Stories from Sunday, May 9, 2004

The Nevada High School boys track team placed third and the girls team placed fifth in the annual Southwest Conference track meet Thursday afternoon in Carthage. Steve Branstetter, Devin Hooe, Thomas Pitts and Ryan Seaver set a new school record in the four-by-400-meter relay with a time of 44:0 just edging out Neosho for second place...

The Nevada Tiger Tennis team won three matches against the Clinton Cardinals Thursday by the score 6 to 3. Three Nevada players easily won their matches, seniors Alex Hardin, 8-2; Derek Fast, 8-1 and Ryan Kimbrough, 8-3, while Ed Horst had to come back from a 6-4 deficit to win a tie breaker 9-7...

Spenser Daniels, 14, was the Cadet 160 -pound State Champion in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling this past weekend at the USA Wrestling state tournament held in Sedalia, Mo. His placing in the State Tournament allows him to compete on the Team Missouri wrestling squad which will attend national tournaments at the Southern Plains Tournament in Topeka, Kan., and the Cadet National Duals in Greeley, Colo. ...

More than anything else, true rivalries are the lifeblood of sports, and fans who are deprived of this facet of our games are missing an integral part of what sport is all about. Even little old Nevada has a rivalry and it's not with Webb City, Neosho, McDonald County or Carthage. Sure, Nevada wants to beat them. But Lamar is the rival. Even when Lamar backs off and doesn't want to play Nevada, the rivalry is never lessened...

As the turkey season runs down, hunters like Fred Smith, Joplin, turns into an angler. "Fishing goes on all year, but the turkey season only lasts three weeks so now I'm ready for some good fishing," he said. Within a few miles of every Vernon County resident there is fishing water of one kind or another...

By Scott Moyers Nevada Daily Mail Nevada city officials are warning that a man who is going door-to-door and telling people they could face a $500 municipal fine if they don't pay him to mow their grass is a scam artist and should be reported. "There is no $500 fine for having too-high grass," said Richard Brockman, the city's code enforcement officer. "He's trying to scare people and take advantage of them."...

By Steve Moyer Nevada Herald Whether it's jewelry or a simple lunch out, most people will be spending more money on mom this year, with sales of flowers, gifts, candy and other presents expected to top $10 billion nationwide. According to the National Retail Federation, people will spend an average of $98.64 for their mothers, which is up slightly from last year's $97.37...

By Brian Johnson Nevada Herald Barney Fisher says he isn't the type of man who likes to sit on the sidelines -- which is no doubt why he's in the race for the Missouri State Representative District 125th seat. "People can gripe about what's going on in our government, but gripes wont get anything done," Fisher said. "That's why I decided to get off the sidelines and into the game."...

Ralph Pokorny/Nevada Herald Members of the Nevada City Council take a tour of the Ozark Building Friday afternoon to get a first-hand look at the building that Robert Allen and his partner Jim Nichols of The Dalmark Group want to turn into an apartment development for area seniors citizens. ...

Some drugs cause confusion in elderly patients. So will the new Medicare prescription drug discount plans that millions of older Americans began signing up for this week. Congress could have provided affordable medications to Medicare users simply by expanding existing programs that supply inexpensive drugs to veterans and the poor. ...

Somebody's spider sense wasn't working. Spider sense was what helped Peter Parker, our friendly neighborhood Spiderman, know when he was about to be ambushed. Strange thing about superheroes, though -- they never ambush themselves. That's just what Major League Baseball did when it decided to put ads on bases at most stadiums to promote the upcoming film "SpiderMan 2."...