A Hobby That Grew: Bergman’s Love for Quilting By Emily Bontrager      Every March, National Craft Month celebrates crafters and their unique talents. One local crafter who has spent decades perfecting her skill is Barbie Bergman, 78, who lives south of Kahoka, Missouri. She first started quilting in 1980 as a hobby, and it soon grew into much more. “My sister-in-law, Sharon, had gotten a quilt for Christmas, and it fascinated me how they quilted it with a machine. We got the name of the lady that did the quilting. We went up to see her, and she gave me the…

Middle school students tested their engineering skills during the Math Club’s Spaghetti Bridge Contest held March 4, 2026. Students spent the past two months designing and building bridges made primarily from spaghetti in preparation for the competition. The goal was to create a bridge capable of holding the greatest amount of weight while meeting strict design specifications. Bridges could only be constructed at school using spaghetti that could be carved, notched, steamed, boiled or curved. Glue was the only other material allowed. Each bridge also had to meet specific weight and dimension restrictions. During the competition, a bolt with a…

Every once in a while, something crosses your desk that reminds you why preserving local history matters. For me, lately, that has been the growing collection of historic glass negatives we’ve been sharing through our Historic Images Frozen in Glass project. I’ll be honest — when we first started scanning these fragile pieces of photographic history, I expected them to be interesting. What I didn’t expect was to be fascinated almost daily by what appeared on the screen as each image was restored. Many of these negatives are more than a century old. When you hold them in your hand,…

By Emily Bontrager For decades, a tall brick building on West Main Street stood as one of Kahoka’s most recognizable medical landmarks — the Dr. W. F. Pauly Hospital. Though many residents later remember it as an apartment building, the structure originally served as a full-service hospital built and operated by one of the community’s earliest physicians, Dr. Walter F. Pauly. The building has since been torn down, but its history remains an important chapter in local healthcare. The story of Pauly Hospital recently resurfaced through the NEMOnews “Historic Images Frozen in Glass” project, an ongoing effort to restore and…

By Emily Bontrager National Craft Month is celebrated every March to highlight crafters’ creativity and craftsmanship. Whether a person creates woodworking projects, quilts, sews, or scrapbooks, there are many ways to showcase a person’s crafting skills. For Chris Smith of Kahoka, MO, woodworking isn’t just a pastime; it’s a lifelong skill that began in high school and grew into a retirement hobby that keeps him busy almost every day. Smith, 69, first picked up woodworking decades ago as a student at Dallas City High School. “I started in high school,” Smith said. “But our classes were only 30 minutes long,…

I’ve been getting ready for spring for the past couple of weeks, and about the time I think it’s here, that stupid groundhog has to flex his forecast muscle and prove he was correct about six more weeks of winter. I was talking with family in South Carolina recently and told them I like the Midwest because of the change of seasons—sometimes you can see all four seasons in a single week. But spring is coming. The turkeys are already gobbling a little, and I’ve heard they are strutting as well. Besides, I had robins in my yard last week,…

By Brandon Lorenz and Emerson Smith, Missouri News Network JEFFERSON CITY — A bill passed by the state House on Thursday would create a standardized grading system that would be used to grade the schools themselves. House Bill 2710, sponsored by Rep. Dane Diehl, R-Butler, would grade all public and charter schools and their districts on an A-F scale for their efficiency in educating students. The grading would be based on student performance, staff, finances and other categories. The proposed plan holds the the State Board of Education accountable for developing the annual report but leaves the option to have…

A Kahoka man has been charged with two felonies following a stabbing early Friday morning in Clark County. According to documents filed March 6 in Clark County Associate Circuit Court, Sean Biller has been charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action in connection with the incident. The case is filed under Case No. 26CK-CR00030. Court records state the incident occurred on March 6, 2026, in Kahoka. Authorities were notified of the stabbing after Clark County Sheriff’s Office Captain Orr responded and transported the victim to Scotland County Hospital for treatment. According to a probable cause statement from Kahoka Police…