Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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There has been no formal request, but speculation runs high that the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Athletic Department may ask for funds to help with the planned $450 million renovation of Memorial Stadium. Earlier this year the Legislature directed $30 million in state funds to Creighton University in Omaha, including millions to help the private school build new baseball and softball stadiums to accommodate needs for the annual College World Series. School officials said the baseball stadium...
Quick, somebody give the governor a shovel, I want to see how much deeper he can dig the hole. Weeks after he insulted a reporter who questioned the high nitrate levels on his pig farm, Governor Jim Pillen has yet to apologize for his xenophobic remarks. The reporter, born in China, has been working in this country since 2017. She wrote about the nitrate issue for "Flatwater Free Press," her employer for the past two years. On an Omaha radio call-in program, Pillen said he hadn't read the...
There are plenty of distractions. Ukraine vs Russia, Israel vs the Palestinians, Republicans vs other Republicans. The list is endless. But let’s turn our attention to a couple of Nebraska issues about which we can possibly do something. I’m talking about civility and transparency, or the lack thereof. Civility was cited in the recently-released Nebraska Rural Poll. A number of court filings for public records and a pending legislative bill speak to the transparency issue. Most rural Nebraskans see the lack of civil discourse in the pol...
Attorney General Mike Hilgers is now fighting prison reform measures he supported not too long ago as a state senator. That's politics. In the Attorney General 's office. Imagine that! Not hard to believe if you've been paying attention. The last AG walked in lockstep with the governor as did the guy before him, and ... Let's not forget Don Stenberg, the AG who wanted to be anything else, mostly US Senator (he took a shot and failed a couple times) and finally wound up as State Treasurer before...
Their low, rumbling bellow first cuts through the silence of the Sandhills. Next comes the crunch of pointed hooves, trudging their way through tall prairie grasses. Then, the oohs of the out-of-towners watching – people up close and personal with the majestic thousand-pound mammals for the first time. This is Golden Prairie Bison, a ranch nestled in the Sandhills where Carl and Vicki Simmons raise a herd of 50 bison. Theirs is one of the dozens of bison ranches in Nebraska, one piece of an o...
"For it's a long, long while from May to December But the days grow short when you reach September And the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame..." -- September Song I decided it was time to get out of the office and go see Nebraska. It's been a post-pandemic while since I have done so. I jumped at the chance to ride to Chadron with a friend with numerous stops along the way. Call it a visual checkup to see how the Cornhusker State is holding up amid almost daily reports of increasing...
Governor Jim Pillen had an epiphany that paying a consultant $10 million over the next four years would save the state money. Pillen has signed the $2.5 million/year contract, renewable three times, with Epiphany Associates of Utah to find ways to save the state money. In the process, he dismantled the seven-year-old Center for Operational Excellence which was doing the same thing. The 26 employees in that little known division of the Department of Administrative Services completed nearly 1,000 process improvement projects and cut costs by...
KEARNEY – Americans have recognized military veterans in vastly different ways over the past 247 years. They've thrown parades for some and scorned others. But the Pawnee scouts, who protected pioneers, freighters and railroad workers in Nebraska during the mid-19th century's great migration west, were largely forgotten outside the Pawnee Nation in Oklahoma. "Those scouts were the very first in our tribe to serve in the military, so we hold our veterans on a high pedestal, almost like c...
Our September State Board of Education public meeting was held at the Leadership Center in Aurora. State Board of Education meetings are typically held on the first Thursday and Friday of most months of the year. Thursday is a workday during which committees meet. The four committees are the Executive, Rules and Regulations, Budget and Finance, and Planning and Evaluation. I serve on the Budget and Finance and Planning and Evaluation committees. Much discussion takes place during the workday to...
An open letter to Colorado. It's fitting that I am writing this on the 22nd Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, the day that hatred manifested itself openly on American soil. I am writing about a now-past football game and the comments made by the showboat coach of the University of Colorado and his son the star quarterback who said to more than one media outlet "We don't like Nebraska." That comment is somewhat toned down from Saturday evening reports that he uttered that he "hated" Neb...
A free press has been always a common denominator in this country’s history. Since the origin of the “Federalist” papers, which offered the ideas which became the U.S. Constitution, the press has played an active role in being the watchdogs - or fourth state - ensuring American citizens, and their civil liberties, are protected. The free press serves as the voice of the people, providing transparency and challenging government abuse of power. In several states, including Nebraska, lawma...
At a time when people's trust in government is waning, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers issued an opinion that the Legislature's Office of the Public Counsel, better known as the Ombudsman's office, is unconstitutional. The office exists to promote accountability in government by independently and impartially investigating issues related to state agencies and employees. The departments of Health and Human Services and Corrections, which are subject to this oversight and often make...
John Heaston opens the door to a brick warehouse next to Johnny's Cafe in South Omaha and walks through rooms holding his life's work. "It's kind of a hot mess," says the 52-year-old longtime publisher of Omaha's alternative newspaper, "The Reader." Here's a garage bay holding empty green newspaper boxes emblazoned with the word, "FREE." Here are floor-to-ceiling shelves stacked with yellowing copies of "The Reader" and "El Perico," a separate publication that Heaston owns. Sticky notes...
Editor’s Note: This column was written and distributed prior to an Aug. 30 press conference regarding prison location. We’ve known for some time that the state wants to build a new prison because it has the most overcrowded corrections system in the country. It’s a given that state lawmakers agreed to spend at least $350 million on such a facility. A narrative change in recent months has shifted from “additional” space to a “replacement” for the existing Nebraska State Penitentiary, which has been in southwest Lincoln since the 1860s. The un...
Before he took office, Gov. Jim Pillen joked about phone conversations being exempt from public disclosure. Now, his administration has taken what seems to be an unprecedented step to shield the governor’s communications. Pillen’s staff denied the “Flatwater Free Press” access to four emails the governor sent, in part citing “executive privilege” – a phrase absent from Nebraska’s public records laws. A half-dozen former and current officials and advocates who spoke to the “Flatwater Free Press” couldn’t recall any other Nebraska governors who i...
Suicide. It's personal. Sometimes it's up close and personal. Often, it's the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who has been impacted. I've had one of those up-close experiences and other exposure through the years. Think about it, you likely have too. Recently-released figures reveal that a record number of people in the United States committed suicide in 2022. The 49,449 deaths reflect a 2.6% increase over the prior year, government data showed. Over half...
In May, 10 Nebraska State Patrol troopers went to Texas for two weeks to help with drone surveillance of the border with Mexico. Recently, 60 Nebraska National Guard members went to Texas for a month for a similar assignment. Is this a Nebraska problem? Or is this part of the national Republican Party agenda to allow Republican governors to take shots at the policies of President Joe Biden and blame Texas border woes on his administration. What's in it for Nebraska? Certainly not money. The...
Grassroots government is thriving in Nebraska. There are eight petitions circulating with hopes of making the 2024 General Election ballot, according to Secretary of State Bob Evnen. The action is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives people the right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances.” From the old familiar legalizing medical marijuana to an exemption of grocery items from sales tax, various groups or individuals are seeking the signatures of registered voters to support their cau...
If you thought that the mostly one-sided filibuster-driven debate on transgender issues and abortion was the thing that dragged the 2023 Nebraska Legislature to a near standstill, steel yourself for what could lie ahead. State Senator Dave Murman of Glenvil, the chair of the Legislature's Education Committee, says he wants to study the use of critical race theory and other controversial subjects in the classroom. Innocently enough, the studies stem from a request to investigate the Nebraska...
In a rare move, seven months into the Jim Pillen reign, I'm going to suggest we cut the new guy some slack. Seems that a social media tweet raised concerns about First Amendment rights and dredged up the decades-long discussion on brain drain. Pillen tweeted from the governor's official account that he hoped the 31 Nebraska high school graduates who had perfect scores on the ACT would "return and utilize your talents here" after college. Remember, it was Twitter and other social media that...
Disclaimer: I have never owned, driven or ridden a traditional two-wheel motorcycle. I sat on one owned by my late brother. But in more than five decades as a reporter I have covered numerous accidents involving motorcycles with any variety of other vehicles. I have seen dead bodies and spent time waiting and praying in hospital emergency rooms. I have also covered countless hours of debate about repealing the helmet law. That said, I must admit I was surprised that the 2023 Legislature passed...
It slipped in on an uneventful Tuesday this year, although many towns celebrated on Monday the Third just to give the holiday a long weekend type feel. Maybe it was a little bit easier to remember the true historic origins of the holiday this year, given the drought and all the caution about fireworks lighting up more than just the night sky. July 4, 1776, was the day when the Continental Congress sought to take the upper hand in the relentless power struggle with the British monarchy over...
The new governor says, jubilantly, the honeymoon cruise with the Nebraska Legislature was a huge success. Sorry governor, I'm seeing flags. Red flags. The cheering I hear is, "See you in court!" So, let's wait until the lawsuits are filed and the petition drives are all launched before we get too excited. In a "report card" from his office, Governor Jim Pillen said he was elected to office "with a clear mandate to make transformational change in the areas most important to our future: our kids;...
So, this is prison reform? At this point, it's something and we'll cling to every little bit of it while the Republican majority anticipates the building of a new prison, which will do little, if anything, to alleviate overcrowding An omnibus bill sponsored by Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne and signed into law by Governor Jim Pillen creates several programs intended to improve the state's criminal justice system, including a program to expand problem-solving courts, a pilot program to establish parole-...
The 108th Legislature First Session was a hot mess. The fact that three senators could derail the work of 46 others in the nation's only one-house, allegedly nonpartisan Legislature, speaks volumes. What went wrong? Most everything that could. There were 17 new senators (two of them who served terms before being reelected in November). A new clerk of the legislature stepped up after two years as an assistant. A new governor and a new lieutenant governor who is the presiding officer of the...
