Stories from Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The family of Ervain and Nadine Friehe is requesting a card shower in honor of the couple's 65th wedding anniversary. They were married Feb. 20, 1944. Cards of congratulations will reach the couple at No. 1 Spyglass, McCook, NE 69001.

A young Wauneta-Palisade team nipped at the heels of Class D1 No. 2 ranked Arapahoe for four quarters Tuesday night in the Class D1-6 district championship game at the McCook High School gym.

McCook holds three district opponents to 112 points GRAND ISLAND -- The McCook High School boys basketball team rode its defense to a second straight Nebraska Class B-5 district title Tuesday night. The Bison put the clamps on Holdrege for a 41-33 win in the title game at the Grand Island High School gymnasium and will be making a return trip to the Class B state tournament in Lincoln March 12-14...

It's an easily detectable disease, and it's even preventable, yet many of us are expected to die from it this year. Too many of us are embarrassed to ask our doctors about the disease, however, and of the 910 Nebraskans who will be diagnosed with colon cancer this year, 340 will die...

With thousands of international relief organiations and billions of dollars spent annually on foreign aid, why are so many impoverished countries unable to grow their economies beyond mere survival? The answer, my friends, is perfectly clear. An ill-conceived Bible censorship, some analysts claim, could create a money vacuum that would spark renewed political party violence, lpossibly leading to the return of U.S. forces to Egypt, where they don't have the democracy...

As the city gets more aggressive in addressing dilapidated housing, an amended ordinance was introduced at Monday night's City Council meeting to add standards in determining when structures in the McCook must be razed or repaired. The council approved the ordinance on first reading. As with all ordinances, it must go through three readings before it becomes law...

Matt Sehnert shared a story with the First Tuesday Gathering of Buffalo Commons Storytellers Tuesday night -- not a particularly easy task, since his parents and the parents of his high school sweetheart were in the audience. His mother, Jean Sehnert, assured Matt that she had probably heard them all, but his sheepish grin in response spoke volumes...

March 4, 2009 -- Today, Nebraska's Senator Ben Nelson sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates letters pushing for the creation of benchmarks for Afghanistan and outlining some of his ideas. "In Afghanistan a new series of benchmarks would help demonstrate to the American people what we hope to accomplish and how we will achieve those goals in that country," said Senator Nelson. "We need to establish metrics for objective analysis of progress in Afghanistan."...

The news came in late last year. An old friend was ailing and the prognosis wasn't good. Barring an economic miracle, the end could come any day. It came last Friday. Duane Tappe was in Denver at the time, attending a Rotary function, and he was kind enough to bring me a copy of the last publication of my old friend, the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News. What a treasure trove that final edition is. Thanks, Duane...