Stories from Friday, April 24, 2020

McCOOK, Neb. — Feel like badmouthing Nebraska and some of God’s beautiful buzzing creations? Haha! Not when they are trying to make new homes somewhere up your nose during a long hot September race! “I remember needing to take a breath, but I couldn’t without (inhaling) a bunch of bugs,” McCook’s four-year cross country runner recalled about the infamous bug-shortened 2017 McCook Invitational across Heritage Hills golf course...

80th birthday The family of Leland Maris of Wauneta, Neb., is requesting a cad shower in honor of his 80th birthday on Thursday, April 30, 2020. Cards of congratulations will reach him at 72331 Road 349, Wauneta, NE 69045.

The common phrase used lately seems to suggest that this world will never return to “normal” or what was considered normal after Covid 19, but, as those of us who have an abundance of gray hair these days knows, it will, just as it did after the pandemics of 1918, 1957 and 1968. ...

McCOOK, Neb. — The McCook Community College golf team has signed another recruit for the upcoming golf season. Michael Boer, from the Netherlands via Florida is the latest Indian commit. Boer has been attending high school in Florida since his sophomore year...

NEW YORK (AP) — For all the uniqueness of this NFL draft, including the angst over a potential communications fiasco, things looked and sounded pretty normal Thursday night. Quarterbacks were in demand. Ohio State (the top three picks played there) and the Southeastern Conference (a record 15 picks) dominated...

McCOOK, Neb. -- Two new leaders are on duty at the Red Willow County Health Department. Brandy Bird RN, BSN was recently promoted to nurse director and Jaymie White was promoted to business manager at Red Willow County Health Department. She started part-time with Red Willow County Health Department in May 2017 as a Public Health Nurse. Brandy received her Bachelor’s in Nursing from UNMC-Kearney in 2006 and has had an array of experiences in Nursing...

McCOOK, Neb. -- The City of McCook will continue the Tree Rebate Program for the 2020 spring season. Trees must be purchased between March 23 and June 5, 2020 with rebate requests received by June 19, 2020. There are restrictions on the type of trees and planting specifics, and there are some changes from previous years...

City officials as well as everyone else have had plenty on their plate dealing the COVID-19 pandemic, but they, like the rest of us, know that someday, hopefully sooner than later, things will return to something closer to normal. One of those normal activities is the city’s Tree Rebate program, which has earned McCook Tree City USA honors for several decades and made our community a better place to live for generations to come...

As we live through these historic times, I think of the many seminal moments in US History that, some of us, depending on our age might remember. We always hear people say that they remember where they were when they first heard about Pearl Harbor, or when JFK was killed, or on September 11, 2001. The inescapable humor will be that when asked where we were during COVID-19, many of us will predictably answer, “stuck at home.”...

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. -- A North Platte Community College student is making face shields to help protect local health care providers against COVID-19. Packer Daily is a member of NPCC’s STEM Club and is also a nutrition services employee at Great Plains Health. For the past couple of weeks, he has been creating face shields using a MakerBot 3-D printer that belongs to the college’s engineering department...