Tribute to Jerry Alberts      

A light has gone out of our lives when Jerry Alberts passed to his reward last Saturday.

Jerry was a very special person. He was caring, compassionate and giving of his time whenever he was needed. His love for children is well-known.

Jerry was a hero to many kids who now have families of their own. From his basketball career to his stint in the Navy, Jerry was always steadfast. He could calm a storm between people just by entering a room; he could salve a hurt just by his demeanor and make you know that everything was going to be all right. If you knew Jerry Alberts, you knew that that is what a real man was like.

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In the over 50 years that I have known Jerry, I have yet to meet anyone who had a bad word to say about him.

In the past many years, I have not had a chance to spend much time with Jerry, but I know that I will miss him terribly, as will all those who knew and loved him.

Donald Weindorf

Weeping Water, Nebr.

(posted Jan. 22, 2004)

["Community mourns the loss of a well-known citizen"]

[Obituary]

Youth visit tobacco vendors      

Letter to the editor:

On Dec. 8, 2003, high school students from the REALITY Illinois Teen Coalition of Logan County participated in a project, Operation Storefront, where we visited 15 tobacco vendors in Lincoln to learn about tobacco advertising in Logan County. We would like to thank the stores that participated and helped us learn about tobacco advertising. Thanks to Thornton's, Qik-n-EZ, Quick Way Foods, Green Oil Co., Apollo Mart, IGA, Fifth Street Food Market, Casey's, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS Pharmacy, Ayerco Convenience Center, Clark, Discount Tobacco.

In the four years that this project has been done, we have seen less and less tobacco advertising in the Logan County businesses. We see more and more anti-tobacco warnings in the stores. Thank you. We are pleased to see that most stores have cigarettes behind the counter. But how about putting chewing tobacco and cigars behind the counter also?

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We appreciate all the businesses that are trying to prevent youth access to tobacco. Tobacco companies are spending $190 every second to get youth to smoke! Logan County businesses care about us!

Chris Podunajec, Kaylee Carnahan, Kristen Fleshman, Kristan Aue, Chuck Allen, Sarah Nelson, Alexandrea E. Davis (REALITY Illinois Teen Coalition of Logan County)

Marcia Dowling, Erin O'Grady (Logan County Health Department)

(posted Jan. 20, 2004)

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Future journalist analyzes community and paper      

Hello,

My name is Laura Tailby and I am a student at the University of Richmond in Virginia. I have been monitoring your paper for the past few weeks for a journalism class I am enrolled in at school. We are supposed to observe a few papers daily to see just how good they are.

I noticed that most of the top local stories are usually on a happier note. Do you prefer to put stories in the paper that will make the community happy and ignore the stories of crime that might upset them? Or is your community truly one of the better ones?

I think you have a really good paper here, and I was just wondering if there was anything you would like someone to know who has been paying such close attention to your work.

Hope you are having a wonderful holiday!

Thanks so much,

Laura Tailby

(Delayed posting)

Ed. note: Misplaced e-mail

(posted Jan. 17, 2004)

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Where'd the games go?      

To the editor:

I used to access the radio broadcast of Lincoln Railer basketball from your site.

I haven't found the link available for this current basketball season. Does the radio station have its own Web page??? Or how does one go about accessing the Internet broadcast of Lincoln Railer basketball?

I lived in Lincoln for 10 years but now live outside the broadcast range of FM-96.

T. Pogue

(posted Jan. 17, 2004)