Shrestha named Mo. Geographic Bee semifinalist

Samartha Shrestha of Cape Girardeau has been named a semifinalist for the 2012 Missouri Geographic Bee. Bees were held in schools with fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school's bee winner. The competition will be held March 30 on the campus of the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Woods promoted to major in Missouri Guard

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- Mike Woods of Scott City was recently promoted from captain to major in the Missouri Army National Guard. Woods has been with the Missouri Guard for 17 years after five years of prior service in the Marine Corps. He is the full-time supply officer, an active Guard position, for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 35th Engineer Brigade, of Fort Leonard Wood. A 1985 graduate of Scott City High School, Woods earned a bachelor of science in psychology in 2001 from Southeast Missouri State University. Woods is supported in his military career by his wife, Judy, and daughters Autumn, 18, and Alivia, 6, his mother, Janet Woods, of Scott City, his father, Levi Woods, of Rockview, Mo., and his sister, Sherry Westbrook, of Cape Girardeau.