Stories from Thursday, January 14, 2010

James L. Stone, 75, of Joplin, Mo. passed away at 10:10 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010, at his home following a two year illness. James was born Jan. 12, 1935, in El Dorado Springs, Mo., and had lived in the Joplin area since 1975, moving from Nevada, Mo. He was employed with 12th. St. Scrap, and Atlas Iron and Metal Co., retiring in 1989. He was an Army veteran of the Korean War...

Jan. 2 Joyce C. Julian, Nevada, expired license plates. Belva J. Meisenheimer, Nevada, failure to stop at a stop sign. Michael T. Moore Jr., Nevada, expired license plates and no proof of insurance. Peggy S. Seitz, Nevada, expired license plates. David K. Stephens, Nevada, failure to stop at a stop sign...

The Greater Ozarks Chapter of the American Red Cross will be conducting a shelter training, Sunday, Jan. 17. The class will be held at the Seventh Day Adventist Church located in Nevada and will go from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Call the local office at (417) 667-5563 to sign up or e-mail Joyce Wallace at joycewallace@hotmail.com for more information...

JOPLIN, Mo. -- Last week as temperatures dropped, Empire District Gas customers' demand for energy soared, resulting in a new company record for gas usage. The record occurred on Thursday, January 7, with bitterly cold temperatures pushing the daily gas volume to 73.3 million cubic feet. ...

A representative for Senator Kit Bond, Hollie Elliott, will hold a listening post Tuesday, Jan. 26, at the Recorder of Deeds office in the Vernon County Courthouse from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Listening posts are meetings Bond's staff hold with constituents across the state. Bond established the program in 1987 as a way to better serve Missourians and to inform constituents about the assistance his office is able to provide...

The annual Girl Scout Cookie Crunch-Off has been rescheduled. The event, which kicks off Girl Scout cookie sales in Vernon County will begin at 2 p.m., Jan. 17, at the Vernon County fairgrounds. Carnival games and activities begin at 2, followed by the crunchin' fun at 3:30. For the Crunch-Off, local teams will compete to see who's the fastest cruncher. The event is open to the public. There is a $2 admission fee per child; parents may watch for free. Popcorn and beverages are provided...

Governor Jay Nixon announced $12 million in grants for community colleges to expand Missourian's educational opportunities in high-tech fields so they can find work in growing industries. The grants will help the community colleges create or expand existing programs to serve additional students...

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti Tuesday shortly before 5 p.m. According to the United States Geological Survey the epicenter was 10 miles southwest of the nation's capital, Port-Au-Prince, and approximately six miles below the surface. A USGS geophysicist, Kristin Marano, called it the strongest earthquake since 1770, in what is now Haiti...

William James Barger, 48, of Nevada was arrested just south of Nevada on Monday, Jan 11, by the Vernon County Sheriff's Department in connection with the Nov. 9, 2009, home invasion in northern Vernon County, along Highway D near Metz, that left Charles Scammell wounded by a shotgun blast...

There is a song with words saying something about knowing when to hold and when to fold. I'm not a poker player so I probably wouldn't know which to do if I played a game. But I have certainly been told many times lately to "please hold." These telephone moments when we are waiting for action are bad enough if we are just sitting there quietly by ourselves. ...

Clint Rawlings, shown above displaying the skull of the winning deer, was named the winner of this year's Magnum Mike's Big Buck contest. His prize was $300.

"If we play hard and we do what we're supposed to do, then he's just as happy as if we would have won. Of course, we'd like to win, but he's not mad if we don't if we play our hardest." That doesn't seem like the expected mindset of a coach who has reached a significant milestone such as 300 career wins and holds a career winning percentage of better than .700, but that's exactly how Lady Tigers senior post player Daven Smith described head coach Brent Bartlett...