JANUARY The Mules Booster Club named Cassidy Harris and Steven Haley of Poplar Bluff High School the January Athletes of the Month during a special presentation on Tuesday, March 24, in the Student Center. Haley, a state qualifier, ended his junior wrestling season with a 49-5 record. He was named the SEMO Conference champion. Harris, a senior, earned 444 seasonal points in swimming, setting dozens of school, meet, all conference and all state records.   FEBRUARY The Mules Booster Club named Morgan McAtee and Chris Stocks of Poplar Bluff High School the February Athletes of the Month during a special presentation on Tuesday, March 24, in the Student Center. Stocks, a senior, finished the basketball season as the seventh

On this farm I see strange things often.  The strangest romance I have ever seen proves that size doesn’t matter.  We currently have two different breeds of swine on our farm.  We have Red Wattle Hogs, which are rather large and unwieldy, and Juliana Pigs, which are a breed of the mini pig currently popular for keeping as pets.  Our Juliana Boar wants nothing to do with his sows.  He is madly in love with one of the Red wattle Sows.  He routinely escapes his pen to join her in the field.   You would imagine she’d have nothing to do with him, but she seems to return his affection.  So much that I’ve seen her lie down and raise a

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to explain the City’s new vacation incentive program. After reading the Daily American Republic article titled “Spaghetti-Gate”, I felt I needed to respond to inform the public about the program and my rationale behind offering the program. I am a member of Rotary and the idea of exchanging a purchased dinner ticket for a day off was born when I wanted to do two things: 1. Improve employee morale, which in turn increases productivity. 2. Help raise money for a local non-profit. Why is this important? I’ll give you two examples: 1. Some employees working for the street department worked for two days during the heavy snow days to clear the City streets.

During the recent winter weather which gave just about everyone the bad case of “Cabin Fever” there was plenty of time to reflect on things of the past and look forward to the coming of spring and outdoor activities.  Spring has finally arrived and with it some of the hazards of being outdoors and spending time with the normal things people do to get ready for an active summer.  Ticks are out. I did a lot of thinking of things that have happened to me during past winters and they included a lot of activity that was not figured as crazy when they happened.  However, as I look back, some of the things were not too bright and some even

How about a little spring weather my friends! Bright sunshine and warm afternoons has turned the crappie on across the lower Midwest, and according to my various social media outlets, a lot of anglers are getting in on the action. There’s a big tournament coming up on Kentucky Lake that is going to land right on some of the best crappie fishing of the year. The Henry County Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse has planned the Second Annual Carl Perkins Center-Tosh Farm Annual Crappie tournament for April 25, 2015 at Paris Landing on Kentucky Lake Entry fee will be $55 per person. 100% of the application fee goes to fight child abuse and aid in the

Poplar Bluff High School math instructor Hope Conover was recently elected to serve a three-year term representing the Southeast District of the Missouri Association of Student Councils. Conover, the PBHS Student Council adviser, attended her first meeting during the annual MASC state convention, which was held Thursday through Saturday, March 19-21, at Park Hill South High School in the Kansas City area. “I have come to love this organization and everything it stands for,” Conover stated. “The other advisers are incredible people and it is such a wonderful opportunity to work with and be surrounded with some of the state’s best teachers and young leaders. I want to do everything that I can to help MASC be as great as