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Our top story of the day comes from last night's Sidney City Council meeting. The Sidney Nebraska City Council voted to allow fireworks this year, from July 1st at 8am to July 5th at 1am. However, the conversation got very heated and police were called to the scene, despite the fact that the police chief was on scene at the meeting. We were getting live updates when Mr. Balfour stopped by to speak with our reporter outside, to show his appreciation for coverage after the council meeting, when several police cars showed up. We didn't hear of any further action taken, but we'll let you know if anything serious came of it. It was a verbal argument over fireworks.

Subsequently, the Cheyenne County Commissions voted on Wednesday morning, to BAN fireworks in rural areas of the county, with fines of $250, $500, and $1,000 for first, second and third offense.

Speaking of fireworks, there is a discussion on venue change in Gering. The Allred display typically takes place at Five Rocks Amphitheater, but there is discussion this year about moving it to Oregon Trail Park in Gering. Find that post and be sure to comment on our page.

Little Lake Alice is back! The irrigation water has flowed in and refilled Little Lake Alice. There is a time-lapse video from Troy Bryan on our page at Panhandle Scanner.

And there'll be a planned outage for the Village of Morrill coming up on the 28th. That's a Sunday, so they wanted to be sure to put out that notice early, and they asked for our help. So, folks in Morrill, be ready for that short electrical outage on Sunday morning the 28th.

Several businesses took damage to their properties around the Panhandle, and one of those was Monument Shadows Golf Course. The storm damaged almost all of the greens. The grounds crew worked all day to repair as much damage as possible. The golf course will be closed at least until noon on Wednesday. The driving range is open, and they thank you for your patience while they get the greens back into shape.

Let's take a look at where those harvest crews are rolling now with some precipitation around the country in some parts.

We see Frederick Harvesting cutting wheat at their home base in Alden, Kansas with three John Deere S7-700 combines.

Neumiller Harvesting says it's finally raining here in Leoti, Kansas. Time for a baseball game. (?) Well, since it was raining and they couldn't cut, they gathered in the field and played some ball. You do whatever you can out there on the harvest run.

Friesen Harvesting had some truck troubles on the interstate. That's never fun, they wrote. Got to St. Francis, Kansas and wet weather moved in last night, so we hurried up and waited. Got some more rain at home, so praise the Lord.

And the Oklahoma Wheat Crop Update is out. It's nearly finished in fact. This late season rain is still shaping tests, weights, yields, protein and the final 2026 crop outlook. In this Oklahoma Wheat Crop Update, Dave Deacon reports from a soggy Oklahoma State University agronomy farm in Stillwater with harvest estimated at about 95% complete. Mike Schulte with the Oklahoma Wheat Commission shares the statewide crop and market outlook, while Amanda Silva, PhD, Oklahoma State University Extension Small Grain Specialist, explains why 2026 will be remembered as a drought year and what producers can learn from variety performance and management trials from the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.

And finally, things are abuzz here at Harvest USA. In honor of Pollinator Month, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture is continuing to teach us more about pollinators this week. Contrary to popular belief, most bees nest in the ground and are considered solitary. Only honeybees live in a hive and are considered social.

Meet Justin Maus from Maus Angus Ranch as he shares his experiences, discussing his history in the livestock business, which began in 2014 when he started raising registered Angus cattle. Located in the southwest of North Dakota, near the Montana-South Dakota border, the ranch has benefited from networking with neighbors and using online platforms like DV Auction for exposure.
Maus Angus Ranch's key focus is their upcoming annual sale of registered Angus bulls on February 14th. The sale will feature 57 Angus bulls, including a few consignments, aiming to expand the ranch's offerings while focusing on basics such as foot and leg structure, udder quality, and cow functionality. The auction will be conducted live at their heated shop but will not run cattle physically through, instead displaying them on screens for on-site and online viewers.

From Nothing to Prove by Jeannie Allen on YouVersion
I am not enough. It is a terrifying phrase that goes through our heads on quite a regular basis about a plethora of things. Let me tell you a few of the stories I have heard just from my close circle of friends.
Bekah leads boot camps. As she leads neighbors and friends through workouts, she also has seen them through cancer battles and through difficult divorces. She regularly is given the opportunity to talk about Christ, but she wonders all the time if she is doing work that is important enough.
Sarah had a massive stroke and spends most of her days in rehabilitation, learning to speak and read and walk again. Yet she has found a way to communicate her worries that she is not a good enough mom to her three kids.
Jessie is in her sixties and divorced many years ago. Jessie glows with love for Jesus. Her kids are grown, so she has free time and recently came to a class on mentoring. But she never followed through. When I reached out to her about it, she said, “I didn’t think anyone would want to be mentored by someone who has been divorced.” Subtly saying, I am not enough.
I want to shake my darling friends. They are pouring out their lives in unique obedient surrender to God, and yet they cannot see that the narrative they are believing is all wrong. And trust me, on a given day they’ve wanted to shake me, too, for believing the same lies.
We are so often dragged along in the darkness, unable to save ourselves from out thoughts and from our shame and from our mistakes. We try to slap self-esteem tactics on our fears, but they don’t stick because well . . . . it’s true. We are not enough.
It would be a terrabily depressing thought – if it weren’t followed by the most freeing truth in all of eternity.
God knew we would never be enough. So He became enough for us. Jesus is our enough.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9
The truth that we are not enough and Jesus is enough isn’t just good news on the day that God saves us. We need to preach that truth to ourselves and each other every day. We have been rescued from a life of striving today.

Unfortunately, natural disasters, and especially hailstorms, can make several people in the community a target. Well, the storms certainly cause damage all throughout the Panhandle, and we feel our job at Panhandle Scanner is to help the community. Over the years, we have acquired major sponsors in several different categories that can be trusted and called upon in emergencies like this.

First of all, we want to make sure to remind you, the number one tip for roof damage is to call your roofing company before you call your insurance company. That tip comes from Valley Roofing and Restoration, and we have several other tips from Kevin Smith on how you can protect yourself from not only being scammed, but by simply making choices in the wrong order.

For insurance companies, we highly recommend American Family Insurance, the Kendall Henderson Agency. He's been a sponsor of the Scanner from year one.

And we're sure there is plenty of fence damage out there. Call Custom-Made Fencing. That's Sean Low. They can help you there.

Three and a half years ago, when we began the Favorite Local Small Business in the Panhandle, it was the third quarter of 2023, and Platte River Glass was overwhelmingly your choice for Favorite Local Small Business. If you need glass repair, contact Platte River Glass, and be sure to have your VIN number handy.

For vehicle damage, we recommend Bumper-to-Bumper Body and Paint. Quality that counts.

And if you need help cleaning up your yard, we recommend Cauyer Glanz from Western Nebraska Landscaping. Give Cauyer a call.

You can find all these great businesses either on Panhandle Search or Panhandle Scanner on the web. Just click on Just for Fun, and then Sponsors.

Police are still searching for that whitish flatbed involved in the hit and run accident at Maverik on June 9, 2026. Some people have said they noticed that truck in the Mitchell and Morrill areas of the panhandle. Be on the lookout and please call it in.

Well, our crews are getting busy in many places, but they do have time to write. And, we had an interesting note from High Plains Harvesting yesterday.

As you know, many Custom Harvest crews employ foreign workers. Longtime Scottish team member Calum enlightened us yesterday on some facts, with a picture below they wrote. You can find that picture on our Harvest USA Report page under High Plains Harvesting.

Did you know that the national plant of Scotland is the thistle? Crazy, because that's a noxious w**d in a lot of places here in the U.S.

Well, here's the story. No one is truly sure of how the thistle came to be Scotland's national flower.

A well-known story, though, attributes the thistle, being chosen as the emblem of Scotland, to the Battle of Largs in the 13th century. The Norse army journeyed to Scotland, intent on conquering the land. The legend has it that they left their ships under cover of night, and were planning to ambush the sleeping Scottish clansmen. In order to be as quiet as possible, the Norsemen had removed their shoes. However, as they crept across the countryside, one of them stepped on a thorny thistle. His cry of pain roused the Scots, and the warriors rose up and defeated the invaders.

Now that's a natural defense system.

Also, the national animal is the mythical unicorn.

There are definitely some strange traditions in Scotland. That comes from High Plains Harvesting in between jobs. If you have something interesting that you'd like to share, be sure to tag HarvestUSAReport on your page, or send us an email. Or call us, the number is on the screen, right there at HarvestUSAReport.com. Get a report on the air. Tell us where you are, and how things are looking.

Now here's an archived interview with the late Howard Hale and Randolph, Kansas breeder Galen Fink. They're talking about the subject of athletic bulls. Let's listen in.

Galen Fink is with us. Fink Beef Genetics at Randolph, Kansas.

On your website you have a little video that talks about athletic bulls. Explain, will you?

"That phrase comes from a customer of ours. He's an old longtime customer. He's passed away now, giving him a hard time one time about 35 years ago that he needed to take better care of his bulls, joking around. After he got through the breeding season, he just looked at me and said, you've never seen a fat athlete, have you? I have always used that quote. I thought that was a very interesting quote. Bulls need to be developed like athletes. They don't need a lot of fat on them to empower feet and legs and semen production and everything the rest of their lives. That was a quote from Andy Olson and we just kind of stick by that."

So how do you develop your bulls then?

"We're on a higher up each ration. Generally, after we wean them, our bulls are on a two pounds per day gain. So that's quite a bit less than what many folks do developing their bulls. We don't want fat bulls."

Galen Fink, Fink Beef Genetics at Randolph, Kansas.

And that was the late Howard Hale with Galen Fink, Fink Beef Genetics, Randolph, Kansas. And you can catch more of those archived interviews right on cattlemanscorner.com.

Craig Cameron with the late Howard Hale on the size of bits he prefers.

Learn more about Jerry Grund of Grund Beef Genetics on Cattleman's Corner with Brian Hale.