Emily Nohr - World-Herald Bureau wrote:One thing is certain about the coming Nebraska legislative session: The budget is sure to dominate much of it.
... A number of lawmakers have identified the state Corrections Department as a priority.
The time period for which appropriations are made is the states' fiscal year that runs from July 1st through June 30th of the following year. The fiscal year covering the period July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016 is referred to as FY2015-16, FY15-16, or simply FY16. Within this 12-month period, agencies are limited to only those appropriations made for FY2015-16. The fiscal year covering the period July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017 is referred to as FY2016-17, FY16-17, or simply FY17.
The 105th legislature will include poetry by Ernie Chambers. Chambers will also verbally enter parts, if not all of the Nebraska State Patrol's report on the Bill Kintner cybersex investigation into the public record.
jessep28 wrote:The 105th legislature will include poetry by Ernie Chambers. Chambers will also verbally enter parts, if not all of the Nebraska State Patrol's report on the Bill Kintner cybersex investigation into the public record.
Martha Stoddard - World-Herald Bureau wrote:How will lawmakers close the budget gap?
How will lawmakers respond to calls for tax reductions?
How will lawmakers move forward on fixing the state correctional system?
How will lawmakers work through two bitter internal issues?
How much influence will the governor have with lawmakers?
Martha Stoddard - World-Herald Bureau wrote:How will lawmakers close the budget gap?
How will lawmakers respond to calls for tax reductions?
How will lawmakers move forward on fixing the state correctional system?
How will lawmakers work through two bitter internal issues?
How much influence will the governor have with lawmakers?
Martha Stoddard - World-Herald Bureau wrote:How will lawmakers close the budget gap?
How will lawmakers respond to calls for tax reductions?
How will lawmakers move forward on fixing the state correctional system?
How will lawmakers work through two bitter internal issues?
How much influence will the governor have with lawmakers?
And a bill to change the state flag.
The flag is pretty awful. Hopefully we can do better than what we do for license plates.
Bill Kintner is resigning after his comment about the women's march, beating the impeachment proceedings against him to the punch. Made it all the way to the Chicago Tribune.
When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you're doing his will.
RNcyanide wrote:Bill Kintner is resigning after his comment about the women's march, beating the impeachment proceedings against him to the punch. Made it all the way to the Chicago Tribune.
I wonder if he's applied for a new job in the Trump administration yet..... He'd fit right in.
He said "They are some big, ugly red brick buildings" ...and then they were gone.
Caleb Pollard, Scratchtown Brewing Company wrote:
February 1, 2017
Nebraska prides itself on it’s business friendly atmosphere. It’s been the core of every single Governor’s talking points I can remember. Look at the efforts made in the past three years that have opened doors for craft brewing to grow. Over the past three years, several industry groups and legislators worked together to pass LB1105 last year that deregulated certain aspects of the market to allow craft brewing to grow. And that’ s exactly what happened as the industry exploded with new and highly respected brewers opening up across the state. Existing breweries opened new taprooms. They invested millions of dollars and created hundreds of jobs. This is the perfect example of a policy working.
Then came 2017, as the year is not shaping up to be craft-friendly at all. Our industry “partners” from the Associated Beverage Distributors of Nebraska (ABDN) have proposed legislative changes in LB632 that will severely limit craft beers’ ability to continue to grow in our state. It will kill jobs, investment and the momentum the industry has had since it’s upswing.
LB632 does many things but at it’s core it is anti-Nebraska Craft Beer. Provisions in it will not allow us or any other brewer to open any other locations that were granted to us in 2016 (up to five satellite locations for the brewery). The same provisions were agreed upon a year ago with ABDN, yet now they want to move the goal posts. This effort was also completed in secret without any input from the affected licensees and despite all our efforts to work collaboratively with our ABDN (associated beverage distributors of Nebraska) “partners”. Furthermore, this bill proposed a licensure freeze as of 1/1/17, which absolutely affects the expansion plans of two Nebraska craft brewers.
It’s an attack on Nebraska craft brewers plain and simple.
What can you do? Contact your State Senators and express your displeasure with this bill and offer your support of Nebraska Craft beer. Below are some suggestions to use when you contact your Senator (phone or email) and use the hashtag #DontKillOurCraft on your social media efforts.
— This bill is a job killer: It will curtail the expansion of the craft beer industry and impair our ability to invest in our communities, in agribusiness that supports our industry, and in manufacturing that supports our work.
— This bill was negotiated in secret without the input of industry partners and moved the goalposts established a year ago.
— This bill strips away existing rights that will likely lead to litigation against the state and impose a liability on the state coffers.
It makes me wonder personally what motivated the distribution industry in the first place? Perhaps it could be the Budweiser or Miller/Coors signs they have hanging on their warehouses? Not all of these folks are anti-craft, but many of them are and they’ve toeing the corporate line with the megaconglomerate they’re owned by. “Indepedently” owned they are not. They are anti-Nebraskan business and are actively working to curtail Nebraska craft brewers. Scratchtown and our fellow Nebraska craft brewers will not be intimidated. #Don’tKillOurCraft
Caleb Pollard
President
Scratchtown Brewing Company
Brad wrote:Story about LB632 on WOWT tonight at 10
There was a part of the KMTV article on the issue that said this bill would "level the playing field for Anheuser Busch and Miller Coors" like they are the ones getting taken advantage of here .
Brad wrote:Story about LB632 on WOWT tonight at 10
There was a part of the KMTV article on the issue that said this bill would "level the playing field for Anheuser Busch and Miller Coors" like they are the ones getting taken advantage of here .
So, lets level the playing field then.
In Nebraska AB and MC should only be able to sell their beer where they brew it.
For the record NEBUGEATER does not equal BUGEATER !!!!!!!
Brad wrote:Story about LB632 on WOWT tonight at 10
There was a part of the KMTV article on the issue that said this bill would "level the playing field for Anheuser Busch and Miller Coors" like they are the ones getting taken advantage of here .
What an embarassing statement. Poor little AB is getting taken advantage of!
They killed the voter ID measure. Excellent. While I can understand people's desires to protect the integrity of elections, the sort of election fraud these laws are ostensibly intended to combat are pretty rare. It's less risky and more effective to commit election fraud using other means than by having people cast illegal ballots. Furthermore, the only places where voter ID measures could even pass are places where undocumented immigrant votes wouldn't be able to sway an election one way or the other. To me, what really drives voter ID laws is what drives contraception mandates on the other side, it's the desire of one side to make proxies or perceived proxies of the other side bend the knee. We live in the age of politics as petty retribution, I'm just glad our political fighters are pale imitations of the monsters of the past. Even our street fighting political groups seem like the are LARPing being Freikorps or Sparticists. It would be risible if it didn't speak to something degenerate within the polity.
It makes the Nebraska GOP soooooo mad that the 2nd district electoral vote went to Obama is 2008.
I'd like to see the process of electing the President change. I say we keep the electoral college and ditch the popular vote. Every state should have a random lottery for electors and back up electors taken from the voter rolls. These people's identities are kept secret but they could be any registered voter in a state. They are given the opportunity to meet the candidates selected by all of the parties at various forums and events. Then these people elect the President. This would get rid of campaign ads, it would reduce the acrimony surrounding the election and it would put to rest forever the gnashing of teeth if the candidate who wins the electoral vote loses the popular vote. There would have to be safeguards put in place to prevent tampering with the electors, but the logistics of this would be far easier than what goes on in a Presidential election now.
It makes the Nebraska GOP soooooo mad that the 2nd district electoral vote went to Obama is 2008.
I'd like to see the process of electing the President change. I say we keep the electoral college and ditch the popular vote. Every state should have a random lottery for electors and back up electors taken from the voter rolls. These people's identities are kept secret but they could be any registered voter in a state. They are given the opportunity to meet the candidates selected by all of the parties at various forums and events. Then these people elect the President. This would get rid of campaign ads, it would reduce the acrimony surrounding the election and it would put to rest forever the gnashing of teeth if the candidate who wins the electoral vote loses the popular vote. There would have to be safeguards put in place to prevent tampering with the electors, but the logistics of this would be far easier than what goes on in a Presidential election now.
Frankly, I think Nebraska and Maine have got it right with how they split their electoral votes. Less populated states still have a stronger voice vs. the popular vote plus every electoral vote counts.
It makes the Nebraska GOP soooooo mad that the 2nd district electoral vote went to Obama is 2008.
I'd like to see the process of electing the President change. I say we keep the electoral college and ditch the popular vote. Every state should have a random lottery for electors and back up electors taken from the voter rolls. These people's identities are kept secret but they could be any registered voter in a state. They are given the opportunity to meet the candidates selected by all of the parties at various forums and events. Then these people elect the President. This would get rid of campaign ads, it would reduce the acrimony surrounding the election and it would put to rest forever the gnashing of teeth if the candidate who wins the electoral vote loses the popular vote. There would have to be safeguards put in place to prevent tampering with the electors, but the logistics of this would be far easier than what goes on in a Presidential election now.
Frankly, I think Nebraska and Maine have got it right with how they split their electoral votes. Less populated states still have a stronger voice vs. the popular vote plus every electoral vote counts.
Not me. State legislatures already have too much power in gerrymandering the House of Representatives. I have no desire to give them the power to gerrymander the presidency as well. I actually support this bill (and I say that as someone who was happy Obama won NE-2 in 2008).