Stories from Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Eleanor Marie Nickerson LONGMONT, Colorado --Eleanor Marie Nickerson, age 75 of Longmont, died Wednesday, (Oct. 12, 2011), at Longmont United Hospital, due to complications of PSP (Progressive Supranuclear Palsy). Born in Curtis, Nebraska, she was a daughter of the late Carl and Katie Jensen Olsson. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by a brother, Delbert Olsson and his wife Dorothy, and a sister, Evelyn Mercer and her husband Kelly...

John Charles Shafer Sept. 20, 1931 - Oct. 16, 2011 LAFAYETTE, Indiana -- John Charles Shafer, 80, of Kentland, died at 7:27 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011, at Franciscan St. Elizabeth East in Lafayette, Indiana. 
 He was born Sept. 20, 1931 in Edison, Nebraska to the late George A. ...

OBERLIN, Kansas -- A 24-year-old Oberlin, Kansas, man has been charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of another Oberlin man, a graduate earlier this month of the U.S. Air Force Security Forces Technical School in San Antonio, Texas...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Red Willow County's Visitors Committee will pay a rural McCook, Nebraska, woman $35,000 a year to put "heads in beds" -- heads that pay lodging taxes that will be used to help promote tourism in McCook and Red Willow County. Carol Schlegel of rural McCook is chairman of the county's Visitors Committee whose members have written a contract that outlines Schlegel's duties as "tourism director" for one year. ...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Red Willow County, Nebraska's county surveyor told commissioners Monday morning that while road sign maintenance plans are not mandatory, it would be beneficial to the county to have one in place. Gary Dicenta told commissioners that the plan would be a good idea, especially in light of a $407,000 jury award in August to a Michigan man who claimed he was injured in a car accident in Furnas County because the county failed to adequately mark a sharp turn in a road...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- While the Southwest Nebraska Genealogy Society hosts a "witching" workshop Saturday, society member and genealogist Tom Corey of McCook hopes to solve a mystery that's piquing his interest. The witching workshop will be Saturday, at 4 p.m., in Memorial Park Cemetery, at the corner of West J and 14th streets. The public is invited to learn the "ins and outs" of witching and to have the opportunity to try witching for themselves...

Haigler, Nebraska, will celebrate fall and Halloween with its fourth annual "Tumbleweed Festival" Saturday, Oct. 22, on the Haigler Museum grounds at the corner of Highway 34 and Porter Avenue. Tents and tables, hay bales and scarecrows will be out; festival-goers are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs. ...

Cameron Arch, above, and Michaela Valentine of Blue Cross / Blue Shield joined Sam Fischer of Meridian Central to represent the Nebraska Health Care Alliance at a meeting Monday at the Chief Motel to urge swift action on setting up a health insurance exchange in Nebraska, in time avoid the federal government setting its own system for the state. ...

"Better to die than live a coward" is the motto of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, a storied regiment of the British Army, recruited from the people of Nepal. They do not take their motto lightly. Consider Cpl. Dipprasad Pun, who was an acting sergeant, halfway through his tour in Afghanistan, when he found himself on sentry duty when he thought he heard a donkey or cow, making a clinking noise just outside his base...

It is an all too common malady of modern man. So much so, in fact, there is a saying (which I have come to abhor, having heard it too many times to count) that springs from the malady of assumption. The saying is a play on the word "assume" as in "I assume..." Using the first three letters of the word, the saying warns the speaker that to assume is to make an ass out of you and me. I cringe to hear it spoken aloud...

MAYWOOD, Neb. -- The Hitchcock County High School volleyball team was playing in a hole most of the night Tuesday, Oct. 18, in the Republican Plains Activities Conference (RPAC) Tournament championship match. The Falcons dug too many deep holes that they could not dig back out from, as Bertrand beat Hitchcock County for the RPAC Tournament title. Bertrand defeated the Falcons 22-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-16 in the championship match at the Maywood High School gym...

OBERLIN, Kansas -- Corey Cook, 22, died Monday (Oct. 17, 2011), at Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney, Nebraska. Services are pending with Pauls Funeral Home in Oberlin.