Opinion

As you may remember, the Speaker of the Legislature, Jim Scheer of Norfolk, suspended the Nebraska Legislature’s session back in March because of public health concerns due to COVID-19. As of right now the plan is for the Legislature to resume the 2020 session on July 20th and we’re scheduled to complete our work by August 13th. ...

I was a bit tickled at fellow columnist Ronda Graff’s latest column. She told of her efforts to find reasonable activities for her children for these summer months. Camps are closed, our swimming pool closed and the list goes on and on. Reflecting over the years of my growing up none of that was a problem. ...

Look out your window. It looks peaceful, doesn’t it? It’s spring. At my house, we have a pair of baby rabbits in our yard, and birds chirping. The squirrels are running around as busy as always, and the grass is green. Kids are playing and shouting in the block behind us, and my dog, wanting to play along, echoes their shrieks with a few barks of her own. Seems nice, doesn’t it? Here’s what’s really going on...

With school coming to the most anti-climatic close ever last week, parents are now looking at the upcoming summer months and asking a common question: What are the kids going to do all summer? Unfortunately, I am asking that same question and let’s just be clear right up front: I don’t have the answers...

In the online version of my weekly column readers are offered a chance to respond to the thoughts that I’ve presented. It frustrates me a bit as the author of the responses are kept anonymous but I unhesitatingly sign my name to what I’ve written. Oh well...

Somewhere in my formal education, I’m not sure exactly when or where, I was exposed to what is perhaps the most poorly named, yet critical behavioral concept. It’s called “Fundamental Attribution Error.” With a handle like that, it could be anything, right?...

EDITOR’S NOTE: Kyle Kunkee was asked to write the following in lieu of a traditional Memorial Day address. He is an Iraq war veteran with the U.S. Marine Corps., and was recently activated with the 734th Combat Service Support Battalion, Nebraska National Guard unit out of Kearney and is now assisting with the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a police officer with the City of McCook...

There are bright spots associated with the coronavirus pandemic for those inclined to look for them, namely the chance to step back from our normal, hectic lives and be with our families or spend time reading, meditating, gardening, crafting, decluttering — all those things we’ve never had time for before...

This column contains my comments (with some modifications) made during Monday’s McCook City Council meeting as part of citizen’s comments, which cannot have any further discussion or actions taken. In October 2015, the McCook City Council appointed 12 community members to the pool committee. ...

Dear Editor, Memorial Day weekend is quickly approaching once again. The McCook American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, and a number of community volunteers will be setting out flags on our veterans’ gravesites at Calvary, Memorial Park, and Riverview cemeteries in McCook on Saturday, May 23rd at 9:00 am...

Your old columnist thinks that the time has come. It is time to get life back to normal after the COVOD-19 shutdown. Admittedly we in Nebraska didn’t have it nearly as bad as the poor souls living crowded in highly populated areas like New York City. Their choice, but one size doesn’t fit all either...

I went to church on Sunday, sort of. I have admitted within these pages that I’m not the most religious guy you’ll ever meet, but I had a chance to sit in on a service, my first in two about two years, under circumstances that would not have taken place, but for the COVID-19 Virus...

LINCOLN, Nebraska – Thanks to record-shattering vote-by-mail participation, Nebraskans set a new standard for primary election voting this spring. Election officials received more than 400,000 completed early mail-in ballots for the 2020 Nebraska Primary. Coupled with day-of in-person voting – conducted today amid physical distancing, mask-wearing, and regular sanitizing – the total number of Nebraska voters is certain to surpass 1972's all-time primary high of 413,000 votes...

We’re grateful coronavirus cases are relatively rare in Southwest Nebraska, and we know of no deaths as of yet. There are more important reasons to be sad and disappointed, but one that hurt was the SWNCTA production of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, performances cut short over fears of spreading the COVID-19 virus...

If you are like me, there are events and activities on your calendar which you wrote down or typed in months or even years ago. While the birthday reminders are still applicable, nearly everything else has been cancelled or moved online. Just yesterday, I removed the reminder on my phone about the high school band trip to New York City, scheduled for later this month. ...

You’ll find little news in this paper, on broadcast, cable or internet that isn’t affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. This year is a chance to go beyond simple lip-service to honor healthcare workers on the front line of the pandemic fight. National Hospital Week 2020 honors thousands of area health care workers who are risking their own health to care for their patients...

Grannie Annie’s friend Karen called to announce that she was having “card tremors”. You know as related to alcohol tremors from not being able to play cards for the past couple of months. We looked it up and according to Google: Tremors are involuntary shaking in one or multiple areas of the body and can occur intermittently or be constant.1,2 Two of the many possible causes of tremors are acute alcohol withdrawal and excessive alcohol use...

Dear Editor, What's worse; an economy that crashes completely or a higher Covid-19 death rate as people go back to work and increasing the spread of the virus. I think the answer is simple: If we don't go back to work our economy will bottom out and it will take us decades to recover...

I can’t pretend to know more about food supply issues than the readers of this publication. I have lived in McCook for more than 25 years now, have had a modicum of contact with the ag sector. I have absorbed what I can, but I am still a city guy. I’ll leave production issues to the big boys...

Let’s be up-front about this: I am not going to win the best homeschool parent award. (Let’s be honest about that too: We aren’t really homeschooling either because we don’t develop the curriculum and we don’t do the grading; we are just doing what we are told to do during this crisis, so really we are crisis-schooling parents.)...