Stories from Thursday, December 2, 2004

By Ralph Pokorny Nevada Daily Mail In August 1999 Nevada voters approved a one-half cent parks and recreation sales tax to pay for several major improvements to the city parks system. With the tax set to expire in 2005 the Nevada Parks and Recreation board is interested in having Nevada voters renew the one-half cent parks sales tax next year and Wednesday the board voted to have Mike Turnbull, parks board president, discuss the issue with the city council at the Dec. 7 meeting...

By Steve Moyer Nevada Daily Mail The Vernon County Ambulance District's annual toy drive is in full swing. Director James McKenzie said the toy drive began 16 years ago as a project to provide coats to needy people but after a while toys were added and soon took over as the primary objective. At first, used toys were donated and ambulance personnel repaired and refurbished them...

Nevada Daily Mail Christmas is rapidly approaching, as is the end of the filing period for the 2005 city council election. Currently four candidates have filed with Nevada City Clerk Julie Stumpff for the April election. Van Celaya and Larry DeLaney both filed on Nov. 16, the first day of the filing period and Joe Kraft and Dick Meyers both filed on Dec. 1...

By Ben Holman Nevada Daily Mail On Monday, the USDA announced that Asian soybean rust was discovered in Missouri. The samples with the spores were collected in the two southeasternmost counties in the state, Pemiscot and New Madrid, by University of Missouri Extension scientists. On Monday, the USDA Plant Germplasm and Biotechnology Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., confirmed the presence of rust on the samples...

Standing by an ironing board donated by local artist Gail Wilson, Gwen Jones holds some of the non-perishable food the local Farm Bureau is taking to the Missouri State Farm Bureau annual meeting to be donated to Ronald McDonald Houses around the state...

A dump truck overturned, spilling its load of dirt and blocking the roadway, on K Highway about 6 miles east of Nevada, just before 3 p.m., Wednesday. There were no injuries reported at the scene. No further information was available as of press time today...

100 years ago: Oldest settler of Vernon County dies W.M. Summers who died recently at his home near Metz was one of the oldest citizens of Vernon County and had resided in this county longer than any man in the county. For many years he attended the annual meeting of the Old Settlers association at Lake Park and his presence was always one of the features of the meetings. ...

By Joe Warren Nevada Daily Mail The Cottey Comets were on the road Wednesday in Iola, Kan., but judging by the way they played, never really left Nevada. The Comets turned the ball over a season-high 30 times and enhanced that by shooting 32 percent from the field as they lost to Allen County Community College, 59-37...

Nevada Daily Mail Northeast Vernon County beat Sheldon in boys basketball Tuesday, 81-56. NEVC was led by Jared Taylor's 21 points in the win as the Knights scored 47 points in the second half to pull away. Sheldon was led by Andrew Leavell, who scored 19...

Nevada Daily Mail The Hume Hornets boys basketball team fell fell prey to the outside shooting of Montrose Tuesday as the Hornets lost 57-46. Montrose made five three-pointers compared to only two for the Hornets. Hume led after the first period, taking an 11-8 advantage into the second quarter...

Nevada Daily Mail The Calvary Christian boys got their first victory of the season when they beat Hope Christian 47-44 in Independence, Mo., Tuesday. The boys were led by Tyler Borders, who scored 20 points, had 13 rebounds, four assists and four blocks for the Eagles...

Associated Press The 2004 All-Big 12 teams, followed by the coach and players of the year, as selected by the league's coaches: First-Team Offense Tight end: Bo Scaife, Texas, Sr., Denver, Colo. Offensive line: Jammal Brown, Oklahoma, Sr. Lawton, Okla.; Vince Carter, Oklahoma, Sr. Waco, Texas; Sam Mayes Oklahoma St., Sr., Austintown, Ohio; Justin Blalock, Texas, So. Plano, Texas; Johnathan Scott, Texas, Jr., Dallas...

Nevada Daily Mail The deer harvest totals from the 2004 firearms season were released Wednesday, and while statewide there were a record number of deer taken, in Vernon County the numbers were down. There were 222,329 deer harvested this year, beating the old record set in 2002 by 14,813...

Truth is often unpalatable and "politically incorrect." Anyone to whom the following is unpalatable is invited, not just to object, but to refute it, point by point. There's a saying in the Middle East: "The Arabs will either find a desert or make one." Doubtless the Kurds and the non-Arab Sudanese would agree...

I have a very wise friend who joins me in having a bit of a hearing loss. We were discussing the situation and agreed that people are less patient with another person who has a hearing loss than they are with ones with other minor disabilities. I have written about this before but I am sure every reader doesn't remember every word I have ever written, but this friend gave me another point that I thought was so good I wanted to share it...