Stories from Wednesday, August 15, 2007

"Osage needs a makeover. That's the commercial gateway to Nevada," Ron Clow, planning director, told members of the Nevada Planning Commission, during their monthly meeting Tuesday evening. That part of town is changing to a more commercial area than the industrial area that it was in the past and it seems appropriate to look at changing the zoning of at least some of the property from manufacturing to commercial, Clow said...

The severe hot weather has at least one benefit for local soybean farmers. It's keeping the soybean aphid population. "When temperatures get up into the 90s, aphids stop reproducing. In most fields, especially across central Missouri, the aphid population is being controlled by both the hot, dry weather and beneficial insects, such as ladybugs" said Wayne Bailey, a University of Missouri entomologist based in Columbia...

Ellie Hanlon gives Devon McHugh pointers on kicking a soccer ball Friday, during the last session of the week-long Challenger Sports Soccer Camp sponsored by Nevada's parks and recreation department. Twenty-year-old Hanlon, Chester, England, said that she plays on her university soccer team as well as on a club team in England, where she is studying sports development and coaching. ...

Dr. Warren Lovinger, along with other members of the school board, join Nevada R-5 administrators in welcoming new teachers into the district at an orientation breakfast meeting Friday. Teachers spent the day in workshops in preparation for the arrival of students tomorrow. ...

The Vernon County Commission met with Billie Curtis to sign the deed and make official the transfer of the property Curtis donated for the construction of a new Vernon County Jail Tuesday morning. Curtis donated 13.17 acres of land for the jail. The donated land includes Mac Boulevard, which until now was not public land. Front row from left: Kelly Brock, Billie Curtis and Bonnie McCord. Back row: Neal Gerster, Amy Henry and Kennon Shaw...

The Nevada High School Lady Tigers volleyball team added a 2006 Southwest Conference championship to the billboard at the NHS gymnasium last season, posting a 7-1 record for the first league crown at Nevada since the 2000 campaign. The Lady Tigers, who finished 18-5 overall, losing to Holden in the district title match, has had a sample of the sweet taste of success...

RIVER FALLS, Wis. -- Larry Johnson is still a holdout and Priest Holmes is still a question mark. That makes Michael Bennett the Kansas City Chiefs' first-string running back, for now. ''Michael's had a good camp,'' coach Herm Edwards said as the team wrapped up training camp on Tuesday. ''He ca 3/4e into camp with the mind-set of wanting to be a part of the offense this year, whether Larry Johnson was here or not. And he needs to be a part of this offense. That's why we brought him in.''...

NEW YORK -- His speed and spunk made him a Hall of Famer. ''Holy cow!'' made Phil Rizzuto famous. Popular as a player and beloved as a broadcaster, the New York Yankees shortstop during their dynasty years of the 1940s and 1950s died Monday night. ''The Scooter'' was 89...

Charles Joseph McHugh, 62, Nevada, passed away suddenly at his home on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2007. Joe was born March 9, 1945, in Greensburg, Pa., to Virgil E. McHugh and Mary Brunot McHugh. He married Connie L. Neill on Jan. 20, 1972, in Versailles, Mo., and she survives of the home...