Stories from Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Dec. 15, 1962-June 20, 2011 NORTH PLATTE, Nebraska -- William Theodore "Uncle B" Weber, 48, passed away June 20, 2011, at Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte. Billy was born Dec. 15, 1962, in Yuba City, California to William Eugene and Susan Jean Dethlefsen Weber. ...

Aug. 9, 1989-June 18, 2011 BUFFALO, Wyoming -- Funeral services for Kris Graham, 21, of Buffalo, Wyoming, who was killed in an automobile accident in Buffalo Saturday evening, are Thursday, June 23, at 2 p.m. at Big Horn Baptist Church in Buffalo with Pastor John Constantine officiating...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- "What if" a tornado like the one that tore through Joplin, Missouri, on May 22 ripped through McCook, Nebraska? "We can never predict everything," Jim Ulrich, CEO of Community Hospital of McCook, said Monday morning after a meeting of the hospital's board of directors on June 15. But, Ulrich is confident that hospital and clinic staff are as well-prepared as they can be...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Portraits of McCook's first settlers now hang in the "parlor" of the Museum of the High Plains in downtown McCook, Nebraska. Floyd Bales of McCook donated the oval framed sepia-toned portraits of his grandparents, Tom and Delsina Bales, in memory of them and their contributions to the growth of McCook and particularly "East McCook."...

Any doubt that Obamacare would be revisited -- or that it was passed prematurely -- vanished with the news that an early-retired couple could earn up to $64,000 and still qualify for Medicaid, taxpayer funded medical care for the poor. "The fact that this is being discovered now tells you, what else is baked into this law?" said former Utah governor Mike Leavitt...

The unusually tall man in the saddle with a marshal's badge pinned to his vest was feeling better than he had in months. The pain was finally subsiding and he looked forward to seeing Dodge again. He couldn't recall a brighter morning sun. The glare nearly blinded him as he struggled to see the edge of the familiar town. It seemed as though the heavens suddenly opened up, bathing the desert floor in brilliant light...

I have never been very athletic. I squeeze my eyes shut if anyone throws anything at me, including a softball or a basketball. And running? Well, I have avoided that heart-pounding, sweat-inducing exercise all of my life. A brisk walk suits me just fine, and I've even been known to power-walk the aisles at the local discount store. (It helps me avoid those all too important to the store's bottom line impulse-buys.)...