Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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The search for the truth should be a top priority for a journalist. It’s a journalist’s responsibility to present factual information in a clear and precise manner. Even when the reporter is nine years old. I’m intrigued with Apple TV’s series, “Home Before Dark.” It’s a fictionalized take of real-life reporter, Hilde Lysiak, who, at nine years old, broke a local murder case in her self-published newspaper. The show - part-mystery, part-drama, with a dose of comedy - shows Lysiak’s determination...
Michael Connelly wrote, “A newspaper is the center of a community, it’s one of the tent poles of the community, and that’s not going to be replaced by websites and blogs.” The best-selling author and I are on the same page. A printed paper will be archived and preserved for future use. A website, well, that’s not always a permanent form of history. Neither is social media, which I have written about previously. I’ve had multiple conversations lately, with friends and colleagues, about prese...
BEV WIELER I’m watching the water sprinkler go back and forth out my kitchen window. Outside the birds are enjoying the light mist of water in the garden. They sing what I call their happy song. Oh this is living the dream for me. I’m retired and sitting on my patio enjoying the warm weather and looking over the flower garden. The peonies and iris had a long bloom season and are loosing their color while lily flower pods show color as I wait for their blooms to burst open. Annuals continue to gr...
Emily Dickinson wrote, “Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them.” So true. I’ve been sentimental lately, tears have flowed fairly steadily, as Father’s Day nears. I cannot count the number of times, since the new year started, I would be watching a Husker basketball or baseball game and think, “I need to call Dad and remind him the Huskers are playing.” I cannot count the number of times I hear some song pop on the radio and I am transported to Clay Center...
I would consider the recently completed legislative session successful for Nebraska taxpayers. Among other items, we passed, and the governor signed into law, bills to provide a sales tax exemption on municipal water, tax relief for military retirement recipients, tax relief for social security recipients and income tax relief for corporate taxpayers. On the property tax front, we provided a valuation reduction for agland in the context of school bond repayment, we added additional dollars to...
JOHNATHAN HLADIK Policy director Center for Rural Affairs Small business entrepreneurship is a key source of job creation for rural counties. These businesses generate economic activity that can multiply throughout the community. But, they also face many challenges, including difficulty in accessing capital and acquiring training for business planning and financial management. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program aims to address these challenges. R...
“Someone is going to die.” Naturally, this sentence piqued my attention. I wasn’t eavesdropping on the conversation where the above-mentioned line was uttered. Oh, contrare. It was said during a public gathering, by an individual sitting next to Scott and me. In fact, several comments from this person and the group he/she was with caught my attention. I was making a mental note to speak with them privately about their concerns, when one of the group members told about an incident they witne...
JONATHAN HLADIK Policy director Center for Rural Affairs With a nearly-unanimous vote last month, the Nebraska Legislature retained and improved one of the only incentives available to businesses of five or fewer employees. After a year when many small businesses shuttered and others were forced to pause plans for future growth, the approval of Legislative Bill 366 also sends an important message to microentrepreneurs-the services they provide are a worthy and important part of our state's...
JILL KRUSE, D.O. I was sitting in my beach chair on vacation soaking up the sun when I overheard the couple next to me sounding concerned. They were throwing out lots of big medical terms but were very confused and said that they did not understand anything that they read on this MRI report. I turned to them, apologized for eavesdropping and introduced myself as a physician. I offered to "translate" what the radiologist report said and they gladly accepted. Their problem was not a lack of...
Wow, what a weekend in Ewing. One hundred fifty years, plus one, definitely looks good on you. It took a lot of planning and quite a number of people were involved in pulling off a weekend filled with family, friends and fun. Cool temperatures and threatening rain could have slowed Friday evening activities, but that didn’t deter those wanting to kick off summer. Our staff, along with Josh Napier, had a great time overseeing the road rally. Some questions stumped participants; others were a b...
I’m not sure who first said this, but it’s true: You can’t have a million-dollar dream on a minimum wage work ethic. I know it’s true. Teaching and freelancing both required a high level of energy, with long and unpredictable hours. The news cycle, along with business owner responsibilities, exist 24/7, and like my father-in-law told me, “You work twice as hard when you’re responsible to earn your own living.” P.S. I’m not a millionaire … not yet (wink, wink) … and my million-dollar drea...
The speaker of the Legislature has announced that senators will complete their work a few days early, adjourning sine die on May 27 rather than June 10. This is partially due to the many late nights that were worked in order to complete our business and knowing we will be meeting again in a couple months. Every 10 years, the Legislature must complete the redistricting process to reflect population changes after the U.S. Census is complete. Due to the pandemic, states didn’t get the census d...
Time seems to fly by to fast when you're a father. My daughter Hazel turned 18 months old on Saturday, a fact I can hardly believe. It seems it was just yesterday that my wife, Christina, and I were holding our newborn daughter in our arms as first time parents. Now we have a wild child who loves to explore, play and run crazily around our house while laughing loudly with joy. Hazel also enjoys being outside in our front yard. If we'd let her, she would walk up and down our sidewalks for hours....
The best laid plans don’t always work out. Last week, the graduation section kept me busy, but a great column was brewing and I began penning it Wednesday. I added a bit more over the next few days. It was a doozy. Trust me. And then, Monday happened. My Mac desktop decided not to cooperate, even after attempting to install the new operating system. Five completed pages of the paper were lost. This is one of the pages currently inaccessible until Apple Support and I work through the issue. I’ve...
I’m taking a break this week, trying to catch my breath and recoup energy. This week’s edition of the Advocate-Messenger includes eight pages of graduation coverage, including senior photos and future plans, valedictorian and salutatorian speeches and a collage of memorable moments captured on my SD card. I also hope all the mothers who read this had a special day. Scott whisked me away from work for a few hours and took me to one of my favorite spots for a lazy Sunday afternoon drive. Spo...
Two major pieces of legislation that would have provided property tax relief were defeated this past week. Generally, I am supportive of proposals that attempt to lower property taxes. LR 11, introduced by Bayard Senator Steve Erdman, is a constitutional amendment proposing to replace all taxation with a consumption tax on the purchase of services and new goods. Nebraska residents would no longer pay property taxes, income taxes, sales and use taxes, inheritance taxes, or estate taxes. LR 11...
The Legislature continues to work through the stack of priority bills, sometimes working into the evening and adjourning between 8 and 10 p.m. Since my last column, we’ve debated a couple of bills related to property tax relief. The first, Senator Wayne’s LB 24, provides a sales tax exemption for municipal water bills. I had hoped that this would be packaged with my LB 2, which provides a reduction in agland valuations for school bonds approved after the effective date of the act. One would pro...
BEV WIELER April showers have brought May flowers and I can hardly wait for blooms that fill out the rest of May and lead us into June and summer in the garden. There was a little set back recently with frost warnings for the morning of May 11. While the spring planting of impatients, geraniums and a variety of petunias has been underway in my rural West Point garden, Mother Nature sent a reminder to put the brakes on. It was full speed on the eve of May 10 as boxes, empty flower pots and...
Oh, to be on the edge of 17 again, ready to explore the world, ready to turn the page and start a new chapter of life. One of my parents told me, at the time, I thought I knew everything, that my worldly experiences offered a depth of knowledge unrivaled by my peers. So wait, Mom and Dad. Sarcasm noted. I didn’t know everything? Wow. Admit it, you, too, thought you knew it all when you graduated and couldn’t wait to leave the nest to fly on your own. Life at 17 doesn’t offer the same conce...
Governor Ricketts signed the budget bills this past week with no line-item vetoes. He praised the Legislature for passing a budget that limited spending growth and placed an emphasis on increased funding for property tax relief measures. The Legislature gave first-round approval to LB 64, which addresses the taxation of social security benefits. LB 64 was introduced by Omaha Senator Brett Lindstrom and prioritized by Seward Senator Mark Kolterman. Only 13 states tax social security benefits....
What is enough? It's a deeply personal question, so I will give you a couple minutes to consider your answer. As Maria Shriver ponders in this week's edition of the Sunday Paper, "When do you know you've had enough? When do you finally feel that you are enough? When is enough, enough?" All are good questions worth consideration. Our responses will depend on our perceptions and experiences. The word we use to follow "enough" may tend to define who we are and our core system of beliefs. When my...
The Legislature passed the budget bills this past week. Governor Ricketts has five days (not counting Sunday) to decide whether to sign the legislation. The governor has the authority to line-item veto specific items on budget bills, without vetoing the entire bill. Once the budget bills have been passed, other legislation that appropriates General Funds or results in the reduction of revenue to the General Fund, and all other tax expenditure bills, can be read on final reading. LB 2,...
The Legislature debated several of my bills last week. On Tuesday afternoon, we debated my amendment to my LB 561, a bill to further define and implement the voter-approved initiative on casino gaming at racetracks. As 70% of the tax revenue derived from these casinos is dedicated to property tax relief, it is important to get this done right. Gambling is a divisive issue in our Legislature and the debate reflected that. After the question was divided on the issue of electronic keno, we spent a...
Allen Ginsberg wrote, “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” Poetry gives universal meaning to a singular effect, offers visual storytelling, complete with twists and turns. It is uniquely personal and open to the reader’s interpretation. I think that’s why I liked putting together poetry programs with my speech students. Finding the perfect blend of rh...
SEN. TIM GRAGERT The Legislature gave the budget bills second-round approval this past week, making only minor adjustments. After the budget is passed, the speaker plans to schedule taxation and spending measures. The session is more than two-thirds complete, but we still have many significant issues to discuss. As introduced, LB 406 focused on flood-control infrastructure projects along the lower Platte River. Senator Mike McDonnell, the primary sponsor of LB 406, has offered an amendment to...
