Stories from Friday, December 16, 2011

The acreage threshold in this year's $750 million settlement with Bayer Cropscience on behalf of U.S. rice farmers has been met, meaning the settlement is legally binding and Bayer must begin making payments on the first round of claims. The participation threshold required by the settlement is 85 percent of the average number of planted rice acres in the United States from 2006 to 2009. ...

Stoddard County residents and those surrounding the county may now visit The Daily Statesman's website at www.dailystatesman.com and view holiday greeting messages from their hometown veterans serving overseas. Through a link provided by the Missouri National Guard, videos of seven area servicemen and women were made available to the paper and placed online...

A house at 718 W. Oak was gutted by fire early Thursday morning. Vernice Malone was at the home of her granddaughter when the fire broke out in a front bedroom on the north side of her home around 5:30 a.m. Firefighters remained on the scene until nearly 8 a.m. ...

Sometimes just being a nice person pays off, and sometimes that happens when one least expects it. Sunday, Dec. 11 was just another workday for 17-year-old Maygan Roberts of Dexter. The high school senior is no stranger to work. She has spent many hours since August after school and on weekends in front of, and behind the counter, at the local Burger King...

DEXTER, Mo. -- Dexter made a tight 11-8 first quarter score seem like a fluke as the Lady Bearcats turned it up a notch from there on and rolled to a 69-34 win over undefeated Sikeston Thursday night at the Bearcat Event Center. Dexter's Brittany Harris and Hannah Noe both posted double-double efforts while snapping Sikeston six-game winning streak to open the season. ...

Karen Walker, daughter of the late Ray and Genevieve Williams, was born on Dec. 10, 1951 in Poplar Bluff, Mo. and died at the Puxico Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Puxico, Mo. on Dec. 15, 2011 at the age of 60. Karen was a homemaker, a resident of Puxico, and a member of Liberty Hill Baptist Church in Aid, Mo...

Dale Tolbert, son of the late Orbe and Minnie Mae Malone, was born in Bloomfield, Missouri on April 19, 1928, and passed away at the Missouri State Veterans Home in St. Louis, Missouri on December 13, 2011 at the age of 83. Dale lived in St. Louis for many years where he worked for Carter Carburetor. After retirement he and his wife moved to Puxico where they lived for several years. Dale attended church at the Baptist church in Puxico. Dale served in the US Navy during WWII...

John Dee Brown Jr., son of John Dee Brown Sr. and Ora Dean Hanback Brown both of Dexter, was born on March 13, 1953 in Great Falls, Montana and died on December 15, 2011 at the Missouri Southern Healthcare in Dexter at the age of 58. He was a Veteran of the United States Navy serving during the Vietnam era and was a resident of Dexter...