Columns

Glenvil’s 150th special section is the last one for this year that I’ll write up history for.

For the three 150th sections we’ve had this summer, I’ve read through and re-written from the history books (and a lot of page printouts), and in doing so I’ve learned a ton about Fairfield, Edgar, and Glenvil.

Along the way, I’ve also gotten to talk to people to learn about each town’s history, and I greatly appreciate everyone who submitted or contributed a piece of their town’s history for each section.

Also thank you to those who let us borrow books (specifically their town’s 100th celebration books). I legitimately could not have filled up these sections with history without your help, because contrary to popular belief, not everything about a place can be found on the internet.

Having grown up away from Clay County, whatever information I previously knew about our county towns I’ve learned in the last eight-and-a-half years.

Cornhusker football for all of us over the last however many years has been lackluster, to say the least. At least we had Nebraska Volleyball to kick back and enjoy, but as I sit and think back to the season finale a year ago and my column that I wrote a week or so after that 3-9 campaign, I fell into the abyss, maybe even a deep quicksand hole, and I recall saying that I’m done “buying into the preseason hype each year” and honestly, I have.

I wonder if I have lost my Husker “luster,” which I probably have. I paid NO attention to this year’s hype, and honestly it’s been kinda funny, as this season gets ready to step into high gear Saturday morning with the kickoff to another season.

I used to be one of those people who couldn’t wait for Husker football to start. Monday night, as I wrote this week’s rendition of the Bull, I can honestly say I’m curious, and maybe slightly cautiously excited.

BY U.S. SENATOR DEB FISCHER

In March 2021, Democrats unilaterally passed a massive $1.9 trillion spending bill. That bill is credited with jumpstarting the inflation nightmare our country is now confronting.

This weekend, Democrats unilaterally passed yet another reckless spending bill.

The Schumer-Manchin legislation will waste taxpayer dollars, raise taxes, and do nothing to address inflation.

Let’s start with the claim that billions of dollars in federal spending will help with inflation.

The Penn-Wharton Budget Model, which is frequently cited for producing the best economic analysis, found the proposal produces no meaningful reduction in the deficit or inflation. Any suggestion otherwise is insulting to the intelligence of the American people.

Now let’s look at the reckless spending.

It appears that Nebraska voters will decide at the November election if they want to require voter identification cards for elections. Signatures collected by Citizens for Voter ID are being verified before the matter is placed on the November ballot.

Voter ID cards are the love child of conservative Republicans although I have yet to see the need. Nebraska is one of 18 states without any form of voter identification laws. Where’s the voter fraud in Nebraska?

The American Civil Liberties Union says that in-person fraud is vanishingly rare. A recent study found that, since 2000, there were only 31 credible allegations of voter impersonation—the only type of fraud that photo IDs could prevent—during a period in which over one billion ballots were cast.

Summer, at least in my mind, officially comes to a close when school goes back into session, which for all practical purposes, changes to what I often refer to as the fifth season of the year, school season!

Sutton and Sandy Creek welcome students back next Tuesday, Aug. 16, while the Sutton Christian School heads back to their classrooms on Wednesday, Aug. 17, with Harvard students walking through the doors for the 2022-23 school year on Thursday, Aug. 18.

While we’re all used to kids riding their bikes around each of our towns during the summer, it can be different when school starts, with kids walking, or riding bikes along the side of streets on their way to, and from school. Please make sure to give the kids space, and pay closer attention to what’s going on around you as you drive on any street, but especially well-traveled streets that kids use to get their their respective schools in the county.

As families begin to think about back-to-school purchases, Americans received a series of bad news about the economy this week.

According to analysis by Deloitte, back-to-school shoppers will spend, on average, a whopping $661 per student shopping for supplies. Compared to 2019, this is an increase of 27 percent, and compared to 2021, an increase of 8 percent.

Educational books and supplies are up 3.7 percent, girls’ and boys’ footwear is up 6.7 percent, sports equipment is up 8 percent, and music instruments are up 5.6 percent.

This demonstrates what we already knew: Americans everywhere are feeling the pain of inflation.

This week, the Commerce Department reported the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the most comprehensive measure of goods and services produced by the American economy, shrank by 0.9 percent in the period from April through June. This second straight quarter of negative GDP makes it clear: we are officially in an economic recession.

Nebraska closed out its fiscal year on a record-high note, with net tax revenues nearing $6.35 billion.

A state Department of Revenue report says the state collected $624 million more for the fiscal year that ended June 30 than predicted just four months earlier. That total is up 10.9 percent from those February projections, which in turn were $370 million higher than projections issued in October.

The director of the state’s Legislative Fiscal Office, Tom Bergquist, said the revenue growth was a record-setting 22.1 percent, more than 7 percentage points higher than the previous record of 13.5 percent that was set last year.

Before last year, Nebraska’s previous record-high revenue growth was logged in the late 1980s, at around 12 percent, Bergquist said. At the start of the fiscal year, he said, the state’s forecasting board projected Nebraska would see about 10.6 percent revenue growth.

We’re less than a month away from our state’s biggest annual celebration—the Nebraska State Fair.

From Aug. 26 through Sept. 5, Nebraskans from across the state will gather to share all that Nebraska agriculture has to offer. It will be the 153rd time we gather for this time-honored tradition.

Last year, the State Fair attracted more than a quarter-million attendees to Grand Island, including visitors from 10 countries and 43 states. This year, we’ll be ready to welcome even more guests looking to get a taste of the Good Life.

At its core, the State Fair is a fantastic celebration of Nebraska’s number one industry. Agriculture is the heart and soul of what we do here in our state.

It accounts for roughly 20 percent of our economy and is a powerhouse for job creation—one in four Nebraska jobs are connected to agriculture.

After wrapping up another county fair and heading back into other extension programming, it’s good to reflect on the county fair experience as this is one of the capstone experiences for 4-H youth.

This marks nearly my 17th year in extension and 16th fair which is hard to imagine! I am still amazed and blessed to have so many excellent and caring volunteers to make the fair a positive experience for our youth.

Finally—the countless hours spent preparing ahead of time allows for a much smoother week during the fair. I’d like to give a lot of credit to the entire staff of Fillmore and Clay Counties.

Weeks before the fair, data is entered into the computer system, stall assignments are created, awards ordered, reminders sent to exhibitors about completing quality assurance, registration deadlines, etc.

Without the collaboration of staff, fair would not occur. Also, there is a lot of time spent from volunteers such as Council members and superintendents.

This year’s fair certainly had some exciting moments during it, not just in the show ring but in the forecast.

To celebrate 150 years, the weather not only threw hot temperatures and a humid feeling as it usually does, but also a tornado (a small one), and some downpours.

I started the first day of the fair off helping with the 4-H photography area; meaning organizing photos and information, and then helping the judge.

We had a lot of a great photos come through our hands; all of those 4-H photographers should be proud of their work.

Wednesday evening meant the extreme bull riding. I love taking photos of bull riding; the emotion and textures you can get in a photo are so worth sitting on the ground for however long.

I also grabbed a photo of a guy getting tossed by a bull...and the guy just got right back up like nothing happened.

Hopefully the guy was actually OK, but that moment did make for a decent photo.