Noteworthy

The Omaha Public Power District has been awarded the annual Young Professionals Choice Award. The award recognizes an organization in the Omaha area that excels in its efforts to attract, retain and develop young professionals. OPPD will be announced as the official winner at a Young Professionals summit in March.

Penn State, Iowa State, Rutgers and Nebraska's Southeast Community College have something in common: They are among the elite schools when it comes to placing interns for 2010 at Augusta National Golf Club. Jared Hans, whose focus area is golf turfgrass management at Southeast, is scheduled to begin his internship Jan. 11. Hans, a Seward, Neb., native, is the second Southeast student to land an internship at Augusta. He joins Nick Kearns, who completed a six-month internship in 2002.

Invest Nebraska Corp., a statewide venture development organization, had its sixth East 2 West state competition in Lincoln. Seven finalists competed for the chance to win a $50,000 equity investment; Jimmy Winter of Omaha won the competition, presenting his innovative company called RockDex (www.rockdex.com). It collects and analyzes data such as song plays, fan interactions and online buzz about musical artists from several social networks. For more information, visit www.investnebraska.com.

The Nebraska Firearms Owners Association gave Scott Barry of Amherst, Neb., its first NFOA Firearm Rights Champion Award. Barry owns Western Security Services of Kearney, Neb. Barry also has agreed to serve the remainder of the board of directors term of Cathy Feltych of rural Cass County, who has resigned.

Science News, the biweekly news magazine of the Society for Science and the Public, has published an article on the research of University of Nebraska at Omaha biology professor Alan Kolok. He is doing research on the relationships among land use, occurrence of pollutants in local waterways and the effect of those pollutants on fish. With the help of doctoral student Marlo Sellin, Kolok is examining the impacts of runoff from agriculturally intensive landscapes on local waterways.

Dr. Tom Hejkal has been named the McGaw Memorial chairman of the University of Nebraska Medical Center department of ophthalmology and visual sciences. Since May, Hejkal has been serving as interim chairman of the department, replacing Dr. Carl Camras, who died April 14.

At its recent state convention, the Nebraska Farmers Union presented Wayne Frost of Lincoln and Don Eret of Dorchester with the organization's highest honor, the President's Award, for service to family farm agriculture. Frost received the award for his volunteer efforts the past several years. He recently retired from his ranching and cattle-feeding operation west of Wolbach and moved to Lincoln to be closer to his family. Eret received the award for his long-standing service to family farm agriculture as a state senator, champion of the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory and his efforts to gather signatures — presented to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack — asking for stimulus monies to help re-establish the manufacture of smaller, more appropriately priced combines for average-size farms.

At the Nebraska Farm Bureau convention, Dustin Ladenburger of Stratton was honored with the bureau's 2009 Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award.

Douglas County Department of Corrections Officer Tim Pursell has become Nebraska's First Certified Jail Officer as designated by the American Jail Association. Pursell is a six-year veteran of the Douglas County Department of Corrections.

Region 5/6 Emergency Management, based in Fremont, is the recipient of the International Association of Emergency Managers' Global 2009 Technology & Innovation Award Certificate of Merit for its NIMS Refresher training program. NIMS (National Incident Management System) is a federal- and Nebraska-mandated response training for all first responders and elected officials. This is the second time in three years that Region 5/6 EM has received international recognition.

A McCook Community College student's design for a local program touting better health for young people has been selected as an award winner. Freshman Krystal Anderson designed the winning logo for Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department's TOUCAN program, which stands for Teaching Our yoUth Choices for Activities and Nutrition.

Mark Pafford of Cross Town Towing of Omaha received the American Towman ACE Award for achievement in public service. Recipients were nominated by the nation's major motor clubs and dispatch centers.

Teams from Omaha and Boca Raton, Fla., placed first in the annual EMS Competition held recently at Creighton University. A CU student EMS team of Dan Pojar, Dayna Waterbury and Jessie Ashley won the basic life support competition. Other Nebraska teams placing in the top five in that event and in advanced life support competition were La Vista Fire & Rescue, Nebraska City Fire & Rescue, another CU team and Papillion Fire & Rescue.

The Lincoln Mayor's Award of Excellence for November was presented to Deborah Baines, an office specialist in Aging Partners.

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