Stories from Tuesday, March 13, 2012

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- Stoddard County Emergency Management Agency Director Kent Polsgrove presented the County Commission with a report on guidelines for activating outdoor emergency sirens throughout the county at its regular meeting Monday at the Government Building. The commission also discussed some issues surrounding the retirement pay for two part-time employees and an approaching decision by the Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland on the fate of the Service Center in Dexter...

Kathy White, at right, was honored Monday night as "Friend of the Year" by Keller Public Library's Friends of the Library during the group's 12th annual Fashion Show held at the Elks Lodge. At left is Library Director Pam Trammell, who honored White as a "forward-thinking, contemporary entrepreneur" who has continually supported and endorsed the efforts of the local library. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A bipartisan commission passed new Senate boundaries Monday, approving adjustments from its earlier proposal that are designed to smooth population differences among Missouri districts. Doug Harpool, the chairman of the Senate redistricting commission, said the changes should not affect significantly the partisan characteristics of each of the 34 Senate districts. ...

NEW MADRID COUNTY, Mo. -- A Missouri State Highway patrolman from Troop E is improving in a Cape Girardeau hospital today after being shot in the upper chest area during a traffic stop on Interstate 55 in New Madrid County Saturday night. While Corporal Shane Stewart is expected to make a full recovery from the gunshot wound, one man was killed, another was injured, and three individuals now face charges of murder in the second degree...

Dale Whittenberg, son of the late Rolla Whittenberg and Hynthia Jackson Whittenberg, was born on Aug. 31, 1935, in Como, Mo., and died on Friday, March 9, 2012, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Mo., at the age of 76. Mr. Whittenberg was a member of the Second General Baptist Church in Dexter, the former owner of Dale's Shell Service Station in Dexter, and had worked for various service stations and oil companies in the Dexter area. ...