Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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Pretend for a moment that Nebraska somehow halted all use of nitrogen fertilizer – not a single speck more on our lawns, golf courses and corn fields. What would happen? Nothing fast. That's because, experts say, generations of corn growing, feedlot runoff and oft-unwitting nitrogen overuse has left a legacy of nitrate, creeping slowly downward toward our water supply. "It's there, it's moving towards the groundwater, and there's not a thing we can do about it," said Don Batie, a farmer near L...
Forgive George Barnes if he looks a little grim. That day in 1887, ol’ George had ample reason to mean-mug photographer Solomon Butcher, and homesteader life in general. The night before the family photo, it had rained. Hard. The rain had soaked the roof of their soddie. The decaying pole holding the roof had snapped. The whole thing had come down on itself, like a bad metaphor, ruining everything the family owned. The year before, George Barnes’ wife had died of an unknown illness. Barnes was raising three children by himself while he tri...
Kelsey Carlson calls me from the road, as she drives the quiet ribbon of highway connecting the hospital where she works to the small-town child care that has changed her life. Not long ago, when her daughter, Avery, went to a different child care, Kelsey would sob while driving to pick her up. She worried her daughter wasn't safe. She dreaded the thought that Avery was planted in front of a TV. She cried because she felt terrified she was failing at work and failing her child. Today, as Kelsey...
Together, and only together, Nebraskans can rebuild the state’s struggling child care system, which is reeling during COVID-19. We can do it in a way that makes age-old problems, like a statewide shortage of quality child care, largely disappear. And we can do it in a way that benefits families, companies, communities and our state economy. That was the message Nebraskans delivered to the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee at a recent hearing. Child care providers, the University of Nebraska’s president, business leaders and experts made...
Steph Allen has already weathered one unimaginable crisis, the nightmare scenario that struck Grand Island and her new Teaching Tree childcare center this spring. She had to close the Teaching Tree for eight weeks as the COVID pandemic hit Hall County earlier and harder than almost any other spot in Nebraska. When she reopened in June, her enrollment and revenue plunged by 40%. It’s only now that enrollment is back up and daily operations are starting to feel somewhat normal. The good news is that both Steph and her high-quality child care c...
