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Cars, bikes, food and entertainment take center stage as the Potter community rolls out the carpet for Carbowl 2020. The event starts Friday evening, June 26, with the day-long event set for Saturday, June 27. The community of Potter will be busy with a variety of classic cars and vehicles on display, a BMX bike display, entertainment, barbecue competition, food vendors, beer and wine tasting, a silent auction and much more. In recent years, the weekend has included a melodrama. It is stage...
The sounds of auctioneers announcing the next animal and its handler will be quiet this year, only a memory of past fairs. There won't be any pulled-pork sandwiches or grilled hamburgers and cold soft drinks. The lights of the rides will be dark and the entertainment stages will be quiet. The annual event is the latest social casualty of the coronavirus. The Cheyenne County Fair Board met 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 1. After careful review of the latest guidelines published by Gov. Pete Ricketts'...
The 2020 primary is officially in the books. Members of the Board of State Canvassers reviewed and approved the results of the statewide election. No problems were noted in the Canvass Board review, and no state races qualified for an automatic recount. Secretary of State Bob Evnen opened with a few remarks regarding the success of the primary election in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic. “The May 12th primary was historic in a number of respects. More Nebraskans voted in our 2020 primary in the history of our state.” Evnen added, “Ne...
As of June 1, the State of Nebraska opened sports venues, albeit cautiously, and baseball returns to the field June 18. Schools are permitted to open weight rooms for all student athletes as long as the school follows the same guidelines as fitness centers/clubs, gymnasiums, health clubs and spas. According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, “games resulting from these practices (including rodeo) may begin to occur, starting June 18.” Contact sports including bas...
Where's the beach? This beach cruiser is just one of the many vehicles that showed up for Friday's cruise night. Downtown Sidney was busy Friday evening a variety of every type of car, pickup and farm truck available for Cruise Night. The night included various makes of hot rods, custom cars, production cars and people who cruise just to see who else is downtown....
Here is the weekly crop of Master Gardener tips from Nebraska Extension in the Panhandle. These tips are relevant to local lawn and garden issues in the High Plains and follow research-based recommendations. This week’s tips come from Vicki Schmitt, Nebraska Extension Master Gardener Volunteer, and each focuses on the roles that trees can play in home landscapes. Using a rain barrel to water plants: Surprise! The old-fashioned rain barrel is making a comeback. Catching water from your roof allows you to store it for later use. Even ½ inch of...
“Come and sit with me a moment, grandson, I want to tell you of how it used to be, When America was a republic and the people around here were free. The year was 2020 when everything started to shift, In March of that year on the news there was a drift. There was a new coronavirus that began across the ocean. It became a worldwide pandemic that caused chaos and commotion. We all quickly obeyed and stayed within our home. We didn’t know what to believe and fear began to roam. She came like a mig...
It didn’t start in Minneapolis. It didn’t really start in Fergusson, MO., a few years ago. Several years ago, the education industry, broadly speaking, adopted the theme of making students lifelong learners. Maybe one of the problems with racism is we adults are not good lifelong learners, and consequently our children either are not good lifelong learners themselves, or teach us. The issue of racism is a simple question with a complicated answer. Start with why are you (even looking in the mirr...
The ideological war we’re witnessing in America is as old as mankind. We’ve see the pattern played out over and over throughout history. Prosperous and powerful nations become corrupt and detached from principled moorings. The people become complacent and restless. The disaffected rebel and rise up. Totalitarianism follows in a crackdown usually welcomed by those demanding an end to the chaos. There’s a period of darkness and evil, followed by spiritual renewal and renaissance. Then the prosperi...
The recent market volatility has affected just about everybody’s financial and investment situations – so, if you were planning to retire soon, will it still be possible? Of course, the answer depends somewhat on your employment situation. With so many people’s jobs being affected by the coronavirus pandemic, your retirement plans may also have been thrown into confusion. But assuming your employment is still stable, what adjustments in your financial and investment strategies might you need to make for your retirement? Here are a few areas...
Americans are stunned. In the first five months of 2020, not only have we been discouraged by political battles and world-wide pandemic devastation, but most recently we have also been shocked and angered by a racist crime which has resulted in nation-wide protests, as well as lawlessness. This latest tragedy has exposed the fact that “we the people” are still struggling to be “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” As in other times of national upheaval and crisis, the problems are once again being well documen...
Hajek Sworn into office: Deputy Assessor, Jordan Hajek was sworn in Friday, May 22 by the Honorable Judge Derek Weimer. She was hired in January of 2019 and has worked very hard and studied very hard to pass the Deputy Assessor Exam....
Lincoln — Putting a smart thermometer to the ear could mean putting an ear to the ground for future COVID-19 outbreaks and the consequences of relaxing social distancing, says a University of Nebraska–Lincoln engineer. Alongside colleagues from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and University of Nebraska at Kearney, Fadi Alsaleem is exploring how data from Bluetooth-connected Kinsa thermometers may help forecast COVID-19 hotspots in Nebraska up to weeks before new outbreaks are officially reported. With a boost from that data and mac...
It may appear to be like a toy, but the power found in ATVs (all terrain vehicles) can quickly turn deadly when they are misused. In 2016, the Nebraska department of Health & Human Services documented 578 hospital emergency room visits due to ATV incidents. Nationally, between 1982 and 2016, 44% of child fatalities related to ATV incidents were children age 12 and under. “Education for awareness of safe behaviors related to ATV use is lifesaving for all ages,” Susan Harris, University of Nebraska Extension Educator – Rural Health, Wellness and...
This is the time of year when farmers and ranchers are receiving the valuations on their parcels of agricultural and horticultural lands. While most of these valuations have been fair and accurate, some have not been. This week I received numerous phone calls from agricultural landowners all across the state complaining about how their valuations rose astronomically this year. Worse yet, these landowners reported to me how the rise in their valuation was due to LB372, a bill I introduced in 2019...
LINCOLN – During the past seven days, the total number of COVID-19-related deaths in the state increased by 16 to 186, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) data dashboard. The state case total, as of 5:45 p.m. Central Daylight Time today, is 15,193, marking an increase of 1,539 from last Friday. Local health departments are reporting deaths and cases in their jurisdictions. In the event of a discrepancy between DHHS dashboard data and deaths or cases reported by local public health officials, data reported by...
In 2016, a group of people met to establish the Community Shepherds of Dalton and Gurley. They were offered the Presbyterian Church in Dalton as their home. The Community Shepherds is administered by a board of six members, and is a 501c3 organization. “We’re not a church, but we’re christian-based,” said Bud Gillespie. The former church is the home to the food pantry in Dalton. The food pantry offers food to family on the first Saturday of each month, opening the doors at 9 a.m. The program ser...
The home should be a sanctuary, a place of shelter. For many, the home office is a way of doing business outside of the office, a place where the home is managed and official work of the home is done. It is also a trendy place to do the work of your employer. The challenge however, is what to do when the home environment offers as many distractions as benefits. That is where Kurt and Sarah Kaiser came up with the idea of shared space, a building where various enterprises can each have office...
In Bill Bryson’s 2003 book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, he writes, “If your two parents had not bonded when they did—possibly to the second—you wouldn’t be here.” Your existence also depends upon countless exact bondings between your grandparents, great-grandparents, all of your forefathers back thousands of years. Bryson has counted up all the people required to make you, You. He says that “if you count back sixty-four generations, to the time of the ancient Romans, the number of peo...
Merle Nordyke will be showing photographs at the Petrified Art Gallery during the months of June and July. Regional painter Ron Nordyke will also be displaying a series of paintings of “quilts and hands” based on how we relate to quilts throughout our lives. This is the premier showing of his ten-year 14-painting collection. Merle Nordyke is currently focusing his photographic pieces on shape, color, and contrast. Much of his work is an exploration of layers of reflected images. What you “se...
Since 1949, the month of May has marked Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States. This campaign aims to draw public attention to the sobering fact that in any given year, one in five Americans will suffer from mental illness. Perhaps even more strikingly, more than 50 percent of us will be diagnosed with a mental illness at some point in our lives. Each year’s campaign features a different theme, ranging from encouraging social connectedness and participation in the communities a...