Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Sorted by date Results 176 - 198 of 198
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than two months after Superstorm Sandy struck, the House on Friday overwhelmingly approved $9.7 billion to pay flood insurance claims for the many home and business owners flooded out by the storm. The 354-67 vote came days after Northeast Republicans erupted over House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to delay a vote earlier in the week; all of the no votes were cast by Republicans. The Senate was expected to pass the bill later in the day. “It’s the right step,” said Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., a member of the Ho...
BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb explosion tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims returning home Thursday from a religious commemoration, killing at least 20 and reinforcing fears of renewed sectarian violence, according to Iraqi officials. The blast erupted late in the afternoon in the town of Musayyib, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the Iraqi capital. It targeted worshippers returning from the Shiite holy city of Karbala following the climax of the religious commemoration known as Arbaeen. Children were among the 20 people confirmed killed...
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Call her the girl with no name. A 15-year-old is suing the Icelandic state for the right to legally use the name given to her by her mother. The problem? Blaer, which means “light breeze” in Icelandic, is not on a list approved by the government. Like a handful of other countries, including Germany and Denmark, Iceland has official rules about what a baby can be named. In a country comfortable with a firm state role, most people don’t question the Personal Names Register, a list of 1,712 male names and 1,853 female...
WASHINGTON (AP) – U.S. consumer confidence tumbled in December, driven lower by fears of sharp tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect next week. The Conference Board said Thursday that its consumer confidence index fell this month to 65.1, down from 71.5 in November. That’s the second straight decline and the lowest level since August. The survey showed consumers are slightly more optimistic about current business conditions and hiring. But their outlook for the next six months deteriorated to its lowest level since 201...
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Classroom teachers could stop school shootings by carrying concealed weapons, say gun-rights advocates who plan to offer the required training Thursday for 200 Utah teachers. The Utah Shooting Sports Council said it would waive its $50 fee for concealed-weapons training for the teachers. Instruction featuring plastic guns is set to begin at noon Thursday inside a conference room at Maverick Center, a hockey arena in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Valley. It’s an idea gaining traction in the aftermath of the Con...
HOUSTON (AP) – Former President George H.W. Bush is being treated in the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital after suffering “a series of setbacks,” including a stubborn fever, his spokesman said. In a brief email Wednesday, Jim McGrath, Bush’s spokesman in Houston, said the 88-year-old former leader had been admitted Sunday to the ICU at Methodist Hospital. McGrath said Bush, the oldest living former U.S. president, was alert and talking to medical staff. He said doctors are cautiously optimistic about Bush’s treatment and that the forme...
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A powerful winter storm brought snow to inland parts of the Northeast and driving rain and wind to areas along the coast Thursday, a day after it swept through the nation’s middle, dumping a record snowfall in Arkansas and wrecking post-holiday plans for thousands of travelers. The storm, which was blamed for 15 deaths, pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley and made its way into the Northeast Wednesday night. By Thursday morning, there was anywhere from a few inches of sno...
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama on Friday will nominate Sen. John Kerry as his next secretary of state, a senior administration official said, making the first move in an overhaul of his national security team heading into a second term. If confirmed, Kerry would take the helm at the State Department from outgoing Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has long stated her intention to leave early next year. Kerry, a longtime Massachusetts senator, is expected to be easily approved for the Cabinet post by his Capitol Hill colleagues. Tha...
CHICAGO (AP) – Travelers facing canceled flights and closed roads were hoping to finally head to their holiday destinations Friday as a widespread snowstorm that dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Midwest moved across the Great Lakes toward Canada. The storm, part of a system that began in the Rockies earlier in the week, led airlines to cancel more than 1,000 flights Thursday and caused whiteout conditions that left roads dangerous to drive on. It was blamed for deaths in at least five states, with parts of Iowa, Wisconsin and M...
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Speaker John Boehner signaled on Friday he’s still open to negotiations with President Barack Obama on avoiding across-the-board tax increases set to hit taxpayers Jan. 1, but sounded pessimistic about reaching a grand deal with the president. “How we get there, God only knows,” Boehner told a Capitol Hill news conference just hours after his rank-and-file handed him a stunning tactical defeat. The Republican leader spoke the morning after he was forced by his members to abandon legislation that would have raised taxes o...
The Panhandle RC&D announced recently that it has been awarded a grant of $ 5,077 by the Nebraska Arts Council. This grant is to support the 14th Annual Intertribal Gathering at Fort Robinson State Park June 7, 8 and 9 of 2013. Nebraska Arts Council’s Executive Director, Suzanne Wise, commended Panhandle RC&D for its programs, noting that “Panhandle RC&D” does an outstanding job of providing arts activities at the Intertribal Gathering at Fort Robinson State Park. It is through fine organizations like this that Nebraska’s children receive a bet...
LINCOLN (AP) — Gov. Dave Heineman is asking Nebraskans to observe a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Connecticut school shooting. The national moment of silence is set for Friday at 9:30 a.m. Connecticut Gov. Daniel Malloy is also asking schools, churches and other facilities with bells to ring them 26 times to acknowledge each life lost. The shooting last week at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killed 20 students and six staff members....
LINCOLN (AP) – Sheriffs in Nebraska’s three largest counties are reporting record requests for firearm certificates in the wake of last week’s school shooting in Connecticut. Officials in Douglas, Sarpy and Lancaster counties said Wednesday that they’ve each recorded single-day highs this week in certificate applications. The certificates are good for three years, and can be used to buy more than one gun. Douglas County Sheriff Chief Deputy Martin Bilek said his office processed an all-time high of 115 applications on Tuesday, and denied...
WASHINGTON (AP) – America’s population is now increasing a bit faster thanks to an improving economy, but not enough to lift growth above its lowest level since the Great Depression. New 2012 estimates released Thursday by the Census Bureau offer the latest snapshot of the U.S. population, whose growth has slowed dramatically since the recent recession. “After decades of wars, a depression, immigration surges, baby booms, boomlets and busts, we are entering a new era of modest growth,” said William H. Frey, a demographer at Brookings Institu...
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The first widespread snowstorm of the season began a slow crawl across the Midwest on Thursday, creating treacherous driving conditions that, in Iowa, led to a 25-vehicle pileup that killed one person. Drivers were blinded by blowing snow and didn’t see vehicles that had slowed or stopped on Interstate 80 about 60 miles north of Des Moines, state police said. A chain reaction of crashes involving semitrailers and passenger cars closed down a section of the highway. Drivers throughout the Midwest were harried by hea...
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...
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...
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...
LINCOLN – Take-back programs for electronics in Nebraska could save taxpayers almost $2 million and create over 700 new private-sector jobs, according to new projections by The Nebraska Product Stewardship Coalition, an alliance of state and national organizations committed to shifting Nebraska’s waste management system from one focused on government funded waste diversion to one that relies on producer responsibility. Electronic waste is the fastest growing component of Nebraska’s waste stream, contributing 7,550 tons to landfills each year,...
