On Sept. 23, a committee of seven city employees unanimously recommended that city council accept AON as their health insurance consultant over a local company’s less expensive bid. The council voted to approve the recommendation. The next day, our Rust-owned daily proclaimed “City shuns cheaper local bid” and misrepresented that it was the city manager who made the recommendation to take the non-local bid. The first eleven paragraphs of the article painted a city council and city manager who did all they could to take the city’s health insurance business “overseas.” Buried on page 2 in paragraph 12, the report finally mentioned the employee committee recommendation. The next day the paper featured a completely uninformed editorial claiming that Kaplan and
- Oct 23,
Walter Dearing feels pretty good about his chances for being elected Mo. Dist. 150 Representative. Born in Kennett, Dearing was reared on a Dunklin County farm, where he "chopped cotton, picked cotton, pitched watermelons" and decided to pursue a career as a public servant. "I decided to go into law enforcement," he told SEMO TIMES. "I was a cop for 41 years." He began his career at the Poplar Bluff Police Department in 1973, where he earned $375 a month. Dearing served in Dunklin County's law enforcement community beginning four years later, and spent 29 years as an investigator for the prosecuting attorney's office. These days, Dearing manages the Missouri Community Services office at Kennett. "I've been in public service
Oct 22,Walmart & Harps Tie For Best Prices - Krogers Most Expensive POPLAR BLUFF – While talking with a friend about the new Harps in Poplar Bluff (on Shelby Road), they said, “Harps is really nice, but it’s more expensive.” SEMO TIMES felt it would be an interesting task to see how grocery shopping in Poplar Bluff compared among stores. When we mentioned grocery stores to Poplar Bluffians, the list was usually Walmart, Kroger and Harps. So those were the stores we focused on. Yes, there are other places to buy groceries but on the budget we had for the story the limit was set at three. If this story is popular, we might also do a comparison of ALDI, PriceSaver
Oct 18,Dhafer’s Mediterranean Steakhouse 117 S. Locust, Dexter For most of my life, if someone would tell me they were eating in Dexter my mind instantly wondered if it was Hickory Log or Dexter BBQ. These two restaurants feature the iconic flavors of hickory-smoked barbeque that made dry-rub famous in these parts, earning their reputations as the very best. But now, the mention of Dexter has a Pavolovian effect on my pallet after one meal at Dhafer’s Mediterranean Steakhouse. After several days of being in downtown Dexter; enjoying getting to know the owners of the local businesses and interviewing the city administrator, chamber director, college director, I stopped at Dhafer’s for dinner. In one meal, this restaurant’s personality, charm and cuisine
Oct 16,Check out SEMO TIMES new car! Well, not until late 2015, that is. I’ve been watching Elio Motors (eliomotors.com) for six months now and decided that this would be a great car for parades, delivery runs and even if a reporter has to go somewhere for a story. The three-wheeled car gets 84 miles to the gallon and is expected to have a 5-star crash test rating. The vehicle is currently classified as a “motorcycle” in Missouri and, therefore, will require a helmet but no seatbelt. But, Elio Motors is working with legislatures across the states to change the classification of the auto-cycle to a car. The Elio holds two people and even has a trunk. With the back seat
Oct 10,