Stories from Wednesday, July 30, 2014

This information is gathered at the McCook Public Safety Center, the McCook office of the Nebraska State Patrol, the Red Willow County Courthouse, the Red Willow County Sheriff's Office and the McCook Humane Society. Police activity Activity log...

McCOOK, Neb. -- The McCook, Nebraska, Public Library will host a presentation called "Nebraska Spirit: The North Platte Canteen" at the library on Tuesday, Aug. 5, at 6:30 p.m. Nebraska Humanities speaker Charlotte Endorf of Norfolk, Nebraska, will tell the story of American soldiers who rode troop trains through North Platte, Nebraska, during World War II en route to Europe and the Pacific, and their reception by North Platte-area residents at the train depot...

McCOOK, Neb. -- Eva Hofman calls her sewing room, "a piece of heaven on earth." In it, the world falls away, and Eva works on her quilts -- quilts for her children, her grandchildren, now for great-grandchildren. And for her church. For her God. Eva's latest quilt is called "Flowers in the Garden," and reminds her of abundant flowers blooming around a garden sculpture. The tag on the back corner of the quilt reads: "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." Psalm 33:5...

Joslyn Hammond, 10, from left and her sister, Jaylee Hammond, 6, take their "babies" out for a stroll Tuesday. Lola the French bulldog, from left and Bella the pug didn't seem to mind and seemed quite content to be pushed around.

We've been following the Veterans Administration scandal and written about it here a couple of times, but a new controversy that seems to have common components hits closer to home. Some Veterans Administration officials are accused of gaming the system, for example, by collecting bonuses for improving service to veterans by instructing lower level employees to keep appointment lists off the books to make waiting times look much better than they actually were...

Nebraska voters will have an opportunity in November to weigh in on raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2016. Proponents say raising the minimum wage would allow more Nebraska families to make ends meet. Opponents say it will be a burden to small businesses and will force them to increase prices or lay off staff to make ends meet...

Did you know there is a hole in Cygnus, the Swan? Well, perhaps not a "hole," it is more like a cloud, but not like any cloud you have ever known. We are following the Milky Way up from its south end in Scorpius and Sagittarius and are now come to the constellation Cygnus, the Swan which is very easy to find almost directly overhead looking east...

Lincoln, Neb. -- A University of Nebraska-Lincoln team's mission to build a new robot to advance research into the ecosystem under Antarctic ice may also eventually help NASA study one of Jupiter's moons. The robot, known as Deep-SCINI (Submersible Capable of under Ice Navigation and Imaging), is designed to run deeper than previous missions under the leading edge of the Antarctic ice shelf...

McCOOK, Neb. -- A blood pressure clinic planned for the Red Willow County Health Department Thursday has been canceled.

McCOOK, Neb. -- The Hillcrest Nursing Home Board of Trustees approved rate increases for assisted living and for non-employees using the on-site childcare center. Citing the fact that there hasn't been a rate increase in assisted living for at least two years, plus rising costs of staffing and vendors, the board approved increasing the per-day amount for private pay patients from $89 to $94 at the regular board meeting Tuesday morning. ...