Lincolnite

I knew Nebraska's budget situation wasn't looking good. I guess I didn't realize just how ugly it had gotten. Thanks to an anticipated $679 million shortfall (gulp!) Governor Dave Heineman has frozen the pay of non-union state employees. That'll save all of $4.4 million, leaving a mere $674.6 million to go. Yikes. Not surprisingly, commenters went right after the (ahem) true cause of the shortfall: the arena! But believe it or not that was just on KOLN's website. The commenters on the LJS website are being surprisingly sane about this so far. Whodathunkit? Gov. Heineman also wants union employees to accept a pay freeze, but sticking points remain before that will happen. Cue the war of words in the media. I'm sure one of the issues will be whether or not Heineman will promise to avoid layoffs of union personnel. With such a large budget gap there's surely no way the governor could guarantee such a thing. Somebody -- several somebodies, actually -- is getting the axe. So, who can find a spare $675 million in the state's budget?

I jumped the gun yesterday: the Board of Education hasn't yet decided to move up the school start date. Now it looks like the start date may get bumped from August 10 to August 15. I can dig that; it would require fall break to be cut down to a three-day weekend, but to me that's a reasonable price to pay in order to finish the semester before Christmas. I wonder, though, if the School Board will get cold feet now that they've delayed their vote. I hope not.

I don't know about you, but I'm a little excited to see LPS finally adjust the school calendar so the semesters end before Christmas and Memorial Day. That adjustment has been discussed since ... well, pretty much forever. I know I rooted for it back in my school days. Middle school and high school teachers were probably adamant that LPS wait until air conditioning was present in every school. Who wants to be locked up with sweaty teenagers all day? Then again, Robbie probably won't go to LPS so it's somewhat of a moot point for our family. Wilson School will be in session 24/7/365. Poor kid.

A portion of my yard is being overrun by what I believe to be Creeping Charlie. I've seen a few other yards in my neighborhood with the same problem. Have any of you dealt with this stuff? What have you tried to get rid of it?

Thumbs-up to the Cooper Foundation, which just announced its latest round of grants to Lincoln-area organizations. This round of grants totaled over $117,000. Not too shabby, I'd say. Thanks, Cooper Foundation!

If you're looking for a good sporting spectacle this weekend, the State Track Meet [pdf] -- today and tomorrow at Omaha's Burke High School -- is the place to be. It's a huge event that's a joy to watch (and participate in). I just have one question for this year's 800m athletes: What's with the slow times in Class A boys? Nobody has even broken 1:59.5! Class B has four guys under 1:58, with one at 1:56 (Connor Gibson from Blair). Come on, gents. I know at least a couple of you can crack a solid 1:56 now that you've made State. How many of you Lincolnites competed at the State Track Meet? How did you do? I competed in the 800m twice. My best 800m time at state was 1:58, good enough for 5th in Class A in 1997. Today I could probably crack 2:30, then puke and pass out. I also competed in the 3,200m relay twice. We placed 5th in 1996 and 3rd in 1997 at 7:59.

When did Lucy's (58th and Cornhusker) close up shop? I never made it there myself. It seemed to be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of joint. Plenty of people raved about it, while a common complaint among others was that the food was a greasy, cheesy mess. Regardless, now a new joint has opened in Lucy's former location. Pancho Villa Mexican Grill is run by a couple from Phoenix. Have any of you given it a try yet? It's pretty far out of the way from my usual dining circuit so I probably won't get there soon unless I make a special trip out that direction. And even then it'll be hard to pass The Isles in order to get there. Yeesh, I'm in such a rut.

We came into some dirt-cheap tickets for Adventureland in Des Moines, so we're going to head there this Sunday. Robbie just turned four so we aren't going for the "big" stuff. We'll stick with the simple kid stuff. We haven't been to Adventureland before. What do we need to know?

I always have to be careful when commenting on local soccer matters. As a referee I have to walk within certain ethical boundaries; as "Mr. Wilson" I want to promote Lincoln. It's not always easy to find the right balance. In this case, I think Lincoln needs to be aware of a few things. First I want to give a hearty congratulations to both Lincoln Pius X and Lincoln East for their victories in the Class B and Class A state high school soccer championships on Tuesday evening. Good work, boys! Now then, about the games themselves. The Pius vs. Hastings match was pretty straight-forward. Pius won 1-0 with little (if any) controversy. Hastings was an unexpected title contender and they put up a good fight, but they just couldn't find the net. Then there was the East vs. Omaha South match. The atmosphere was electric. Morrison Stadium was packed on all sides. I think the Journal Star estimated 5,000 spectators. I don't know the actual number but it sure felt like a lot more than that. I happened to be one of the referees on the match. It was one of the coolest game atmospheres I've been a part of. The game itself was wild. A tie score at the end of regulation; three red cards (one was a high school-specific "soft" red); several yellow cards; 56 fouls. The spectators were active, to say the least. Some Omaha South spectators took the low road a couple times with chants of "Cu-ler-o! Cu-ler-o!", which means asshole and was roughly equivalent to the chants of "Bullshit!" you sometimes hear from college student sections. Not a huge deal, but not appropriate in a high school venue. I couldn't understand most of the chants from the East spectators so I don't know if theirs were worth talking about. Not that it matters. The East student section saved their best low road actions for after the game. Some of the students threw mock "green cards" as confetti as they rushed the field. It hasn't been much of an issue in Lincoln until today, but it has been a huge story in Omaha. Long story short, thanks to a handful of individuals, in Omaha -- and beyond, particularly among Latinos -- Lincolnites are perceived as racist yokels. Doesn't that make you proud? Some of the students have been suspended. I'm sure the repercussions will continue for a while. It could have been worse. We referees received word prior to the match that students were planning some kind of green card stunt. Apparently East's administrators caught on as well and they at least prevented any in-game troubles. The last thing a referee crew wants to worry about is spectators getting themselves into trouble. Needless to say, East did not win the sportsmanship award this year, and Lincoln has a new black eye. It should be interesting the next time I go ref Omaha Latino Soccer League matches.

Two Lincoln teams are competing for gold in the state high school soccer championships tonight in Omaha at Creighton's Morrison Field. First up, Pius X takes on Hastings at 5:00pm in the Class B boys final. Later at 8:15pm, Lincoln East plays Omaha South. East is playing for a perfect 24-0 season. I have lots I could say about these games but you'll have to get your pre-game analysis elsewhere. You won't catch this referee with loose lips. Hopefully some of you folks can provide some insight into tonight's matches. Are any of you making the journey up I-80? Come say hi if you're in the stadium. I usually sit toward the north end on the west side. Except when I'm on the field. If you don't make the trip, there's always the Journal Star's live chat.

A man just came to the door asking about trimming our trees off the power lines. I said yes because we have several branches that could cause us headaches in a big thunder or snow storm. But after I told him "By all means!", I began to second guess myself. This isn't one of those situations where I'll receive an obscene bill, is it?