Stories from Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Mid-Plains Community College has set up webcams so viewers can watch progress on the new Events Center in McCook (here) and the Health Complex in North Platte {http://healthcomplex.mpcc.edu/view/viewer_index.shtml?id=1768(here)}...

Picking up where I left off last week, I have some early previews of new shows that will be airing this fall on CBS and The CW. There are a couple of interesting-looking shows in the mix this upcoming season on this pair of networks, plus another two or three that could be not-so-noble failures...

June 6, 1936-May 23, 2011 McCOOK, Nebraska -- Harold Lee Davidson, 74, passed away Monday, May 23, 2011, at Community Hospital in McCook. Harold was born on June 6, 1936, in McCook to Harold Leroy and Iva Thelma (Beals) Davidson. He graduated from McCook High School in 1955 and McCook Junior College in 1957. He continued his education at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, with a master's degree in business administration...

Nov. 11, 1923-May 24, 2011 OBERLIN, Kansas -- Harold A. Hill, 87, died Tuesday (May 24, 2011) at Cedar Living Center in Oberlin. He was born Nov. 11, 1923, in Piqua, Ohio, to George Hill and Lillian Reynolds. He was raised in Arkansas. He married Erma Jean Bastin...

What is the bottom line when it comes to drunk driving laws? Is it to punish drunk drivers, or get them off the road before they kill themselves and other, innocent people? In the last decades, the pendulum has swung from what was probably too permissive an attitude, to what some saw as unrealistic over-reaction fueled by popular opinion...

When we first left Wichita, bound for home, the miles couldn't go by fast enough. The decision to return to Colorado had been made much like the one that had landed us in Wichita in the first place -- on the spur of the moment, with no forethought and zero preparation...

Memorial Day weekend is quickly approaching us once again. The McCook American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars posts and a number of community volunteers will be setting out flags on our veterans' gravesites at Calvary, Memorial Park and Riverview cemeteries in McCook on Saturday, May 28, at 9 a.m...

Why didn't President Obama do his homework before meeting with Israel's prime minister? 80 percent of Israelis are Jewish. Religious freedom is guaranteed for everyone. Arabs, Christians and Jews travel to holy sites and worship at the Dome of the Rock Mosque, Temple Mount and Wailing Wall...

IMPERIAL, Nebraska -- The findings of a wide-ranging report on the relationship between water availability and uses across the entire Republican River Basin and in the Middle Republican NRD will be presented during the Middle Republican NRD's board meeting on June 14 in Curtis...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- "It's business as usual" for the Nebraska Junior High School Rodeo state finals planned Thursday and Friday in McCook. Organizers of the event -- along with veterinarians and horse owners throughout the West -- have followed news of an outbreak of equine herpes infections traced to a national cutting horse competition in Ogden, Utah, in April. The EHV-1 virus has infected dozens of horses in at least 11 states and Canada; at least nine horses have died or been euthanized...

Fear blocked Neal Hock's path to the priesthood for several years, however, the fear of mortality that descended on him following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, gave him the strength to return to the path he now sees as God's plan all along. Hock, a 1996 graduate of McCook High School and 2000 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest Friday June 10 at St. ...

CAMBRIDGE, Nebraska -- Some of the top high school basketball talent in southwest Nebraska will be on display Friday, May 27, at the Cambridge High School gym. The 27th annual Cambridge Community School Organization (CSO) All-Star Basketball Games will be held Friday night. The girls contest is set to open at 6 p.m., followed by the boys game at approximately 8 p.m...

OMAHA, Nebraska -- Competing on the big stage in Nebraska state high school championship venues for the first time can be a frightening, unnerving experience for a young athlete. McCook High School sophomore Trevor Pate stepped up and met the challenge head-on Saturday, May 13, at the Class B state track and field meet at Omaha's Burke High Stadium. ...

OMAHA, Nebraska -- It's probably a good bet that sometime in the next two years Austin Cherry will break the McCook High School track and field school record in the boys 800-meter run. Another sure bet is that the person rooting for Austin the loudest to snap the 800 mark is the current record holder -- Austin's older brother, Josh...

KEARNEY, Nebraska -- Competitors at the Nebraska State High School Class B Boys Golf Championships faced a crazy day in the opening 18 holes of play Tuesday, May 24. The tournament started with a two-hour rain delay on the state meet course at the Kearney Country Club. Golfers faced windy conditions most of the day. One of the more crazy aspects of Tuesday's first-day competition came at the end of the round, as pre-meet favorite Scottsbluff wasn't sitting atop the leader board...