Stories from Wednesday, October 31, 2007

COZAD -- The top-ranked Cambridge Trojans pound Southwest at the Nebraska Class Class C2-10 sub-district at Cozad Tuesday night 25-19, 25-22, and 25-15. The Trojans have a winning record of 23-2. The Trojans play Alma in the sub-district championship match on Thursday night. Alma (24-4) defeated North Platte-St. Patrick's 22-25, 25-18, 25-18, 20-25, 15-12 in Tuesday's other sub-district semifnal match...

ST. FRANCIS -- St. Francis trounced Hoxie 44-8 Tuesday in the 2A regionals. The Indians managed to keep Hoxie scoreless in the first half, leading 32-0. Trent Raile started the scoring for the Indians with a 3 yard run. Ted Crabtree followed in the second with a 35 yard and 19 yard run and Keaton Frewen scored on a 17 yard pass from Crabtree...

Spooks and specters ... black bats and witches' hats -- there will be plenty this evening as trick-or-treaters visit neighbors' homes to gather their annual stashes of Halloween candy. This larger-than-life spider and his picture-window-sized web will greet those stopping at a home on West J in McCook. ...

At the September YMCA board of directors meeting, the board took a proactive step by implementing a smoke-free policy on all property owned by the YMCA. This policy ban will apply to all members, visitors, vendors and employees. This means as of September 26, 2007, smoking will not be permitted inside the YMCA facility, in parking lot or on the grounds surrounding the facility. ...

A wobbly two-legged stool lost one of its legs this week as it was announced that bonds won't be issued and farmers won't be paid not to use irrigation water until a lawsuit is settled. The plan, which would begin paying irrigators about $370 per acre next month, fell apart after the bonding company, Ameritas, told Republican River Natural Resources Districts that it couldn't sell the bonds until a lawsuit by Friends of the River is settled...

McCook residents could very easily believe that life will go on unchanged, as it has over the last 50 years. The community is much the same today as it was back then. McCook's population grew slightly between 1950 and 2000 while the surrounding rural counties dropped more than 46 percent. More recently, McCook's numbers have not been so kind. Red Willow County posted the third-largest population loss in the state since the 2000 census suggesting a different community in years to come...

On behalf of the McCook Fire Department, I would like to thank the businesses, organizations, and individuals who made a donation toward our World Championship Firefighter Combat Challenge trip to Las Vegas. The McCook firefighters are scheduled to run the preliminary on Nov. 6, 2007 with the finals being on Nov. 7 â€" 8, 2007. We look forward to representing McCook, while competing with firefighters from all over the world...

Six of one, half a dozen of another -- maybe less. Semantics. In case you were wondering, your choice of words matters. In the early days of the war in Iraq, news anchors would somberly report that a contractor in Iraq had met a grim end at the hands of the enemy...