Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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Was driving home from a fishing trip the other day when I heard the news – Pete Rose, probably the best hitter in the history of baseball, had died. When I played in high school, I used a "Pete Rose" Louisville Slugger bat. It was as thick as a telephone pole, and almost as heavy. But I was like a lot of people – we loved the way Rose played the game. All-out. Sliding head-first into the bases. Knocking down catchers in plays at home plate. And best of all, slamming hit after hit, and spr...
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...
One of the best yearbooks my students produced is based on the theme, "Everyone has a story." Like a typical yearbook, it is stuffed with photos and cutlines and articles, from bleed line to bleed line, placed on double-truck spreads. The difference from others we previously produced: We looked for commonalities among students that weren't school related. In that edition, students wrote about their peers who participated in non-traditional sports outside of the school day, like trap shooting...
For more than 30 years, I worked among fellow journalists who were passionate watchdogs reporting on the actions of people in power as a way to hold them accountable. I'm proud to see that important work continue, from the reporting on local government budgets to investigations of corruption in the halls of Congress. Ensuring transparency and accountability of government remains the goal every day - and no one is above scrutiny. Unfortunately, Americans are gobbling up outlandish misinformation...
Hard to imagine, but in our deep-red state we now have a competitive race for the U.S. Senate. It's been a while since a Republican had to break a sweat to get re-elected to the Senate in Nebraska. Even former governor and U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey – a widely known Democrat nationally – couldn't crack the GOP's grip on the state's two Senate seats. But here comes a regular guy and nonpartisan from Omaha, Dan Osborn. His long-shot run against two-term incumbent Sen. Deb Fischer has caught fire, ins...
I turned 13 when a magical show debuted on Saturday evenings, full of comedic genius and up-and-coming musicians. I grew up watching what was first dubbed NBC’s Saturday Night. It didn’t become known as Saturday Night Live until 1977, after ABC dumped its lackluster Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. Those first seasons with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players - Gilda, Dan, Chevy, Jane, John, Garrett and Laraine - are classics. From Roseanne Rosannadanna to Landshark to the Killer Bee...
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...
In October 1988, the Cold War was still simmering. World War II was just a generation ago, fresh in many veterans’ minds and in the hearts of families who lost their parents and grandparents in the conflict. More recently, many Americans had fought in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and many returned home in need of health care and in search of employment. October 1988 was the month President Ronald Reagan signed the Department of Veterans Affairs Act, which transformed the independent Veterans A...
Good things come to those who wait. Or, sometimes, you have to flesh out details of a project before all the pieces come together. In this instance, the second statement hits the mark. For two years, we have wanted to establish a reader panel for SAM. Why? We believe listening to reader feedback is a solid way for our weekly product to continue to grow. We believe SAM has an invested group of readers and we feel it’s important to connect with you, whether you’re a print subscriber or prefer the...
Online learning seems new, but it’s older than you think. The field’s predecessor, distance education, can be traced back centuries. From Sir Isaac Pitman, who taught shorthand by correspondence in 1840, to lectures broadcast on the radio in the early 1920s, all the way through to the early 1990s when colleges and universities took advantage of the newly minted World Wide Web and began to offer online education programs, it has evolved alongside technological advances. In those early days of the internet, online learning was an adjustment for...
Back in the day, our high school basketball team used to employ a full-court press when we'd fallen behind. It was mostly a desperation measure toward the end of a game, a frantic effort in hopes that we could suddenly trip up our opponent and turn a defeat into a victory. Well, just recently in Nebraska, we were able to see a political full-court press in action, and such all-out strategy seems to have become the norm when it comes to citizen-led ballot initiatives. Ballot initiatives allow...
While reading a weekly email from James Clear, writer of the wildly popular book “Atomic Habits,” the author posed a question that caught my attention. “What season are you in right now and what does that season require?” We walk through life and experience different phases, like the changing of seasons. Right now, we’re transitioning from summer into fall, where the days cool down, school activities heat up and there’s a constant sense of motion. I call it the season of busy. What does it req...
A few years back, a lucky tip came my way about an impending immigration raid in O'Neill. I don't recall a lot of details about what was expected to happen, but the tip was "you'd better be there tomorrow morning." As I drove up Highway 281 toward the north-central Nebraska town, I settled in behind what seemed like an endless line of SUVs with blackened windows also driving northward. It turned out they were mostly agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who were headed to...
Ironic, isn’t it, that a system that provides so many advantages for its citizens also provides the means of its own demise. Unlike nearly every other system of government that came before it, U.S. democracy offered its citizens individual freedom, respect and relative equality. Yes, it’s true that the founders left women and enslaved people out of their plans, but, thankfully, the nation has moved to implement the founders’ original principles as we have learned more about and moved to embrace what they actually mean. American democracy makes...
My Uncle Paul left this earth about 10 days ago. He was an entertaining character who loved his family and always had a knack for making people laugh. I was asked to speak at his funeral. My Aunt Deanna tells me he loved this column. He told me that, too. Uncle, this one’s about you. I read two statements this week that hit home. The first one said, “An auntie and her first-born niece will always have an unbreakable bond. I know it’s true. Ask my aunties, I’m their favorite “Hey, will you run t...
The State of Nebraska has more than 200 boards and commissions staffed by professionals and regular citizens. They deal with a broad range of subjects, from the recently-created Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementia Advisory Council and State Child Death Review Team, to more recognizable boards, such as the Board of Parole and Board of Trustees for State Colleges. The governor gets to appoint members to many of these boards and the appointments often go to supporters of the governor and people...
Last week, I watched ESPN E60: No Place Like Nebraska. It wove several storylines into one, showing why Husker volleyball continues to be the program to emulate. The show included snippets of the program’s humble beginnings, a fair amount about the attendance record at volleyball day and a glimpse into Harper Murray’s successes on the court and downfalls outside of Devaney. It’s a lot to wrap into a 50-minute video. Maybe too much. One storyline needed more. If you’re a volleyball enthusi...
Dear editor: Nebraskans for Peace State Board supports American Democracy as stated in the US. Constitution, with its openness to human rights for all people and its checks and balances in government through the legislative, executive and judicial. We urge our fellow Nebraskans to further democracy through widening perspective by reading writers one disagrees with and try to understand their thinking. Nebraskans for Peace acknowledges the large number of newspapers in Nebraska and the existence...
Back in the day, the Omaha World-Herald provided me with a company car and the instructions: "Drive across the state and find some stories." It was obviously a more formal command than that, something like, "If you like your job, you'll write something interesting." It was an incredible adventure in various vintages of Ford Taurus'. On the road, you realize that there are fascinating stories – sometimes tragic and sad, sometimes heart-warming and uplifting – in every corner of the state. You rec...
Specialty producers have often been underserved by federal crop insurance programs. Recognizing the discrepancy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency, which administers federal crop insurance, recently announced the expansion of the Enhanced Coverage Option to better serve producers. The expansion offers farmers who provide fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other agricultural products additional coverage at a reduced cost, giving them better protection for their operations in...
I opened the wooden recipe box sitting on the kitchen counter the other day and was transported to my childhood. It’s funny how reading recipes in your mom’s and grandmothers’ handwriting makes you long for certain foods. The first recipe out of the box listed ingredients in mom’s seven-minute frosting: egg whites, sugar, water, white corn syrup, salt and vanilla. I can see her standing at the stove, laboring over a double boiler, using a hand mixer to whip the concoction until peaks formed. It was a delicious final touch on her homemad...
The Legislature concluded the special session that was called to relieve property taxes on Aug. 20. After a contentious start, senators agreed to compromise on legislation that will frontload the Nebraska Property Tax Incentive Act credits from LB1107 (2020) directly onto taxpayer’s property tax statements, trim and adjust the state budget by $185 million and tighten existing property tax levy caps for counties, cities and villages to the greater of inflation or 0%. Of the 81 bills and 24 r...
State lawmakers have long since finished their long, 17-day special session in Lincoln and headed back home. The summer session unfolded as a lot of people, including me, expected - a lot of ideas for reducing property taxes were discussed, but only a small, incremental change, one that will result in a 3% drop in property taxes for some taxpayers, was passed. As we've discussed before, reducing property taxes, while a noble and needed move, is a complicated task and requires an adept hike...
One of the most exciting things we can do for the places we love is make a planned gift. Exciting might not be the first word we associate with making a will, which is the simplest and most common way to make a charitable planned gift, but bear with me for a moment. Planning your estate offers a poignant opportunity to examine your passions and values. When we sit down to decide what causes are important enough to be included in our legacy, the stakes become a bit higher. We catalog our lives,...
One of my favorite TikTok creators eats his way through the Iowa State Fair. For the past three years, this Iowegian visits nearly every food stand on the fairgrounds, highlights a certain food or special drink, samples it while the camera runs and rates each food, giving it a specific number of corndogs on a 10-corndog scale. He’s taste-tested apple bacon waffles, dill pickle sno-cones, alligator corndogs, lamb Philly cheese steaks, pork picnic in a cup (pulled pork, baked beans, Fritos and c...
