The 108th Nebraska Legislature’s first session was by all accounts historic and sometimes chaotic. The continual disruptions did not deter us from accomplishing a lot for Nebraskans. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be highlighting and breaking down the bills we were able to pass and what they mean for Nebraskans, starting first with our income and property tax packages.

“Let your fiction grow out of the land beneath your feet,” Willa Cather once wrote. The famed literary artist first came to Nebraska at the age of nine, when her family settled in Webster County. Years later, she refl ected on what it was like to first step foot in our great state.

Every summer when I was a kid, we would make the five-plus hour drive to a farm northwest of Benkelman to spend a week with my grandparents, Don and Betty. The Browns were scripted creatures of habit and routine and at such and such a time each day, my grandpa would go out to gather eggs from the chickens.

In a single word, yes. Our first teeth are important in so many ways. They require just as much attention and love as our permanent teeth. Not to mention that beginning with good habits is the best way for anyone to maintain those healthy habits.

Betsy Hoxmeier has retired after teaching at Southern Valley Elementary for the last time in the 2022-2023 school year. The educator was recently recognized with a plaque in May for her combined 36 years of teaching at both Southern Valley and Orleans public schools.

A great weekend at Turkey Days in Oxford.

The Medicine Creek Reservoir is no longer on Health Alert from the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy following weekly water testing results. Samples from June 5 show that the reservoir only 93 parts per million of E.

Medicine Creek Days will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Medicine Creek Dam on June 16-18 with many activities. Friday will start with the TVHS Health Fair from 7-9 a.m.

Sharon DeeAnne (Guthrie Sughroue) Deon, a longtime resident of Indianola, Nebraska, passed away on February 1, 2023 at Community Hospital in McCook after a short hospital stay. She was 82 years of age.

Nancy R. Aden, of Gothenburg, Nebraska, passed away at home surrounded by her family on June 2nd, 2023.