Stories from Tuesday, December 30, 2008

NORFOLK -- The McCook High School boys and girls basketball teams split their first-round games Monday at the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference holiday tournament. The tournament is being played at Norfolk High School. The Bison boys improved to 5-2 with a 68-58 win over Kearney and the McCook girls dropped a 65-45 decision to Kearney...

ARAPAHOE -- The Arapahoe Holiday basketball tournament started Monday with the Arapahoe boys and girls hosting Hitchcock County, Sumner-Eddyville-Miller and Pleasanton. Arapahoe's boys defeated Hitchcock County 66-41, while the Warrior girls were edged out by the Falcons 53-52...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- After feasting on most of the Big 12 defenses he faced this season, Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz will finish his career in the Gator Bowl against a Clemson defense that has left opposing offenses starved for yards and points...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Nebraska football team practiced nearly two hours at the University of North Florida on Monday afternoon, beginning its final preparations to face Clemson in the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl on Thursday. Kickoff for the Gator Bowl is noon. The game will be televised on CBS...

GNAC Holiday Basketball Tournament First round games McCook boys 68, Kearney 58 McCook 9 22 18 19 -- 68 Kearney 16 14 16 12 -- 58 McCook: Matt Berry 12, Ryan Hardin 20, Zach Wieser 11, Connor Larson 7, Seth Schaeffer 18. Kearney: Roeder 4, Trey Nygren 13, Moncrief 2, Albrecht 5, Tyler Shields 20, Reinsch 3, Landanger 5, Brown 2, Maloley 4...

Aug. 11, 1926 - Dec. 28, 2008 HOXIE, Kan. -- Catherine Frances Campbell, 82, died Sunday (Dec. 28, 2008) at Sheridan County Health Complex in Hoxie. She was born Aug. 11, 1926, to Lambert and Frances (Haffner) Kraft at Park. She married Maurice Campbell Nov. 24, 1948. They lived near Hoxie all their married life. He died Nov. 26, 1994...

LINCOLN -- Forty-one Nebraska schools do not meet academic accountability standards of the federal government's "No Child Left Behind" program. Although two Southwest Nebraska school districts are now on a federal "needs to improve" list, their superintendents do not see problems with their students' achievement...

Reduce, recycle, reuse is the mantra of the "green" movement currently in vogue, but it should be nothing new to those of us who lived through the Depression or grew up with those who did. McCook has a good recycling system in place, and we encourage everyone to take advantage of the chance to remove recyclable materials from the trash -- for which we otherwise have to pay to have shipped to an Ogallala landfill -- and return it to be used in manufacturing new products...

Good article [Mike Hendricks, Mike at Night Dec. 6-7] on the fallacies of manmade global warming. You're the last of a dying breed … a common-sense liberal. I wonder how Gore and the eco-freaks are explaining the coldest and snowiest winter in decades all across the country. The California desert was snowed in for the first time in anyone's memory. Even Las Vegas was buried in snow. They had to close numerous freeways here and people were stranded for days...

As the New Year rapidly approaches, I urge all citizens to get a new callendear. Many of the old ones may be out of date. Some of the new ones will show the newly remodeled Mt. Rushmore with George W. This will weigh 10,000,000 tons (symbolizing the number of dollars spent on Iraqi democracy)...

Scratch another item off the "bucket list"! Ever since Ann made the discovery that the beautiful floats we watch in the Rose Parade each New Years Day were decorated by volunteers her dream has been to participate. And this Sunday, participate we did!...

EDITOR'S NOTE -- This is the third and final installment of a story about early aviation in Southwest Nebraska and America's heartland. Harry Strunk, the owner and publisher of the McCook Daily Gazette, made world history in 1929 and 1930 when he delivered his daily papers by airmail. Although delivery costs and unpredictable weather grounded the little Curtiss Robin C1 airplane, they could not dampen pilot Steve Tuttle's love of flying....