Stories from Thursday, January 5, 2006

By Ralph Pokorny Nevada Daily Mail IMPACT Nevada Tourism is getting ready to accept applications for 2006 tourism grants from the city of Nevada. This year the tourism board will have about $14,000 in matching grants to award for local projects. Russ Kemm, tourism board chairman, said during a meeting conducted in city council chambers Tuesday evening, that the city will be advertising the program in the newspaper on Jan. 8, 12 and 15 with a Jan. 20 deadline for submission of applications...

Special to the Daily Mail SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Todd P. Graves, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an El Dorado Springs, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to possessing child pornography. Jason R. Burns, 20, of El Dorado Springs, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard E. Dorr this morning to the charge contained in a July 8, 2005, federal indictment...

By Steve Moyer Nevada Daily Mail The squeeze is on. Budgets all over the state are feeling the one-two punch of fewer grants and increased costs and the Vernon County Sheriff's Office is no exception. Vernon County Presiding Commissioner David Darnold said the sheriff's budget is especially prone to feeling the pinch because it faces mandated outlays over which the sheriff has no control...

By Steve Moyer Nevada Daily Mail During the budget meeting with Sheriff Ron Peckman and the county commissioners, overcrowding at the jail loomed like the proverbial elephant in the room no one was talking about. Having more prisoners than the jail can accommodate means Vernon County is paying other counties to house our prisoners, deputies are taken away from patrol duties and county owned vehicles are accumulating more miles requiring more service...

By Lynn A. Wade Nevada Daily Mail As a new year begins, the Vernon County Arts Council has begun to find new places to exhibit the work of its members and is drawing up plans to raise the money to fund projects and operating expenses. Growing interest in Vernon County Arts Council work has led to exhibits in local businesses. ...

Adam and Lisa Church, Nevada, and Treyton, Kennedy and Ashton, are proud to announce the birth of their daughter and sister, Kirston Alexxus 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...

Helen Anna Byram, 87, Sheldon, Mo., passed away Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2006, at Truman Healthcare and Rehab, Lamar, Mo. She was born Dec. 20, 1918, in Phenix, Mo., to Winford John Cook and Ethel Rosetta Silence Cook. She married Ray Murray in 1938, and he preceded her in death in 1941. Later she married Harry J. Byram on May 15, 1948, and he preceded her in death on May 29, 1983...

The only thing more confusing than changing to a new purse is to move things from an old billfold into a new one. When we lived in Versailles, Mo., in 1984, I bought a new brown purse that had a matching billfold, check holder and memo book. That zippered brown billfold moved into a series of new black purses until in 2005 the zipper finally got stuck to the point that it was unusable. ...

In November the Vernon County Historical Society received the following letter from one John Meurs, of a place called Rueti, Switzerland: "When I was a 9-year-old schoolboy living in Nazi-occupied Holland a B-17 bomber of the 8th U.S. Air Force crashed behind our house in the village called Apeldoorn. That was Nov. 26, 1944...

Explosion in a mine believed deadly BLUEFIELDS, W.VA. -- 21 miners in the Coaldale company's shaft in Coaldale, W.Va., were probably instantly killed by an explosion that took place there about noon yesterday. There were three white men and 18 black entombed and no hope is held out that any of them escaped death...

Nevada Daily Mail The Nevada Youth Wrestling Club took 18 members to a tournament in Belton Dec. 31, and 12 earned medals. Sam Ellifrits won his division, while Hunter Mason, Coy Starlin, Skyler Scotten, Zane Shepherd, Jacob Johnson and Zach Shepherd each placed second...

By Andrea Adelson AP Sports Writer NEW YORK -- Herman Edwards is close to becoming the next Chiefs coach. Kansas City and the Jets discussed a compensation package for Edwards on Wednesday, a person close to the situation said. Another person familiar with the negotiations said the talks were almost completed...

By Ralph D. Russo AP Sports Writer PASADENA, Calif. -- Vince Young bounced on his toes, trying to buy himself some time and searching frantically for a way to win a championship. And then he took off. With the national title down to a final play, fourth down and 5 yards to go, Young scrambled untouched for an 8-yard touchdown with 19 seconds left and the No. 2 Longhorns stunned No. 1 Southern California 41-38 in the Rose Bowl on Wednesday night...