Stories from Thursday, January 23, 2003

Dr. Richard Tubbs, vice president in charge of McCook Community College, delivers opening remarks at the college's second TeleFuture Technology Conference, taking place on campus today. Tom Webb, district magistrate judge for the 26th Judicial District in Kansas, was to be the speaker at noon, and U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne was slated to speak at 3:30 p.m...

Georgie had better hurry and start that war with Iraq, or he won't win the Teddy Roosevelt award this year, either.

What happened to the Queen of Clean? And who wants this Everyday Cheapskate? She's trying to tell everyone how they should live their lives. We need answers to individual household problems. EDITOR'S NOTE -- The Queen of Clean column is no longer available and was replaced by the Everyday Cheapskate column. The latter column has received a good response from many of our readers...

The remark at the school board meeting by the citizen of McCook referring to the school's modular homes as "tin shantys" was mean, nasty and insulting to people who live in mobile homes. There are many people who live in them and call them home. My husband and I are one family who do, and mine isn't a shanty...

Corn is still king of the Golden Plains. And, Nebraska is an important member of King Corn's court. Just check out some of the information in the annual Nebraska Corn Tab, a special section in today's edition. - Nebraska is the third largest corn-producing state in the nation, harvesting 1,129 million bushels of corn from roughly 8.1 million acres of farmland in 2001...

INDIANOLA -- Jerry and Tina Kircher of Indianola announce the birth of a daughter, Emily Marie, born Friday (Jan. 10, 2003). She weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces. She has two brothers, Kenton and Logan, and a sister, Shelby. Grandparents are Tom and Bertie DeBauche of McCook and the late Fred and Betty Kircher...

The family of Glen (Bud) and Julie Lytle is hosting a card shower for their 50th anniversary, Jan. 25, 2003. Cards will reach the couple at RR3 Box 122, McCook, NE 69001.

Randy Korgan (left) of McCook National Bank and Andrew Howell hang a one-of-a-kind BISON quilt in the bank lobby in downtown McCook. Andrew designed the quilt; his mother, Deanne, and aunt, Deb Crawford, created the quilt. Proceeds from a raffle of the quilt will help pay for McCook High School Art Club activities. ...

CURTIS -- Successful area business people will tell their "success stories" during a workshop called "Opening the Doors to New Rural Opportunities: An Alternative Enterprise and Sustainable Agriculture Workshop" Saturday, Feb. 1, in Curtis. The workshop is sponsored by Southwest Nebraska Resource Conservation and Development and hosted by the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture.-...

Red Willow County's public defender announced his retirement to commissioners during their regular meeting Tuesday. Commissioners also scheduled a public hearing on a request for an access road onto "isolated" land, and were amused by an animal control specialist who told them about a squirrel on a sugar-high...

LINCOLN -- Drivers licenses issued in Southwest Nebraska counties will have a new look starting in April and May. New digitally-produced drivers licenses will have digitized portrait images, signatures and identifying information on the front. An "organ donor" symbol will be printed in the lower right-hand corner...

As you may or may not have heard, Gov. Mike Johanns is not going to raise taxes. Which must mean that the additional tobacco taxes he's proposed in his economic plan aren't taxes after all, but a secret government conspiracy to bankrupt the tobacco industry and force the die-hard smoker into shame and poverty...

CULBERTSON -- Alan L. Harms, 44, died Tuesday (Jan. 21, 2003) as the result of an auto accident in Frontier County near Maywood. He was born Sept. 16, 1958, in Gothenburg to Marvin and Betty (Aden) Harms. He grew up at Gothenburg where he attended Gothenburg High School until his junior year. The family moved to Culbertson where he graduated from Culbertson High School in 1976. He attended Mid-Plains Community College at North Platte...

NORTH PLATTE -- Larry D. Wiezorek, 53, died Wednesday (Jan. 22, 2003) at Great Plains Regional Medical Center of North Platte. He was born July 24, 1949, in Roanoke, Va., to Anton and Janice Meadows Wiezorek. He attended North Platte schools and then served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam from February 1969 until September 1970...