Stories from Friday, April 7, 2006

A Marshall woman has been charged with class C felony child abuse after a hotline complaint that she slapped her young daughter repeatedly in the face. Maura L. Celis, 29, was charged Wednesday with the crime and had arraignment set in Saline County Associate Circuit Court Division 6 for April 19. A surety bond of $7,500 was posted for the accused...

The Marshall Board of Education approved a recommendation Thursday from Superintendent Rob Gordon to increase salaries across the board by an average of 6 percent for the 2006-07 school year. The board also agreed to recommendations from the Community Teacher Association's Fringe Benefit Committee to make two changes to benefit policy and learned of an impending rate hike in health insurance costs...

The Marshall Board of Education bid farewell to one member and welcomed a former member back to the board at a special session Thursday. President Jeff Stubblefield presided over his final board meeting after serving on the board for six years. He was presented with a plaque by Superintendent Rob Gordon to express the district's appreciation for his work...

The Bueker Middle School eighth grade band will be hitting the road next week, performing at the State Capitol in Jefferson City Tuesday, April 11. Sarah Cavanah, director for the BMS bands, and student teacher Ryan McLouth along with several parents of band members will accompany the students on the trip...

The Saline County Health Department Board of Trustees took another step toward a new building for the county health department at Thursday's regular monthly meeting, reviewing a revised floor plan and approving advertising for letters of proposal to build and finance the facility...

While the name of Saturday's free community-wide activity at the Salt Fork YMCA is Healthy Kids Day, the activities and information available are geared toward getting the entire family to engage in a more active lifestyle -- a key step in overcoming or warding off the health problems associated with being overweight...

The Saline County WIC program has had an increase in its income guidelines starting April 1, through March 31, 2007. For example, a family of four can make up to $37,000 annually and each additional family member adds $6,290 a year. A pregnant woman counts as two in the household...

For the Marshall boys' golf team, the adage that "there's no place like home" had resonance. It wasn't until the third week of the season that the Owls got to play a three-way match at Indian Foothills Golf Course, but they made the most of the opportunity Thursday with a solid 160 for convincing victories over NCMC rival Moberly (181) and Sacred Heart (184) -- to whom they had lost the previous week...

SEDALIA -- The Marshall girls' swimming team won four events and two out of three dual matches Tuesday at the Tiger Invitational in Sedalia. Although the Lady Owls lost to host Smith-Cotton, 108-75 -- the closest contest for the Lady Tigers -- they defeated both Hickman Mills (137-16) and Raymore-Peculiar (129-53) with relative ease...

JEFFERSON CITY -- A year ago, Jefferson City handed the Marshall boys' tennis team one of its worst losses of the season. This edition of the Owls is older, and the Jays are younger. Therefore, that Marshall was able to avenge that loss Thursday at Jefferson City, 6-3, was hardly an upset. It was also no surprise that several of the matches went down to the wire...

SLATER -- Slater rallied from a three-run deficit with five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning Thursday to win its first home game of the season, a 7-5 non-conference decision over Prairie Home. Junior Joe Howell's double in the top of the first gave the Panthers the game's first run, but the Purple tied it when a leadoff walk to junior Justin Herring turned into a tally on senior Colter Doherty's grounder. Junior Auston Boggs doubled and scored to give the Wildcats a 2-1 edge in the fourth...

I've traded hurricanes for tornadoes. I don't like either one, thank you. The March 12 tornadoes came a lot closer to me than any hurricane I had to watch out for when I lived two hours from the Atlantic Ocean in North Carolina. Way too close for comfort, tornado sirens or not...