Opinion

In case you haven’t heard, McCook now carries a substantial federal mandate in the form of a regulation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requiring the replacement of lead pipes throughout the city, including those located on private property. ...

While the weather may still mess with the plans, Beautify McCook plans to host its first downtown cleanup session on Sunday, March 22. The volunteers will meet at 10 a.m. in Norris Alley between the Historic Fox Theater and the Keystone Business Center. After being pushed back a week because of cold temps and gusty winds, the volunteers are hoping for a more tolerable day...

Your old columnist has been remembering life as it used to be as I was growing up here in southwest Nebraska. Sue Doak has a great weekly column in the Gazette about the early history of this area, but these are reflections from my personal memory. We lived on a farm a couple of miles south of McCook. I attended rural school District 8 through the 8th grade, then on to town school...

Those who aspire to creativity—whether in writing, graphic arts, music or theatre—often borrow, adapt, satirize, pay tribute to or allude to the work of others. In a sense there are few entirely new ideas, only the creative synthesis of what has come before. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet lives again in the 20th century setting of West Side Story. Painters quote earlier masters. Writers echo familiar themes...

As we navigate the landscape of 2026, I often find myself speaking with parents who are at a bit of a crossroads. Their high school juniors are bright and curious, yet they aren’t necessarily sold on the traditional four-year desk job path. If this sounds like your household, I want to offer a perspective from the front lines of Nebraska’s infrastructure: your child isn’t just “good with their hands”—they are the strategic solution to a rapidly changing economy...

Campaign season has now officially begun in Nebraska. When that happens, a familiar set of rules come into play. Campaigns, committees and individuals who spend money advocating for or against candidates and ballot questions must comply with the disclosure requirements established under Nebraska law and overseen by the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission (NADC)...

One of my high school classmates, MHS Class of 1955, shared the following story, concerning her family, with me: In the time frame of about 1945/46, LaVern Edwards, Goldie’s older sister, was working at Cudahy Cheese Factory in Culbertson. She was walking on the street, and a soldier from the McCook Army Air Base stopped to talk to her. ...

Since discovering YouTube and other online video platforms in the past decade or so, early cinematography has become a guilty pleasure of mine. The early experimental kinetoscope recordings from Thomas Edison and W.K.L. Dickson in the early 1890s are, of course, fascinating technological achievements, but the real fun begins with the recordings of visitors walking through the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and, better yet, efforts by the Lumière brothers, pioneers of practical cinematography with their Cinématographe, in 1895 and 1896.. ...

Most people in McCook know that the YMCA has been under construction for the past year, as part of a $17 million renovation and expansion project. The first phase of the long-overdue project is to renovate the pool. So on the day after the McCook High School swim and dive left for the state championship meet in Lincoln in February 2025, the YMCA pool was drained and demolition began...

There is a great little book I purchased for seven dollars on Amazon, and it was really more like a pamphlet than a book. The 4” x 7” hardback contains only 30 pages, but if you enjoy a glimpse into early American life, the evolution of the English language, and a refresher course on gentility, it is a very satisfying 30 pages...

It’s hard not to notice that the drive into the office isn’t quite as dark these days. The sun is already testing the eastern horizon and trying to peek out from behind homes and trees. By the clock, nothing has changed yet, but the sky is already announcing spring’s arrival...

It’s hard to imagine sitting outside and watching a movie right now. O.K., it’s not really that hard to picture because we haven’t had a very rough winter in Southwest Nebraska this year. And with sun setting at 5 p.m. during the winter months, an outdoor movie could start and be over by early evening. Wait, this idea isn’t sounding so bad after all...

One of the differences I’ve noticed since I started chasing news 30 years ago is the increased use of the consent agenda. It was not unheard of then, but a few institutional shifts have pushed it from an occasional parliamentary convenience into a standard operating tool...

I note that a dynamic young lady from North Platte, Macey Budke, has submitted her name as a candidate to represent us, Third District, in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has filed as an Independent. I know not her history but suspect that possibly she has observed that a registered Democrat has little, slim to none, chance of being elected from our strongly leaning conservative rural area of political thinking here in Nebraska. ...

It is understandable that media interest was piqued in January, when NASA carried out what it described as the first medical evacuation from the International Space Station. A U.S. astronaut aboard the long-duration Crew-11 mission developed a serious, unspecified illness, and NASA issued press releases directing viewers to live coverage of the spacecraft’s return...

For the past several months, as I drove the McCook High School swim and dive team to practice in other towns, I would return and be amazed by the number of people at the bowling alley on the edge of McCook. The parking lot was overflowing. Cars were parked in the grass. ...