Region/state digest 10/30/04

Cape grocery robbery by man in green mask

A man in a Halloween mask robbed Food Giant, 1120 N. Kingshighway, at about 8 p.m. Friday, Cape Girardeau police said. at 8:34 p.m. Sgt. Kevin Orr said the suspect entered the store wearing a green mask and a black long-sleeved shirt. He went inside and demanded money. A witness, Kyle Fouch of Cape Girardeau, said he and some friends saw a large man wearing a Halloween mask enter the store and approach a female employee. "He said, 'Give me your money, now,'" Fouch said. "Then he put his hand in his pocket and said, 'Do you want to see what's in my pocket?'" Fouch said the suspect was wearing white gloves and a green mask of Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream." He left the store and got into a gray newer-model Mercury Grand Marquis or Crown Victoria and drove north on Kingsway.

Judge bars firm's e-mail to public school officials

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A judge has barred a Web site operator from sending e-mails requesting the sexual orientation of Missouri public school officials, the attorney general's office said Friday. Attorney General Jay Nixon sued the StarProse Corp. last week, saying it sent unwanted e-mails to several superintendents threatening to describe them as gay if they did not respond with personal information. Circuit Judge Bruce Colyer permanently barred the Abilene, Texas-based company and its president, Jeffrey Kowalski, from sending e-mail requesting the sexual orientation of any school or government employees in Missouri.

Plane crashes in northeast Missouri; possibly 2 dead

BIBLE GROVE, Mo. -- A single-engine plane crashed in northeast Missouri on Friday night, and authorities had reports of two people possibly being killed in the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The plane, a four-seater Beechcraft BE36, was flying from Winner, S.D., to Anderson, Ind., when it went down about 8:45 p.m., said Tony Molinaro, FAA spokesman for the central region. Molinaro said the accident occurred about 15 miles north of Kirksville and that the pilot may have encountered thunderstorms in the area before crashing. The crash occurred more than a week after a commuter plane went down during its final approach to Kirksville Regional Airport, about 30 miles from Bible Grove, killing 13 of the 15 people onboard.

-- From staff, wire reports