Stories from Wednesday, July 21, 2010

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mike Johanns today cosponsored two bills to repeal unfair mandates in the new health care law. The American Liberty Restoration Act would repeal the individual mandate in the law that forces Americans to purchase health insurance by 2014 or pay a fine. The American Job Protection Act would repeal the employer mandate in the law that forces employers to provide health insurance for their employees or face a penalty...

In what to the defendants must seem like a cruel irony, their evening of celebrating American car culture could keep them from getting behind the wheel. The Nebraska State Patrol said 78 juveniles were ticketed for illegally possessing alcohol on Saturday night during the Kearney Cruise Night...

Monday evening the city council had a citizen, Mr. Don Klein, attend the meeting and ask a few questions and make some comments. Mr. Klein is a respected citizen in McCook and expressed some views that I have also heard in our community. To paraphrase him, he first commended city department heads, staff, the city manager, the city clerk and council for making improvements in the city while taking a very conservative approach to budgeting. ...

While Kearney cops were writing tickets for possession of small amounts of marijuana (on Kearney, Nebraska's annual Cruise Night), a proposal for large-scale marijuana farms was running into opposition in Oakland, California -- from small-scale marijuana farms...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- A paramedic student at McCook Community College wants a smoke detector in the home of every elderly, handicapped and disabled person in McCook. To accomplish that goal, Mark Maxwell of Boulder, Colorado, has collected smoke detectors donated by McCook businesses and will install them -- free of charge, complete with batteries -- in the homes of those who would be the most vulnerable if fire broke out in their homes...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Four departments supervised by Public Works Director, Kyle Potthoff are projected to end the current fiscal year $68,701 under budget and have been proposed for the 2010-11 budget to shrink by $41,065 more. The savings will come primarily from budgeted Capital Outlay spending freezes in the Streets, Parks, Ball Parks and Street Lights departments...

ATWOOD, Kansas -- A former truck driver from Atwood, Kansas, likes to tell folks he's finished writing his first book. "It sounds impressive," Don Benda writes in the forward to his book, "Important Things I Learned while Driving a Truck across America."...

Even though the Class B Area 6 district tournament is played in a double-elimination format, the McCook National Bank Seniors may enter the competition with the attitude that there's no tomorrow. Mike Broomfield, head coach of the McCook Legion baseball squad, hopes his team can get off to a great start in the district meet scheduled to start Thursday, July 22, at Holdrege...

Another e-mail joke, detailing the differences between generations, is making its way through cyber-space, addressed primarily to people who have seen their 40th birthday. Since I passed the 40 year mile marker along the road of life long ago, I could easily relate to the comparisons...