HARLAN -- Carly Kienast and Justin Schechinger both of Harlan were married at Fresh Encounter Fellowship Church in Harlan on December 6, 2019. The 3:30 p.m. double ring ceremony was performed by Pastor Mike Martin.    Parents of the couple are Mike and Connie Kienast, Harlan; and Debra Schechinger, Harlan; and the late Don Schechinger.
 

HARLAN – Keith Bauer has seen this before, and remembers it well.    It wasn’t a pandemic, but the current effect of a major world and United States economic disruption due to COVID-19 gives him pause and a sense of Déjà vu.    “During World War II, shoes were rationed,” Bauer remembers.  He was a youngster at the time and his parents ran the Harlan shoe store.  His father, Albert Bauer, purchased Walter’s Shoe Store in August of 1926.  “Every

    HARLAN – A group of 69, most of them 9-10 month hourly employees and teachers, crowded in to last week’s Harlan Community Schools Board of Education electronic Zoom meeting to express discouragement with proposed compensation changes beginning next year.    Mindy Shaffer, a 6th grade classroom paraeducator, high school student council advisor and co-middle school show choir director, was the spokesperson for the group, and took the time to

    COUNTY -- Shelby Countians are among the most diligent in responding to the 2020 Census, with 60.5 percent of local residents already submitting the census as of early this week.    The response rate from Shelby County is higher than both state and national averages, but there’s still a ways to go to beat Shelby County’s 76.1 percent response rate from 10 years ago in 2010.    The Census is extremely important, officials say, as the number

 KEARNEY, NEB. -- Senior Kyle Juhl put the finishing touches on a solid four-year men’s basketball career at the University of Nebraska-Kearney this past winter, averaging 8.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game as the Lopers went 16-13 overall and 10-9 in the MIAA.

 INDIANOLA -- For the second straight year, Simpson College men’s basketball senior Kyle Wagner has been named second team All-American Rivers Conference after scoring 15 points a game during the 2019-20 season. Wagner, 6-foot-4 forward, is a 2016 IKM-Manning graduate and the Wolves’ all-time leading scorer. He qualified for the A-R-C All-Academic Team for the second consecutive year, which requires a cumulative GPA of at least 3.50.

 HASTINGS, NEB.

 SIOUX CITY -- RJ Harris was a sophomore team member and Caleb Rasmussen served as a student assistant coach for the 2019-20 Briar Cliff University men’s basketball team, which finished 16-14 overall and 7-13 in the GPAC. Harris, a 6-foot-2 forward, is a 2018 AHSTW graduate. He played most of his minutes for the Chargers’ JV team the last two years but did suit for the varsity this past season.

 FORT DODGE -- Cole Burmeister, a 2019 Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton graduate, was a 5-foot-10 freshman guard this past winter for the Iowa Central Community College men’s basketball team.