Stories from Thursday, January 15, 2015

Nova Devo Versch March 26, 1928 - Jan. 12, 2015 BIRD CITY, Kan. -- Nova Devo Versch died Jan. 12, 2015, at the Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice Center in Wichita, Kansas. She was born March 26, 1928, to J. Arthur Butler and Edith (McDougal) Butler. She grew up in Bird City. She married Gerald 'Bud' Versch on Dec. 1, 1946...

CULBERTSON, Neb. -- Alicia and James Hegwood feel blessed. "We have been very blessed," Alicia says. "We have our family. We have a nice home. And we have love." She continued, "God has called us to share that with others." For that reason, Alicia and James and their five children, of rural Culbertson, Nebraska, will make a mission trip to Tijuana, Mexico in February to build a kitchen in a hospice center whose patients, until last summer, were shaded only by a tarp...

McCOOK, Neb. -- Should the vote for Nebraska legislative committee chairmen be public or remain on secret ballot? Lawmakers were to debate the topic today, among other rule changes, after the Nebraska Legislature's Rules Committee unanimously rejected the same proposal earlier this week...

The secret talks that led to a prisoner exchange and release of a U.S. governent contractor imprisoned in Cuba for five years have led to further thawing of the last remnants of the Cold War. Wednesday, the Obama administration announced that it was significantly loosening restrictions on American trade with, and investment in, Cuba...

I thought to myself, there was a day not so many years ago that my life was consumed by diapers. Did I have enough diapers at home, did I have extra diapers in the car, or will I have enough diapers to last through the weekend? I had diapers stuck in the seat pockets of my truck and wipes in the console...

Wildlife conservation and science have been kidnapped by Nebraska Game and Parks Commissioners for self-serving political agenda. Nebraska Game and Parks Commissioners are currently appointed by the governor and have limited accountability to the citizens of the state. Nebraska wildlife and parkland resources should not be a "political football" managed at the political whims and self-serving interests of Commissioners...