Stories from Thursday, January 28, 2010

Aug. 29, 1962 -- Jan. 26, 2010 OBERLIN -- Robert Jack Vaughn Jr., 47, died Tuesday (Jan. 26, 2010) at Jefferson Community Health Center in Fairbury. He was born Aug. 29, 1962, in Strong City, Kan., to Robert J. Vaughn and Sandra Goodnight. He grew up in Kansas and Nebraska and attended schools in Nebraska, Washington, Kansas and graduated from high school in Hugo, Okla...

Sept. 12, 1918 - Jan. 22, 2010 ATWOOD -- lnez Etta (Rummel) Johnson, 91, died Friday (Jan. 22, 2010) at her home in Atwood. She was born Sept. 12, 1918, in Atwood, Kan., to Henry C. Rummel and Vivian (McKnight) Rummel. On July 21, 1934, she married Francis Johnson. She worked as a store clerk at Manning's Grocery and Ridgeway Market. In the 1950s Francis built the Lakeside Cafe and she managed the restaurant. She also worked for her sister, Audrey Gannon at the Tastee Treat...

LA PLATA, Md. -- The Danbury-Norcatur native who helps fund the college dreams of Red Willow and Decatur county high school graduates has died. Col. Delbert L. Townsend, the benefactor of the Townsend Scholarship Program, was 88 years old when he died late Tuesday afternoon in Maryland...

A bill from State Sen. Mark Christensen to refund property taxes that were later declared unconstitutional will be discussed at a legislative hearing scheduled today for the Revenue Committee. The bill takes care of several issues that ultimately defeated a similar bill introduced last year to refund the taxes, Christensen said this morning at the McCook Area Chamber of Commerce Legislative conference call...

An open season on deer -- a really open season -- sounds like a good idea for anyone who's had to swerve to avoid the animals or had their trip interrupted and vehicle damaged with a collision. Such is the idea behind LB836, which would allow night-hunting with spotlights and shooting without permits as a way to decrease the deer population in Nebraska. ...

This municipal building/West Ward thing is really sticking in my craw. I don't like city government's treatment of us peasant taxpayers. They proceed with a $6,000,000 project without asking us ... they say if we want to save West Ward, we should do it with our money. I hate to spring this on them but every dime the city has or will have is our money!...

Cheers to Mike Hendricks for his Opinion article in the Jan. 22 edition of the Gazette. The words of the song by the African-American brought a chuckle but also some reality to the era we are now living in. Our morals and sense of decency for so many people are sadly lacking...

Continuing with our tour of the Winter Circle or Hexagon we go from the "V" shaped cluster of the Hyades and bright Aldebaran further up to the circle, or in this case the five-sided, constellation Auriga (or-EYE-ga), the Charioteer. Unfortunately, this is one of those constellations that doesn't look anything like its namesake. Although, you could say it does look kind of like a chariot wheel...

January 28, 2010 -- Today, Nebraska's Senator Ben Nelson issued an invitation to Republican colleagues in the Senate to work with him to avert efforts to pass health reform legislation using the truncated reconciliation process. "If Republican colleagues are serious about fixing our health care system and want to avoid using the reconciliation process, then I will go to the negotiating table with them," Senator Nelson said. ...

McCook High School Color Day Royalty crowned Wednesday afternoon included, from left, first attendants Mark Nichols, nephew of Michelle Gill; Katie Hoffmaster, daughter of Shelley and Terry Hoffmaster; Queen Brooke Burton, daughter of Bill and Cori Burton; King Ethan Hardin, son of Ben and Susan Hardin; second attendants Morgan Chitwood, daughter of Mark and Stacy Chitwood; Chris Farrell, son of Pat and Leigh Ferrell...