Stories from Monday, March 4, 2013

Betty Ida Bock March 18, 1926 - March 1, 2013 BIRD CITY, Kansas -- Betty Ida Bock, 87, died Friday (March 1, 2013), at the Hillcrest Care Center in Wray, Colorado. She was born March 18, 1926, in Cawker City, Kansas. She was a homemaker. She was preceded in death by her husband, Paul Bock, in 1991...

Melvin Ross Mast Dec. 29,1923 - Feb. 26, 2013 BIRD CITY, Kansas -- Melvin Ross Mast, 89, died Feb. 26, 2013, at his residence in Bird City, He was born Dec. 29,1923, in Litchfield, Nebraska. He was a city manager. Survivors include his wife, Dorthy L. (Bruce) Mast of Bird city, sons, Michael Mast of Chicago, Illinois and Steven Mast of Gahanna, Ohio; daughter, Deb Moellenberg of Idalia, Colorado, six grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and one step-grandchild...

Johnnie F. Schorzman Aug. 18, 1948 - Feb. 28, 2013 ST. FRANCIS, Kansas -- Johnnie F. Schorzman, 64, died Thursday (Feb. 28, 2013), at Hastings, Nebraska. He was born Aug. 18, 1948, in St. Francis. He was a truck driver. Survivors include his wife, Marjorie (Kear) Schorzman of St. Francis; sons, Jim Schorzman of Hutchinson, Kansas and Jerry Schorzman of St. Francis; brothers, Elmer Schorzman of San Diego, California; sister, Esther Confer of St. Francis and two grandchildren,...

Robert 'Bob' Burr May 22, 1931 - March 2, 2013 BENKELMAN, Nebraska -- Robert "Bob" Burr, 81, died Saturday (March 2, 2013), at Dundy County Hospital in Benkelman. He was born May 22, 1931, in St. Francis, Kansas. He was a farmer. Memorial services are Friday, March 8, 2013, at the Knodel Funeral Home in St. Francis, Kansas...

Phyllis Nadine Kirkman June 15, 1937 - Feb. 28, 2013 BENKELMAN, Nebraska -- Phyllis Nadine Kirkman was born June 15, 1937, in Max, Nebraska, to Harley and Selma (Brynoff) Howard. Phyllis was educated in the Max schools and graduated from Max High School in 1954...

Margaret Dorothea Neel Febr. 20, 1928 - March 2, 2013 McCOOK, Nebraska -- Margaret Dorothea Neel, age 85, of McCook, passed away Saturday, March 2, 2013, at Community Hospital in McCook. Margaret was born in rural Red Willow County on the family farm Feb. 20, 1928, to Forrest E. and Fannie (Duckworth) Barber. She was one of three children...

Freda Maxine Leffler-Iles Aug. 11, 1912 - March 2, 2013 WAUNETA, Nebreska -- Freda Maxine Leffler-Iles, 100, died on Saturday (March 2, 2013), at Sunrise Heights of Wauneta. She was born Aug. 11, 1912, in Hayes Center, Nebraska, to Daniel Blair and Sophia Fornoff May...

From H.P. Waites Collection of McCook Tribune Stories In 1883 McCook was still in its infancy as a frontier community, yet those early settlers were filled with optimism, energy and foresight, making the new little city of McCook the fastest growing town in the state, which was attracting more settlers every day...

The Keystone XL pipeline may or may not be more dangerous than other means of transporting oil from Canada's tar sands oilfields to refineries, but even if it's not built, those fields are likely to continue to be exploited. The draft report basically updates a 2011 study that virtually approved the project, which is designed to carry about 800,000 barrels of heavy crude oil from Alberta across the Great Plains to the Gulf Coast...

This stand of trees wears an icy coat just south of Peggy Rawn's home in Bartley, Nebraska. The McCook Daily Gazette would love to showcase your weather photos. Readers can contribute to our daily weather page, subject to space and color availability, by emailing photos to editor2@ocsmccook.com or bringing them into the Gazette offices at West First and E Streets. Include the photographer's name and where and when the photo was taken and the camera settings used to get the shot (optional)...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Jesus' parable about the fig tree took center stage Friday as the Rev. Mary Hendricks, pastor at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, addressed a community congregation of just over 100 people Friday during the 2013 Community Lenten Series at Memorial United Methodist Church. She revealed that "followers of Jesus are ministers, not messiahs; workers, not master builders; and prophets of a future that is not our own."...

Jeff Kugler of Servi-Tech, right, explains "The Profiler" soil moisture monitoring system to Ray Haag of Danbury, Nebraska, during the 27th annual Middle Republican Natural Resources District water conference Friday in McCook. The Profiler measures soil moisture tension, the measure of how strongly water is held in the soil; soil moisture tension indicates how hard the plant must work to extract water from the soil, Kugler said. ...

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Three McCook Community College students received their 15 seconds of fame when a video they filmed was aired on the Tosh.0 Comedy Central show recently. The students, all three McCook High School graduates and freshmen at MCC, told the Gazette with smiles Friday that this was "just the beginning."...

Geraldine Frances Anderson Nov. 19, 1930 - March 3, 2013 McCOOK, Nebraska -- Geraldine Frances Anderson, age 82, of McCook, passed away Sunday, March 3, 2013, at the Community Hospital in McCook. Geri was born on Nov. 19, 1930, at Staplehurst, Nebraska, the daughter of William H. and Dora (Graham) Hermann. She received her education in Seward and Lincoln, graduating from Lincoln High School in 1948. She then attended the University of Nebraska...

This year's Legislative Session is moving along. With a third of the session behind us, there are only a couple of weeks left of public hearings for introduced bills. We are also approaching the deadline for priority bill designations. March 14 and 15 are the deadlines for senator and committee priority designations set by Speaker Adams. At this time I have not made my final decision as to which bill I will choose...

Last week, automatic, across-the-board federal spending cuts known as sequestration took effect, which will trim $85 billion from federal accounts over the next seven months, and about $1.2 trillion over the next decade. These cuts, originally proposed by the White House, total the same amount the federal government borrows every 28 days to help feed its $3.5 trillion annual spending appetite. That's less than three percent from a budget that has grown nearly 20 percent since 2008...