Latest news with #Nebraskan
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Lincoln entrepreneur running for open NU Board of Regents seat in 2026
Brent Comstock of Lincoln is the first announced 2026 candidate for the District 1 seat on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents held by Regent Tim Clare of Lincoln, who says he will not seek a fourth term on the board. (Candidate photo courtesy of Comstock campaign | University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus photo by Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — A Lincoln entrepreneur born and raised in Auburn announced his 2026 candidacy Wednesday for an open seat on the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Brent Comstock, 29, is the CEO of the Lincoln-based marketing firm BCom, which he started a decade ago, after having thought up the idea for the business while he was in school. The District 1 seat Comstock is running for is held by Regent Tim Clare of Lincoln, who told the Lincoln Journal Star in April that he would not seek a fourth six-year term next year. NU Board of Regents District 1 includes the northern half of Lincoln, as well as the surrounding communities of Emerald, Malcolm, Agnew, Raymond and Davey. Comstock said it's important to preserve Clare's legacy of being principled and that he hopes to continue Clare's ability to bring all Nebraskans to the table. 'With the current political climate and the current budget environment, I think the next decade is going to shape how future generations choose to work and live here in the state,' Comstock told the Nebraska Examiner. 'All of that future depends on a strong, forward-thinking university system that brings everyone to the table and recognizes that every Nebraskan is impacted by what happens through the university system.' Comstock said NU is the 'most important public institution in the state,' from Nebraska Extension and 4-H in rural communities to degree programs across NU campuses and world-class research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. 'I think it touches every person in Nebraska,' Comstock said. Comstock, the son of a plumber and a former special education teacher, is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He said he made his own college decision similar to other small town Nebraska kids: on finances, dreams and aspirations. A scholarship made it more economically viable to go to school in North Carolina, Comstock said he returned home and invested in BCom, which partners with start-up companies, a bipartisan group of candidates and other causes or organizations. Comstock's campaign announcement included endorsements from Nebraskans, including Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, community leader and philanthropist Connie Duncan, former State Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg (who ran for the regents in 2022) and former U.S. Sens. Bob Kerrey and Ben Nelson, who both also served Nebraska as governor. In a statement, Gaylor Baird said Comstock 'helped put Lincoln on the map' and has played a key role in shaping Lincoln's 'growing entrepreneurial ecosystem.' He lives and works in the downtown and Haymarket space in Lincoln. 'Brent understands that the success of the university and the success of Lincoln are deeply connected. He brings people together — across politics, industries and generations — to focus on what really matters: education, opportunity and progress,' Gaylor Baird said. 'He's exactly the kind of regent we need right now.' Jeff Raikes, the former Microsoft executive and Nebraska native who co-founded the Raikes Foundation, also endorsed Comstock. The Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is named after Raikes, the former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Raikes said in a statement that Comstock understands that NU 'is not only a world-class institution, but also a vital economic engine for our state.' 'His ability to work across sectors and across the aisle makes him exactly the kind of regent we need to lead with vision, integrity and purpose,' Raikes said. Clare ran unopposed in 2014 and 2020 and won in 2008 with 58% of the vote. New district boundaries took effect in 2021 and match those of the State Board of Education District 1, which in November elected newcomer Kristin Christensen. Races for the education boards are officially nonpartisan, and Comstock is a registered nonpartisan, while Clare is a registered Republican and Christensen is a registered Democrat. Christensen won with 58% of the vote in a highly watched election in November, succeeding former State Board of Education member Patsy Koch Johns, a Democrat first elected in 2016. Comstock said that while he would bring a 'fresh perspective,' he also brings a decade of leadership in building a company in the Cornhusker State. 'I told people, if I were ever to seek elected office, I would want it to be in a place that we can make impact that touches as many people as possible,' Comstock said. 'I think that this is the moment to do that.' The top two vote-getters in May 2026 will advance to the November 2026 election. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republicans set to vote to make Trump's Gulf of America official
Republicans in the House of Representatives are set to vote Thursday on a bill that changes the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America under federal law. The bill, introduced by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in January, instructs federal agencies to update all documents and maps to reflect the name change within six months of enactment. When he entered office in January, President Donald Trump vowed to name the Gulf something more American, claiming the name was appropriate 'because we do most of the work there and it's ours.' Even if the name change is codified into US law, other countries would not be mandated to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by any other name. If it isn't codified into law, a future US president could easily reverse the move through executive action. 'As the previous administration made it painfully clear, executive orders can be undone and overwritten, and that's why we have to move it through the legislative process — and we are,' House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday, according to NBC News. 'We're going to pass Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill to permanently rename the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America.' Despite Republicans' best efforts, the bill has hit a few speed bumps, including opposition from Nebraskan Republican Don Bacon, who called the plan 'juvenile' and said he planned to vote against it. Greene, who introduced the bill, indicated that Bacon may not be the only Republican opposed. 'Some of my Republican colleagues don't want to vote for my Gulf of America Act, which is one of President Trump's favorite executive orders,' she wrote Wednesday on X. 'They say they would rather vote on 'more serious EOs.'' Since the start of his second term, Trump has made waves with his efforts to rename other landmarks and countries, including his decision to revert the name of Alaska's Mount Denali to Mount McKinley. Most recently, Trump showed interest in renaming another gulf. Ahead of a trip planned to the Middle East next week, Trump is reportedly planning to announce that the U.S. will start referring to the Persian Gulf as the 'Arabian Gulf' or 'Gulf of Arabia' in a snub to Iran.
Straits Times
05-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
How Warren Buffett changed the way we think of investing
How Warren Buffett changed the way we think of investing – As Mr Warren Buffett, 94, called an end to his historic run atop Berkshire Hathaway, Wall Street luminaries rushed to praise the man whose extraordinary investment career spanned more than 80 years (he bought his first shares when he was 11). The famed investor delivered a more than 5,500,000 per cent return on Berkshire's stock as he turned a once-failing textile firm into the most valuable company in the world that isn't either a tech giant or state oil producer. In the process, he became the rare investor who crossed over into public consciousness through his folksy wisdom and witticisms. Mr Buffett's approach to investing is deceptively simple. 'Forget what you know about buying fair businesses at wonderful prices; instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices,' he once wrote to Berkshire shareholders. This method - known as value investing - had existed long before Mr Buffett, now 94, began his career. But no one did it as well - or for as long - as he did. Over the 60 years that Mr Buffett has controlled Berkshire Hathaway, he used value investing to turn a failing textile manufacturer into a US$1.1 trillion (S$1.4 trillion) conglomerate, corporate takeover machine and microcosm of the US economy. One of America's largest railroads? Owned by Berkshire. The biggest shareholder in American Express and Coca-Cola? Berkshire, too. Mr Buffett amassed a Midas-like personal fortune, valued at about US$168 billion, and along the way became the avuncular avatar of American-style capitalism who was called upon for help by both corporate executives and government officials in the 2008 financial crisis. That unparalleled success earned him millions of admirers around the world. Tens of thousands of them were on hand at Berkshire's annual meeting in Omaha on May 3 when he declared he finally planned to step down as CEO. His announcement was greeted with surprise and then minutes of thundering applause from shareholders - many of whom became millionaires by owning Berkshire stock and hang onto his every financial aphorism. 'I tell people everything I know about investing I learned from Warren Buffett,' Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager who was in the crowd, said in an interview after Mr Buffett's announcement. 'Warren Buffett represents everything that is good about American capitalism and America itself,' said Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase. Mr Buffett has acknowledged that his enormous fortune owes no small debt to pure luck. As he has put it, he won 'the ovarian lottery' by being born in the United States, when stock markets were primed to create one of the biggest economic booms in modern history. He learned about stock picking from a pioneer of value investing, Benjamin Graham, who was his professor at Columbia University. With crucial advice from Charles T. Munger, a fellow Nebraskan who became his longtime business partner, Buffett turned Berkshire into the best-possible argument for the discipline. But few lived and breathed the discipline as he did, reading corporate balance sheets for research - and fun - from dawn to dusk. Mr Buffett then put that knowledge to work in several ways. Berkshire bought a vast array of successful businesses, including See's Candy, Fruit of the Loom and the private jet service NetJets. But the most transformative were the acquisitions of insurers including National Indemnity and Geico, which sat on premiums that customers paid but hadn't yet claimed. That cash, known as the 'float,' became the first financial engine of Mr Buffett's deal machine. He used that money, along with profits from the company's other businesses, to buy what is now a collection of 189 companies. Among the biggest are the BNSF railroad, acquired in 2010 for about US$26 billion; and the electricity producer Berkshire Hathaway Energy, purchased in 2000 for US$2 billion that was then expanded via its own acquisitions. As of March 31, that cash pile was nearly US$348 billion. Those who have sat across from Buffett at negotiating tables over the years have said that he is friendly and courteous - but unyielding when it comes to the numbers. When he is involved, rounds of haggling over price are not in the cards; he is ready to walk away. Mr Buffett also used Berkshire's cash to buy an array of stocks, with a portfolio that includes American Express, Bank of America, Coke, Chevron and - in one of his most profitable investments - Apple. For those companies, Berkshire's ownership has tended to be the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping Seal of approval. And with Berkshire's huge balance sheet and Mr Buffett's unparalleled control, the conglomerate has been able to swoop in at opportune times, buying when others must sell. Another key to his success was holding onto investments for ages - 'our favorite holding period is forever,' he has said - letting returns compound again and again, a process that he has compared to a snowball rolling downhill. Berkshire's other advantage for its investors is that it charges no fees, unlike mutual funds or hedge funds. In fact, Mr Buffett has criticized the size of the fees charged by Wall Street vehicles. That said, Mr Buffett has admitted that he made plenty of mistakes over the years. One was passing up opportunities to invest early in technology giants like Amazon and Microsoft, whose businesses he said he didn't understand at the time. Still, despite several periods of underperformance, especially in recent years, Mr Buffett's track record is astounding. According to his calculations, Berkshire gained 5,502,284 per cent from 1964 through 2024, compared with the S&P 500's 39,054 per cent over the same period. His average annual gain was 19.9 per cent, while the S&P's was 10.4 per cent. Though a Democrat who endorsed Hillary Clinton for president and whose name graced an Obama-era proposal for higher taxes on the wealthy, Mr Buffett advised presidents from both parties. That was most visible in 2008, when he was beseeched by corporate executives and the George W. Bush administration to help the global financial system from melting down. Mr Buffett eventually agreed to invest billions in Goldman Sachs and General Electric, moves that Mr Ackman compared with J.P. Morgan's efforts to save banks early in the 20th century. True to form, however, he charged both companies a then-astronomical interest rate of 10 per cent - a burden executives have said they were willing to pay to gain his imprimatur and survive. While the future of Berkshire appears financially solid, longtime Buffett followers say that it may not retain its seemingly mythical status without its chief architect. Berkshire's next CEO, Greg Abel, is regarded as an excellent operator of businesses and a savvy dealmaker, and Mr Buffett hired Todd Combs and Ted Weschler as high-level investment executives more than a decade ago. But some investors worry that the company will become a bit less special, and won't revolve around the stock picking that put it on the map. Bill Smead, whose investment firm owns Berkshire stock and who attended this year's annual meeting, said the company has already become less ambitious, eschewing potentially transformative deals. 'It's the end of an era,' Mr Smead said. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
New York Times
04-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
How Warren Buffett Changed the Way Investors Think of Investing
Warren E. Buffett's approach to investing is deceptively simple. 'Forget what you know about buying fair businesses at wonderful prices; instead, buy wonderful businesses at fair prices,' he once wrote to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, his business conglomerate. This method — known as value investing — had existed long before Mr. Buffett, now 94, began his career. But no one did it as well — or for as long — as he did. And in the process, he influenced generations of financiers, including Wall Street hedge fund moguls, and promoted the now-common advice about investing for the long term. Over the 60 years that Mr. Buffett has controlled Berkshire Hathaway, he used value investing to turn a failing textile manufacturer into a $1.1 trillion conglomerate, corporate takeover machine and microcosm of the U.S. economy. One of America's largest railroads? Owned by Berkshire. The biggest shareholder in American Express and Coca-Cola? Berkshire, too. Mr. Buffett amassed a Midas-like personal fortune, valued at about $168 billion, and along the way became the avuncular avatar of American-style capitalism who was called upon for help by both corporate executives and government officials in the 2008 financial crisis. That unparalleled success earned Mr. Buffett millions of admirers around the world. Tens of thousands of them were on hand at Berkshire's annual meeting in Omaha on Saturday when he declared he finally planned to step down as chief executive. His announcement was greeted with surprise and then minutes of thundering applause from shareholders — many of whom became millionaires by owning Berkshire stock and hang onto his every financial aphorism. 'I tell people everything I know about investing I learned from Warren Buffett,' Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager who was in the crowd, said in an interview after Mr. Buffett's announcement. Mr. Buffett has acknowledged that his enormous fortune owes no small debt to pure luck. As he has put it, he won 'the ovarian lottery' by being born in the United States, when stock markets were primed to create one of the biggest economic booms in modern history. He learned about stock picking from a pioneer of value investing, Benjamin Graham, who was his professor at Columbia University. With crucial advice from Charles T. Munger, a fellow Nebraskan who became his longtime business partner, Mr. Buffett turned Berkshire, which he bought control of in 1965, into the best-possible argument for the discipline. But few lived and breathed the discipline as he did, reading corporate balance sheets for research — and fun — from dawn to dusk. Mr. Buffett then put that knowledge to work in several ways. Berkshire bought a vast array of successful businesses, including See's Candy, Fruit of the Loom and the private jet service NetJets. But the most transformative were the acquisitions of insurers like National Indemnity and Geico, which sat on premiums that customers paid but hadn't yet claimed. That cash, known as the 'float,' became the first financial engine of Mr. Buffett's deal machine. He used that money, along with profits from the company's other businesses, to buy what is now a collection of 189 companies. Among the biggest are the BNSF railroad, acquired in 2010 for about $26 billion; and the electricity producer Berkshire Hathaway Energy, purchased in 2000 for $2 billion that was then expanded via its own acquisitions. As of March 31, that cash pile, which Mr. Buffett has called his 'elephant gun,' was nearly $348 billion. Those who have sat across from Mr. Buffett at negotiating tables over the years have said that he is friendly and courteous — but unyielding when it comes to the numbers. When he is involved, rounds of haggling over price are not in the cards; he is ready to walk away. 'Warren is the most disciplined investor and the clearest thinker I've ever known,' said Byron Trott of the merchant bank BDT & MSD, who as a Goldman Sachs deal maker became one of the few bankers Mr. Buffett said he trusted. 'His ability to distill complexity into clarity, and to lead with humility and conviction, is unmatched.' Mr. Buffett also used Berkshire's cash to buy an array of stocks, with a portfolio that includes American Express, Bank of America, Coke, Chevron and — in one of his most profitable investments — Apple. For those companies, Berkshire's ownership has tended to be the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping Seal of approval. And with Berkshire's huge balance sheet and Mr. Buffett's unparalleled control, the conglomerate has been able to swoop in at opportune times, buying when others must sell. Mr. Buffett has been 'an extraordinary investor in American Express and a personal friend to me,' Stephen Squeri, the chief executive of American Express, said after the Berkshire announcement. Another key to his success was holding onto investments for ages — 'our favorite holding period is forever,' he has said — letting returns compound again and again, a process that he has compared to a snowball rolling downhill. (A biography that Mr. Buffett cooperated with, but later critiqued, is named after the phenomenon.) Berkshire's other advantage for its investors is that it charges no fees, unlike mutual funds or hedge funds. In fact, Mr. Buffett has criticized the size of the fees charged by Wall Street vehicles. That said, Mr. Buffett has admitted that he made plenty of mistakes over the years. One was passing up opportunities to invest early in technology giants like Amazon and Microsoft, whose businesses he said he didn't understand at the time. Still, despite several periods of underperformance, especially in recent years, Mr. Buffett's track record is astounding. According to his calculations, Berkshire gained 5,502,284 percent from 1964 through 2024, compared with the S&P 500's 39,054 percent over the same period. His average annual gain was 19.9 percent, while the S&P's was 10.4 percent. Mr. Buffett's approach has inspired countless other financiers, including Mr. Ackman and the mutual fund mogul Mario Gabelli. (Others have sought to copy it more directly, including Sardar Biglari, whose own financial vehicle, Biglari Holdings, shares Berkshire's initials, website design and investing focus.) Yet Mr. Buffett transcended business renown and attained actual celebrity, drawing on a folksy Nebraska persona that eschewed the usual trappings of plutocratic wealth. Fans make pilgrimages to his longtime house in Omaha and favorably cite his preferences for mainstream products like Cherry Coke, Dairy Queen Blizzards and See's fudge. (All, notably, are associated with Berkshire.) He also became known in pop culture, via cameo appearances on television shows including 'All My Children' and 'The Office.' He poked fun at what he saw as the failing of the business world and Wall Street, in particular, regularly deriding professional brokers and traders for turning the markets into a 'gambling parlor' that could lure average investors into financial ruin. He took a more serious stand against Wall Street's excesses in 1991 when as a major shareholder of Salomon Brothers, he was forced to bail out the investment bank after a trading scandal. It was a low moment in Mr. Buffett's career. Called to testify before Congress about Salomon, Mr. Buffett delivered a steely message to the firm's employees: 'Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless.' His fame also gave him unique sway in Washington, adding weight to his pronouncements on political and fiscal issues. Mr. Ackman said that policymakers also closely followed Mr. Buffett's comments and annual letters, and acted on his ideas like treating stock options for executives as a corporate expense. Though a Democrat who endorsed Hillary Clinton for president and whose name graced an Obama-era proposal for higher taxes on the wealthy, Mr. Buffett advised presidents from both parties. That was most visible in 2008, when he was beseeched by corporate executives and the George W. Bush administration to help the global financial system from melting down. Mr. Buffett eventually agreed to invest billions in Goldman Sachs and General Electric, moves that Mr. Ackman compared with J.P. Morgan's efforts to save banks early in the 20th century. True to form, however, he charged both companies a then-astronomical interest rate of 10 percent — a burden executives have said they were willing to pay to gain his imprimatur and survive. 'Warren Buffett represents everything that is good about American capitalism and America itself,' Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, said after Saturday's announcement. While the future of Berkshire appears financially solid, with Mr. Ackman calling the company 'the Rock of Gibraltar,' longtime Buffett followers say that it may not retain its seemingly mythical status without its chief architect. Berkshire's next chief executive, Gregory Abel, is regarded as an excellent operator of businesses and a savvy deal maker, and Mr. Buffett hired Todd Combs and Ted Weschler as high-level investment executives more than a decade ago. To Lawrence Cunningham, a former law professor at George Washington University and a shareholder, Mr. Buffett has 'given Berkshire the best possible chance for the next chapter.' But other investors worry that the company will become a bit less special, and won't revolve around the stock picking that put it on the map. Bill Smead, whose investment firm owns Berkshire stock and who attended this year's annual meeting, said the company has already become less ambitious, eschewing potentially transformative deals. 'It's the end of an era,' Mr. Smead said.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nebraska ‘winner-take-all' electoral measure fails in Legislature
The Nebraska Legislature killed a bill Tuesday that aimed to unify the state's Electoral College votes behind one candidate after its existing split method drew national interest during the 2024 election cycle. Nebraska doles out some of its Electoral College votes based on outcomes in individual congressional districts, but many Republicans — including Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and President Trump — pushed this year to adopt a more traditional winner-take-all approach, in which the presidential candidate with the highest tally statewide would receive all five of the state's Electoral College votes. Lawmakers who opposed the change, which likely would have stopped Nebraskans in the Omaha-area swing district from influencing future presidential elections, filibustered for nearly four hours to block the legislation, and the conservative majority in the nonpartisan Legislature was unable to muster enough votes to end the stalling tactic. Pillen, who also unsuccessfully pushed the Legislature to pass a winner-take-all measure ahead of last year's election, said in a statement he is 'deeply disappointed' by the latest bill's failure. 'I continue to believe that it is critical to pass [winner-take-all] to strengthen Nebraska's voice in presidential elections,' he said. 'There have been many efforts to fix it in the last 30 years, and I will continue to work with allies in the Legislature to get this done in time for the 2028 election.' Pillen also decried the filibuster's role in killing the measure, arguing the bill 'should have received a fair up-or-down vote.' 'Nebraskans expect and deserve principled, straightforward consistency from their elected leaders, and I'm disappointed that the Legislature fell short of those expectations with its failure today,' he said. The change could still happen if voters approve a proposed constitutional amendment Republicans are trying to get on the ballot. The Legislature would have to first agree to the ballot measure, though. 'While it would be a surprise if that resolution came to the floor this year, we'll remain vigilant and ready to continue advocating for a system that values every Nebraskan's vote,' Civic Nebraska, a nonpartisan voter advocacy group in the state, said after Tuesday's vote. Nebraska's swing district, which has been dubbed the 'Blue Dot' because it voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 and former President Biden in 2020 while the rest of the reliably red state backed Trump, drew national attention last fall as Harris and Trump were thought to be in a head-to-head battle to win the election, where every Electoral College vote could influence the national outcome. Pillen, an ardent Trump supporter, and other allies of the president have pushed for a return to the winner-take-all method that Nebraska backed away from three decades ago. Trump also reportedly pressed Republican lawmakers, who had been cool to the proposal. Pillen, who was elected in 2022 after Trump endorsed his GOP opponent, is mulling a run for a second term next year. After the previous attempt at winner-take-all failed last fall, Trump thanked Pillen on social media for his efforts. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
