Omaha World Herald. July 12, 2020
Help schools do their tough job as students return.
In ordinary times, our schools face daunting tasks and awesome responsibilities. They are meal sites, counseling and day care centers - in addition to delivering basic education and being our society’s best incubators of hope.
It always is important that parents support teachers and administrators in their efforts to provide education in an orderly setting.
Of course this upcoming school year comes in anything but ordinary times, making schools’ challenges exponentially more complex as they deal with the coronavirus, social distancing, a vulnerable workforce, flu season and whatever else 2020 might bring.
Everyone agrees that it’s critical for schools to reopen to the fullest extent possible. It’s important to children’s well-being and to families getting back in the swing of work and other responsibilities. Schools are simply essential to the normal functioning of our society, and children’s education, done best in person, cannot continue to be on hold.
So, parents, please support the rules that districts establish and guide children to comply.
Most schools plan to require masks when social distancing cannot occur, which is consistent with health guidance, including from University of Nebraska Medical Center experts. Westside school leaders, for example, have said if school started today they likely would require masks, though they will re-evaluate in August. Millard said it will require masks. Bellevue has said it expects to require masks, and Elkhorn students and staff will be expected to wear masks “as much as reasonable and appropriate.”
Omaha Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Logan said her district will require masks, but won’t suspend students who fail to comply. The district plan is to “educate, educate, educate” about virus health precautions. That’s the right approach.
All the schools will, as they must, work with families of students whose health or behavioral conditions complicate wearing masks, and districts generally also are providing masks.
Medical understanding of the coronavirus and precautions has evolved. That’s easy to understand: It’s new and the pandemic is fast-moving.
UNMC doctors and others across the country are increasingly clear that wearing masks is critical to tamp down the spread. They acknowledge that their understanding has changed. Leaders first said masks were of little value except for medical workers. Then they advised, as more data became available, that face coverings helped keep asymptomatic people from spreading the virus. Now a growing body of evidence says that a face covering both limits spread of the virus and provides some protection from catching it.
We do not favor strict government mandates, but encourage compliance with guidance, if for no other reason than to be courteous to others who may be at risk or who may go home to people at risk.
Gov. Pete Ricketts has urged wearing masks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch this week stressed the importance, saying, “Look, the single most important thing each of us can do to not only help ourselves but protect our friends and neighbors and everyone around us is not complicated - to wear a mask. It ain’t confusing. It’s really simple. We all need to echo that … all across the country.”
Including as students go back to school.
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Lincoln Journal Star. July 10, 2020.
Nebraska’s economy faces even worse hit from virus.
Closed signs and lights off put a clear face on the economic cost of the coronavirus pandemic in Nebraska’s cities and towns.
In agriculture, the state’s largest industry, the damages aren’t as readily apparent.
Much of this year’s corn crop was head-high, well above knee-high, by the Fourth of July. The smell of money emanated from livestock operations, and the rolling Sandhills have been thick with cattle.
Yet, the Nebraska Farm Bureau estimated last month COVID-19 will cost farmers and ranchers $3.7 billion in projected losses if economic conditions don’t improve.
But economic conditions haven’t improved for Nebraska farmers for years, and this pandemic is just another landmine on a path that’s been littered with them over the last decade.
With commodity prices crashing, harmful trade policy at the federal level, waffling on ethanol requirements, natural disasters and high property taxes playing varying roles, Nebraska farm income fell by half between 2013 and 2019.
And then came the pandemic, which has killed more than 125,000 Americans, infected more than 3 million and ravaged businesses both large and small.
The virus sickened thousands of meatpacking workers in the state, killed at least 11 and led to a handful of plant closures. Meanwhile, some livestock producers were forced to euthanize animals. The Farm Bureau projects roughly $1.16 billion in losses.
Similar numbers were expected for corn and soybeans ($1.17 billion) and ethanol plants ($1.3 billion), which work hand in hand and have helped to somewhat stabilize crop prices.
These ripples will be felt in Lincoln and other communities across Nebraska through reduced retail and restaurant spending, ag implement purchases and tax revenues collected both at the local and state levels.
Accordingly, it makes property tax reform – one of the Journal Star editorial board’s annual priorities – that much more important, yet improbable, to achieve.
The only property tax plan set to be debated by the full Legislature when senators reconvene later this month was drawn up with higher-than-anticipated tax receipts as a key funding source.
As we wrote in April, “the state will not have sufficient income to fund the property tax relief proposal without decimating the remainder of the discretionary budget — the part that funds the University of Nebraska and state agencies, whose services will be needed in the upcoming recovery.”
Rebalancing the property tax burden – borne disproportionally by farmers and ranchers – remains imperative. But achieving the needed systemic fixes remains improbable, regardless of the fate of other legislation senators have tried tying to this single tax bill.
Based on the current trends in the United States, the virus isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And the difficulties faced by ag producers – both before and during this recession – aren’t either.
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McCook Daily Gazette. July 9, 2020.
Number crunchers offer perspective on our community.
The men and women who used slide rules and building-sized tube computers to send Apollo 11 to the moon 51 years ago this month would be in awe to see the digital power that everyone from preschoolers to senior citizens carries in their pocket or purse.
They might not be so impressed with how we put it to use, watching cat videos or arguing in ignorance about every topic imaginable on social media.
Our daily email always contains the fruits of some customized number-crunching, sent out in hopes we will share it with readers, who will then visit their sites to help build up clicks to show to their advertisers.
Like news, such information is worth about what you pay for it, namely not much, and it shouldn’t be consumed without a blood pressure-boosting helping of salt.
Never the less, we’ll share some today.
The mattress-and-pillow website Sleepopolis reports that McCook residents have been getting 12.4 hours more sleep per month because they are working from home because of the coronavirus lockdown. We do know many who actually have been working from home more than usual, but pass the salt.
We’re not sure what criteria were used, but Gretna was ranked as the best place for sleep in Nebraska, South Sioux City the worst and McCook No. 26.
Not only are we getting more sleep, we’re drinking less, or at least drinking cheaper.
DrugAbuse.com surveyed 3,000 workers to find out how much they are saving by not attending after-work drinks during the lockdown.
Overall, they found American workers have saved $480 each since lockdowns began, the equivalent of over 90 beers. Nebraskans, on the other hand, have saved $430 a month, according to the survey.
When it comes to not working at all, Nebraska has some work to do in attracting retirees, according to SixtyAndMe.com
It’s perhaps not surprising the site found Nebraska the second-most boring place to retire.
We didn’t do well when it comes to chances to make new friends or start a new relationship, go on vacation, watch sports, start a business or volunteer.
Again with the salt.
We ranked pretty well when it comes to people over 65 who live alone and our cost of living.
“It isn’t the state to retire to if you’re wanting lots of state discounts, free college, to write a novel, to watch sports, to go walking, to start a small business, or protect your pension pot from taxes,” according to SixtyAndMe.com
We’d have to argue with the site’s methodology and conclusions, but there’s no doubt much can be done to reduce taxes on retirees and make the Cornhusker state more attractive.
It can be helpful for outsiders to look at our community, and number-crunching is a useful tool if it helps put things in perspective.
But it’s up to us, the people who live here, to take responsibility for our own lives and work to make our community a better place to live.
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