Latest news with #Unicameral
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
McKinney-backed pilot program to steer youths from trouble is rescued, for now
State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha. Aug. 15, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — After anger, threats of stalling legislation and accusations of discrimination, the Unicameral on Thursday resurrected a priority bill by State Sen. Terrell McKinney to help keep at-risk youths out of jail. It's now part of another proposal that advanced. Earlier in the day, McKinney's Legislative Bill 48 was doused on a 22-14 vote. Eleven lawmakers marked present but not voting. That led the North Omaha legislator to call opponents hypocrites. He said they claim to 'care about kids' but are more interested in 'keeping up with the status quo' and 'keeping black kids in the system.' His priority bill calls for an around-the-clock Family Resource and Juvenile Assessment Center pilot program in Omaha. The goal is two sites that address family dynamics, mental health, substance abuse and educational challenges contributing to juvenile delinquency. The effort would integrate 'culturally relevant services delivered by and for the communities served.' Subject to available funds, up to $1 million annually for five years would come from a Medicaid cash fund. State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, after the earlier vote that sank LB 48, promised not to sit down until lawmakers 'fixed' the McKinney situation. She said she believed opponents have been unfairly dismissing his ideas. 'I don't know if it's because he is Black or a Democrat,' Cavanaugh said, imploring certain colleagues to 'have a frickin' backbone.' During later debate on a different bill, State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln helped revive McKinney's pilot program. The rescue came in the form of a floor amendment attached to an aging services-related proposal championed by State Sen. Glen Meyer of Pender. Meyer's LB 382, which had seen little opposition, proposes to direct $4 million over two years from a Medicaid cash fund to keep afloat activities and services offered by the state's eight designated agencies for the aging. That includes nutritional programs such as Meals-On-Wheels. The floor amendment that revived McKinney's pilot program passed 27-7, picking up six new Republican votes and losing one from State Sen. Stan Clouse of Kearney. Four of those six additions had sat out the first vote — Speaker John Arch of La Vista and State Sens. Myron Dorn of Adams, Jana Hughes of Seward and Mike Jacobson of North Platte — while the other two, State Sens. Mike Moser of Columbus and Dave Wordekemper of Fremont, originally voted 'no.' Meyer's revised LB 382, including McKinney's proposal, moved on to the next phase of debate with a 37-2 vote. Meyer, a member of the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee, was part of the group that advanced McKinney's pilot program bill out of committee and onto debate. But after that he voted twice against it, including when it was being attached to his LB 382. State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston was among those who remained opposed to the McKinney pilot program partly because of its cost. He also said Omaha has various nonprofits devoted to youths that already seek to curb juvenile delinquency. Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, another opponent, said she'd prefer to see a comprehensive assessment of all Omaha-area programs available for at-risk youth. She views the McKinney-backed Family Resource and Juvenile Assessment pilot program as 'unnecessary bureaucracy.' Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha called it 'foolish' not to embrace programs that intervene in a youth's life on the front end rather than pay back end costs such as incarceration. McKinney said his pilot program was supported by law enforcement groups with whom he is typically at odds. He said his priority bill was a preventative effort to provide mentoring, mental health care, parenting and other support before youths sink into trouble. It comes at a time when other public officials, including Riepe and Gov. Jim Pillen, are pushing to lower the age at which youth offenders can be detained and charged as adults. Riepe's priority bill, LB 556, would lower the age at which a Nebraska youth could be detained for an alleged crime from 13 to 11, and it would drop the age at which a minor could be charged as an adult for the 'most serious' felonies from 14 to 12. McKinney argues adamantly that the Legislature should be doing more to prevent youths from going down the wrong path, one he said costs taxpayers more. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Keeping tabs on a work week's quintet
The Nebraska State Capitol. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner) In case anyone asks, here are five things I accomplished in the last week: I noted, with disappointment and a little disgust, the appearance in the Nebraska Legislature of yet another voter suppression bill offered in the guise of election integrity. This just in: Nebraska elections already have integrity. We'd be solving a problem that doesn't exist except in minds mired in fiction from 2020. Like previous attempts to disenfranchise, Legislative Bill 541 would construct barriers between Nebraskans' right to vote, including the elimination of online voter registration, new restrictions on absentee voting, more security for ballot boxes and a requirement for hand-counting of election results, which science shows is the least accurate way to tally votes. Nor was the violent and ironic juxtaposition lost on me. While the Unicameral's Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony, the rest of the country marked the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when Alabama law enforcement officers beat and savaged marchers who were protesting — you guessed it — barriers to the ballot box. Sixty years and, apparently, still counting. I took to my knees in prayer for the swift end to several proposed laws in the Nebraska Legislature that would blur the lines between state and church. The lineup of proposals reads like something out of a catechism. LB 691 would make mandatory the display of Ten Commandments in public schools. LB 550 would require public schools to let students leave for part of the day for religious instruction. LB 549 would allow public schools to use volunteer 'chaplains,' individuals without professional educational licenses, in roles similar to counselors. And LB 122 would force districts to display 'In God We Trust' prominently in their schools. Chipping away at the very American principle of the separation of church and state does nothing to mend any shredding of our moral fiber, the reason many cite for offering such laws. Perhaps, instead, we should redouble our efforts to champion those who live virtuous, moral lives, especially among our leaders, to give students real-life guides. I seethed and shouted a couple times, too. First when the president called U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren 'Pocahontas' during his State of the Union and then later when Colorado U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Neb., said U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, was using his 'pimp cane' to protest during the president's address. Green is Black. I seethed and shouted, because it's time we use our outdoor voices to push back against the dog whistlers and race baiters. I found it especially galling that in the recent push to extinguish DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion programs) and rewrite American history, none of Nebraska's congressional delegation has, as of this writing, said a word about such language or the thinking behind it. The House Ethics Committee is taking up Boebert's insult so Nebraska Republican U.S. Reps. Don Bacon, Adrian Smith and Mike Flood may have a chance to take a side. A Bacon Facebook post after the State of the Union argued the toothless 'both sides are to blame' for what was a decorum-free fest at times. He, Smith and Flood will get a chance to tell us where they stand when they vote on the resolution to censure Boebert. Green has already been censured after he was removed from the chamber at the request of Speaker Mike Johnson. But wait, more irony: Any accounting of recent political give and take reveals a diverse, equitable and inclusive roster of ill-mannered outbursts … DEI for bad behavior if you will. I sold my Tesla and deleted my Twitter (X) account. Actually I did this a couple months ago but spent much of last week still feeling quite good about it. I viewed, with the appropriate derision, Nebraska's latest attempt to change how it determines Electoral College votes. The NINO (Non-partisan in name only) Nebraska Legislature will be debating whether to adopt a winner-take-all system in presidential elections. As the entire free world knows, only Nebraska and Maine can split their Electoral College votes. That's been the law for the past nine presidential elections, and in 2008, 2020 and 2024, we indeed split electors when the Democratic candidate won the 2nd District in Omaha, creating Nebraska's 'Blue Dot.' Now, as Republicans could have enough votes in the NINO Legislature, they — at the urging of Gov. Jim Pillen — believe this is the session in which the GOP will deliver the goods. Never mind winning on the merits of arguments and ideas. Winner-take-all is not about arguments or ideas. It simply changes the rules. That's my five: I noted, prayed, seethed and shouted, sold and deleted, and viewed. That was surely enough to keep my job. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
