Stories from Thursday, April 6, 2006

Social commentators have been around since before Socrates lamented about the youth of Athens. Many commentators these days are comics; and some, in the tradition of Mort Sahl and Lennie Bruce, push boundaries of expression. Steve Hofstetter combines a Columbia University education with a native New Yorker attitude to comment on everything from politics to dating...

Nevada Regional Medical Center and the Vernon County Senior Center have joined forces to organize a caregiver's support group for Vernon County and the surrounding area. The support group is open to any individual who provides care for a spouse or loved one that might benefit from peer or therapeutic support...

The Rich Hill and Hume school board elections are in. Voters in Vernon and Bates counties cast ballots in both of these races. Voters in Vernon and Cedar counties had their say in El Dorado Springs issues as well. Following are the combined tallies from these races:...

It all began with an ordinary woman, a woman who saw that suffering was abounding in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area. This suffering was due to the devastation that ripped through the gulf coast area in the fall of 2005. Hurricane Katrina, the sixth strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, wreaked havoc in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama...

The Vernon County fairgrounds in Nevada, will be the site where the University of Missouri Extension, in cooperation with Vernon County 4-H and Wonderful Animals Giving Support are hosting a pet Healthcare Workshop. The workshop is open to the public and will be held on Saturday, April 8, 9 a.m. to noon. There will be three presenters at the event. Area experts will be present in order to inform the attendants on the general health care issues relating to pets...

The Hume pre-kindergarten class visits with Curious George, an infamous character from children's books by H.A. Rey, who has entertained children for more than 60 years. Curious George met with students at the end of a tour of the Nevada Public Library on Wednesday, when children's librarian Martha Bledsoe showed the students the children's section of the library and its wide array of children's books. ...

I like to associate important things in my life with songs. As I turned over the calendars from March to April, I began remembering the booming voice of Al Jolson singing about April showers. "When April showers come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May." Then later in the song there are the words, "so just keeping looking for the bluebird and listening for his song, whenever April showers come along." The meaning of the words are that showers are unwelcome and we must not fret about them because they will pass.. ...

Those who fancy we live in corrupt, venal, decadent days, the worst by far ever seen in the world, would do well to crack a history book. Almost any serious history book would do, but they could do no better, for a start, than "General James G. Blunt: Tarnished Glory," by Robert Collins...

WEBB CITY, Mo. -- The Nevada Lady Tiger swim team split a triangular at Webb City Tuesday, defeating Labette County (Kan.) but falling to the hosting Lady Cardinals. Nevada beat Labette County 95-50, but lost to Webb City 122-55. Nevada set 10 personal records at the meet, showing their continued improvement in the young season...

The gates opened, the lights came on, the cars fired up and the 2006 racing season opened on Saturday with a big field of cars. Since this was the first race drivers drew for starting positions in the heats and heat finishes determined the starting places in the features. ...

NEOSHO, Mo. -- The Nevada track team sent a contingent to Neosho for a 9th/10th grade meet Tuesday, and they came home with three individual victories. Taylor Means won both the 100 meters and the 200. Her 100 time was 13.03 seconds, easily the best in the field. Her time of 27.90 in the 200 also was a solid winner...