Back in the day, our high school basketball team used to employ a full-court press when we’d fallen behind. It was mostly a desperation measure toward the end of a game, a frantic effort in hopes that we could suddenly trip up our opponent, and turn a defeat into a victory.

Several months ago, my vehicle started making a funny noise when I was driving down the road. Then, a couple weeks after that, I started to hear another new noise, neither of which sounded like they were indicators of anything good.

Taken from the files of The Wolbach Messenger Ten Years Ago, 2014 On the “Sonny” Side—Considering that spankings are child abuse today, there are several generations that have been involved for the purpose of “attitude adjustment.”

On Friday nights in the fall, I typically don’t have a lot of free time.

A few years back, a lucky tip came my way about an impending immigration raid in O’Neill. I don’t recall a lot of details about what was expected to happen, but the tip was “you’d better be there tomorrow morning.”

Every Wednesday morning, after I manage to wipe the sleep from my eyes, I get up, get ready, and head north—to Albion—to fetch that week’s edition of the newspaper. After a year of making the trip, I practically have every hill and every dale along the route memorized.

The State of Nebraska has more than 200 boards and commissions staffed by professionals and regular citizens.

Each week, usually on Thursday or Friday, but often Saturday or Monday thanks to the current timeliness of the United States Postal Service, I get a slug of mail. From around the area, state, and country, newspapers of all types, sizes, and shapes flow into my mailbox.

Back in the day, the Omaha World-Herald provided me with a company car and the instructions: “drive across the state and find some stories.” It was obviously a more formal command than that, something like “if you like your job, you’ll write something interesting.”

State lawmakers have long since finished their long, seventeen- day special session in Lincoln and headed back home.