Stories from Monday, January 24, 2000

Scott Van de Ven, Debra K. Johns and Holly Thomas of Schott & Van de Ven Certified Public Accountants have completed training classes. Van de Ven and Johns completed continuing education classes of auditing in a paperless society, a class conducted at St. Louis by the Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants...

The Accident and Back Care Center has moved to 1636 Independence. The new location provides more space and better parking said Dr. Gary J. Bridges, who has operated a chiropractic office in Cape Girardeau since 1986, and has worked as a chiropractor since 1974...

Parts Today, which offers parts for appliances, has opened at 517 N. Silver Springs Road in Cape Girardeau. The new business has more than 1,400 parts for washers, dryers, refrigerators and ranges in stock, and offers another 5,000 parts via overnight service...

Liz Abernathy and Terri Penrod were top producing real-estate agents for Coldwell Banker Hamilton Realty in 1999. Abernathy was the overall top producer with more than $5 million in sales from the company's Jackson office. Penrod recorded more than $4 million in sales out of the Cape Girardeau office...

Andy Leighton of Cape Girardeau has joined American Family Life Assurance Co. of Cape Girardeau as an associate. Leighton, a graduate of Southern Illinois University with a degree in political science, has worked in the waste disposal industry the past three years in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson areas and Southern Illinois...

Steve Brown and Cathy Willen, of the Audiology Center, 262 S. Mount Auburn Road, have been selected to participate in the research of a new digital hearing instrument. The ReSound Corp., of Redwood City, Calif., introduced its first programmable hearing instrument 10 years ago...

Dr. Bernard Burns of Orthopaedic Associates, 48 Doctors' Park, recently attended the 61st annual assembly of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation held at Washington. Burns participated in an educational program featuring new research and clinical updates in spine and joint rehabilitation, arthritis, fibromyalgia, sleep and acupuncture...

Gary Branum, a farmer in New Madrid County, has been elected to a two-year term on the Missouri Farm Bureau board of directors. Branum, who represents District 6 in Southeast Missouri, is past New Madrid County Farm Bureau board president and has served on the state level as rice committee chairman...

Manufacturing continues to expand. Tight labor markets continue. The century rollover caused little or no disruption to commercial or production activity and few future disruptions are anticipated outside few problems concerning Y2K-related inventories...

This "Financial Focus" column is prepared by Edward Jones Investments, headquartered in St. Louis. Jones includes branches throughout the nation, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson. You may not like the company cafeteria, and you may not have the best parking space, but if your employer offers a 401(k) plan, then you've got at least one pretty good "perk" at work...

Jane D. had long wanted the wet, curly look, but she didn't have the hair for it. Her hair was fine, thin, a bit short, and she "just couldn't do a thing with it." Unfortunately, not all persons are born with the hair they'd like to have. But, now they can have it -- 100 percent human hair, available in more than 24 different shades -- said Kim Talley, a hair stylist at Special Effects, a full-service styling salon at 2532 William...

Many consumers have started to pay off their credit card debts faster and resisted new cards, helping reduce personal bankruptcy rates that had reached historic highs, a consumer group said Tuesday. The Consumer Federation of America said 112,000 fewer people filed for and received bankruptcy court protection last year than in 1998, which it termed the largest one-year decline on record...

Thanks to a good economy and a booming stock market, the typical American family saw a huge 17.6 percent jump in family wealth in the mid-1990s, according to a new government survey released Tuesday. The Federal Reserve reported that the typical family's net worth rose to $71,600 in 1998, up from a net worth of $60,900 in 1995, after adjusting for inflation. ...

A "Business Roundtable" to discuss controlling the cost of workers' compensation claims will be held at Cape Girardeau early next month. The discussion group will meet at the Drury Lodge, Interstate 55/Route K at noon Feb. 2. James A. Cochrane III, a senior partner in the law firm of Bradshaw, Steele, Cochrane & Berens in Cape Girardeau, will be guest speaker. He has been defending workers' compensation claims for insurance companies and self-insured corporations almost 25 years...

A Crop Management Conference, hosted by the University of Missouri Outreach and extension, and the Missouri Soybean Association, will beheld Thursday at Sikeston. Registration for the free conference, which doubles as the Missouri Soybean Association District 7 meeting, will be held at 8 a.m. at the Banquets Beyond the Bay Restaurant...

Birk Angus Ranch of Jackson, is a new member of the American Angus Association. The Angus Association has more than 33,000 active adult and junior members. The groups' computerized records include detailed information of more than 13 million registered Angus, according to Dick Spader, executive vice president of the national organization, headquartered at St. Joseph...

Farmers planted less than 43 million acres of winter wheat last fall, the smallest amount since 1972, as producers trying to cope with depressed grain prices continue switching to more lucrative crops, the government said. Plantings of winter wheat, nationally, are down 1 percent from last season's crop and 8 percent below 1998, according to surveys by the United States Agriculture Department. ...

H&R Block Inc. is breaking out of its homey image as the neighborhood tax preparation office with a splashy, $100 million campaign for its expanded Web site and lineup of financial services. Timed to the start of tax season, the advertising blitz and the new Refund Rewards program that debuted last week culminate Block's three-year buying spree of accounting and investment firms, including discount brokerage Olde Financial Corp...

The magazine ad offers jobseekers "the ultimate international career," inviting applications from those with a college degree, an "adventurous spirit" and "a forceful personality." "Do you have what it takes?" the advertisement asks in large type. More and more college graduates are deciding they do and signing up with the CIA. ...

When 75-year-old Cape Girardeau resident Odale Anderson died on Jan. 2, a local funeral home asked the Cape Girardeau County Commission to pay part of the cremation costs. The commission refused to pay, arguing that Anderson wasn't indigent. "With the presence of living relatives and Social Security funds, we feel other methods of payment should be investigated," the commission's administrative assistant, Donna Vines, wrote in a Jan. 7 letter to Ford and Sons Funeral Home...

Construction of single-family homes and a new Wal-Mart Supercenter made for record construction totals in Jackson last year. A total of 292 permits were issued, valued at more than $33.6 million, the first $30 million-plus year for the city. Although the single-family dwellings fell short of the record 145, established in 1994, permits were issued for 112 homes, at an average of $141,000...

While most teen-age girls are worried about the latest fashion trends and makeup styles, Casey Bauer is more concerned about her compulsory dance routine, original step patterns and learning how to waltz while wearing ice skates. At 13, Casey is still perfecting her image both on and off the ice. She and a partner are training for the Junior U.S. Figure Skating Championship competition in early March in New York...

JEFFERSON CITY -- Whatever Bekki Cook decides to do after her term as Missouri's secretary of state expires next January, one thing is certain: She will be doing it from Cape Girardeau. "For sure I'm coming back to Cape. The whole reason I'm not running again is because my family has been divided, and I have been unable to convince my husband that he should move to Jefferson City," Cook said, laughing...

Good food, good friends, good cause that's the best way to describe the "Championship Sunday" football fund raiser at the Bavarian Halle, held to benefit the Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation. No football game is complete without a tailgate party and that's what Chuck Stotz, foundation executive director, created at the Halle, complete with a tailgate on the new truck provided by Ford Groves...

The Salvation Army will be serving Meals with Friends this week. Serving time is 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Today through Friday. People can come and enjoy a hot, nutritious meal in a warm, friendly atmosphere at no cost. The following menu will be served:...

It has been a long time coming, but the official opening last week of Cape Girardeau's first public school since 1967 was a significant event. Tuesday's parade from the nearby Show Me Center to Blanchard Elementary School and the festivities and reception that followed served to announce to the community that the Cape Girardeau School District is on the move...

Again this year, a proposal to do away with the required super-majority vote on local school and municipal bond issues is being pushed in the Missouri Legislature. Under a proposed amendment to the state Constitution, a simple majority would pass bond proposals. Currently, a four-tenths majority is required during municipal, primary and general elections, and a two-thirds majority is needed during all other elections...

DONGOLA, Ill. -- Shirley Parrott Hite, 60, of Dongola died Sunday, Jan. 23, 2000, at the Daystar Care Center at Cairo. Arrangements are pending at Crain Funeral Home at Dongola.

PADUCAH, Ky. -- Charles C. Manker, 59, of Paducah and formerly of Cairo, Ill., died Saturday, Jan. 22, 2000, at Lourdes Hospital at Paducah. He was born Sept. 8, 1940, at Charleston, Mo., son of Charles and Florence Nolen Manker. He was a correctional officer at the Kentucky State Prison at Eddyville before his retirement. He was also a veteran of the U.S. Navy. Manker was a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church at Mound City and a member of the Cairo Jaycees and Cairo VFW...

SIKESTON -- Robert "Bobby" McCarty, 50, of Sikeston, died Saturday, Jan. 22, 2000, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. He was born March 23, 1949, at Indianapolis, Ind., son of Chester Pierce and Ruby A. Ross McCarty. He was a member of First Baptist Church in Blodgett and the Columbus Care Club in Sikeston. He was a volunteer at the Soup Kitchen in Sikeston...

Funeral for Inis W. Fulbright, 83, will be at 1:30 p.m. today at McCombs Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau. The Rev. John Rice will officiate. Burial will be at Mount Hope Cemetery in Perryville. Visitation will be from 10:30 a.m. until service time. Fulbright died Saturday, Jan. 22, 2000, at Chateau Girardeau Health Center...

BLOOMFIELD -- Dail Howard, 82, of Bloomfield, died Sunday, Jan. 23, 2000, at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. He was born June 6, 1917, at Bloomfield, son of Harmon and Florence Alma Capps Howard. He and Louise Harper were married. She died in March 1956. He and Margaret Roberts Montgomery were later married. She died in September 1983...