Stories from Sunday, March 26, 2006

Fort Scott, Kan. -- The Fort Scott Community College Board of Trustees is scheduled to hear reports on the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity, the Marais des Cygnes Basin, and other items during their regular meeting on Monday. During the meeting at the FSCC Heritage Room, 2108 S. ...

Fort Scott, Kan. -- The city of Fort Scott has drafted a development agreement with a California-based real estate company to redevelop properties damaged by last year's fire, but uncertainly surrounds the agreement, as well as the relationship between city officials and the chief developer...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Matt Blunt announced that President Bush has approved 27 Missouri Counties to be added to the federal disaster declaration for Individual Assistance. "Missouri families are still recovering from the loss of life, property and treasured processions caused by the outbreak of severe weather." Blunt said. "I am pleased that President Bush has expanded the availability of federal assistance to more Missourians as they continue to put their lives back together."...

Fort Scott, Kan. -- Salvation Army worker takes down the Salvation Army Family Store sign as the street filled with cars of final shoppers. The store has one week until it closes and all its items are sent to other stores. The popular store has been a part of Fort Scott for the last 20 years...

Nevada, Mo. -- The drama continues to unfold as to allegations relating to the dumping of cats by the city of Nevada, allegedly trapping and releasing them in the Four Rivers Conservation Area, north of Nevada. Local citizens -- among them a city dispatcher -- alleged Wednesday, during a gathering of citizens who came to council chambers to find doors locked and the previously scheduled council meeting cancelled, that the city's animal control officer, Matt Russell, has been releasing cats at that site on a regular basis.. ...

Nevada, Mo. -- A group of local aviators affiliated with the Air and Military Museum of the Ozarks in Springfield has a 1943 L-3B-AE Aeronca Grasshopper at the Nevada Airport. Designated as a liaison plane the aircraft was used for several duties. The plane is the military version of the Aeronca Model 65 "Defender."...

Jack D. Clawson, 75, Leawood, Kan., passed away on Thursday, March 23, 2006. He was president and owner of Digital Electronic Machines, Inc., manufacturer of computer peripheral equipment, a company he founded in 1963, in Kansas City, and continued to operate until his illness made it no longer feasible...

A lot has been said about "the power of one," and, on the other hand, a lot of people think what they do doesn't count or doesn't make a difference. A friend, who lives in the country on Second Street, was scheduled to have company more than a year ago. As he was driving out of his place, he said to himself, "This roadside sure looks trashy." So, prior to the company arriving, he gathered up a trashbag and cleaned up the roadside from his house back to the Marmaton River bridge...

Currently, most general histories of the Civil War on the Kansas-Missouri Border state that the "Jayhawkers" were normally from Kansas and the "Bushwhackers" were from Missouri. However, recent research indicates that there were "Civilian Jayhawkers" living in Missouri who were not loyal to the United States and were attacked, captured and killed by Union soldiers! These "Civilian Jayhawkers" were outlaws who robbed, plundered and murdered both Union and Confederate civilians. ...

Have you ever sat straight up in bed in the early hours of the morning, or been riding your bike around a big lake, or been waiting for a bus, when, all of a sudden, you wondered, "Hey, I wonder however X is these days? I haven't seen him in a coon's age; he must be getting on in years; I hope he's feeling OK." I never used to have these questions suddenly burst upon my consciousness, but I'm now 66, and whenever I have them, and they're coming to me more frequently now than they did about thirty years ago, I take them very seriously, want to make sure my old and dear friends are still chugging along.. ...

Hi neighbors. We've all heard about urban myths, but there are other myths that are perpetuated from generation to generation just like superstitions. Recently I found a website that dealt with some of these myths and gave the scientific rebuttal to them...

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Fort Scott High School's baseball team qualified for the Class 4A State Tournament last season with a lot of young faces. In fact of the 32 players out this season, just two are seniors. It's a junior-dominated team -- yet one that still has a good amount of varsity experience -- that will take the field Monday when the Tigers take on Nevada in a varsity/junior varsity doubleheader at Lions Field on the campus of Fort Scott Community College. ...

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Fort Scott High School softball coach Karen Curran has the same goal for her Tigers going into this season as she did last season, when her team won its last 16 games of the season to win the Kansas Class 4A State Tournament. "We've never had the goal in my 13 years here to be the state champion," Curran said after Thursday afternoon's practice. ...

NEVADA, Mo. -- Track and field season always has an unknown quality to it. Even coaches don't know who will suddenly find a niche, or who will unexpectedly bust out and begin to excel. The Tigers are no different. While they do have some known strengths, the unknown weaknesses are hard to gauge...

Another day. Another era. I guess it's time for me to come to grips with the undeniable fact that the Kansas City I once loved is the Kansas City of my mind and memory. It is gone, never to return. I find it a pity that an entire generation has grown up with no knowledge of how it used to be...

"Hey Daddy, is this one?" 7-year-old Donald Barnett asked his father while hunting for mushrooms this week near Truman Lake. Jack Barnett, Donald's father, took a quick look and smiled. "You just found the first morel mushroom of the season," he told his son. "Take me to where you found it."...

Kyle Nelson announces the engagement and approaching marriage of his parents, Ashley Beisley and Joshua Nelson, of Nevada. The bride-elect is the daughter of Cathy Beisley of Nevada and the late Mark Beisley. She is a 2002 graduate of Nevada High School and is currently employed by Cash and Dash II...

Fay and Edith (Main) LaFarge will celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary on March 29. They were married in Butler, Mo., on March 29, 1941. Two years after they married, Fay served in the Air Force in World War II for three years. He was stationed in Guam. He returned home and they started farming, and did so until their retirement. They remain at their present farm, as they have for the last 49 years...

Lonnie Loren Engle and Joan Doris Rackley were married April 2, 1961, at the home of Jim and Elizabeth Brown in Nevada Mo. The Engle children asks that friends and family join them as they celebrate "Mom and Dad's" 45th anniversary at the Liberal Community Building on April 2, from 2 to 5 p.m...