Stories from Thursday, December 15, 2005

By Steve Moyer Nevada Daily Mail It's simple, it's inexpensive and you can do it while shopping for groceries -- donate to Ozarks Food Harvest, a food bank serving southwestern Missouri and northern Arkansas, through their check Out Hunger program. Wood's supermarkets have partnered with Ozarks Food Harvest to make it simple to donate. ...

By Afton Bugg Nevada Daily Mail The Vernon County Sheriff's Office is getting brighter lights on its vehicles through a federal law enforcement grant. Earlier this year, the office applied for a block grant to help pay for new emergency lights for all the vehicles, because lights have not been replaced for more than 10 years. Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman said the department has applied for this grant before but has not been successful until now...

Nevada Daily Mail The Nevada City Council will conduct a work session on the city's annual budget, today, at 7 p.m., in the city council chambers, located in the city's public safety building at Ash and Austin. The meeting is open to the public. Additional information about the budget is available from the Nevada city clerk, or online at www.nevadamo.org...

Lukas Higgins, 18 months, isn't quite ready to tell Santa what he wants but Santa assured his parents, Scott and Kari Vincent, that Lukas wouldn't miss out on Christmas. Santa and Mrs. Claus hosted "Snacks with Santa," a holiday open house event offering local citizens refreshments and a visit with Santa, in the lobby at Nevada Regional Medical Center on Wednesday. Mrs. Claus also took time to read a holiday story to listening children...

By Lynn A. Wade Nevada Daily Mail Eager faces glowed as a dozen children inched closer and closer to the woman reading the book. Her animated face drew each of them in, even the youngest of them, if only for a moment at a time. They sat politely, listened to the story and eagerly edged near the reader in a tight bunch...

Story time at the Nevada Public Library offers participating preschool children a chance to hear a story and learn about books and reading, plus a snack and a craft that go along with the monthly theme of the event. This popular event was attended by about a dozen children on Wednesday, who carefully crafted snowmen with hats designed for use as doorknob hangars...

Electa "Lee" Kraus Claflin Palmer passed away on Dec. 13, 2005, at Barone Care Center, after a lengthy illness. She was born Dec. 15, 1914, in Jefferson, Okla., to Roy Hamilton Kraus and Elnora Belle Haws Kraus. Lee graduated from Jefferson High School in 1932, and attended Northwestern Oklahoma State University for two years. ...

Advertisements keep telling us that we need to get busy and finish up our shopping. Every store reminds us how quickly the time will pass between now and the big day. Shoppers have no chance to forget what is coming in just a few days. Buying gifts in these last ten days doesn't worry me. Many of our younger family members prefer their gifts in an envelope and all love the color of green. Of course I try to package it in a little fun gift, but it is no problem...

My family tree has always interested me, mildly, but never to the extent of putting me in that mob that, so we're told, has raised genealogy to the secondmostpopular American pastime. (The first seems to be NASCAR, which I find even harder to imagine.) Already I seemed to know more than most beginning family tree climbers. ...

Nevada Daily Mail Nevada cross country runners Mason Benn (left) and Trevor Hinkle (right) were both awarded honorable mention by the Southwest Cross Country Coaches Association for the 2005 season. Benn, a senior, and Hinkle, a sophomore, were two of 10 honorable mention selections from an area that reaches from West Plains to Nevada...

The first part of this recollection was written while Joe Warren was at Texas Stadium on Dec. 11, waiting for the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Kansas City Chiefs to begin. The second part was written after the game. Here I sit at Texas Stadium, sight of so many meaningful games throughout the years, and I can feel the aura of legends who have played on the turf right before me...

**100 years ago Sheriff R. B. Moore arrests Bill Furguson Sheriff R. B. Moore went to Pleasant Hill, Thursday night on the nine o'clock train and returned home on the early morning train, bringing with him one Bill Furguson, who is charged with felonious assault. It is alleged that Furguson assaulted Officer Seaton who, it will be remembered was struck with a three pound rock and suffered a fracture of three of is ribs...