Just what is the state of the state?

The state of the state on its 156th birthday.

It's still a very red, heavily conservative and largely Republican mecca situated in one of those mostly square states out west that a lot of people couldn't find on an unmarked map. And we like it that way.

Well, a lot of us seem to. Might that change? Could Nebraska be the place where high school and college graduates want to stay? Could it become a magnet for young people and innovation? Progress in that direction is slow but it could happen.

Governors (they've all been Republicans for decades) and legislatures (they're "officially nonpartisan"...