Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 299
As the State Legislature gets to work on its 90-day session, it's time to consider whether the Unicameral should resolve an important, and regularly overlooked matter - designating a state dessert. Face it, we all love dessert and naming an official state dessert is long overdue. It has to rank higher than designating an official state reptile or state fossil, which we already have (the box turtle and mammoth, respectively.) Eight states, our research indicates, have state desserts including, gu...
Wednesday, Jan. 8 marked the first day of the 109th Legislature, First Session. This session also marks the beginning of the third year that I am serving as the representative of the 40th Legislative District. The 40th District covers Antelope, Cedar, Holt and Knox counties, as well as the northern portions of both Dixon and Pierce counties. This Legislature has sixteen new faces. Also returning to the Unicameral is Senator Dan Quick who previously served from 2017-2021. Almost a third of the...
The 109th Nebraska Legislature convened last week for the first days of the 2025 session to swear in newly-elected state senators, elect committee chairmen and begin bill introductions. The Legislature began the first day of its 90-day session on Wednesday, Jan. 8, and swore in 25 senators, including six re-elected members and 19 new members. Senators re-elected Sen. John Arch of La Vista, who ran unopposed, as speaker of the Legislature. The Legislature also elected senators as leaders of its...
8 was an excellent year for Nebraska. We stood strong for property tax relief, took steps to grow agricultural production, and protected our children and values. Kids In 2024, we took steps to protect children by signing LB 1092 into law. This bill protects our kids from the scourge of online pornography and oversexualization by requiring age verification to access pornographic websites. As a result of this legislation, Pornhub, the leading distributor of online pornography, ceased offering...
pears to be on the road to recovery after a wild ride aboard a bucking bronco, his next rodeo act will be roping up enough votes to lower property taxes, cut government spending and return Nebraska to a "winner-take-all" system of doling out the state's electoral college votes. Those are among the top priorities laid out by the governor – before he was bucked off a reportedly new horse – for the 2025 session of the Nebraska Legislature, which begins on January 8. At the top of the list is som...
Ekram Saleh sat in a classroom, surrounded by immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Sudan. They listened as the county's election commissioner talked about voting. Here's how you can register, the commissioner said. Here's who represents your city council district. And also – Hall County needs poll workers to run every election. Saleh was then a brand-new U.S. citizen, a Sudanese native who didn't know she could serve her new country by being a poll worker. The next day, she went straight to t...
A wise, old soul once told me that "the story of government isn't that what is said isn't so, it's that what is so isn't said." That, over and over, has proven true in years of digging into stories and actions of state government. State agencies and constitutional officers have a bevy of public information officers whose job is to promote what that agency or office does, and overall, make that agency look good. ("Put lipstick on the pig" is another old saying.) All too often, when you peel away...
I first want to start this week’s update by expressing my gratitude to our state’s congressional delegation with regards to the recent passage of Senate Bill 1478 in Congress. This bill would designate U.S. Hwy 20 in the states of Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts as the “National Medal of Honor Highway.” While then-Governor Ricketts approved the renaming of U.S. Hwy 20 in Nebraska as the “Nebraska Medal of Honor Hi...
Justin Harris could use the money. The McCook farmer and businessman is already behind on last year’s property taxes, and still owes $3,200 that’s growing with interest. And Harris is also missing out on a tax rebate thanks to a much-misunderstood change that Nebraska lawmakers made earlier this year. It’s costing him $1,300 – money he could have nabbed had he paid his property taxes by Dec. 31, 2023. “There was no chance for us to be able to take advantage of that discount because we're living paycheck to paycheck,” he said. The vast majori...
This past week, the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee held an interim hearing to discuss the status of highways and broadband in Nebraska. The Committee first heard from Director Vicki Kramer of the Nebraska Department of Transportation who testified that the impact of inflation is presenting challenges to fulfill future highway construction and maintenance projects. Nebraska’s current highway needs for the next 20 years currently sit at $16.9 billion, but when inflation is a...
Everyone has a "wish list" – things they'd like to get done, things they'd like to see happen, things they wish would come true. But the Nebraska Republican Party recently put together the mother of all wish lists. In a four-page document unveiled last month, the Nebraska GOP listed more than 70 policy changes they'd like to see at the state, local and national level. The long list of wishes include returning the state to a "winner-take-all" system of awarding its electoral votes for p...
ace, we can all agree on that. And it's a very difficult place to manage, given that many inmates don't want to be there and have histories of violence, deception and mental illnesses. But inmates sent there shouldn't end up dead, unless they're sentenced to life in prison or given the death penalty for especially heinous murders. That – death – has been the result for at least three inmates in recent years who were placed in the same cell with another prisoner in solitary confinement cel...
While Pete Ricketts was governor, he and his parents spent serious money supporting state senators – and opposing fellow Republicans who had displeased the governor. Longtime observers say that money helped morph the Legislature, making it less independent and more partisan. In January 2017, Patrick O'Donnell entered the Nebraska State Capitol's cavernous legislative chamber, air heavy with the echo of history's fierce debates and whispered negotiations. The longtime Clerk of the Legislature s...
Nebraskans decided a couple weeks ago that public funds for education should fund public education … and only public education. You can skip the “well, duh.” Without two petition drives, a solid campaign and Nebraskans doing the right thing, the question in question — Legislative Bill 1402 — may very well have started using tax dollars for private school tuition next fall. The decision to repeal LB 1402, which provided public money for private school scholarships, was fairly loud and quite cle...
We're all glad the election is over and we're no longer subjected to wall-to-wall campaign ads on TV and radio. The faster we can get back to watching "Green Acres" reruns the better! But I can't get over how differently Nebraskans in the east, and Nebraskans in the west voted this year. We might as well be two states – "East Cornhusker" and "West Cornhusker" (and I know several people who would prefer that). Let's take the hottest race in the state, pitting incumbent U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer v...
The election is thankfully over, but I still can't get over how much money pours into these campaigns. Back in the day, if a state legislative candidate spent more than $100,000 on a campaign to get elected to a $12,000-a-year post at the State Capitol, it was a big deal. Now that kind of spending is par for the course. Nearly every race for the 25 seats being contested in the Nebraska Legislature had a candidate who spent more than six figures. As of Oct. 21, candidates for the so-called "Hall...
Like a comet that swings by the earth every few years, there's been talk now and then about placing some huge development between Omaha and Lincoln along the Platte River. Between the state's two largest cities would be an ideal location for a new football stadium for the Cornhuskers, the reasoning goes. An airport there would attract more flights to and from our state. And wouldn't a huge lake look great along Interstate 80 in that spot? Back in the day, the idea was to dam up the Platte River...
In the past three weeks, I outlined all six ballot initiatives and referendum measures that will be on this year’s general election ballot. This editorial is dedicated to my personal perspective on two ballot measures: Initiative Measures 434 (Protect Women and Children) and 439 (Protect Our Rights) relating to abortion. In my mind, we should strive to do the most good and preserve human life. This is why I am encouraging pro-life voters in Nebraska to consider voting for Initiative Measure 4...
We have a choice in the November 5 election between two initiatives regarding abortion, Initiative 434 or Initiative 439. Initiative 434 would protect unborn babies from abortion in the second and third trimesters except for cases of medical emergencies, sexual assault or incest. The laws we currently have regarding parental notification for minors, informed consent before abortion and in-person requirements to receive abortion pills would remain in place. Common-sense laws like basic safety regulations for abortion facilities and requiring a...
This week, I will be discussing Initiative Measure 437 and Initiative Measure 438. Both of these initiatives revolve around the issue of cannabis and propose a framework to legalize medical cannabis in the state. Should these two ballot initiatives pass, the Legislature will likely play a role in shaping some of the finer details of implementing medical cannabis in this state, much akin to the implementation of casino gambling in 2021-22. Initiative Measure 437 proposes to create a new law...
When life comes full circle, pay attention. Usually, there's a lesson worth learning. The lesson starts in Clearwater where Adam Ahlers, a "snot-nosed brat kid" spent summers mowing the yard at the Ocea Kirchner residence. Kirchner, a widow, would invite Ahlers into her "little yellow house" after he finished the job. "I had to go to the front door and get my $10," Ahlers told a crowd of approximately 275 people attending Saturday's fundraiser for the Clearwater Veteran's Park, held at the...
I would first like to express my gratitude to the first responders who quickly handled the explosion and fire at St. Patrick’s Parish in O’Neill earlier this week. I am thankful that there were no catastrophic injuries or loss of life and am hopeful that the parish, Avera St. Anthony’s Hospital and St. Mary’s School can quickly recover. I have been in contact with other state officials to help coordinate state resources to ease the recovery of Avera St. Anthony’s, which sustained damage. I...
Here's a rundown of three of those ballot issues, a referendum to repeal a private school voucher law and the pair concerning medical marijuana: In one of the more hotly contested issues in recent years, voters will decide whether to repeal, or retain, a controversial law was passed earlier this year that allows the State Treasurer to administer a scholarship program to private and parochial K-12 schools that was funded with $10 million of state funds. Legislative Bill 1402 served to replace a l...
Nebraska doesn't get many national headlines about politics, but a recent, last-minute push by major Republicans to get the state to ditch its unique system of awarding electoral votes for president did just that. Former President Donald Trump and leading GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham were among those applying the pressure recently to return to a "winner-take-all" system. Only Nebraska and Maine don't give all of its electoral votes to the statewide winner of the popular vote for president. Instead, N...
Hand counting of election ballots will not take place in Holt County anytime soon, despite a request from citizens made at the Sept. 16 supervisors' meeting in O'Neill. Grace Coleman of Atkinson presented petitions discouraging use of electronic tabulators and encouraging a return to hand counting of ballots at the precinct level. She said individuals from Holt, Boyd, Antelope, Cedar, Knox, Dixon and northern Pierce counties signed the petitions, which were circulated over the summer months....
