Stories from Wednesday, August 25, 2004

McCook High School softball team opens 2004 season Thursday against Omaha Gross, Skutt The 2004 McCook High School softball team will feature just two seniors -- second baseman Kim Serbousek and outfielder/pitcher Natalie Brooks. However, coach Dale Lortz' squad will also feature several returning starters and letterwinners from last year's squad that posted a 30-3 record and posted a 1-2 record at the Nebraska Class B state tournament...

April 11, 2004-Aug. 24, 2004 BURLINGTON, Kan. -- The Rev. Francis Marion Hatch, 93, died Tuesday (Aug. 24, 2004) at Coffey County Hospital in Burlington, Kan. He was born April 11, 1911, to EB and Myrtle Hunt Hatch in Yates Center, Kan. He was raised in Yates Center and was licensed as a minister in the Assembly of God in 1944. ...

The family of Nellie Newberry is hosting a card shower in honor of her 93rd birthday Aug. 29. Cards will reach her at RR1 Box 123, Indianola, NE 69034.

It's a long, long way from now until 2008, but we're happy to hear -- four years in advance -- that Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is considering a run for president of the United States. We admire him for letting the nation know at this early date of his presidential intentions. ...

**Dear Editor, In Monday's Open Forum Steve Stramel raises the question of HOW the Kingdom of God will come to earth and suggests that it will be through 1. Free enterprise, 2 Leadership, 3. Creativity and 4. Owning your own business. In other words it will be through human effort and not through the mighty power of God. Steve would you be so kind as to lay a Biblical foundation in support of your beliefs?...

**Dear Editor: I'd like to offer a reply to Robert A. Yost and his letter of 8-24-A.D. 2004. Yes, Robert, I am a born again Christian fanatic. Thank you for the compliment. The students in Winston Salem, N.C., have signed up for the Bible course -- 500 hundred of them. ...

Sometimes, things are not what they seem. Usually, they are precisely what they seem to be. After all, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it is probably, well, a duck. Not everyone has the ability to read between the lines, but I once fancied myself to be highly gifted in that arena. Once, many years ago, I received a letter from a summer boyfriend. In it he wrote that every time he heard a certain song, he thought of me...

IMPERIAL -- Goldie Smith of Imperial admits she's "very picky," and knows what she likes when it comes to baking bread. Goldie was a judge Thursday at the third annual whole wheat bread baking contest at the Chase County fair in Imperial. "I look for good texture," Goldie said. "Taste ... form ... coloring."...

GRAND ISLAND -- University of Nebraska head Football coach Bill Callahan, and Hastings televisvision news reporter Ginger ten Bensel, joined together on the same stage recently to help raise money for Grand Island's Third City Community Clinic. Cambridge native ten Bensel inspired the crowd with the performance of "I'm From Nebraska and I Believe That Says It All," a song that ten Bensel wrote about her Nebraska heritage and recorded in Nashville, Tenn...