Stories from Thursday, June 30, 2011

Nov. 3, 1918-June 28, 2011 ARAPAHOE, Nebraska -- Ellen Mae Wagner, 92, died Tuesday (June 28, 2011) at C.A. Mues Good Samaritan Center in Arapahoe. She was born Nov. 3, 1918, near Arapahoe to Clyde L. and Mabel H. (Keeler) Larson. She was baptized Feb. ...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Following a closed-door session during a meeting, Wednesday, at McCook Community College, the Mid-Plains Community College Board of Governors moved to offer part-time hourly and salaried employees and adjunct faculty a 2 percent wage increase for 2011-12...

Don't let the pink nail polish, headbands and giggles fool you: Courtney Leitner, 13 and Olivia Meixner, 6, may look girly-girl and are pretty enough for beauty pageants. But make no mistake - these girls prefer pulling on helmets and jumping on motorcycles for fun...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- As an added touch of nostalgia, Pastor Clark Bates and his wife, Dawna, will portray Sen. George W. Norris and his wife, Ellie, at the 150th birthday tribute to the famed legislator from McCook. The special sesquicentennial celebration of the senators's birth will take place Saturday, July 9, at the Keystone Business Center. ...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- The McCook office of Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska has free fans available to low-income individuals and families. "There's a little bit of paperwork -- not a lot -- and verification of income," Barb Ostrum, community service coordinator of Mid-Nebraska's McCook office, said...

We're being hit by a triple-whammy in Southwest Nebraska -- temperatures that may set a record, fire danger warnings, and the Fourth of July in the course of a few days. We've already reminded readers of fireworks safety, and reiterate the need to have water available to extinguish spent fireworks, as well as the need for adult supervision and general common sense...

Now that summer has officially arrived the days are longer and the nights shorter, which doesn't do much to make us astronomer happy. But, what night we have is definitely warmer than the winter nights. Our old friends, the stars of the Summer Triangle, are above the eastern horizon by 8 p.m. and two planets, Mercury and Saturn are available for our viewing pleasure...

So my younger two daughters, the 4-year-old and the recently-turned 9-year-old are HUGE animal lovers. I say "huge" because they love anything from a teeny crawling lady bug, to a killer whale and all sizes and kinds in between. My 11-year-old likes animals, from a distance mainly, but certainly doesn't have a heart for them. ...

Years ago when I worked at the Nebraska Department of Insurance and we had a choice about whether to try to make a new health care law work or try to undo it and not implement it. We chose the first course. The law was Medicare, which was created in the 1960s because millions of elderly Americans couldn't get good enough health coverage from the private market. From Day One, in spite of opposition, we tried to make Medicare work...

The summer construction season is in full swing, with major projects such as the McCook Community College Events Center, left, and Phase 2 of Community Hospital's construction and remodeling project, above, making quick progress.