Charleston, Missouri - The Charleston Middle School is the recipient of the 2018 Sy Williams Annual Award for Education to support a new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) course at the school.

Principal Dr. Kimberley Blissett accepted the award of $1,000 during a presentation in the school’s recently-renovated library on Tuesday, May 15.

The award will be used to purchase equipment for the course including an iPad and a 3-D printer. The new class will meet in a specially-equipped lab. STEM curriculum uses an interdisciplinary approach and real-world applications to teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Students taking STEM courses increase in their math and science proficiency and problem-solving ability. The elective STEM course at Charleston Middle Schools will be offered in addition to standard math, science, computer courses currently offered by the school.

The Sy Williams Annual Award for Education is named for lifelong Charleston resident Sylas “Sy” Williams (1840-1944). Mr. Williams was a founding trustee of Perry Chapel A.M.E. Church. His daughter, Mary Hawkins, and granddaughter, Pauline Murphy, were career educators in the Charleston public school system.

As a young man, Mr. Williams, his parents, and siblings were enslaved on a farm just outside of Charleston. According to U.S. Census figures in 1860, 1,010 enslaved African Americans lived in Mississippi County. Following emancipation, Williams lived in a cabin located on what is now Sy Williams Avenue.

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Route CC in Stoddard County will be closed as Missouri Department of Transportation crews perform pavement repairs. 

This section of roadway is located from Route HH to Route A.                                       

Weather permitting, work will take place Tuesday, May 22 through Thursday, May 24 from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily.

Dexter, Missouri - Dexter Police will be joining with statewide law enforcement May 21 - June 3 for an aggressive “Click It or Ticket” mobilization to crack down on Missouri’s seat belt violations. 

Six out of 10 people killed in 2017 Missouri traffic crashes were unbuckled.

And even with all the advancements in automobile safety and education on the importance of seat belt use, Missouri’s seat belt use has shown modest improvement in the last six years and is still consistently below the national average. 

Missouri has an 84% seat belt use, which is well below the national average of 90 percent. Teens and pick-up truck drivers are among those least likely to buckle up at 70 and 69 percent. 

“Every day someone dies in a crash in Missouri because they weren’t buckled up,” said Chief Trevor Pulley. “We will be pulling out all the stops to ensure motorists are buckling up.” 

Seat belt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. 

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Our Nation grieves with those affected by the shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas. May God heal the injured and may God comfort the wounded, and may God be with the victims and with the victims' families.

As a mark of solemn respect for the victims of the terrible act of violence perpetrated on May 18, 2018, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, May 22, 2018.

I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including

all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.

DONALD J. TRUMP