Opinion

Dear Editor, A recently-published Yale study found Medicare for All would save more than $450 billion and prevent 68,000 deaths every year. Gosh! Think about that! We could cut out the profit-motivated insurance companies in a broken system where THEY, not doctors, have the power to decide what medical care we get when we cannot afford to pay what they won't cover...

This week, the Boy Scouts of America filed a Chapter 11 petition in the Delaware bankruptcy court under the saddest of circumstances. The bankruptcy applies to the national organization and not to local councils, and although official statements from the organization insist that they intend to continue operations, national recruitment numbers have been down...

Last week the legislature gave second-round approval on my bill LB 126 and amendment 2380. This amendment made the following changes to the bill: A limited permit to hunt deer issued to a qualifying landowner would run Saturday, Sunday, and Monday immediately preceding the opening day of firearm deer season. ...

There can be plenty of problems getting a kid off to school. Did he get up in time, more importantly, did he go to sleep in time to be rested up enough to stay awake in class? Is her homework done? Where is it? How about breakfast — here’s a frozen sausage biscuit, or maybe the school breakfast is a better option today...

If you’re like many of us, you may have discovered you’re a little more patient than you used to be. Not really, no one enjoys waiting in a long line while the checker takes her sweet time scanning the purchases of the lucky person at the front of the line, looking up the price of obscure produce and commenting on the weather...

We don’t know how many McCook City Council members have heard about the Great Cat Leash Controversy of 1967, but they wisely avoided a similar flap by voting to drop a cat-at-large ordinance from the books. They also voted to more closely clarify what constitutes a dangerous or potentially dangerous dog. Dog owners should take a close look at the proposed ordinance before getting their hackles up; the wording seems to be reasonable about allowing dogs to be dogs while advancing public safety...

Well your old columnist lost a longtime friend. Seems to be happening a little too often as of late. Pneumonia supposedly got Claude. Eighty one years so a somewhat long and successful life but no matter the number of years no one seems ready to quit that early...

Nebraska State Patrol news releases about drug busts on Interstate 80 have become so common we’re tempted to start running them as a type of scoreboard. On second thought, we’d only have the “points” scored by law enforcement, since we have no idea how many loads of marijuana, methamphetamine, THC vapes and other assorted illegal substances make it through the state unmolested...

I haven’t been feeling well this week, so I’ll keep this one short. This article will come out on Valentine’s day, and I want to seize the opportunity to say a few things that need to be said. The holiday, in theory, is named for a third-century Roman priest who distinguished himself by ministering to persecuted Christians. He is remembered for paying a significant price for that political mischoice, was sainted, and a feast day was established in his name...

Gov. Pete Ricketts hit a nerve when he picked up President Trump’s use of the word “government” to describe public schools. In his general endorsement of a school aid reform bill in the Legislature, Ricketts adopted the description Trump used in his State of the Union speech, decrying “failing government schools.”...

We are over a third of the way through this legislative session and we still have a lot of important issues to deal with. In a short session, however, prioritizing a bill gives it a better chance of being heard on the floor of the legislature. We have until adjournment on February 21st to submit a senator priority bill designation. ...

There is an extraordinary movement gaining momentum in dozens of our Nebraska hometowns. As a long-time practitioner of resident-led, asset-based community economic development, I believe local food in schools is a true exercise of putting some of Nebraska’s greatest resources to work...

Nebraskans are known for helping their neighbors, so it’s no surprise when we read stories about farmers coming together to harvest a sick neighbor’s crops or going above and beyond when they hear about someone who’s lost everything in a tornado or flood...

Oh the joy! It is the time of year to be working on income tax. It is a task that I have always accomplished on my own; admittedly over the past several years with the assistance of a software package for my computer. It is as always a learning task...

There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle that creates a successful community. Jobs, education, health and safety and infrastructure are high on the list, churches and civic organizations all work together to create the positive environment we need to function as a society...

Hey folks. It’s been a busy week. We had the Superbowl on Sunday, the Iowa Primary on Monday, the State of the Union on Tuesday and the impeachment vote on Wednesday. It’s really too much material to work with, so instead, I would like to address something that our friend Dick Trail addressed in these pages on Tuesday...

Dear Editor, From my viewpoint, the two biggest issues facing the state legislature this year are property tax relief and a new economic development incentive program. Both are important, but in terms of economic development in rural Nebraska, property tax relief takes priority...

We are already a fourth of the way through this sixty-day session. Over the last several weeks I have been discussing some of the bills that I have introduced this year. Another bill is LB 1072, which I introduced because of the devastating spring floods last year. ...

You're the last person I will love You're the last face I will recall And best of all, I'm not gonna miss you Not gonna miss you They’re the words to the last song and recorded by iconic country star Glen Campbell, written after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and part of the soundtrack to the film, “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me,” documenting his disease and final tour...

Dear Editor, Recently, a friend was cleaning out some stored items. She found Hercule Poirot’s Casebook by Agatha Christie. I was very pleased when she brought it to me to read. Agatha Christie was born in 1891 and died in 1987. She was an English writer of detective stories. While working in a hospital during World War I, she wrote her first detective novel...

As the cost of healthcare rises, more of the cost is being shifted to consumers in the form of higher deductibles. The consumers naturally avoid all the expenses they can, but that often includes routine checkups and visits to primary care providers at the point when health problems are most effectively, and economically, addressed...

Tall, six foot something and well-tanned. The young man came to the door to say thanks for some of my prior flight training. Yes he’d been an aviation student and is now employed. He is a “captain in training” flying a King Air airplane out about the world doing “aerial mapping”. He’d been to Costa Rica since I last saw him and just returned from Hawaii on another mapping mission...

There has been much discussion in the business press lately about “Fintech,” or the rapidly emerging financial technology sector. Fintech describes a broad, loosely defined spectrum of financial services, all of which are offered over the Internet. Basic banking services like loans, credit, and debit card accounts and peer-to-peer point-of-sale payment processing are offered along with traditional ancillaries like insurance products, brokerage accounts, and advisors. ...

In this age of video streaming, podcasts, e-readers and a smart phone in every pocket, is there anything more quaint than the idea of sitting down and reading an old-fashioned printed book? Don’t feel sorry for libraries just yet. When it comes to popularity, they’re leading live music, movies, theater, national or historic parks, museums, casinos and zoos, according to the Gallup organization...

Dear Editor, In the book “Simple Abundance,” Sarah Breathnach tells the reader that “too many of us approach time alone as if it were a frivolous expendable luxury rather than a creative necessity.” Just under the surface, there’s a place a restful reserve where we can experience rejuvenation and where we can sense God’s presence...