Stories from Monday, August 16, 2010

McCOOK, Nebraska -- McCook Area Chamber of Commerce will focus its attention on developing chamber services for members in the upcoming year. According to Chamber Director Pam Harsh, the Chamber Board of Directors has set a goal to develop services that add value to memberships...

HAYES CENTER, Nebraska -- the Grand Duke Alexis Rendezvous 2010 will be Sept. 24, 25 and 26 near the actual site of the historic campground of Buffalo Bill Cody, Gen. George Custer, Gen. Phil Sheridan and the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia. The event, now in its 11th year, was initiated to commemorate the famous buffalo hunt which was held for the son of Russian Czar Alexander II when he visited Nebraska in 1872...

Gayle Kircher of rural Indianola, Nebraska, runs an Oliver Red River Special thresher -- the "Cadillac of threshers" -- and Matt Oltmer, left, and Derek Dack toss shocks of wheat into it during the annual "Bum Malleck Memorial Threshing" Sunday afternoon south of Indianola. Hundreds of spectators gathered to watch old-time horse-drawn implements and tractors thresh wheat, bale cane and shuck corn...

Glad to see [the Romanoff building] being removed, it is not taken care of properly. I read in the local Gazette ideas should be expressed as to use for site of the building being demolished at all's expense at Norris and B street. I didn't know where we were to send the suggestions...

Recently, in this column we discussed names of widely used products that carried the name of the inventor of that product. I was stopped by a reader who took me to task because I had not mentioned the sandwich and the inventor of that common staple in our lives. ...

Aug. 18, 1952-Aug. 11, 2010 MECHANICSVILLE, Maryland -- Richard Lynn Best, 57, formerly of McCook, Nebraska, died on Aug. 11, 2010, at St. Francis Hospital in Charleston, SC while vacationing. Born on Aug. 18, 1952 in Ainsworth, Nebraska, he was the son of the late Merrill Eddie Best, Jr. and the late Darlene Blume Best...

March 8, 1920-Aug. 12, 2010 NORTH PLATTE, Nebraska -- Dorothy M. Shirley, 90, of North Platte, Nebraska, died Thursday (Aug. 12, 2010), at the Sutherland Care Center in Sutherland, Nebraska. She was born March 8, 1920, at Ewing, Nebraska, to Ernest William and Sadie Irene Gill Bollwitt. She grew up in Ewing and moved to North Platte when she was 12 years old...

While the Senate has been out of session there are still issues facing us that are as hot as the August weather, one of which involves a treaty between two nuclear super powers, the U.S. and Russia. During one of those hot August days I had the opportunity to speak to hundreds of military experts from around the country about the New START Treaty which is aimed at reducing the number of nuclear missiles deployed by both countries...

The McCook High School girls golf team may be a little antsy this week, with the opening competition of the 2010 fall season still eight days away. Head coach Randy Ryser put his Bison girls through their opening week of fall practices last week. Ryser thinks his team is just about ready to tee it up for real -- if anything, just to see where the team stands...

The first week of practices for the 2010 McCook High School football season is in the books, with a relatively happy head coach. The Bison completed the opening week of fall camp with the annual scrimmage Saturday, Aug. 14, at Weiland Field. Head coach Jeff Gross and his team survived a week of hot, humid conditions, and the Bison players and staff welcomed intermittent rain showers and a little cooler temperatures Saturday morning...

NORTH PLATTE, Nebraska (Aug. 16, 2010) --Blood donations through the local American Red Cross Blood Services Region have been declining this summer and supplies are currently less than sufficient. All blood types are needed to ensure blood supplies do not drop to emergency levels...

A program started by Tom and Nancy Osborne in 1991 has leveraged University of Nebraska football fame into a program that has been making a real difference in the lives of students for more than 20 years. Back in 1991, Osborne decided his athletes could make a difference with students, and took 22 of his football players to meet with middle school students in the Lincoln Public Schools...