Stories from Friday, July 12, 1996

To the editor: Privatizing the U.S. Postal Service is another dumb idea. It's another of the dumb ideas emanating from the Big Lie foisted on the American psyche that private industry can do anything better than the government. It makes me wonder if America would be electrified to this day if left to private industry...

Perryville Road residents had different opinions on the city's plans for their street, but their technical questions were answered Thursday at the A.C. Brase Arena Building. About 50 people attended an open house sponsored by the city of Cape Girardeau to help people understand proposed road improvements. Black & Veach, a St. Louis engineering firm, designed the plans, which were enlarged and spread out on tables...

JACKSON -- Mailboxes will be filled and phones will be ringing soon in Jackson homes as the 40 members of the Support Jackson R-2 Education Committee remind voters about a proposed school bond issue. Voters in the Jackson R-2 School District will decide the fate of a proposed $7.8 million bond issue at the polls on Aug. 6. A public forum is planned July 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Middle School Cafeteria to answer questions about the bond issue...

Contracts for almost $3 million have been awarded for stone repairs to revetments and dikes in the Mississippi River, from the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Ill., to the mouth of the White River in Arkansas. Luiseno Inc., of Morrilton, Ark., has received the $2,947,112 contract from the Memphis District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers...

I THINK Bill Clinton is the best thing since sliced bread. I think the Republican Party should get off of Clinton's back over Whitewater. The liberals aren't the ones who got busted in Watergate, now are they? It was those darn Republicans. WE ALL remember Ron Howard from "Happy Days" and when he was much younger -- Opie in "Mayberry RFD" and the "Andy Griffith Show." I hope we can appreciate that the name Ron Howard will go down in history as one of our time's greatest directors. ...

If any doubt remained that the road to presidential victory for Bob Dole lies in a bold, across-the-board tax-cutting plan, the events of the last five weeks or so have dispelled it. The former Senate majority leader has spent much of these precious days flailing about like a fish in a rowboat, defending an offhand comment about whether nicotine is addictive. ...

Anyone who has followed news events for a number of years knows the term "pack journalism." This is when news organizations jump on a theme or topic or event and cover it ad nauseum, often feeding on each other's reporting in the process. Pack journalism has been described as very similar to watching frenzied fish in a pond that are used to being fed at the same time every day...

The history revisionists are at it again, but this time they appear to be on the right track. It has to do with Betsy Ross and the first U.S. flag. The story about how George Washington sketched out the flag and asked Ross to stitch it together probably isn't true at all...

Following a memorial today at the U.S. Capitol to honor U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, the House plans to pass legislation bearing the late congressman's name. The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act would protect from liability businesses, groups and individuals that donate food items to charitable organizations in good faith. Emerson, who died last month, was a champion of hunger-related issues...

Unlike most students today, Geraldine Lee never had a new textbook during her years in school. Lee attended a segregated elementary school in Jackson and later, in 1941, transferred to the John S. Cobb School in Cape Girardeau for high-school classes...

Flint, a specially trained service dog, needs a home. The agency that trained Flint and dozens of other service dogs like him to help disabled persons with everyday tasks has a long waiting list. But no one on the list has needs that match Flint's extraordinary skills...

Homer Gilbert, Cape Girardeau Municipal Band's oldest member, said learning to play the trumpet was "a matter of strap and whip." Gilbert, 83, began learning the trumpet at age 9 and joined the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band when he was 14. "My trumpet career," said Gilbert, "was inspired by my mother, who said I'd ~`get the strap' if I didn't learn to play."...

Convicted "sexual predators" will have the Missouri Department of Corrections looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives under legislation signed into law Thursday by Gov. Mel Carnahan. The governor, accompanied by state legislators and the director of the Department of Corrections, ceremonially signed the bill at Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau...

Make that a chunk of column, not the editor, who only lost his patience and a large portion of his good nature. When my computer is good It is very, very good. It helps me every day. But when my computer is bad, It might as well be oatmeal. Oh, well, you get the point...

Mary Kistner and Ken Miles of Cape Girardeau have earned Letters of Commendation from the Cape Girardeau Fire Department for their efforts in obtaining funding for the department's "Learn Not to Burn" program. "Learn Not to Burn," a fire safety education program for school-age children, required pamphlets for the children who participated. ...

Scott City is starting to get excited about its caboose. A special meeting Monday night at city hall to discuss plans for displaying a railroad caboose brought together representatives from such groups as the Historic Preservation Committee, the Garden Club, the Scott City Chamber of Commerce, the City Council and railroad buffs...

Louise M. Bruenderman, 79, of 3120 Independence, died Thursday, July 11, 1996, at St. Francis Medical Center. She was born Feb. 28, 1917, in Charleston, the son of Alfred George and Nettie Telker Carlisle. She married Raymond Bruenderman on May, 13, 1935, in Charleston...

Evelyn Gearing, 74, died Thursday, July 11, 1996, at Fountainbleau Lodge. She was born Nov. 21, 1921, at Fornfelt, daughter of Joseph C. and Pearl Dover Gearing. Gearing was a secretary, treasurer and partner in Garber Pharmaceutical Export Co. in New York City 32 years, retiring in 1976. She was a member of 12th Street Baptist Church in St. Louis...

ESSEX -- Edward E. McGarity, 81, of Essex, died Wednesday, July 10, 1996, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. He was born Jan. 11, 1915, in Russellville, Ark., son of James and Myrtle Robinson McGarity. He and Barbara Sherrill were married Oct. 14, 1950, in Russellville...

CAIRO, Ill. -- Freida Williams, 90, of St. Louis, died Saturday, June 29, 1996, at West View Nursing Home in St. Louis County. She was born Sept. 8, 1905, in Enterprise, daughter of William and Catherine Miller. She married Herbert B. Williams, who died Dec. 14, 1981...

Funeral service for Maggie Carroll, 611 S. West End Boulevard, will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. James AME Church. The Rev. David Allen will officiate. Burial will be in Fairmount Cemetery. Friends may call at Ford and Sons Sprigg Street Chapel from 6-8 p.m. today. An Eastern Star service will be held at 6...

Daughter to Jim and Lori Whistler of Kansas City, St. Luke's Northland Hospital there, 12:52 p.m. Tuesday, June 11, 1996. Name, Lauren Catherine. Weight, 7 pounds 2 ounces. First child. Mrs. Whistler is the former Lori Navetta, daughter of Linda Navetta of St. ...

ESSEX -- Charles Edward "Gov" Jones, 53, of rural Essex, formerly of Sikeston, died Sunday, July 7, 1996, at the Dexter Memorial Hospital. He was born April 8, 1943, the son of David Jones of Sikeston and the late Lillian Young Jones. Jones was a graduate of Lincoln High School in Sikeston and was of the Baptist faith. He served in the U.S. Navy from Dec. 29, 1960, to Feb. 25, 1963, when he was honorably discharged...