Stories from Sunday, January 1, 2006

By Nancy Malcom Herald-Tribune Harwood, Mo. -- The Harwood Helpers Club is disbanding after more than 73 years of service to their community. The club was organized August 1932, with 21 founding members. As of December 2005, there are only seven members remaining in the club. Today's members range in age from 21 to 86 so it wasn't a typical decline by attrition -- the numbers have dwindled due to the ill health of some of the members and other commitments...

By Michael Glover Herald-Tribune FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- The Kansas Department of Transportation recently approved two applications from the city to possibly improve traffic flow of two heavily traveled areas leading into Fort Scott. The city is requesting assistance to improve the intersection of U.S. Highway 69 and Kansas Highway 7 and a section of road on 18th Street just west of National Avenue...

Herald-Tribune Nevada, Mo. -- Stephen J. Byers, a 1977 graduate of Nevada High School, has penned a novel, "What Was Lost," imagining the special emotional and physical challenges that must have beset Noah and his family during the biblical story of the Great Flood and the journey of the ark...

By Jason E. Silvers Herald-Tribune Fort Scott, Kan. -- Feeling a little light in the checkbook? Sitting at home cutting up credit cards? After Christmas, millions of Americans who overspent during the holiday season may be singing the post-holiday blues...

Note spending. For a month, ask family members to track purchases. Write down all expenses. Sharpen budgets. Armed with spending data, calculate how much each person in the household spends each month in all categories, including groceries, entertainment, utilities, housing and automobile. Then, compare the total of these expenses to your monthly income. Spending may need to be reduced in some areas...

Adam and Lisa Church, Nevada, and Treyton, Kennedy and Ashton, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter and sister, Kirston Allexxus Church. Kirston was born at 6:01 p.m., Dec. 27, 2005, at St. Luke's Hospital, Kansas City. She weighed 9 pounds, 1 ounce, and measured 19.5 inches...

Arline Higgins Winship, 62, Nevada, Mo., passed away Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005, at her home in Nevada following a sudden illness. She was born May 7, 1943, in Fort Scott, Kan., to Charley Edgar Higgins and Jennie Victoria Tucker Higgins. She married David Dean Winship on June 26, 1976, in Nevada. He preceded her in death on Nov. 18, 2005...

It's getting harder in today's world to figure out what's good and what's bad. Most recently, there has been plenty of press about the greenhouse effect and the warming that is going on. There are dire predictions about the ice caps melting, the oceans rising on the coast, and flooding of the low-lying areas. There have been stories about animals and plants moving to higher elevations, but other scientists say it is all a series of cycles and that the earth has been through this before...

Hi neighbors. Another year has ended and obviously enough another one has begun. 2005 was one second longer at the last minute than anticipated by most of us; so I hope you enjoyed the moment, er, second. It doesn't seem like a year ago that we were making all those resolutions does it? I had hardly begun on mine before it's time to stop (thank goodness!) and start something new...

"The crisis we've created With our self-indulgent ways Living like there's no tomorrow Well that might just be the case" When singer Dan Fogelberg wrote "Blind to the Truth" in 1990, it seemed that environmentalists and business interests were locked in hostile mutual incomprehension...

**Shop with a Cop a success because of community support Dear editor: We would like to thank the following organizations for helping our Chapter to have another successful year for our SHOP WITH A COP program. This year our Chapter helped to provide seven families in need with Christmas gifts they may otherwise not have...

By Joe Warren Herald-Tribune NEVADA, Mo. -- He's passionate and fierce, yet calm and resolute. One minute he's talking quietly to an assistant in a whisper of a voice, only to erupt moments later with a furor that can make an entire gym cringe. His name is John McNeley, and he's the head coach of the Nevada Tiger boys basketball team...

On a duck hunt last week, I was reminded just how good and valuable a hunting dog can be. Over the past 50 years I have hunted with all kinds of dogs from Ray Heady's Hard Head Irish setter, to the latest black Lab, Duke. In between I have been afield with some good to great dogs and a number of dogs that I wished had been left in their kennels...

By Joe Warren Herald-Tribune It's the week you've all been waiting for, my last set of NFL picks. With Week 17 also could come the end of the season for the two teams I root for, the Dallas Cowboys and the Kansas City Chiefs. As a fan, you can't ask for much more than a meaningful game from your team the last week of the regular season. Sure you'd much rather be looking forward to the playoffs, but you also don't want to be just playing out the string...

By Doug Tucker AP Sports Writer KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- As usual, Cincinnati goes into the last game of the regular season with little to play for. What's unusual -- downright rare -- is why. At stake against Kansas City is not whether the normally downtrodden Bengals will head for the golf course the minute the season concludes, but if they'll be a No. 3 or 4 seed in the AFC playoffs...

A while back, when I started reading the biography "Rocky Marciano, The Rock of his Times," it suddenly dawned on me that for the first time in my life I had no idea who is heavyweight champion. For the first time I really began to wonder what ever became of boxing, possibly the world's oldest true sport...

The children and spouses of Harold and Lucille Shumaker, life-long residents of Nevada, will host an open house Jan. 1, from 2 to 4 p.m., at Super 8's meeting room in Nevada, to celebrate the 65th wedding anniversary of their parents. All are welcome; omission of gifts is requested...

Ronnie Estes and Denny (Edmunds) Estes celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in December. The couple, both from Kansas City, Mo., were married Dec. 20, 1980, in Nevada. He is the owner of Ron's Auto Repair. Their children are Tammy Edmunds, Cheryl Edmunds, Sheena Estes and Deanna Estes. Their grandchildren are Chelsie, Kadessa, Brandon, Amanda, Alecia, Braxton, Coleen, Ashlynd and Nathaniel...

Vic and Margie Wolf, Nevada, are pleased to announce the engagement and upcoming marriage of their daughter, Chrystie Lyn Wolf to Joel Christopher Braden, son of Terry and Jeannette Braden, Raymore, Mo. Miss Wolf is the granddaughter of Mary Schuster, Nevada, and the late Richard Schuster and the late Donald and Anna Mae Wolf. Mr. Braden is the grandson of Frances Braden, Chillicothe, Mo., and the late John Braden and Virgina Merhoff Norborne, Mo., and Robert Kleoppel, Versailes, Mo...

Herald-Tribune The Rev. and Mrs. Duane McCracken will host a come-and-go reception celebrating the marriage of Lindsay Nikodym and Clark McCracken. Open to all, the reception will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006, at the First Baptist Church, 123 Scott Ave., Fort Scott...