Stories from Tuesday, August 30, 2016

How much of a sex scandal does it take to force a politician out of office? That question is playing out in Lincoln with State Sen. Bill Kintner given until Friday to resign or face the consequences for his admitted sexual encounter through the use of a state laptop computer...

Johnny M. Hemelstrand Oct. 8, 1951 - Aug. 27, 2016 ARAPAHOE, Neb. -- Johnny M. Hemelstrand, 64, of Arapahoe, died Saturday (Aug. 27, 2016), at his home. He was born Oct. 8, 1951 in Oxford, Neb., to John and Joan (Childers) Hemelstrand. He grew up in southern Gosper County, Neb., and attended school at the area country school. He graduated from Arapahoe High School in 1969...

96th birthday Stan Quigley will celebrate his 96th birthday on Monday, Sept. 5. He was born in 1920, on his grandfather's homestead in the house he still lives in today. He graduated from Red Willow High School in 1938 and has been a life-long resident of Red Willow County. Cards of congratulations will reach him at 39276 Road 720, Indianola, NE 69034...

Chase County erupted for 46 runs to sweep a doubleheader at Holyoke (Co.) Monday evening. The Longhorns won 24-0 and 22-3 to improve t0 3-3 on the season.

The McCook Community College Indians got their first victory of the 2016 volleyball campaign against North Platte Community College to finish the Subway Invite on Sunday...

Getting down to business were the competitors that challenged each other for every point during the season points championship night of racing at Lexington (NE) Raceway on Sunday evening.

McCOOK, Neb. -- Red Willow County commissioners breathed a sigh of relief Monday morning when adjustments they made brought the county's 2016-17 budget into compliance with state regs, and the new tax levy increased only slightly. The 2016-17 budget that commissioners and county budget preparer Dan Miller finalized at the commissioners' weekly meeting Monday morning requires $3,735,403 in taxes. ...

McCOOK, Neb. -- The McCook City Council unanimously approved a city budget for the upcoming fiscal year on second reading Monday evening, including the first increase to McCook's property tax levy since 2002. The final reading for the 2016-17 fiscal year budget is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 6, 6:30 p.m. at the Municipal Center...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a three-part series on the 12 new teachers hired this year by McCook Public Schools. While some have been teaching for years, many are just starting out. In this segment, we highlight teachers hired for McCook and Central Elementary who say it's more than reading, writing and arithmetic...

It was recently brought to my attention by a member of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 57 that there had been what he characterized as a gross misstatement of facts made by Dick Trail in an opinion article published in the McCook Gazette on Aug. 23, 2016. I read the article and felt compelled in the interest of accuracy to respond...

I would like to follow up on Mr. Trail's comment on "Bite the other side of the apple." During the past few weeks, the Gazette has had several reports of taxing entities not able to reach their budget request. Their solution is simply to add a fee or tax to make a shortfall go away...

Sure they do. According to an August 26 article by Bruce Baker, the City Editor of the McCook Daily Gazette, City Leadership (whoever that might be) prefers a "levy bump" over cuts in reserves. Sure they do. It is the easy way out. I love the "levy bump" verbiage. ...