Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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WASHINGTON (AP) – With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight – 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes – without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams. Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid policy can face a team whose players have repeatedly tested positive. An investigation by The A...
(AP) – Now that he’s away from the pool, Michael Phelps can reflect – really reflect – on what he accomplished. Pretty amazing stuff. “It’s kind of nuts to think about everything I’ve gone through,” Phelps said. “I’ve finally had time to myself, to sit back and say, ‘... that really happened?’ It’s kind of shocking at times.” Not that his career needed a capper, but Phelps added one more honor to his staggering list of accomplishments Thursday – The Associated Press male athlete of the year. Phelps edged out LeBron James to win the award...
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent over the summer as consumers spent more and state and local governments added to growth for the first time in three years. But the economy is likely slowing in the current quarter. The Commerce Department’s third and final estimate Thursday of growth for the July-September quarter was revised up from its previous estimate of a 2.7 percent annual growth rate. Growth in the third quarter was more than twice the 1.3 percent growth rate in the April-June quarter. But dis...
LINCOLN (AP) — School and office closures in Lincoln are keeping many residents at home as crews work to clear the streets. Business was slower than usual Thursday at a U-Stop Convenience Shop in north Lincoln, with only a trickle of customers stopping in for coffee and gas. Cashier Diane Klopp says the store has seen some of its regular customers, but the streets are quieter than usual. Rick Minnick, a server at the Mill Coffee and Tea in downtown Lincoln, rode his bike to work Thursday morning so he didn’t have to dig his truck out of the...
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Big Ten spent much of the year as a national punch line. It might get worse during bowl season. The Big Ten could only fill seven of its eight predetermined bowl slots — and each of those bowl-bound teams is currently an underdog. From the five-loss Wisconsin team that still wound up in the Rose Bowl to the 6-6 Purdue squad that fired its coach, the beleaguered Big Ten isn’t expected to do much of anything in the postseason. The league went just 1-6 in bowl games in 2008. According to odds makers, things could go even wor...
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — After two seasons as Notre Dame coach, Brian Kelly decided he wasn’t spending enough time doing the best part of his job: coaching players. Kelly changed that in 2012, and he shuffled his staff. Then, with Kelly more in tune to his team and the assistants in sync with the head coach, Notre Dame went from unranked to top-ranked. For leading the Fighting Irish to the BCS championship for the first time, Kelly was voted Associated Press college football coach of the year. “When you’re talking about the coach of the year, t...
NEW YORK — A nine-game winning streak has Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos on top of the AP Pro32 NFL power rankings for the first time. The latest win came on the road, 34-17 at Baltimore, and was impressive enough to lift the Broncos to No. 1 by three points over the San Francisco 49ers. AFC West champion Denver (11-3) and playoff-bound San Francisco each received six first-place votes Tuesday in balloting by The Associated Press’ panel of 12 media members who regularly cover the league. The Broncos outpointed the 49ers for first, 375...
OMAHA (AP) – One of his proudest moments in the U.S. Senate, Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said as he prepares to leave the chamber after two terms, came in 2005 when he helped form the so-called Gang of 14, a bipartisan group of 14 senators who brokered a deal to avoid a filibuster showdown over judicial nominees. That bipartisan effort seems a lifetime away as the Senate wallows in deep partisan rancor. While the 71-year-old Nelson insists his reasons for bowing out of a run for a third term were personal, he joins a number of retiring moderates who h...
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — State public schools Superintendent Cindy Hill said her agency has done its job and is fully behind education reform efforts, but members of a legislative committee weren’t convinced as they recommended stripping the Wyoming Department of Education of a host of education accountability duties on Wednesday. The Select Committee on Education Accountability recommended legislation that transfers a number of the agency’s education accountability duties to the state Board of Education. It also added provisions that the schools...
DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s Gov. John Hickenlooper said “the time is right” for state lawmakers to consider gun control measures, offering his firmest stance in the aftermath of several high-profile shootings, including a movie theater rampage in suburban Denver, that have shocked the nation. The Democratic governor upset some in his party for not taking a stronger position when he said last summer that stricter laws would not haven’t prevented the mass shooting in Aurora. In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Hickenloo...
NEWTOWN, Conn. – A shooting at a Connecticut elementary school Friday left 27 people dead, including 18 children, an official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way. Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown was killed and apparently had two guns. Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter heard two big bangs and teachers told her to get in a corner. His daughter was fine. “It’s alarming, espec... Full story
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) – Though nobody would discount an eight-game winning streak in the NFL, there’s a not-so-little secret about the one Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos are currently enjoying. Quite simply, they haven’t played anyone all that good since the streak started back in October. Nobody the Broncos have beaten over their longest winning streak since the 1998 Super Bowl season would be in the playoffs if they started today. Only one – Cincinnati at 7-6 – currently has a winning record. All of which adds yet another layer of...
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – One day after his suspension in the NFL’s bounty probe was overturned, Jonathan Vilma moved forward with his defamation claims against Commissioner Roger Goodell, while Drew Brees and other teammates went on the offensive against Goodell and the league office. “What I would like to see is a level of accountability on the part of the NFL and Commissioner Goodell in regards to mishandling of this entire situation,” Brees said after practice Wednesday. “We as players hold ourselves and are held to a very strict code of conduc...
WASHINGTON (AP) – Cheaper gas drove down a measure of wholesale prices in November for the second straight month, a sign inflation remains mild. The producer price index fell 0.8 percent last month, the steepest drop since May, the Labor Department said Thursday. That follows a 0.2 percent decline in October. The index measures the cost of goods before they reach the consumer. Gas prices fell last month by the most in more than three years. Food prices, however, rose by the most in nearly two years, pushed higher by costlier beef and v...
LONDON (AP) – Nearly everywhere around the world, people are living longer and fewer children are dying. But increasingly, people are grappling with the diseases and disabilities of modern life, according to the most expansive global look so far at life expectancy and the biggest health threats. The last comprehensive study was in 1990 and the top health problem then was the death of children under 5 – more than 10 million each year. Since then, campaigns to vaccinate kids against diseases like polio and measles have reduced the number of chi...
NEW YORK (AP) – To millions of people, the Christmas tree is a cheerful sight. To scientists who decipher the DNA codes of plants and animals, it’s a monster. We’re talking about the conifer, the umbrella term for cone-bearing trees like the spruce, fir, pine, cypress and cedar. Apart from their Yuletide popularity, they play big roles in the lumber industry and in healthy forest ecosystems. Scientists would love to identify the billions of building blocks that make up the DNA of a conifer. That...
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Four players embroiled for nearly 10 months in the NFL’s bounty investigation of the New Orleans Saints no longer have to worry about suspensions or fines, and can try to move on with their careers on the field. Off the field, the fallout from the dispute could endure for some time, particularly in federal court. In a surprising rejection of his successor’s overreaching punishments, former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue threw out “all discipline” current Commissio...
