Stories from Thursday, August 4, 2011

A new study confirms what some have been saying all along: eating healthy is expensive. One needs only look as far as some of the advertising for the government's new food recommendations -- a plate of salmon, arugula and rice pilaf isn't something the average poor family is likely to see on the dinner table...

The USDA performs an important job in ensuring that the nation's food supply is safe, but that doesn't relieve individual consumers from protecting their own health. Cargill recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey after it was linked to a nationwide outbreak of antibiotic-resistant salmonella food poisoning...

A mom deserves a sanctuary in her home that is just hers. Maybe for some moms it would be their own personally-designed kitchen. For others, perhaps, a sunroom filled with beautiful plants and cushy furniture to lounge in and read a novel. For a limited few, maybe even the laundry room...

One of the best astronomical sights to observe at this time of year is so large it is difficult to miss. All you have to do is go outside, find a nice, dark-sky place far away from city lights and look up. It is the Milky Way, the wide star-path that is the plain of our galaxy. The reason the stars are so concentrated is we are looking at the galaxy like we would a cookie if we held it up and turned it flat looking at the edge...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- McCook, Nebraska, Public Schools board of education members will interview at their meeting Monday the two candidates who expressed an interest in serving on the school board by the Aug. 1 deadline. Both Darin Morgan and Teresa Thomas will be interviewed, and one or the other will be seated immediately to continue with the final two agenda items of the meeting scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., in the junior high board room...

CONNIE JO DISCOE Regional Editor McCOOK, Nebraska -- The McCook, Nebraska, Public Schools board of education will discuss the possible purchase of the former Nebraska Army National Guard Armory at its monthly meeting Monday, at 6 p.m., in the junior high board room...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Immediately after hearing that memorabilia from Sen. George Norris's vacation home in Wapaca, Wisconsin, will be liquidated in an estate sale, the current senior U.S. senator from Nebraska, Ben Nelson, called the George W. Norris Foundation in McCook to announce additional funding of $7,500 to acquire historic items...

Scotty Harman of Norcatur, Kansas, shows the boys how it's done, scoring 75 points in the barebacks at the Red Willow County, Nebraska, county fair rodeo Sunday evening. Dillon Tiede of Smithfield scored 72 points before making a not-so-graceful exit off his horse's left side Saturday evening, while Collin Chytka's horse dumped him in the same fashion off the right before the eight-second buzzer Sunday evening...

If you've read my column with any regularity, you probably know that I'm always on the lookout for a good crime drama. My favorites, shows like "NYPD Blue," "Hill Street Blues" and "Homicide: Life on the Street," were as much about the intricacies of being a police officer -- and, sometimes, being a criminal -- doing his or her job on a day-to-day basis as they were about the crimes being committed or solved...