Stories from Wednesday, December 1, 2021

The Poplar Bluff Police Department continues to investigate a shooting Tuesday evening on the city’s east side, which left one man injured. “We’re investigating a shooting that happened at the Munch & Pump on the east side,” Detective Danny Hicks said Wednesday morning...

SIKESTON — The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission awarded contracts for Southeast District projects during its regular meeting Dec. 1. Awarded contracts include resurfacing, adding shoulders, culvert and bridge replacements, erosion control repairs and sidewalk improvements...

PIEDMONT, Mo. — Betty L. Kemp, 85, of Mill Spring, passed peacefully to her eternal home in Heaven on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021 at the Clark’s Mountain Nursing Center in Piedmont. She was born Jan. 11, 1946 in Silva, Missouri, the daughter of Wesley Kiger and Jewell (Malloy) Kiger. A long time resident of Mill Spring, Betty was a member of the Mill Spring Christian Church...

A Poplar Bluff man will spend the next 18 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections after he was sentenced Tuesday for his role in the 2019 death of a Thayer man. Kahlil Gregory Smith was sentenced Tuesday by 36th Circuit Presiding Judge Michael Pritchett to 18 years on the Class A felony of second-degree murder and 18 years on the unclassified felony of armed criminal action. Both sentences are to be served concurrently...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – State Rep. Hardy Billington says the integrity of elections will be at the forefront of his legislative priorities for the upcoming 2022 legislative session. On Wednesday, Billington filed several pieces of legislation for the upcoming session, ranging from election integrity, initiative petition reform, abortion, Second Amendment rights, Critical Race Theory, and more...

Vernon Leroy Grobe, 77, of De Soto, Missouri, formerly of Hermann, Missouri, died Monday, Nov. 29, 2021 at Hillcrest Care Center, in De Soto. Mr. Grobe was born Nov. 26, 1944 in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, son of the late Vernon Eugene and Elizabeth Jewel (Keena) Bailey. Vernon loved to make people laugh, and enjoyed going to comedy clubs and doing stand-up comedy when he was younger...

Three Rivers College Patrons of the Arts and the Rodgers Theatre have partnered to present The Issacs, a Grammy-nominated family gospel group. The Isaacs blend a tight harmony with influences of country, rhythm and blues, bluegrass and southern gospel. The performance is 7 p.m. Dec. 3. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at rodgerstheatre.org...

Santa Land volunteers are fine-tuning plans for the annual Santa Land to be held from 5:30-8 p.m. Tuesday in the Black River Coliseum. They are (seated from left) Renee Stuart of Wappapello and Nila Keller of Poplar Bluff representing Altrusa and (standing from left) Beverly Walker of the Seventh-days Adventist Church, Raymond Webb of Walmart, and Kennedy Thayer and Greg Riggs, both of the Poplar Bluff Park Department...

The Margaret Harwell Art Museum will hold a Dean Mitchell reception from 6-8 p.m. Saturday with a presentation by the artist, but it will not be in person. He will instead attend via Zoom due to his recent bladder cancer diagnosis. “We will have a Zoom conference with him. We will set up a TV screen for people who come to the reception, so they will be able to see him in real time and he will see them,” museum director Steve Whitworth explained...

BUTLER COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT Deputies responded at 8:52 a.m. Monday, Nov. 29, to a report of an abandoned vehicle at the intersection of County Roads 331 and 328. They found the vehicle had been burned. _ McKenzie J. Gray, 29, of Ellington was booked Tuesday, Nov. 30, at the Butler County jail on a capias warrant for possession of marijuana...

JACKSON, Mo. — The Poplar Bluff girls basketball team couldn’t hang on to a fourth-quarter lead Wednesday night in the consolation semifinals of the SEMO Conference Tournament. New Madrid Central outscored the Mules 17-6 over the final eight minutes to beat Poplar Bluff 38-36...