Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 116
In December, President Biden’s team shut down two border rail crossings in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas. The administration also falsely implied the closures were necessary for enforcement. In reality,Customs and Border Protection agents were reassigned to “quickly process individuals” who had crossed the border illegally. Prioritizing the processing of illegal immigrants over facilitating critical trade routes is unacceptable. Shutting down train traffic cost $250 million in commerce per d...
Full disclosure: My wife and I drive a four-year-old hybrid sedan. It runs on the electric motor up to 15 miles -per- hour before the gasoline engine engages. It feels and sounds like it's dead at stop signs. It averages 44 miles-per-gallon in highway driving. But it's a hybrid, not an all-electric vehicle. U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts has vowed to use every tool he has to fight President Joe Biden's electric vehicle mandates. Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen has signed a letter to Biden as one of 16...
Comments from two state senators from Omaha have pretty much diminished hopes for a "normal" session of the Nebraska Legislature this year. "I think it will be a difficult session again. I'm not backing down," said Sen. Kathleen Kauth as she gave priority designation to the Sports and Spaces Act that would bar biological males from participating in K-12 sports designed for females and would block trans students from using a bathroom designated for other than their gender at birth. "I will do...
Government should be open, effective and responsive. It should serve taxpayers well. In our system, the best way to ensure a high level of customer service is for Americans to have meaningful, transparent communication with those who represent them. Since entering the Senate, I've made it a priority to offer Nebraskans a variety of ways to stay connected. This year I've held in-person meetings and events across Nebraska. Our team has hosted mobile office hours in every Nebraska county. Quarterly telephone townhalls and Instagram Q&As allow...
Governor Jim Pillen wants all state government employees at their desks in their assigned departments beginning next month. He said the pandemic-era remote is over, although both empirical and anecdotal evidence nationwide show a workplace change that was pandemic caused has become the new normal. Oh, and never mind the fact that some state agencies have remote and telework policies that have been in place for 15 years. And, of course, not every department has the physical space available for...
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...
Social Security is the largest program in the federal budget, managing over $1 trillion in payments to roughly 70 million beneficiaries annually. It's a necessary program and an important part of retirement for millions of Americans. Unfortunately, like many big government programs, Washington is failing to prevent its waste, fraud and abuse costing taxpayers billions. For example, in Fiscal Year 2021 alone, Social Security's combined Disability Insurance, Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and...
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...
Before he took office, Gov. Jim Pillen joked about phone conversations being exempt from public disclosure. Now, his administration has taken what seems to be an unprecedented step to shield the governor’s communications. Pillen’s staff denied the “Flatwater Free Press” access to four emails the governor sent, in part citing “executive privilege” – a phrase absent from Nebraska’s public records laws. A half-dozen former and current officials and advocates who spoke to the “Flatwater Free Press” couldn’t recall any other Nebraska governors who i...
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...
Antelope County Commissioners had been at work for more than 65 minutes, May 2, when an individual performing a lewd act appeared on the Zoom call. The county board meets twice a month, in person, at the Antelope County Courthouse in Neligh. The meeting is also available via Zoom for individuals who chose to watch and/or participate via the online conferencing platform. While then-Gov. Pete Ricketts issued an executive order to temporarily waive certain requirements of the Nebraska Open Meeting...
A Nebraska family has plowed more than $1.6 million into the Lincoln mayor's race, an unprecedented sum and latest burst in a multi-year deluge that, at the federal level, rivals the political spending by a famed Las Vegas casino magnate and a Silicon Valley titan. It's not the Nebraska family you think. It's the Peed family and its business, Sandhills Global – not the Ricketts family – that have eclipsed all other donors while trying to help former State Sen. Suzanne Geist, a Republican, ous...
Let's talk about the embarrassment formerly known as the Nebraska Legislature. The 49 elected senators are now 60 days into the scheduled 90-day session and the scoresheet is mostly bare. There are two bills awaiting "final reading," the last of three rounds of debate by the full Legislature. Two bills have been killed, nine have been withdrawn and 614 are being held by committees. According to headlines in the New York Times and other national media outlets, the Nebraska Legislature has passed...
Where is the governor and what is he doing? We probably shouldn't be surprised that stealth candidate Jim Pillen, who refused to debate and was elected governor anyway, hasn't been releasing information about his public schedule. No schedules, nor press releases, little or no comment about issues. A staff that is tight-lipped and covers for him. The way it's going, the Columbus pig farmer could be spending his days running Pillen Family Farms and showing up at the state Capitol from time to...
The new governor says his proposed tax cuts are historic. Critics say they are not sustainable. Rookie mistake by the pig farmer politician who is backed by his Republican party and most of the 32 Republicans in the Nebraska Legislature. Maybe it’s all of them, I haven’t taken a poll. Somebody forgot to explain to Governor Jim Pillen that the $1.9 billion excess funds he claims will make all this work are “projected” to be in the state coffers. That means the so-called strong tax receipt...
There’s been a lot of talk about preserving the officially nonpartisan nature of the Nebraska Legislature. But there is another issue, occasionally discussed with similar zeal in years past, that’s creeping up again. (Gasp!) It’s the urban-rural split. While the focus has been on party loyalty – there are 32 Republicans and 17 Democrats in the officially nonpartisan Legislature – there are also 26 “urban” lawmakers (18 from Omaha and 8 from Lincoln) to just 23 “rural” senators. That reflects the shift of two rural districts, 49 and 36) to the O...
Welcome to 2023, a new year with a whole lotta new going on at the State Capitol. There’s a new governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, auditor and 14 new state senators assuming leadership roles in the Republican-dominated Nebraska government. There will be a new U.S. senator from Nebraska to be appointed by the new governor. There are 33 Republicans and 16 Democrats in the officially nonpartisan Legislature. So, what does this mean to you and me? A new year marks a great chance to move one year further away from the Covid pandemic l...
Here we are sandwiched between Christmas and New Year. Time to take stock of what we've been through as it impacts what lies ahead. In case you were somehow fortunate enough to sleep through it, 2022 was an election year. A couple really rich guys and some others ran for the Republican nomination for governor to replace term-limited Deep Pockets Pete Ricketts who still managed to throw enough money around to have an influence. Before you get all upset by that, remember that I have said before it isn’t illegal to spend his own money or the f...
This week, Governor Pete Ricketts is leading a trade mission to Japan to promote Nebraska's quality ag products and to pitch Nebraska as a top destination for international investment. The governor and trade delegation will meet with government officials, promote Nebraska beef, pork, ethanol and other ag products and encourage Japanese businesses to invest in Nebraska. Delegates on the mission include representatives from ag businesses, state commodity organizations, Nebraska Farm Bureau, the De...
In 2024, NASA will send a small surgical robot from Nebraska to the International Space Station. The tiny, two-pound robot will be able to perform surgeries on the space station that would normally require a surgeon’s expertise and much larger equipment. The surgical robot can operate more or less on its own, performing complex procedures at the flip of a switch. The device, developed by Nebraska-based Virtual Incision, is a significant step toward making it possible for surgeons to operate r...
Fifty years ago, women’s volleyball wasn’t even a varsity sport at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Fast forward a half century and Nebraska volleyball is must-see entertainment. Matches at the Devaney Center are standing room only. The Huskers again led the nation in home attendance last year with crowds averaging over 8,200 per match. And their national championship match against Wisconsin in December broke collegiate volleyball records for both in-person attendance (18,755) and TV vie...
Nebraska is a land of pioneers. Our state was settled by hardy homesteaders who ventured across windswept prairies in search of opportunity. While we often celebrate the grit and determination of these early Nebraskans, they deserve equal credit for their ingenuity. Their inventiveness helped transform the Great Plains into some of the most productive agricultural land in the world. This spirit of innovation remains a driving force behind our state's global leadership in agriculture. Nebraskans...
Nebraska is experiencing terrific growth. We’ve seen big success creating jobs, cutting taxes and attracting investment to our state. Recently, I hosted Nebraska’s Ag and Economic Development Summit in Kearney. The summit convenes key leaders from across the state to discuss how to build on our strong momentum. Over the course of the summit, we dove into the challenges and opportunities we face as a state. Some topics are familiar: developing our workforce, opening new markets for Nebraska’s exp...
In 1937, the Nebraska Safety Patrol was formed to address the rising problem of crashes on our state's roads. Eighty-five years later, that organization still stands-now known as the Nebraska State Patrol. Its mission to help keep our communities and citizens safe hasn't wavered. But they continue to adapt the ways they carry out that mission to meet the needs of Nebraskans. As we celebrate 85 years of the NSP, let's recognize all they do for our state. They keep us safe on the roads, protect...
On July 19, 2022, Elkhorn Rural Public Power District, headquartered in Battle Creek, will celebrate the installation of 10,000 meters in its territory. On April 29, 1940, the first 168 services were energized over 116 miles of distribution line. Eighty-two years later, more than 10,000 services for 5,028 customers, over 2,874 miles of line, exist. An open house will be held July 19, from 12 to 4 p.m., at the headquarter building in Battle Creek, to celebrate the achievement. A short program...
