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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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gail Goodrich knew Miami would beat Boston the other night. He knew even a 17-point deficit, the largest they had faced in six weeks, wouldn’t stop LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. “Once they got back in the game, there was no doubt in my mind they were going to win,” Goodrich said of the Heat’s 105-103 victory Monday. “They just are better than everybody else.” So were the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Goodrich were a Big Three to rival what Miami has, the core of a team that racked u...
LINCOLN (AP) — A bill to expand Nebraska Medicaid coverage has advanced for debate in the Legislature, and supporters presented their case Tuesday in anticipation that Gov. Dave Heineman will veto the measure. The committee vote sets up a likely confrontation between lawmakers and Heineman, a Republican who remains firmly opposed to the bill. Sen. Kathy Campbell, who led the introduction of the bill, said she’s “very confident” that the measure’s backers have at least 25 votes to push it through the Legislature. But Campbell said supporters wil...
BOSTON (AP) — The longest winning streak in NBA history is still 10 victories away for the Miami Heat. So it will be a while before Dwyane Wade really focuses on matching the 33-game run of the Los Angeles Lakers. “Not ‘til we get to 32,” he said with a smile after one of the greatest challenges to Miami’s run of success. LeBron James hit the go-ahead jumper with 10.5 seconds remaining to cap a 37-point performance and the Heat escaped with a 105-103 win over the Boston Celtics on Monday night for their 23rd straight win, breaking a tie for s...
LINCOLN (AP) — Officials from Lincoln and Lancaster County could allow the health director to access millions of dollars set aside for health emergencies under an ordinance being considered by the city’s leaders. The Community Health Endowment Fund was created with money from the city’s sale of Lincoln General Hospital 15 years ago to Bryan Memorial Hospital. The $37 million from that sale has since grown to more than $60 million, the Lincoln Journal Star reported Monday. City leaders at the time of the sale specified that only interest from th...
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Jack Greene, a longtime Grand Ole Opry star who earned fame with the hit “There Goes My Everything,” has died in Nashville at 83. The song showed off his deep voice, made him a star and earned him the single of the year and male vocalist of the year awards from the Country Music Association in 1967. Grand Ole Opry spokeswoman Jessie Schmidt said Friday that Greene died in his sleep Thursday night at home from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Greene performed regularly on the Grand Ole Opry beginning in 1967. H...
CHICAGO (AP) — Ben Brust scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half and No. 22 Wisconsin knocked off sixth-ranked Michigan 68-59 in the second round of the Big Ten tournament on Friday. Traevon Jackson had 16 points for the Badgers (22-10), who will play top-seeded Indiana in the semifinals on Saturday. Ryan Evans added 12 points, six rebounds and six assist. Trey Burke had 19 points and seven assists for Michigan (26-7), but the Big Ten player of the year was 8 for 22 from the field. Tim Hardaway Jr. shook off a leg injury in the first h...
TAMPA, Fla. — There were times in the low minors when Mariano Rivera felt totally lost on the mound. That was, before he got a good grasp of his cut fastball — and English. “The manager or coach would tell me something and I didn’t understand them,” the New York Yankees’ closer said. “You nod your head yes, but you have no idea what they are saying.” Major League Baseball is trying to ease the language barrier, adopting a new rule that permits interpreters to join mound conferences whe...
NEW YORK — She’s a leading candidate to be New York’s next mayor. She’s already one of its top Irish-American officials. Christine Quinn is also a lesbian and proud of it. And that’s why the City Council speaker won’t be marching in Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, an event so entrenched in New York tradition that it’s older than the United States. Quinn’s rising political prominence is bringing a decades-long dispute between parade organizers and gay activists back into sharp relief. And it’s raising the prospect of an unprecedented stan...
HERKIMER, N.Y. (AP) — Police SWAT teams navigated through a cluttered, abandoned bar to find the suspect in four fatal shootings holed up in a small room, and the man was killed a shootout with officers after a nearly 19-hour standoff that paralyzed an upstate New York village, authorities said Thursday. Why Kurt Myers went on the shooting rampage Wednesday remained a mystery. State police Superintendent Joseph D’Amico said state police and FBI tactical teams entered the first-floor of a building in Herkimer around 8 a.m. to end the sta...
GENEVA (AP) — The search is all but over for a subatomic particle that is a crucial building block of the universe. Physicists announced Thursday they believe they have discovered the subatomic particle predicted nearly a half-century ago, which will go a long way toward explaining what gives electrons and all matter in the universe size and shape. The elusive particle, called a Higgs boson, was predicted in 1964 to help fill in our understanding of the creation of the universe, which many t...
WASHINGTON (AP) – Michelle Obama is pushing back against the notion that she and President Barack Obama don’t socialize enough in Washington. The first lady says in an interview in the April issue of Vogue magazine that she and the president were straightforward when they said – before moving from Chicago to Washington in 2009 – that their family, including two young daughters, would be their priority. She said “the stresses and the pressures” of the White House are so real that they prefer to spend free time with their daughters, now 14 and...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration contradicted itself Thursday, acknowledging to Congress that it had, in fact, released more than 2,000 illegal immigrants from immigration jails due to budget constraints during three weeks in February. Four deemed especially dangerous have been placed back in jail. The administration had claimed only a “few hundred immigrants” were released for budgetary reasons, challenging as inaccurate an Associated Press report that 2,000 immigrants had been released and that 3,000 more would be released this...
CHICAGO (AP) — Indiana is standing tall again. Michigan and Michigan State are right there with the Hoosiers, and Ohio State and Wisconsin aren’t exactly backing down from anyone, either. The Big Ten tournament starts Thursday, and it’s not hard to see why Spartans coach Tom Izzo declared it one of the best ever. And by best ever, he didn’t just mean best Big Ten tournament. “We’re looking forward to one of the great conference tournaments of all time, if you ask me,” Izzo said. “When you loo...
DENVER (AP) — The Denver Broncos gave Peyton Manning a new target — Tom Brady’s favorite receiver. Wes Welker’s signing for $12 million over two years highlighted another busy day for the Broncos on Wednesday. In addition to bringing Welker on board, Denver also agreed to terms on a two-year deal with defensive tackle Terrance Knighton, formerly of Jacksonville, and a one-year contract with linebacker Stewart Bradley, who played with the Cardinals the past two seasons. Broncos boss John Elway wa... Full story
WASHINGTON (AP) — A record number of U.S. counties — more than 1 in 3 — are now dying off, hit by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and build families elsewhere. New 2012 census estimates released Thursday highlight the population shifts as the U.S. encounters its most sluggish growth levels since the Great Depression. The findings also reflect the increasing economic importance of foreign-born residents as the U.S. ponders an overhaul of a major 1965 federal immigration law. Without ne...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of U.S. wholesale prices rose in February by the most in five months, pushed higher by more expensive gas and pharmaceuticals. But outside those increases, inflation was mild. The producer price index grew a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent in February from January, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s up from 0.2 percent in the previous month. Wholesale gas prices increased 7.2 percent. Even with the increase, wholesale prices have risen just 1.7 percent in the past 12 months. That’s below the Federal Reserve’s...
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis put his humility on display during his first day as pontiff Thursday, stopping by his hotel to pick up his luggage and pay the bill himself in a decidedly different style of papacy than his tradition-minded predecessor, who tended to stay ensconced in the frescoed halls of the Vatican. The break from Benedict XVI’s pontificate was evident even in Francis’ wardrobe choices: He kept the simple pectoral cross of his days as bishop and eschewed the red cape that Bened...
OMAHA (AP) — An Omaha man who hit and killed a 26-year-old mother after a night of drinking last June has been sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison. A judge sentenced 35-year-old Joseph Brosnihan Tuesday after he tearfully apologized to the family of Ashley Rodriguez, who had two sons. Brosnihan told Rodriguez’ family that he wishes he could take their pain away. Brosnihan pleaded no contest in December to vehicular homicide while driving drunk and failing to stop and render aid. Prosecutors say Brosnihan struck Rodriguez around 2 a.m. on Jun...
Ready. Set. Spend! The NFL’s free agent frenzy began Tuesday, with Mike Wallace, Paul Kruger and Dannell Ellerbe among the big names to switch teams for big paychecks. Several other stars, including Nnamdi Asomugha, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Antoine Winfield, are looking for jobs after they were cut in cost-saving moves on a busy opening day of free agency. The Baltimore Ravens are paying the price for winning a Super Bowl. The NFL champions lost two key components of their defense in Kruger and Ellerbe. On Monday, they traded star receiver A...
MIAMI (AP) — Gio Gonzalez gave Team USA its best start yet, and David Wright provided a big finish. Gonzalez pitched five scoreless innings and the Americans beat Puerto Rico 7-1 in the World Baseball Classic on Tuesday night. Wright drove in five runs, the last three with a bases-loaded double in the eighth. That prompted chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” from the crowd of 32,872. “Obviously the adrenalin gets pumping for this tournament,” Wright said. “You wear that uniform, you want to go out there and represent your country. Hitting in this lineup...
LINCOLN (AP) — John Garrison walks into Nebraska’s indoor practice facility every day and draws his motivation from what he sees in the rafters. Hanging up there is a red banner listing the years the Cornhuskers won conference championships. The last one was in 1999. Garrison was the freshman long snapper on that team. He’s 32 now and recently named head offensive line coach in a program that for more than a decade has been trying to recapture its past glory. “This is a personal deal,” Garrison said. Garrison, the player, showed up at Nebras...
ST.. LOUIS (AP) — Mark Mihal was having a good opening day on the links when he noticed an unusual depression on the 14th fairway at Annbriar Golf Club in southern Illinois. Remarking to his friends how awkward it would be to have to hit out of it, he went over for a closer look. One step onto the pocked section and the 43-year-old mortgage broker plunged into a sinkhole. He landed 18 feet down with a painful thud, and his friends managed to hoist him to safety with a rope after about 20 minutes. But Friday’s experience gave Mihal quite a fri...
NEW YORK (AP) — Despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s bullishness, political realities and legal questions make for an uncertain future for one of the premier pieces of his legacy: a now-blocked ban on supersized sugary drinks. The city lost no time Tuesday getting started on the next round of the fight after a judge nixed the first-of-its-kind regulation. Bloomberg called the strongly worded court ruling a “temporary setback” and emphasizing that the city is confident about winning an appeal. He predicted that in the meantime, the novel regulat...
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — The judge in the deadly Colorado movie theater shooting case entered a not guilty plea on behalf of James Holmes on Tuesday after the former graduate student’s defense team said he was not ready to enter one. If Holmes is convicted, he could be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison. Judge William Sylvester said Holmes, 25, can change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity later, if he chooses. Such a change could be the only way Holmes could avoid life in prison or execution. Prosecutors, for their par...
SIDNEY (AP) — Cabela's Inc. says demand for its outdoor gear and sporting goods has been strong at the start of the year, so the company is boosting its first-quarter outlook. Cabela's CEO Tommy Millner says business has been strong so far in 2013 at the company's retail stores and in catalog and online sales. So the Sidney, Neb., company now expects first-quarter earnings to be 10 cents to 15 cents higher than Wall Street expected. The analysts surveyed by FactSet expected Cabela's to report first quarter earnings per share of 46 cents on $...
