Stories from Thursday, March 13, 2014

McCOOK, Nebraska -- A new team has been created at the McCook Public Schools special education department to evaluate students who may have autism. Prior to the team creation, initial and re-evaluations were done by the Central Regional Autism Spectrum Disorder Team based out of ESU 10 in Kearney, Nebraska. ...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- The trio of District 44 candidates vying for the state Senate seat to be vacated by Sen. Mark Christensen met at the Bieroc Cafe, Tuesday evening, as part of a forum coordinated by the South Platte United Chambers of Commerce. Although much of the discussion focused on water, arguably the hottest topic in Southwest Nebraska, the candidates expressed little disagreement in that area and instead advised voters to look to their backgrounds to find the right man for the job...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith is coordinating a public meeting in McCook next week to discuss and receive input pertaining to essential air service and the impacts of the new pilot training requirements. The meeting is scheduled at 9:30 a.m. on Monday in the upstairs training room of the new McCook Municipal Facility on West C Street...

Red Willow County District Court Judge David Urbom shows a more casual side of his often serious persona during Tuesday's Coffee with a Cop meeting at McDonald's. Judge Urbom offered insight on a range of topics, including the impact of the human element on our justice system, the evolution of McCook's Work Ethic Camp and how he copes with one of the more challenging careers...

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." It was good advice when Polonius gave it to his son, Laertes, in William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and it's still good advice for the Legislature today...

Accounting seems to be the invisible monster in this confusing mix for Republican River issues and is complicated at best. In a broad sense the State uses a formula to estimate the amount of water the surface irrigators may use and then divides the rest between the three primary NRDs, with the Upper Republican getting 44 percent, the Middle Republican getting 30 percent and the Lower Republican getting 26 percent. ...

Long gone are the days where MY stuff was actually MY stuff. Now my stuff has apparently become fair game and for everyone's pickin. What happened in the last two years? Did I miss the memo? As far as I can remember I've had MY clothes, MY shoes, MY makeup, and so on. Never had a sister, so didn't have to share there and never had to share with anyone, really ... until now...