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Pay Your Own Way
Jo Naber is still steaming about Lincoln having to foot the bill for celebrity-related security expenses:
I read by the morning papers that Vice President Dick Cheney may be here in Nebraska soon.
I’m sure Lincoln will be the recipient of a number of big names coming to campaign for candidates for office this fall. It is not too late for the City Council to issue a notice that any costs to the city of Lincoln for security or other reasons are to be borne by the political campaign benefiting from the appearance. This would be the same for Republican or Democrat.
We all remember the city being stiffed some $31,900 in 2004 by the Jeff Fortenberry campaign. Let’s not let starshine lead us down the primrose path again.
Jo Naber, Lincoln
Discuss.
Final Figures
Like it or not, the city’s budget has been finalized. The new levy is 28.337 cents, up from 28 cents prior to the final valuation numbers coming in. Mayor Seng plans to sign the budget, even though she disagrees with some of the Council’s decisions. I don’t think she has a choice, politically speaking; if she plans to run for reelection, being the Mayor who voted against a tax decrease would not go over well. Then again, one always hopes that the public’s best interests, not political aspirations, drive politicians’ decisions.
Party Central
Yet another sign that classes are starting up again: wild party complaints. Lincoln police received 51 such complaints over the weekend. Darn kids. Since when was going back to school a reason to be festive? I would think a wake would be more appropriate.
School Days
UNL is back in session today. Study hard, kiddos.
It’s always easy to tell when classes begin because the bus fills up for a couple weeks. There will be another surge next week when LPS opens. And in a bit of good news for Downtown bike lane supporters, the 14th Street bike lane was hopping with commuters this morning.
Finally!
As a Lincoln Southeast graduate I give a big “Hooray!” to the building’s upcoming facelift.
Workplace Humor
Neal said he would send along one of his sketches if the Journal Star didn’t take it. Well, the folks at the LJS thought the cartoon was “too risque”. Their loss is our gain. Thanks for sharing this with us, Neal!
Test Drive the New Website
I couldn’t wait any longer, so right before I went to lunch I decided to open up the new design of Lincolnite to all logged in members. It isn’t 100% completed yet, but it’s getting there. What do you think?
What’s that you say? You haven’t joined yet, so you can’t see the new site? Well then just go right ahead and register now. You want to see the pertty new website, don’t you?
Friday Five
Five things you’ll never hear the City Council say:
- “If there’s one thing that’s true about Lincoln, it’s that homeowners just don’t pay enough property taxes.”
- “Let’s hold hands and sing. Kum bah yah, my Lord. Kum bah yah...”
- “We ♥ Mike Spadt.”
- “The ‘City Council Gone Wild’ calendar will be available for $19.95 from many local businesses.”
- “Mayor Seng, you are a brilliant human being. How can we best work with you to address our differences of opinion for the betterment of Lincoln?”
UNL is a Top 100 School (Just Barely)
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is still a top 100 school, according to the latest U.S. News and World Reports rankings. UNL’s 98th ranking is the same as last year. That’s surprising, considering how substantially the University has improved in areas like research. Then again, like all such rankings, they are only meaningful if you buy into the ranking organization’s decisions about which data to measure and which to ignore.
The New Lincolnite is Coming
No seriously, I swear it’s true. The new version of Lincolnite is nearing the point where I’ll be ready to unveil it. Sure, I’ve been talking about it for months. But this time I’m serious. There’s a new wiki-fied directory that’s a little rough around the edges right now but should be fun to play with. Last night I set up the new Lincolnite forums. Hopefully many of you take advantage of that. And of course there’s the spiffy new look. The events calendar will be there, but I’m working behind the scenes on a much (much) more advanced personalizable calendar solution behind the scenes. And the new classifieds aren’t quite ready for prime time, but they’ll be ready soon enough.
Anyway, I want to thank those of you who have hung around here on Lincolnite to see where I take this thing. I can’t wait to stop working on the design and really start focusing on putting together some quality content for you.
I Rung Him Up!
A big congratulations to the Pinnacle Bank American Legion Baseball team from Lincoln Southwest, which made the American Legion World Series. I umpired for some of those guys starting all the way back when they were little squirts. Good job, guys.
A Fresh Breeze
I know it’s early, but has anybody had any experiences with Windstream yet? Is it the same old Alltel, or can you tell any differences?
Six Lanes of Blight-Lined Goodness
All you commuters bummed out by the closure of 48th and O Streets can rejoice: 48th and O is reopening sometime today. That means O Street features six lanes of wide-open goodness from Perkins to East Park. Happy lane changing!
Broadband Speed Test
Using Speedtest.net I achieved an impressive 4,323 kb/sec download speed and awful 124 kb/sec upload speed on Road Runner from home. (I tested with the Chicago server.) Road Runner advertises up to 5 mb/sec download speeds and 384 kb/sec upload speeds in Lincoln. My upload speed seems pretty slow, but the download speed is about as fast as it’s going to get, by the time you take normal internet traffic overhead into account.
What’s your best speed, and with what provider did you achieve it?
Sprayed
The Wilson house was sprayed with pesticide by the city just a few minutes ago. I don’t know whether to be thankful that West Nile-carrying mosquitos aren’t likely to thrive near our house, or annoyed that we’ll be breathing pesticide all night. Oh well, I suppose the Star Tran buses that pass in front of our house probably belch out more toxic gases every day, so in the big scheme of things, a little pesticide won’t make much of a difference.
I don’t think I should think about these things right before bed.
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