Stories from Tuesday, July 21, 2009

As many of you know, climate change legislation, known as cap-and-trade, has passed the House of Representatives and is now ready for consideration by the Senate. Although 44 Democrats voted against it in the House and it required a considerable amount of arm-twisting by House leadership to pass, it is being heavily endorsed by the Obama Administration and the U.S. ...

LINCOLN -- Webb Body Shop edged Midwest Livestock in an all-McCook Coed B softball championship Sunday in the Cornhusker State Games. Midwest won't have to wait long for revenge however, as the two teams will play in their league tournament tonight in McCook...

July 10, 1945 - July 19, 2009 Russell Ray Johnson, died Sunday, July 19, 2009, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney at the age of 64. He was born July 10, 1945, at Salinas, Calif., the son of the late James and Susie (Kennedy) Johnson. Russell grew up in Salinas, where he graduated from high school. He began working in the agriculture business as a lettuce loader in the Salinas and Imperial Valleys of California...

Dog and cat owners will pay a little extra to keep their animals, under a new city ordinance the McCook City Council approved Monday night on first reading. The ordinance includes 25 sections of city law relating to pets and also cracks down on those who own vicious dogs. It will go through two more readings before enacted...

By a narrow margin, the McCook City Council voted 3 to 2 to purchase a new pickup for the water department from a dealer in Wahoo, instead of from the state bid that was lower. City staff had initially recommended to the council the $18,990 bid from the State of Nebraska contract with Anderson Ford Lincoln Mercury Mazda in Lincoln, instead of the four higher bids the city received for the pickup...

Sometimes it's the little things that are the most rewarding. That was the observation of McCook City Councilman Aaron Kircher, when he noted at the regular council meeting Monday night that recent enhancements in the city appear to be popular with the public...

City sales tax dollars will go to repair city streets, the McCook City Council decided Monday night at the regular meeting. The council requested that sales tax revenue originally committed to the repair of J Street, at $461,262, be committed in the 2009-10 budget to help offset costs of three street improvement projects already slated on the city's one- and six-year street plan...

Red Willow County commissioners agreed Monday morning that they'll watch out for whooping cranes and swift foxes if they proceed with road projects funded by federal aid or with American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan (stimulus) money. Gary Dicenta, the county's roads supervisor, told commissioners that he has received more forms requesting more forms regarding county roads projects that may or may not be funded with stimulus money...

Red Willow County commissioners asked Monday morning that a possible $21,000 increase in law enforcement dispatching fees charged by the City of McCook be spread over two years, rather than "playing catch-up" in one year. During the commissioners' weekly meeting Monday, Commissioner Steve Downer suggested to McCook Police Chief Ike Brown and City Manager Kurt Fritsch that the county be allowed to pay the increase in dispatching fees for county law enforcement officers proposed by the city -- an increase of $24,000 per year to $45,000 -- over two years, "rather than almost doubling in one year.". ...

Forty years after the first moon landing, space is far from a national priority. Trillion-dollar deficits, multi-billion-dollar bailouts and radical reform of the healthcare industry have made space exploration seem like a foolish extravagance. An example is the International Space Station, derided as being built simply for some place for the space shuttle to go...

The clean energy bill that's in the Senate brings America to an important crossroad for our future. We can fall back on the same old tired jobs-killing policies of special interests like Big Oil and Dirty Coal or we can move towards a more prosperous future and develop clean, safe sources of energy. The old way holds our energy future hostage and keeps us at the mercy of foreign oil and fossil fuels that pollute our air every day...

Repeatedly I fly to Ulysses, Kansas for business. During the past winter I watched with interest as an "alternative energy" project was constructed west of Scott City. The operational result is 19, I think I counted, of those huge electricity generation wind mills. These are the ones that utilize the huge turbine blades that we often see transiting McCook on Highway 83...