Stories from Thursday, October 7, 2004

Head coach Jeff Gross and the No. 1-ranked McCook Bison football team just had to concentrate on improving this week in practice. Gross and his assistant coaches did not need to worry about making too many motivational speeches to distract from those practice preparations...

Now that the high school football season is half over, it is time for the game of jockeying for postseason position to begin. It should be fairly clear by now which programs are going to be successful in the playoffs and which will be "tune ups". McCook keeps rolling along, picking up consecutive win number 31 last Friday over Hastings...

July 2, 1922-Oct. 4, 2004 ATWOOD -- Dr. Harold Graden Easterday, 82, died Monday (Oct. 4, 2004) at Rawlins County Health Center in Atwood. He was born July 2, 1922, in Abilene, Kan. He graduated of Washburn High School in 1940 and graduated from Kansas State Veterinarian School in 1952...

The Middle Republican Natural Resources District Board of Directors may be facing a revolt if it continues with its plans to approve its Ground Water Management Area and Integrated Management Plan. About 150 irrigators and other concerned citizens showed up at a public hearing to voice concerns about the proposed water management plan presented by the Middle Republican NRD...

A high-tech "boot camp" which used to require participants to be gone for week-long training stints in Denver or Omaha has come to McCook, thanks to a cooperative effort between a local business and McCook Community College. Ten participants were part of the inaugural offering of Cisco Certified Network Associate training last week at the Hormel Business and Technology Center...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson announced that the program he successfully included last year in the prescription drug bill which benefited Community Hospital of McCook and several other Nebraska rural hospitals has been initiated by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services...

The Hayes Center community is united in support and prayer for four infants who were born prematurely. In a front page story in this week's Hayes Center Times-Republican, Amy Frederick reports the early births of Gauge Issaic Tinnsmann, the son of Stephanie (Scott) and Dustin Tinnsmann of Hastings; and Connor James, Shyann Eileen and Caden Thomas, the triplet babies born to Todd and Tracy Anderjaska, also of Hastings...

**Dear Editor, As a member of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, and a candidate for re-election, I welcome discussion of issues facing the university. However, any discussion on both sides of an issue has to be factual. The Open Forum letter from Bill Sullivan was full of false accusations...

After 26 years with the same employer, my husband is looking forward to starting a new job a week from Monday. I have to admire anyone who can stay with a job for 26 years; my personal record is four years and two months -- my current tenure at the Gazette...