Stories from Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Elaine Johnson Dec. 8, 1924 - Dec. 3, 2016 SIDNEY, Neb. -- Elaine Johnson, 91, formerly of Omaha, Neb., died Saturday evening, Dec. 3, 2016, at Sloan's Estates in Sidney. Memorial services will be 10 a.m., Friday, Dec. 23, 2016, in the United Methodist Church in Chappell, Neb., with Pastor David Abbott officiating. Services will conclude at the church...

Shirley Jean Becker Sept. 19, 1932 - Nov. 5, 2016 MISSOULA, Mont. -- Shirley Jean Becker, age 84, of Missoula, formerly of Beaver City, Neb., passed away at the Hillside Health Care Center in Missoula on Nov. 5, 2016. She was born Sept. 19, 1932, in McCook, Neb., the daughter of Ira and Evelyn (Ball) Flanagin...

Caroline Lawson Aug. 1, 1946 - Dec. 19, 2016 BARTLEY, Neb. -- Caroline Lawson, 70, of Bartley, died Monday (Dec. 19, 2016), at Cambridge Memorial Hospital. Services are Friday, Dec. 23, 2016, 11 a.m. at Lockenour-Jones Mortuary in Cambridge, Neb. Inurnment will follow at the Bartley Cemetery in Bartley...

CAMBRIDGE, Neb. -- The Cambridge Trojans will head into the holiday break with some holiday cheer...

A recap of Tuesday's area basketball games...

McCOOK, Neb. -- Gothenburg's streak of winning by 16 points or more survived Tuesday night, but a 64-47 win at McCook didn't tell the entire story...

McCOOK, Neb. -- All we want for Christmas is girls to fight like McCook Bison basketball players did Tuesday night...

Oh, what a difference a couple years make. Eight-month-old Julie May quietly studied Santa's eyes for several moments before deciding she preferred the arms of mom and dad, Cheryl and Brian Remington of McCook. Almost-3-year-old Anthony Clapp grinned at jolly St. ...

Contractors carefully relocate a heavy vault door from the McCook Art Fine Art Center on Norris Avenue Tuesday afternoon. The door will be repurposed for use at the First Central Bank branch in nearby Curtis, Nebraska.

Three elves from the McCook "Christmas Toy Box" project pause for a photograph before the toy distribution at Memorial Auditorium Sunday afternoon. The girls are the daughters of perennial Toy Box volunteer Brenda Brunswick, and are, left to right, Stephanie Lopez-Brunswick, Diana Lopez-Perez with the elf ears and Rebecca Lopez-Perez in the Mrs. Santa Claus dress...

We all know the Christmas Story. It is recorded for us in Luke Chapter Two of the Bible. However, that is not today's Christmas Story, which involves wrapping paper, tinsel, and glitter. There is another story associated with Jesus that completes the Christmas Story begun in Luke Two, and that is the Crucifixion of Jesus beginning in Luke 23:26. Because without the second, the first one has no meaning...

It's always fun to try to figure out what's hiding under the Christmas tree, but there are some gifts that shouldn't be a surprise. One of those is a firearm, and that's a popular category of gift, according to FBI statistics. More gun background checks were conducted on Black Friday than any other day in history, the federal agency said...