Stories from Tuesday, February 26, 2002

What do the McCook Public Schools need when it comes to a new leader? Perhaps we won't know until we hire him or her. But one thing we do know, there will be plenty of challenges waiting when the new superintendent takes over. Superintendent Jon Burkey will serve through July 1, when he takes his new post across town at McCook College, where he will be in charge of facilities and vehicles. ...

How hypocritical can our own state government be? They jump on their soapboxes and preach out of one side of their mouth about the detrimental effects of smoking, and they even go so far as to ban it from all state facilities, etc. However, when they are looking for funding to cover revenue shortfalls, what is the first thing they look at? You've got it, more tax on cigarettes...

Dear Editor, In response to Donna Eckstrom on taxing smokes, I do not believe you understood my letter. Yes, I smoked for some years and do understand your point of view. The point I was trying to make was, let's be fair to everyone when throwing taxes around...

Dear Editor, When the towers of the World Trade Center, suddenly began to implode and a cloud of black smoke and ashes started to roll out into the city, people ran for their lives. If you had been there, would you have run to get away or would you have just stood there to demonstrate to others how brave (and foolish) you were? Last night, our son Bob was on his way back to Spain, with a stop and change of planes at Philadelphia. ...

Dear Editor, Friday, March 1, 2002, the state of Nebraska will celebrate its 135th birthday anniversary. In Lincoln, Neb., the State Historical Society will hold a grand opening of a new permanent exhibit identified as Building the State: Nebraska, 1867-1916. Also, there will be a celebration of Nebraska's 135th birthday in the Museum of Nebraska History from 5 to 8 p.m...

It was a gray afternoon. The sky was overcast, a colorless mirror for the monotone buildings, the gray concrete of the sidewalks and streets. I walked with a friend along an empty avenue in East Berlin. The year was 1981. The Wall was still an ominous presence in the divided city. We were returning to the checkpoint to cross back to the western sector, where we would join our classmates later for dinner on the Kurfurstendamm, West Berlin's glittering "main street."...

WAUNETA -- Oscar Howard Gibbons, 93, died Sunday (Feb. 24, 2002) at Heritage of Wauneta Nursing Home. He was born Aug. 7, 1908, to Oscar and Emily Victoria (Willy) Gibbons at Earlham, Iowa. He grew up and attended school in Atlantic, Iowa until his junior year when the family moved near Howard, Kan. He graduated from high school there in 1926. After graduation, he followed the wheat harvest which led him to Hill City, Kan...

TOPEKA, Kan. -- Bettie (Scott) Koch Bergling, 77, died Saturday (Feb. 23, 2002) at the Midland Hospice House in Topeka, Kan. She was born March 9, 1924, in Kinsley, Kan. to E.W. and Dora (Smith) Scott. She was a former resident of Atwood, moving to Topeka in 1998. She was a homemaker...