Stories from Friday, September 19, 2014

Dexter Police Sept. 17-18, 2014 Police received a report Tuesday at 11:28 a.m. of theft of a radio from a vehicle parked in the 1300 block of W. Business 60. An accident at Walmart occurred when Jerry L.Simpson of Bernie turned and struck a parked vehicle on the parking lot of Walmart...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander on Wednesday announced plans for legislation to cut fees paid by Missouri businesses to the overall lowest in the country. The proposal will be pre-filed by Sen. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, and will seek to reduce or eliminate numerous fees for new and existing businesses that must file paperwork with the secretary of state...

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (AP) -- Some black Democrats say they will not support any candidate this fall who they believe has not shown respect for the African-American community on issues including education, jobs and racial profiling. The newly formed Fannie Lou Hamer Democratic Coalition made the announcement Wednesday and said it would not single out a specific person running for office, the St. ...

BERNIE, Mo. -- The Bernie Fall Fest this year will feature several new activities as well as lots of arts and crafts booths, food, pageants and activities for children. The festival will be held Saturday, Sept. 27, at Bernie City Park. New this year at the festival will be the Okay Kid's Corral which will feature games, activities and photo opportunities for children. ...

After almost 30 years as a police officer, Dexter Police Chief Sammy Stone has seen the value in having a video record for police interaction with the public. It was with this value in mind that Stone decided to order body cameras a few months ago. "I had put it in the budget already, at the end of the last fiscal year," Stone explained. "I got it on the budget on July 1."...

Dexter High School art students Peyton Holcomb and Josh Ladd are shown as they begin to paint their Bearcat mascot on the downtown window of Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home. The students have been commissioned by various downtown business to "paint the town" in observance of next week's Community Homecoming Tailgate celebrations...

Crowned Miss Stoddard County Fair 2014 this week was, at center, Sophie Thorn from Bloomfield. At left is Second Alternate Shelby Heaton from Puxico, and at right is Ashlynn Wyman from Dexter. The queen and her court were named during festivities at the fairgrounds following the downtown parade...

A Dexter woman, 68-year-old Lena Cantrell, died of natural causes on Friday, Sept. 12 and was taken to Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home in Dexter. Funeral Home Director Greg Mathis has tried unsuccessfully to reach a family member of the woman in order to proceed with funeral arrangements...

Madaline Wilhelm, daughter of the late Harold Fern and Minnie Pearl Owens Thomas, was born in St. Louis on June 10, 1924, and died in Dexter on Sept. 18, 2014, at the age of 90. She had lived in St. Louis, Kansas City and Pacific Grove, Calif., before returning to Puxico in 1946. ...

Richard Hart, son of Ora Calvin Hart of Advance, Mo., and the late Amos Hart, was born on Feb. 4, 1940, in Catron, Mo., and died on Sept. 18, 2014, at his residence in Essex, Mo., at the age of 74. Mr. Hart was of the Baptist faith and had worked as a safety engineer for Oxidental Petroleum for 33 years and as a environmental engineer for the Dexter Hospital for nine years. ...

Dexter High School's 2014-15 Football Homecoming Queen and court will be named at 6:20 p.m. prior to the Friday, Sept. 26 Homecoming match between the Bearcats and the Kennett Indians. The girls are nominated each year by the various sport organizations on campus. ...

Note: A photo gallery of the Bloomfield-Holcomb baseball game is available here: View Baseball Photos BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - A late arriving spectator would have missed out on most of the fun Thursday afternoon in the high school baseball contest between the Bloomfield Wildcats and Holcomb Hornets...

DEXTER, Mo. - The success continued for the Dexter girls tennis program Thursday afternoon as they won all 14 matches against Caruthersville. Dexter beat Caruthersville 9-0 in varsity contest and won the junior varsity match 5-0. In varsity action Dexter's MaKayla Waldner beat Caruthersville's Hannah Bishop 8-0 in the No. ...