Stories from Wednesday, December 24, 2025

McCOOK, Neb. - Courtney Hampton’s McCook home functions as an informal intake and recovery space for stray and feral cats. Each animal represents a broader issue of overpopulation, disease control, and public responsibility. Most importantly, they are getting the care they desperately need...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a two-term Republican who built a national reputation for intellectual independence and a willingness to confront his own party, has disclosed that he has been diagnosed with advanced, stage-four pancreatic cancer. Sasse, 53, shared the news in a deeply personal social media post, writing bluntly that the disease is terminal while expressing determination to continue fighting and to live fully in the time he has left...

Americans have never quite embraced December 26 the way our European cousins have. Like soccer, question time and warm beer, the British tradition of Boxing Day never quite made it across the Atlantic. What we inherited instead was something looser, less ceremonial and unmistakably American: a day that exists, but only barely, in the shadow of Christmas itself...

As 2025 comes to a close, the McCook Community Foundation Fund would like to thank the community for their support over the past year and since MCFF was formed in 2001. Over the past two decades, dozens of community members have served as Fund Advisory Committee (FAC) members…each with their own personal reason why they serve the community, why they do this work, and why they give of their time, their talent and their treasure...

Freda Ann Menze entered her Heavenly home on Sunday, December 21, 2025, surrounded by family at Pleasant View Home in Inman, Kansas. Born January 22, 1939, in rural Rawlins County, Kansas, Freda was the daughter of Charles L. and Eleanora F. (Sramek) Sis. ...

Richard “Dick” Lee Geier, 89, of Elkhorn, Nebraska, passed away on December 18, 2025. He was born May 7, 1936, to Martin and Elizabeth Geier on the family farm near Culbertson, Nebraska. Richard attended a country grade school and graduated from Culbertson High School in 1954. He married Marilyn Lenhart in 1959, and together they shared more than six decades of marriage. Two daughters were born to this union, Belinda and Alison...

Cynthia “Cyndi” Sue (Frick) Johnson, age 73, was born on April 9, 1952, in McCook, Nebraska, and passed away peacefully on December 16, 2025, in Lincoln, Nebraska, surrounded by the family she adored. Cyndi was the heart and soul of her family—a woman whose love knew no bounds. ...

ARAPAHOE, Neb. — The Bob Braithwait Arapahoe Holiday Tournament lineup of basketball games are all set for Monday and Tuesday. GIRLS Monday: Arapahoe vs. Blue Hill in South Gym; Southern Valley vs. Franklin in North Gym. Tip times are both set for 5:30 p.m...

PAXTON, Neb. — The Maywood-Hayes Center girls held Hyannis to seven points through three quarters of Tuesday’s 57-14 Paxton Pre-Holiday Tourney finals victory. Coach Kim Stengel’s Wolves reached 8-1 with that lone loss being a four-pointer against unbeaten Dundy Conty-Stratton on Dec. 13...

Granted, it is only Christmas Eve with many basketball games to play through post-season tournament time in mid-February. However, take a quick look at how area teams rank with the reminder that top 16 state spots will earn district finals/state tourney qualifying contests...

CAMBRIDGE, Neb. — Sage Bryan reached the 157-pound title match while leading Decatur Community, Kan., into eight overall at Saturday’s Fran Jorgensen Invitational. Jorgensen scored 20 of the REd Devils’ 55 points when he pinned Axtell’s Nick Dahl and Hitchcock County Falcon Samuel Hare both in the first period...

CAMBRIDGE, Neb., — The Arapahoe Warriors are Fran Jorgensen Invite champions with their 139.5-136 win over Elm Creek to decide this 20-team wrestling invitational on Saturday. Team scores: 1. Arapahoe 139.5, 2. Elm Creek 136, 2. Loomis 136, 4. Madison 123, 5. ...

Edward Lynn Richard was born March 18, 1949, to Vearl and Dorothy (Haines) Richard in Stratton, NE when his parents were traveling home to Parks from a shopping trip. He was the fourth son of a family of five boys and one girl.