Stories from Wednesday, August 6, 2014

BARTLEY, Neb. -- It wasn't a matter of if, but when, about providing students at Southwest High School in Bartley with their own laptop. After a couple of years of saving money in the budget specifically for the purchase, a total of 147 Dell laptops will be handed out to students this year. Students in grades 9 to 12 will take their devices home, with seventh and eighth grade students keeping theirs at school...

McCOOK, Neb. -- The City of McCook is coordinating a public meeting Tuesday pertaining to a street improvement project on East 7th Street, Country Club Drive, East 5th Street and Seminole Drive, which is scheduled to break ground later this month. The project will begin at the intersection of East 7th and East H Street and will conclude at the intersection of Seminole Drive and Park Avenue...

McCOOK, Neb. -- The City of McCook is coordinating a budget workshop Monday to offer a preliminary glimpse at its annual budget prior to beginning the three reading approval process. City Manager Nate Schneider informed City Council members about the upcoming workshop during this week's council meeting and said city staff would recap the basics of the budget during the workshop...

McCOOK, Neb. -- The Sales Tax Ballot Language Committee will meet for the third time Thursday evening, 5:30 p.m., at city offices. The meetings are open to the public and citizens are encouraged to sit in on the discussion as the group works with city staff to set ballot language for renewal of the local option sales tax...

Caroline and Jeff Knight of Arlington, Virginia, drive Jill toward the wheat field in 2013, during the fifth annual "Bum Malleck Memorial Threshing" south of Indianola, Nebraska. Bum's son, Griff Malleck of McCook, plans the 2014 threshing Sunday, Aug. ...

Who are you? If you've been on the Internet lately, you may now be a Russian hacker, and it's time to change your password to get your identity back. By some estimates, 2 billion people a day log on to the World Wide Web, and, according to a New York Times story quoting a Milwaukee online security firm, Russian hackers have captured some 1.2 billion username and password combinations...

My original intent was to talk about the "celestial superhighway," however, that will need to be put off until later, because there are a couple of other things I would like to present that are happening this week and next. The first is another one of those pesky "Super Moons" that seem to be happening all too frequently. We had one in June and July, now one in August and there will be another one in September...

Let's talk about the Tax Incentive Evaluation Committee and the monumental task it faces. I am sure some of you would rather watch paint dry or have a root canal. But stay with me here. I'll point out what's important. This special legislative committee was created (Legislative Resolution 444) during the recent legislative session and assigned to come up with specific and measurable goals for evaluating each of six statewide tax incentives. ...

KEARNEY, Neb. -- Mission II Haiti has been repairing wells and providing clean drinking water in northern Haiti for many years. When the foundation first began, the local directors were given a truck by a Minden farmer to take to Haiti to use to haul equipment and pipe for the well repairs. ...

Twelve-year-old Patience Carman, above, of Oberlin, Kansas, giggles with Judge Rachel Boyle of Phillipsburg, Kansas, over the cut-and-snip process and color selections that went into making the "raggy quilt" that her grandmother, Norma Carman, helped her make for the Decatur County 4-H fair. ...

Decatur County, Kansas, fair volunteers David Swank and Anita Hirsch hang photographs entered in open class competition on the fairgrounds at Oberlin Tuesday morning. The landscape is by Amanda Sowers of Oberlin; the old homestead is Anita's. 4-H competition continues through the week; the home-owned carnival opens at 7 p.m. ...

McCOOK, Neb. -- A group of scam artists may be working Southwest Nebraska, preying on senior citizens and other unsuspecting homeowners and business people by posing as paving contractors. Saying they have leftover asphalt from another job, they may go door to door, quoting a low price and then intimidating property owners by coming to the door and demanding payment three or four times above the quoted estimate...

Elsie Mae Hein Dec. 21, 1929 - Aug. 2, 2014 LAKEWOOD, Colo.-- Elsie Mae Hein, 84, of Lakewood, ended her earthly life surrounded by loving family on Saturday, Aug.2, 2014, of complications from a hemorrhagic stroke. She was born in Culbertson, Nebraska, on Dec. ...

Darrell Wesley Barnes Jan. 26, 1932 - Aug. 6, 2014 PALISADE, Neb. -- Darrell Wesley Barnes was born Jan. 26, 1932, to Dean and Lela (Wright) Barnes in Imperial, Nebraska, and departed this life, Aug. 6, 2014, at the age of 82. Darrell's youth was spent on the farm where he participated in 4-H activities. He won many ribbons showing cattle and received a reserve champion ribbon at the National Western Stock Show in Denver...