Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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Despite recent federal and state approval, construction of a controversial 226-mile transmission line is once again paused in parts of the Sandhills - the latest stumbling block in a 14-year battle. A federal judge issued a partial preliminary injunction on June 8 in response to a lawsuit brought by local ranchers, historic organizations and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. They're seeking to block the 345-kilovolt electric transmission line proposed by the Nebraska Public Power District. Known as the...
The two highest-paid nonprofit employees in the state benefit from a bonus system criticized for incentivizing more medical procedures. Nebraska's state auditor calls it inexplicable. A former health insurance CEO suggests it's excessive. A veteran doctor says it's unheard of. They're reacting to what a nonprofit hospital paid its gastroenterologist in 2024: Nearly $5 million. That same hospital, Faith Health in Norfolk, paid a plastic surgeon $3.8 million. Those sums made the doctors the two...
Ella Ricker was sitting in her elementary school orchestra class when she first considered a career in teaching. Her orchestra teachers at Lincoln Public Schools made learning to play music so fun, she wanted to share that joy with others. As a teacher, Ricker said, seeing her students excited to play their instruments and perform in school concerts was her favorite part of the job. But it was also only one part of a growing list of responsibilities in a profession in which she said a good work-life balance had become unattainable. So, after...
A complete surprise. That's how SAM co-publisher Scott Schindler described the moment his name was announced as the winner of the Feature Photo of the Year from the Nebraska Press Association. "You entered my picture?" He asked wife and co-publisher LuAnn, before making his way to the podium to accept the award during the Nebraska Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest awards banquet, Saturday, at The Cornhusker in Lincoln. "He sent me two photos that made the paper throughout the year,"...
Not gonna lie, my heart skipped a beat when I checked numbers for the Top 5 articles read online in last week’s edition. Why? Two legal notices made the list. Public notices are required to keep citizens informed about actions of government entities. A public notice holds the government accountable, relying on an independent third party to print proof of publication. By doing so, each public notice has verifiable proof - via paper trail - of its permanent existence in print. Simply posting a n...
This past week, the Legislature continued to hold public hearings on bills. Three bills by Sen. Kauth, relating to social issues, garnered significant interest from across the state. LB730 would require schools and state agencies to designate restrooms and locker rooms based on sex. LB731 would adopt the Gender Transition Malpractice Accountability Act and allow for civil actions relating to gender-altering procedures. LB732 would prohibit health care practitioners from providing cross-sex...
Every day, Laura Gamble sees the importance of Pender Community Hospital in the lives of her neighbors. The woman who drove an hour to deliver her first baby. The man in a mental health crisis. They rely on her northeast Nebraska hospital. "It's like an oasis on the hill," said Gamble, who grew up in the area and practiced as a nurse before becoming the hospital's CEO. The hospital is one of the largest employers in the 1,115-person town of Pender, Gamble said. It delivers more than 120 babies...
Gov. Jim Pillen and the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance gave final approval Nov. 12 to the final charter for the launch of Telcoin Digital Asset Bank in Norfolk. As a result, Telcoin will manage the first regulated digital asset depository in the United States, with leadership expecting operations to begin in December. State experts said the burgeoning market of digital assets means more economic opportunities for entrepreneurs and developers of fintech and crypto in Nebraska. It...
Nebraska is cattle country. We used to be known as "The Beef State" – a nickname I always liked. But recently, cattle producers have raised a beef with the president over his ideas to reduce the cost of beef at the grocery store. Every media has covered the cattle kerfuffle: President Trump proposed to quadruple beef imports from Argentina, so that record-high prices in our country might come down. (He also sent a $40 billion bailout to the struggling South American country – a country that is...
LINCOLN — In the past five years, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has weathered $75 million in cuts. Cuts to staff. Cuts to university libraries. Cuts to colleges that have taught UNL students for more than a century. But the pain from those cuts, spread over years, likely will be dwarfed by what's to come, as the state’s flagship university moves to slash $27.5 million by the end of the calendar year. The total, announced by Chancellor Rodney Bennett in early August, represents nearly 6% of UNL’s state-aided budget. It exceeds the budge...
Michael's Cantina has been serving Tex-Mex food to the residents here for more than 30 years. It feels timeless, except for an unwelcome newcomer: the stench. For the past two years, the restaurant and nearby residents have been bothered by the stink, which owner Heath Henery describes as a "sewer smell with almost a vomit smell." He blames the odor on the dairy processing plant across the street, a company long known as Milk Specialties Global that recently rebranded as Actus Nutrition. The...
Editor's note: This story is about gambling and problem gambling. Nebraskans seeking help with problem gambling can call 1-833-BETOVER - 833-238-6837 - 24 hours a day. Mike Sciandra kept $300-$400 zippered inside a pouch in his leather backpack, ready for the moment he could take a break from his traveling sales job and walk into a Nebraska bar or convenience store. There, in Auburn, Aurora, Columbus, North Platte or York, he'd bet the maximum $4 per spin on a so-called "skill game," a legal...
When Gerri Peterson was wrapping up her college degree, she had no idea she'd soon be running a newspaper. "My dream job fell into my lap," she says. After graduating in December, she spent six months shadowing the retiring publisher of the Hooker County Tribune in Nebraska. By the time she was 22, she wasn't just reporting the news-she owned the paper. In Louisiana, Craig Franklin had a different path, but a similar sense of calling. He'd been connected to the Jena Times in Louisiana most of hi...
In the hours after federal immigration officers descended on Glenn Valley Foods, company officials and elected leaders made one point clear: Glenn Valley had worked to avoid the exact situation it found itself in. As proof, they pointed to the Omaha meatpacking plant’s use of E-Verify, a federal system meant to help employers confirm a person’s ability to work legally in the U.S. “We’ve done everything we’re supposed to do as a company,” Glenn Valley Foods President Chad Hartmann said at the time. A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enf...
How often do you spend $2.50 on a 20-ounce pop or $2.59 to satisfy a sweet tooth? So why hesitate to pay just over $1 for quality local news? It costs about $2 to produce a single copy of SAM each week-a true bargain in today's economy. Since the Advocate-Messenger launched in July 2019, printing and mailing costs have soared. That doesn't include time spent covering events, writing articles, designing ads, or meeting with advertisers. On average, each issue includes 10 pages, with four in full...
Over the past 25 years, Dollar General stores have become a fixture of the retail landscape in rural Nebraska. Now, there are 142 chain "dollar" stores - 115 of them Dollar Generals - in Nebraska towns with a population smaller than 10,000. OAKLAND - If you drive down U.S. Highway 77, you won't see the grocery store that has managed to keep afloat in this town for more than 100 years. It's five blocks off the highway, on Oakland's main drag. What you will see is a bright yellow sign, beckoning...
This will be Mandi Sedlak's fourth time competing in the U.S. Adaptive Open, one of the sport's major championships for physically and mentally impaired adults. In Mandi Sedlak's world, everything seems to fit. Even in her worst moments. It's true of her golf game, her husband, her career and the prosthetic leg connecting these threads. The Kearney native will be relying on the list's last item when she competes in the U.S. Adaptive Open at Woodmont Country Club in Maryland July 7-9. It will be...
In the sparsely populated Nebraska Panhandle, the City of Kimball is trying to grow. And thanks to investments from major local employers and the planned Air Force upgrade of missiles in nearby nuclear missile silos, the area soon could double in size. But to meet that growth, the city's water infrastructure needs attention - millions of dollars worth of attention: $2.5 million for sewer lines, around $1 million for updating the drinking water system and millions more for the wastewater treatmen...
Garrett Shadbolt grew up watching his dad chase dreams of saddle bronc stardom, but never had much desire to chase it himself - an interesting admission from the Nebraska native and current No. 7 bareback rider in the world. "I remember going to a lot of rodeos when I was little, but watching him didn't make me want to get into it," he said. Now, Shadbolt is forming new traditions with his young family. And as the lone Nebraskan to make it to the National Finals Rodeo in the last four years, he...
Summerland Advocate-Messenger publishers LuAnn and Scott Schindler received a statewide newspaper award for community leadership, Friday, during the 2025 Nebraska Press Association Convention in Kearney. The Don Harpst Sr. Leadership Award recognizes a newspaper publisher who best promotes leadership opportunities within their community. Harpst owned newspapers in Indianola, Cambridge, Wilsonville, Eustis and Curtis. He believed in developing leaders in the communities served by his...
The Advocate-Messenger earned 31 awards in the 2025 Better Newspaper Competition and ended in second place for the Allen & Linda Beerman Community Newspaper Sweepstakes Award, which includes weekly newspapers from all classes. The Stanton Register took top honors and the Aurora News-Register ended in third. SAM finished second in Division A, based on circulation and, in the digital sweepstakes division, SAM placed third. The paper picked nine first-place awards in categories, including building...
Whew! I’m still trying to recover from the 2025 Nebraska Press Association Convention, held in Kearney. I enjoy the annual conference for multiple reasons: great educational sessions, networking with fellow newspaper folk, meeting new vendors, great (but too much) food and an overall fantastic time celebrating the written word. It’s not all fun and games ... except for trivia night. That was a blast. I never thought I would hear “God Bless America” sung a beat box rhythm. Sessions begin early a...
Molly Pofahl had big plans for the $370,000 in federal money awarded to the East Central District Health Department in March. They would use the money to provide cleanup for homes with high lead levels in Boone, Colfax, Nance and Platte counties, said Pofahl, the department’s chief public health officer. They could make it easier for people living in the district’s rural areas to get vaccinated. She planned to get training for her staff to better teach central Nebraskans about preventing infections. Lessons learned during COVID-19 informed the...
The Advocate-Messenger office will be closed, Thursday, April 24 and Friday, April 25, for the Nebraska Press Association convention. Anyone needing to get in touch with us can text or call 402-851-0054 or email lschindler@summerlandadvocate.com. We will reply when we aren't in a session....
Mele Mason recalls the days when the newsroom at Omaha TV station KMTV had journalists covering city hall, the county courthouse, the statehouse and the “cop shop.” Reporters attended multiple other governmental meetings and community gatherings, said Mason, who worked as a news videographer at the station in the 1980s. But those days are gone, she said, with her old newsroom now about one-third the size. So when Mason saw that an effort was underway to address shrinking newsrooms by enl...
