Stories from Wednesday, April 22, 2015

FUNK, Neb. -- Forty-one junk, vintage and artisan vendors from Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska will sell their goods at a one-day shopping experience -- Funky Junk Market -- on Sat., May 2 , from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., in Funk, Neb. Indoor and outdoor vendors will be on the grounds of the Funk School Community Center, 301 Main Street...

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. -- Seven finalists in the Hormel Entrepreneurship Competition are set to make their final pitches this Friday for a chance to win $25,000 in prize money to develop or expand their business. Presentations are open to the public from 1-5 p.m. in McMillen Hall on the MCC campus, room 213...

U.S. Army veteran Desiree Wineland of rural Cambridge, Nebraska, encouraged McCook Senior High FFA members to "look for more similarities than differences in people," and they will be better able to deal with the challenges of life as it becomes, for them, more global than local. ...

McCOOK, Neb. -- The McCook City Council advanced an ordinance Monday which would change the start time of their regularly scheduled meetings to 6:30 p.m. The change was unanimously approved on its first of three required readings, although, councilors indicated the third reading could be bypassed if the item garnered no opposition prior to the second reading...

Steadying the punching bag, Renee Samuelson flinches as Cailee Zwickle throws a punch, and then Cailee and Jadyn Reynolds, right, react as City of McCook, Nebraska, Police Sr. Sgt. Kevin Darling teaches Jayda Zuck a wrist hold in a self protection and defense class for McCook High School sophomore girls Tuesday morning. ...

New menu boards have replaced 58-year-old signs in the car-hop area of Mac's Drive-In at 809 West B Street in McCook, Nebraska. While the signs and the menus are new, the logo -- a cartoon couple in a convertible -- is as old as the drive-in's 809 West B location, which was built in 1957, say owners Dave and Angela McCarty. ...

Sorry Sen. Gaylord Nelson, we're not completely sold. After seeing a giant oil spill in Santa Barbara, California, the senator proposed the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, as an environmental "teach-in" to raise awareness of the dangers. Forty-five years later, we're far from weaned from crude oil -- remember the BP Oil Spill? Where do you stand on the Keystone XL pipeline?...

My original intention for this week was to discus the planet Venus passing through the constellation Taurus, the Bull. But I think I will hold that off for a week because next week the bright planet will be within binocular range of the Crab Nebula, the first object French comet hunter Charles Messier put on his list of things that were not comets, M-1...

McCOOK, Neb. -- Muzzleloading and primitive camping enthusiasts gathered this weekend for two days of competitive ranges, campfire conversation and delicious outdoor dining during the Pawnee Free Trappers 2015 Spring Rendezvous. The semiannual events include pistol, rifle, tomahawk, throwing knife and archery range competitions, just a few miles west of McCook...