Stories from Thursday, June 11, 2015

Often people ask me how I come with material for my column, hinting that I must make this stuff up. Um ... no, I don't have to. I just wait to see what happens or which kid does what to me that week, and voila, material! Any other mom out there knows you can't script some of the things that happen to us, it's just if you write it down or not. For instance, last weekend so many ridiculous things happened on our trip out of town that I couldn't even narrow down what I should write about...

We're not surprised a petition drive to reinstate the death penalty in Nebraska is gaining steam. Nebraska lawmakers as a whole weren't all that convinced of their action to repeal it themselves, overriding Gov. Pete Ricketts' veto by the bare minimum of votes...

McCOOK, Neb. -- Meetings of the McCook Board of Education could be done electronically in the future. "eMeetings" are done by many Nebraska school districts in Nebraska, Superintendent Grant Norgaard told the board Monday night at the regular meeting. Norgaard said he will arranging a presentation of it at an upcoming board meeting...

Rod Bates of Oakley, Kansas, truly believes, "Life is a kick" -- a kick-start engine. Bates displayed a portion of his engine collection at the Mini Sappa Antique Tractor Show in Oberlin, Kansas, on Saturday. Bates' smoke-belching dragon is powered by a 1937 Maytag Model 92 single-cylinder engine, one of the many gas-powered washing machine and industrial kick-start engines that make up his 20-year collection. ...

Gene Witte of Cambridge, Nebraska, foreground left, discusses his 1942 Harley Davidson Model XA with a fellow "gearhead" at the "Bartley Days" antique and collectible car and motorcycle show in downtown Bartley, Nebraska, June 6. One-thousand Model XA's were built for the military; the disk wheels were designed for travel in the desert. ...

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Alicia Haugen, Senior Director of Donor Relations and Stewardship at the University of Nebraska Foundation, has announced that the 2015 Col. Delbert L. Townsend Scholarship recipients are Mitchell Reitz and Erica Wood of McCook, Nebraska, High School and Asic Helberg and Jane Reiners of Southwest High School in Bartley, Nebraska...