Well, it’s that time of year—when the corn is rising in the fields, the calves are fattening on the pastures, and politicians aplenty are announcing their candidacies for elected office. Those announcements seem to come earlier than ever, as do the negative campaign ads.

There’s some good news and plenty of bad news for Nebraska’s rural hospitals. Just recently, state officials cheered the announcement that the federal government had approved the state’s application to join a program, already involving forty-four other states, that would provide an additional one-billion-dollars to the state’s hospitals and nursing facilities.

Just do it. After more than a dozen years in the newspaper business, that has become my motto when I find myself stuck in a situation where I am questioning whether or not I should interview someone at an event I am covering.

These days, besides seeing American bombers attacking Iran, we’re confronted with almost daily news about immigration raids and with court rulings about what ICE can, and cannot, do. We’ve been treated to the arrest of a man whose three sons are United States Marines, and of sobbing mothers wondering who will take care of their kids.

Back in the day, or at least back in my day—that day is getting further and further behind me at a pretty rapid clip—if you recovered a fumble, recorded a tackle, or scored a touchdown for the Palmer Tigers on a Friday night in the fall, your accomplishment was duly noted by Terry Ramold and his sidekicks in the crows’ nest.

Back in the day, I used to shake my head while watching state lawmakers work late into the night—sometimes until midnight— to get legislation passed at the end of a session. “You couldn’t pay me enough to do that kind of work for twelve to fifteen hours,” I’d think to myself.

The first time that I ever got pulled over by law enforcement was on Tuesday, July 2, 2013. Sure, it may be a little strange that I remember the exact date, but the truth is that the inaugural time that I got caught speeding—it was the first time I got caught in the act, not the first time I had committed that type of traffic infraction—was, ironically, because I was actually in a hurry.

Saturday afternoon, I was strolling the midway on Grand Avenue in Ravenna, taking pictures of the Annevar carnival, when the opportunity for the perfect carnival photo caught my eye. A little girl was riding a ride that was launching her into the June sky, with the Ferris wheel spinning behind her.

State lawmakers went home recently, ending a ninety-day session marked by reductions in spending and borrowing from cash reserves to close a projected budget gap that once topped $400 million. Hard to believe that just a couple of years ago, the state was sitting on a huge surplus of cash.

Whenever there is severe weather in my area, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t find myself making a casually calculated risk. Sure, there are multiple levels of warning systems in place to notify residents, including those living far from town, about the potential of severe weather.