Opinion

McCOOK, Neb. — I've seen a lot. I've been to many, many, many parades in 36 years as a reporter and I've complained every year about the sourpusses in parades — those unsmiling float riders, horseback riders, dog walkers, cheerleaders, flag corps members, drum majorettes, etc...

As legalized casino and sports gambling gets the okay from states across the union, the never-ending question always arises again. Is legalized gambling good or bad; both for people and the states the gambling takes place in? We’ll look at both sides of the issue in my column today...

Dear Editor, You have always been good to me and have published many things I have written, however, when you published "The Experiences of Phebe Adams Hancock," you misspelled her name. My cousin, Ivan Y. Haskell was born in Payson, Utah. His grandmother spelled her name Phoebe. She was Phebe Adams Hancock's granddaughter...

The young people in your home may groan when the subject comes up, but if they’re not already in school, their days of summer vacation are down to a handful. Despite their protests, deep down they’re probably excited about getting back into the swing of things, reconnecting with old friends, meeting new ones and learning new things...

Nebraska Coach Scott Frost famously issued a solemn warning to potential football recruits last year: “And I’ll tell you this right now, if there’s anything negative about women, if there’s anything racial or about sexuality, if there’s anything about guns or anything like that, we’re just not going to recruit you, period," Frost said. ...

Good news! Grannie Annie and I stopped by Bryan West to visit a bit with Griff Malleck. He said that he was doing well in the healing and therapy process. As well as he should be surrounded by good looking nurses doting over him and attending to his every need...

Good news! Grannie Annie and I stopped by Bryan West to visit a bit with Griff Malleck. He said that he was doing well in the healing and therapy process. As well as he should be surrounded by good looking nurses doting over him and attending to his every need...

Dear Editor, Two centuries ago, my great-great-grandmother Phoebe Adams Hancock was born on July 11, 1810, near the Canadian border. It was called York State and in the northeast corner of New York. Phoebe had an interesting life. By the fall of 1851, she had traveled to Missouri from Ohio and along the Mormon Trail across the state of Nebraska...

The lull before the “storm” that accompanies the fall start of school is no break for local governmental entities that are busy working on budgets for the upcoming year. City and county governments, in particular, are increasingly dealing with expenses associated with aging infrastructure, up to a century or more after much of it was installed as our communities were settled and built into modern towns and cities...

For those of us who lived then, the ’60s were the greatest, scariest, most productive, most violent decade in the history of the world. During that decade we were engaged in a war in Vietnam that millions of Americans opposed and because of that, things were happening that shocked the sensibilities of most Americans. ...

Last session I was appointed to the LR 87 committee. The committee is tasked with continuing the work of the select interim committee created the year before, the LR 437 committee, the intention is to fully and comprehensively analyze possible improvements and changes to the standing committee system. ...

Because they are so new and ubiquitous, we hear a lot about the down side of smart phones. People are addicted to them. They have their nose in the screen when they should be watching where they are walking or, worse, driving. There are possible health risks, and despite the proliferation of “social media,” are driving more people to isolation and loneliness...

Someone who didn’t pay attention to Nebraska history in grade school, or someone who moved here from out of state, might be surprised to learn we have a unique form of government. Anyone observing current partisan controversies in Lincoln without the appropriate background knowledge would certainly be surprised...

A story in the Cincinnati Enquirer demonstrates just how difficult it is for authorities to use current gun laws to prevent mass shootings. The paper reported that the weapon used in Dayton, an AR-15 style .223 firearm, while it looked like a rifle, was actually classified a pistol, meaning restrictions on short-barreled rifles don’t apply...

“Off the grid!” Yep your editor called it correctly. I had the column written and with me on a flash drive but my laptop was out of juice so I couldn’t send it. Oh but it is a new world and we are all tied up electronically now. The new normal. A good part of my intended column last week was a tribute to recently departed former Gazette editor Gene O. ...

Dear Editor, Discover magazine printed in Boone, Iowa, in May 2004 was on a shelf in El Dorado Manor's activity room. I checked it out. On page 24 was a report written by Paul Austin under the heading of Vital Signs. It was a story about Joey Jenkins, a 15-year-old athlete. He had been brought to the hospital suffering with a severe cold for over six days. When he tried to walk, he had to clutch a nurse's arm. He also had a headache...

Add the Ohio and El Paso shootings, as well as last week’s Garlic Festival mass murder in California, to the list of unfathomable occurrences where a sick individual chose to use the destructive power of a firearm to settle some sort of score. More often than not, the score to be settled exists only in the shooters twisted mind...

The newest addiction involves an act or behavior I’m sure most of you have never thought about but, according to the scientific experts, it is just as real and deadly as being addicted to meth or cocaine. It’s an addiction to video games. Most of us have known about obsessive-compulsive behavior for a long time and, consequently, we’re no stranger to it or its qualities. ...

Earlier this week, we hosted University of Nebraska-Omaha/University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) Chancellor Dr. Jeffrey Gold. Dr. Gold has had an accomplished career, first in pediatric heart surgery, now in higher education administration. His leadership has pushed UNMC forward nationally and earned him the chancellor position at UNO. ...

If “Blueprint Nebraska” comes to naught, it won’t be for lack of preparation. Top business groups like the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry, state and University of Nebraska officials assembled 320 advisors to oversee 60 events involving 2,000 participants, including 275 members with “sector expertise,” covering 30 regions of the state, with input from 5,000 residents to identify 60 potential initiatives...

You may have seen “Think F1rst” advertisements in the Gazette over the past few months, and we’ll be placing more of them in the future. The ads, an attempt to educate Americans about the five freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment, were created last year by the nonprofit Media of Nebraska. The effort came after members noted that many Americans lacked even a basic knowledge of the First Amendment, particularly in articulating the five freedoms that it guarantees...

In 2017, some 147 million Americans had their personal financial information exposed by the Equifax data breach. It was deja vu Monday, when Capital One announced that nearly as many, about 100 million, credit card applications had been compromised, leaving about 77,000 bank account numbers and 140,000 Social Security numbers vulnerable to use by identity thieves...

Gene and I were good friends. Not the kind of friends that hung out together or socialized together but good friends nevertheless. Perhaps the impetus for that friendship was the fact we were both Democrats in an area of the country where there aren’t many. But I know we connected soon after I moved here in 1995 and stayed connected until his death...

After polling nearly 7,000 patrons, Columbine High School, Jeffco Public Schools Superintendent Jason Glass announced that there isn’t enough support to tear down and rebuild Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. The patrons are right. We remember how things got slowly back to normal after the September 11 attacks; perhaps too quickly. ...

There’s a recent, but well-worn joke about how we used to tell people never to get into a car with strangers, and never leave with someone you’ve met on the internet. Now Lyft and Uber have built giant businesses by getting people to get into cars with strangers they meet through the internet...