Out of the past: July 25

1998

Missouri law enforcement has two new weapons in the war on methamphetamine; Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon announced Friday new legislation that will allow cooperative drug investigative and arrest powers between bordering counties in Missouri and Illinois; the new legislation, which becomes effective Aug. 29, means the war on meth "knows no borders," Nixon said; he also announced formation of a new Methamphetamine Prosecution Strike Force to assist local prosecutors with meth cases.

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Eight months after being named the home of the first maximum-security prison built in Southeast Missouri, Mississippi County residents are finally seeing the facility move from paper to reality; some 107 contractors hopeful of winning the bid to build the $73 million, 1,500-bed Charleston Correctional Center visited the city earlier this week to learn the plans and specifications of the project; bids will be opened Aug. 13 in Jefferson City, with construction to begin a month later.

1973

The Federal Aviation Agency's Flight Service Station at Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport may be phased out in the next few years, but the closing is not a certainty yet; two FAA officials confirmed yesterday that the agency is considering a long-range plan to consolidate flight service stations across the country.

With tennis becoming more and more popular, The Southeast Missourian is making plans for its first tennis tournament, scheduled for Aug. 17-19 on the Southeast Missouri State University courts; actually, 1973 marks the 10th consecutive year for a tennis tournament in Cape Girardeau, but in previous years it has been an individual venture by R.C. Malahy, one of the area's top enthusiasts; Malahy, who once played Bobby Riggs and lost, will be tourney director for the newspaper's first venture.

1948

The Rev. and Mrs. C.O. Jefcoat of Sterling, Colorado, are the new pastors of Foursquare Church, Bloomfield Street and Park Avenue in Cape Girardeau; both are ordained ministers and will share the pastorate; they formerly served Foursquare churches in Orlando, Florida; Canyon City, Colorado; and Durango, Colorado, for three years each.

The first gathering to be held in the new Pine Crest Camp, district center for the Church of the Nazarene on Highway 67, six miles south of Fredericktown, Missouri, will be the Young People's Institute; it will be open tomorrow morning with the district convention, and the institute will continue through the week; the camp is a 117-acre tract of pine timber and is to be completed next week, according to the Rev. C.E. Fleshman, who is directing construction.

1923

Apparently crazed by the heat, an employee of the Hely rock crusher residing in a house on a bluff overlooking the quarry, attacks his wife with an ax as she lay asleep in bed, inflicting severe cuts on her head, which may prove fatal; arising shortly after daybreak, the man goes to a neighbor's house to get the ax; he returns home and without a warning, swings the weapon at his wife; officers are searching the nearby woods for the assailant.

Scott County Deputy Sheriff J.W. Allen captured at Fornfelt yesterday one of the 41 prisoners who escaped from the Illinois state hospital for the criminally insane at Chester on Sunday; Allen lodged the man in the town jail, while he phoned the prison; warned that the convict was dangerous and would try to make a break for liberty, Allen returned to the jail in time to frustrate a jail break.

-- Sharon K. Sanders