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State Tourney Time
This time the wrestlers go to the mats to hand out state championships. Competition begins this Thursday at the Qwest Center. Yes, that’s right, the state HS wrestling meet is not at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.
Bond Issue Passes
The bond issue passed last night, 63% to 37%, well within my predicted range.
Election Results
For, those of you who want the absolute latest election results on the LPS bond issue, this is your webpage.
At 8:00 PM, based only on early and absentee ballots, the bond issue was passing 2,827 to 1,916 (60% to 40%).
Looking Up
Will Lincoln have a new high-rise to look up to several years from now? That would be great to see. The major problem I have with the idea is that it is inverted. The idea, as presented by the Journal Star, is to build a parking garage that happens to have a high-rise on top. That is backwards. The emphasis ought to be on bringing in a high rise, with a parking garage on the bottom. If we emphasize the parking garage, we’ll get the parking garage. If we emphasize the high-rise, our odds of getting both are tremendously improved.
Remember The Grand? The proponents (the City, the Downtown Lincoln Association, and others) emphasized the idea of a theater, maybe with some other cool stuff (housing, retail, offices) thrown in. Since the proponents were happy to settle for a theater, they just got a theater. (And a very un-downtowny theater at that.)
Parking garages don’t mean squat in the big scheme of things, and they certainly won’t support the long-term sustainability of Downtown Lincoln. Let’s not settle for just a parking garage.
Bond Issue Vote Prediction
I predict the bond issue will pass today. The margin will be 60/40 in favor, +/- 5 percentage points.
My Vote
Many of you are probably wondering how I’m going to vote on the school bond issue today. To be honest, until fairly recently I wondered how I would vote today. I’ve got my vote figured out now, though.
Old-Time TV, We Hardly Knew Ye
Three years from now, its being reported that analog TV will be terminated in 2009, with subsidies identified to replace it with digital. As noted by an MSNBC writer, apparently its time to move over.
Smoked Out
Looks like Lincoln’s last smoking ban holdout—well, other than the Freedom Flyer—is being shut down. Sultana’s Kahve owner Jamal Husein plans to fight the city’s decision. I wish you luck, Mr. Husein, but I don’t think even the multiculturalism card is strong enough to overcome the health nannies.
High Humor
I have a confession to make: The Missus and I watched a dirty movie recently. A filthy, wretched, hide-the-kids-and-put-grandma-to-bed kind of movie. Yup, we watched The Aristocrats.
A Rarity: I Agree with the AG
I can’t believe it, I actually agree with Jon Bruning! He has risked going to jail by asking the state Supreme Court to force Lancaster County District Judge Steven Burns to release his reasons for vacating the grand jury investigating Regent David Hergert.
I also agree with Bruning on this point:
“This is not North Korea,” Bruning said. “This is America. And in America we have a free court system, we have a free people, we have a First Amendment that allows a free press to write down the free speech of its citizens.
“And I am ashamed anytime that our system fails ... by closing itself off and conducting itself in secret,” Bruning said. “This government needs to be open, whether it’s the legislative branch, the executive branch or the judicial branch.”
Trouble is, I’m not sure how much Bruning himself believes it.
Nabity Sez: Cheat the Cheaters
From the Nabity campaign:
Team Nabity Supporters
KPTM Fox 42 television station in Omaha is doing an online poll that has been running for over a week.I was in first place for over seven days until KFAB said something this morning and the Osborne and Heineman camps have been stacking the system to get on top.
Please take a minute to log onto http://www.kptm.com and place your vote for Dave Nabity and help us out. I’m told that they count one vote per computer so if you have multiple computers or if you know someone who has an office where there are many computers, please have them vote as well.
Thanks so much and lets go get it done!
Sincerely,
Dave
Ahh, beautiful. It’s nice to see our candidates for governor acting with the maturity and professionalism we expect of them.
Matthew Koso is Going to Jail
Matthew Koso is going to jail for 18-30 months. He may get out on probation after as soon as 9 months.
I’ve given this case some thought and I’ve come to the conclusion that this is as fair an outcome as could have been hoped for. With all due respect to Mr. Koso’s love for his now-wife (which I have to assume is sincere), he was an adult having sex with a child. That he later married that child to “take responsibility” for his actions is only loosely relevant. It does not negate the fact that their marriage arose out of a relationship built upon the disproportionate power of an adult over a child.
Any jail sentence over three years would have been cruel. Even 30 months seems harsh. But overall, I think the sentence handed down by Judge Daniel Bryan was very fair. Despite his firm rhetoric at the sentencing, he acted with restraint. Too much jail time would destroy a family (albeit an unusual one). Too little, and a message is broadcast that the laws protecting Nebraska’s children are weak and not enforced.
It’s still possible that Koso will appeal his sentence. I don’t know that he can hope for a much better outcome than this. Besides, he has other big problems awaiting him, such as how he’ll find good employment while having a sex crime on his record.
More for LES
Lincoln Electric System rates and fees will increase under a new rate plan finalized yesterday. The plan was achieved after some impressive work by a number of individuals and agencies.
I can’t help but feel dismayed that the plan hits very hard at our community’s low-income residents. I’m no defender of “slackers” who fail to pay their bills on time or who write checks that aren’t backed by sufficient funds, and I’m not against punishing them for their failure to meet their obligations. Yet I also understand that those who are most likely to be hit by some of the new, stiffer fees tend to have the least ability to afford them. I’m in favor of the fees to the extent that they act as a slacker tax; I oppose them to the extent they are a poor tax.
I appreciate why the plan was structured as it was. It was developed in relatively little time and under heavy pressure from Lincoln’s largest and most important electricity users. Unfortunately, Lincoln’s advocates for those with the lowest incomes don’t have nearly as much clout as other groups, so I have to wonder how much consideration was given to their needs and wants. It’s easy to be intimidated by fears of raising a huge business’s rates by thousands of dollars each month; it’s a little harder to understand the effect a few dollars can have on a low-income budget.
In the end, we’re all paying more for electricity beginning March 1. I fear that LES has pretty much run out of public goodwill, and future rate increases are going to come harder and harder. In the short term, at least, the days of everybody loving LES are history.
Punishing the Non-Guilty
Punishing individuals for crimes they did not commit is ridiculous, right? Not according to the City of Lincoln, which is pondering doing just that with a new littering ordinance. Lincolnites ought to be just as fired up over this threat to their rights as they were fired up over the threat to their property during the infamous Samurai Sam’s vs. John Q. Hammonds hotel battle last year.
The proposed ordinance deals with illegally posted handbills and fliers related to upcoming events. It would punish not only the persons responsible for posting the fliers, but also the owner of the establishment at which the event will occur. That means if Jammin’ Joe Smith litters while advertising his upcoming concert at Knickerbockers, both he and Knickerbockers are punished, even if Knickerbockers had nothing to do with the crime.
At first blush it’s easy to have sympathy with the City on this one. The litter created by illegal fliers is an eyesore, it lowers property values, and so on. It’s nearly impossible to catch the deed-doers in the act, so they go unpunished. But we have to punish somebody, right? Wrong. A society that punishes the innocent merely for punishment’s sake is a brutal, uncivil, and unconscionable society. If we accept “guilt by association” alone as sufficient grounds for taking punitive action, none of us is safe from prosecution for a host of crimes.
Let’s address this problem in a sane, ethical way, rather than taking the lazy way out. There are plenty of creative solutions available to us that don’t require criminalizing the innocent.
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