Stories from Thursday, June 14, 2018

PIEDMONT -- The Clearwater Lake Army Corps of Engineers, the Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri Department Of Natural Resources and League of Watershed Guardians have teamed up again and are seeking volunteers and sponsors to pitch in for a two-day clean up on Saturday and Sunday, June 16-17, to help clean up the Black River...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- For those who hunt waterfowl in Arkansas, the Natural State's Game & Fish Commission recently released the dates for this fall's duck and goose hunting seasons. Straight to the point, nothing really has changed except the Light Goose Conservation Order will have four splits instead of the three it had last year...

Lisa Ann Posey, 52 of Mill Spring, Mo., died Monday, June 11, 2018 at her residence. There will be no services at this time. Online condolences: www.rueggfuneralhomes.com.

MAMMOTH SPRING, Ark. -- The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is asking anyone floating the Spring River in Fulton County to avoid the area near Sadler Falls. A sinkhole has opened below the falls near Dead Man's Curve. Around noon Saturday, the resulting whirlpool was the location of a fatal boating accident...

By WALTER E. WILLIAMS In conversations with most college officials, many CEOs, many politicians and race hustlers, it's not long before the magical words "diversity" and "inclusiveness" drop from their lips. Racial minorities are the intended targets of this sociological largesse, but women are included, as well. ...

DONIPHAN, Mo. -- Beulah Mae Coonce, 86, died Tuesday, June 12, 2018, at her residence in Gatewood, Mo. Visitation will be held from 2 - 3 p.m. Friday, June 15, 2018, at the Edwards Funeral Home in Doniphan followed at 3 p.m. by the funeral service in the funeral home chapel with Steve Sanders officiating. Burial will follow in the Tucker Cemetery...

By GEORGE F. WILL WASHINGTON -- Karl Marx was no more mistaken than usual when he said that historic people and events appear twice, first as tragedy, then as farce. Today's advocates of a musty fragment of the 1970s, the Equal Rights Amendment, are demonstrating that something that begins as farce can reappear as tragedy, because abuse of the Constitution is tragic...

By MICHELLE MALKIN "I also have a dream." This rallying cry, handwritten on a simple white placard held up by an Asian-American mom at a protest this week against liberal New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to radically transform New York City's public schools, says it all. A new civil rights struggle in education has exploded -- yet the national media and the usual celebrity voices for equality and justice are nowhere to be found...

BISMARCK, N.D. -- While the official U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service aerial survey of wetlands and breeding duck numbers likely won't be released for a while yet, the biologists who conduct those counts are reporting mixed results across the northern plains, where the vast majority of Missouri and Arkansas' waterfowl migrate from in the fall...

The Missouri Department of Conservation is taking action to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease, or CWD, in deer populations, by expanding its CWD management zone from 41 to 48 counties. The zone will now include Bollinger, Cape Girardeau and Perry counties...

NEELYVILLE, Mo. -- Carol Sue Maynard, 66, of Doniphan, Mo. passed away Monday, June 11, 2018 at the Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center. Mrs. Maynard was born on June 23, 1951 in Flatwoods, Mo. She had worked as a CNA at the Current River Nursing Home. ...

Freedom truly isn't free as children in Jan Desgranges summer school class spent part of their break learning. The 54 students in the "I Am a Citizen, Too" class were taught democratic principals, patriotism and how to be a good citizen. One of the highlights of the course includes the Veteran's assembly that was held Wednesday at Poplar Bluff Junior High...

Carrie Lee Biggs McCombs, 91, of Poplar Bluff, Mo. died Saturday, June 9, 2018 at her residence. Visitation will be at 11 a.m. Saturday June 16, 2018 at Fitch-Hillis Funeral Home Chapel. The funeral service will follow at 1 p.m. Burial will be at City Cemetery...

Christal Dawn Gaddy Washington, 33, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., unexpectedly passed away Sunday, June 10, 2018 in St. Louis, Mo. She was born May 19, 1985 to Larry Gaddy and JoBeth Chotrow. She is survived by her father Larry Gaddy and her two sons, Isaac Washington and Blake Pirtie...

A free-ranging, wild black bear estimated to weigh about 400 pounds was found dead in the Current River Sunday when passersby noticed its head sticking above the water about 8.5 river miles south of Van Buren. "I got a call saying there was a bear lodged in a rootwad," said Carter County Conservation Agent Mark Wilcoxon. "It was between the Big Tree and Clubhouse campgrounds."...

Gov. Mike Parson touted the need for workforce development, better roads and improved broadband services in rural Missouri during a visit Wednesday to the Southeast Missouri State University farm near Gordonville. "We have to do something about infrastructure in Missouri," Parson told a crowd of about 60 farmers, representatives of business, area lawmakers and Republican Party faithful gathered at the university's David M. Barton Agriculture Research Center...

Landmark neighborhoods would receive new recognition under an effort from the Poplar Bluff Historical Preservation Commission. The commission would like to place bronze signs in five sections of the city that have achieved a place on the National Register of Historic Places for architectural, historic or commercial significance...