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Articles from the December 21, 2012 edition


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  • Obama nominating Kerry for secretary of state

    Associated Press|Dec 21, 2012

    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...

  • Travelers hope to be on their way after snowstorm

    Associated Press|Dec 21, 2012

    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...

  • Boehner on averting fiscal cliff: ‘God only knows’

    Associated Press|Dec 21, 2012

    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...

  • Youth wrestler places sixth in Vegas tourney

    Tina Mines, Sun-Telegraph|Dec 21, 2012

    Federation Wrestling has been in Sidney for several years and for the past eight years Steven Vach has been head coach of the K-12 wrestlers. Wrestling being a part of his own background while school has allowed Vachto be able recognize talent, something he said he has a lot of in the kids he coaches. One of these talented wrestlers Vach said he’s had the pleasure to coach since he was in first grade is Trey Arellano. “He’s one of many kids in there that has the ability and talent, there are a...

  • Beck: Huskers to be in trouble if heads not right

    Associated Press|Dec 21, 2012

    LINCOLN – Nebraska is still smarting from that 39-point loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game, and few people outside the state believe the No. 23 Cornhuskers are capable of beating sixth-ranked Georgia in the Capital One Bowl. The challenge for Bo Pelini and his coaches between now and Jan. 1 is to make sure the players have moved on emotionally. “If we have a hangover,” offensive coordinator Tim Beck said, “it’s going to get ugly.” The Huskers (10-3) have begun preparing i...

  • Douglas wins AP female athlete of the year honors

    Associated Press|Dec 21, 2012

    When Gabby Douglas allowed herself to dream of being the Olympic champion, she imagined having a nice little dinner with family and friends to celebrate. Maybe she’d make an appearance here and there. “I didn’t think it was going to be crazy,” Douglas said, laughing. “I love it. But I realized my perspective was going to have to change.” Just a bit. The teenager has become a worldwide star since winning the Olympic all-around title in London, the first African-American gymnast to claim gymnastics’ biggest prize. And now she has earned anothe...

  • Bells toll for victims one week after shooting

    Associated Press|Dec 21, 2012

    NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) – The chiming of bells reverberated throughout Newtown on Friday, commemorating one week since the crackle of gunfire in a schoolhouse killed 20 children and six adults in a massacre that has shaken the community – and the nation – to its core. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy gathered with other officials in rain and wind on the steps of the Edmond Town Hall as the bell rang 26 times in memory of each life lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gunman also killed his mother befor...

  • Professor touts value of degrees to CSC master’s grads

    Dec 21, 2012

    Dr. George Griffith, Chadron State College professor of English and humanities, reassured the institution’s master’s degree graduates of the value of their degrees while delivering their commencement address Friday afternoon, Dec. 14. Griffith, who in his 37thyear at CSC has been employed longer than any other faculty member, interspersed humor and sincerity while addressing the class of 67 graduates in Memorial Hall. The professor noted that compared to the undergraduate class, which received degrees later that afternoon, members of the master...

  • We are better than this

    Connie Schultz, Syndicated Columnist|Dec 21, 2012

    In June 1944, polio was sweeping across the country with devastating swiftness. Children would leap out of bed in the morning, and by nightfall, they were unable to feed themselves. It was only a matter of time before it swept through Hickory, N.C. “like a tidal wave.” “Youngsters with painful, useless limbs,” Life magazine reported at the time, “some unable to swallow or scarcely able to breathe, they came from mining villages up in the hills, mill towns in the valley, from outlying farms and urban centers.” Fear reigned, but it was no matc...

  • It's Mines

    Tina Mines, Sun-Telegraph|Dec 21, 2012

    Many people stop and contemplate the various things they are blessed with during this time of the year, and of course I am no different. It never ceases to amaze me how very many things I have to count when I think about how many ways God has blessed me – with so many gifts, both seen and unseen. The seen is easy to understand, as I have been blessed with my husband and all three children. Even though our family has been hit with many blows over the past few years, the kind of emotional blows that knock people on their backside, we are all s...

  • Holiday schedules

    Special for the Sun-Telegraph|Dec 21, 2012

    City of Sidney For the Christmas holiday the City of Sidney will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 24 and Dec. 25, in observance of Christmas. All city departments will be closed including the landfill and the library. The Dial-a-ride Bus and Stage Line Bus will not be running. The Solid Waste Department will be collecting Monday and Tuesday’s trash on Wednesday. For the New Year’s holiday City of Sidney will be closed on Tuesday, Jan. 1, in observance of New Year’s Day. All city departments will be closed including the landfill and the l...

  • Christmas Services

    Special for the Sun-Telegraph|Dec 21, 2012

    Christ Episcopal Church Christmas service times are Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, Holy Communion at 10 a.m.; Monday, Dec. 24, carol singing at 11:30 p.m. followed by first service of Christmas at midnight. Christ Episcopal Church is located at Linden and 10th Streets. First United Methodist Church Christmas Eve service times are 5 and 11 p.m. First United Methodist Church is located at 2622 11th Ave. Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Holy Trinity Lutheran Church will be having their Candlelight Christmas Eve Worship Services on Monday, Dec. 24, at 4:30...

  • John Francis Shelley

    Dec 21, 2012

    John Francis Shelley 1934 to 2012 John Francis Shelley was the eldest son of Everett and Leona Shelley. He was born in Sidney on Aug. 6, 1934. John grew up in Sidney with his sisters, Pat, Gerry, Judy, Donna, Linda, Jean, Clara and Connie and four brothers, Dean, Jim, Dennis and Robert. John was very proud to have served in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Toledo as a Boatswains Mate 3rd Class, home port Long Beach, Calif. After serving in the Navy John married Joan Banks and raised four children, M...

  • NRA calls for armed police officer in every school

    Associated Press|Dec 21, 2012

    WASHINGTON – The nation’s largest gun-rights lobby called Friday for armed police officers to be posted in every American school to stop the next killer “waiting in the wings.” The National Rifle Association broke its silence on last week’s shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school that left 26 children and staff dead. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” the group’s top lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre, said at a Washington news conference. LaPierre said “the next Adam Lanza,” the man responsible for...

  • Jaycees continue tradition of sharing Christmas glow

    Hannah Van Ree, Sun-Telegraph|Dec 21, 2012

    Sidney Jaycee members always try to create an extra glow within Sidney in the month of December and this year was no exception. Members of the organization gathered around the traincars sitting along Legion Park Dec. 8 stringing Christmas lights for seven hours from engine to caboose for the community to view. The lights illuminated the dark park and the 10th Avenue roadside that night and have been glowing bright ever since. Amber Talich, in her second year as President of the Jaycees and...

  • Belief series: Evangelical; E-Free

    Tina Mines, Sun-Telegraph|Dec 21, 2012

    The E-Free Church of America stands tall and proud on the hill it was built upon, with Pastor Doug Birky leading Sunday worship. He grew up surrounded by Evangelical beliefs, “it was referred to as a Bible church, it was nondenominational, but it was still a very Evangelical Bible teaching, Bible believing church. “I was raised in that kind of church atmosphere. My parents were both Christian, and at a very young age I made a decision, I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior.” Pastor Birky... Full story

  • Hydraulic Fracturing; an environmental topic

    Tina Mines, Sun-Telegraph|Dec 21, 2012

    Second in a series Hydraulic Fracturing or “fracking” has been used for over 60 years, and is the process of mining for natural gas and oil. This has been a topic of debate among many groups within the United States for the past several years. “It is used to produce oil and gas,” said deputy director of the Oil and Gas Commission Sidney office Stan Belieu. The hotly debated aspect of “fracking” has been safety issues and if this old form of mining – with its new twist of horizontal mi...