This year I am spending the 4th of July holiday in Ukraine. During my long military career I spent countless holidays deployed overseas, but this one is particularly poignant. I have had a chance to see much of the battlefield. The destruction, death and suffering is beyond anything I have ever seen in person. Photographs of Berlin at the end of WWII is the kind of destruction now found in Ukraine. This is not a war with insurgents and irregular guerrilla fighters launching hit-and-run ambushes with roadside bombs like the Taliban or ISIS. This is two very modern, uniformed militaries of countries that are both represented in the United Nations. This is a mechanized, force-on-force, combined arms death match.

How About a Little Tolerance for a Change? News Item: A Subway sandwich customer allegedly shot two employees after he reportedly became angry over too much mayonnaise on his sandwich, police said. One employee died and the other is in critical condition.

Along with the many AHS Alumni Class Floats there were many other entries in the 2022 Alumni Parade held on Saturday, June 25th. The parade started at the East City Park and went down 3rd Street and up Main Street. Leading the parade just behind the American Legion Color Guard was the Ainsworth High School Marching Band.

Husker Meats hosted the first Steers for Students pilot program at their facility in Ainsworth, NE on Wednesday, June 29th. Steers for Students is an educational program geared for the youth of the Sandhills. This program will allow students an educational opportunity to evaluate and grade carcasses of locally grown beef, observe how a packing plant operates and supply their own schools with delicious Sandhills beef.

On Thursday, July 7th, the Ainsworth Chamber of Commerc is promoting a Cruise Night from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. with KBRB Radio serving as DJ for the evening.

The community is invited to roll up a sleeve and answer the call for patients in need by donating blood on Friday, July 8, 2022 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at St. Pius X Catholic Church. Blood donors are lifesaving heroes. At this special blood drive, they also have the chance to help high school seniors earn scholarships through the American Red Cross High School Scholarship Program.