Stories from Thursday, March 12, 2009

Kyllee and Shawn Downen, of Nevada, and big brother Evan, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter and baby sister, Michelle Lee Downen. Michelle weas born at 12:11, on March 10, 2009, at Nevada Regional Medical Center. She weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces, and measured 18 inches...

Anna Mae Rapp, 88, Nevada, passed away on Wednesday, March 11, 2009, at Christian Health Care in Nevada following a lengthy illness. She was born Dec. 22, 1920 in Liberal, Mo., to Richard Matthew Compton and Elizabeth Ward Compton. She married Paul Forest Rapp on May 24, 1940, in Fort Scott, and he preceded her in death on Feb. 28, 2008...

Ronald Wilson (Bud) Moreland was born Sept. 24, 1929, in Butler, the son of Lloyd Wilson and Sally (Derr) Moreland. He passed away March 10, 2009, at the St. Joseph Medical Center, in Kansas City. Bud was an Army Veteran. He was united in marriage to his wife Judy, on Jan. 19, 1976, in Butler, Mo...

The public is invited to attend the Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area Partnership Meeting in Harrisonville, Missouri, on March 12, 2009. The meeting will be held at the Cass County Library, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The meeting in Harrisonville will focus on branding and criteria for Freedom's Frontier projects. ...

Editor's note: Second-year students from Cottey College and their chaperones have embarked on the school's annual European trip, where the students will learn about the culture and history of Italy in a tour accompanied by educational modules. Cottey Public Information Director Steve Reed is sharing an account of the experience with readers through "letters to Mama." Following is an account of the tour's second day in Florence, Italy. Watch for more in future editions of the Nevada Daily Mail...

Jerry Wadel, a Vernon County resident and supporter of the The Fair Tax Plan, will present facts and figures to the Nevada Lions Club on Tuesday about just what the Fair Tax Plan is and how it works. Wadel has been studying the ins and outs of this issue for two years and is just beginning an effort to publicize the plan, which started in 1995 with a group of business men who wanted to find a way to replace the federal taxation system with a viable method of collecting revenues with the "fundamental principles of being fair, visible, and easy to collect," according to Wadel.. ...

Kansas City Power and Light is requesting rate increases for its service areas that will mean a higher electric bill for local residents to the tune of about $12.50 per month, on average in this area; and a public hearing conducted by the Missouri Public Service Commission at the Nevada TeleCenter garnered several comments. ...

A frayed, fragile solitary copy of a unique little booklet has lain neglected for some years in the Bushwhacker Museum archives. "Missouri," it's simply titled on the color cover, "Southwest Missouri" on the title page, and "Handbook of Southwest Missouri" on the individual pages...

My title of Middle Age Plus was contrived to show that I am not old, but I am past middle age. It was also designed to point out all the pluses of being this age. I realized that I had neglected that aspect of my column in recent weeks. Sometimes we feel we may have overused a theme and so we get away from it for a while. The danger is that we may stray so far away from the original theme that there is no connection between the title and the contents of the column...