Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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The special session of the Nebraska Legislature for redistricting has now ended. The last three weeks of September have been filled with the most intense negotiations I have ever been a part of. Nevertheless, we now have new district maps which will apply for the next ten years. It was very important for the Legislature to meet the September 30th deadline. Had we not passed this redistricting legislation in September, it would have had to wait until we could revisit it in January. Revisiting...
Once every 10 years the Nebraska State Legislature must create new district maps for all of our State elected officials. This process is known as redistricting. The Nebraska State Senators have been meeting in a special session since September 13th redrawing district lines for the United States Congress, the State Legislature, the State Supreme Court, the University of Nebraska Regents, the Public Service Commission, and the State Board of Education. By far, the most controversial map concerns...
Liberty is worth fighting and dying for. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” In 2003 Congress used this quotation as the foundation for the Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act, an Act which was written to preserve our civil liberties but which never became law. Because America is still the home of the brave, protecting our liberties remains an essential American principle worthy of...
On August 9th President Joe Biden went before the camera and blamed 80 million unvaccinated Americans for the persistent spreading of the coronavirus and mandated that all federal employees, save the U.S. Postal Service, and all employers with more than 100 employees get vaccinated against COVID-19 or get weekly virus tests. Biden insisted that “This is not about freedom or personal choice; it’s about protecting yourself and those around you…” I disagree. Biden’s vaccine mandate is unconstit...
In case you haven’t heard the news, the Nebraska State Board of Education voted 5-1 on Friday to indefinitely postpone development of their new health education standards. Voting in favor of the proposal to halt the process were board members Robin Stevens, Lisa Fricke, Patti Gubbels, Maureen Nickels and Patsy Koch Johns. Voting against the proposal was Jacquelyn Morrison. Deborah Neary abstained from the vote and Patricia Timm was absent from the meeting. This represents a huge victory for t...
How well informed are you? Do you get all of the news or only snippets of the news? Unfortunately, keeping up with all of the news today is like taking on a second full-time job. Few of us have the time, the energy, or the interest in researching every angle on every story. Complicating matters is the fact that our major media outlets slant the news according to their own political worldviews. Mainstream journalism (not our local press) is very biased. Seldom does a person ever get both sides...
The cancel culture runs strong in America today. The cancel culture seeks to destroy anyone who dissents from the political agenda of the Left. For instance, after My Pillow founder, Mike Lindell, publicly questioned the election results of 2020, he was ditched by 20 retailers who refused to continue selling his products. If Thomas Jefferson lived today, he would likely find himself being cancelled by Google and having his account suspended by Facebook. Those who seek to regulate truth on the...
Have the Regents at the University of Nebraska spun out of control? Recent decisions by the Board of Regents suggests that the University of Nebraska is no longer the land grant University system that it once was. Because the University of Nebraska system is a land grant University, the Board of Regents are supposed to be accountable to the people of the State. Unfortunately, today they are beholden to students, faculty, the teachers’ union, and political activists, who do not share the same v...
The time has come to formally call for the resignations of every member of the Nebraska State Board of Education, including Education Commissioner, Matthew Blomstedt. Each of the members of the Nebraska State Board of Education needs to resign because the board has failed to listen to the people of Nebraska, failed to adequately reform the sex education standards, and has failed to educate Nebraska’s students. Instead of doing what the vast majority of the people want and what is best for our s...
Earlier this year I co-signed LB 643, a bill introduced by Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair to protect the rights of citizens and parents to choose for themselves whether or not to get vaccinated in the event that the government, a school or a business tries to impose a mandatory inoculation. Although the bill has failed to advance out of the HHS committee, I continue to believe that it is a fundamental breech of our individual liberty to impose a mandatory vaccination upon the American public. Yet,...
The popular definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. This popular definition of insanity describes what it is like to work with the Nebraska Department of Education. No matter how many times the people of Nebraska testify against the newly proposed education standards and demand that the old curriculum be reinstated, the Nebraska Department of Education continues to press forward with its own agenda. Despite the thousands of emails...
There is a necessary connection between economics and a republican form of government which gives rise to individual liberty. Whenever you alter either a constitutional republic or an economic system, the result is the loss of liberty. Milton Friedman understood this correlation very well when he said, “…a society which is socialist cannot also be democratic, in the sense of guaranteeing individual freedom.” Capitalism is an economic system designed for a free people. Capitalism puts an individu...
Last week the National Education Association, which is commonly referred to as the teacher’s union, adopted a measure to combat attacks on Critical Race Theory. The National Education Association is an extremist Left-wing organization with a long history of endorsing programs which undermine the foundations of our traditional Western educational system. Critical Race Theory is important to all Nebraskans because it is part of the new education standards being proposed to the Nebraska D...
11 years ago our founding fathers declared their freedom from Great Britain and began a war for independence against the world’s number one superpower. In the end, they earned their freedom. But, what about us? Will Americans continue to be free? America is a free country today, and our children continue to inherit that freedom, but American freedom from British tyranny came with a very expensive price tag. That freedom will someday be lost unless we raise up future generations who understand t...
Allow me to introduce you to a new organization called, the Consumption Tax Institute, Inc. The Consumption Tax Institute, Inc. is a new 501-C4 organization, which is putting together a strategy to put an initiative for the consumption tax on the ballot for November 2022. At some point in the future they hope to announce the start of a new petition drive, but that announcement will have to wait for another day. The reason that I am introducing you to the Consumption Tax Institute, Inc. today has...
It is time for the State Board of Education to reject the newly proposed comprehensive sex education standards. These proposed standards are politically driven, have no legitimate basis in science, and undermine the traditional family values held by the vast majority of Nebraskans. The State Board of Education has received more than 2,000 emails and at least 4,000 survey responses in opposition to these newly proposed sex education standards. In addition, public testimony by citizens has been...
The first session of the 107th Legislature has come to an end…well, almost. There remains one matter yet to be resolved by the Unicameral Legislature this year. It is the matter of redistricting. Once every ten years legislative district lines get redrawn in order to better comply with the changing demographics of our state. Legislative district lines are determined by population. Ten years ago, LB 703 determined that the ideal size of Nebraska’s legislative districts would be 37,272 people. So,...
Last week the Legislature voted to override Gov. Rickett’s vetoes on three bills: LB 108, LB 147 and LB 306. LB 108 and LB 306 expand Nebraska’s welfare benefits, while LB 147 requires the State to take over management of the Omaha Public School’s teacher pension plan. So, today I would like to explain why the Legislature was wrong to override the Governor’s vetoes on these three bills. LB 108 is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. The bill raises the gross income limit for the Supplemental Nut...
The first session of the 107th Nebraska Legislature is quickly coming to an end. The Legislature will sine die on May 27, 2021. Although my constitutional resolution for a consumption tax failed by two votes, some good things happened in the State Legislature this year. So, today I would like to highlight some of the good bills that passed this year. One good bill is by Sen. Tom Brewer. LB 387 exempts military retirement pay from the State Income Tax. Hopefully, this bill will attract retired mi...
Whenever a controversial bill gets introduced into the Nebraska Legislature, Senators have the opportunity to ask the Nebraska Attorney General to answer specific questions about that bill. Because the Attorney General must be objective and unbiased, State Senators don’t always get the answer they want, and such was the case with Sen. Tom Brewer’s bill, LB 236, a bill that I had co-signed. LB 236 is an important bill because it allows 90 of Nebraska’s counties to opt out of the State’s conceal...
Last week my consumption tax resolution was debated on the floor of the Legislature. LR11CA is my priority resolution for a constitutional amendment to repeal the income tax, property tax, sales tax and inheritance tax and to replace these taxes with a consumption tax. Today I regret to inform you that the resolution failed to advance, but don’t lose heart. When I consider all that this constitutional amendment attempted to do, I am not so surprised that it failed. Change is hard. Change is espe...
The rights guaranteed to us by the United States Constitution and the Nebraska State Constitution are currently under assault. A very factious and contentious spirit has arisen in our country and in our culture today which seeks to undermine our most basic rights as children of God and as American citizens. This attempt to undermine our constitutional rights emanates from both the legislative and executive branches of the federal government in Washington, D.C., and so it demands a response from...
LR 14 is Sen. Steve Halloran’s resolution calling for a convention of the states. Article V of the U.S. Constitution allows for states to call for a constitutional convention whenever two-thirds of the state Legislatures file applications with Congress calling for a constitutional convention. LR 14 would serve as Nebraska’s application for a convention of the states. Currently 15 states have filed their applications with Congress, while 23 other states, including Nebraska, have legislation pen...
My priority bill for this year has made its way out of committee and onto General File. LR 11CA is my resolution for a constitutional amendment to repeal the State income tax, the property tax, the State sales tax and the inheritance tax and to replace these taxes with a consumption tax. Last week Speaker Hilgers announced that he would begin floor debates on taxation bills beginning the week of April 26. LR 11CA will likely be put on the agenda sometime that week. We have been making great...
Last week my priority bill for this year was voted out of committee. The Revenue Committee voted 6-2 to advance LR11CA to General File. LR11CA is my resolution for a constitutional amendment to repeal the State income tax, the State sales tax, the property tax, and the inheritance tax, and to replace all of these taxes with a consumption tax. The consumption tax would tax all services and new goods. Used goods would never be taxed. The consumption tax only taxes an item once, then it is yours to...
