Thursday, April 26, 2012 STATE
BUSINESS
SPORTS
Postal issues
Cage-free food Close contest
A Senate bill would help the Postal Service avoid bankruptcy using an $11 billion infusion. Page 4A
Burger King announced Wednesday that all of its eggs and pork will come from cage-free chickens and pigs by 2017. Page 8A
Tracy to meet with new federal building owner RDRH HOLDINGS says the company’s goal is to find a tenant for the building BY SCOTT MOYERS
SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN Contact was finally made between Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy and the federal building’s new owner Wednesday, with both sides agreeing to a sit-down within the next two weeks, when the developer from Austin, Texas, intends to be in town. The news comes nearly a week after the Cape Girardeau County Commission voted to walk away — at least temporarily — from an attempted negotiation to buy the building, citing an inability to get a return phone call from the owner, Majid Hemmasi of RDRH Holdings Inc. The two chatted only briefly after Hemmasi called Tracy late in the afternoon to let Tracy know he wasn’t willfully ignoring him. The Southeast Missourian initially made contact with Hemmasi earlier in the day to find out why he wasn’t giving Tracy a return call. Initially, Hemmasi said that he had not received a phone call from Tracy since
Hemmasi outbid the county to buy the building from the General Services Administration at online auction for $325,015. Later in the day, Hemmasi recanted a bit after talking with Tracy, saying that it was possible that he simply hadn’t received Tracy’s messages. Hemmasi intended to fly to Cape Girardeau sooner, he said, but noted that he has been struggling with back problems. But he will be here within the next two weeks, he said, when he intends to look the building over and meet with brokers and the county commission. “Our goal is to find a tenant,” Hemmasi said. “I’m glad to meet with the county. If they want to buy the building we could work something out. If not, we’ll see if lawyers want to rent it out or somebody else. It’s nothing personal. We just want to come in and clean it up and keep it going. We want to be a part of downtown. We want to work things out so it’s the best thing for everyone.” Hemmasi also agreed that he would sell to a government agency at a lower price than someone from the private sector, something he said the day after See BUILDING, Page 8A
Docs Read the minutes from the county commission’s closed sessions at semissourian.com.
Missouri senators vote to stay out of Medicaid dispute THE BUDGET would have required the state to contract with all companies that met the state’s bidding criteria BY DAVID A. LIEB
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri senators on Wednesday rebuffed a legislative attempt to intervene in a dispute over Missouri’s $1.1 billion Medicaid managed care program after some lawmakers contended it would be inappropriate for them to meddle in state contracting decisions. Under an administrative
policy change, the state decided to limit the number of insurers getting Medicaid managed care contracts this year to three companies. In the past, the state had allowed any firm that met the bidding criteria to compete to cover a portion of the roughly 430,000 Medicaid recipients included in the managed care pool. One of the losing bidders, Molina Healthcare Inc., sued the state seeking to invalidate the contracts. It took particular issue with the new limit on participating insurers and argued that 80,000 Medicaid recipients it currently covers would be harmed if they had to pick a See SENATE, Page 8A
St. Vincent’s girls soccer team beat Jackson’s 2-1 on Wednesday. Page 1B
Sixty wasn’t just a number.
It was oxygen to the drowning masses.
You gotta save the four-lane.
Dammed if you do ...
LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com
Dave Phillips adds floorboard from his uncle’s house on Boone Street in Morehouse, Mo., to the pile of furniture and household items in the front yard May 11.
“They could have told us,‘we’re fixing to dam your community’” BY ERIN RAGAN
On this day, April 26 Cape river level: 42.3 feet Cape flood stage: 32 feet Cairo river level: 56.53 feet Cairo flood stage: 40 feet Rainfall: 1.93 inches The corps delayed the decision to intentionally breach Birds Point. “I don’t want anybody blowing up any levees in my state,” Gov. Jay Nixon announced. Cairo, Ill.’s mayor asked for voluntary evacuation of the city. A shelter for pets was opened in Arena Park. Meanwhile, another 2 inches of rain was expected. For a complete timeline of the Flood of 2011 or to see the photos from last year, go to semissourian.com/flood2011.
Photo gallery
SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN MOREHOUSE, Mo. — Ed Stinnett kept a close eye on the red marks he and other Morehouse residents spray-painted on buildings in late April last year. During the afternoon and into the late evening of April 27, they checked them every hour. They knew more water was coming, and they might have to get going. They might have to leave their homes and businesses behind, at least for a few days. A few blocks to the south, the highway began to disappear. Mark Shelton, district engineer for the Missouri Department of Trans-
See photo galleries, view an interactive timeline and read coverage of the flood at semissourian. com/flood2011. portation’s southeast region, watched traffic back up as reluctant drivers slowly entered lanes covered in cold, muddy water. Shortly before 5 p.m., Shelton made what he now calls an “in-thefield, spur-of-the-moment decision.” He ordered MoDOT crews to build a berm along U.S. 60 to keep the road open. Major highways and secondary roads throughout
BY JOE GAMM
SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN Prosecutors have filed perjury charges against a 45-year-old Cape Girardeau man for failing to disclose he was allegedly biased against police when he was chosen as a juror in a felony drug trial, court records show. A preliminary hearing for Verdist
Poindexter is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday in Jackson. Poindexter was chosen as a juror in the January trial for Charles Anthony Robinson, who was accused of trafficking crack cocaine, court records show. Jurors were out for less than half an hour at the conclusion of the case before the trial ended because of a hung jury, Robinson’s attorney
Steve Wilson said. During jury selection, potential jurors were asked while under oath to raise their hands if they had issues with police officers, such as not trusting them, the probable-cause statement said. “Verdist Poindexter, who was in the See PERJURY, Page 5A
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WEATHER:
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Read past coverage, browse photos and view video related to Jacque Waller’s disappearance at semissourian.com/wallercase.
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See FLOOD, Page 5A
Juror charged with perjury in Cape drug case
WEB: semissourian.com Waller case
Southeast Missouri were already shut down or closing due to days of relentless rain. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were talking about flooding a 130,000-acre spillway the next county over. MoDOT knew, Shelton said, this amount of rain, this flooding, was a series of events that was unprecedented. Many in Morehouse already had water slowly approaching their doorsteps when they turned in for the night. But they awoke the next morning to several inches in their homes and say MoDOT’s berm is to blame. Several property owners filed suit against the Missouri
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Volume 108 • Issue 175
H:80 L: 53 Thundershower