Stories from Thursday, January 8, 2009

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Nebraska is off to a 10-3 start and statistically is one of the best defensive teams in the nation. But those first 13 games made up one of the weakest nonconference schedules in the nation, so no one -- not even the Cornhuskers themselves -- has a sense of how good they really are...

OBERLIN -- On Tuesday night the McCook Bison wrestling team traveled to Oberlin for duals against Oberlin and Phillipsburg. The Bison were able to split with the duals claiming a 49-13 win over Oberlin and losing a close dual with Phillipsburg 36-30...

MISSOULA, Mont. -- Perhaps the largest elk ever produced in the wild--a Utah bull taken in 2008 by a hunter on public land--has been confirmed as a new World's Record. The official declaration was made Friday by the Boone and Crockett Club. A special judges panel determined a final score of 478 5/8 B&C non-typical points, an incredible 93-plus inches above the Boone and Crockett minimum score of 385 for non-typical American elk, and more than 13 inches larger than the previous World's Record...

College football Hall of Famer will give convocation on MLK Day Former University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cornhusker football great Rich Glover will be the convocation speaker as Mid-Plains Community College celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 19...

NPHS Boosters hoops tourney slated for March 6-7 NORTH PLATTE -- The North Platte High School Booster Club will be having its annual basketball tounament Friday and Saturday March 6-7 in North Platte. The tournament is open to both boys teams and girls teams in grades 4-9. For more information, contact Francine McKenzie at 532-2432 or e-mail franmck@charter.net.

City workers examine another water main leak along Norris Avenue, this time at K Street, a few blocks north of the last one. Observers speculated that last summer's Norris Avenue repaving project had jarred water lines that are approaching 100 years in age, creating the leaks. Officials hope to maintain water service as much as possible while the latest leak is repaired, which may take two or three days...

Recently, thousands if not millions of American workers have been laid off. (How they ever came up with that term, I've never heard). So what are they (the laid off) going to do with their free time? The possibilities are: I. Read and memorize the holy Bible (King James version only)...

Four hundred years ago, in November 1609, a man living in Padua, Italy, turned what was then thought of as a toy to the sky and proceeded to overturn 2,000 years of scientific thought. The man was Galileo Galilei, and while he didn't invent the telescope, he was one of the first, if not the first to turn it to the sky and began to make astonishing discoveries...

The McCook Planning Commission will consider an amendment to areas zoned highway commercial, at their meeting 5:15 p.m. Monday in City Council Chambers at Memorial Auditorium. The amendment would allow for business and professional offices in all areas zoned Highway Commercial. John Hubert has requested the amendment and owns property where a proposed medical clinic will be built, on North U.S. Highway 83 between Holiday Inn Express and Rockin Robin restaurant...

Nebraska will begin feeling the full effects of term limits this year, with 16 rookies sworn in, and senators with two years or less or less in charge of the Legislature. Sen. Lavon Heidemann of Elk Creek, who noted that she is "the only person in the body with more than two years of experience on the Appropriations Committee," will have the unenviable task of dealing with what could be a $377 million tax revenue shortfall...