America is grappling a difficult legacy. Our society was built by the blood and sweat of slaves, on land previously occupied by Native Americans. When we won independence, only white male property owners were fully enfranchised. Enslaved peoples were not fully counted under the constitution. Married women had no legal identity.

It has been a very busy week here at the Legislature. My office holds many responsibilities that require my attention and input on. One of the issues on the forefront is the continuing presence of Covid and the fact that many things need to be tweaked this year to try and accommodate safety concerns and social distancing.

On Thursday, January 14 at approximately 10:00 p.m., the Bartley fire department was paged to Road 710 six miles south of Bartley. A power line from a shop building had broken in the wind, arc’d and started corn stubble and pasture ground on fire. Combined with high winds of over 5o mph, mutual aid was called in from Indianola, Cambridge, Red Willow Western, Wilsonville, Beaver City and Beaver Valley.

ARAPAHOE - After interviewing two different interim superintendent candidates at a special meeting Monday, the Arapahoe Board of Education offered a one-year contract to Brian Gegg, who most recently served as the superintendent at Shelton Public Schools from 2016 until last June.

CAMBRIDGE - The Cambridge girls basketball team began to pull away from the Southwest Roughriders in the two teams’ annual regular season showdown, but the Roughriders were not going to have it. The Roughriders closed out Friday’s contest on a 23-7 run to erase a 10-point deficit and leave town with a 39-33 victory.

Arapahoe and Cambridge competed in the Dundy Country Stratton on Jan. 8. Cambridge earned 132 points to finish in second behind McCook with 187.5 points. Arapahoe was fourth in 107 points with Sutherland finished third with 120.5 points. The other competing teams, respectively, were Brady, 105; Medicine Valley, 97.5; Wauneta-Palisade, 38; Dundy County Stratton, 30; and Paxton, 7.

SUMNER - A pair of big first quarters for the Hi-Line boys basketball team’s opponents last week led to losses for the Bulls against both Maywood-Hayes Center and Sumner-Eddyville-Miller. Tuesday, MHC put up 23 points in the opening quarter and 16 more in the second en route to building a 39-28 halftime lead, one the Wolves coasted on to a 75-63 victory.

SUMNER - Taking on some of the best teams in the region, the Hi-Line girls basketball team dropped a pair of contests last week to one-loss foes, falling 61-30 at Maywood-Hayes Center on Tuesday and 49-29 at Sumner-Eddyville-Miller on Thursday.