Center Stage and the Three Rivers College Music Department present the lively musical Oklahama! at 7 p.m. April 16-18 and 2 p.m. April 19 at the Tinnin Center on the Three Rivers Campus in Poplar Bluff. Tickets are just $10. They can be purchased in advance at the Poplar Bluff Chamber of Commerce and the Three Rivers Financial Services Office. Tickets also will be sold at the door. With Rodgers and Hammerstein’s timeless music, Oklahoma! celebrates the vigor of America’s pioneering spirit with memorable music, boot-stomping dancing, romance, comedy and action. Set in Western Indian Territory just after the turn of the century, the high-spirited rivalry between the local farmers and cowboys provides the colorful background against which Curly, a

Poplar Bluff High School seniors Namara Haq and Zain Siddiqui were selected as honorable mentions in the Missouri Scholars 100, a statewide program sponsored by the Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals that honors the top academic students in the graduating Class of 2015. Each student nominated had to meet criteria of an “academic decathlon,” which included 10 events designed to assure the academic strength of the individual, according to the MASSP. To meet the requirements, the student must have a minimum GPA of 3.750, a minimum ACT score of 29 or a minimum SAT score of 1,900, be ranked in the upper 10 percent of the class, and have taken upper level courses in mathematics, science, English and foreign

Possibly the most abroad this Heartlander has ever been (it’s difficult to count the miles with your eyes clinched shut, gripped in fear because the jet-propelled, patchwork rust-bucket you’re crammed in is convulsing through the whatsos-sphere like a Chinese bottle rocket with a broken stick,) the St. John’s River might had well of been on another continent. The pristine, inter-coastal swamp offered a backdrop that would have been enough to make the trip worthwhile on its own, but the wildlife that inhabited the tranquil current, both above and below the water’s surface, was easily the main attraction. I was tucked in a quaint cottage overlooking the river at the Hontoon Landing Resort and Marina in beautiful West Volusia, Florida, and

The Poplar Bluff City Council issued the R-I school district a proclamation on Thursday, April 9, at the 5th & 6th Grade Center, encouraging students to perform their best, as high schoolers begin End of Course exams this week, followed by Missouri Assessment Program testing for grades 3-8. For a detailed test schedule and some pointers, please visit:  http://www.poplarbluffschools.net/admin/2015-test-schedule/

There is no doubt Americans sometimes long for a simpler time. Almost everyone longs to go back to Mayberry, where spring evenings are spent on a front porch amidst the symphonic aroma of flowering trees and the sweet promise of summer. Almost everyone wants to walk through a friendly neighborhood where children are out hunting fireflies at dusk. It is that longing for Americana and simplicity that keeps people coming back year after year to Charleston, MO and its annual Dogwood and Azalea Festival, this year April 16-19. As a matter of fact, this year’s theme is “Take a Step Back in Time.” Karen Teeters, Executive Director of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce and Tourism says that about 30,000 people