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Home - News
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News of the Norm - |
Raimondo’s north Omaha conflict
A spokesman for Tony Raimondo says the Democratic Senate hopeful shouldn’t be accused of backing out of a May 7 debate with fellow candidate Scott Kleeb. Campaign manager Eric Fought said a previous commitment made it impossible for Raimondo, a recently re-branded Republican, to participate. He complained that Douglas County Democratic Party Chair Chris Jerram had implied that Raimondo was ignoring north Omaha.
“I believe the role of a local party organization in a contested primary is to remain neutral and professional, working to assist both candidates,” Fought said. “The state party and the other county parties throughout the state have done just that.”
While praising Kleeb for having made himself available, Jerram said the debate “would have been an important opportunity for the Senate candidates to demonstrate their commitment to north Omaha and Omaha’s minority community … .” |
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News of the Norm - |
Judge to decide fate of auditor
Douglas County District Judge Sandra Dougherty rule within several weeks on whether the City of Omaha must fund its public safety auditor position. Dougherty heard arguments Tuesday from attorneys for the city and the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU filed suit April 17 to force the city to comply with a 2000 ordinance and fund the office.
Attorneys for the city council argued that funding the post is discretionary.
“There’s a law on the books that promises to every citizen in Omaha ‘You will have an independent body that will be looking at police complaints. And for the last couple years there’s been no one doing that,” ACLU Legal Director Amy Miller told The Reader.
Mayor Mike Fahey fired then-Public Safety Auditor Tristan Bonn in October 2006 after she released a report critical of the police department. Fahey said Bonn did not get his permission to issue the report. Bonn said she filed the report like any other. The Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission is investigating Bonn’s claim of wrongful termination. Fahey announced in January that he wanted to reinstate the auditor, and planned to lobby the city council to restore funding.
Charles Parks Jr. and the Rev. Edward Rollerson, plaintiffs in the lawsuit, were among those who addressed a news conference last Friday, reiterating support for the position and the need for it. Parks said the Coalition Against Injustice and Omaha’s Sleeping Giant discussed the issue privately over the winter with Mayor Fahey and council members other than Jim Suttle and Chuck Siegerson. “The mayor and city council pointed fingers at each other,” Parks said. No city officials attended the press conference. |
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News of the Norm - |
Omaha, Oceania
The Omaha City Council turned Tuesday to Big Brother to combat violence, appropriating $100,000 of Homeland Security funds to install 12 cameras in “crime hot spots,” most likely in north Omaha. The Omaha Police Department already uses cameras to monitor crime. Police spokeswoman Lt. Darci Tierney would not say how many cameras the department uses or in what areas of the city it uses them.
“They are semi-portable and can be used in a variety of situations, such as hot-spot areas and special events where we want to monitor the crowds,” Tierney said.
The new cameras represent the only tangible attempt to address Omaha violence, primarily via gun, that was marked in 2007 by 31 shooting victims over 31 days, and a record 41 homicides for the year. The year was capped inauspiciously in December when a teen killed eight people and himself with a stolen AK-47-style assault rifle at the Von Maur department store.
The Legislature rejected Sen. Brad Ashford’s proposal to require trigger locks be sold with guns, and that gun thefts be reported to law enforcement within 48 hours of discovery. National Rifle Association lobbyists and others succeeded in killing Ashford’s bill, which would have called for a State Crime Commission study of gun violence and illegal firearms trafficking.
Mayor Mike Fahey has yet to release a University of Nebraska at Omaha report he requested last October, examining how other cities fight gun violence, and which approaches have worked. UNO College of Public Affairs and Community Service Dean B.J. Reed submitted his staff’s final report in early November. Fahey told The Reader in February that the report would be made public before 2009. He said UNO researchers were working with police to finalize recommendations.
Nationally recognized policing expert and UNO criminal justice professor Samuel Walker submitted a similar report to Fahey and the city council Aug. 27, 2007, four days before the mayor commissioned the UNO study. Walker’s 10-page report, “Responding to Gun Violence in Omaha: What Works, What Doesn’t, What Can Be Done,” detailed the “lessons learned” and “best practices” in criminal justice over the past 20 years. It addressed surveillance cameras, finding that “the evidence indicates that [closed-circuit television surveillance cameras] are only marginally effective and have no impact on violent crime.”
The report said the cameras could be effective in specific locations like retail stores and in Omaha Housing Authority units.
Fahey never responded publicly to Walker’s report, but told The Reader he had read it.
“I think Sam has valid points,” he said. “There are certain things that I agree with, and some that I don’t.” He declined to elaborate. |
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Progressive Preister - |
One of Nebraska’s ‘greenest’ senators reflects
by Tessa Jeffers
Growing up in rural Madison County near Columbus, Neb., State Sen. Don Preister of Bellevue came to appreciate the land. He developed a fondness for the natural world, and has been fighting to preserve it for 16 years in the Nebraska Legislature.
As one of 15 senators being forced out at the end of this year due to term limits, he’s handling the impending departure with grace. He is, after all, a maker of greeting cards.
With an interest of sharing the Midwest environment, Preister and Mary Ann Krzemien started Joy Creations Company in 1988. The cards celebrate the state with Nebraska artists’ work, including images of Sandhill Cranes and the Platte River. The cards explain the image and educate those who find them (at places such as The Bookworm, Mahoney State Park and the State Capitol to name a few).
“We’re frequently seen as an area without mountains or oceans or things that people think of as majestic America,” he said Tuesday. “The beauty of the plains is majestic.”
Preister is third in seniority among those leaving the Capitol in January, following Sen. Ernie Chambers, 38 years, and Sen. DiAnna Schimek, 20 years. He’s served four successive four-year terms since 1992. Preister has kept his roots and passion for conservation very close throughout his tenure.
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News of the Norm - |
How may we have known?
A state report found that blacks in Douglas and Lancaster Counties are stopped by police at about twice their proportion of the population. The Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice examined 463,131 traffic stops in 2007 and found that black drivers in Douglas County constitute 24.3 percent of the stops while making up 12 percent of the population. While blacks had a 20 percent chance of being arrested, Asians and whites were arrested at 2.1 percent and 3.1 percent respectively.
In the 88-page “Anatomy of a Traffic Stop” report that got her fired in October 2006, former Public Safety Auditor Tristan Bonn documented the interrelated problems of racial profiling, rudeness, “lax or complicit supervision,” lack of in-service training, unnecessary escalations of force and unaddressed citizen complaints within the Omaha Police Department. Omaha police have now operated without independent oversight for about 18 months. Mayor Mike Fahey said he would include the auditor position on his 2009 budget. While there is vocal public support behind the position, it is unclear whether the council will fund it.
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Community Alliance - |
Local health officials say Minority Health Month is about coming together
by Neal Obermeyer
April is Minority Health Month — a designation created to improve minority health and eliminate minority health disparities across the United States. Mary Balluff, Douglas County Health Department chief of community health and nutrition services, said Douglas County tends to reflect the higher rates of morbidity and mortality seen across the nation.
The department’s five minority health priority areas — obesity, lead poisoning, infant mortality, asthma and sexually transmitted diseases — reflect a health disparity seen locally. “In most cases, the factors contributing to these disparities are varied and multiple, it’s not just one thing,” Balluff said. “That requires us to have partners in the community to help us solve those problems.”
Infant mortality rates among African Americans is three times that of Caucasians, said Christine Bert, public health nurse and coordinator of Baby Blossoms. The two leading causes of infant mortality are premature birth and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Bert said the department has worked with partners like Alegent Health, Nebraska Health Systems and Creighton University to discuss intervention strategies, how to develop the messages and how to get them to clients.
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News of the Norm - |
Bruning: Shut down the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission
Attorney General Jon Bruning called for the Legislature to eliminate the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission last week after being asked to file a housing discrimination suit on behalf of an illegal immigrant. Bruning said illegal immigrants should not receive non-emergency benefits. State (and federal) law requires the NEOC to act on behalf of all aggrieved persons and does not require U.S. citizenship. Bruning and the commission have an ongoing dispute. The NEOC likely will seek permission to hire its own lawyer. The agency says Bruning has jeopardized its $250,000 in federal funding by failing to enforce housing discrimination law. According to the NEOC, Bruning has pursued only one of 105 housing and discrimination cases referred to him during the past five years. He says the NEOC sent him poorly investigated cases, including one involving a stripper, and that the agency should have known the complainant was an illegal immigrant before forwarding the case. The NEOC will likely refer cases to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for enforcement while waiting for the Legislature to consider its request for in-house counsel, even though it will lose federal aid.
In response to Bruning, Sen. Ernie Chambers said on the floor April 3: “He practices idiocy as an ideology.” Chambers, who has been in the Unicameral since 1970, said the Legislature purposely wrote Nebraska’s Fair Housing Act to apply to all “persons,” not just citizens.
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Big Picture - |
Mosaic Center volunteers view individuals as more than just another brick in the wall
by Sarah Wengert
A mosaic is created by assembling small pieces to design a bigger, more beautiful picture.
It sounds kind of “Mr. Myagi,” but if one can embrace and unify the small pieces, the big picture can be seen. Omaha’s Mosaic Community Development’s Life on the Brick program functions much like a mosaic.
Life on the Brick offers twice-weekly meals and open-ended companionship to the homeless and low-income. Serving breakfast on Saturdays and dinner on Mondays, LOB director Tony Jackson welcomed me into the fold one Saturday morning in January.
Splashes of color greeted me as I entered. Walls were hung with art for a Mosaic/Illumination Street show being held that weekend. Classic rock radio boomed from speakers above. I walked past tables of men (I was the only woman in the joint) eating sausage links, pancakes and pastries, playing board games and talking. I had come for breakfast but would stay for conversation, Checkers, Hacky Sack and even a wedding.
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News of the Norm - |
Gun-rights trump public safety
In the end, the Legislature failed to respond to gun violence this session. Sen. Brad Ashford’s LB 958 failed to gain enough votes to advance to the final round of consideration last week.
The twice watered-down bill would not have required that guns be sold with trigger locks, nor that a gun theft need be reported to law enforcement within 48 hours of its discovery, as originally written. It called for a State Crime Commission study of gun violence and illegal firearms trafficking. It would have repealed a law requiring permits to purchase handguns; buyers would have submitted to an instant federal background check. Opponents said the National Rifle Association urged citizens to oppose the bill.
Ashford introduced the bill after a teen used a stolen, AK-47-style weapon to kill eight people and himself at the Von Maur department store in December. The killings contributed to Omaha’s record 41 homicides in 2007. |
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News of the Norm - |
Woemaha Stadium
Mayor Fahey says the $59.24 million in public funds needed to finance a new $139.79 million downtown stadium would not come from an increase in the city’s property tax rate. Fahey made the same pledge in 2000 to help persuade voters to approve the $300 million Qwest Center Omaha; the city property tax rate is expected to increase in 2013 to offset lower-than-projected revenues and financing needed to pay the Qwest Center’s construction debt.
Other issues could make the plan financially risky for taxpayers: keno revenue, of which $27.85 million over 20 years would go toward the stadium, may be adversely affected when Nebraska’s smoking ban takes effect June 1, 2009; increases in hotel tax and rental cars estimated to generate $31.97 million over 20 years could hurt local businesses; the federal government mandated an estimated $1.5 billion overhaul of Omaha’s eastern sewer system, to be paid through increased sewer fees; a $320 million shortfall in the city’s police and fire pensions could be helped by contracts currently being negotiated, but the fire union has already rejected Fahey’s proposal to do so, and has taken the matter to a state labor court.
The NCAA said it would consider extending Omaha’s College World Series contract past 2010 without a new stadium. |
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News of the Norm - |
Violent week
Three people were dead, at least two killers were on the loose and police were responsible for another killing during a violent week in Omaha.
A double homicide started the string of events Thursday, March 13. Eleven-year-old Thomas Hunter and his family’s housekeeper Shirlee Sherman, 57, were found stabbed to death at the Hunters’ home at 303 N. 54th St. Neighbors said a dark-haired, olive-skinned man wearing a black coat and carrying a briefcase approached the house about 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Sherman let him in.
Hunter’s father, Dr. William Hunter III, discovered the bodies just before 5:50 p.m. Hunter and his wife, Claire, are physicians and faculty members at Creighton University Medical Center. Police had not determined a motive. They released a sketch of the man sought in the killings. Anyone with information should call 444.STOP. |
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League Leader - |
Former police chief to address causes, rather than symptoms of poverty in new position
by Andrew Norman
The white walls remain bare in Thomas Warren’s new office, inside the Urban League of Nebraska’s headquarters/family resource center on a hill at 30th and Lake. The League’s new president and CEO hasn’t had time to decorate. He said he’s hit the ground running.
“This is a working office, so we don’t need much for décor,” he said.
Warren’s lack of show carries over from his former post as Omaha police chief, where he was known for being reserved. He’s still the definition of calm, cool.
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News of the Norm - |
Three injured in crash, kidnapping
Tom Coleman, a security guard at the South Library, 2302 M. St., watched out the library’s south window as police and reporters shuffled around two wrecked cars at the intersection of 23rd and M. He said he sees the occasional fight between youths at the library, but nothing like what unfolded the afternoon of March 5.
Police say Luis Rivas, 18, kidnapped ex-girlfriend Victoria Merino, 18, near 26th and E around 4 p.m. Rivas was driving Merino eastbound on M street when he ran the stop sign at 23rd Street and slammed into another car, which struck a fire hydrant and two teenage bystanders, Noemi Arias and Ana Valdovinos. Coleman said Rivas got out of the car and dragged a crying Merino down a hill heading east on M Street, away from the crash.
Coleman said he yelled at Rivas to stop, which he did momentarily before dragging Merino south down an alley. Police arrived and Coleman directed them down the alley where they apprehended Rivas. Coleman said Merino held her face as she was placed in an ambulance. Merino and Arias were treated at Creighton University Medical Center and released.
Kenetta Phillips, 59, was stuck in the passenger seat of the car struck by Rivas’ vehicle for about 20 minutes before paramedics could remove her. She remained at Creighton University with serious injuries.
Rivas was arrested on suspicion of nine charges, including domestic violence, kidnapping, and five counts of leaving the scene of an accident.
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Anti-Immigration Bills Die - |
Chambers grills Bruning
by Tessa Jeffers
The elephant was in Nebraska’s capitol last week. Sen. Ernie Chambers chastised Sen. Mike Friend, Gov. Dave Heineman and Attorney General John Bruning for being uninformed on an issue as hot as immigration, and for introducing a measure he said fuels racism.
On three occasions, Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, told an emotional and disruptive crowd to quiet down during the five-hour hearing in which the panel considered three immigration-related proposals.
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News of the Norm - |
But we’ve made so much progress
California businessman Ward Connerly abruptly left an appearance at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Feb. 28 when protestors repeatedly interrupted him following his speech about abolishing affirmative action. Connerly’s group, Super Tuesday for Equal Rights, is working to acquire 115,000 signatures to place a bill onto November’s ballot that would end affirmative action in Nebraska.
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News of the Norm - |
NCAA tells mayor to proceed with stadium, recall-fahey.com launched
After Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey’s meeting with the NCAA Feb. 26, the city will proceed oly with the downtown stadium plan in hopes of securing a long-term contract for the College World Series. Revamping Rosenblatt Stadium, the CWS home since 1950, will no longer be considered. Tom Jernstedt, NCAA executive vice president, said two conditions must be met to finalize a CWS deal with Omaha: widespread support from the Omaha public and a workable finance plan for the $140 million stadium. Fahey and CWS Inc. President Jack Diesing, Jr. said they are confident — 99.3 and 99.2 percent respectively, according to the Omaha World-Herald — this can be achieved. |
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News of the Norm - |
Fahey’s committee backs stadium, mayor recall website launched
The mayor-appointed baseball stadium review committee produced the results of a privately funded $800,000 stadium-option study, unanimously agreeing Feb. 18 that the way to keep the College World Series in Omaha is to build a $140 million stadium on the grounds of the Qwest Center Omaha. The Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority, which holds a 99-year lease on the city-owned Qwest center property, rejected the plan. MECA chairman David Sokol says the board would sue to block use of Qwest’s coveted parking lots. |
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Barack’s Bandwagon - |
Dem candidate meets a resounding ‘Yes We Can’
by Tessa Jeffers
If Christopher Walken were narrating this story, he might quip: Omaha has a fever, and the only cure is more Obama.
Mania. Momentum. What this country needs? Maybe. There’s no denying something is in the air.
Barack Obama’s big weekend was felt in Omaha. It started Wednesday, with the big rally and lots of troops. The line, not single file but four-people wide, stretched the entire square of the block. Barack’s buddies (volunteers) greeted the droves filling the Civic Auditorium to capacity with friendly excitement.
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News of the Norm - |
Double homicide in south Omaha
Two Arizona men were found dead Feb. 5 at a house they rented at 3125 S. 16th St. Police say Francisco Lemus-Torres, 34, and Jose Manuel Silva-Esparza, 18, were victims of a double homicide.
The men were the third and fourth homicides in Omaha this year. The city recorded a record 41 homicides in 2007.
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Obermeyer - |
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