Lincolnite

I'm not one to heap praise on Representative Jeff Fortenberry, but in my opinion he deserves a pat on the back for his bailout vote:

...[T]he decision today was not a choice between action and inaction. Rather, it was a choice about whether to adopt a potential $700 billion dollar taxpayer liability to nationalize bad corporate debt or to consider alternatives that may be less costly, easier to implement, and fairer to most Americans who have no blame for this mess.

My only gripe is that Rep. Fortenberry didn't note in his statement just how much pork was in the bill that eventually passed, including:

Sec. 503 Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.

There's lots more [pdf].

If this article doesn't make you want to take a trip up north, nothing will.

The Missus, Robbie, my sister's family, and my mother all went to Roca Berry Farm yesterday to take part in the various festivities that go on out there this time of year. It sounds like they had a great time. The thing I like about Roca is that they actually grow their pumpkins on site. The experience of selecting a pumpkin feels authentic. I contrast that with the place on North 84th Street across from the Lancaster Events Center -- I never remember the name of that place -- where there are piles of pumpkins sitting here and there. Couldn't they at least scatter them a little bit? The big downside to going out to Roca is the cost. It's $7 per person on weekends, and that doesn't include all the stuff you will want / have to buy once you're in the door. Yikes. If your goal is to buy a pumpkin or two, just go to the grocery store. If you want a couple hours worth of activities, then the cost may not seem so bad. To compare, admission to Vala's Pumpkin Patch in Gretna costs $12 per person. Do any of you have a pumpkin patch of choice?

Sarah Palin will be speaking tomorrow in Omaha according to state GOP emails that were sent out tonight:

Republican Vice Presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin featured speaker at Victory 2008 rally in Omaha. The Nebraska Republican Party is pleased to announce that Governor Sarah Palin will be speaking at a public rally in Omaha on Sunday, October 5th. The event will be held at the Omaha Civic Auditorium Music Hall. Doors open at 4:00 p.m. No tickets are required.

Besides Mr. Terry, look to see if Chuck, Mike, John, etc. are there as well to give "shout outs". Edit: Regardless of your thoughts towards Gov. Palin, Mr. Esch, the veracity of the media source, etc., the WaPo weighed in with a front page/home page story on Nebraska this morning: Nebraska becomes unlikely battleground.

Mayor Chris Beutler gave his State of the City address yesterday. Maybe it's just me, but the speech felt heavy on "rah rah" and light on substance. Very little new information was provided; many of the highlights seem to have been pulled straight from Journal Star headlines over the past year. The long and short of it is that, in Mayor Beutler's opinion, Lincoln is doing well, and so is he. On the whole I agree. I don't like everything that goes on in this city, and I don't expect to. But were I king for a day, most changes I would make would be of the small, incremental sort. And how about Mayor Beutler? If you put aside the stumble that was the aborted housing stimulus plan, it's hard for me to find much to get too excited about. Again, I don't agree with all of his decisions or his approaches to issues, but neither do I expect to. In my opinion, Mayor Beutler has done a good job helping the community get past many of the issues left from the previous administration. Where should we be by next year at this time? Given the City's budget situation and the national economic environment, it would be unfair to expect anything but continued incremental improvements. Next spring's vote on the arena will be one of the biggest issues. Whatever happens, we can expect a lot of discussion throughout the community. If the vote should fail, It will be a huge slap to local public and private leaders. How will they react? Another item that could be huge or hugely disappointing is Catalyst One, the completely-off-the-radar multi-building "high-rise" project that spurred the City's purchase and destruction of Star Ship 9 and two restaurants. A developer for the project was chosen 18 months ago with very little news since then. Do you have any thoughts on Mayor Beutler's speech? What do you think Beutler should be able to talk about the next time he gives this speech?

Wow, this article in today’s Journal Star edition about “cheating” allegations at UNMC’s dental college will raise some eyebrows, and cause some embarrassment. If these allegations are true, it does not bode well for perceptions of the school, and in particular perceptions about the quality of students it graduates. Although students, and even faculty, circulating study aids for exams isn’t new, the fact that the material passed around among UNMC students both contained unreleased information and had a monetary cost does indeed sound a tad disturbing. I have never heard of something like this before, but I never went to dental or medical school either. Is this a regular practice that is done at other schools? Three other notes: I have been a patient with the faculty practice at UNMC’s dental school here in Lincoln, and have been very impressed. I recently underwent root canal re-treatment procedures there and – for a root canal re-treatment – it was about as pleasant an experience as it could have been, and the faculty member who did it clearly knew what he was doing and did an excellent job. Secondly, I didn’t know that Mike Foley had the authority to investigate University of Nebraska activities. One wonders if this is an indication that an internal investigation just didn’t pan out. Well you learn new things everyday. Finally, the article in the Journal Star was long, very informative, well-written, and well-researched. Kudos to Melissa Lee.

We have received two candidate phone calls so far this election season. One was a recorded message from Scott Kleeb. It wasn't especially memorable. The other call was from Susan Scott. Ms. Scott left a voice mail that was impressively personalized. She used my wife's name, for example, and she mentioned that she had started running marathons before my wife was born. If I could give Ms. Scott one piece of advice, it would be to slow down her rate of speech. Granted, she probably didn't want to get cut off by most voice mail systems' one minute limit. But if that's the case, say less. How many candidate calls have you received? Have any stood out?

True, it's not the stuff of primetime television, but if it holds up this bit of dental detective work by LPD is pretty nifty.No seriously. Connecting two apparently unrelated crimes like that demonstrates a good organizational knowledge of what's going on around the city.

Mayor Beutler is giving a state of the city address today tomorrow. What is the state of the city? Where do we stand today? Where are we headed? Where should we be headed?

I see the new Kohl's opened this week at the intersection of 27th and Way-the-Hell-Down-South. Next thing you know there'll be a row of big boxes on Saltillo Road. But I digress. My mother and several other people I know spend lots of time (and money) at Kohl's. I have only been inside a Kohl's a couple times, and in those visits I've failed to see what the excitement is all about. Maybe it's a gender thing; are any of you guys out there Kohl's fans? In other big box news, the new Wal-Mart on north 84th Street appears to be approaching completion. I haven't seen any date announcements, but one day I did notice they appeared to be having an employee meeting or training session.