Nebraska
updated
6:46 p.m.
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Scott Kleeb is debating his opponent Mike Johanns tonight in Scottsbluff, Nebraska . You can listen in on the radio if you'd like at KNEB or KRVN . I'm going to be liveblogging the debate in the body of the diary below. Scott turned in a great performance at the State Fair Debate in Lincoln two weeks ago, to start things off, you can find some video clips below... ...
DailyKos (Nebraska) - 4:27 p.m.
“You’re moving where?! Why?!” This response was by far the most common among acquaintances when I told them excitedly that I was leaving my Washington, DC job directing the policy program at Community Food Security Coalition to be an organizer in rural Nebraska at the Center for Rural Affairs. Not that I blame them entirely – while I did grow up in Wisconsin and am not afraid of the “Midwest f...
Blog for Rural America - Wed 8:49 p.m. - 12 clicks 
In my my post yesterday, I promised that we had some plans for this blog. Meet part of that plan - Steph Larsen. Steph is the new Rural Policy Organizer at the Center, working out of our main office in rural northeastern Nebraska. Before we stole her to come work with us, Steph worked as a policy organizer and policy director for the Community Food Security Coalition in their Washington, D.C...
Blog for Rural America - Tue 8:52 p.m. - 17 clicks
This is what the 50 State Strategy looks like: That's unity. That's Nebraska in 2008, with Democratic candidates Scott Kleeb, Jim Esch, Heath Mello and Jeremey Nordquist and their supporters working side by side to encourage early voting in working-class South Omaha. That hasn't happened in a long time in Nebraska. Doesn't that make you feel good to be a Democrat? ...
DailyKos (Nebraska) - Tue 4:48 p.m. - 20 clicks
Thomas Pickens (His REAL Name) was in Lincoln the other day to puff up support for his grand scheme for alternative energy. Which mainly means him being an even bigger player in the energy economy of our nation, since he has been consolidating his own holdings of natural gas (of course he says we should run our transporatation systems on that instead of oil). Pickens’ involvement with the nat...
Nebraska Blue - Aug 24 - 19 clicks
Evidently my somewhat inflamed posts on wind energy last week caused a little angst in Nebraska last week, so allow me to clarify a little further. First, the Nebraska Public Power District is not the only public power entity in the state. There are many other public power organizations, from utilities to boards of utilities and all of the other sorts of byzantine layers you can imagine. Th...
Blog for Rural America - Aug 7 - 15 clicks
John McCain being tired of having town hall meetings in mostly empty buildings finally gave in and went to where the crowds are.. Only in this case he chose Sturgis South Dakota at the annual biker rally there. Not one to miss an opportunity to snag a few more votes for himself, he gladly put his wife Cindy up to compete in the nightly “Miss Buffalo Chip Contest". Evidently he didn’t care tha...
Nebraska Blue - Aug 5 - 18 clicks
In today's New York Times , columnist Dan Barry writes lovingly of the new wind farm just south of Ainsworth, Nebraska: Driving south out of the agricultural town of Ainsworth, you can’t miss its newest crop: wind turbines, three dozen of them, with steel stalks 230 feet high and petal-like blades 131 feet long, sprouting improbably from the sand hills of north-central Nebraska...
Blog for Rural America - Aug 4 - 13 clicks
It’s been a while since I’ve had some time to look at what Adrian Smith has been doing, and I’m disappointed to report that nothing has changed. As has been his pattern since he took office, Smith consistently votes in the interest of his donors and his party, and against his constituents and the American people. What is really sad is that he tends to be in the minority even among Republicans when...
Smith Watch - Jul 29 - 18 clicks
I think perhaps I've settled down a bit since yesterday, and therefore can continue my thoughts on Nebraska wind energy development without fear of imminent cardiac arrest. Which is good, because there is plenty to comment on. As I noted yesterday, Nebraska Public Power has announced it will generate 10% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020. This is quite possibly the wea...
Blog for Rural America - Jul 25 - 15 clicks
Here at the Center for Rural Affairs, we like wind power. And it has been a source of constant dismay that Nebraska's power generating sector has consistently opposed wind power development, and when public outcry has led them to (finally) accept the least bit of public policy supporting wind power, they have worked to undermine such policy as well. For example, the sector has always oppos...
Blog for Rural America - Jul 24 - 16 clicks
Our weekly column , written by Elisha Greeley Smith... We don't need to read the results from the new U.S. Census analysis to realize that many rural populations are on the decline. We can simply glance down most of our main streets and see closed businesses and dwindling inhabitants. The loss of our rural communities is not inevitable, not the result of some unseen, unst...
Blog for Rural America - Jul 24 - 17 clicks
Last week the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published research it did examining Army, Army reserve and National Guard recruitment rates for every county in the nation from 2004 to 2007. It found that rural counties have by far much higher recruitment rates than do non-rural counties. Using a recruitment rate index (number of recruitments per 10,000 people) the study found that 11 of the highest 115 ...
Blog for Rural America - Jul 16 - 16 clicks
If you've noticed, I've not been posting a lot in recent months to Smith Watch. It's not because I don't want to continue holding Adrian Smith accountable, but time and other commitments is preventing me from doing this as I would like. Presently, I'm focusing on the Senate race, so if you see anything about Mike Johanns in a small local paper, or hear about him making an appearance in your area,...
Smith Watch - Jun 18 - 13 clicks
Over Memorial Day Week, Smith will be traveling, at taxpayers expense to campaign for reelection talk with people about gas prices. Here is his information : Rep. Adrian Smith is visiting gas stations during Congress' long Memorial Day recess to talk with motorists about fuel prices, energy legislation and other issues. Gas prices are near $4 a gallon and have hit nationwide highs on consec...
Smith Watch - May 25 - 15 clicks
