Stories from Friday, April 19, 2019

City firefighters responded at 4:41 p.m. Thursday, April 18, to a report of a stalled vehicle at the intersection of Fifth and Oak streets. According to the report, the owner of the vehicle told firefighters it was leaking fuel until he turned it off. The owner reportedly assumed a fuel line was broken or had come loose...

BLOOMFIELD — A Bernie man accused of abandoning the body of a woman found dead in the trunk of her car has been found incompetent to assist in his own defense at this time. Associate Circuit Judge Joe Satterfield issued an order Friday committing Corey L. Gill to the custody of the Department of Mental Health and directing the Stoddard County Sheriff’s Department transport the 50-year-old to a mental health facility...

A visitation will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, April 22 at McSpadden Funeral Home in Ellsinore with funeral services following at noon in the funeral home chapel with Rev. Richard Stevens officiating. Burial will be in the Hunter Highland Cemetery in Hunter, Mo. Online condolences: www.mcspaddenfh.com .

Samuel Hunter Johnson, 1, of Poplar Bluff, Mo. died Thursday, April 18, 2019. Visitation will be held from 11 a.m. to noon Monday, April 22, at Southside Assembly of God, 404 West Midland St. in Poplar Bluff. Funeral services will follow at noon at Southside with Pastor Jerry Lemons officiating. Burial will take place at the Dudley Cemetery.

Visitation will begin at 6 p.m. Monday, April 22, at White-Sanders Funeral Home in Fisk. Funeral services will be at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 23 in the funeral home chapel with Rev. Jim Sanders officiating. Burial will be in the Missouri State Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield. Online condolences: www.whitesandersfuneralhome.com .

The Obama presidency offered no shortage of bad ideas. Attacks on our rural values, job creators, farmers and families were all too common. Among the flurry of misguided policies, the Obama “guidance” on campus Title IX misconduct investigations received minimal attention compared to many of the other disastrous policies. ...

A miraculous event 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem changed the world. On this Easter weekend, the story is presented again from the Holy Bible (the Gospel according to St. Matthew, Chapter 28): In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. ...

The wave of bail reform flowing through areas of the country will surge in Missouri on July 1, and already has taken place in Ripley County. Poplar Bluff Police Chief Danny Whiteley recently invited Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs, Ripley County Sheriff Mike Barton and several bail bonds agents to discuss the flood of issues law enforcement, bail bonds agents and the public soon will be facing...

Before their stories could be lost forever, a Poplar Bluff woman set out to create a record of the families who were most impacted by one of the deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history. Her new book offers a look at the 86 victims that died that day, as well as snapshots of the lives of the 146 children who lost their parents that day; the 92 parents who lost children; the 41 spouses who lost husbands and wives; and 287 siblings who lost brothers and sisters.