June 2022

Leighton Whipple of Nebraska City was one of 208 students named to the spring 2022 dean's list at Marshalltown Community College. Whipple maintained a 4.0 grade point average during the semester.

Otoe County residents ages 16 and up are invited to participate in this year’s Open Class “Janky to Swanky Contest.” Participants must purchase or find an old, ugly, or useless item (maximum cost $10) that can be moved by one person. That item needs to be brought to the Fair Center in Syracuse at 7 p.m.

Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) opened nominations this week for the 2022 Angels in Adoption Award for Nebraska’s Third District. Angels in Adoption, a project of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, provides Members of Congress the opportunity to honor an individual or entity from their districts for extraordinary contributions on behalf of children in need of homes.

Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) is currently accepting applications for the 2022-2023 Third District Youth Advisory Council and encourages high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors to submit their applications by July 15th.

Man arrested following weekend shooting in Peru One person has been arrested following an investigating into a shooting that occurred June 18 in Peru. Saturday evening, the Nemaha County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a shooting incident that occurred in the 1200 block of 6th street in Peru.

According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol is the most widely used substance of abuse among American youth. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2018 found that nearly 30 percent of teens have had at least one alcoholic drink by the age of 15 and 58 percent had consumed at least one drink by the time they turned 18. Those figures are in spite of the legal drinking age being 21 across all of the United States. Perhaps most troubling was that more than seven million young people between the ages of 12 and 20 acknowledged having more than "just a few sips" of alcohol in the month prior to the survey being taken in 2018. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even notes that youths between the ages of 12 and 20 account for 11 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States. It's important that adults do not downplay the significance of underage youths consuming alcohol, as the CDC estimates that, on average, alcohol is a factor in the deaths of more than 4,300 young people under the age of 21 every year.

Blue Rivers Area Agency on Aging has released the July lunch menu,. The menu for next week is as follows: Friday, July 1: Cook’s choice.

Get out your dirndl and lederhosen! GermanFest will be Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, on the Otoe County Fairgrounds.

First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Nebraska City is again preparing to collect school supplies for the church's Backpack Program. The church served almost 200 students in the community last year, and demand is even higher this year, according to program organizers. Supplies are being collected in two ways through July 13: First, businesses can sign up to collect school supplies and can compete with other businesses. Interested businesses can email firstlutheranoutreach@gmail.com or leave a message at 402-873-5424 to arrange delivery of a supply collection box. The business that collects the most supplies will receive a trophy and bragging rights. The second collection method involves people bringing supplies to the Community Supply Drive from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 13, in the church parking lot at 315 S. 16th St.