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Articles from the February 19, 2013 edition


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  • SHS’s Wintholz makes school history

    John Roark, Sun-Telegraph|Feb 19, 2013

    OMAHA — Taking the toughest road, Sidney High School senior 195-pound wrestler Tanner Wintholz emerged Saturday morning with a third-place medal at the Class B state finals inside Omaha’s CenturyLink Center. After losing 4-1 in the opening round to eventual Class B champion, Eric Engler of Beatrice, Wintholz needed to win five consecutive bouts in the wrestlebacks to earn his spot on the podium. “He took the difficult route,” Red Raiders coach John Ganser said. “He came all the way back afte... Full story

  • Sidney D1-12 boys’ Subdistrict

    John Roark, Sun-Telegraph|Feb 19, 2013

    Not much was going Potter-Dix’s way offensively in the late stages of Monday night’s Sidney D1-12 Subdistrict opener, so the Coyotes turned to defense in an effort to change their fate. Trailing MAC rival Creek Valley by eight points with four minutes remaining, P-D turned up the heat, forced turnovers and used Luke Johnson’s three-point play to snag a pulsating 43-42 victory against the Storm at Cabela’s Athletic Facility. “In the third quarter, we were missing short jumpers,” Coyotes coach Chad Miller said. “We had to do something els...

  • Miami plays NCAA’s wait game

    Associated Press|Feb 19, 2013

    CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — There was a spirit of cooperation that hovered throughout much of the NCAA’s long probe of Miami athletics, so much so that the sides used to call the proceedings a joint inquiry. That’s not the case anymore. And especially not now — not after a day during which the NCAA defended its mistakes and Miami demanded a speedy resolution. With the long-awaited notice of allegations against Miami looming — and possibly being prepared for delivery by the NCAA as early as Tuesda...

  • Gen. Allen to retire, won’t lead European command

    Feb 19, 2013

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Tuesday he accepted Marine Gen. John Allen’s request to retire rather than proceed with the White House’s previous plan to make him commander of NATO forces in Europe. Allen, who earlier this month completed a 19-month stint as the top commander of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, requested retirement “so that he can address health issues within his family,” Obama said in a brief written statement. The president did not elaborate on the health...

  • Obama presses GOP to halt automatic spending cuts

    Associated Press|Feb 19, 2013

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Staking out his ground ahead of a fiscal deadline, President Barack Obama lashed out against Republicans, saying they are unwilling to raise taxes to reduce deficits and warning that the jobs of essential government workers, from teachers to emergency responders, are on the line. Obama spoke as a March 1 deadline for automatic across-the-board spending cuts approached and with Republicans and Democrats in an apparent stalemate over how to avoid them. Obama cautioned that if the $85 billion in immediate cuts — known as the sequ...

  • Mistreated livestock could be seized, owners could pay

    Shelby Friesz, Nebraska News Service|Feb 19, 2013

    LINCOLN – Law enforcement officers could seize mistreated livestock with a veterinarian’s recommendation if an Agriculture Committee bill is passed. Rick Leonard, the committee’s research analyst, presented the bill (LB423) at a hearing Tuesday. Six people testified in support of the bill, and one testified against it. The committee also received a letter of support from the Humane Society of the United States. Under the bill, owners of mistreated livestock would also pay for any expense for that animal after seizure until the courts decid...

  • Consensus builds on need to address water issue

    Demetria Stphens and Joseph Moore, Nebraska News Service|Feb 19, 2013

    LINCOLN – A statewide consensus appears to be growing on the need to address water resource sustainability in Nebraska. During a Feb. 13 hearing of the Legislature’s Natural Resource Committee, representatives from a diverse array of interest groups testified in support of LB 517, a bill introduced by Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege. The bill would create a Water Sustainability Project Task Force charged with developing a priority list of water resource programs and projects in need of funding throughout the state. The task force would submit its...

  • We cannot ignore our debt

    Adrian Smith, U.S. Representative|Feb 19, 2013

    This week, President Obama delivered the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. The speech is a great tradition and it is an important opportunity for the President to share his vision with Congress and the American people. While there were positive elements of the speech, I was disappointed President Obama did not say anything to indicate he has a serious plan to address our nation’s most urgent problem – out-of-control federal spending and debt. In fact, the President seemed to double down on the same tax, spe...

  • Clearing the air at EPA

    Mike Johanns, U.S. Senator|Feb 19, 2013

    What do farmers and ranchers, builders and businesspeople have in common? One thing I keep hearing from constituents in these respective industries is that an onslaught of rules and regulations from federal agencies has hampered their abilities to develop new innovations and create needed jobs. Since President Obama took office, more than 308,000 pages of new rules have been added to the Federal Register. That’s enough paper to cover more than four and a half acres of farmland, and weighs more than three Ford F-150 pickups trucks. The E...

  • Lincoln museum celebrates 2.5M visitors

    Associated Press|Feb 19, 2013

    LINCOLN (AP) — Officials at the Lincoln Children’s Museum say they have now attracted more than 2.5 million guests to the center. Jerry and Connie Barnett of Lincoln pushed the nearly 25-year-old museum past that mark when they visited Saturday morning with their grandchildren, Coco and Eddie. They were given gifts, including a five-year museum membership, museum store gift certificate and a free week at a museum summer camp. They told the Lincoln Journal Star they were “overwhelmed but excited....

  • Nebraska man claims $1M jackpot at SD casino

    Associated Press|Feb 19, 2013

    PINE RIDGE, S.D. (AP) — A Nebraska man has claimed a $1 million jackpot at Pine Ridge’s Prairie Wind Casino, where he’d spent part of Valentine’s Day with his wife of 60 years. Gordon “Bud” Thompson, a retired railroad conductor from Alliance, Neb., said his wife Donna was the one playing at the casino. He decided to try a few spins on a nearby Freedom Rings machine as he waited for her to finish. He put about $9 worth of quarters into the three-reel machine and hit a jackpot worth about $1,037,000. “I didn’t even realize what had happened ri...

  • Western Nebraska man pleads guilty to child abuse

    Associated Press|Feb 19, 2013

    LEXINGTON (AP) — A western Nebraska man has pleaded guilty to child abuse for shaking an infant hard enough to cause brain damage. The Kearney Hub reports that Cameron Hovey’s decision to change his plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors. The 23-year-old Hovey is accused of shaking a 41/2-month-old child vigorously last summer. Hovey told police that he shook the child last July because he panicked when it appeared the baby had stopped breathing. Hovey faces up to 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 6....

  • Snow-laden storm headed toward Nebraska, Iowa

    Associated Press|Feb 19, 2013

    OMAHA (AP) – A powerful winter storm system is heading for Nebraska and Iowa, promising a foot or more of snow and high winds. The National Weather Service says in a winter storm watch that snow will begin falling in western Nebraska on Wednesday evening and then hamper morning traffic in Omaha and other cities as the system heads east. Accumulations of more than a foot are possible east of a line from Hayes Center in southwest Nebraska north through Valentine in the north. In Iowa, up to a foot is expected in some spots west of Interstate 3...

  • Climate change town hall centers on water, state plans

    Shelby Friesz and Demetria Stephens, Nebraska News Service|Feb 19, 2013

    LINCOLN – More droughts in the Southern plains and floods in the Northern plains are among the scenarios described in new a national climate change draft report. After record high water flowing from the Colorado Rockies to the Missouri River in 2011, the U.S. experienced a significant decline in water flow in 2012, with nearly 65 percent affected by drought, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln. “We’ve never seen that sort of a drastic change,” Svoboda said. Svoboda was one of about 145 peo...

  • Bill aims for better foster parent reimbursement

    Bethany Knipp, Nebraska News Service|Feb 19, 2013

    LINCOLN – Supporting foster parents with adequate child care reimbursement was the forefront of discussion during the Health and Human Services Committee meeting Wednesday, Feb. 13. Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton introduced LB530, which if passed, would ensure reimbursement rates would keep up with the cost of fostering children. Dubas said the Foster Care Reimbursement Rate Committee of the Department of Health and Human Services calculated standard daily reimbursement rates to be $20 for children 0-5, $23 for ages 6-11 and $25 for c...

  • Local students dedicate themselves to rural medicine

    Hannah Van Ree, Sun-Telegraph|Feb 19, 2013

    Two Sidney High School students, Madison Malzahn and Paxton Ewing, both achieved positions in the Rural Health Opportunities Program (RHOP) this winter. RHOP is a cooperative program between Chadron State College and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) for high school seniors who want to dedicate their careers to rural medicine, according to information from officials at Chadron State. “The purpose of the program is to recruit and educate traditional students from rural Nebraska w...

  • Teens to hold fundraiser at St. Patrick’s Parish Center

    Hannah Van Ree, Sun-Telegraph|Feb 19, 2013

    Teens from St. Patrick’s Youth and Young Adult Ministry will be holding a fundraiser at St. Patrick’s Parish Center across from the Cheyenne County Youth Center Feb. 23 in order to raise funds to go to the National Catholic Youth Ministry Conference this November. The teens will be selling homemade baked goods, walking tacos and drinks in order to pay for some of the fees to send six teens and two adults to the conference, which will cost approximately $430 per person plus airfare. The con... Full story

  • Cupid Shuffle

    Hannah Van Ree, Sun-Telegraph|Feb 19, 2013

    The Cupid Shuffle race on Saturday, Feb. 16 attracted 43 participants. The race was a predictor’s challenge, meaning that the winners of the race were determined by how close participants finished to their predicted time prior to the race. There was a three-way tie for the first place female winner, with all of them predicting within 5 seconds of their actual finishing time. The winners were Annette Krueger, who finished in 23 minutes and 20 seconds and predicted 23 minutes and 15 seconds, a... Full story