Editorial Roundup: Nebraska

Omaha World-Herald. Jan. 1, 2021.

Editorial: A terrible year has ended. Let’s work together in the Midlands for revival

It’s New Year’s Day, and that’s a global sigh of relief you’re hearing. A sigh that, today, humanity can look in the rear-view mirror and see the Terrible Year Just Past thankfully receding into the distance.

Good riddance, 2020. Welcome, 2021.

The arrival of a pristine new year won’t magically wipe away the world’s multiple challenges spawned during 2020’s infamous plague year, but this turning of the temporal page does offer something supremely important.

Hope.

Let’s look at the coming months for the Midlands and extend wishes for a better, happier time.

Vaccinations. Our most powerful weapon in defeating COVID lies in the vaccines to be distributed in Nebraska and Iowa this year. By rolling up our sleeves, Midlanders can roll back the COVID threat. Let’s join together to achieve the needed herd immunity level that can restore stability and much-needed civic confidence. And, for the time being, we will all need to supplement that effort by continuing the familiar health practices such as regular hand washing, mask wearing and avoiding crowds.

Small businesses. It was frightening in 2020 to see how COVID laid such enormous burdens on Main Street businesses. As 2021 hopefully brings us needed relief, let’s all make a special effort to direct our dollars toward local businesses. Those local entrepreneurs and staff deserve such support. And their revival can restore all-important vitality to neighborhoods and communities.

Mental health. One needn’t be an expert in the field to understand that stress, frustration and fear in 2020 weighed heavily on the mental health of Midlanders, young and old. For many, those effects are expected to linger even with the lifting of the COVID threat. We all need to extend understanding and support to loved ones, friends and coworkers. Professional help is available, too. Let’s make 2021 a time of revival not only economically but emotionally.

Schools. We perhaps could fill today’s entire newspaper edition if we listed the countless ways in which the COVID crisis overloaded students, parents, teachers and school staff during 2020. A nightmarish time. The arrival of vaccination boosts the chances for a welcome eventual return to normal school times. It’s hard to exaggerate what relief that turnaround, when it arrives, will bring in the classroom and at home. A Midlands priority for 2021 must be boosting the well-being of the next generation.

Child welfare. A decade ago, Nebraska saw its child welfare system tumble into chaos when the state launched an ill-prepared switch to privatization of services. Now, the series of troubles afflicting St. Francis Ministries, which handles the cases in Douglas and Sarpy Counties, raises troubling questions about the provider’s financial condition as well as the process by which the Ricketts administration processes bids for state contracts. Nebraska officials must put child welfare services on solid footing this year. The stakes for these vulnerable boys and girls could not be higher.

Nebraska Legislature. State senators have huge obligations during the “long session” that begins Wednesday. Key issues include the two-year budget, tax policy, school funding and police issues. No ideological faction has a strong majority in the current Legislature, and it generally will be easy to mount vigorous filibusters. Lawmakers on the right and left must strive to make the process work productively, avoiding stalemate. Failure on the major state issues is not an option. Lawmakers, do your job responsibly.

Sports. Can we find some positives to look forward to on the sports front as the calendar turns? Surely so. Creighton Bluejays fans can hope to complete that NCAA Tournament run so rudely interrupted by 2020’s special brand of March Madness. Husker fans, with a volleyball season ahead, can keep in mind after another disappointing football season and a still-growing basketball program, that, indeed, the girls are the fairest in these parts.

A brand-new year beckons before the Midlands. Let’s strive together to put the recent pain behind us and make this a time of revival, fellowship and progress.

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Lincoln Journal Star. Jan. 1, 2021.

Editorial: Redistricting must become a nonpartisan effort for state

The last time the Nebraska Legislature was tasked with redistricting, it botched the job mightily by allowing politics and naked partisanship to be its guiding principles.

We can only hope that our elected leaders in the officially nonpartisan body will be better at that task this year than they were in 2011.

Consider this when determining just how vital a function redistricting is: There isn’t a single senator in the Nebraska Legislature likely to be seated the next time this issue comes up. And yet, the decisions made regarding redistricting will have long-term ramifications for everyone.

It’s time to figure out a better way.

The process needs to be improved by taking it away from politicians and putting those responsibilities into the hands of a nonpartisan agency or commission where partisan benefit is not the factor it is today.

A handful of states have created independent nonpartisan agencies to remove from this task. Though that’s easier said than done, gerrymandering — the skewing of district boundaries for political gain — should have no place in this formula.

Iowa provides a glorious glimpse of the way redistricting should take place everywhere. It uses an independent state office, which draws the maps strictly on terms of population, and presents them to legislators for a simple up-or-down vote. That simple process avoids the controversy that dominates in the Cornhusker State.

The Nebraska Legislature approved a bipartisan compromise in 2016, but it was vetoed by Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 — as it has with nearly every component of our lives — has thrown a banana peel into this year’s redistricting process, too, as final census figures are not expected to be released until spring, when the Legislature presumably will be deep into its 2021 session.

Without the updated numbers, it’s likely the Nebraska Legislature will have to wing it. The latest population figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau point to a potential redistricting shift of two legislative seats from rural Nebraska to the urban metroplex of Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy counties.

That would give those three counties 27 of the 49 seats in the Legislature, changing the dynamics and makeup of the Nebraska Legislature. But efforts to slow the removal of rural districts is expected — again proving that nonpartisan aims interfere with the duty of giving Nebraskans the most accurate, responsive representation possible.

It’s time to move forward with another effort toward nonpartisan redistricting. It’s time to look toward other states that have found a way to navigate these turbulent waters.

Meanwhile, Nebraska lawmakers are lining up to serve on the redistricting committee. It’s a powerful committee with powerful responsibility.

Turning over that responsibility to a nonpartisan agency would take the politics out of this process. It’s time.

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Kearney Hub. Dec. 31, 2020.

Editorial: Let’s keep notices in newspapers where they do keep us informed

Public notice requirements are inscribed in Nebraska statutes. Good government is the reason why. Notices ensure Nebraskans an opportunity to track what’s happening in the assorted governmental entities that serve them, including city hall and the county courthouse.

Notices also are an invitation to participate in government by attending important public meetings.

It is essential that the people in charge of government are open and accountable because so many areas of our lives are touched by what they do - or don’t do.

Public notices - published in newspapers - are an integral part of good government.

Citizens’ responsibility and right to keep watch over government seems so undeniable, yet it’s not in some states.

Shrinking budgets in California prompted the governor to declare that no governing entities had to pay for their notices in newspapers.

In recent years, Indiana air-quality officials decided to no longer publish meeting notices. In their rush to help hurricane victims, federal officials didn’t publish notices calling for competitive bids on emergency shelters. As a result, they bought units that were prohibitively expensive and, in some cases, built with toxic materials. Will similar public notice mistakes return to haunt recovery efforts for future hurricanes? They could if officials place a low priority on open government, believe that nobody’s watching or cares, and that they can get away with being less careful, less honest and less open.

Nebraskans mostly have been spared from attempts to remove public notices from newspapers. That’s because our officials understand that public notices invite participation. People want to know when there’s a rezoning request pending on an empty lot down the street or how government spending might affect taxes. These issues and many others have a direct effect on their lives.

Printed notices are a key tool for accountability and participation - despite some officials’ claims that, when budgets are tight, traditional notices are too expensive.

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