Stories from Monday, September 14, 2009

"Back by popular demand" is the theme at this year's St. Patrick's Fall Festival. Four games from Fun Jumpz will be available for kids of all ages. They are bungee basketball, jousting, an obstacle course, and the bungee run. The Fun Jumpz will be open both Saturday evening starting at 5:30 p.m., and on Sunday from noon until 4 p.m....

All good things must come to an end, and on Friday night, it was McCook's 71-game regular season winning streak. From the time Aurora ran the opening kickoff back 93 yards for a touchdown through a long second half, it was all Huskies, all night, closing at 48-10...

The following appeared in the Imperial Republican, Chase County, Neb., in June 1996. I believe it has some application to what we see today on the national scene. [editor's note: everything that follows up to the closing is a direct quote] Communist Rules for Revolution...

EDITOR'S NOTE -- The following is the fourth in a series by Steve Smith of WaterClaim.com concerning the ongoing Republican River dispute: Base flow is the amount of water oozing from the aquifer into the streams. Stream flow is base flow plus run off from precipitation events. Base flow cannot be greater than the total stream flow...

A new television show for and about teens was created by a McCook native and will be broadcast nationwide this month. Bob Anderson, now of the San Francisco Bay area, grew up in McCook and is the creator and distributor of the "Eco Company," a 13- episode, half-hour weekly show that will be aired beginning mid-September. ...

The colorful interior of a hot-air balloon traps enough hot air, left, to lift its passengers high above the Red Willow County Fairgrounds, top right, offering a clear view of the rising sun, above right, looking east down West L Street. All 13 balloons participating in this year's McCook Balloon Fest got off the ground on a beautiful Saturday morning, but wind kept most of them grounded Saturday night, and fog prevented any flights Sunday morning. ...

NORTH PLATTE -- The Mid-Plains Community College Board of Governors will be asked to adopt the 2009-10 budget at $26,366,261, at the regular meeting Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., room 200 at the North Platte Campus. Prior to this meeting, the board will meet at 6 p.m. at the same location for a public hearing to hear support, opposition, criticism or observations of taxpayers relating to the proposed budget. Another hearing is scheduled afterward to set the final tax request...

CURTIS -- The number of students enrolled at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture is up dramatically this fall. A record 425 students started classes in August, representing an increase of 49.1 percent from the previous year. The number also represents a 24 percent increase in full-time first-year students and a substantial increase in students taking concurrent enrollment courses. ...

As most fans, coaches and players know, winning and losing in football is often about momentum. The team that usually ends up victorious gains it early, builds on it quickly and holds it fiercely. The Aurora High School Huskies provided a textbook example of such momentum Friday night in their 48-10 win over the McCook Bison. In the opening seconds, Aurora ran the Bison kick back 93 yards for a touchdown, deflating the hometown crowd...

Prior to World War II the traditional place for women in America was in the home. They were homemakers first, and handled the sacred task of rearing their children. To be sure, women had held jobs in the workplace for generations, but these jobs were "women's" work, like teaching, nursing, waitresses, and sales persons in stores where women were the principal shoppers. ...

There are some additional legislative hearings that will be coming up in the next couple of months that I would like to share with my constituents. If there is an interest in any of these hearings you are more than welcome to attend or contact my office if you have questions...

A new kind of influenza is circulating in Nebraska. It's called the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1). Public health officials, like our state's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joann Schaefer, expect there to be more cases nationally and within Nebraska. With the beginning of school and kids congregating together, cases are on the rise...

The vast majority of Americans, some 250 million people, have health insurance. That includes 85 percent of Nebraskans. While many Nebraskans have health insurance, most of those with coverage face steep increases in premiums every year. They want to contain those costs, but don't want to sacrifice what they have so that coverage may be extended to others. That was one of the main themes I heard over and over again at public meetings statewide during August...

In August, I -- like many Members of Congress -- made the most of my time to engage constituents in a debate about legislation directly impacting the future of our health care. I took the opportunity to ask folks attending my public meetings if they thought we should have finished the bill before the end of August...