Stories from Friday, June 12, 2015

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor A nearly $39 million budget for July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016, was approved 6-0 by the Three Rivers College Board of Trustees following discussion during its annual retreat in the Tinnin Fine Arts Center Wednesday...

By DAVID SILVERBERG Associate Editor The nearly $12 million capital projects budget at Three Rivers College includes $9.6 million for the Libla Family Sports Complex. Following a closed session Wednesday, the Three Rivers College Board awarded a $262,800 construction management contract to Brockmiller Construction of Farmington...

By PAT PRATT Staff Writer Poplar Bluff schools received a "C" from the Missouri State Highway Patrol on the 2015 annual school bus inspection. Forty-five buses were inspected. According to the MHSP, 34 of those (75.6 percent) were approved. Ten were rejected (22.2 percent) and one was taken out of service. Statewide averages for 2015 show an 88.3 percent approval rating and a 9.6 percent defective rating with a 2.1 percent out of service rating...

By DONNA FARLEY Staff Writer It cost $19,334 for the city of Poplar Bluff to terminate the employment of former city manager Heath Kaplan. A settlement agreement was released today by the city. The agreement states the city chose to end Kaplan's employment effective May 12 and both parties "voluntarily agreed" to resolve all disputes with the document...

By MICHELLE FRIEDRICH Associate Editor ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The family of a Poplar Bluff woman seriously injured when her car was struck by a suspected drunk driver leaving Brick's Off Road Park has received some good news this week, including that her spinal cord was not severed as doctors originally thought...

The Women's Citizenship Club met recentgly at the home of Mack West, who provided a salad luncheon. Gloria Hoover, president, opened the meeting. Prayer was offered by Kathy Schneider. The president read a letter of resignation from Jan Duffy, secretary, citing other commitments. West led the Pledge of Allegiance and Jean Butler led the club collect...

"Why are my potatoes misshaped?" "Why are the leaves on my beans turning brown?" "Why aren't my snap beans forming bean pods?" Yes, it's that time of year. Our office is starting to answer gardening questions. We use the Vegetable Gardening Questions and Answers publication to answer most of these questions. ...

By MONA CHAREN Many political debates in the upcoming presidential race will play out this way: The Democrat will offer "X for all," and the Republican will respond, "Do you have any idea how much that's going to cost?" That's the way nearly all political debates are engaged -- usually to the disadvantage of Republicans (and the public fisc)...

Should I sue the car wash? I hope you'll print this, Speak Out, because trying to help local businesses survive in this economy is something I try to do, but right at the moment I'm a little bit more angry with them than helpful. The car wash on 67 S --whoever the owner is--needs to get in there and maintain his equipment. ...

By WALTER E. WILLIAMS Last summer's Ferguson, Missouri, disturbances revealed that while blacks were 67 percent of its population, only three members of its 53-officer police force were black. Some might conclude that such a statistic is evidence of hiring discrimination. ...

By JONATHAN BERNSTEIN Bloomberg News The conventional wisdom that Jeb Bush's campaign is in trouble might be correct. According to Byron York's reporting in the Washington Examiner, Bush's camp simply believed this would be 1999 all over again. Republican politicians, campaign and governing professionals, formal party officials and staff, donors and activists, and party-aligned media and interest groups, faced with a rare lack of a natural front-runner, would rapidly rally around the tried-and-trusted Bush banner. ...

SEMO News Service A 17-year-old was recovering from a gunshot wound Wednesday. Just before 11 a.m., the Perry County Sheriff's Office received a call about a person who had been shot and was at his sister's home at a mobile-home park near Shakertown, a subdivision on Route B south of Perryville, Missouri, the office stated in an email...

SEMO News Service CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Two suspects are sought in connection with a shooting which that a Charleston man in serious condition. About 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Charleston Department of Public Safety received a call reporting a person shot in the 400 block of Walhausen Street. At the scene, officers found Javon Betts, 18, who was shot several times, according to Department of Public Safety director Robert Hearnes...

Willie Dell Rattler Willie Dell Rattler, 89, of Poplar Bluff, died Wednesday, June 10, 2015, at Mark Twain Caring Center in Poplar Bluff. The arrangements are pending and will be announced by Cotrell Funeral Service in Poplar Bluff.

Vida "Tootie" White FISK, Mo. -- Vida "Tootie" White, 90, of Fisk, died Wednesday, June 10, 2015, at her residence. Funeral arrangements are pending with White-Sanders Funeral Home at Fisk.

Sandy Shope GREENVILLE, Mo. -- Sandra "Sandy" Shope, 50, of Greenville, died Monday, June 8, 2015, at her residence. Visitation will be at 6 p.m. today at Ruegg Funeral Home, Greenville. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Friday at the funeral home chapel. Burial will follow at Pleasant Valley Cemetery with full military honors...

Betty Ann Crossen NEELYVILLE, Mo. -- Betty Ann Crossen, 69, of Poplar Bluff, died Wednesday, June 10, 2015, at the Mark Twain Caring Center in Poplar Bluff. Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Fowler-Sullivan Memorial Chapel in Neelyville...