Stories from Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Nevada Daily Mail JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Sen. Chris Koster, R-Harrisonville, this week was appointed by Sen. President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, to serve on the nine-member Senate Committee on Commerce, Energy and the Environment. The committee is responsible for overseeing legislation dealing with regulatory matters, consumer protection, food and drug safety. ...

Nevada Daily Mail The Southwest Missouri All-District Junior High Honors Bands will present a free concert on Saturday, Jan. 14, at 7 p.m., in the Joplin High School auditorium. The concert will feature the seventh and eighth grade honor bands, with about 200 band students from more than 20 middle schools and junior highs in southwestern Missouri...

Nevada Daily Mail The city of Sheldon plans to finalize its 2006 budget during a meeting set for 7 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 12, at Sheldon City Hall, 100 W. Main St., Sheldon. Also on the agenda are routine approvals of minutes and the treasurer's report, a city maintenance and utility report, and miscellaneous citizen hearings...

Nevada Daily Mail Vernon County Commissioners met with representatives of the Missouri Department of Transportation on Tuesday, regarding MoDOT's bridge inspection schedule. Presiding Commissioner David Darnold said that bridge inspections are required every two years...

Nevada Daily Mail The Vernon County jurisdiction of the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program has been chosen to receive $10,000 to supplement emergency food and shelter programs in the area. The award is based on the local rate of unemployment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the most current 12-month period and poverty statistics from the 2000 census...

By Lynn A. Wade Nevada Daily Mail Judge Jerry McBeth had an important message for a tough crowd -- third through fifth graders in the Look Before You Leap club at Truman Elementary. Founded by Sandy Gilmore and Tricia Brandt, the after-school club aims to promote a drug-free lifestyle to elementary school student, so McBeth's presentation focused on the dangers of not saying 'no' to drugs...

Elva G. Semler, 87, Mercer, Pa., died Saturday, Jan. 7, 2006, at Woodland Place Nursing Home, Mercer, Pa. She was born Oct. 17, 1918, in Kansas City, Kan., to Samuel R. Barker and Pearl E. Bixby Barker. She was married to John F. Semler who preceded her in death on Dec. 3, 1997...

Violet Elizabeth Carroll, 82, Rich Hill, Mo., died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006, at Moore-Few Care Center, Nevada, Mo., following a lengthy illness. She was born May 29, 1923, in Rich Hill, to Henry Leslie Bledsoe and Nettie Wyrick Bledsoe. She married Joseph Fay Carroll on Dec. 12, 1945, in Fort Scott, Kan. He preceded her in death in 1969...

Mary Lou Brown, 91, of Meadowlark Retirement Community in Manhattan, Kan., and formerly of Nevada, Mo., died Monday, Jan. 9, 2006, in Manhattan. Mrs. Brown was born near Oxford, Miss., on Oct. 13, 1914, to Robert Lee Williams and Vester Catherine Butts Williams. She was married to Robert Brown, a former Nevada High School teacher, who preceded her in death...

Margaret Church, 86, Rich Hill, Mo., died Jan. 10, 2006, at Willow Lane Care Center, Butler, Mo. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m., Friday, Jan. 13, at Heuser Funeral Home, Rich Hill, with family receiving friends Friday, 1-2 p.m., with burial in the Carbon Center Cemetery, Rich Hill...

Ruth Mendenhall, Nevada, Mo., died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006, at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Shawnee Mission, Kan. Family information and funeral arrangements will be announced later by Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada.

Patricia Woodfill, Nevada, Mo., died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006, at St. Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, Mo. Family information and funeral arrangements will be announced later by Ferry Funeral Home, Nevada.

A question that is common among those on Medicare is, "Which prescription plan have you selected? A cartoon in the Kansas City Star Sunday illustrated the thoughts of many Medicare beneficiaries. It showed a maze with the words Medicare System on the first wall. In the midst of the maze, someone is calling out, "Hello? Anybody?"...

Eight persons lose their lives in hotel fire MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Eight persons are dead from suffocation or from leaping from windows and a score of people were more or less injured as the result of a fire in the West hotel early yesterday morning...

By Joe Warren Nevada Daily Mail NEVADA, Mo. -- The Nevada Lady Tigers played all but 45 seconds without leading scorer Afton Baldwin, but got a career game from Lindsay Rice and key play from Amanda Wilson as they held off the Webb City Lady Cardinals Tuesday, 50-42...

By Joe Warren Nevada Daily Mail NEVADA, Mo. -- With six minutes to play in the game, Nevada trailed Webb City 45-31, and the game appeared to be locked up. The Tigers had given one of their worst performances of the season -- particularly in the first half -- and the Cardinals had taken it to them...

By Joe Warren Nevada Daily Mail HARRISONVILLE, Mo. -- The Nevada Tigers won their third consecutive dual by beating Harrisonville Tuesday, 42-35. The Tigers fell into a 29-0 hole, only to bounce back, getting pins from their final five wrestlers of the match to earn the victory...