Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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So goes the school, so goes the newspaper, so goes the town. Such an observation is neither original nor germane to some of America, but in Nebraska it is a fact of life — sometimes a sad fact when a small town loses its newspaper. For further details on two Nebraska newspapers closing their doors, I recommend Paul Hammel’s excellent piece in the Nebraska Examiner. He puts into perspective what the loss of a newspaper means to communities such as Ainsworth and Valentine, the pair set to cea...
Nebraskans decided a couple weeks ago that public funds for education should fund public education … and only public education. You can skip the “well, duh.” Without two petition drives, a solid campaign and Nebraskans doing the right thing, the question in question — Legislative Bill 1402 — may very well have started using tax dollars for private school tuition next fall. The decision to repeal LB 1402, which provided public money for private school scholarships, was fairly loud and quite cle...
Another Father’s Day is nearing an end. How have we spent it? With the exception of a two-hour lunch date, the “Yellowstone” Father’s Day marathon has been playing. And, just like the “Yellowstone” Mother’s Day marathon and the Memorial Day marathon and any other excuse needed to air 72 hours of the popular TV show, John Dutton’s family’s woes have provided background noise. Thank goodness it has a solid soundtrack to sing along with while I work on the paper and fiddle with household chores....
It's easy to understand but hard to remember that the one task of the Nebraska Legislature is to pass a balanced budget during the 90-day session and to make adjustments to and pass that budget again in the 60-day session. Mission accomplished again by the 2024 Legislature, which has a little more than a week of session left. The simple task often gets lost in the shadow of high-profile issues, such as this year's struggle to find a solution for skyrocketing property taxes. With all eyes on...
There are a lot of ins and outs in party politics during an election year. Who's in the race and who's out? All eyes have been on the Legislature where the big surprise came from Republican Julie Slama – rhymes with drama – announced she wouldn't seek a second term representing southeast Nebraska's District One because she was going to take her recently earned law degree another direction. But before the appointee of then Governor Pete Ricketts could relish the attention one more time, the ven...
Carlee Livingston will represent the Summerland speech team at the 2024 NSAA Class C2 State Speech Championships, Thursday, March 21, at Kearney High School. Livingston advances after a third-place finish in persuasive speaking at Monday's Class C2-3 district meet in Hartington. Six other speech students qualified for finals. Alanna Doll finished fifth in informative speaking. Brandon Pruden placed fifth in oral interpretation of humorous prose. In oral interpretation of drama, Addisyn...
What a great time to be a Bobcat! Our students are shining in all activities. Backtrack to November when the volleyball team qualified for state competition and the football team played in two rounds of the playoff system. Nothing like starting the year off on the right foot. The marching band did well at competition in Wayne. Speech and drama students continue to earn awards. Next week, the speechsters compete in a tough C2 district, a trip to the state meet on the line. I have a feeling...
One of my favorite movie lines I've been known utter to my children and grandkids originates from the movie "A League of Their Own," when Tom Hanks' character, Jimmy Dugan, tells a woman's league player, "There's no crying in baseball." Wait a minute. There is crying in baseball. Softball, too. Even football and boxing and basketball and volleyball can cause tears to flow down athletes' faces. Emotions, when it comes to sports, often run high. For the past couple of weeks, crying in sports has...
Seven members of the Bobcat speech team competed Saturday at the West Holt Invitational. Summerland’s lone varsity medal winner was Yuliana Olivan who came in second in entertainment speaking. Also competing at the varsity level were oral interpretation of drama team members Brandon Pruden, Owen Jeffords, Olivan and Addisyn Fletcher, who came in one place out of the medal round. Pruden also competed in humorous prose. Carlee Livingston competed in persuasive speaking, while Raina Krebs competed in entertainment speaking. The team was eighth o...
Six members of the Summerland speech team competed at Hartington on Saturday. Award winners in varsity competition in the Honors Division included Carlee Livingston, fourth persuasive speaking and Yuliana Olivan, Addisyn Fletcher, Owen Jefford and Brandon Pruden, fourth, oral interpretation of drama. In the junior varsity division, Fletcher finished fourth in oral interpretation of poetry finals. Jadyn Hobbs received fourth place in informative public speaking. Also competing were Olivan in entertainment speaking; Pruden, oral interpretation...
The Summerland Bobcats hosted their home speech meet on Saturday with seven schools in attendance. West Holt and Stuart took championship and runner-up honors, respectively, with Neligh coming in third and Summerland fourth. Also competing were Stanton, Wheeler Central, and Boyd County. Individual varsity medal winners from Summerland were Yuliana Olivan, second, entertainment speaking; Brandon Pruden, Addisyn Fletcher, Yuliana Olivan and Owen Jeffords, second, oral interpretation of drama; Alanna Doll, fourth, informative; Pruden, fourth,...
To borrow from the Rolling Stones, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you’ll find, you get what you need.” This has been one of my favorite songs since the 1970s. Yes, that admission definitely dates me. And, its placement in the 1983 movie “The Big Chill” hits home. I thought it was an odd, albeit appropriate choice for the soundtrack. Who would’ve known a month after viewing the movie with my parents and sister, we’d be burying Laurie’s fiancé, six weeks before t...
In 1946, a new tradition was born in Nebraska’s Christmas City. A Methodist minister and a drama teacher in Minden put their heads together to dream up a new Christmas pageant. Their play, which would come to be called the “Light of the World” pageant, brought the Christmas story to life with color and excitement. Minden was already known as the Christmas City because of its outstanding lights display and beautiful church choirs. But in 1946, President of the Chamber Harold Pedley was looking for something more to distinguish the city. When...
“Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.” I read this quote, by author Mason Cooley, recently and it made me think about Halloween traditions and costumes from my childhood and ones my kids wore. Mom loved Halloween. She’d decorate our house with pumpkins and black cats and ghosts. Then, on Oct. 31, she’d create a tablescape by the front door, with a kitschy orange plastic pumpkin overflowing with candy, black taper candles and a notebook with parchment paper, so trick-o...
"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories." You could almost hear the most famous two lines from TV's crime drama "Law and Order" before the case of Bill E. Kid began, Oct. 5, at the Antelope County Courthouse. The mock trial is a yearly tradition during County Government Day. Kid is accused of drinking at a party...
Ask 10 people who they would choose as the most loved television or movie couple and you’ll get 10 different answers. While Ross and Rachel spark excitement for “Friends” followers, the chemistry between Robert Kincaid and Francesca Johnson, in “The Bridges of Madison County,” is undeniable. Questions like this make me chuckle, especially when I receive a press release from a London-based public relations firm, letting me know that Lois and Clark top the most-loved list for a lot of Nebraskan...
From Dr. Marcus Welby and Dr. Meredith Grey to “Hawkeye” Pierce and Doogie Howser, MD, there have been a multitude of television doctors. You likely spend more time watching them than you do with your own physician. Television shows the life of a doctor as exciting, dramatic and glamorous; however, real life is often much different. On television, doctors can solve every medical mystery within the span of a single show. Rare diseases or unusual presentations are no match for the intellect or...
Faith King, Olga Mendoza and Adrienne Parker will be among the 1,153 competitors descending on Kearney, Wednesday through Friday, for the 2023 Nebraska School Activities Association State Speech Championships at Kearney High School. The three Bobcat speakers qualified for this week's Class C2 state competition last Wednesday, as 14 Summerland speech team members traveled to Plainview to compete in the C2-3 district speech competition. Seven students broke finals in 10 events. Following the...
Summerland "speechsters" earned four medals at the Creighton Speech Invite, held Friday, Feb. 17. Champs finals medal winners included Faith King, third, informative speaking and poetry interpretation; Olga Mendoza, third, serious prose and Yuliana Olivan, fourth, entertainment speaking. Award winners in the next-in division included Brandon Pruden, fourth, humorous prose; Carlee Livingston, fourth, entertainment speaking and Adrienne Parker, Audrey Parker, Talya Nilson and Olivan, fourth, oral...
Fourteen members of the Summerland speech team competed at the West Holt Invitational on Saturday, coming in seventh of 18 teams. Earning top honors in entertainment speaking was Yulianna (Julie) Olivan, who earned a first-place rating from both judges in preliminary rounds and also from both judges in the final round. She earned 197 of a possible 200 rating points. Other medal winners were as follows: Faith King, fourth, poetry interpretation; Olga Mendoza, fourth, serious prose and sixth,...
SUBMITTED ARTICLE Summerland hosted its own speech invitational, Saturday. A dozen teams competed in the meet. Summerland placed fourth behind West Holt, 318 points; Stuart, 258 points; and Elgin Pope John, 214 points. Summerland earned 158 points and O'Neill St. Mary's was fifth with 152. Other schools competing were Stanton, Neligh-Oakdale, Creighton, Verdigre, Wheeler Central, Boyd County and Rock County. Olga Mendoza earned the gold medal in serious prose. Two Bobcat speakers placed second,...
Ten members of the Summerland speech team competed at the Practice Makes "Perfekt" Invitational at Wisner-Pilger High School, Jan. 14. The Bobcats earned sixth place as a team behind Twin River, Wisner-Pilger, Homer, Laurel-Concord-Coleridge and Archbishop Bergan. Scribner-Snyder was seventh, followed by West Point-Beemer, North Bend, Stanton, Pender, South Sioux City, Wakefield and Allen Consolidated. Senior speaker Olga Mendoza took top honors in serious prose while Yulianna Olivan and Alanna...
Members of the Summerland speech team compete and judge, Saturday, at the Stuart Novice Speech Tournament. The novice oral interpretation of drama team participated in the meet. Varsity speakers Adrienne Parker and Olga Mendoza judged events. Attending were Sydni McConnell, Parker, Irelyn Bearinger, Mendoza, Emma King and Brandon Pruden....
My first Crockpot - a three-quart avocado green model with a non-removable crock - came to me in the early 1980s when a friend who had recently gotten married regifted one of her five new Crockpots to me. It wasn't in its original box (so it couldn't be returned) and we suspected at the time someone had regifted it to the newlyweds. I didn't care where it came from, I was just happy to have one. And the apartment in Lincoln where I was living at the time sported decades-old avocado green...
