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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LINCOLN (AP) — Every two weeks, the Park Middle School multipurpose room becomes a courtroom complete with judicial bench and judge, attorneys and defendants — and their parents. Alissa Harrison, an eighth-grader who loves photography but until recently did not love school, showed up like clockwork twice a month last semester — a defendant working to change her ways. She thinks she has, with the help of the mock courtroom and all those who took the time to make it happen: the judge and the a...
RED CLOUD, Neb. (AP) — Red Cloud Postmaster Brad Young has come to treasure the three murals displayed in the post office there. “It’s something so unique,” he said. “I’ve been here going on 25 years. After a while the biggest thing is that I would never want anything to happen to them. Maybe that’s the lucky thing about being in a small town; we really don’t have any problems.” Red Cloud is one of four area towns included in a Depression-era government program that placed murals in post offices. A new book from the Nebraska State Historical So...
COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — Platte County residents, like Nebraskans across the state, are spending more money for a chance to match their lucky keno numbers or peel open a top-prize pickle card. The Nebraska Department of Revenue’s annual charitable gaming report shows players spent $247.3 million on keno, pickle cards, bingo and raffles during the fiscal year ended June 30. Total wagers on the games, which must financially benefit nonprofit entities, increased 2.85 percent from the 2010-11 amount of $240.46 million, according to the report rel...
LONDON (AP) — The Duchess of Cambridge seems to like her first official portrait, which is lucky for the artist. Many critics don’t. Paul Emsley’s portrait of the former Kate Middleton shows the 31-year-old royal against a dark background, her lips pursed into a wry smile, with an ethereal light against her face and hair. Her pale complexion brings out the fine lines under the eyes, and the light adds a hint of silver to her rich brown hair. Shortly after the portrait was unveiled Friday at the National Portrait Gallery in London, criti...
An American woman coerced into the sex trade. An immigrant housekeeper compelled to work for less than minimum wage. A salon employee forced to work off the price of passage to the U.S. All are considered examples of human trafficking. New Jersey officials on Friday marked “Human Trafficking Awareness Day” with a rally and other events at the Statehouse amid efforts on several fronts to combat the problem. State Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa, who led one of the programs in Trenton, created a new unit this summer to focus on combatting hum...
FOXBORO,Mass. (AP) — Bill Belichick insists the rematch of a December game with the Texans will be different. Not too much different, of course, because he fully expects his Patriots to win the divisional-round playoff game and advance to the AFC title match. As for another 42-14 outcome, New England’s coach is having none of it. “The plays will match up differently and I’m sure there will be new plays that weren’t in that game,” Belichick said. The AFC East champion Patriots (12-4) come off their playoff bye as 91⁄2-point favorites aga...
Retired Nebraska coach Tom Osborne won’t get drawn into an argument over how his 1990s teams that won three national championships in four years would fare against the Alabama teams that just accomplished the same feat. “It doesn’t come off very well when you try to compare a team that played 12, 14, 15 years ago with a team playing today and say this team would beat that team. Nobody knows,” Osborne said Wednesday. “The only way to do it is to play them. No question we had some very good team... Full story
NEW YORK (AP) — No one was elected to the Hall of Fame this year. When voters closed the doors to Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa, they also shut out everybody else. For only the second time in four decades, baseball writers failed to give any player the 75 percent required for induction to Cooperstown, sending a powerful signal that stars of the Steroids Era will be held to a different standard. All the awards and accomplishments collected over long careers by Bonds, Clemens and Sosa could not offset suspicions those feats were b...
DENVER (AP) — After the annual late-summer harvest on his farm in the eastern reaches of Colorado, Greg Brophy has a few friends over, breaks out the handguns and semi-automatic rifles and mows down some rotten watermelons. The Republican state senator’s melon shoot is a fixture on the political calendar in his rural district near the Nebraska border and a window into the culture of gun ownership in a state that cherishes its frontier heritage. One of the worst and most high-profile school massacres in American history — the 1999 Colum...
LINCOLN (AP) – The Nebraska Legislature chose a new speaker, elected new committee leaders and welcomed 10 new lawmakers Wednesday as it began a new session with looming battles over tax cuts and spending. Lawmakers returned to Lincoln with the state facing a projected $194 million budget shortfall, far less than the $1 billion hole they had to fill when they last wrote a budget in 2011. The 90-day session will see 10 new members and mark the return of Sen. Ernie Chambers, of Omaha. All were sworn into office Wednesday morning. Chambers, the l...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert Griffin III had surgery to repair two ligaments in his troublesome right knee Wednesday morning, said a person familiar with the situation. The Washington Redskins quarterback had his knee repaired by orthopedist James Andrews in Florida. The doctor had already diagnosed a torn lateral collateral ligament in his right knee. The person said Andrews also found and repaired damage found in Griffin’s ACL. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Redskins had not made an ann...
WASHINGTON (AP) – The nation’s tax law is so thick and complicated that businesses and individuals spend more than 6 billion hours a year complying with filing requirements. That’s the equivalent of 3 million people working full-time, year-round. As a result, about 90 percent of filers will either pay a tax preparer or use a computer software service to help with their federal tax returns this spring, according to a report Wednesday by an independent government watchdog. “The existing tax code makes compliance difficult, requiring taxpaye...
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration says it might leave no troops in Afghanistan after December 2014, an option that defies the Pentagon’s view that thousands of troops may be needed to contain al-Qaida and to strengthen Afghan forces. “We wouldn’t rule out any option,” including zero troops, Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser, said Tuesday. “The U.S. does not have an inherent objective of ‘X’ number of troops in Afghanistan,” Rhodes said. “We have an objective of making sure there is no safe haven for al-Qaida in...
Fred L. Turner NEW YORK (AP) – A former McDonald’s CEO who helped expand the fast-food chain’s global footprint and spearheaded the creation of “Hamburger University” died Monday night after suffering complications from pneumonia, the company said. He was 80 years old. During Fred L. Turner’s time as CEO from 1974 to 1987, McDonald’s more than tripled its number of locations and set up shop in dozens of new markets, the company said in a statement. The chain, based in Oak Brook, Ill., now has...
LINCOLN (AP) — The Nebraska Legislature began its 2013 session Wednesday with lawmakers expected to focus on the state budget, tax cuts and a proposal to expand Medicaid. Lawmakers returned to Lincoln with the state facing a projected $194 million budget shortfall, far less than the $1 billion hole they had to fill when they last wrote a budget in 2011. The 90-day session will see 10 new members and mark the return of Sen. Ernie Chambers, of Omaha. All were sworn into office Wednesday morning. Chambers, the longest-serving and best-known s...
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The early start to flu season that’s sweeping the country hasn’t spared Louisiana and Mississippi. While the outlook for the rest of the season isn’t clear, experts are encouraging people to take precautions such as getting a flu shot and making it a practice to wash hands often to prevent the spread of germs. Both states are among 29 reporting high levels of flu-like illness. Although 18 children nationwide have died from the flu since early October, none was in Mississippi or Louisiana. State epidemiologists in Louisia...
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) – A hearing laying out the evidence against the accused gunman in the Colorado theater shooting ended Wednesday with the defense deciding not to call witnesses to attest to James Holmes’ mental health. The judge said he will rule by Friday on whether Holmes should stand trial. If the judge decides he should be tried, Holmes could enter a plea at a hearing scheduled that day. Cases rarely advance to this stage without a judge agreeing to set a trial. Prosecutors argued that they had shown that Holmes acted with del...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday heard personal stories of gun violence from representatives of victims groups and gun-safety organizations as he drafts the Obama administration’s response to the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. He pledged that action would be taken. “I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion (that) unless we can do everything we’re going to do nothing,” Biden said. “It’s critically important (that) we act.” T...
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Barely taking time to celebrate their latest national championship, Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide are ready to get back to work. That’s how they make it look so easy. In what must be an increasingly frustrating scene for the rest of college football, another season ended with Saban and his players frolicking in the middle of a confetti-strewn field. Eddie Lacy ran all over Notre Dame, AJ McCarron turned in another dazzling performance through the air, and the Tide defense shut down the Fighting Irish whe...
LINCOLN (AP) – A Lincoln city councilman wants police officers assigned to public middle schools in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting that left 20 students and six educators dead. Councilman Gene Carroll and Mayor Chris Beutler, in a letter to Lincoln school board President Ed Zimmer, said the city wants to continue discussions about school safety and how the city can help. “We believe the issue is a joint responsibility of the city of Lincoln and Lincoln Public Schools,” the city officials wrote, according to the Lincoln Journal Star...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama may round out his new national security leadership team next week, with a nomination for defense secretary expected and a pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency possible. Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is the front-runner for the top Pentagon post. Acting CIA director Michael Morell and Obama counterterrorism adviser John Brennan are leading contenders to head the spy agency. White House aides said the president has not made a final decision on either post and won't until he r... Full story
ARLINGTON, Texas – Johnny Manziel stretched out both of his arms and ran off the field as if he was flying. With the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback known as Johnny Football, Texas A&M certainly is soaring in the SEC. Manziel tiptoed the sideline for a 23-yard touchdown on the first drive of the Cotton Bowl, the first of his four touchdowns as part of his bowl-record 516 total yards and the Aggies capped their first SEC season with a 41-13 win over 12th-ranked Oklahoma on Friday night. “To come in and go against a Big 12 rival and do eve...
CLEVELAND (AP) — The courtship of Chip Kelly is underway. The Browns and at least two other NFL teams are expected to interview Oregon’s offensive-minded coach, who said following Thursday night’s Fiesta Bowl win over Kansas State that he hopes to have the process “wrapped up quickly.” Along with the Browns, the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles are reportedly in Arizona and have scheduled meetings over the next two days with Kelly. The 49-year-old said he’s entering the interview open-minded. He turned down an offer from Tampa Bay last yea...
NFL teams have no fear of playing in the wild-card round. Recent history shows the playoff bye isn’t such a big deal anymore. In six of the last seven years, one of the Super Bowl participants didn’t get a bye to begin the postseason. And five of those teams wound up winning the NFL title. So Green Bay’s blowing the bye by losing to Minnesota last Sunday might not be such a setback. Same for Houston, which had an even bigger fall, fumbling away home-field advantage throughout the AFC playo... Full story
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sidelined for almost a month by a string of medical problems, is upbeat and planning to return to work next week, the State Department said Thursday. One day after being released from the New York hospital that was treating a blood clot in her head, Clinton was at home resting, but was far from idle. She spent the day engaging with senior staff, reviewing paperwork and calling in to a meeting of her foreign policy advisory board, said her spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland. “She’s looking forwa...
