Omaha World Herald. August 10, 2018
Schools use range of tools to promote safety, meet students’ emotional needs.
Nebraska schools have important obligations to promote school safety and to help students struggling with emotional difficulties that potentially could lead to self-harm or violence against others. Recent World-Herald reporting explained a range of approaches schools are using to help.
Elkhorn, Millard, Kearney and Schuyler are using digital monitoring to check on postings students make on school-owned laptops or tablets, The World-Herald’s Erin Duffy reports. The districts notify students and parents upfront that such surveillance will be conducted, checking for threats or signs of a student’s mental health struggles.
If students get flagged for inappropriate online behavior, Schuyler officials say they try to work on correcting behavior or getting kids help, rather than focus on punishment.
Ralston, Papillion-La Vista, Westside and Bellevue forgo digital monitoring, opting to teach responsible online behavior and to promote a positive environment in which students can confide in school staff.
Schools also are incorporating protective features into new building layouts. Lockdown drills, though regrettable, are a practical necessity. Many schools provide information on hotlines that students, staff and parents can call to report threats or worrisome behavior.
Each middle and high school student in Schuyler has a staff member who serves as a mentor. Bellevue is expanding Hope Squads, in which students can confide in trained classmates if they’re feeling depressed or if a friend is struggling.
These are worthwhile, proactive steps by Nebraska schools. A range of policies is best in working to keep schools safe and students on the right path.
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Kearney Hub. August 9, 2018
Something stinks about lawsuits vs. hog farmers.
Industry observers are labeling them “nuisance” lawsuits, but the multi-million dollar judgments against three pork-producing operators in North Carolina seem more like farm killers. They’re being labeled as nuisance lawsuits because plaintiffs are bringing complaints about nuisances such as odor and noise to court and a judge is agreeing with them.
The judge in all three cases believes people who have moved to North Carolina’s rural communities can sue farmers for doing nothing more than farming.
Especially troubling is that the farmers who are named in the lawsuits have been raising livestock for generations. The odor and noise their operations generate aren’t new. The smell and the noise have been a part of the landscape for decades.
Currently, three lawsuits have been decided, but there are 26 yet to be heard.
If city folk discover after they move to the country that there are noise and odors to contend with - along with dusty and muddy roads and other inconveniences - then that’s their problem. The media might portray country living as sanitized and idyllic, but it isn’t so. That’s why farmers operate away from town, so as not to disturb people.
The developments in North Carolina must send shivers down the backs of livestock producers across the United States. That’s doubly true here in Nebraska, where according to the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, livestock sales account for 50 percent of all agricultural sales. It is difficult to fathom how Nebraska’s economy would function if producers here suddenly had to contend with the lawsuits now plaguing the North Carolina farmers.
Nebraskans might have a measure of legal protection in the state’s Livestock Friendly County program. It was instituted by the Legislature and is administered by the state Department of Agriculture to promote and support livestock production. About half of the state’s counties are designated as livestock friendly.
When counties apply for the designation, the county board conducts a public hearing so anyone opposed to the designation can speak their minds. If nobody complains, it would seem to acknowledge that, along with the economic benefits of the livestock industry, county residents also understand there may be some unpleasant side effects like manure odors, or the “smell of money,” as Nebraskans say. Unfortunately for North Carolina farmers, their new city folk neighbors also are smelling money and they are following the aroma right to the courthouse.
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Lincoln Journal Star. August 10, 2018
Moore’s execution must wait for state’s answers.
Carey Dean Moore deserves to die in prison.
He murdered Reuel Van Ness and Maynard Helgeland, two Omaha cab drivers, in 1979. The first killing came with his younger brother in tow; the second was committed alone to callously prove that Moore could take a man’s life on his own.
This is a man whose crimes against innocent victims must mandate he remains incarcerated until his final breath. However, Moore should not die under the circumstances he presently faces.
Moore is slated to be put to death for his crimes Tuesday morning at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln. Questions about the efficacy of Nebraska’s four-drug lethal injection protocol - never before used in capital punishment and written in one draft without any external input - and the sources from which the state obtained those drugs remain unknown.
Yes, Moore broke the law in killing two men. That cannot be disputed. But the state has yet to definitely prove it can follow the law while killing him.
An open-records lawsuit filed by the Journal Star and other media outlets sought to prove if that were indeed the case. A judge ruled that most of the documents requested in the suit - including many surrounding the sourcing of the drugs - were in fact public records that should be released.
Quickly, the state appealed the decision. Around that same time, the Attorney General’s Office took what appears to be an unprecedented step by challenging a subpoena issued by the Nebraska Legislature’s Judiciary Committee to Corrections Director Scott Frakes.
The lengths to which state officials have gone to hide the details of this process should trouble all Nebraskans. Both of these court actions are indisputably designed to hide specifics of the state’s death penalty protocol from the public, as if something unsavory lurks beneath the surface.
The open-records case remains on appeal, and the subpoena suit remains under advisement. It’s unclear if either will be decided before Moore’s execution - the first in Nebraska since 1997.
That’s assuming everything occurs as scheduled, of course, never a guarantee with capital punishment.
The latest potential wrench came from a pharmaceutical company, which filed a lawsuit late Tuesday. The suit aims to prevent what it believes is its potassium chloride - since, again, the state refuses to identify where it bought the execution drugs - from being used in next week’s lethal injection.
Unwarranted secrecy and unmerited opacity spite the esteemed words above the State Capitol’s north door: “The salvation of the state is watchfulness in the citizen.” The citizens have done everything in their power to be watchful regarding capital punishment, only to be rebuffed by the state.
Too many grave concerns remain unaddressed for Moore’s execution. Until the state provides the requisite answers and proves it’s acting in accordance with the law, his death is a bridge too far.
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The Grand Island Independent. August 12, 2018.
Raid shows immigration reform needed.
Many throughout Nebraska were shocked this week when federal immigration officers descended on O’Neill, a typical small town in Nebraska known mostly for its Irish heritage.
O’Neill was the focal point of a 15-month investigation led by Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Taken into custody were 133 workers suspected of being in the country illegally. In addition, 17 people were arrested on federal indictments, accused of being part of a conspiracy to exploit illegal labor for profit, money laundering and fraud.
While there was sympathy for the town of O’Neill and families that were briefly separated, there shouldn’t be any sympathy for the co-conspirators, if the charges hold up.
Those facing federal indictment were allegedly exploiting the illegal workers, profiting from a scheme to supply labor while taking some of the workers’ pay. One official called it “slave labor,” saying some workers had to pay a fee for their jobs.
If this exploitation was going on, ICE officials were right to crack down on it.
No one wants to see families separated or the economy of a small town damaged. However, if these people did enter the country illegally, they knew they ran the risk of being detained and how that could impact their families.
ICE officials should receive credit for processing the workers quickly. Most were returned to O’Neill or other towns where they had been living that same evening. About 17 detainees were held at the Hall County Jail on Thursday. Some may have been released and it was unclear if these individuals face other charges besides allegedly being in the country illegally.
Workplace raids are a questionable way of enforcing immigration laws. Often these raids hurt families and punish people who are working hard doing jobs that employers are having trouble filling.
However, anger shouldn’t be centered on ICE agents who are just doing their jobs. Protesters’ frustrations should be pointed at Congress. For decades, Congress has failed to pass immigration legislation that would address many of these issues, such as allowing more guest workers or permitting young people who have grown up in the U.S. to remain here.
Compromises that would beef up border security, while allowing “Dreamers” to stay in the country have failed to gain the needed support.
Senators and representatives need to feel pressure to work on the immigration issue. The debate has lingered for too long, to where anger is starting to boil over.
ICE officials were right to go after an alleged criminal enterprise that was taking advantage of immigrant labor. Now Congress needs to step up and pass comprehensive immigration reform. Voters must stress this to their senators and representatives. The ballot box is the real place to express frustrations.
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