Omaha World-Herald. Jan. 14, 2016
Reforms bring juvenile justice reform back from the brink.
In recent years, Nebraska has carried out much-needed reforms of its juvenile justice system.
The state stepped up efforts to provide family supports and keep some offenders out of the court system. Officials took a closer look at how to improve conditions at the juvenile offender facilities in Kearney and Geneva.
And the Nebraska Supreme Court’s Administrative Office of Probation was given authority over juvenile offender cases with the aim of handling them more efficiently. That last change raised complications and led to tensions between Nebraska’s legislative and judicial branches.
The Legislature called for transparency to provide accountability for how cases are handled and how the millions of dollars in state funds are spent. The state inspector general for child welfare pressed to have access to case information.
However, court officials said, transparency for the cases handled by Probation is complicated: The children are wards of their parents, and by law those parents have privacy rights. Plus, court officials said, under separation of powers in Nebraska government, the Legislature should be wary of encroaching on judicial authority.
Disagreement on these matters produced heated exchanges at times, threatening to scuttle an important component of juvenile justice reform. After a meeting between the two sides in November, some legislative leaders said publicly that they intended to return juvenile-offender authority from Probation to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
It’s hard to see how such a step would serve the interests of these children and their families, though. The central need for the state’s child welfare system is stability, not more upheaval.
This week brought good news: Over the past month the two sides returned to negotiations and reached a sensible compromise that was unveiled on Tuesday. Under the agreement, the inspector general for child welfare can submit a written request to Probation for access to a juvenile probation officer’s records in a specific case. The records must be provided within five days.
This approach has an added advantage over the current situation: The agreement allows the inspector general to route all requests through Probation instead of needing to go to each individual judge. Case information also could be provided to the state Foster Care Review Office. At the same time, judges would retain control over other juvenile records considered confidential. That includes judges’ notes, records judges take under advisement or reports by court-appointed guardians.
Much credit for this agreement goes to the chief negotiators: Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Heavican, State Court Administrator Corey Steel and State Sen. Bob Krist, who this week introduced Legislative Bill 917 to implement the deal.
Lawmakers will need to scrutinize Krist’s bill closely, but at this point it certainly looks as if the measure is a practical solution worthy of passage.
If the agreement is passed into the law, the key task will be a good-faith commitment from all parties to make things work properly.
Enormous effort has been expended to keep this matter from running off the rails. Nebraska will be well served if all sides keep it on track.
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The McCook Daily Gazette. Jan. 15, 2016
How is the air quality in your cabin this winter?
We’ve had some unseasonably warm, sunny days, but rest assured we will have some dreary weather before spring arrives.
With it will come cabin fever from being cooped up indoors, and worse than that, potential harm from indoor pollution.
The Nebraska Poison Center warns that calls concerning carbon monoxide poisonings increased nearly 13 percent last year, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranked Nebraska as one of the states with the highest mortality rate from carbon monoxide.
That’s saying something; the CDC reports more than 400 deaths and about 15,000 emergency room visits each year from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include sleepiness, headache, dizziness, blurred vision, vomiting, shortness of breath and convulsions.
The first step in treating carbon monoxide is getting the victim to fresh air, then seek medical attention immediately.
Feeling like you are coming down with the flu? Make sure it’s not really carbon monoxide from heating equipment in poor repair, lack of ventilation in a car, using a charcoal grill indoors or an unvented space heater.
The Poison Center recommends inspecting all fuel-burning equipment yearly, vent fuel-burning heaters outside, don’t use a gas range or oven for heating a room, never use a charcoal grill or hibachi inside, install carbon monoxide alarms on every level of your home, never leave a car running in an attached garage, even with the garage door open.
Have your vehicle muffler and tailpipes checked regularly.
Carbon monoxide symptoms are similar to other health conditions among the elderly, so it’s especially important that people 65 and older are not exposed to the colorless, odorless gas.
For more information call the Nebraska Regional Poison Center at (800) 222-1222.
Carbon monoxide isn’t the only colorless, odorless, tasteless gas we should be concerned about, however.
Nebraska has a very high incidence of radon in homes, about half of them testing above amount deemed to be safe.
Created by the breakdown of uranium in the soil, radon can build up in your home, and become trapped in your lungs, damaging lung tissue and increasing the risk of lung cancer. Next to smoking, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer.
The Southwest Nebraska Public Health Department has collaborated with the City of McCook to pass building codes which require all new residential construction to be radon-ready.
You can test for radon yourself or hire a professional; contact the Southwest Nebraska Health Department at (308) 345-4223, email educate@swhealth.ne.gov or visit https://1.usa.gov/1OTqygM
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The Kearney Hub. Jan. 15, 2016
Pain relief won’t come without some pain.
On first blush, the property tax relief package unveiled this week in Lincoln appears as if it could measurably reduce Nebraskans’ property taxes, and Gov. Pete Ricketts is committed to shepherding it into law. The package employs a blend of spending limits on local governments and property valuation controls on ag land. The plan also would attempt to shift more of the burden for school support onto state aid.
Coupled with spending limits, the shift to more state school aid could achieve the most pronounced benefits because schools account for about 50 percent of most property tax bills.
However, the package could put school districts on a rocky road by replacing predictable local property tax revenues with less predictable state aid. Historically, school districts have found it difficult to forecast how much state aid they’ll receive year-to-year. The result of the unpredictable nature of state aid is shock and frustration for districts that lose significant percentages of their aid, which is based on complex factors that determine how much they’re to receive.
In addition to increasing their tax levies, many districts confronted with sharp reductions in state aid tend to tap cash reserves to smooth over the rough spots. That strategy may be more difficult to employ in the future because the tax relief package also calls for limits on cash reserves.
Because the property tax relief package would employ spending limits and other controls, lawmakers will face opposition from upset public officials as the measure passes through the legislative process.
Larry Dix, executive director of the Nebraska Association of County Officials, told reporters that members of NACO need taxing and spending authority and the flexibility afforded by cash reserves to contend with unexpected expenses. He listed examples such as flooding that wipes out county bridges or a costly murder trial as examples of why cash reserves are prudent.
Rainy day funds are certainly useful in a pinch, but when overburdened taxpayers see money laying around for an unspecified future emergency, a cash reserve might be regarded as an expensive luxury.
Belt tightening is tough for villages, cities, counties, schools, rural fire districts and other taxing entities. All try hard to deliver the services that taxpayers desire, but that job is more challenging and complex when limits on taxing and spending necessitate cutting back on services.
What should be apparent to Nebraskans is that property tax relief isn’t possible without some discomfort.
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The Lincoln Journal Star. Jan. 13, 2016
Focus sharpens on climate change.
The new State Climate Office at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be a valuable resource as the world grows steadily warmer.
Last year was the hottest on record for the planet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The average temperature in the lower 48 states was the second hottest on record.
Fortunately Nebraska escaped most of the heat in the summer of 2015. Temperatures were above average at 54 degrees, but below the record of 55.7 set in the Dust Bowl years of 1931 and 1934.
The new climate office will fill a gap. “We didn’t really have a core focal point on dealing with climate issues in the state of Nebraska, especially with our largest constituencies in agriculture,” said John Carroll, director of the UNL School of Natural Resources.
The climate office, which will be part of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, will have four fulltime and two part-time employees.
A primary role for the climate office will be to aggregate information such as air temperature, rainfall, soil temperature and moisture, relative humidity, and wind. The office hopes to set up weather stations in all 93 Nebraska counties.
The office would mesh well with a “Health and Climate Resiliency Task Force” that Sen. Ken Haar hopes to establish legislatively with passage of LB802. The task force would be given the mission of drawing up a strategic plan for coping with climate change.
Experts predict that Nebraska will experience more droughts in the summer, and precipitation may come more often in extreme “rainfall events.”
Don Wilhite, a climatologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, founding director of the National Drought Mitigation Center and the lead author of the landmark report on the implications of climate change for Nebraska told the Journal Star last year that in coming years “farmers will have to become more adept at managing.”
It’s encouraging that efforts are underway to provide farmers and other Nebraskans more resources as climate change accelerates.
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