Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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A change is gonna come. Leaders of the Nebraska Legislature want to streamline the process and perhaps change a few rules during the upcoming short session to avoid the mess of last year's 90-day struggle. A short recap. An Omaha senator introduced a measure to limit medical care for transgender youth, clearly something that is part of the Republican Party national agenda, but not a Nebraska issue. What resulted was months of filibuster by two other Omaha senators that slowed the Legislature to...
With the end of the darkest days of the year and the anticipation of Christmas, we, in the Legislature, are making final preparations for the session in January. Sen, Kauth's LB575, the Sports and Spaces Act, remains poised to be the topic of contention during the next session. This bill would require sports participation and access to bathrooms in schools to align with one's biological gender. With the attention Nebraska received this year from an historic filibuster, state senators were...
The chickens are coming home to roost. Several tax watchdog groups say the Legislature, at the behest of the governor, has gone overboard in depleting state revenue by earmarking too much for property tax relief. But Governor Jim Pillen debunks the reports. He said they came up with different numbers than he did. Here's the rub. He hasn't read the reports. Let that sink in for a minute. Not unlike the reports on higher than acceptable levels of nitrates in the groundwater near his pig farms. He...
As the harvest finishes and we enter the upcoming holiday season, senators remain hard at work preparing for the looming legislative session in January. One such topic I am investigating is the future of electrical generation in Nebraska. Currently, Nebraska Public Power District's energy generation resource mix consists of the following: 42.3% nuclear, 30.1% coal, 7.4% wind, 6.4% hydroelectric and 13.8% from all other sources, such as natural gas or purchase agreements. However, as market press...
As the conversation and stigma surrounding mental health continue to evolve, access to care, or lack thereof, remains a barrier, even in the presence of heightened public awareness and empathy. “We need kind of both,” Dr. Marley Doyle said. “We need an increase in mental health awareness. But then we also need an increase in access to care. Because if you don’t have both, then it’s not going to really improve things.” Doyle, a psychiatrist serving as director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska, said the shortage of mental h...
I don't remember much about my recent 64-block ambulance ride from my house to an urban hospital, but I was told after the fact that it was a matter of a few minutes to keep my body from going into septic shock. The whole incident helped me understand the critical importance of getting rural patients to medical care as quickly as possible. It also speaks volumes about staffing those ambulances with competent medical professionals. That's why I support the efforts of Sen. Myron Dorn of Adams in...
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...
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...
This weekend, Congress narrowly avoided a government shutdown. After a turbulent week, the House of Representatives passed a short-term bipartisan spending bill. The Senate approved the bill hours before the deadline of Oct. 1. From 2005 to 2013, I served as a member of the Nebraska Legislature. During that time, we ran into a major budget shortfall. All of us in the Unicameral worked together and compromised to find solutions to that fiscal crisis. We were legislators, so we legislated. In the...
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...
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...
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...
A revised statute allowing Nebraska landowners to kill damage-causing wildlife predators took effect Sept. 2. Predators include badger, bobcat, coyote, gray fox, long-tailed weasel, mink, opossum, raccoon, red fox and skunk. The statute allows a private landowner or tenant to kill a predator preying on livestock or poultry or suspected of causing other damage on land that they owned or control. No permit from the Game and Parks Commission is required. A landowner, tenant or agent of either may kill a mountain lion, also. Prior notice or...
The Legislature adjourned shortly after Memorial Day, but my duties as your representative continue at a fast pace. In the interim between the adjournment of the previous session and the convening of the next session, senators remain hard at work serving on special and select committees, studying subjects of local importance and addressing issues brought forward by constituents. During the session, I was appointed to serve on the LR178 Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Select Committee with six of...
As summer ends, I want to acknowledge the start of the 2023-24 school year. Although I've been retired for five years, I have not forgotten the feelings of anticipation mixed with a few butterflies in the stomach wondering what the school year will hold. What an opportunity school employees have to make a difference in not only the present lives of our children but their future as well. Don't underestimate your influence, and thank you, in advance, for all you are going to do. Yours is a noble...
During the interim, I have talked to many constituents who had questions regarding a bill enacted by the Legislature earlier this year: LB583. LB583 makes adjustments to the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act formula for state aid to Nebraska's public schools. As reported in the Unicameral Update, "Under LB583, introduced by Bellevue Sen. Rita Sanders at the request of Gov. Jim Pillen, the state will pay public school districts $1,500 in foundation aid per student beginning...
Almost a year after receiving notification that the Village of Ewing was selected to receive funds to construct a two-unit duplex, officials broke ground on the project, Aug. 1. The $431,640 project, from the Nebraska Affordable Housing Trust Fund, will start construction in mid-August, according to village clerk Sharon Swails. The village will provide a $100,000 match. Village chairman James Ramold said each unit will feature two bedrooms, one bathroom and a single-car garage, available for...
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...
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...
Agriculture, broadband connectivity and tax savings were key topics addressed during Gov. Jim Pillen's town hall meeting, June 28, in O'Neill. Pillen opened by telling the crowd of approximately 80 that his team strives to work for "all Nebraskans. "I can't stand politics. I can't stand politicians," the governor said. "The privilege I had in the first six months, it is unbelievable how many incredible public servants we have serving the state of Nebraska." One of Pillen's goals has been to...
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;...
Seward County routinely seizes money from motorists on Interstate 80, keeps the cash – and never convicts the drivers of a crime. The county's sheriff's department and county attorney use this practice, known as civil asset forfeiture, so often that a third of all cases of this kind in Nebraska state courts come from Seward County, population 17,962, a Flatwater Free Press analysis of court records shows. The county has hauled in $7.5 million in forfeited cash in the past five years, some of i...
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...
The voter ID measure, a solution in search of a problem, has been thankfully watered down in legislative action that clearly indicates the wheels on the Republican juggernaut are wobbly, if not ready to come off. Turns out the chief opponent to the bill and an amendment that came from the Government Committee was Republican Sen. Julie Slama, who was the poster child for a ballot initiative that got the topic before lawmakers. The initiative was largely funded by recent-Governor Pete Ricketts'...
