Stories from Thursday, August 27, 2009

The old adage that "whiskey's for drinking; water's for fighting" has been confirmed again. Imagine you're a farmer with a crop in the field, fertilized, treated with expensive chemicals and ready to go, lacking only water for it to grow into a product that will help you make your loan payments and stay in business another year...

A few weeks ago, a group of five state senators and interested individuals took a trip down the Republican River near Alma, Neb. The trip displayed firsthand the improvements made to this streambed that was once covered by invasive vegetation. Started in 2007, with legislation introduced by Sen. ...

I live in Seattle, Wash. My father was born in McCook in 1920. His parents were W. W. and Charlotte Lewis. I never met my grandparents. My dad's name was Marion "Zipper" Lewis, he passed away in 2000. My dad took off when he was 18 and never had contact with his parents again. I finally talked him into contacting his sister, Madge Whiteman in 1988 and they were reunited after not having seen each other in fifty years...

NORTH PLATTE -- After much discussion, a tie vote by the Mid Plains Community College Board of Governors resulted in a failed motion to forward a formal resolution supporting the American Graduation Initiative. The American Association of Community Colleges asked MPCC Board of Governors, and other governing bodies of community colleges, to formally resolve support for President Barack Obama's American Graduation Initiative, a 10-year, $12 billion program that would award grants to colleges to create five million community college degrees by 2020.. ...

Outstanding artwork by regionally and nationally acclaimed painters, sculptors and photographers will be featured at the Great Southwest Art Auction & Expo. The premiere auction will take place Friday evening, Sept. 25, at McCook's historic Fox Theatre. The event will serve as a benefit for the theatre, with all net proceeds going towards the Fox renovation project...

Word of Sen. Edward Kennedy's death brought back memories for Dr. Don Blank of McCook, left, who, with his wife, Jan, right, met the senator at a national Jaycees convention in Portland, Oregon, in 1969. "He was a wonderful guy," said Blank, a McCook dentist who as vice president of the national Jaycees organization took part in a meeting where Kennedy spoke. The late senator will be buried Saturday in Arlington National Cemetery...

The last time the Sidney Red Raiders scored on the McCook Bison was the 2006-07 season where Sidney lost 62-12. The McCook Bison have put 95 points on the board and have shut-out the Sidney Red Raiders the last two seasons. The last time the two teams met the Bison thumped Sidney 67-0...

Have you checked your favorite south facing window recently, especially about high noon? If so you will notice sunlight streaming in to paint a bright spot on your floor. That is one way you can verify the sun is indeed moving south toward its date with the equator on Sept. 22 for the autumnal equinox. I had forgotten to mention that Aug. 1 (often called Lammas Day, a cross quarter day), marks the halfway point between summer and fall and now we are almost all the way through August...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's August 23 op-ed about cap-and-trade offered incomplete and largely speculative analysis to justify the costs to American farmers and ranchers. His rhetoric falls in line with the Administration's pattern of nice sounding ideas unsupported by facts. Unfortunately, the costs of cap-and-trade are real, while so far the benefits for farmers and ranchers are theoretical. Nebraska producers are realists. And realists sift through rhetoric to focus on facts...