By AARON SANDERFORD <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/03/01/five-races-to-watch-from-tuesdays-candidate-filing-deadline-in-nebraska/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

Familiar names and few surprises marked the last day of filing to run for public office in Nebraska’s May 10 primary election.

State Board of Education, District 5: Helen
 Raikes of Ashland, a retired professor of early childhood education at 
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the widow of former State Sen. 
Ron Raikes, announced Tuesday that she is challenging incumbent Kirk 
Penner of Aurora for the seat.&nbsp;

“I
 will protect our schools in rural communities and stand up for local 
control to ensure quality, transparent education for all children,” 
Raikes wrote on Facebook, announcing her bid.&nbsp;&nbsp;

She
 said that she wants to ensure “quality community-level education at 
every stage, from Pre-K to trades/college” and that she wants to make 
sure schools can attract and retain teachers and staff.

Penner
 was appointed to the seat in late 2021 by Gov. Pete Ricketts. Penner, 
the president of the Aurora Development Corp, pressed the education 
board to abandon proposed health education standards that had been 
tabled before his appointment.&nbsp;

Penner
 said during a recent board meeting that “parents want the control of 
what we’re teaching our kids.” He criticized other board members for 
trying to “jam this stuff down kids’ throats.”

Legislative District 6:
 State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, who spent much of her first term 
demanding accountability from the private contractor that handled child 
welfare in the Omaha area, St. Francis Ministries, faces two challengers
 for the west Omaha seat. Christian Mirch, the former chairman of the 
Douglas County Republican Party, has filed, as has small-business 
adviser Elizabeth Hallgren.

Cavanaugh
 has stressed the need for more legislative oversight of executive 
branch agencies and better outcomes for kids in foster care.

Mirch has pledged more support for law enforcement, more input from parents on education and lower taxes.&nbsp;

“I
 think I’ll be better at working with everyone across the aisle at 
building consensus and a coalition to get things done in Nebraska,” 
Mirch said Tuesday.

Legislative District 28:
 Former Lincoln City Councilman Roy Christensen, who lost his bid for a 
third term in 2021, and current Lincoln City Councilwoman Jane Raybould,
 who lost Nebraska’s 2018 U.S. Senate race to Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., 
are vying for the seat. The current senator, Patty Pansing Brooks, is 
term-limited and is running for Congress.&nbsp;

Raybould,
 a Democrat in the officially nonpartisan race, is an executive at the 
grocery store chain her family owns, which includes Russ’s Market. 
Christensen, a Republican, runs Christensen Hearing and Analytics. The 
south-central Lincoln district leans toward Democrats. Christensen and 
Raybould often sparred on the City Council.

Legislative District 46: Former
 State Sen. Danielle Conrad, who is resigning from her post leading ACLU
 Nebraska, filed Tuesday to run for her old seat in northeast Lincoln. 
She will face Lincoln City Councilman James Michael Bowers in a battle 
of well-known names in Lincoln. Also running is James Herrold.&nbsp;

Conrad,
 who served in the Legislature from 2006 through 2015, said Tuesday that
 she missed the work and looks forward to hearing what people in her 
district want. Bowers, who was elected to the City Council in 2019, has 
run for the legislative seat previously.

Legislative District 10:
 State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Bennington, a Democrat, drew a challenge 
from Republican Lou Ann Goding, a former Omaha Public Schools board 
member. The district covers parts of northwest Omaha and neighboring 
communities. Goding had a reputation for working with school board 
members of both parties. The district leans Republican, and this year 
became more so after redistricting.

Also noteworthy from Tuesday’s filings:

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/2/1646089328158.png" alt="The Nebraska State Capitol Building in Lincoln. (Rebecca S. Gratz for Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>The Nebraska State Capitol Building in Lincoln. (Rebecca S. Gratz for Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure>By AARON SANDERFORD <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/03/01/five-races-to-watch-from-tuesdays-candidate-filing-deadline-in-nebraska/">Nebraska Examiner</a>Familiar names and few surprises marked the last day of filing to run for public office in Nebraska’s May 10 primary election.Here are five races to watch:&nbsp;State Board of Education, District 5: Helen
 Raikes of Ashland, a retired professor of early childhood education at 
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the widow of former State Sen. 
Ron Raikes, announced Tuesday that she is challenging incumbent Kirk 
Penner of Aurora for the seat.&nbsp;“I
 will protect our schools in rural communities and stand up for local 
control to ensure quality, transparent education for all children,” 
Raikes wrote on Facebook, announcing her bid.&nbsp;&nbsp;She
 said that she wants to ensure “quality community-level education at 
every stage, from Pre-K to trades/college” and that she wants to make 
sure schools can attract and retain teachers and staff.Penner
 was appointed to the seat in late 2021 by Gov. Pete Ricketts. Penner, 
the president of the Aurora Development Corp, pressed the education 
board to abandon proposed health education standards that had been 
tabled before his appointment.&nbsp;Penner
 said during a recent board meeting that “parents want the control of 
what we’re teaching our kids.” He criticized other board members for 
trying to “jam this stuff down kids’ throats.”Legislative District 6:
 State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, who spent much of her first term 
demanding accountability from the private contractor that handled child 
welfare in the Omaha area, St. Francis Ministries, faces two challengers
 for the west Omaha seat. Christian Mirch, the former chairman of the 
Douglas County Republican Party, has filed, as has small-business 
adviser Elizabeth Hallgren.Cavanaugh
 has stressed the need for more legislative oversight of executive 
branch agencies and better outcomes for kids in foster care.Mirch has pledged more support for law enforcement, more input from parents on education and lower taxes.&nbsp;“I
 think I’ll be better at working with everyone across the aisle at 
building consensus and a coalition to get things done in Nebraska,” 
Mirch said Tuesday.Legislative District 28:
 Former Lincoln City Councilman Roy Christensen, who lost his bid for a 
third term in 2021, and current Lincoln City Councilwoman Jane Raybould,
 who lost Nebraska’s 2018 U.S. Senate race to Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., 
are vying for the seat. The current senator, Patty Pansing Brooks, is 
term-limited and is running for Congress.&nbsp;Raybould,
 a Democrat in the officially nonpartisan race, is an executive at the 
grocery store chain her family owns, which includes Russ’s Market. 
Christensen, a Republican, runs Christensen Hearing and Analytics. The 
south-central Lincoln district leans toward Democrats. Christensen and 
Raybould often sparred on the City Council.Legislative District 46: Former
 State Sen. Danielle Conrad, who is resigning from her post leading ACLU
 Nebraska, filed Tuesday to run for her old seat in northeast Lincoln. 
She will face Lincoln City Councilman James Michael Bowers in a battle 
of well-known names in Lincoln. Also running is James Herrold.&nbsp;Conrad,
 who served in the Legislature from 2006 through 2015, said Tuesday that
 she missed the work and looks forward to hearing what people in her 
district want. Bowers, who was elected to the City Council in 2019, has 
run for the legislative seat previously.Legislative District 10:
 State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Bennington, a Democrat, drew a challenge 
from Republican Lou Ann Goding, a former Omaha Public Schools board 
member. The district covers parts of northwest Omaha and neighboring 
communities. Goding had a reputation for working with school board 
members of both parties. The district leans Republican, and this year 
became more so after redistricting.Also noteworthy from Tuesday’s filings:<ul>
 <li>U.S.
 Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., drew no high-profile challenger in the 
Republican primary in the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, 
despite former President Donald Trump’s tweet-fed effort to recruit one.
 Bacon faces roofing salesman <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/02/28/bacon-loses-lone-gop-primary-challenger-gains-another-in-omaha-area-house-race/">Steve Kuehl</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>The
 Democratic primary in the 2nd Congressional District attracted no 
additional candidates. Competing for the nomination are State Sen. Tony 
Vargas of Omaha and Alisha Shelton, an Omaha mental health practitioner.
 Vargas has the lead in money and name ID. Shelton finished third in the
 2020 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.</li><li>The
 1st Congressional District, which includes Lincoln and Bellevue, drew 
three lesser-known candidates in the GOP primary, in addition to 
incumbent Rep. Jeff Fortenberry and State Sen. Mike Flood. Fortenberry 
has been indicted for lying to the FBI about foreign funds raised for 
his campaign. Much of the GOP establishment is backing Flood, a former 
Speaker of the Legislature. Also running are Curtis D. Huffman of La 
Vista, Thireena Yuki Connely of Palmyra and John Glen Weaver of Omaha.&nbsp;</li><li>On
 the Democratic side in the 1st District, State Sen. Patty Pansing 
Brooks of Lincoln is facing Jazari Kual, a college student and activist 
fighting local hunger issues.&nbsp;</li><li>Former
 Gov. Dave Heineman did not file to run for his old job. He had flirted 
with a run for months, including traveling the state. Charles Herbster, 
Jim Pillen and State Sen. Brett Lindstrom headline the race, along with 
dark horse Theresa Thibodeau. Also running in the GOP primary are 
Michael Connely of York, Donna Nicole Carpenter of Lincoln, Lela McNinch
 of Lincoln, Troy Wentz of Sterling and Breland Ridenour of Omaha.</li><li>State
 Sen. Carol Blood of Omaha drew a last-minute challenger for the 
Democratic nomination for governor. Roy A. Harris of Linwood filed this 
week.</li><li>Teresa
 Ibach of rural Sumner filed to run in Legislative District 44. She cast
 the 3rd Congressional District’s Electoral College vote in 2020. Her 
husband, Greg, previously headed the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.
 She is facing Edward Dunn of Grant.</li>
 </ul>

Five races to watch from candidate filing deadline in Nebraska

By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/03/01/lawmaker-seeks-to-ban-cell-phones-from-classrooms/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

Smartphones
 in the hands of students in classrooms can be dangerous, as well as a 
learning barrier, an educator told a Nebraska legislative committee 
Tuesday.

Diane
 Wigert relayed a personal experience in which she said she was 
“secretly recorded” as she was teaching. A version of the recording that
 she said was intentionally edited to negatively misrepresent her went 
viral, leading to personal distress and even death threats.

“My life and the lives of family members became a nightmare,” she said.

Wigert
 offered her account in support of a bill that would, with a few 
exceptions, require that students entering public classrooms put 
personal electronic devices away in a storage compartment.

Legislative
 Bill 1078 was introduced by Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, who said his aim 
is to enhance the classroom learning environment and establish 
consistency in school policies across the state.

Enforcement of the bill would be left to the school district and school, the legislation says.

Hansen
 said the bill grew out of calls from teachers who reached out to him 
with their struggles. Pupils not paying attention. Pupils distracting 
others. Misbehavior. Cyberbullying.&nbsp;

“All of this adds up,” Hansen said, “to barriers to learning.”

On
 the other hand, he said, electronics have the potential to open doors 
to information. Hansen acknowledged positives, but he said guidelines 
are needed.

The
 Education Committee listened to public testimony, though it took no 
action Tuesday on whether to advance the bill to full legislative 
debate.

Sen.
 Adam Morfeld of Lincoln, a member of the committee, said he struggled 
with the proposed legislation, saying it seemed like a “big government” 
and “nanny state” bill.

Morfeld
 leaned on the side of teaching youths self-control and talked about his
 own classroom situations where he tells teenagers upfront to put cell 
phones away. On occasions when a device appears, Morfeld said, he calls 
the student out.

Hansen later said it’s hard to teach self-control with an “addictive device.”

Businesswoman
 Lynette Sorrentino, in her testimony, called smartphones “the new form 
of ADD.” Not Attention Deficit Disorder, she said, but Addictive Device 
Disorder.

“We
 need to be able to provide boundaries,” Sorrentino said, adding that 
kids do not have discernment to always know when it’s time to pocket a 
cell phone.

She
 said she’s not an opponent of the devices. Her own son had a cell phone
 at 10 years old in case of an emergency with his diabetes. And, 
Sorrentino said, her daughter had one at a younger age because, given a 
divorce situation, it was easier to reach her that way.

State
 Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha posed the question of whether student 
distraction was more the result of schools lacking innovative techniques
 to engage students.

He also said cell phones have, at times, been valuable in gaining evidence of wrongdoing.

Wigert,
 the educator who spoke of a nightmare cell-phone recording, said she 
understands how some might think the proposed legislation is too 
restrictive.

“But there are also people in our midst who do not know how to use (cell phones) appropriately.”

LB
 1078 would allow for exceptions that include: teacher permission for an
 educational activity; a note from a health care provider or principal; 
instances when a student perceives a threat of “an emergency or harm to 
any person.”&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646235178526.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By CINDY GONZALEZ <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/03/01/lawmaker-seeks-to-ban-cell-phones-from-classrooms/">Nebraska Examiner</a>Smartphones
 in the hands of students in classrooms can be dangerous, as well as a 
learning barrier, an educator told a Nebraska legislative committee 
Tuesday.Diane
 Wigert relayed a personal experience in which she said she was 
“secretly recorded” as she was teaching. A version of the recording that
 she said was intentionally edited to negatively misrepresent her went 
viral, leading to personal distress and even death threats.“My life and the lives of family members became a nightmare,” she said.<h2>Away in storage bin</h2>Wigert
 offered her account in support of a bill that would, with a few 
exceptions, require that students entering public classrooms put 
personal electronic devices away in a storage compartment.Legislative
 Bill 1078 was introduced by Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair, who said his aim 
is to enhance the classroom learning environment and establish 
consistency in school policies across the state.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646235246036.jpeg" alt="State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair (Courtesy of Unicameral Information Office)" />
 <figcaption>State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair (Courtesy of Unicameral Information Office)</figcaption>
 </figure>Enforcement of the bill would be left to the school district and school, the legislation says.Hansen
 said the bill grew out of calls from teachers who reached out to him 
with their struggles. Pupils not paying attention. Pupils distracting 
others. Misbehavior. Cyberbullying.&nbsp;“All of this adds up,” Hansen said, “to barriers to learning.”On
 the other hand, he said, electronics have the potential to open doors 
to information. Hansen acknowledged positives, but he said guidelines 
are needed.<h2>‘Nanny state’ </h2>The
 Education Committee listened to public testimony, though it took no 
action Tuesday on whether to advance the bill to full legislative 
debate.Sen.
 Adam Morfeld of Lincoln, a member of the committee, said he struggled 
with the proposed legislation, saying it seemed like a “big government” 
and “nanny state” bill.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646235276562.jpeg" alt="State Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln (Courtesy of Unicameral Information Office)" />
 <figcaption>State Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln (Courtesy of Unicameral Information Office)</figcaption>
 </figure>Morfeld
 leaned on the side of teaching youths self-control and talked about his
 own classroom situations where he tells teenagers upfront to put cell 
phones away. On occasions when a device appears, Morfeld said, he calls 
the student out.Hansen later said it’s hard to teach self-control with an “addictive device.”Businesswoman
 Lynette Sorrentino, in her testimony, called smartphones “the new form 
of ADD.” Not Attention Deficit Disorder, she said, but Addictive Device 
Disorder.<h2>Boundaries</h2>“We
 need to be able to provide boundaries,” Sorrentino said, adding that 
kids do not have discernment to always know when it’s time to pocket a 
cell phone.She
 said she’s not an opponent of the devices. Her own son had a cell phone
 at 10 years old in case of an emergency with his diabetes. And, 
Sorrentino said, her daughter had one at a younger age because, given a 
divorce situation, it was easier to reach her that way.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646235303360.jpeg" alt="State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha (Courtesy of Craig Chandler, University Communication)" />
 <figcaption>State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha (Courtesy of Craig Chandler, University Communication)</figcaption>
 </figure>State
 Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha posed the question of whether student 
distraction was more the result of schools lacking innovative techniques
 to engage students.He also said cell phones have, at times, been valuable in gaining evidence of wrongdoing.Wigert,
 the educator who spoke of a nightmare cell-phone recording, said she 
understands how some might think the proposed legislation is too 
restrictive.“But there are also people in our midst who do not know how to use (cell phones) appropriately.”LB
 1078 would allow for exceptions that include: teacher permission for an
 educational activity; a note from a health care provider or principal; 
instances when a student perceives a threat of “an emergency or harm to 
any person.”&nbsp;

Neb. lawmaker seeks to ban cellphones from classrooms

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s biggest oil driller says it will commit $250 million to help fund a proposed pipeline that would gather carbon dioxide produced by ethanol plants across the Midwest and pump it underground for storage.

 Billionaire oil tycoon Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources was scheduled to make a formal announcement of the investment into Summit Carbon Solutions’ $4.5 billion pipeline Wednesday morning at an ethanol plant in North Dakota. 

The plant is one of 31 ethanol facilities across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and the Dakotas where emissions would be captured and piped to North Dakota to be buried.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646226757975.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSBISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota’s biggest oil driller says it will commit $250 million to help fund a proposed pipeline that would gather carbon dioxide produced by ethanol plants across the Midwest and pump it underground for storage. Billionaire oil tycoon Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources was scheduled to make a formal announcement of the investment into Summit Carbon Solutions’ $4.5 billion pipeline Wednesday morning at an ethanol plant in North Dakota. The plant is one of 31 ethanol facilities across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and the Dakotas where emissions would be captured and piped to North Dakota to be buried.

North Dakota's top oil driller invests in CO2 pipeline

By JAMES BELL <a href="https://hayspost.com/pages/post-news-network">Post News Network</a>

HAYS, Kan. — While the current situation in Ukraine has dominated domestic and international headlines in recent weeks, one Fort Hays State University expert said the conflict is less a standalone event and more of an escalation of hostilities.

Along with her academic expertise as a historian of central and eastern Europe, Amber Nickell, associate professor of history, also spent time living in Ukraine as a Fulbright Scholar and has traveled to and from the country for research since 2018.

While half a world away, she said there are parallels to the people of Ukraine and those living in the area.

“Ukrainians are extremely resilient, very hard-working,” Nickell said. “And it definitely reminds me of some of the hard-working folks here in Kansas, that you know, are pulling themselves up and doing what it takes to get things done. And we're definitely seeing that in Ukraine right now, as Ukrainians are fighting against Russian aggression.”

And much like the Kansas farmers who help drive local economies, Ukrainians also rely on agriculture, with corn, wheat and seed oils among their top five exports.

“Ukraine has a large swath is what of what is known black earth territory,” Nickell said. “And this is soil that is so nutrient rich, that it can give two crops per season as opposed to one. And so, for those folks out there that are working in agriculture, know that there are many Ukrainians out there just like you spending their days in the fields. This is this is part of who they are.”

Now with the recent conflict escalation, those people are fighting for their county, but she said current hostilities are only the most recent in a long history of Russian interference in the county.

“For some time, Ukrainians have been trying to fight Russian aggression,” Nickell said. “And we can really reach back pretty far in the historical narrative, all the way back to the violent escalation inside of independent Ukraine in the interwar and Bolsheviks, kind of forcibly placing power over the Ukrainian population.

“But in the more recent memory, Ukraine has been illegally occupied since 2014, in both Crimea and the Donbass region which is Luhansk, and Donetsk. Here, Russians have backed so-called separatists and well over 4,000 Ukrainian citizens and soldiers have died in this conflict since 2014.”

While the conflict might be an old one, in the last week the conflict has become decidedly more pronounced.

“Things have definitely escalated exponentially in the past five days,” Nickell said. “The emails and messages and Facebook messages that I'm getting from my friends and colleagues in Ukraine are heartbreaking. Bombs dropping on their neighborhoods in their communities, children doing kindergarten underground and bunkers, folks fleeing to the borders looking for any chance to help their families survive. ... It's heartbreaking to see the escalation these past few days.”

Along with the similarities of the people of Ukraine, she said the country is like the U.S. — multiracial, with populations living in the country from around the globe.

"It is, in very many ways, a civic nation, much like us here, where you can be a citizen of the United States, regardless of where you come from,” Nickell said. “And you can have that patriotism and sense of belonging really, regardless of what languages you speak.”

And so, while Russian language and culture might remain prevalent in Ukraine, the sense of self-determination is also a large part of the society.

“Much like me sitting here, I have family from Poland, but I am an American citizen,” Nickell said. “And so that is something that I think we need to think about a little closely when we're listening to some of the media that is coming out of these places.”

The trend toward simplicity in reporting from the region, she added, can create an understanding that does not fully reflect national complexities.

“I think often folks think that Ukraine is just this small country out in the middle of nowhere,” Nickell said. “And I've definitely heard those things said. But it isn't a small country. It isn't in the middle of nowhere.”

The size of the nation itself is important for a good understanding of the situation and relevant to the desire of Russia to increase their sphere of influence in Ukraine.

“It is the largest country entirely in Europe. It's bigger than Germany. It's bigger than France. It's bigger than Spain. It's bigger than the UK. And so, we're talking about a very, very large swath of territory, we're talking a couple Kansases, for those that are thinking about size relative to where they are,” Nickell said. “It is geopolitically important for both the Kremlin and for the European Union because of this relative size.”

The country is also a regional economic power, that despite ongoing conflicts, has seen growth in recent years.

“(It’s a) massive economy,” Nickell said. “A very vibrant tech sector is emerging from Ukraine, especially in the past six or so years. ... They also have a very large education sector that they are building. They are exporters of various raw materials, perhaps the most beautiful, and maybe I'm biased, is amber. But this is something that they are building and they're working very hard to build this economy, despite the fact that it was decimated in 2014, in the wake of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan">Euromaidan</a>, and despite the fact that their former president absconded with almost the entirety of the National Treasury when he left in 2014.”

The size, location and economic value of Ukraine is a primary driver of the desire of Russian to control the country, in part or in whole, and she said is an important buffer between NATO-allied countries and Russia.

“One of my scholarly colleagues by the name of Serhii&nbsp;Plokhy, he has called Ukraine the gates of Europe,” Nickell said. “And I think this is a really apt description, because it is the gates of Europe and Mr. Putin is afraid that those gates will come flooding open and European ideas, and what are perceived as Western ideas, like democracy will flood into Russian territory.

“And so I think he sees this as strategically a place to try to cut those ideas from flooding over,” she said. “So that location is very, very important. And, of course, it is bordering several NATO countries.”

Putin’s invoking of NATO creeping into the area is also a misrepresentation of the situation, Nickell said.

“I think it's important when we're listening to the news and thinking about these things, you're going to hear several people say that Mr. Putin is worried about NATO coming to his doorstep. I encourage you to open a map of NATO. You will see that NATO is already on his doorstep in the Baltics and Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, so he does have NATO countries already bordering Russia. So much of this is just rhetoric.”

But while the rhetoric coming out of the Russian government has been presented around the globe, Nickell said the situation has shown even within the country Putin’s messaging has been increasing scrutinized.

“I think we're seeing definitely over the past five days that some of our assumptions about some of these things are breaking down,” she said. “If you would have asked me five days ago about the extent of Putin's propaganda machine and its success, I might have thought it to be a little bit more successful than we're finding out it actually is. The propaganda is breaking down on the ground. Russians are coming out into the streets in the thousands, despite the very literal threat to their personal livelihoods to protest this. They're getting arrested. They're getting disappeared.”

Further, as those protests are occurring in the light of a “very sophisticated propaganda machine” and the heavy clampdown on the public sphere, showing complexity and divergence of thought within the region that highlights potential threats to Putin.

“Much of this is also just kind of in rooted in an autocrats' attempt to maintain power,” Nickell said. “And, really, I think he's afraid right now.”

Specifically, she said he seems to fear a growing trend toward democracy on Russia’s doorstep.

While Ukraine continues the fight to fend off Russian forces, Nickell said the Ukrainian response has come as surprising to Putin and his allies.

“We have evidence, empirical evidence at this point, he thought that this was going to go very differently,” she said. “He was under the impression that Russia would arrive and then Ukraine would capitulate within three days. We know these to be facts, because the Wayback Machine, which Putin tried to prevent from having access to Russian media outlets, caught something that was supposed to go out 48 hours ago, with pictures and everything, announcing that Ukraine had capitulated. And that is not what happened.

“So here we are. We're two days after that (and) Ukraine is fighting hard. And the world is seeing the propaganda machine for what it is.”

A large part of that propaganda perpetuated by Putin, is based on “entangled history,” Nickell said. But is not actually rooted in historical fact.

He often tries to use the shared history “as a way to depict both entities as the same thing, when in fact, they are different, but related things and the true heirs to Kievan Rus’ are not only Russians, but also Bella Russians and Ukrainians, all distinct separate national identities and now distinct sovereign nation states,” Nickell said.

While, historically, borders have shifted as the result of conflicts and wars in Europe, Ukrainian borders as they are now formed after World War Two.

“It's important that we understand that all of this rhetoric coming from the Kremlin, that Ukraine was always part of Russia is just that Ukraine is composed of parts of several different empires, be it Polish, be it Ottoman, be it Russian, be it Austrian,” Nickell said. “And so, it really is this place for many places, and not necessarily something that was Russian, and then became something else after.

While the lines were formalized in more recent history, they stem from movements in the 17th to 20th centuries.

“There's an independent Ukraine that emerges in 1917-1918,” Nickell said. “There's a brief moment in which they are kind of put down or pacified. And then they emerge as an independent Ukraine again shortly after that. This is short-lived, because unlike our war for independence, where we succeeded in gaining our independence from an imperial power, they did not succeed in gaining their independence from an imperial power. The Bolsheviks violently pacified Ukraine, they murdered millions in the process of doing this and incorporated Ukraine into the Soviet Union. And so that's how Ukraine gets into the Soviet Union.”

Ukraine would function as a part of the Soviet Union until 1991.

“But there was always kind of an undercurrent or demand for Ukrainian independence,” Nickell said. “This is hard to do in a totalitarian state, to come out and be like 'I want to independent state,' but there were always those ideas and cultures of Ukrainian independence. And as they steadily marched closer and closer to the collapse of communism, you saw them become more overt in these calls.”

After the collapse of the USSR, Ukrainians voted for their independence.

But in doing so, they found themselves in a precarious situation that was the impetus behind a meeting in Budapest in 1994.

“It's here that Yeltsin, that leaders of the United States, leaders of the U.K., and leaders of Ukraine all came together to discuss one of the biggest issues facing independent Ukraine,” Nickell said. “And that was the fact that they were sitting on top of the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world. And we wanted to denuclearize. We were moving away from the Cold War world, and that we put full faith in Russia and full faith in ourselves that we would begin this process of disarming our nukes.

“As a Colorado girl,” she continued, “I watched that process unfold at home. ... Ukraine agreed to this, that they would give up their nuclear weapons in exchange for one thing — that Russia and the United States acknowledged their territorial sovereignty and promise to protect it. So, we are right now contractually obligated to protect Ukrainian sovereignty, though much of our conversation has been about NATO. And Russia is also contractually obligated to do so. And this is kind of a little bit of a lesson and Putin's promises.”

As elections in Ukraine yielded pro-Russian and more pro-democratic leaders, tensions with Russia would come to a head in 2014 with the Euromaidan.

“Maidan is just the word for Square in Ukrainian, which is why Ukrainians call this the Revolution of Dignity, because this was the moment that they claimed back their dignity from the state,” Nickell said. “And they demanded democratic policies.”

Despite the desire of the people to live in a democratic system, the president at the time desired to bring Ukraine closer to Russia.

“And so, he essentially sicced the secret police on the population that was protesting,” Nickell said. "(A) little over 100 individuals were murdered ruthlessly in the streets of Kiev protesting. And today Ukrainians call them the Heavenly 100.”

The timing of those deaths corresponds with the Russian annexation of Crimea, something she attributes to Putin, or at least on his behalf. Soon after as a democratic election was underway, he took advantage of the situation to invade Crimea.

It was at this time he “also began the process of backing so-called separatists in eastern Ukraine in two regions called Donetsk and Luhansk,” Nickell said. “And they're kind of the equivalent to states here in the United States. And this has been ongoing since 2014. Well, over 4,000 Ukrainians have died in this war and war has been part of their everyday lives since."

Until recently, military action has been confined to those two regions.

“And Mr. Putin has at least maintained the facade of nonintervention in the eastern kind of crisis in Luhansk and Donetsk, the war of aggression there,” Nickell said. “However, over the past five days, we've seen this rapid escalation there. ... There is no more facade. Mr. Putin is sending in troops, he is sending in tanks, he is sending in planes, he is using weapons that even here we consider violations of human rights. And so, this is a violent, violent escalation that most of us hoped that we would not be coming to.”

And while allegiances in those regions created complex international relations, Ukrainian borders had been clearly set, she said.

As a historian, Nickell said she has no ability to predict what the outcome of the conflict might be, but fears the situation will not be quickly resolved.

“What I can say is based off of what has been occurring so far and the ratcheting up of violence, I do think this will be a very long and protracted — like very long — conflict,” Nickell said. “And given Putin's general approach to Ukraine over the past 15 years or so, I do think that he will continue to fight&nbsp; (and) Ukrainians will continue to resist. This is something I can say, I think, with some level of certainty.”

But she is encouraged by internal action to stop Russian aggression.

“Some of the rhetoric inside of us inside of the Russian Federation is really starting to break down his grip on power, I think protests out of Belarus in 2020 and again, this week, protests in Kazakhstan, all of these areas surrounding the Russian Federation, as well as inside where there are calls for democracy calls for an open public sphere calls for transparency,” Nickell said. “I think this is where our best hope lies, this would be the most ideal outcome, that democratic ideas overturn autocratic ideas.”

“But other than that,” she continued “I don't I don't know what comes next. I do know that the people of Ukraine need our support, they need our voices, they need anything that we can send their way. Call your congresspeople, do what you can do your bit. And this is a place that does their bit. So do your bit and make change.”

Nickell is scheduled to speak on this topic during an event at Hays
Public Library at 10 a.m. that can be viewed online by visiting their facebook page, f<a href="https://www.facebook.com/hayspubliclibrary">facebook.com/hayspubliclibrary</a>.

<div><iframe title="Area Ukraine expert shares insights into situation; history" allowtransparency="true" height="300" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=d3fid-11bd71a-pb&from=pb6admin&square=1&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=3267a3&font-color=ffffff&btn-skin=3267a3&size=300" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>By JAMES BELL <a href="https://hayspost.com/pages/post-news-network">Post News Network</a>HAYS, Kan. — While the current situation in Ukraine has dominated domestic and international headlines in recent weeks, one Fort Hays State University expert said the conflict is less a standalone event and more of an escalation of hostilities.Along with her academic expertise as a historian of central and eastern Europe, Amber Nickell, associate professor of history, also spent time living in Ukraine as a Fulbright Scholar and has traveled to and from the country for research since 2018.While half a world away, she said there are parallels to the people of Ukraine and those living in the area.“Ukrainians are extremely resilient, very hard-working,” Nickell said. “And it definitely reminds me of some of the hard-working folks here in Kansas, that you know, are pulling themselves up and doing what it takes to get things done. And we're definitely seeing that in Ukraine right now, as Ukrainians are fighting against Russian aggression.”And much like the Kansas farmers who help drive local economies, Ukrainians also rely on agriculture, with corn, wheat and seed oils among their top five exports.“Ukraine has a large swath is what of what is known black earth territory,” Nickell said. “And this is soil that is so nutrient rich, that it can give two crops per season as opposed to one. And so, for those folks out there that are working in agriculture, know that there are many Ukrainians out there just like you spending their days in the fields. This is this is part of who they are.”Now with the recent conflict escalation, those people are fighting for their county, but she said current hostilities are only the most recent in a long history of Russian interference in the county.“For some time, Ukrainians have been trying to fight Russian aggression,” Nickell said. “And we can really reach back pretty far in the historical narrative, all the way back to the violent escalation inside of independent Ukraine in the interwar and Bolsheviks, kind of forcibly placing power over the Ukrainian population.“But in the more recent memory, Ukraine has been illegally occupied since 2014, in both Crimea and the Donbass region which is Luhansk, and Donetsk. Here, Russians have backed so-called separatists and well over 4,000 Ukrainian citizens and soldiers have died in this conflict since 2014.”While the conflict might be an old one, in the last week the conflict has become decidedly more pronounced.“Things have definitely escalated exponentially in the past five days,” Nickell said. “The emails and messages and Facebook messages that I'm getting from my friends and colleagues in Ukraine are heartbreaking. Bombs dropping on their neighborhoods in their communities, children doing kindergarten underground and bunkers, folks fleeing to the borders looking for any chance to help their families survive. ... It's heartbreaking to see the escalation these past few days.”<h2>A civic nation</h2>Along with the similarities of the people of Ukraine, she said the country is like the U.S. — multiracial, with populations living in the country from around the globe."It is, in very many ways, a civic nation, much like us here, where you can be a citizen of the United States, regardless of where you come from,” Nickell said. “And you can have that patriotism and sense of belonging really, regardless of what languages you speak.”And so, while Russian language and culture might remain prevalent in Ukraine, the sense of self-determination is also a large part of the society.“Much like me sitting here, I have family from Poland, but I am an American citizen,” Nickell said. “And so that is something that I think we need to think about a little closely when we're listening to some of the media that is coming out of these places.”The trend toward simplicity in reporting from the region, she added, can create an understanding that does not fully reflect national complexities.“I think often folks think that Ukraine is just this small country out in the middle of nowhere,” Nickell said. “And I've definitely heard those things said. But it isn't a small country. It isn't in the middle of nowhere.”The size of the nation itself is important for a good understanding of the situation and relevant to the desire of Russia to increase their sphere of influence in Ukraine.“It is the largest country entirely in Europe. It's bigger than Germany. It's bigger than France. It's bigger than Spain. It's bigger than the UK. And so, we're talking about a very, very large swath of territory, we're talking a couple Kansases, for those that are thinking about size relative to where they are,” Nickell said. “It is geopolitically important for both the Kremlin and for the European Union because of this relative size.”The country is also a regional economic power, that despite ongoing conflicts, has seen growth in recent years.“(It’s a) massive economy,” Nickell said. “A very vibrant tech sector is emerging from Ukraine, especially in the past six or so years. ... They also have a very large education sector that they are building. They are exporters of various raw materials, perhaps the most beautiful, and maybe I'm biased, is amber. But this is something that they are building and they're working very hard to build this economy, despite the fact that it was decimated in 2014, in the wake of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan">Euromaidan</a>, and despite the fact that their former president absconded with almost the entirety of the National Treasury when he left in 2014.”<h2>Why it matters</h2>The size, location and economic value of Ukraine is a primary driver of the desire of Russian to control the country, in part or in whole, and she said is an important buffer between NATO-allied countries and Russia.“One of my scholarly colleagues by the name of Serhii&nbsp;Plokhy, he has called Ukraine the gates of Europe,” Nickell said. “And I think this is a really apt description, because it is the gates of Europe and Mr. Putin is afraid that those gates will come flooding open and European ideas, and what are perceived as Western ideas, like democracy will flood into Russian territory.“And so I think he sees this as strategically a place to try to cut those ideas from flooding over,” she said. “So that location is very, very important. And, of course, it is bordering several NATO countries.”Putin’s invoking of NATO creeping into the area is also a misrepresentation of the situation, Nickell said.“I think it's important when we're listening to the news and thinking about these things, you're going to hear several people say that Mr. Putin is worried about NATO coming to his doorstep. I encourage you to open a map of NATO. You will see that NATO is already on his doorstep in the Baltics and Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, so he does have NATO countries already bordering Russia. So much of this is just rhetoric.”But while the rhetoric coming out of the Russian government has been presented around the globe, Nickell said the situation has shown even within the country Putin’s messaging has been increasing scrutinized.“I think we're seeing definitely over the past five days that some of our assumptions about some of these things are breaking down,” she said. “If you would have asked me five days ago about the extent of Putin's propaganda machine and its success, I might have thought it to be a little bit more successful than we're finding out it actually is. The propaganda is breaking down on the ground. Russians are coming out into the streets in the thousands, despite the very literal threat to their personal livelihoods to protest this. They're getting arrested. They're getting disappeared.”Further, as those protests are occurring in the light of a “very sophisticated propaganda machine” and the heavy clampdown on the public sphere, showing complexity and divergence of thought within the region that highlights potential threats to Putin.“Much of this is also just kind of in rooted in an autocrats' attempt to maintain power,” Nickell said. “And, really, I think he's afraid right now.”Specifically, she said he seems to fear a growing trend toward democracy on Russia’s doorstep.<h2>The conflict</h2>While Ukraine continues the fight to fend off Russian forces, Nickell said the Ukrainian response has come as surprising to Putin and his allies.“We have evidence, empirical evidence at this point, he thought that this was going to go very differently,” she said. “He was under the impression that Russia would arrive and then Ukraine would capitulate within three days. We know these to be facts, because the Wayback Machine, which Putin tried to prevent from having access to Russian media outlets, caught something that was supposed to go out 48 hours ago, with pictures and everything, announcing that Ukraine had capitulated. And that is not what happened.“So here we are. We're two days after that (and) Ukraine is fighting hard. And the world is seeing the propaganda machine for what it is.”A large part of that propaganda perpetuated by Putin, is based on “entangled history,” Nickell said. But is not actually rooted in historical fact.He often tries to use the shared history “as a way to depict both entities as the same thing, when in fact, they are different, but related things and the true heirs to Kievan Rus’ are not only Russians, but also Bella Russians and Ukrainians, all distinct separate national identities and now distinct sovereign nation states,” Nickell said.While, historically, borders have shifted as the result of conflicts and wars in Europe, Ukrainian borders as they are now formed after World War Two.“It's important that we understand that all of this rhetoric coming from the Kremlin, that Ukraine was always part of Russia is just that Ukraine is composed of parts of several different empires, be it Polish, be it Ottoman, be it Russian, be it Austrian,” Nickell said. “And so, it really is this place for many places, and not necessarily something that was Russian, and then became something else after.While the lines were formalized in more recent history, they stem from movements in the 17th to 20th centuries.“There's an independent Ukraine that emerges in 1917-1918,” Nickell said. “There's a brief moment in which they are kind of put down or pacified. And then they emerge as an independent Ukraine again shortly after that. This is short-lived, because unlike our war for independence, where we succeeded in gaining our independence from an imperial power, they did not succeed in gaining their independence from an imperial power. The Bolsheviks violently pacified Ukraine, they murdered millions in the process of doing this and incorporated Ukraine into the Soviet Union. And so that's how Ukraine gets into the Soviet Union.”Ukraine would function as a part of the Soviet Union until 1991.“But there was always kind of an undercurrent or demand for Ukrainian independence,” Nickell said. “This is hard to do in a totalitarian state, to come out and be like 'I want to independent state,' but there were always those ideas and cultures of Ukrainian independence. And as they steadily marched closer and closer to the collapse of communism, you saw them become more overt in these calls.”After the collapse of the USSR, Ukrainians voted for their independence.But in doing so, they found themselves in a precarious situation that was the impetus behind a meeting in Budapest in 1994.“It's here that Yeltsin, that leaders of the United States, leaders of the U.K., and leaders of Ukraine all came together to discuss one of the biggest issues facing independent Ukraine,” Nickell said. “And that was the fact that they were sitting on top of the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world. And we wanted to denuclearize. We were moving away from the Cold War world, and that we put full faith in Russia and full faith in ourselves that we would begin this process of disarming our nukes.“As a Colorado girl,” she continued, “I watched that process unfold at home. ... Ukraine agreed to this, that they would give up their nuclear weapons in exchange for one thing — that Russia and the United States acknowledged their territorial sovereignty and promise to protect it. So, we are right now contractually obligated to protect Ukrainian sovereignty, though much of our conversation has been about NATO. And Russia is also contractually obligated to do so. And this is kind of a little bit of a lesson and Putin's promises.”<h2>The conflict heats up</h2>As elections in Ukraine yielded pro-Russian and more pro-democratic leaders, tensions with Russia would come to a head in 2014 with the Euromaidan.“Maidan is just the word for Square in Ukrainian, which is why Ukrainians call this the Revolution of Dignity, because this was the moment that they claimed back their dignity from the state,” Nickell said. “And they demanded democratic policies.”Despite the desire of the people to live in a democratic system, the president at the time desired to bring Ukraine closer to Russia.“And so, he essentially sicced the secret police on the population that was protesting,” Nickell said. "(A) little over 100 individuals were murdered ruthlessly in the streets of Kiev protesting. And today Ukrainians call them the Heavenly 100.”The timing of those deaths corresponds with the Russian annexation of Crimea, something she attributes to Putin, or at least on his behalf. Soon after as a democratic election was underway, he took advantage of the situation to invade Crimea.It was at this time he “also began the process of backing so-called separatists in eastern Ukraine in two regions called Donetsk and Luhansk,” Nickell said. “And they're kind of the equivalent to states here in the United States. And this has been ongoing since 2014. Well, over 4,000 Ukrainians have died in this war and war has been part of their everyday lives since."Until recently, military action has been confined to those two regions.“And Mr. Putin has at least maintained the facade of nonintervention in the eastern kind of crisis in Luhansk and Donetsk, the war of aggression there,” Nickell said. “However, over the past five days, we've seen this rapid escalation there. ... There is no more facade. Mr. Putin is sending in troops, he is sending in tanks, he is sending in planes, he is using weapons that even here we consider violations of human rights. And so, this is a violent, violent escalation that most of us hoped that we would not be coming to.”And while allegiances in those regions created complex international relations, Ukrainian borders had been clearly set, she said.As a historian, Nickell said she has no ability to predict what the outcome of the conflict might be, but fears the situation will not be quickly resolved.“What I can say is based off of what has been occurring so far and the ratcheting up of violence, I do think this will be a very long and protracted — like very long — conflict,” Nickell said. “And given Putin's general approach to Ukraine over the past 15 years or so, I do think that he will continue to fight&nbsp; (and) Ukrainians will continue to resist. This is something I can say, I think, with some level of certainty.”But she is encouraged by internal action to stop Russian aggression.“Some of the rhetoric inside of us inside of the Russian Federation is really starting to break down his grip on power, I think protests out of Belarus in 2020 and again, this week, protests in Kazakhstan, all of these areas surrounding the Russian Federation, as well as inside where there are calls for democracy calls for an open public sphere calls for transparency,” Nickell said. “I think this is where our best hope lies, this would be the most ideal outcome, that democratic ideas overturn autocratic ideas.”“But other than that,” she continued “I don't I don't know what comes next. I do know that the people of Ukraine need our support, they need our voices, they need anything that we can send their way. Call your congresspeople, do what you can do your bit. And this is a place that does their bit. So do your bit and make change.”Nickell is scheduled to speak on this topic during an event at Hays
Public Library at 10 a.m. that can be viewed online by visiting their facebook page, f<a href="https://www.facebook.com/hayspubliclibrary">facebook.com/hayspubliclibrary</a>.

🎙 Kan. Ukraine expert shares insights into situation, history

WASHINGTON (AP) — Addressing a concerned nation and anxious world, President Joe Biden vowed in his first State of the Union address Tuesday night to check&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-abc3e297725e57e6052529d844b5ee2f">Russian aggression in Ukraine,&nbsp;</a>tame soaring U.S. inflation and deal with the fading but still dangerous coronavirus.

Biden declared that he and all members of Congress, whatever their political differences, are joined “with an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny.” He asked lawmakers crowding the House chamber to stand and salute the Ukrainians as he began his speech. They stood and cheered.

It was a notable show of unity after a long year of bitter acrimony between Biden’s Democratic coalition and the Republican opposition.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-voting-rights-immigration-state-of-the-union-address-5894f85ff2872a4c28b4f2bbde2741c7">Biden’s 62-minute speech,&nbsp;</a>which was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-state-of-the-union-address-joe-biden-coronavirus-pandemic-feaf4678d114e37ce708aa41fae8be82">split between attention to war abroad and worries at home</a>&nbsp;— reflected the same balancing act he now faces in his presidency. He must marshal allied resolve against Russia’s aggression while tending to inflation, COVID-19 fatigue and sagging approval ratings heading into the midterm elections.

Aiming to build on momentum from the speech, Biden will head to Wisconsin on Wednesday in an effort to show Americans that his domestic agenda is working. His vice president and Cabinet members will fan out around the country to amplify the message.

Biden heads again to an old bridge set to be repaired — increasingly a symbol for his administration, tangible evidence of the nation that he’s working to update. This time, it’s a wrought-iron bridge that connects Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, across the St. Louis Bay.

The bridge will be replaced using funds from the massive infrastructure plan signed into law last year, a signature piece of bipartisan legislation and proof — Biden says — that the GOP and Democrats can still work together.

In Tuesday’s speech, Biden highlighted the bravery of Ukrainian defenders and a newly reinvigorated Western alliance that has worked to rearm the Ukrainian military and cripple Russia’s economy through sanctions. He acknowledged costs to the American economy, as well, but warned ominously that without consequences, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression wouldn’t be contained to Ukraine.

“Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson – when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos,” Biden said. “They keep moving. And, the costs and threats to America and the world keep rising.”

As Biden spoke, Russian forces were escalating their attacks in Ukraine, having bombarded the central square of country’s second-biggest city and Kyiv’s main TV tower, killing at least five people. The Babi Yar Holocaust memorial was also damaged.

Biden announced that the U.S. is following Canada and the European Union in banning Russian planes from its airspace in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. He also said the Justice Department was launching a task force to go after Russian oligarchs, whom he called “corrupt leaders who have bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime.”

“We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” he said, pledging that the U.S. and European allies were after their yachts, luxury apartments and private jets.

Biden pivoted in his speech from the troubles abroad to those at home. Even before the Russian invasion sent energy costs skyrocketing, prices for American families had been rising, and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hurt families and the country’s economy.

Biden outlined plans to address inflation by reinvesting in American manufacturing capacity, speeding supply chains and reducing the burden of childcare and eldercare on workers.

“Too many families are struggling to keep up with the bills,” Biden said. “Inflation is robbing them of the gains they might otherwise feel. I get it. That’s why my top priority is getting prices under control.”

In one sign of national progress on the pandemic, Biden entered the House chamber without a mask, as coronavirus cases decline and new federal guidance tries to nudge the public back to pre-pandemic activities. But there was evidence of ongoing tension as well: The Capitol was newly fenced due to security concerns after last year’s insurrection.

Set against disquiet at home and danger abroad, the White House had conceived Tuesday night’s speech as an opportunity to highlight the improving coronavirus outlook, rebrand Biden’s domestic policy priorities and show a path to lower costs for families grappling with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/consumer-prices-inflation-c1bfd93ed1719cf0135420f4fd0270f9">soaring inflation</a>. But events took a turn toward world affairs with last week’s Russian invasion of Ukraine and nuclear saber-rattling by Putin.

As is customary, one Cabinet secretary, in this case Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, was kept in a secure location during the address, ready to take over the government in the event of a catastrophe.

The State of the Union is typically an address targeted to a national audience, but this year’s had the world watching. In an interview with CNN and Reuters, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Biden to deliver a strong and “useful” message about Russia’s invasion. In a show of unity, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova joined first lady Jill Biden in the House gallery for the speech.

In a rare discordant moment, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado yelled out that Biden was to blame for the 13 service members who were killed during last August’s chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“You put them in. Thirteen of them,” Boebert yelled as Biden mentioned his late son Beau, a veteran who died from brain cancer and served near toxic military burn pits, used extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan. Biden is pursuing legislation to help veterans suffering exposure and other injuries.

While the crisis in Eastern Europe may have helped to cool partisan tensions in Washington, it didn’t erase the political and cultural discord that is casting doubt on Biden’s ability to deliver.

A February AP-NORC poll found that more people disapproved than approved of how Biden is handling his job, 55% to 44%. That’s down from a 60% favorable rating last July.

Biden, used his remarks to highlight the progress from a year ago — with the majority of the U.S. population now vaccinated and millions more people at work — but also acknowledged that the job is not yet done, a recognition of American discontent.

“I have come to report on the state of the union,” Biden said. “And my report is this: The state of the union is strong — because you, the American people, are strong. We are stronger today than we were a year ago. And we will be stronger a year from now than we are today.”

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, selected to give the Republican response, said Biden’s address came as a blast from the past with rising inflation, rising crime and a resurgent Russia making it feel more like the 1980s than today.

“Even before taking the oath of office, the president said that he wanted to — quote — make America respected around the world again, and to unite us here. He’s failed on both fronts,” she said.

Biden used his speech to nudge the country back “to more normal routines” after the coronavirus reshaped American life.

“It’s time for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again,” he declared. He said people will be able to order another round of free tests from the government and that his administration was launching a “test to treat” initiative to provide free antiviral pills at pharmacies to those who test positive for the virus.

Where his speech to Congress last year saw the rollout of a massive social spending package, Biden this year largely repackaged past proposals in search of achievable measures he hopes can win bipartisan support in a bitterly divided Congress before the elections.

The president also highlighted investments in everything from internet broadband access to bridge construction from November’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-infrastructure-bill-signing-b5b8cca843133de060778f049861b144">$1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law</a>&nbsp;as an example of government reaching consensus and delivering change for the nation.

As part of his pitch to voters, he also put a new emphasis on how proposals like extending the child tax credit and bringing down child care costs could bring relief to families as prices rise. He was said his climate change proposals would cut costs for lower- and middle-income families and create new jobs.

Biden called for lowering health care costs, pitching his plan to authorize Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, as well as an extension of more generous health insurance subsidies now temporarily available through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces where 14.5 million people get coverage.

Biden also appealed for action on voting rights, which has failed to win GOP support. And as gun violence rises, he returned to calls to ban assault weapons, a blunt request he hadn’t made in months. He called to “fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.”

He led Congress in a bipartisan tribute to retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and highlighted the biography of federal judge&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/Ketanji-Brown-Jackson-biden-supreme-court-nominee-32f77fe08d7cf64af95591668a0aaa41">Ketanji Brown Jackson,</a>&nbsp;his nominee be the first Black woman on the high court.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646187951280.png" alt="President&nbsp;Biden outlined plans to address inflation by reinvesting in American manufacturing capacity, speeding supply chains and reducing the burden of childcare and eldercare on workers.-White House photo" />
 <figcaption>President&nbsp;Biden outlined plans to address inflation by reinvesting in American manufacturing capacity, speeding supply chains and reducing the burden of childcare and eldercare on workers.-White House photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Addressing a concerned nation and anxious world, President Joe Biden vowed in his first State of the Union address Tuesday night to check&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-abc3e297725e57e6052529d844b5ee2f">Russian aggression in Ukraine,&nbsp;</a>tame soaring U.S. inflation and deal with the fading but still dangerous coronavirus.<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mVIXLQrC9rE?start=1384" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>Biden declared that he and all members of Congress, whatever their political differences, are joined “with an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny.” He asked lawmakers crowding the House chamber to stand and salute the Ukrainians as he began his speech. They stood and cheered.It was a notable show of unity after a long year of bitter acrimony between Biden’s Democratic coalition and the Republican opposition.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-voting-rights-immigration-state-of-the-union-address-5894f85ff2872a4c28b4f2bbde2741c7">Biden’s 62-minute speech,&nbsp;</a>which was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-state-of-the-union-address-joe-biden-coronavirus-pandemic-feaf4678d114e37ce708aa41fae8be82">split between attention to war abroad and worries at home</a>&nbsp;— reflected the same balancing act he now faces in his presidency. He must marshal allied resolve against Russia’s aggression while tending to inflation, COVID-19 fatigue and sagging approval ratings heading into the midterm elections.Aiming to build on momentum from the speech, Biden will head to Wisconsin on Wednesday in an effort to show Americans that his domestic agenda is working. His vice president and Cabinet members will fan out around the country to amplify the message.Biden heads again to an old bridge set to be repaired — increasingly a symbol for his administration, tangible evidence of the nation that he’s working to update. This time, it’s a wrought-iron bridge that connects Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, across the St. Louis Bay.The bridge will be replaced using funds from the massive infrastructure plan signed into law last year, a signature piece of bipartisan legislation and proof — Biden says — that the GOP and Democrats can still work together.In Tuesday’s speech, Biden highlighted the bravery of Ukrainian defenders and a newly reinvigorated Western alliance that has worked to rearm the Ukrainian military and cripple Russia’s economy through sanctions. He acknowledged costs to the American economy, as well, but warned ominously that without consequences, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression wouldn’t be contained to Ukraine.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646219843722.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>“Throughout our history we’ve learned this lesson – when dictators do not pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos,” Biden said. “They keep moving. And, the costs and threats to America and the world keep rising.”As Biden spoke, Russian forces were escalating their attacks in Ukraine, having bombarded the central square of country’s second-biggest city and Kyiv’s main TV tower, killing at least five people. The Babi Yar Holocaust memorial was also damaged.Biden announced that the U.S. is following Canada and the European Union in banning Russian planes from its airspace in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. He also said the Justice Department was launching a task force to go after Russian oligarchs, whom he called “corrupt leaders who have bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime.”“We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” he said, pledging that the U.S. and European allies were after their yachts, luxury apartments and private jets.Biden pivoted in his speech from the troubles abroad to those at home. Even before the Russian invasion sent energy costs skyrocketing, prices for American families had been rising, and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hurt families and the country’s economy.Biden outlined plans to address inflation by reinvesting in American manufacturing capacity, speeding supply chains and reducing the burden of childcare and eldercare on workers.“Too many families are struggling to keep up with the bills,” Biden said. “Inflation is robbing them of the gains they might otherwise feel. I get it. That’s why my top priority is getting prices under control.”In one sign of national progress on the pandemic, Biden entered the House chamber without a mask, as coronavirus cases decline and new federal guidance tries to nudge the public back to pre-pandemic activities. But there was evidence of ongoing tension as well: The Capitol was newly fenced due to security concerns after last year’s insurrection.Set against disquiet at home and danger abroad, the White House had conceived Tuesday night’s speech as an opportunity to highlight the improving coronavirus outlook, rebrand Biden’s domestic policy priorities and show a path to lower costs for families grappling with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/consumer-prices-inflation-c1bfd93ed1719cf0135420f4fd0270f9">soaring inflation</a>. But events took a turn toward world affairs with last week’s Russian invasion of Ukraine and nuclear saber-rattling by Putin.As is customary, one Cabinet secretary, in this case Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, was kept in a secure location during the address, ready to take over the government in the event of a catastrophe.The State of the Union is typically an address targeted to a national audience, but this year’s had the world watching. In an interview with CNN and Reuters, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Biden to deliver a strong and “useful” message about Russia’s invasion. In a show of unity, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova joined first lady Jill Biden in the House gallery for the speech.In a rare discordant moment, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado yelled out that Biden was to blame for the 13 service members who were killed during last August’s chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.“You put them in. Thirteen of them,” Boebert yelled as Biden mentioned his late son Beau, a veteran who died from brain cancer and served near toxic military burn pits, used extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan. Biden is pursuing legislation to help veterans suffering exposure and other injuries.While the crisis in Eastern Europe may have helped to cool partisan tensions in Washington, it didn’t erase the political and cultural discord that is casting doubt on Biden’s ability to deliver.A February AP-NORC poll found that more people disapproved than approved of how Biden is handling his job, 55% to 44%. That’s down from a 60% favorable rating last July.Biden, used his remarks to highlight the progress from a year ago — with the majority of the U.S. population now vaccinated and millions more people at work — but also acknowledged that the job is not yet done, a recognition of American discontent.“I have come to report on the state of the union,” Biden said. “And my report is this: The state of the union is strong — because you, the American people, are strong. We are stronger today than we were a year ago. And we will be stronger a year from now than we are today.”Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, selected to give the Republican response, said Biden’s address came as a blast from the past with rising inflation, rising crime and a resurgent Russia making it feel more like the 1980s than today.“Even before taking the oath of office, the president said that he wanted to — quote — make America respected around the world again, and to unite us here. He’s failed on both fronts,” she said.Biden used his speech to nudge the country back “to more normal routines” after the coronavirus reshaped American life.“It’s time for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again,” he declared. He said people will be able to order another round of free tests from the government and that his administration was launching a “test to treat” initiative to provide free antiviral pills at pharmacies to those who test positive for the virus.Where his speech to Congress last year saw the rollout of a massive social spending package, Biden this year largely repackaged past proposals in search of achievable measures he hopes can win bipartisan support in a bitterly divided Congress before the elections.The president also highlighted investments in everything from internet broadband access to bridge construction from November’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-congress-infrastructure-bill-signing-b5b8cca843133de060778f049861b144">$1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law</a>&nbsp;as an example of government reaching consensus and delivering change for the nation.As part of his pitch to voters, he also put a new emphasis on how proposals like extending the child tax credit and bringing down child care costs could bring relief to families as prices rise. He was said his climate change proposals would cut costs for lower- and middle-income families and create new jobs.Biden called for lowering health care costs, pitching his plan to authorize Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, as well as an extension of more generous health insurance subsidies now temporarily available through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces where 14.5 million people get coverage.Biden also appealed for action on voting rights, which has failed to win GOP support. And as gun violence rises, he returned to calls to ban assault weapons, a blunt request he hadn’t made in months. He called to “fund the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities.”He led Congress in a bipartisan tribute to retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and highlighted the biography of federal judge&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/Ketanji-Brown-Jackson-biden-supreme-court-nominee-32f77fe08d7cf64af95591668a0aaa41">Ketanji Brown Jackson,</a>&nbsp;his nominee be the first Black woman on the high court.___

🎥 State of the Union: Biden vows to halt Russia, hit inflation

WASHINGTON&nbsp;—&nbsp;The Internal Revenue Service today issued <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-issues-questions-and-answers-about-the-tax-year-2021-earned-income-tax-credit">frequently asked questions (FAQs) for the 2021 Earned Income Tax Credit</a> to educate eligible taxpayers on how to properly claim the credit when they prepare and file their 2021 tax return.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) helps low- to moderate-income 
workers and families in the form of a credit to either reduce the taxes 
owed or an added payment to increase a tax refund. The amount of the 
credit may change if the taxpayer has children, dependents, are disabled
 or meet other criteria.

These FAQs&nbsp;detail what the EITC is, how it was expanded for 2021, which taxpayers are eligible, and how to claim it.

Taxpayers with income is $73,000 or less can file their federal tax returns electronically for free through the IRS <a href="https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free">Free File Program</a>.
 The fastest way to receive a tax refund is to file electronically and 
have it direct deposited into a financial account. Refunds can be 
directly deposited into bank accounts, prepaid debit cards or mobile 
apps as long as a routing and account number is provided.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599869632873.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>IRSWASHINGTON&nbsp;—&nbsp;The Internal Revenue Service today issued <a href="https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-issues-questions-and-answers-about-the-tax-year-2021-earned-income-tax-credit">frequently asked questions (FAQs) for the 2021 Earned Income Tax Credit</a> to educate eligible taxpayers on how to properly claim the credit when they prepare and file their 2021 tax return.The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) helps low- to moderate-income 
workers and families in the form of a credit to either reduce the taxes 
owed or an added payment to increase a tax refund. The amount of the 
credit may change if the taxpayer has children, dependents, are disabled
 or meet other criteria.These FAQs&nbsp;detail what the EITC is, how it was expanded for 2021, which taxpayers are eligible, and how to claim it.The 17 new FAQs are:<ul>
 <li>What is the Earned Income Tax Credit?</li><li>What is earned income?</li><li>What are the earned income limits for taxpayers without qualifying children?</li><li>How old must I be to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit if I do not have qualifying children?</li><li>Do I need to have a Social Security number (SSN) to be eligible to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit?</li><li>Do my qualifying children need to have SSNs in order for me to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit?</li><li>What are the age requirements for claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit if I have a qualifying child?</li><li>What are the earned income limits for individuals with a qualifying child?</li><li>Will any refund that I receive because I claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit affect my government benefits?</li><li>What is the maximum amount of the Earned Income Tax Credit for 2021 for eligible taxpayers without qualifying children?</li><li>Is there a limit on the amount of investment income I can earn and remain eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit?</li><li>If I am not filing a joint return with my spouse, can I claim the Earned Income Tax Credit?</li><li>Who is considered a qualified homeless youth for purposes of the Earned Income Tax Credit?</li><li>Who is considered a qualified former foster youth for purposes of the Earned Income Tax Credit?</li><li>Can I elect to use my 2019 earned income to figure my Earned Income Tax Credit for 2021?</li><li>Can a student claim the Earned Income Tax Credit for 2021?</li><li>What is a specified student for purposes of the Earned Income Tax Credit?</li>
 </ul><h2>File for free and use direct deposit</h2>Taxpayers with income is $73,000 or less can file their federal tax returns electronically for free through the IRS <a href="https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free">Free File Program</a>.
 The fastest way to receive a tax refund is to file electronically and 
have it direct deposited into a financial account. Refunds can be 
directly deposited into bank accounts, prepaid debit cards or mobile 
apps as long as a routing and account number is provided.

IRS FAQs explain 2021 Earned Income Tax Credit

By
NICK GOSNELL Hutch Post

According to University of Kansas Law Brenneisen Distinguished Professor Raj Bhala, the choice by the European Union that was confirmed Wednesday to remove some Russian banks from SWIFT is cutting them off from the majority of trade with the world.

"Payment for normal trade transactions, by which Russia receives import revenues, those payments will not be processed by SWIFT," Bhala said. "The SWIFT banks are saying we will not deal with a designated list of major Russian banks. We'll not accept their payments. Those are the very banks that Russia has been using to make or receive payments for trade and investment transactions."

Two major Russian banks that process energy payments were not included in Wednesday's order.

"Banks will not have access to a large portion of its foreign exchange reserves," Bhala said. "Russia's got about $630 billion of hard currency in foreign exchange reserves. Those are in banks overseas. The Russian ruble is crashing."

The exchange rate as of midday Wednesday was at 105 rubles to the US Dollar.

"The denial of access to the SWIFT system is really, to me, the core sanction that is taking aim at Russia's fortress economy."

SWIFT is used by more than 11,000 financial institutions across the globe.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1579783750382.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>
By
NICK GOSNELL Hutch PostAccording to University of Kansas Law Brenneisen Distinguished Professor Raj Bhala, the choice by the European Union that was confirmed Wednesday to remove some Russian banks from SWIFT is cutting them off from the majority of trade with the world."Payment for normal trade transactions, by which Russia receives import revenues, those payments will not be processed by SWIFT," Bhala said. "The SWIFT banks are saying we will not deal with a designated list of major Russian banks. We'll not accept their payments. Those are the very banks that Russia has been using to make or receive payments for trade and investment transactions."Two major Russian banks that process energy payments were not included in Wednesday's order."Banks will not have access to a large portion of its foreign exchange reserves," Bhala said. "Russia's got about $630 billion of hard currency in foreign exchange reserves. Those are in banks overseas. The Russian ruble is crashing."The exchange rate as of midday Wednesday was at 105 rubles to the US Dollar."The denial of access to the SWIFT system is really, to me, the core sanction that is taking aim at Russia's fortress economy."SWIFT is used by more than 11,000 financial institutions across the globe.

Bhala: SWIFT payment system removal is 'core sanction' against Russia

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say one of four suspects in a convenience store robbery fired shots at police officers chasing them, hitting a police car but not injuring anyone. 

Police say the shooting happened early Tuesday, around 3 a.m., after a person flagged down officers to report that a southwestern Omaha QuikTrip store was being robbed. 

Police say when officers attempted to pull over a car suspected in the robbery, someone inside the car fired several shots at the officers, hitting their car. 

A chase ensued, and police say three suspects were arrested about 14 miles away in Sarpy County. 

A fourth suspect was later found and arrested. 

By Associated PressOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police say one of four suspects in a convenience store robbery fired shots at police officers chasing them, hitting a police car but not injuring anyone. Police say the shooting happened early Tuesday, around 3 a.m., after a person flagged down officers to report that a southwestern Omaha QuikTrip store was being robbed. Police say when officers attempted to pull over a car suspected in the robbery, someone inside the car fired several shots at the officers, hitting their car. A chase ensued, and police say three suspects were arrested about 14 miles away in Sarpy County. A fourth suspect was later found and arrested. Their names have not been released.

Omaha police say robbery suspect fired shots at officers

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A judge has cleared the way for newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises to use a voting system that will ensure two longtime directors are reelected at its upcoming annual meeting despite the objections of a hedge fund that is trying to buy the company. 

The Davenport, Iowa-based publisher said the Delaware judge rejected Alden Global Capital’s motion for an injunction in Alden’s latest lawsuit Friday.

The publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Buffalo News, Lincoln Journal Star and dozens of other newspapers rejected Alden’s $141 million takeover offer in December because Lee said it “grossly undervalued” the company.

 The New York-based hedge fund has a reputation for imposing severe cuts and layoffs at the more than 200 newspapers it owns.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A judge has cleared the way for newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises to use a voting system that will ensure two longtime directors are reelected at its upcoming annual meeting despite the objections of a hedge fund that is trying to buy the company. The Davenport, Iowa-based publisher said the Delaware judge rejected Alden Global Capital’s motion for an injunction in Alden’s latest lawsuit Friday.The publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Buffalo News, Lincoln Journal Star and dozens of other newspapers rejected Alden’s $141 million takeover offer in December because Lee said it “grossly undervalued” the company. The New York-based hedge fund has a reputation for imposing severe cuts and layoffs at the more than 200 newspapers it owns.

Hedge fund loses ruling in Lee Enterprises takeover fight

By PAUL HAMMEL <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/02/28/legislative-committee-still-divided-over-how-many-gambling-casinos-to-allow/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN
 — A state legislative committee remains divided over how many gambling 
casinos should be allowed in the state, and where they should be 
located, after a closed-door discussion Monday.

The
 Legislature’s General Affairs Committee discussed amendments to a 
casino proposal that would, among other things, bar any new horse 
racetracks with casinos — known as “racinos” — from being licensed in 
the state prior to January 2025.

But
 such a three-year moratorium brought some opposition within the 
eight-senator committee during the executive session. Such closed-door 
meetings are closed to the public, but the press is allowed to attend 
and report on the proceeding. The Nebraska Examiner was the only media 
present.

State
 Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha said the constitutional amendment approved 
by voters in November that legalizes casinos at licensed racetracks put 
no limits on the number. He said there was no reason to “stifle” the 
gambling industry.

“Really?” responded Papillion Sen. John Arch.

&nbsp;He
 said that he felt that voters approved casinos only at “racetracks,” 
meaning the existing six tracks in Omaha, Lincoln, Columbus, Grand 
Island, South Sioux City and Hastings.

North
 Platte Sen. Mike Jacobson, who was just appointed to the Legislature 
last week after the sudden resignation of Sen. Mike Groene, spoke up for
 a proposed racino in his community.&nbsp;

He
 said that with no existing racetracks west of Grand Island, residents 
of western Nebraska will have no outlet to gamble in a casino.

One
 amendment circulated by Albion Sen. Tom Briese, the chairman of the 
General Affairs Committee, would allow the existing racetracks in the 
state to relocate. That would clear the way for a discussed move of the 
state’s only quarter horse track, now located in Hastings, to North 
Platte.

Briese’s
 amendment would also require an extensive study before the State Racing
 Commission could approve new racinos. Such a study would include the “feasibility and sustainability” of a new racetrack/casino and its impact on the local economy and horseracing.

The
 amendment also would establish a minimum number of racing days at the 
existing and new tracks. Currently, racetracks have to hold only one 
race a year, which has sparked criticism that it doesn’t help rebuild 
the state’s ailing Thoroughbred industry, which was a main argument in 
legalizing casino betting at racetracks.&nbsp;

Briese’s amendment would require existing tracks to hold a
 minimum of five racing days and 50 live horse races annually beginning 
in 2026. By 2031, existing tracks would have to hold at least 15 race 
days and 120 horse races a year. The proposal also sets minimums for new
 racetracks, as well as raising the licensing fee for casinos from $1 
million to $5 million.

Kearney
 Sen. John Lowe urged caution, saying that California — a state with 
about 20 times the population of Nebraska — has only six racetracks.

He asked whether more than six tracks in Nebraska could be viable and attract enough racehorses.

Senators
 said they were getting a lot of lobbying to approve new racinos in 
places like North Platte, Ogallala, Gering, Norfolk and Bellevue. Some 
said they expected a filibuster against any bill they advance, meaning 
that votes of 33 of 49 senators would be required to advance a proposal.

Briese
 said he called Monday’s executive session to get more input on proposed
 amendments. He did not say when the General Affairs Committee might 
meet again to ponder whether to advance a casino bill for debate by the 
full Legislature.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646149812641.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By PAUL HAMMEL <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/02/28/legislative-committee-still-divided-over-how-many-gambling-casinos-to-allow/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN
 — A state legislative committee remains divided over how many gambling 
casinos should be allowed in the state, and where they should be 
located, after a closed-door discussion Monday.The
 Legislature’s General Affairs Committee discussed amendments to a 
casino proposal that would, among other things, bar any new horse 
racetracks with casinos — known as “racinos” — from being licensed in 
the state prior to January 2025.But
 such a three-year moratorium brought some opposition within the 
eight-senator committee during the executive session. Such closed-door 
meetings are closed to the public, but the press is allowed to attend 
and report on the proceeding. The Nebraska Examiner was the only media 
present.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646149876996.jpeg" alt="Sen. Tom Briese of Albion (Rebecca S. Gratz for the Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>Sen. Tom Briese of Albion (Rebecca S. Gratz for the Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>No limits</h2>State
 Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha said the constitutional amendment approved 
by voters in November that legalizes casinos at licensed racetracks put 
no limits on the number. He said there was no reason to “stifle” the 
gambling industry.“Really?” responded Papillion Sen. John Arch.&nbsp;He
 said that he felt that voters approved casinos only at “racetracks,” 
meaning the existing six tracks in Omaha, Lincoln, Columbus, Grand 
Island, South Sioux City and Hastings.North
 Platte Sen. Mike Jacobson, who was just appointed to the Legislature 
last week after the sudden resignation of Sen. Mike Groene, spoke up for
 a proposed racino in his community.&nbsp;<h2>No casinos west of Grand Island</h2>He
 said that with no existing racetracks west of Grand Island, residents 
of western Nebraska will have no outlet to gamble in a casino.One
 amendment circulated by Albion Sen. Tom Briese, the chairman of the 
General Affairs Committee, would allow the existing racetracks in the 
state to relocate. That would clear the way for a discussed move of the 
state’s only quarter horse track, now located in Hastings, to North 
Platte.Briese’s
 amendment would also require an extensive study before the State Racing
 Commission could approve new racinos. Such a study would include the “feasibility and sustainability” of a new racetrack/casino and its impact on the local economy and horseracing.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1646149904314.jpeg" alt="State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha (Rebecca S. Gratz for the Nebraska Examiner)" />
 <figcaption>State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha (Rebecca S. Gratz for the Nebraska Examiner)</figcaption>
 </figure>The
 amendment also would establish a minimum number of racing days at the 
existing and new tracks. Currently, racetracks have to hold only one 
race a year, which has sparked criticism that it doesn’t help rebuild 
the state’s ailing Thoroughbred industry, which was a main argument in 
legalizing casino betting at racetracks.&nbsp;Briese’s amendment would require existing tracks to hold a
 minimum of five racing days and 50 live horse races annually beginning 
in 2026. By 2031, existing tracks would have to hold at least 15 race 
days and 120 horse races a year. The proposal also sets minimums for new
 racetracks, as well as raising the licensing fee for casinos from $1 
million to $5 million.Kearney
 Sen. John Lowe urged caution, saying that California — a state with 
about 20 times the population of Nebraska — has only six racetracks.<h2>Are six tracks enough?</h2>He asked whether more than six tracks in Nebraska could be viable and attract enough racehorses.Senators
 said they were getting a lot of lobbying to approve new racinos in 
places like North Platte, Ogallala, Gering, Norfolk and Bellevue. Some 
said they expected a filibuster against any bill they advance, meaning 
that votes of 33 of 49 senators would be required to advance a proposal.Briese
 said he called Monday’s executive session to get more input on proposed
 amendments. He did not say when the General Affairs Committee might 
meet again to ponder whether to advance a casino bill for debate by the 
full Legislature.

Legislative committee still divided over how many casinos to allow

NORTH PLATTE&nbsp; — During the evening hours of Friday, February 25, Nebraska State Patrol investigators conducted alcohol inspections in Dawson County.

This project was supported in whole or part by grant #93.959 under the SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Region II Human Services, and the Nebraska DHHS Division of Behavioral Health.

In total, 15 businesses were checked. Two businesses sold alcohol to a minor for a 13% non-compliance rate. One business failed to check the minor’s ID.

The businesses which failed the inspections were:

By Nebraska State PatrolNORTH PLATTE&nbsp; — During the evening hours of Friday, February 25, Nebraska State Patrol investigators conducted alcohol inspections in Dawson County.This project was supported in whole or part by grant #93.959 under the SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Region II Human Services, and the Nebraska DHHS Division of Behavioral Health.In total, 15 businesses were checked. Two businesses sold alcohol to a minor for a 13% non-compliance rate. One business failed to check the minor’s ID.The businesses which failed the inspections were:Mac’s Creek Winery and Brewery – Lexington (Did not check ID, sold to a minor)Mac’s Short Stop – Lexington (Checked ID, sold to a minor)The businesses checked included convenience stores, restaurants, a bowling alley, liquor stores, and bars. Businesses that fail the inspections are referred to the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission. Clerks who sell alcohol to a minor are cited for procuring alcohol for a minor.