Stories from Tuesday, March 18, 2008

June 8, 1924 - March 15, 2008 BENKELMAN -- Everna May "Tude" Gurnsey, 83, died Friday (March 15, 2008) at Sarah Ann Hester Memorial Home in Benkelman. She was born in Yuma County, Colo., on June 8, 1924, to Charles Frank and Bertha (Spellman) Chartier. She attended country school near her home for many years. During World War II, she moved to California, where she worked in the factories and helped support the war effort. She later returned to the area...

April 6, 1963 - March 7, 2008 DUBLIN, Ireland -- Karl Raymond Kirwan, 44, died Friday (March 7, 2008) in Dublin, Ireland. He was born April 6, 1963, at North Platte to Myron "Mike" and Jean (Larreau) Kirwan. He attended school in Paxton and Vernango and graduated from Chase County High School in Imperial in 1981...

Sept. 9, 1954 - March 17, 2008 SELDEN, Kan. -- Patricia Richmond, 53, died Monday (March 17, 2008) at Decatur County Hospital. She was born Sept. 9, 1954, in Oberlin to Cletus and Wilma (Mumm) Ritter. She grew up in Selden and attended Selden grade school. She graduated from Golden Plains High School and attended Colby Community College for one semester...

Beginning May 1, rental fees at the 30-plus airplane hangars at McCook Regional Airport will be boosted by 20 percent. The McCook City Council approved without the discussion a resolution implementing the increase, Monday night at its regular meeting...

The Hormel Family Foundation announced today that it has begun accepting submissions for the annual Hornel Business Plan Competition, which will take place at the Hormel Business & Technology Center on the McCook Community College campus on June 6. The deadline for this year's competition is May 18...

How and where to spend the $325,000 the McCook Economic Development Corp. will receive from the half-cent city sales tax is outlined in a plan the McCook City Council approved Monday night on its third and final reading. The half-cent tax was approved by McCook voters in November, along with the continuation of the current one-cent sales tax. It will go into effect in July and is expected to garner a total of $650,000 a year, which will be split between the city and the MEDC at $325,000 each...

Nebraska lawmakers' passage of LB1157 would change everything about the way Nebraska schools assess how well their students are learning and progressing. Gayle Sharkey, McCook Public Schools' curriculum director, told school board members at their monthly meeting March 10 that LB 1157's passage in its final form and approval by Gov. Dave Heineman would require state tests of students' achievement...

ATWOOD -- Area food producers are encouraged to attend the High Plains Food Cooperative training/information meeting to be held from 11:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, March 28 at the Aberdeen Steakhouse in Atwood. The meeting begins with lunch that includes locally grown food...

Sen. Ben Nelson has a good point about highways, which he makes in this week's column for Nebraskans. Nelson notes the remarkable growth of cities along the Interstate 80 corridor through Nebraska, and calls for a similar, major north-south route. He calls for construction of the Heartland Expressway, part of the proposed four-lane Great Plains International Trade Corridor connecting major metropolitan cities and regional trade centers of the Great Plains from the Canada to Mexico...

North Carolina State University scientists say they've shut down a gene in burley tobacco plants that produces carcinogens in cured tobacco leaves. The research, funded naturally enough by Philip Morris USA, deals with a gene that turns nicotine into nornicotine, which is a precursor to the carcinogen N-nitrosonornicotine, or NNN. Varying percentages of nicotine are turned into nornicotine while the plant ages, and nornicotine converts to NNN, as the tobacco is cured, processed and stored...

March 16 to 22 is National Agriculture Week. It's an annual celebration of the important contributions farmers and rancher make to the U.S. and the world -- the most important being the food that sustains us all. Grocery shoppers know well that retail food prices are higher than a year ago. ...

As a rural Nebraskan, I know the importance of family farms, ranches and small businesses. In the Unicameral, LB1174 will keep megacorporations from owning and abusing Nebraska's precious agriculture resources. Also, LB1088 will expand Nebraska's micro enterprise tax credit-helping the Main Street businesses that keep our small towns alive. I encourage all Nebraskans and particularly our senators to support LB1174 and LB1088...

Many of you contacted my office over the last several weeks to voice your opposition to Legislative Bill 958, which dealt with gun regulations in Nebraska. My staff and I conveyed my opposition to LB958 because it would put in place unnecessary regulations on law-abiding gun owners and do nothing to stop criminals from committing violent crimes. ...

After three months of waiting spring arrives Thursday. The vernal equinox, when the sun crosses the celestial equator traveling north, will occur at 11:48 am MDT on Thursday, March 20 to be precise. If you lived on the equator the length of day and night would be equal, hence the term equinox...