Suicide is a national health problem that takes an enormous toll on families, friends, co-workers, schools and the entire community. Sadly, every minute of every day, someone attempts to take their own life and every 15 minutes someone dies by suicide.

We need to know more about suicide and ways to prevent it. We also need to educate the public to recognize the symptoms of depression, especially in teenagers as they are a particularly vulnerable group.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is conducting The 2nd Annual Out of the Darkness Community Walks here in North Platte on September 22nd at Centennial Park to raise much needed funds for prevention and education. Portion of the funds raised will support distribution of AFSP’s new educational film More Than Sad: Teen Depression to area high schools to educate both students and teachers about teen depression and how to get help.

To learn more about the Out of the Darkness Community Walks visit www.outofthedarkness.org and for more information about the films visit www.morethansad.org.

My goal is to open a support group and bring Suicide prevention to North Platte and surrounding communities and to bring much needed education to the schools. I would like to have your help to complete these goals. The help needed is getting the word out about the walk and get walkers or team to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

The Walk takes place September 22nd @ 10:30 am. Registration is from 9:00am to 10:00 am or you can preregister at outofthedarkness.org

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A fatal accident left one man dead over Labor Day weekend at Lake McConaughy. On Sunday September 2^nd at around 2:40 PM a 36-year-old man on a jet-ski crashed into a boat killing the driver. The boat was driven by a 64 year old Brighton Colorado man who died from the crash. The man’s son-in-law, daughter and two granddaughters were also riding with him and injured.

The Boat was in the Martin Bay area at the time of the accident. The jet-ski driver is charged with manslaughter and negligent operation of a personal watercraft. No names have been released, investigation continues.

Parts of North Platte went dark last night as the city had experienced a power outage or in this case, a power failure.

There were two outages, one starting at 6PM Labor Day September 3^rd. The first outage was cause by a lightening arrestor that got burnt up. The second power outage occurred right after the first outage was dealt with. A switch gear at another substation malfunctioned and caused another power outage that business and homes felt.

Power was back on sometime around 10PM on Monday night.