News

By the end of this year, Missouri will have enough doses of a COVID vaccine to give the initial shot to most of the state’s roughly 350,000 long-term care facility residents and staff and healthcare providers, state health department director Randall Williams said Friday...

The 2019-20 audit provided suggestions for changes the Neelyville R-IV district should make, but was overall clean.

Poplar Bluff City Council The Poplar Bluff City Council will have a regular meeting at 7 p.m. Monday in the City Council Chambers, 301 S. Fifth St. The council will review the proposed budget for the city of Poplar Bluff and municipal utilities for 2021. ...

The search continues for a Poplar Bluff man charged with a recent home invasion that left one dead and another with serious injuries.

A small earthquake occurred about 6 kilometers northwest of Doniphan early Friday morning. The 12:40 a.m. quake registered at 2.7 magnitude, according to the University of Memphis’s Center for Earthquake Research and Information. It had a depth of .650 kilometers...

Weather impacted “everything” during Jeremy Goodwin’s childhood in Poplar Bluff — so it should not be a surprise that he has made a career out of forecasting weather. Goodwin, a 1991 graduate of Poplar Bluff High School, is the chief meteorologist at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kansas, and has worked at the station for nearly two decades...

COVID-19 challenges have stalled the 2021 Heartland Agriculture and Natural Resources Expo -- the local Ag Expo -- but organizers already are planning for the 2022 event. For 34 years, farmers, gardeners and ag-related business owners have looked forward to the expo. Organizers have discovered, the worse the weather, the larger the crowd. But with attendees reaching up to 10,000 people, the virus is not something with which organizers want to deal...

The Stage Company is ushering in the holiday season with its upcoming production of “A Christmas Story.”

Christmas 2020 will be different for about 300 foster children in the 36th Judicial Circuit, which includes Butler and Ripley counties. COVID-19 has canceled their party, but not Christmas. With the help of several people, the children should have a special holiday...

Two infant deaths caused by what Butler County officials say were unsafe sleep conditions have promoted a push to raise public information about the issue. “Every county has a child fatality review board, it’s a multidisciplinary panel,” said Dr. Claudia Preuschoff. “ ... We are tasked with reviewing every child’s death in the county...

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A Poplar Bluff man pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to distribution of heroin in 2018. Marvin D. Price Sr. pleaded guilty to two felony counts of distribution of heroin before U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hahn...

Smart Space of Poplar Bluff has been approved for $16,100 in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding. The money comes from $4.9 million in CARES Act money granted to Butler County to provide coronavirus relief, according to a press release from Smart Space...

Link is Top Lister Lucas Edington, broker/owner of Mossy Oak Properties Mozark Realty, announced Josh Link as the Top Lister for November. Link has been an agent for Mossy Oak Properties since November. A retired chief warrant officer 3 in the U.S. Army, Link returned to Southeast Missouri and decided to follow in his family’s footsteps by pursuing a career in real estate...

Margaret Harwell Art Museum will celebrate the opening of a new show and a Victorian Christmas during two separate events in December. An opening reception will be held from 6-9 p.m. Saturday at the museum for “Watercolor Now! 2020,” which will be on display until Jan. 24, according to MHAM Director Steve Whitworth...

ST. LOUIS (Dec. 3, 2020) — To assist families and answer their questions about energy assistance, Spire is hosting interactive webinars to help customers sign up for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a federally funded program that assists vulnerable customers with their immediate energy needs. The next LIHEAP webinar is Tuesday, Dec. 8, at noon...

A 35-year-old Malden woman was seriously injured in a one-vehicle crash at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, on Highway 51, four miles south of Qulin. According to the report, Holly A. Matthews was operating a 2005 Toyota Scion northbound when she swerved to miss an animal in the road, which caused her car to run off the left side of the road...

The distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine was among the topics discussed during the Butler County COVID briefing Wednesday. “We are in the planning stages for a vaccine distribution,” said Hank Voelker, regional coordinator with the Missouri Emergency Management Agency. “Those meetings are being held in Jeff City. I don’t know the outcome, but they are being held.”...

Butler County school districts are preparing for the next round of board elections and filings open later this month.

SIKESTON – The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission awarded two contracts for the Southeast District during an electronic ballot process held on Dec. 2. Awarded contracts included two resurfacing projects. Contracts include the following:...

One local man is in custody as authorities continue to search for a second person of interest in connection with an apparent homicide and assault that occurred Tuesday night. “During the subsequent investigation, two persons of interest were developed,” said Poplar Bluff Police Lt. Josh Stewart...

A person of interest has been identified as local authorities investigate a homicide, which occurred Tuesday night inside a Poplar Bluff home. The homicide occurred a little after 10:30 p.m. at a home in the 100 block of Begley Street, said Poplar Bluff Police Lt. Josh Stewart...

Hospitals in Southeast Missouri are experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases, both within their own communities and requests from other medical providers which have run out of bed space and need to transfer patients. Butler County health officials also say staffing, as larger cities seek more health care workers, is impacting the response...

A Neelyville man appeared in court Monday on charges alleging he shot at a teen who was collecting animal traps, one of which earlier had caught the man’s dog. James Wiley Young appeared by video before Associate Circuit Judge C. Wade Pierce and was formally arraigned...

VAN BUREN — Several months after the Mark Twain National Forest released a draft proposal with a recommendation to decommission the campground at the Watercress Recreation Area at Van Buren, officials continue to try to determine the best route going forward for the popular area...

A Poplar Bluff holiday tradition dating back at least two decades will continue this year when the Poplar Bluff Museum hosts its annual Christmas Tree Forest decorating contest and open house this weekend. The contest, according to museum board secretary Kati Ray, is a “community outreach project for the museum...