Stories from Wednesday, April 6, 2005

McCook boys place first, girls 2nd at home meet Kyle Custer of Cambridge won the J.R. Mollring Award as his team took second place in the boys division of the LeRoy Hoehner Track and Field Invitational on Saturday at the McCook High School track. McCook won the boys division with 204 points, followed by Cambridge with 120, Lexington 107, Dundy County 40, Southern Valley 31 and Colby with 20...

LINCOLN -- Tyler Lawson, a freshman from McCook, lost in a playoff hole for top medalist honors at the Nebraska Wesleyan Invitational last Friday at the Wilderness Ridge Golf Course in Lincoln. Lawson fired a 146 score in the 36-hole tournament, but lost to NWU teammate Jeff Holm in a playoff for medalist honors...

The McCook-St. Patrick's Elementary School track teams competed at the Maywood Junior High School Invitational Monday on the McCook High track. The Knights girls finished third with 49.5 points and the boys were fourth with 7. Maywood won the girlstitle with 66.5 points, followed by Medicine Valley with 56. Hayes Center placed fourth with 34...

GRAND ISLAND -- The McCook High School boys golf team placed ninth at the Grand Island Invitational Saturday with a 329 score. Lincoln Southwest won the team title with a 291 score, followed by Lincoln East with 295 and Omaha Creighton Prep 296. McCook's Brandon Crick earned the Bison squad's lone medal with a 12th-place finish. Crick fired a 39 on the front nine holes and 38 on the back nine for a 77...

LINCOLN -- The McCook Community College men's golf team placed fourth out of five teams at the Southeast Invitational Thursday and Friday at Lincoln. York College finished first with a 629 score, followed by Southeast 661, Concordia 663, McCook 666 and Southeast White 696...

The family of Frieda Matheny is hosting a card shower in honor of her 80th birthday April 7. Cards of congratulations will reach her at Box 268, Oberlin, KS 67749.

The family of Edith Biesecker is hosting a card shower in honor of her 80th birthday April 8. She was born in 1925 in Beaver City. Cards of congratulations will reach her at 910 Ninth Street, Arapahoe, NE 68922.

The family of Leon Flock is requesting a card shower in honor of his 85th birthday April 11. Cards of congratulations will reach him at 1007 Westridge Parkway, McCook, NE 69001.

In a symbolic sense, Tuesday's windstorm illustrated the outbursts faced by victims of sexual assault and child abuse. In an instant -- out of the blue -- predators can attack, leaving scars which have lasting effects on the lives of women and children...

**Dear Editor, I read what is probably an edited version of an editorial that appeared in the Gazette regarding legislators' salaries. The proposal was to double the current salary of $12,000 to $24,000. First, where is the money going to come from? Taxpayers. In a state already strapped to the limit to try to do things like educate children, we don't need to be throwing a bunch of money at people who don't need it...

I had finally fallen asleep, the burdens of the just-completed day finally set aside and the turmoil of the coming day staved off for a few precious hours, when the phone rang. Sleepily, I answered, dreading whatever message waited for me on the other end. Middle-of-the-night phone calls rarely, if ever, contain good news...

**Dear Editor, I read Steve Stramel's article in last week's Gazette with dismay, especially the part about Bush's statue in Norris Park, and his reference to Bush being the greatest president in U.S. history. I figured the pigeons would take care of the statue, and then realized Steve was only kidding, of course...

TRENTON -- A vegetation management specialist from Missouri said Thursday morning that Hitchcock County's weed specialist is "on the front line" in Nebraska's battle against the state's newest noxious weed -- the water-gulping, land-grabbing invasive tree or bush called "saltcedar."...