Editorial Roundup: Nebraska

Mon, Feb 8, 2021
By The Associated Press

Omaha World-Herald. Feb. 5, 2021.

Editorial: Dodge County attorney situation should prod Legislature to consider law change

The ongoing series of troubling actions by Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass raises a question of statewide import: Should Nebraska lawmakers set some sort of automatic punishment when an elected official crosses a threshold of lawbreaking?

Perhaps the state, for example, could establish an automatic recall vote when officials cross a defined line. Or an automatic prohibition against seeking reelection. Some situations might merit automatic removal from office.

At present, Nebraska law contains no such required punishment. But when an elected official indulges in repeated violations of the law, to the point of facing a jail sentence, consideration of some type of automatic penalty is worthy of serious consideration by lawmakers.

The string of actions by Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass provides a major example. Glass last week violated his DUI probation. He spent the weekend in the same jail with offenders he normally prosecutes. Violating probation in Nebraska usually results in jail time: The prospect of a county attorney sitting in incarceration - while the deputy county attorney once again subs for him in court due to Glass's troubles - is a concerning circumstance.

Perhaps Glass will resign. But if not, this situation calls for review of election law.

Glass suffers from a major alcohol problem, as his own attorney acknowledges. Such an addiction, no question, is a terrible burden, for the alcoholic and others affected by his actions. The condition deserves understanding and treatment. But there also comes a point when the individual's repeated disregard for responsible behavior warrants a strong response.

In January 2020, a routine probation test found alcohol in Glass' system. Two months later, he was arrested for DUI. In that incident, a 911 caller following Glass reported that he was driving slowly, swerving and hitting curbs on a road on the edge of Fremont. In August, a judge placed him on 15 months' probation and ordered him to abstain from alcohol. That is the probation Glass violated last week after he reportedly showed up drunk to pick up his children for his parenting time.

Dodge County residents are also familiar with Glass's run-ins with Nathan Schany, a Fremont man who dated Glass's estranged wife. In March, an inebriated Glass allegedly fired off a long series of abusive messages at Schany via 10 phone calls and 46 texts. Glass referred to a character in the hit series "Breaking Bad" getting his head blown off and suggested that he could get all kinds of drugs for Schany.

After Schany drunkenly took an Adderall pill in the wake of that incident and made suicidal comments, he was hospitalized for six days, finding himself repeatedly without sensible recourse for release. Schany and his attorney questioned whether Glass had a hand in his hospitalization and his termination from a job as a delivery driver. Glass adamantly denies both accusations.

Glass was appointed as Dodge County's top prosecutor in 2011. He was elected in 2014 and reelected in 2018.

Voters in Nebraska have the option, under state law, to recall local elected officials such as the county attorney. In fact, Nebraska law could not be looser on this question: No specific grounds are required for mounting a recall.

Should Nebraska law really be so lax as to allow local elected officials to repeatedly violate the law - to the point the official faces a jail sentence - and stay in office or without a penalty barring his reelection? It's a serious question the Legislature must face given what's happened in Dodge County.

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Grand Island (Neb.) Independent. Feb. 5, 2021.

Editorial: Veterans court a big step forward

The creation of the Central Nebraska Veterans Treatment Court is a major step forward in helping local veterans who are struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues.

Through the program, veterans may take advantage of a collaborative team effort that includes the court system, law enforcement, probation and mental health services.

In addition to helping Hall and Buffalo counties' veterans, the program also will help to address jail overcrowding.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has placed a great emphasis on problem-solving courts and we in central Nebraska have seen the success of the Central Nebraska Drug Court. Those who successfully complete Drug Court have their crimes dismissed and participants have appreciated the discipline that the court program provides them as they work to resolve the issues that landed them in court in the first place.

Nebraska already has 32 problem-solving courts in its 12 judicial districts, which serves 1,400 participants each year.

Along with adult drug and DUI courts, other courts include those for re-entry, mental health, juvenile drug and family treatment. Now the veterans treatment court that has been successful in the Omaha/Lincoln area, is coming to central Nebraska.

"If you look at the statistics, it works," said Judge Ryan C. Carson of the Ninth Judicial Court in talking about the problem-solving courts. "When you have a judge that's involved in these individuals' lives on a weekly basis, and have that constant interaction, and you add to that this collaboration ... it motivates them some."

District Court Judge Mark Young said back in 2019, "Drug Court is far tougher than traditional probation, and for a lot of people, probably tougher than doing a six-month to one-year sentence in county jail or even in the state pen."

But the specific requirements keep the participants on the road to sobriety and a law-abiding life.

Later on, when he talks to people who've completed Drug Court, Young said, "you can tell there is still pride in what they accomplished for themselves."

Now this focus on structure and discipline will be available to veterans in Hall and Buffalo counties who have been arrested for a felony and want to remove it from their record.

It is not known how many veterans will participate in the program to start, but Carson says they hope to get up to as many as 30 participants at a time in central Nebraska.

"The community cares about our veterans and wants to see our veterans succeed," Carson said. "Certainly, through involvement in the military, through active combat, for example, there are a host of issues veterans have to deal with."

Especially with the delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, it has taken a long time to make plans to get a veterans treatment court started here, but it could have its first participant this month and build from there.

This is good news for the veterans community, for the law enforcement community and for the court system.

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Lincoln Journal Star. Feb. 5, 2021.

Editorial: Legislature must also green light sports bets

Gambling won big at the polls in November, with nearly two-thirds of Nebraska voters approving the initiatives to legalize casinos at horse tracks across the state.

As the Nebraska Legislature sets up the regulations for Nebraska's first casinos, lawmakers would be remiss to ignore sports betting as a logical extension of the stated goal for gambling revenues: property tax relief.

Among the handful of gambling-related proposals heard by a legislative committee Monday were two plans – one bill simply requiring senators' approval, the other a constitutional amendment that would need a green light from voters – that would authorize sports wagering in the state.

Whichever plan lawmakers deem best must advance out of committee and through the full Legislature.

Proponents of the successful ballot initiatives hammered home two related points to Nebraska voters: Nebraskans were paying other states' taxes for them, and money kept within the state could be used to reduce the high property tax burden as a result of the state's insufficient investment in K-12 education.

Indeed, Nebraskans have sent untold billions of dollars across the border to legalized casinos in every neighboring state but Wyoming. Sports gambling provides another – and rapidly growing – option to help retain that money, 70% of which will be directed to property tax relief.

Following the Supreme Court's 2018 ruling that permitted the sports wagering nationwide, only Colorado and Iowa have implemented it. South Dakota voters also approved the practice in an initiative in November, but its legislature hasn't yet passed the needed regulations.

This means Nebraska has a chance to get ahead of the curve in the Midwest and join the roughly half of states with legalized, regulated sports wagering – a category saw that record growth in 2020 – including those in which Nebraskans already gamble.

Nearly 20% of the state tax revenue generated by Iowa sports wagering came from casinos within sight of Omaha's skyline. And the casino that produced the lion's share of that money did so without offering mobile betting, which raked in nearly three-quarters of the handle accepted by the 19 state-sanctioned casinos.

This is money, collected strictly on a voluntary basis from bettors, Nebraska must fight to keep.

It's not yet clear what kind of long-term budget shortfall Nebraska will face as a result of COVID-19, but providing tax relief and providing more adequate state aid to public schools – these are inextricably intertwined – will be key to ensuring the intentions of the voter-approved initiative are met.

And new revenues from casinos will serve an integral role toward meeting these two goals, each of which is championed by different sides of the aisle.

Accordingly, the Nebraska Legislature must ensure it can meet both aims as it wades into these uncharted waters – and sports wagering offers another revenue stream that can't be ignored.

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