Stories from Thursday, January 25, 2007

The McCook Community College men's basketball team dropped a 62-60 decision to Western Nebraska Wednesday night at True Hall Gymnasium. Clinton Napoleon made 8-of-16 field goals for 16 points to lead the Indians. Jeremy Mallard added 13 points. Manne Cook contributed 7 points and 3 rebounds in 6 minutes...

OMAHA -- The Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture men's basketball team lost 82-57 against Nebraska Christian College Tuesday at Omaha. The home team jumped out to a 7-0 lead but the Aggies had a run of the own and scored 11 unanswered points. Nebraska Christian came back and led 45-32 at the intermission...

Dec. 26, 1920-Jan. 23, 2007   STRATTON -- Albert J. Latta, 86, died Monday (Jan. 23, 2007) at his home in Stratton. He was born Dec. 26, 1920, at Stanford, to Albert M. and Selma (Harding) Latta.  After moving to Stratton, he attended and graduated from Stratton High School...

McCook Community College hopes to provide vitally needed food relief for Holdrege residents as it hosts an afternoon of college basketball on Saturday. "We're going to conduct a canned food drive this Saturday," said Dr. Richard Tubbs, CEO of McCook Community College.  "Admission to either the women's game, which starts at 2 p.m. or the men's game which begins at 4 p.m. will be a can of food," he said...

Should property owners bear the brunt of paying for Sen. Mark Christensen's proposed water plan? Or should the funding come from both property taxes and irrigators? Or, as Angus Garey proposed, should the state be responsible, in the same way that Omaha senators are requesting state funding to pay for the Qwest convention center in Omaha?...

NORTH?PLATTE -- The Mid Plains Community College board of governors agreed to spend up to $31,000 for a study to determine whether enough money can be raised to build an events center in McCook and a Health and Science building in North Platte. Meeting Wednesday, the board followed President Michael Chipps' recommendation that Clements Group L.C. conduct the feasibility study for $22,000 plus expenses not to exceed $9,000...

A scantilly-clad summer statue in the front yard of the Cambridge Bed and Breakfast wears a warm winter coat.

A judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging the State Department of Health and Human Services was endangering 6,000 Nebraska children in the foster care system, but even so, the lawsuit helped improve conditions for the kids in the system. In dismissing the suit, the judge pointed out that the state had already made improvements in conditions such as overcrowded foster homes, and social worker caseloads that were three times national standards...

It truly is great to live in Southwest Nebraska. In today's busy world people often find it easier to turn away another project or say no to one more volunteer effort due to the demands of their own personal and business life. Two-hundred and eighty-eight local and non-local youth are lucky that several people in McCook did not turn down one more volunteer effort Saturday and the youth participated locally in an event that was supported 100 percent by volunteers...

I wanted to thank reader Cheryl Larreau for her reasoned, objective response to a previous submission (probably a poor choice of word in light of her bias) ["Bunch of bull" (http://www.mccook gazette.com/story/1186515.html)]. She lost me when categorically stating that "men are such animals" (not that "some" or even "most" men are animals, which thought I could at least entertain). ...

What makes Sen. Hagel think that the hard-working people of Nebraska and the rest of the U.S. should divvy up their hard-earned Social Security with a bunch of illegals who are sending the biggest share of their earnings back to Mexico so they may retire there in great comfort?...

What a wonderful town you are. I was travelling through your city after the New Year and had car trouble. I was on my way from North Dakota to Amarillo, Texas. I was traveling alone since my husband had already flown back earlier to Texas. It was dark and cold out and I had just reached McCook, Nebraska...

Resources are limited, so the same space, water and fertilizer that grows one ear of corn can also grow a pepper plant and in return produce 6 large bell peppers -- one ear of corn at 10 cents or 6 peppers at over 50 cents each. One more time -- the same space that grows 10 cents worth of corn, can grow $3 worth of peppers...

I thought I'd heard it all. I thought the government had gone as far as it could go in intruding on our private lives and mandating the way we decide to live our lives -- and then I came across a story on CNN.com. The story reports that a California legislator is gaining support for a bill proposing the banning of spanking of children under the age of four...