Lincolnite

For some reason this morning I got to thinking about how the arrival of the Taco Bueno chain in Lincoln makes it hard to know where to go if I want fast "Mexican-like" food of questionable quality. Help me put these in order, from best to worst:

• Taco Bell
• Taco Bueno
• Taco Inn (local)
• Taco John's
• Amigos (local)

Should any others be on the list? One might argue that King Taco and DeLeon's should be in the list, but my experience places them in a category above these five. What does your order look like?

I'm not at all surprised that the Journal Star received letters complaining about the Spanish language article they printed about the Maria Rosario Moreno murder. I am, however, disappointed in the level of pig-headedness displayed by the letter writers. The Journal Star printed one Spanish language article for a very specific purpose. That's hardly a sign that the evil brown-skinned horde is chipping away at our precious English language. It's certainly no reason to go into nativist paranoia mode. Besides, is the language of one article really the thing anybody ought to get jumpy over in this story? A woman is dead. How about a little outrage over that?

I can't help but think that the changes StarTran has proposed lately are too little too late. The fact that some members of the City Council are eager to cut StarTran's budget supports my suspicion. StarTran sat back and relied on a crummy route system for 20 years. Although only one of several reasons for public transportation's weakness in Lincoln, it was a very important reason. In five years will StarTran be little more than the minimum system required by Federal law? I won't be surprised. Incidentally, the City's Comprehensive Plan says quite clearly that transit funding should be increased, not decreased. The City Council that may cut StarTran's funding is the same one that adopted the most recent version of the Comprehensive Plan in November 2006.

It's easy to panic just a little when a consultant team throws out a number like $175 million. That's how much we've just been told it would take to build the "ideal" fairgrounds at a new location. But as with nearly every consultant's report you're ever going to see, that's not the whole story. It's not even most of the story. Consider that the consultants haven't simultaneously told us what it costs to maintain the Fair at its current location in its current condition. Nor how much it would cost to upgrade the current facilities to "ideal" status. Nor how much it would cost to build new facilities that are less than "ideal" but still superior to the current fairgrounds. And so on. For comparison purposes, consider that the Antelope Valley Project's price tag, at last check, was approaching $250 million. Without appropriate context, the $175 million price tag is mostly meaningless. This sort of decision can't be made on a single price tag alone. Indeed, that's how policymakers try to scare people, and that's exactly how this report will be (and already is being) used. There are a lot of perfectly valid reasons to keep the Fair where it is. One price tag, standing alone, is a pretty weak one.

How 'bout that wind over the weekend, and the rapid temperature change yesterday afternoon? That was fun, wasn't it? Ugh. Often soccer matches are pretty much impossible in that kind of weather, but I was proud of the kids in my two matches yesterday for mostly ignoring the wind. The parents on the sideline sure weren't enjoying themselves. I see it's 47 degrees right now, and the calendar flipped to October today. I'm not ready for October.

The article is headlined "Local man has some struggles with bus system". Frankly, everybody has "some struggles" with Star Tran. Tag Jackson's problem is he sometimes can't get drivers to notice him. That's a big problem when the bus is your only way around town. Having been a daily bus rider for five years, Mr. Jackson's core complaints -- that drivers sometimes don't see people waiting, and some drivers are jerks -- are valid. StarTran's rules allow riders to wait at almost any street corner in the city. That's a lot of territory for drivers to scan. It's not surprising that drivers miss a person or two now and then. I've been missed; I've seen others get missed; if riders are awake, they usually holler out to the driver, who then stops a block or two late. And as for a couple of them being jerks? Well, yeah, some people are jerks. A few drivers are naturally jerks, while others only become cranky after an especially rough day filled with more-annoying-than-usual riders. It happens. One things gets me, though. StarTran's drivers know "the regulars". Not just daily riders on a particular route, but riders with unique characteristics who rely on StarTran to get around town. Mr. Jackson is one of them, and I could easily name two dozen more. Spend a month riding the bus and you'll be able to pick out most of them. "The regulars" are easy to spot around town once you have met them. If drivers are, as Mr. Jackson asserts, missing those folks, something is wrong. StarTran head honch Larry Worth is unapologetic. He blames Mr. Jackson's woes in part on Mr. Jackson's large scooter. What that has to do with drivers not picking him up, I don't know. I do know that I don't want public officials making comments like this: "He’s kind of a hard-headed guy, to be honest with you." Come on, Mr. Worth. That's just tacky. Let's try sticking to the issue and not resorting to name-calling, shall we?

In all the hustle to get Lincast out the door, I forgot to post this... If you had $25,000 to improve Lincoln, how would you spend it? That's the question Alltel Wireless is asking Lincolnites right now. Alltel is giving $10,000 to

• Lincoln Parks Foundation
• Food Bank of Lincoln
• Lincoln-Lancaster County Habitat for Humanity

But Alltel will give $25,000 to the one of those organizations that receives the most votes at alltel.com/community. Or Alltel customers can text PARK, FOOD, or HOME to 102102 to vote for the corresponding group. Voting is open through October 19. To learn more about Habitat for Humanity, or to hear from former Cornhusker Mike Rozier, who was in town to help promote this event, check out Lincast. (Note: I was not paid to post this message.)

If you're the type who gets fired up over a good abortion debate, the UNL campus is the place to be. Better still, it sounds like there is a chance that folks from Westboro Baptist Church may be on campus today to enthusiastically share their message of love and compassion. Today might not be the day for school groups to take a field trip to campus.

I'm skeptical, but it's possible that the arrival of gas from Sam's Club could lead to lower gas prices throughout Lincoln. Only Sam's Club members would be able to purchase the gas. I have a hard time seeing the effects ripple much beyond the North 27th Street corridor. But hey, if my local stations at 48th and Highway 2 want to drop their prices because of pressure from 6 pumps at 27th and Superior, I'm certainly not going to complain.

First, it looks like I owe the Journal Star an apology. journalstar.com did cover Maria Moreno's murder, but they offered their heavy coverage on Tuesday, not Wednesday (when it appeared in the print version). My jump to conclusions was based on incomplete and incorrect information. Many thanks to journalstar.com editor Steve Smith for setting me straight. Let me explain the main reason I was primed to jump to conclusions in the first place. I don't think anybody is ever completely happy with how the media do their job. They leave X piece of information out, or they focus too much on Y, and so on. It's a battle the media will never win. One of my media-related perceptions is what I consider an undue emphasis on the plight of "pretty white females" at the expense of persons from other demographics. Look up "Madeleine McCann" for one example in the national media. When I saw the front page of yesterday's Journal Star, I knew without reading the article that the murder victim was probably not white and not rich. There was something about the way the article was presented and how it was written. Like the fact that the victim's name didn't come until the seventh paragraph. The article left me feeling uneasy about the quality of coverage the murder was receiving. Then I turned on the computer and went to journalstar.com to see if there were any updates on the story. There weren't. Plus, as I wrote yesterday, I couldn't even find the article at first. Like I said above, it turns out the story was apparently covered well online the day before. But I didn't know that, so I got angry. Now, lest you think I'm accusing the Journal Star of active bias, I most certainly am not. Their overall record doesn't support that charge. There may be a hundred reasons why Maria Rosario Moreno isn't getting the coverage that some other victims have received. There could be a whole team of reporters out looking for more information for all I know. She may have been a loner with few friends and no local family; the LJS may not have nor have access to any photos of her; and so on. All that has been said about Maria so far is that "“She was a very nice woman ... And an unbelievably hard worker", and "She was a pleasant little girl, as far as I’m concerned". Perhaps that really is all the LJS can gather. Still, the story seems incomplete. Neither of the two articles so far mention Moreno's family or any attempts to contact them. We don't know her hometown, or the funeral plans. Without knowing anything about her life, most Lincolnites will quickly forget about her death. What I would like you to tell me is this: Am I reading too much into this? Should I just move on? Or is it fair of me to ask why Maria Rosario Moreno's life hasn't received at least a few more words on page 1B?

Her name was Maria Rosario Moreno. Notice anything wrong with the Journal Star's website today? Try the news page. Nothing? How 'bout the local news page. Still nothing? Look waaaaay down at the bottom, under "More Local Headlines". See it? Ex-boyfriend held in woman's killing That's right: school boundaries, the Huskers' woes, "The Office" parties, and gourmet salt all get front-and-center attention at JournalStar.com. Meanwhile, Maria Rosario Moreno was murdered, and the Journal Star buried her deep on the local news page. At least in the print edition the murder made the front page. Still, Maria's name doesn't come until the seventh paragraph. At least LJS readers know about designer salt.

I am proud to announce the arrival of episode 1 of Lincast. Lincast is a podcast dedicated to covering topics related to Lincoln. Episodes will feature interviews, commentaries, debates, music, games, and whatever else seems like a good idea at the time. I am very excited about this first episode. Episode 1 features:

• An introduction to Lincast.
• A conversation with former Cornhusker and 1983 Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier. (No, really!)
• A conversation with Lincoln-Lancaster County Habitat for Humanity directory Marilyn Haley.

The runtime is 21:09. Listen now Download Update: You may now subscribe to the feed in iTunes using this URL: http://lincolnite.com/lincast/lincast.rss. Lincast will eventually show up in the iTunes store. Until then, you can subscribe manually by going to Advanced -> Subscribe to Podcast. I would love to receive your comments, questions, contributions, suggestions, and so on. Please leave a note in the comments or use the e-mail address mentioned in the show. Special thanks to:

• Mike Rozier
• Marilyn Haley
• Caitlyn Bransfield
• Kristin Adams
• Mr. T, for pushing me to start up a podcast

Step 1: Create a giant blight zone to allow TIF. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit!

This one's for Dave K: Public employees + public equipment = private funds? I don't think so. That's why I agree with Attorney General Jon Bruning's opinion that the Nebraska Historical Society's "private" account must be made public. I wonder how often that sort of thing happens in government. I'm going to guess: Often.

Robert and I made this video while we played at Zeman tonight. The quality is pretty poor, but hey, it's YouTube.