Stories from Wednesday, July 8, 2015

McCook will host a session of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) summer tennis clinic. The McCook session is scheduled Tuesday, July 28, at the Bison Courts next door to the McCook YMCA. The session will run from 8 a.m. To 12:30 p.m. McCook head tennis coach Matt Wiemers labeled the clinic as "A great day of tennis on the courts and great fellowship off the courts."...

McCook National Bank Seniors hitter Mitch Reitz takes aim on this low pitch during Legion baseball action against Broken Bow earlier this season at the Jaycees Sports Complex. The MNB Seniors are scheduled to visit North Platte Friday, July 10 for a double-header starting at 5:30 p.m. McCook will host the Legion Seniors Area 6 Tournament at the Jaycees Complex. (Reprints available at McCookGazette.com)...

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. Activity log These items are taken from reports filed by the McCook Police Department. The locations refer to block numbers, not specific addresses. If you have information about any of these reports, call the police department at (308) 345-3450...

Have you ever seen a bunch of grown scientists and engineers act like children at Christmas? Then go to the control room at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab where information is being received from the New Horizons space probe approaching the planet Pluto...

Here is some vexing news about the Nebraska State Flag. The guy who wrote the book "Good Flag, Bad Flag," says Nebraska's ranks 50th out of the 50 states. We're talking about the big blue flag with the gold and silver state seal on it, not the red flag with the big white N on it. ...

"The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender," Prov. 22:7., KJV. Sound familiar? Some 61 percent of the "poor," citizens of Greece, voted Sunday against becoming slaves to their countries international lenders, but we doubt the writer of Proverbs had a democracy even as old as Greece's in mind...

McCOOK, Neb. -- A McCook man is facing three felony charges in Frontier County alleging he assaulted one man, strangled a woman and threatened violence against a total of four people during an altercation in June. Douglas E. Dueland of 905 Sunset is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in the case at 10 a.m. on Aug. 7, 2015, in Frontier County Court...

TRENTON, Neb. -- Preparations are being made for the possible trial of a Trenton man charged in connection with the murder of 18-year-old Austin Wright of McCook. Online court documents indicate 23-year-old John Raymond Leahy III of Trenton, Nebraska, appeared via phone earlier this month for a hearing in Hitchcock County District Court and was subsequently scheduled for trial on Nov. 20, 2015...

McCOOK, Neb. -- Red Willow County Public Defender Ryan Wilcox will appear in court Friday to defend himself against a speeding violation. According to court documents Wilcox was cited for speeding 76 mph in a 65 mph zone in April. He pleaded not guilty to the offense in May and the case was subsequently scheduled for trial at 1 p.m. on July 10 in Red Willow County Court...

McCOOK, Neb. -- A long distance runner raising funds for a youth center will be in the McCook area beginning Thursday. The U.S. Route 6 Tourist Association is helping to sponsor Aprylle Gilbert, a folk-rock singer and a long distance runner from San Jose, Califonia, who is fulfilling a dream of running all 3,652 miles of U.S. Route 6 from Long Beach, California, to Provincetown, Massachusetts, averaging approximately 30 miles per day...

Eight-year-old Madison Gestenslager and 13-year-old Reagan Wheeler-Gestenslager of Trenton, Nebraska, have qualified for the Little Britches Rodeo Association national finals July 20-25 in Pueblo, Colorado. The girls are the daughters of Jessi and Justin Gestenslager. ...

The nuns from "Nunsense" perform one of many show tunes Tuesday evening at the Fox Theatre on Norris Avenue. Additional performances are scheduled at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, with a 2 p.m. final performance on Sunday.

McCOOK, Neb. -- Bid specifications for a professional skatepark to be built at Kelley Park in McCook were approved earlier this week and project organizers see this fall as a realistic completion timeframe. McCook Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Rex Nelson might be fairly new to the skatepark world, but as an economic development specialist he knows a little something about construction projects, and he believes construction should be completed in just a few weeks...