Stories from Tuesday, September 9, 2003

The McCook Community College Indians gave Otero Junior College all it could handle Monday night. McCook started off slow as the taller Otero team controlled the first two sets of the night. McCook had trouble all night with 6-foot Patrice Henson and 6-1 Nicole Kinn, but the Indians hung around in the games...

MCC golfers third at E. Wyoming TORRINGTON, Wyo. -- The McCook Community College men's golf team opened the fall portion of its schedule with a third-place finish at the Eastern Wyoming Invitational Friday and Saturday. Lamar, Colo., edged out Eastern Wyoming 588-590 for the team title. McCook posted a 609 score, followed by Johnson and Wales College-Denver 678...

At some point in everyone's life we think about the future. Not the near future, but the far-off future that only our children's grandchildren's children will see. Some believe that the future will include flying cars, metropolis' in the sky, people living on the moon or a family of cyborgs, human/computer creatures, living next door to you...

David Staenberg paused near the Heartland Counseling center Monday, during his ride across Nebraska to raise funds for Wolf Recovery Services Inc., which he founded to provide addiction and transitional living services for men, through two halfway Wolf Houses in Lincoln and Omaha, as well as two new, less structured Phoenix three-quarter way houses. ...

McCook Public Schools' board of education members agreed Monday to exceed the state-mandated $1.05 levy limit to replace $115,202 lost to reductions in state aid. The vote to replace lost state aid was unanimous, as was a vote to implement the authority to access the applicable allowable growth rate of 00.3655 percent plus 1 percent. This second move is not an actual expenditure, said the schools' finance director Randall Datus...

Hang the judge? I was appalled to read the article in the Gazette titled, Grand Island man given jail, probation for party assaults. It seems the father assaulted a 13 or 14 year old girl at his daughter's slumber party. Since he pleaded no contest, he was given only 180 days in jail, and five years probation, even though he committed another assault on a child six months earlier. Where is the justice here? Should the judge be hung?...

Freedom of religion Dear Editor, Those who would desecrate the flag, or refuse to salute it, ought not get a free public education! Which of the Ten Commandments is a violation of the "Bill of Rights," United States Constitution? Which of the Ten Commandments can you delete to improve any society?...

The people of Nebraska have been duped. Royally duped. The way they have been misled is through the statewide testing of students. Last week, when writing test results were announced throughout the state, it was widely assumed that all schools and all students were being held to the same standards. ...

Red Willow County commissioners did not increase the county's tax levy Monday morning, but the same 31-cent levy will raise $55,456 more in taxes than last year because of a $18 million increase in the county's valuation. The county's budget requires $1,798,810.82 in personal and real property taxes. That compares to $1,743,353.91 in property taxes in 2002-2003. The county's valuation increased $17,889,231, from $562,372,230 to $580,261,461...

Hang the judge? I was appalled to read the article in the Gazette titled, Grand Island man given jail, probation for party assaults. It seems the father assaulted a 13 or 14 year old girl at his daughter's slumber party. Since he pleaded no contest, he was given only 180 days in jail, and five years probation, even though he committed another assault on a child six months earlier. Where is the justice here? Should the judge be hung?...

Freedom of religion Dear Editor, Those who would desecrate the flag, or refuse to salute it, ought not get a free public education! Which of the Ten Commandments is a violation of the "Bill of Rights," United States Constitution? Which of the Ten Commandments can you delete to improve any society?...

The people of Nebraska have been duped. Royally duped. The way they have been misled is through the statewide testing of students. Last week, when writing test results were announced throughout the state, it was widely assumed that all schools and all students were being held to the same standards. ...

I remember watching a movie version of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" back in the 1960s, and the remake a couple of years ago. I enjoyed the movies, and the idea of a time machine is intriguing -- except perhaps for the part in the '60s version, where the world was destroyed in a nuclear war in 1966. ...

PRAGUE, Okla. -- Bennie Carroll Gravitt, 57, died Sunday (Sept. 7, 2003) at his home in Prague, Okla. He was born Sept. 18, 1945, to Leo and Georgie (Loney) Gravitt in Prague. On Sept. 18, 1963, he married Joyce Burham in McCook. He worked as a retail clerk for various companies. In pursuit of his career, he moved to Australia in 1979. He then moved to California and later back to Prague where he lived for the last 22 years...

IMPERIAL -- John Power, 83, died Monday (Sept. 8, 2003) at Chase County Community Hospital in Imperial. Survivors include his wife, Lillian of Imperial; three sons, Gary Power and wife, Lory of McCook, Jon Power and wife, Martha Jane of Aliso Viejo, Calif., and Joel Power and wife, Gena of Blue Springs, Mo.; two daughters, Marcia Smith and husband, Wendell of Grant and Alexis Gillen and husband, Clarence of McCook; sister, Elva Williams of Cozad; and 12 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren...

ATWOOD -- Clifford L. Schissler, 81, died Sunday (Sept. 7, 2003) at Rawlings County Health Center in Atwood. He was born Aug. 29, 1922, to Fred and Nanna (Carlson) Schissler west of Traer, in Decatur County. He graduated from Traer High School and later attended auto restoration school in Denver...