Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Sorted by date Results 1099 - 1123 of 1718
After Congress and enough states ratified the thirteenth amendment that terminated slavery, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This law declared that “all people born in the United States are entitled to be citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude.” The Act equated birth to citizenship. President Andrew Johnson vetoed that Civil Rights Act, but then on April 5, 1866, the Senate, overrode his veto by a two-thirds majority. The...
It's a chilly Halloween in western Nebraska and it may be hard to make out the true identities of masked ghouls and goblins, superheroes, cowboys and princesses knocking on our doors in necessary layers of warm clothing. Nonetheless, cold or mild, it's a night of fun and fellowship. But in the distant past Halloween was darker and more serious. Hundreds of years ago, fall festivals were more about warding off evil spirits, evading curses and spells, and placating spirits of the dead than they...
I turned on the radio on my way to the office recently and found myself in the middle of a discussion. It was a familiar discussion. At least, the symbolism was familiar. It was familiar because it reminded me of how I started a book several years ago. The analogy is of a man looking at a headstone, of how the person memorialized had a starting date and an ending date, with a dash in the middle. Seconds into my visit with this radio program, the question was asked “what are we going to do w...
It's a wonderful time of year. The "fall run" is on and cowboys all over the country are celebrating as they ship calves. Many ranches today precondition (vaccinate) the calves a few weeks before weaning them off of their mamas. These vaccinations are follow-up boosters to the shots they received at branding time. This is a proactive approach to cattle health. The vaccine develops the immune systems of the calves who are about to be stressed from being weaned. Good natured jokes can abound with...
I have to admit I’m a little surprised at the number of states tightly limiting abortion. Call it a rebellion or whatever you like, but there is a trend against allowing abortions when a heartbeat can be detected in the child. The debate should be looked at below the headlines. We have two sides embattled with the dollar as the primary weapon. Argue if abortion is proper or not. Explain how it is Constitutionally guaranteed if you wish. But before you do this, answer one question: what are y...
Last week, Senators wrapped up the First Session of the 106th Nebraska Legislature. From property taxes to a new pro-life law, the Legislature did important work on a wide variety of issues. Here are a few of the highlights from the session over the last five months. When session began in January, it was hard to imagine that Nebraska would endure its most widespread natural disaster in state history within a matter of weeks. As Nebraskans stepped up to recover and rebuild bigger and better than...
Editor’s Note: The following letter was edited for length. Editor, There are happenings with the City of Sidney City Manager and the City of Sidney City Council that I want you to know about. On Tuesday evening, the 9th of April 2019, a public hearing segment in the normal agenda of the City Council meeting was allowed. The item on the agenda: “4. PUBLIC HEARING re: land and building purchase; and RESOLUTION NO. 20190401 approving said purchase and terms for same.” After the public’s comments from several people, all of whom questioned why the...
The few seconds I’ve seen of the Gillette commercial doesn’t do much for the image of manhood. A row of men standing in front of charcoal grills as if that is their lot in life. They are cavemen in button-up shirts. Another clip is of two young boys fighting in the yard with apparent dads light-heartedly saying “boys will be boys.” Trying to conduct a little research, I find Toxic Masculinity is hidden in the realm of sociology defining and redefining genders. It would seem that any term us...
Michael Greenberg, reporter for the New York Review, examined California in two recent articles, the first in December on agriculture, and the second in January on housing’s high cost. In the first, he paints a stunning picture of agriculture in California’s San Joaquin Valley, a stretch of land “234 miles long and 130 miles wide,” with Stockton to the north and Bakersfield to the south. Greenberg writes, “Measured by yearly production, the San Joaquin Valley is one of the highest-value stretche...
Economic and political ruin strikes one country after another. Yes, it seems that, on occasion, the world’s nearly two hundred countries will suffer a disaster, a disintegration of the country’s stabilizing political and economic forces that pushes its citizens into the very center of chaos. For example, the civil war in Syria drags on. An estimated 500,000 people have lost their lives since 2011, and another 13 million have found themselves displaced and forced to flee the country. Once the...
Over time, I’ve heard several comedians and talk show hosts say how a sad it is certain president is no longer in office. That person provided a lot of inspiration for stand-up comedy. I get it. Any individual who runs for public office on the national level needs to be comfortable in a glass house or be arrogant enough to think nothing sticks to him, or her. We’ve seen many examples of that in recent years. We’ve seen people who are so skilled at misdirection they should be an illus...
Bike rides, especially longer ones, offer plenty of time for reflection. When the only conversation is the breeze blowing through the grasses and the hum of traffic competing for the same segment of blacktop, the mind goes other places. It is a good experience, really. There are conversations that need to start internally. The more I watch communication skills in society, the more I wonder if we’ve disregarded the skills of diplomacy. Politics proves it. It doesn’t matter whose side you sup...
Two Viet Cong terrorists—Hynh Phi Long and Le Van Ray—parked their bicycles on the riverbank across from My Canh, the Mekong Floating Restaurant, in Saigon, and left behind bags strapped to their bikes’ handlebars that contained bombs aimed at the restaurant. The first bomb detonated at 8:15 p.m., on Friday, June 26, 1965, and the second, just minutes later. In Vietnamese, My Canh means “beautiful view.” It was a vessel, or a barge, that floated in the Mekong River, in downtown Saigon, c...
As it has progressed more from an idea to proposal, Sidney’s Hickory Square project has come more to the forefront in discussion lately, both public and private. The project’s backers, simply put, are following a sort of “if you build it, they will come” approach toward drawing people into the downtown business district. Central to the idea is developing a place where people can congregate, and, while in the area migrate to businesses. It’s an idea with merit. With the proposal advancing, more information has come out about it. And this is n...
Editor, I see the city council approved LB840 funds to support the hickory square project. They say this comes from the one-half cent sales tax that was approved by the voters in 2012. If the city officials and city council go back and see how this tax was presented and sold to the voters they would see that 50 percent of that tax would go to repair of our deteriorating streets. People would like to know how this LB840 got in there. The city has spent less than one percent on our streets since this tax went into effect in 2013 and has not done...
Encouraging Nebraska students to engage with their government is important to the future of our state and country. For young people in the Third District, my office has great opportunities for students of all ages and interests to get involved. Internships for college students are available year-round in my Washington, D.C., Grand Island, and Scottsbluff offices. In these roles, interns work directly with full-time staff on policy and press issues, attend events, and assist with constituent services. It is a valuable way to experience the...
Last week was a very busy week for me at the Capitol. On Monday the petition drive for the property tax relief ballot measure was launched. The petition drive will put onto the November ballot the same measure as my legislative bill, LB 829. The ballot measure would direct the Department of Revenue to give Nebraska property taxpayers up to 30 percent off their property taxes in the form of a credit or refund. Last fall I received a passionate phone call from a Palmyra farmer. He pressed me to...
This week, Nebraska turns 151 years old. On March 1, Nebraska celebrates Statehood Day, the anniversary of President Johnson signing Nebraska’s statehood proclamation in 1867. We have come a long way since then, and there are many great opportunities to grow the tradition of living the Good Life this year. To ensure a prosperous future for our state, it is important that the State of Nebraska continues to cultivate a pro-growth business climate. National rankings show some strengths we can b...
Funerals are taking place of students caught in the aim of another gunman. The location is Florida. The suspect is a recent student who was expelled for behavior issues, a 19-year-old who by news reports had an assortment of firearms. The sober reality is we are not living in our parents and grandparents time when if two boys had an issue a school yard fight ensued, then ended. In recent years, we have young people with access to guns who created havoc and destruction that shouldn't have happened; not because we are the United States but...
The members of the American military have been putting their lives at risk to defend our country since our founding. As they protect our way of life, they deserve to have what they need to get the job done. When they come home and enter retirement as veterans, they should be treated with respect and service by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). I want to highlight the ways that Congress has worked in a bipartisan fashion to reform the VA and give our veterans the benefits they deserve. In...
Avoiding national debt was one of George Washington’s greatest admonitions yet neither liberals nor conservatives have paid much attention to it. It would be well to reflect on his advice this President’s Day. The trillion dollar Republican proposal will raise overall spending caps by about $300 billion over the next two years and will make interest on the debt the largest growing part of the federal budget. This expenditure of the people’s hard-earned taxes purchases nothing—simply vanishes. This prompted Senator Rand Paul to say, “When t...
In December of 1773, near the time of the Boston Tea Party, Benjamin Franklin admitted that he had passed on to the Boston Gazette twenty letters that the Massachusetts governor, Thomas Hutchison had written, calling for an “abridgment of the colonists’ rights.” In so doing, Franklin acted as a whistleblower, before the word was a word, or our country was a country. In 1777, during the American Revolutionary War, ten naval officers, including Samuel Shaw and Richard Marven, signed a petit...
Life is precious. It is something that we can never take for granted. From our country’s earliest days, our Founding Fathers recognized life as the first right in the Declaration of Independence. As Americans, we have an obligation to step up and protect life. The right to life comes with responsibilities to ourselves and to others. Nebraskans across our state recognize these duties by standing up for the unborn, caring for the elderly, and getting involved in their communities among many o...
I see the Chamber is pushing for the Hickory Square project at a cost of $732,000. If this project works like other projects the city has done the cost will double. The city of Sidney is in debt over 14 million dollars and they want to add to it. They need to ask do we need it and why do we need it? Will it bring back the men and women clothing stores, the shoe stores, the jewelry stores, the variety stores, the soda shop stores and the barber shop stores that used to be downtown? One of the reasons these stores are gone was the lack of support...
On January 11, President Trump met with Senators in the Oval Office to discuss immigration. At one point a Senator mentioned that the U.S. should also “admit people from Haiti, El Salvador, and certain African nations,” a suggestion that enraged the President. “Why,” he asked, in caustic and unprintable terms, “are we having all these people from those countries come here? It would be better to get immigrants from places like Norway.” Norway? In a vindictive act aimed at the President,...
