board was born July 23, 1943 in Fisk. He owned Bob's General Rental in Poplar Bluff for 22 years...

Janice McClure FISK, Mo. -- Janice M. McClure, 64, of Wappapello, Mo., died Sunday, July 20, 2014 at her residence. Mrs. McClure was born Feb. 17, 1950, in St. Louis, Mo. She enjoyed flowers, gardening, baking, as well as reading and studying the Bible and helping others to understand it...

SPRINGFIELD -- Poplar Bluff native Carr Vernon tied for the second-best round out of everyone in the field during the second round of 2014 Missouri Stroke Play Championship Tuesday. Vernon's round of 67 at Twin Oaks Country Club put him at 5-under for the tournament and in a tie for first place with Joey Johnson of Ozark when the third round started Wednesday morning. After playing 18 in the morning, Vernon will turn around and play the final around this afternoon...

During his State of the Union speech in January, President Obama said he hoped 2014 could be "a year of action." Six months have passed since the President issued his challenge, but leaders in the Senate are still refusing to even hold a vote on common sense bills passed by the House. ...

By FRANK CAMPA Mo. Dept. of Conservation It is now late July and school will begin in only a few short weeks. If your house is like mine, your children are starting to run out of things to do, and when school begins, so will the school-related activities...

This season will mark the 10-year anniversary of Heather Robey destroying the Three Rivers softball record books. As a third team All-American pitcher in her freshman season, Robey set the Three Rivers earned-run average record at 0.92. She also finished second in the books with 210 strikeouts and earned 20 wins...

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN To observe the decades-long paralysis of America's political elite in controlling her borders calls to mind the insight of James Burnham in 1964 -- "Liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide." What the ex-Trotskyite turned Cold Warrior meant was that by faithfully following the tenets of liberalism, the West would embrace suicidal policies that would bring about the death of her civilization...