It’s tax season, and who doesn’t dislike filing their taxes? It takes time away from things like checking on the latest Husker football recruit or seeing what new fight we’re having with Canada. And it’s a messy, mathematic- heavy task, requiring a lot of wading through regulations.

I literally sprinted down main street in Elm Creek. It was August, it was hot, and that week’s edition of the Elm Creek Beacon-Observer was sitting on the dock at the post office.

It’s daylight savings time, so let’s turn back the clock… to four years ago, when the state was still contending with the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a silver lining of sorts to those awful days—a huge influx of federal funds to keep the economy going.

The old joke around the state capitol is that legislators get paid “$12,000 a year and all you can eat and drink.” That is a reference to all the free meals— and, okay, maybe a drink or two—dispensed at the almost daily events hosted by lobbying groups during legislative sessions. But in reality, it’s no laughing matter that state senators in Nebraska get paid so little for representing us.

In a dozen years publishing newspapers, I have learned that there is an item or two that it is wise to shy away from, even on the opinion page. However, this week, I am throwing caution into the wind and tiptoeing into the water of controversy.

Admittedly, when you live alone like I do, there really isn’t much use in setting house rules, let alone following them. After all, if you track in mud, you are the one that is going to have to clean it up.

As a young reporter, I got the opportunity to cover, and learn a few things, from maybe the greatest state senator ever, Jerome Warner. He was the kind of state senator who just commanded respect, and unlike some politicians, had a wellformed group of beliefs that guided his decision making.

It’s hard to overstate the impact agriculture has on the State of Nebraska. The production of crops contributes twenty-five-billion-dollars a year to the state’s economy, according to the University of Nebraska, and the impact extends to the cities, where suppliers, bankers, and consultants make a living providing goods and services to farmers and ranchers.

On Saturday morning, even though I was going to spend the day covering high school wrestling, before I headed out the door, I threw on some Husker gear. Despite the fact that my alma mater may disown me for wearing the Scarlet and Cream so openly, I felt like, on that day, all Nebraskans needed to unite as Huskers.

Nebraska, I’ll bet, is the only state in the union where the retirement of the volleyball coach is frontpage news. And where the installation of a new coach is covered live on television with the governor in attendance.