Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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Growing up on a hill overlooking North Omaha during World War II, Mary Carpenter remembers the numerous vegetable plots, called victory gardens, that dotted her Florence neighborhood. “Everybody had one,” said Carpenter, the reporter’s mother-in-law. “We grew everything - asparagus, potatoes, tomatoes, black raspberries, pears, even grapes. That’s what fed us and supplemented our food.” Over the ensuing decades, many of those gardens disappeared as grocery stores started carrying seasonal produce year round. Yet 80 years later, everything...
ASHIA AUBREY Buffett Early Childhood Institute It’s the first day of kindergarten— kids get dropped off at school, where they meet other children for the first time, encounter new teachers, and experience a brand new schedule and structure—all in a setting that is likely unfamiliar to them. This transition can be a whirlwind for children, families and educators. “The Nebraska Transition to Kindergarten Toolkit and Resource Guide” was created to support the process between preschool and kindergarten. It’s a new guide for families, school dist...
The Legislature has passed the midway mark in this 60-day legislative session. The priority bill designation process is also complete. From this point on, generally only bills with priority status will be debated by the Legislature. Every senator gets to select one bill as their priority bill, every committee can pick two and the speaker is authorized to designate 25 bills as speaker priority bills. I selected LB 925 as my priority bill and it received first-round approval this past week on a...
SUMMERLAND PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD OF EDUCATION Feb. 16, 2022 Summerland Public School Board of Education held a regular meeting, Wednesday, Feb. 16, at the school. President Ed Nordby called the meeting, which was published in the Feb. 9, 2022, papers, to order at 12:08 p.m. Nordby noted the Open Meetings Act posted in the boardroom. Roll call was taken. Present: Candice Hoke, Marty Kerkman, Ed Nordby, Nate Schwager, Steve Thiele, Jeremy Wagner. Possible motion on board member absence. All board members were present. Motion by Kerkman, seconded...
The public hearing on LB 1023 was held Thursday, Feb. 10 before the Natural Resources Committee. It reflects the work of the Statewide Tourism and Recreational Water Access and Resource Sustainability Special Committee and proposes to adopt the Lake Development Act and the Water Recreation Enhancement Act. I was appointed to serve on the STAR WARS Committee, stemming from the passage of LB 406, last year. In addition to recommendations to construct a 3,600-acre lake in or near Sarpy County and...
We have reached the one-third mark of this 60-day legislative session but still have a great deal of work to do. The various standing committees are busy holding public hearings on the 600 bills that were introduced in January. As of Feb. 3, public hearings have been conducted on 257 bills during the first three weeks of hearings, but 343 bills have yet to be heard during the next four weeks, before the public hearing process concludes and the Legislature begins to meet on the floor in full-day...
HASTINGS – With two nurses out sick in early December, charge nurse Osa Brooks found herself scrambling to care for 28 patients. With only one floor nurse available, employees from other units were called in to work the floor or give medications. “It was really scary because I had 10 patients that I was responsible for, and I had another nurse giving medications for me,” Brooks said. Brooks said the chaos scared her because of the chance that she could have missed something, causing her patie...
After a three-month break, the Legislature convened Wednesday, Jan. 5, to begin the 107th legislative session, second session. Senators were called into special session in September to complete the redistricting process, based on new census data. Legislative District #40 no longer contains Boyd or Rock counties. Rock and Boyd counties are now part of Legislative District #43, represented by Sen. Tom Brewer. Legislative District #40 also lost the southern portion of Dixon County, which will be...
A large number of America's military veterans have returned home to civilian careers and often want to continue the service mission they committed to in the armed forces. Many veterans from rural areas have found that mission through farming and ranching. These farmer-veterans provide food, protect natural resources, and contribute to the vitality of their local communities while running their own businesses. With the average age of a U.S. farmer at nearly 60 years, and millions of acres...
For months, a silence fell across Nebraska’s auditoriums and theaters. Spaces where excited patrons once congregated were forced to remain empty because of COVID-19. But now, as many theaters around the state are starting their second full seasons in the pandemic, a sense of hope for venue staff abounds as they welcome patrons back in full. Located on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s campus, the Lied Center for Performing Arts must follow all COVID-19 safety protocols implemented by the university, which includes a mask mandate. Mat...
Summerland School District will feature five new staff members in the 2021-2022 school year, including one elementary and four high school educators. Staff members met for inservice training, in Orchard, Aug. 16 and 17. On Aug. 23 and 24, staff and students moved materials from the three former sites into the new facility, in preparation for the Aug. 30 start date. Jacob Goldfus His first impression of the Summerland School system and new facility can be summed up in one word: incredible. Okay,...
Preparations for the 2021- 2022 school year are nearing completion for Superintendent Kyle Finke and members of the Summerland School staff. In an interview, Friday, with area media representatives Finke said the new building "is coming along." "The elementary, we could have probably been in there today, moving in," he said. The lower level of the high school, which includes the industrial tech and ag areas and science and social studies classrooms, are slightly behind. "The nice thing is, we...
Summerland Board of Education approved a letter asking the state school board of education to “proceed with caution” on the second round of proposed health standards during the board’s July 12 meeting, in Ewing. A motion passed unanimously after minimal discussion. Board member Nate Schwager, who helped create the letter, said, “The hardest thing is they already rejected the first set of standards. You just don’t know what to expect with the second.” Board of education president Ed Nordby said...
PROCEEDINGS SUMMERLAND PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD OF EDUCATION July 12, 2021 Summerland Public School Board of Education held a regular meeting, Monday, July 12, 2021, at the Ewing site. President Nordby called the meeting , which was advertised in the July 7 newspaper, to order at 6:03 p.m. Nordby noted the Open Meetings Act posted in the boardroom. Roll call was taken. Present: Candice Hoke, Marty Kerkman, Ed Nordby, Nate Schwager, Steven Thiele, Jeremy Wagner. Motion by Thiele, seconded by Kerkman, to approve the agenda as presented. Voting aye:...
Briese and Timothy Gragert, who represent Antelope and Holt counties, respectively, in the state legislature, joined 28 other senators, Thursday, urging the Nebraska Department of Education to reject proposed health standards. Statehouse officials urged local school boards to adopt a resolution in opposition to the proposed standards. According to the letter, “Nebraskans have spoken loud and clear - they do not want their children subjected to the health education standards proposed by the N...
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...
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...
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...
BROOKE WRAGE Nebraska News Service A school safety reporting system was approved in the Nebraska Legislature on April 6, in the second round after a long debate. Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg said he introduced LB 322 to reduce violent incidents in all K-12 schools in Nebraska by having a trained crisis team on staff 24/7. The reporting line, Safe2HelpNE, would allow students, school staff, parents and community members to anonymously share information about concerning behavior by phone,...
The question of whether Nebraska should legalize medical marijuana will be debated by the Legislature this year. LB 474, the Medicinal Cannabis Act, was advanced this past week from the Judiciary Committee on a 5-2-1 vote. It has been prioritized by Senator Anna Wishart, the primary sponsor of LB 474. The bill, 62 pages in length, provides the regulatory framework to establish access to cannabis for medical purposes. It limits the allowable amount of cannabis, requires a patient to have a bona...
BROOKE WRAGE Nebraska News Service As of March 31, Gov. Pete Ricketts approved 16 bills to become state laws. The bills include topics varying from transportation and health care to government and military affairs. An overview of the new state laws follows. View the full list of bills that received approval on the Nebraska Legislature at https://nebraskalegislature.gov/calendar/agenda.php?day=2021-03-25. LB 14: Adopt the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue introduced LB 14, which will allow...
The Legislature has completed Day 50 of this 90-day legislative session and is in the middle of debate on bills that have been designated as a priority by senators, committees and the speaker. As a general rule, only bills that have been designated as a priority are placed on the agenda at this point in the session. There is an exception to this rule for a procedure called consent calendar. This process allows non-controversial, non-prioritized bills to be considered in an efficient manner....
The work of the Legislature is now about getting bills to the floor for debate by the entire body. And that generally means a priority designation. Priority bills, one per senator, two per committee and twenty-five for the speaker, have now been designated. Senator Geist prioritized my LB 408, which provides for a 3 percent limit on annual increases in property tax askings. It may be debated on the floor of the legislature next week. Senator Slama prioritized my LB 139, which provides a measure...
State senators are considering a bill that would create an anonymous reporting system for potential threats, assault and mental health concerns in all Nebraska K-12 schools. Had there been a system in place, like LB322 five years ago, Mark Adler is certain that his son, Reid Adler, would still be alive today. At 15 years old, Reid took his own life. Mark Adler, superintendent of Ralston Public Schools, shared his son’s story as he testified in support of the bill. “Reid was a victim of continuous cyberbullying, to the degree that he could not...
The Bazile Groundwater Management Area is inviting people to stay inside where it’s warm during an upcoming winter series of one-hour webinars. The three-part series will take place virtually via Zoom at noon on the following Fridays – Feb. 19, Feb. 26 and March 5 – and feature three different speakers. Updates on the BGMA’s University of Nebraska-Lincoln demonstration sites and presentations on soil management strategies and groundwater research taking place within the management area will be...
