News

Mr. Dynamite The Appropriations Committee is the James Brown of the Legislature. Like James, this committee is the "hardest working" of 'em all.Indeed, the nine members of the committee work so hard, they don't have time to explain why they work so hard. Last week,...

Timeout After 31 acrimonious eye poking days of debate on the floor of the Legislature, Coach (Speaker) Scheer, called a timeout. Infractions have escalated since Day 1 when Team Majority scored on the old Student Body Right and captured nearly every leadership...

Making Soup Lawmaking is not supposed to be easy.  Love the analogy about making soup. This 104th Legislature, 1st Session is contentious and far from easy.  Much like our nation's capitol.  The Right holds the majority, the Left is in the minority, and a few senators...

Balance the Budget The state's fiscal year will end 6/30/17.  Before the Legislature begins work on the next biennial budget (2017/18 - 2018/19), they have a small matter to clean-up.  A $145 million-ish hole in the current budget. LB22 was introduced on behalf of the...

Expulsion The long, slow countdown on the political career of state senator, Bill Kintner, reached DEFCON 5 last week.  If you don't know good ol' Bill, he's the type of guy who: you can count on to insult his political opponents. gives political mates the Gee Bees on...

Lebowski The legislative schedule now has senators debating issues in the George Norris Chamber, mornings, 9am-noon. Lunch is noon-1:30 pm. Committee hearings begin at 1:30 pm and wrap-up whenever the gas seeps out of the room. Little can be written that would make...

Partisanship and naps Through eight days, senators have introduced 430 bills and one constitutional amendment that would require voter identification. You might ask yourself, "How do 49 senators come up with so many great ideas?"  You know the answer.....lobbyists....