Stories from Wednesday, November 26, 2014

For those that read my Letter to the Editor about Mr. Pickles and offered your encouragement and support, thank you. Mr. Pickles, who has since been re-named Murphy, and myself, would like to express our deepest gratitude to the generous soul who anonymously paid his medical bill at Red Willow Animal Clinic. ...

Thanksgiving is here. As we scan today's landscape littered with hatred, violence, crimes, massacres, destruction and etc., it is important not to forget things to be thankful for. We live in a free country and are allowed to express our opinions, even if they are moronic...

FARNAM, Neb. -- The Nebraska Kansas Colorado Railnet, in cooperation with the Nebraska Department of Roads, will be replacing the at-grade railroad crossing on Nebraska Highway 23, two miles west of Farnam during the week of Dec. 8. Vehicular traffic will use a short gravel road detour. The closure is anticipated to be completed by the end of the week, weather permitting...

McCOOK, Neb. -- McCook High School senior Rebekah Huff won Best of Show honors during the McCook Art Guild Student Art Show, Saturday afternoon, at the Norris Avenue gallery. Huff was awarded a $150 cash prize, a medal and a guild membership for her watercolor painting titled "All the Colors" and recognition of her artistic talent didn't stop there. Huff also sold one of her pencil drawings on display at the gallery to an attendee at the reception for the art show...

McCOOK, Neb. -- The Nebraska Department of Economic Development awarded $2.4 million in Nebraska Affordable Trust Fund money in October, including $60,000 for assistance in McCook and Red Willow County. The local portion will serve as the primary funding tool for the McCook Economic Development Corporation's housing department, according to MEDC Housing Development Director Mary Kircher...

Our thanks to the Nebraska State Historical Society for providing the following: Thanksgiving in 1896 was celebrated on November 26, and editor F. M. Kimmell of the McCook Tribune took advantage of the holiday to reflect on Red Willow County's recent past. "I wonder if any one has thought of this month being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first settling of the county," he wrote in the Tribune on November 27, 1896...

We sort of left off on a cliff-hanger last week trying to determine the date of Durin's Day, the Dwarves New Year. Now true, there may not be a lot of Tolkien fans out there, but we are around, and with the third -- and hopefully final -- movie of the Hobbit cycle coming out in December there may be more interest...

McCOOK, Neb. --Hillcrest Board of Trustees reluctantly approved writing off nearly a quarter of a million dollars in outstanding debt the facility is unable to collect. A total of $227,000 from insurance companies and Medicare are due Hillcrest, but because of the lack of consistent follow-up the past few years, it was not collected, said Renee Wright, Hillcrest business manager, at the regular Board of Trustee meeting Monday morning. The billing snafu occurred before Wright was hired...

McCOOK, Neb. -- "An accent and an attitude" and a closing statement on par with or better than collegiate competitors caught the attention of judge and jury during Nebraska Region 3 high school mock trial finals Nov. 25 in the Red Willow County district courtroom in McCook...