Stories from Thursday, May 10, 2007

ARAPAHOE and BENKELMAN -- The first day of Nebraska district track action kicked off Wednesday for Class D8 and D10. Several area athletes earned a chance at the state competition May 18-19 in Omaha. Bailey Soucie won three district events for the Cambridge girls in the D8 districts in Arapahoe...

Adam Wright claims individual medalist honors By JOHN J. MESH Gazette Sports Editor CURTIS -- The Hitchcock County golf team blistered the field by 25 strokes at the 2007 Cattle Trail Tournament Wednesday en route to the title. Falcons' golfer Adam Wright shot an 82 to claim first-place medalist honors...

LINCOLN -- The Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) has announced its Women's Tennis All-Conference selections for 2007. Lauren Pfister from Nebraska Wesleyan has been named the Hauff Mid-America Sports/GPAC Women's Tennis Player of the Year, while Mark Lemke from Concordia is the Hauff Mid-America Sports/GPAC Women's Tennis Coach of the Year...

The family of Vene Deminski is requesting a card shower in honor of her 80th birthday May 15. Her children are Jerri and husband, Randy Barber of Danbury; Kathy and husband, Jim Salts of Broken Bow; and Tracy and wife, Connie Deminski of Omaha. She has six grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild. Cards of congratulation will reach her at 1024 Mousel Ave., Cambridge, NE, 69022...

Friendship can cross any barrier, fourth grade students learned recently. Students from Dawn Diederich's and Kandy Davis' fourth grade classrooms at Central Elementary spent Friday afternoon with members of the Swatter's 4-H Club, a club for developmentally disabled adults, at Southwest Area Training Services...

TRENTON -- The Arkansas truck driver who pleaded guilty in March to motor vehicle homicide will spend at least six months in Nebraska's penitentiary. Although the defense and the prosecution both recommended probation for 50-year-old James Watt II, of Everton, Ark., Hitchcock County District Judge David Urbom sentenced him to 12 months in the state pen for causing the death of Alan T. Roller, 59, of Champion, on the afternoon of Halloween 2006...

By LORRI SUGHROUE City Editor Sen. Mark Christensen said he believed the three Natural Resources ?Districts probably will come together in an inter-local agreement concerning assessing taxes. Right now, the three resources districts have been discussing varying amounts they are allowed to assess under LB701, with the Upper talking about a 3.4 cent occupation tax and no property tax, and the Middle considering both property and occupation taxes...

Paying off bonds that could be sold to lease water rights in the Middle Republican Natural Resources District may not require the full 10-cent property tax levy and $10 per acre assessment on irrigated land allowed under LB701. Al Eveland of Ameritas Financial Services told MRNRD board members and about 20 members of the public at an MRNRD meeting Tuesday evening, "You're not going to need to go full-tilt 10 cents and $10 an acre." Dan Smith, executive director of the MRNRD, said there may be "lots of variations on the theme.". ...

The rising cost of health care is getting the attention of policy makers on both the national and state levels, with talk of universal coverage and ways to bring the cost of government programs like Medicare and Medicaid under control. Amid this argument, it's important to remember that hospitals are doing their part, according to the Nebraska Hospital Association...