Stories from Friday, July 13, 2007

An all-conference pitcher from McCook is the first softball player to sign a letter of intent to play this fall for new McCook Community College softball coach Tyrone Robinson. Taryn Placzek has signed a letter of intent to play at MCC. "I think her signing will have an immediate impact on the MCC softball program," new coach Tyrone Robinson said...

LINCOLN -- McCook High School graduate Michelle McKenna was selected as a member of the Blue Team for the Nebraska Coaches Association All-Star Game. The game will be played at 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1 at the University of Nebraska's Bowlin Park. McKenna will catch and play third base for the Blue Team...

Thirty-three McCook swimmers are on their way to the Plains Tsunami Swim League Championship meet Saturday in Lexington. The meet starts at 10 a.m. In order to get there, they had to participate in a qualifying meet in Benkelman on Saturday and earn a spot in either an individual event, relay event or both...

South team features Cherry LINCOLN -- The 2007 Nebraska Shrine Bowl schedule of events was recently announced. Players report at 10 a.m. Thursday with the South team at Doane College in Crete and the North team at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln...

Forty lady golfers from throughout Nebraska will be in McCook next week for the state Women's Amateur match play championships. "We have a number of young players in the field," said Monica Novak, managing director of the Nebraska Women's Amateur Golf Association, the sponsor of the competition...

IMPERIAL -- Imperial pitcher Alex Sharp performed just as his name implies -- he was sharp Thursday night against the Furnas County Seniors in a 2-1 victory. Sharp limited the Furnas County nine to an anemic three hits and sent ten hitters back to the dugout via the strikeout over the seven inning affair...

McCook merchants know how to have fun and shoppers are in for a treat when they come to McCook Friday and Saturday.   Several businesses participated in a friendly costume competition on Thursday. First prize was awarded to McCook Pharmacy and Medical Supply with their "crazy clowns".  Second place went to Accents Etc., and third went to the "committed" staff at Sports Shoppe. ...

Dec. 30, 1916 - July 11, 2007 OBERLIN -- Lillian I. Mosier, 90, died Wednesday (July 11, 2007) in Oberlin. She was born Dec. 30, 1916, in Rawlins County, Kan., to Russell and Anna (Pummer) Lemman. She grew up in Decatur County and attended rural Decatur County school...

The McCook Main Street Farmer's Market opened at 8 a.m. Saturday morning and several vendors were sold out by 9:30.  According to manager Ivan Schmid, last week's opening was the best one since the market started in 1996. Vendors came from as far away as Arapahoe and Selden, Kansas selling a wide variety of products, including garden produce, baked goods, jellies, flowers, and homemade items...

Gone fishin'. Bob Schneider, a 1980 graduate of McCook High School and an entrepreneur who loved working as a mechanic and operated a transmission shop out of one of his dad's buildings in high school, has gone fishing. It's been a long trip. Abandoning his fledgling career as a transmission mechanic for AAMCO he entered full time Christian ministry...

Feel like somebody's watching you? More than likely, they are. The extensive surveillance camera system in London was credited with the capture of a number of recent would-be bombers, but it wasn't installed to deal with al Qaeda. That system went into place back in the 1970s and '80s to deal with the Irish Republican Army. (That same threat helped spawn much of the technology now used to deal with improvised explosive devices in Iraq.)...

McCOOK -- Last week, U.S. Cellular received Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) designation from the Nebraska Public Service Commission, enabling the company to access an estimated $5.5 million annually in federal Universal Service Funds (USF) to build wireless infrastructure in the state's rural and underserved communities. ...

My husband had a dream about an old lady kissing him.  She smelled like fruit.  That was his excuse for getting up at 4:30 in the morning and taking a shower.  We had gone to bed late the night before because we were busy packing for a trip we were going on the next day.  Six o'clock in the morning was the scheduled time of departure and that was already too early for my sleep-deprived body...

Oct. 9, 1982 - July 11, 2007 CAMBRIDGE -- Brady L. Koch, 24, of Cambridge died Wednesday (July 11, 2007) at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney due to injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident.  He was born in Cambridge, Oct. 9, 1982, to Kurk O. ...

Aug. 2, 1916-July 12, 2007 OBERLIN -- Virgil Hoppas, 90, died Thursday (July 12, 2007) at Cedar Living Center in Oberlin. He was born Aug. 2, 1916, on a farm northwest of Dresden to Tolle Hoppas and Janie (Penn) Hoppas. He was raised on a farm south of Oberlin and attended Summit School and graduated from Decatur Community High School in 1935...

COLUMBUS -- After nearly 10 years of operation, the two 750-kilowatt wind turbines at the Springview Wind Energy Facility will be retired. Following the decision Friday by the NPPD Board of Directors to retire and sell the units, the statewide utility plans to continue research into new wind technologies utilizing the existing site and adding additional wind-powered energy to its Ainsworth facility...

It won't be a "clear-cut" or "bulldozer" attack if the South West Area Weed Management Area starts to control invasive species on the Republican River as it flows through Southwest Nebraska. The board of directors will learn Monday or Tuesday if the organization is approved for a $1.3 million Nebraska Department of Agriculture grant to fund a two-year project designed to control vegetation on the Republican, improve aquatic and wildlife habitat and, ultimately, increase the amount of river water flowing into Kansas.. ...