Stories from Friday, January 24, 2014

BELL CITY , Mo. - The January success continued for the Bell City Cubs varsity boys basketball team Thursday night against Zalma. Bell City outscored Zalma by 28 points in the second half on its way to a convincing 76-43 home victory. "I think our defense really turned it up," Bell City first-year coach C.J. Hadley said of his team's strong second-half performance. "We always have our offense. I just feel like it's all about defense. We stepped it up on defense and that's what really helped us."...

Laurajo J. McDowell, 26, died in an early Friday morning wreck on County Rd. 450, just east of US Hwy. 61. The Highway Patrol states that the Sikeston woman was eastbound when she traveled off the right side of the roadway, then the left side, then struck an embankment and a tree. The vehicle overturned, ejecting McDowell. She was pronounced dead at the scene...

ESSEX, Mo. -- Two Essex men sustained minor injuries in an accident that occurred on Highway 114, two-tenths of a mile east of Hwy. BB in Scott County on Thursday. According to the Highway Patrol, Tina D. Norwood, 43, of Essex was westbound when her vehicle, a 2001 Ford Taurus, ran off the right side of the roadway and overturned in a water-filled ditch...

Bill Rhodes died on Jan. 24, 2014, at his residence in Dexter. Visitation will be held at the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter on Monday, Jan. 27, 2014, from 10 a.m. until noon. Funeral services will be held on Monday, Jan. 27, 2014, at noon in the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Chapel...

Jerry Barnes, a resident of Dexter, Mo. died on Jan. 23, 2014, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri at the age of 69. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at this time and will be announced by the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter...

Billy W. Summers, son of the late J. B. Summers and Ora Lee Elder Summers, was born on July 29, 1942, in Blytheville, Ark., and died on Jan. 23, 2014, at Golden Living Center in Dexter at the age of 71. Mr. Summers was a member of the Gospel Assembly Church in Dexter. He had worked as a car salesman, was a member of the Dexter Elks Lodge and a resident of Dexter...

Doyle "Patches" Cash, son of Don Cash of Oklahoma and Vivian Martinez of California, was born on Dec. 21, 1959, in Madera, Cali., and died on Jan. 18, 2014, at his residence in Advance at the age of 54. Mr. Cash had worked as an Emergency Response Technician and was a resident of Advance. He had volunteered his services for many endeavors, never seeking public recognition...

Ansley Ackman is one of Story Hour's regular visitors at Keller Public Library. She is shown listening to Susie Grobe's Tuesday story about playing in the snow. The next Story Hour will be Jan. 28 when Cynthia Keene will present "Barnyard Fun."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Citing federal budget restrictions, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources on Thursday turned down a request for a permit from a northwest Missouri business that sought to slaughter horses for meat. The DNR said in a letter to David Rains, owner of Rains Natural Meats in Gallatin, that the agency was denying his permit request for a proposed horse slaughter operation. ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The New Madrid fault zone in the nation's midsection is active and could spawn future large earthquakes, scientists reported Thursday. It's "not dead yet," said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough, who was part of the study published online by the journal Science...

MARBLE HILL, Mo. -- A Marble Hill, Mo., man is dead, and his brother is in custody after a domestic dispute Thursday morning, the Bollinger County Sheriff's Department reported. Deputies responding to a report of a domestic dispute involving a firearm found Jessie Liley, 50, with a gunshot wound, the department reported Thursday...

In their continuing effort to promote and maintain walking as part of a healthy lifestyle, the Regional Healthcare Foundation (RHF) is once again sponsoring their Walkers for Wellness Project. Running from Feb. 6 through April 25, the program offers members of the local community an opportunity to improve their overall health through regular exercise, according to Carla Boxdorfer, the program's coordinator...

With a little time on his hands on a cold winter's day, Dexter business owner, Joe Vinson, was found Thursday afternoon cracking an ample supply of pecans he'd gathered in recent days. Vinson is shown at his Chrisman Art Gallery on E. Stoddard Street, making use of a unique pecan-cracking device he purchased recently that claims to crack about 20 pecans per minute. Vinson says this year's bumper crop has kept him busy and that on his "best day," he cracked about 30 pounds of nuts...

GRAYRIDGE, Mo. -- At their recent meeting, the Statewide Cost Share Committee approved a project to improve intersections at U.S. Highway 60 and County Road 785 and also at Highway 114 and Country road 785. The intersection improvements will facilitate truck traffic to the new high speed train shuttle which will be carrying grain...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A Republican plan to cut Missouri income taxes for individuals and businesses won quick approval Thursday from a Senate committee, potentially putting it near the top of the list for Senate debate this year. The legislation would gradually reduce Missouri's top individual income tax rate from 6 percent to 5 percent over a decade. It also would phase in a 50 percent deduction over five years for business income reported on individual income tax returns...

Working with a confidential informant, local law enforcement nabbed nine individuals in Stoddard County Tuesday on charges of both distribution and possession of methamphetamine following an extensive undercover narcotics investigation that was initiated by Bernie Police. One of those individuals, a Malden man, is being held in the county jail under a $150,000 cash only bond and is believed to have played a major role in the distribution of meth locally...

Host North County proved no match for wrestling powerhouse Dexter Thursday night. Dexter blistered North County 51-19. The Bearcats won 10 of the 13 matches to accumulated its 51 points. View complete results from the match below: Dexter (DEXT) 52.0 North County (NCH) 12.0...

SCOTT CITY, Mo. -- The Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force is investigating local law enforcement officers, Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter confirmed Thursday. "There is an ongoing investigation into some law enforcement officers," Walter said in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon...

Jerry Barnes, son of the late Henry Barnes and Sylvia Dewitt Barnes was born on July 23, 1944, at Corning, Ark., and died at the Saint Francis Medical Center at Cape Girardeau on Jan. 23, 2014, at the age of 69. Mr. Barnes attended the Master's Touch Church, was a truck driver for Watkins Truck Lines in Memphis, Tenn., and was a resident of Dexter...

Bill Rhodes, son of Shelton and Una Mae Burchfield Rhodes, was born in Kiwannee Mo., on Oct. 25, 1938, and died at his home in Dexter on Jan. 24, 2014, at the age of 75. He served in the Navy from 1956 to 1960 and met his wife, Judy Wood Rhodes, while stationed at Long Beach, Calif. ...