Stories from Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The McCook Community College baseball team split two weekend doubleheaders against Southeast Community College. On Saturday, the Indians swept the Storm 4-0 and 9-3, then on Sunday Southeast came back and swept the Indians by the score of 5-3 and 7-5.

Bruce Hinson of McCook and his brother Micheal Hinson are hosting a PDGA (Professional Disc Golf Association) C-Tier event at Kelley Park in McCook on May 2. The event called "Bring The Heat" will bring in professional golfers from Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa and South Dakota...

The Ed Thomas YMCA in McCook will be holding a Soccer Functional from 6-7:15 p.m. Friday at Barnett Park. The Ed Thomas YMCA is also accepting registrations for youth softball and adult softball leagues. Registration deadline for youth softball is April 20...

OMAHA -- This, undoubtedly, won't go down as one of Kentucky's vintage basketball seasons. Still, Jodie Meeks and his teammates aren't ready for it to end. Meeks converted a three-point play with 10.6 seconds left to give the Wildcats a 65-63 victory over Creighton in the second round of the NIT on Monday night...

WICHITA, Kan. -- An early-game scoreless slump gave Stanford a lead it would never relinquish, and ended Wichita State's season with a 70-56 win Monday evening in the quarterfinal round of the College Basketball Invitational inside Charles Koch Arena...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Too bad Vanderbilt can't play the entire NCAA tournament at The Pit. Jennifer Risper scored a career-high 27 points and Christina Wirth added 24 as fourth-seeded Vanderbilt beat fifth-seeded Kansas State 74-61 in the NCAA's second round on Monday night...

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Chase Headley gave the Padres a much-needed lift, hitting a game-ending three-run homer in the ninth inning and lifting San Diego to a 9-7 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Monday. The Padres trailed 4-0 in the sixth and 7-4 in the ninth before rallying to beat an American League club for the first time this spring (1-12-2) and snapping a seven-game Cactus League skid overall...

The Hormel Family Foundation has begun accepting submissions for its third annual business plan competition in McCook. The competition, which targets local entrepreneurs and business owners, will take place on June 12 at the Hormel Business & Technology Center on the McCook Community College campus...

OMAHA -- Two Arapahoe residents face up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine on drug violations, according to indictments returned by the grand jury for the District of Nebraska, according to U.S. Attorney Joe W. Stecher. The pair, Jacob Putnam, 19, and Alyssa Kerr, 21, are charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone and methylphenidate, beginning from an unknown date but at least as early as July 10, 2008, up to and including November 9, 2008...

The power of modern communication manifested itself again this week in a discussion over the dubious use of one of the older powers -- electricity. Duane Tappe's offhanded remark to State Sen. Mark Christensen about obtaining Nebraska's old electric chair for a proposed rural electrification museum honoring the late U.S. Sen. George W. Norris is the case in point...

Awakening near Tampa, Fla., I had to pinch myself to see if I had already gone to heaven this morning. Ann and I are bunking in a "Temporary Lodging Facility" on MacDill AFB. My tanker pilot buddy from 1967 and I have been invited to participate in a tanker commander's seminar to talk about a mission that we flew in the Vietnam War. ...

LINCOLN (AP) - Residents of a small Southwest Nebraska town have a question for state officials: You're not doing anything with that old electric chair, are you? The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled last year that the state's use of the electric chair was unconstitutional because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Some people in McCook -- population just under 8,000 -- think "Old Sparky" could be a tourist attraction and have offered to take it off the state's hands...

HOLDREGE -- A Holdrege mother of two died in a one-vehicle roll-over accident Monday morning northwest of Holdrege. Phelps County Attorney Tim Hoeft reported this morning that Rashanna M. Fulmer died at the scene of the accident, on a gravel road approximately five miles north and two miles west of Holdrege. The accident was reported at about 10:25 a.m...