Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen and state lawmakers are taking another run at reducing the much-despised high property taxes in our state, this time via a commission on reforming the way we fund K-12 schools.

I don’t think there are many people who haven’t played the proverbial game of cat-and-mouse in at least one situation or another during their life. While I get the origin of the phrase, for me, anymore, I feel like I live a constant game of Michael-and-UPS truck.

From what I have seen and heard, even with school having started this past week, everyone is making that last effort to get in one or two more fun outings this summer. I know, for me, the summer season flew by at a clip that I don’t know if I have experienced in the past.

Driving down the road the other day, I was startled to hear one of our congressional representatives tell NPR that both Nebraska and Iowa were experiencing “basically a recession economy.” Both states have agriculture- based economies, for the most part, and rely on foreign trade. Plus, low crop prices have dogged farmers in recent years.

After years of sitting in the back of meeting rooms, I have learned that, during any public meeting, there is one surefire comment that will come up. At some point, one of our elected leaders, or someone with business before the body, will turn to me and say, “That is off the record”.

Forgive me if I’m feeling a little confused (regular readers of this column will probably say, “What’s new?”) but aren’t we in a national debt crisis? Our national debt has ballooned to nearly thirty- seven- trillion dollars in recent years, thanks in large part to spending during the COVID-19 pandemic to assure that businesses didn’t close and workers could still feed their families and pay the bills. The debt is why, supposedly, we allowed a team of twenty-somethings with no government experience called the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE to take a meat cleaver to federal agencies.

Anymore, having high-speed internet at your home, farm, or business has become as important as having electricity. You run a business and have a website? You need high-speed internet.

Early last week, the humidity started to spike, and it got hot in the Cornhusker State. While sweating out the dog days of summer, your local newspaper publisher got a unique craving: watermelon.

This is probably speaking to the choir, because if you’re reading this, you already believe that maintaining a healthy media—with fact-checking editors instead of conspiracy spreading folks in pajama pants—is really important.

Western Nebraska rocks, or at least it is full of them. That is one of the many realizations that I had over the past week, as my service on the Nebraska Press Association Board of Directors took me west, to Bridgeport and the Nebraska Panhandle, for a couple of days.