No shortage of villains in the news

The Groundhog Day blizzard generated a lot of stories of kindness, from neighbors scooping walks to the disabled Omaha veteran who converted his power wheelchair to a snowplow and Val Fuller, who opened his restaurant to truckers stranded at McCook's Walmart.

Stories like those can help get the bad taste out of your mouth if you've been following some others.

A two-night miniseries on Bernie Madoff was a look into the life of a sociopath who ruined the lives of thousands, including his family, close friends and employees through his multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, the largest in U.S. history.

While he is serving a 150-year prison sentence, his crimes weren't discovered until the 2008 stock market meltdown, caused by activities that many feel were just as deserving of long prison sentences.

Plus, the mathematician who first uncovered Madoff's fraud said there are still multi-billion-dollar fraudulent schemes in operation today.

Local residents may be reminded of Terry Malcom, a popular local attorney convicted of stealing from estates, serving time in prison, and then going on to defraud a couple of Colorado water districts of more than a million dollars, small potatoes compared to Bernie Madoff.

Authorities like the Securities and Exchange Commission came out in a bad light in the Madoff docudrama, and so did the authorities in the hit Netflix original, "Making a Murderer." It's about the conviction, and exoneration of Steven Avery for sexual assault and attempted kidnapping, and his subsequent conviction, along with his nephew, Brendan Dassey, in the murder of a photographer.

The documentary concentrates on ways conflicts of interest and misbehavior by prosecutors, defense lawyers and law enforcement officers led to the convictions. It leaves out some evidence, however, that convince many that the two did, indeed, commit the crime.

Details are still emerging, but Martin Shkreli's Wall Street activities spilled over into the pharmaceutical industry, where his company acquired rights to old drugs and then raised their prices by astronomical amounts.

He smirked his way through Congressional hearings, Thursday, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights and then but then tweeted that his questioners were "imbeciles."

The murder of a 14-year-old McCook girl was echoed in another tragic case now coming to light, a 13-year-old girl apparently abducted and murdered by an 18-year-old Virginia tech student and his 19-year-old girlfriend.

Nicole Madison Lovell survived a liver transplant, lymphoma, a serious staph infection and bullying because of her appearance, only to have her body found at the side of a road in North Carolina.

She apparently came in contact with her killers through messenger apps and social media.

Clearly, there are no shortage of villains around to generate outrage, but let's use them as examples to contrast and amplify the good deeds of the many everyday heroes we meet in our daily lives.