Stories from Saturday, December 3, 2011

For more than two decades, the Vernon County Ambulance District has been making Christmas brighter for children and families in Nevada and Vernon County. According to VCAD director James McKenzie, the group has "helped more than 8,400 kids since beginning" the toy drive 24 years ago. That's 350 local children getting presents every year...

Area fire personnel responded early Friday morning to two separate fires on property located on 255th Street and U.S. Highway 54 east of Fort Scott near the Kansas-Missouri state line. Scott Township Rural Fire Chief Eric McKay said the call about a fire at 1277 255th St. and a separate blaze in a barn located about 150 feet away from the house came in about 3 a.m. Friday. Both structures are owned by Steve Powell...

A Nevada man whose career combines law and industrial-organizational psychology has received a national award for his work in leadership consulting with companies and government agencies. Jeffrey P. "Jeff" Feuquay accepted the Stephen E. Bemis Award Aug. 18 in Washington from four groups he has often worked with -- the Western Region Intergovernmental Personnel Assessment Council, Northern and Southern California Personnel Testing Councils and Mid-Atlantic Personnel Assessment Consortium...

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Jim Brown is trying a different approach with his holiday light display this year. For several years, Brown, an electrician who lives at 13 S. Margrave, had a pretty ordinary static Christmas light display in his front yard, but this year he is changing all of that and has decided to go with something more animated and musical...

The six-member Missouri Court of Appeals panel to which state House and Senate redistricting had fallen issued its maps Friday, expanding state Rep. Barney Fisher's 125th District and changing it to the 126th, moving Warrensburg Republican Sen. David Pearce's 31st District north and assigning Vernon County to Sen. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, in the redrawn 28th Senatorial District...

Tigers will play for third place at Carthage Invite

Tigers fall to Webb City, will play for third today at CJ Classic

Nevada Daily Mail The Nevada High School boys basketball team knocked off Rogers Heritage 66-62 in the third place game of the Carthage Invitational on Saturday. With his team trailing by one, Nevada's Joseph Ferry hit a three-pointer with 15 seconds left to put the Tigers in front for good...

Elizabeth Jensen and Kyle Coatney exchanged wedding vows on Aug. 20, 2011, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Boulder, Colo. An outdoor reception followed at the Red Lion Restaurant, in Boulder. Parents of the bride are Penny and Ronald Jensen, Naperville, Ill. Parents of the groom are Kathy Yokley, Bronaugh, Mo., the late Jim Coatney, and the late Roy Yokley, stepfather...

Justin Ingram and Tiffany Fanning exchanged wedding vows Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Parents of the bride are Sherry Bell and Wayne Anderson, of Belton, Mo., and Jeff Fanning, of Nevada. Parents of the groom are Troy Higgins and Elizabeth Ingram, both of Oklahoma...

William Henry "Bill" and Carol Ann (Elliott) Poole, of Grants Pass, Ore., observed their 54th wedding anniversary on Monday, Nov. 21, 2011. The couple were married at the First Christian Church in Grants Pass in 1957. Mrs. Poole, a former Nevada resident, graduated from Nevada High School in 1954 and moved to Oregon, where she met and married her husband. The couple have four sons and four grandchildren, two boys and two girls...