Stories from Thursday, August 13, 2009

McCook Bison senior quarterback Chad Stull drives through the defense, dragging defenders over the goal line during the first day of contact drills. The Bison will scrimmage this Saturday, 9:30 a.m. at Weiland Field. Admission is free. Grant Strunk/McCook Daily Gazette...

Dec. 21, 1923 - Aug. 11, 2009 MAX -- Derald Lee Rickard, of Max, died Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, at Sarah Ann Hester Memorial Home in Benkelman, at the age of 85. He was born Dec. 21, 1923, on his family's farm south of Max, to James Otis and Irma Jean (Mills) Rickard and attended school near his home. He graduated from Max Rural High School in 1941, and attended McCook Junior College in McCook before returning to the family farm...

Reaping what you sowed never tasted so good, at least for those tending the quarter-acre garden at the Nebraska Department of Corrections Work Ethic Camp in McCook, Cultivated by offenders and inmates at the WEC, the garden this year has produced a bumper crop, with 1,750 pound of vegetables harvested far and 120 ears of corn. And the vegetables are still coming in...

Because of new legislation taking effect at the end of August, the Nebraska Department of Corrections Work Ethic Camp in McCook will be able to receive additional inmates. Currently, the WEC accepts those sentenced to intensive supervised probation, and since 2007, inmates at correctional facilities who meet certain criteria...

DANBURY -- The biographies of two Beaver Valley soldiers who served in the Mexican and the Spanish-American wars will be included in a veterans' memorial book being compiled by American Legion Auxiliary Unit No. 276 of Danbury. The book will be available in October, although organizers need to have orders and book reservations completed by Wednesday, Sept. 30...

HAYES CENTER -- Nebraska's Grand Duke Alexis Rendezvous 2009 will be held Sept. 25, 26, and 27 near the actual site of the historic campground of Buffalo Bill Cody, General George Custer, General Phil Sheridan and the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia...

Gary Mays of Skeen Construction, Kearney, and his track Cat take a huge bite from a two-story concrete-block-and-brick two-story house on the west edge of Cambridge, making room for a $21.8 million expansion and renovation project at Cambridge Memorial Hospital. ...

The scene is one familiar to anyone who watches TV medical dramas. The monitor goes flat, the doctor rubs some sort of goop between a couple of paddles and yells "Clear!" The patient's chest thrusts upwards and, depending on the plot line, the unfortunate soul either revives or passes into the great beyond...

To the mayor and City council members: I am a long-time resident of McCook and also a long- time responsible pet owner. I am very upset about the new ordinance you are going to pass. I was present at the council meeting Monday and it was apparent that you are going to pass this no matter what the citizens of our fine city say about this bill...

Regarding Dick Trail's article "Cats, Cats And More Cats" of Aug. 11, 2009, I have a couple of question problems for Dick the Mathemagician to solve. Dick claims that the ultimate, end-all, be-all answer to the proper ration of police to population is 1:1000. He also, very correctly, points out that there are 168 hours in a week. How many officers, ideally, should a community of 2000 have, and how many hours a week would those officers work?...

Let's see now, where was I? Oh yes, Scorpius. Scorpius is one of the few constellations that actually looks like what it represents, a scorpion. The three third-magnitude stars making up its head are lined up running north to south just above the southern horizon...