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Madison Gambill is the Sand Painters Art Club Artist of the Month for January 2026. Madison shares her art story: It was 2019 and I was in my ninth semester of college and I was so tired of homework filling up just about every evening of my life. I specifically remember turning to my friend Keegan and saying, “I can’t wait til we graduate and never have to do homework again. I want to find a hobby to get into. I think painting would be cool, I could see myself doing that.”

30 years ago From Midland News, January 3, 1996 High scoring Nick Larsen led the Valentine team with 23 points during the first game of the Rangeland Holiday Tournament against O’Neill. Larsen scored 23 points in the game, December 29 and then scored 11 points in the Consolation Championship against West Holt.

As we enter the new year, it’s a good time to look back on how 2025 treated our forage and grazing systems, and begin planning ahead for the 2026 growing season. Much of Nebraska saw variable moisture in 2025.

LINCOLN, NE~January 5, 2026 The goal of the GreatPlants for the Great Plains program is to assist gardeners in their quest to discover new or overlooked plants that deserve to be planted more. The 2026 GreatPlants of the Year were voted on by members of the Nebraska Nursery & Landscape Association (NNLA) -represented by nursery professionals, landscape designers and horticulture educators.

With leaves off and grasses dormant, late fall and winter can be an effective time to get ahead of brush in pasture and rangeland. However, it’s important to recognize that control options are more limited with plants not actively growing. That means foliar herbicide treatments aren’t an option.

LINCOLN, NE, January 6— The 41st Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference will be held February 25–27, 2026, at the Younes Conference Center South, 416 Talmadge St., in Kearney. The event will kick off with a preconference session, “Leveraging Livestock Insurance for Stability and Success.” The in-depth session will begin at 1:00 p.m.

NORTHPLATTE,NE––Ahandson workshop will be held Monday, January 19, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the West Central Research, Extension and Education Center to help landowners and producers tackle the spread of cedar trees.

RAPID CITY, SD, Dec. 22, 2025 – Santa brought an early Christmas gift to Black Hills Life Flight air medical service—an upgraded PC-12/47 NG fixed wing plane! Based in Rapid City, the crew will use this asset to transport patients needing to go farther distances for higher-level medical care or in weather conditions unsuitable for the program’s helicopters in Rapid City and Hot Springs.

For many past years, I have yet to follow through with New Year’s resolutions and like most of you, they usually entail losing weight, getting in better physical shape, adhere to a budget, and the usual things we all intend to do. One thing that tops my list each year is to clean my basement and “thin out” a lot of excess items. As you can imagine, none of this gets done and year after year my resolutions are repeated to no avail. With the help of a thing called fate, or perhaps just bad luck, one continued resolution got fulfilled.

Lincoln, NE — A confirmed measles case in Platte County has been reported to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. The patient is an unvaccinated child with an out-of-state travel history in Arizona. Due to privacy, no further individual information will be provided. Individuals present at the following public locations on the indicated dates and times may have been exposed to measles and should visit and fill out the risk assessment survey at the following link: https://epi-dhhs.ne.gov/redcap/ surveys/?s=CHAJNT3C9L9NEEY3