Stories from Thursday, August 2, 2007

LINCOLN -- The anticipation was high and sales were brisk as tickets to the regular-season home matches at the Nebraska Coliseum sold out Wednesday morning.  Tickets for all 14 regular-season matches at the NU Coliseum sold out in less than 45 minutes, marking the fastest that the Coliseum has sold out for the season...

Jan. 27, 1920-July 31, 2007 COLBY, Kan. -- Mrytle Geneva (Curry) Carson, 87, died Tuesday (July 31, 2007), at Hays Medical Center in Hays, Kan. She was born Jan. 27, 1920, at Brush, Colo., to Hawley E. and Flora A. (Hanna) Curry. She graduated from Rawlins County High School in 1938 and attended secretary school in Denver, Colo. She worked in San Francisco, Calif., and Washington D.C., where whe was a secretary to an advisor in the U.S. Department of War under Franklin D. Roosevelt...

March 11, 1924-July 31, 2007 GRAND ISLAND -- Ted "Teddy" Thayer, 83, died Tuesday (July 31, 2007) at the Veterans Hospital at Grand Island. He was born March 11, 1924, at Maywood, to Ora and Bernice Thayer. He served in the U.S. Navy from May 1942 until his discharge in June of 1947. That same year, he married Maureen Falls...

April 14, 1924-July 26, 2007 OCONTO --?John Thomas "Johnny" Wilkens, 83, died July 26, 2007 at his ranch near Oconto. He was born April 14, 1924, to Hans J. and Martha (Labs) Wilkens in Hitchcock County. He attended school in rural Hitchcock County and later worked at various jobs...

Jan. 11, 1918-July 30, 2007 LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Meredith D. "Buck" Lytle, 89, died Monday (July 30, 2007), at the Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Lawrence, Kan. He was born Jan. 11, 1918, in Red Willow County to Roy and Mildred (Dimmitt) Lytle. He was a World War II veteran and later worked in Civil Service at Fort Riley, Kan...

Obituary Helen Irene Schlegel Feb. 14, 1908-Aug. 1, 2007 Helen Irene Schlegel, 99, died Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007, at Hillcrest Nursing Home. She was born Feb. 14, 1908, in Red Willow County to Charles W. and Minnie E. (Hubler) Nelson. She grew up on a farm northwest of McCook and attended high school in McCook...

HAIGLER -- A broken ankle last winter may have limited LaNeta Carlock's movement, but not her imagination. During her recuperation, LaNeta and her husband, Stanley, drove Haigler's country roads, filling many otherwise tedious hours. At a T-intersection southwest of Haigler, surrounded by winter-still fields and pastures, sat a small, square, dilapidated stucco building -- what was left of the one-room "67 South" country schoolhouse...

The annual American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Southwest Nebraska is set to begin at 6 p.m. Friday and last through 7 a.m. Saturday in Norris Park. This event is a celebration of cancer survivorship and a fun way to raise the vital funds needed to help find a cure for cancer. It will celebrate the lives of hundreds of local residents who have survived cancer, while offering the hope of finding a cure. Several local teams are walking to raise money to benefit the American Cancer Society...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A 1985 graduate of McCook High School has been selected to receive the Superior Airmanship Award from the national Airline Pilots Association. Brad Loper, the son of Dick and Bonnie Loper of McCook, is being honored for taking quick action to avoid a potentially devastating accident at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. ...

LINCOLN -- All cattle producers are invited to attend one of the meetings scheduled across Nebraska in that will address three key industry issues: Country of origin labeling, Beef Checkoff and LB 677 -- the livestock facilities inspection bill.   The local COOL, Checkoff and LB677 meeting will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 16, at the Red Willow County Fairgrounds community building in McCook...

LINCOLN -- University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension has scheduled an Irrigation Strategies Field Tour for 10 sites in August.?"Nebraska producers are looking for better irrigation strategies to get the most from the water they have to use," said UNL Extension Educator Steve Melvin, organizer of the tour.?The tour will provide farmers and crop consultants management strategies to conserve water, Melvin said...

Gov. Dave Heineman thinks there may be light at the end, but the tunnel between us and revitalized irrigation in the Republican River basin is long and dark. In a letter to his Water Policy Task Force, the governor thanked the Republican River Natural Resources Districts, surface water irrigation districts and individual farmers and ranchers "for working with the [Department of Natural Resources] to meet our challenges to achieve sustainability of our water supplies and to achieve compliance with the Republican River Compact.". ...

As this was being written, light was just beginning to make the search for victims of the Minneapolis bridge collapse possible -- we hesitate to say "easier," because nothing about the search Minnesota divers and rescue workers are conducting can be called easy...

After reading the article in Monday's Gazette on the Kansas water meeting, I feel it is time to let the public know some of the things that led up to this point. In the early 1980s, Kansas requested (that) Nebraska ... curtail well drilling and while Kansas and Colorado put on a moratorium, Nebraska's Legislature passed LB375, which took all protection of the aquifer and surface water away from the state and gave it to the NRDs...

This time of year is not only harvest time for wheat and my garden produce but also weeds, as the picture shows. When I find and cut a large weed out, I let it set on the sidewalk for a couple days in full sun. Once dried, it can be bundled up in quarter-pound bales. then placed in a graveyard, bone-dry place...