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Home - News
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Fighting Feds and Foes - |
Fremont’s proposed
illegal alien ordinance raises tensions
by Bryan Cohen
Fremont City Councilman John Warner is not shy when it comes to his criticism of federal immigration enforcement. He thinks the situation is dire — so much so that he wants the City of Fremont to enforce it’s own immigration laws.
By the end of the summer, residents of Fremont may vote on a ordinance Warner proposed to punish anyone who harbors or hires illegal immigrants within the city limits.
Under the first draft of the Fremont ordinance, every renter in the city would be required to obtain an occupancy license. To obtain the license, local law enforcement would verify the citizenship status of the applicant. Occupants without the license would be subject to a $500 fine. Fines would also be levied against those who harbor illegal immigrants in their home.
The ordinance asserts illegal immigrants place a large financial burden on the city, although the ban would not prohibit illegal immigrants from seeking emergency care or legal counsel. Courts have held illegals cannot be denied those rights.
Supporters and critics of the ordinance agreed the July 8 hearing spawned an emotionally charged, at times hostile, debate. Warner said his proposal gave some Fremont residents their first opportunity to speak-out publicly against illegal immigration. For others, the hearing was not so liberating.
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News of the Norm - |
Warrant blitz nabs 183 fugitives
A federal initiative to apprehend criminals wanted for violent crimes netted 183 arrests in the Omaha and Lincoln areas. Around 50 law enforcement officials joined the U.S. Marshall Service in Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally). The locals were sworn in as special U.S. Deputy Marshall’s to make arrests outside their jurisdictions.
Multiple midnight shootings in north Omaha
Three separate shootings, two of them drive-by, occurred July 17 within the span of five minutes at different locations in north Omaha. Between 12:06 and 12:11 a.m., 21-year-old Cameron Jackson, 17-year-old Renesha Wright and 22-year-old Artue Brewer were sent to Creighton University Medical Center for non-life threatening injuries due to gunshot wounds.
Can I see your badge, please?
Omaha police are looking for a white male in his mid-30’s with dark brown hair, bushy eyebrows and a tan 2000 Lincoln Town Car with Nebraska plates and flashing red and blue lights on the dash. The suspect made a traffic stop near 110th and Military and asked the driver for her license and registration and to step out of the car. When the woman asked for his badge number, the man became angered and drove off.
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News of the Norm - |
New website maps neighborhood crimes
A new website will allow Omahan’s to track reported criminal activity throughout the city at www.crimereports.com. In addition to receiving email alerts, residents can view a case number, the location, time and type of crime reported.
Information will be stored for 30 days, then erased. Victims names and exact street addresses are omitted.
Mayor unveils 2009 budget to City Council
Mayor Mike Fahey unveiled his 385 page, $557 million budget to city council July 15.
For the seventh year in a row the budget did not raise the property tax, a pledge Fahey made when he entered office. Fahey did project a 2.5 percent increase in the sales tax, the funding source for nearly half of the city’s expenditures.
The Mayor also budgeted $125,000 from the general fund to reinstate an independent public safety auditor. The council rejected the mayors request for the auditor last year. The position was eliminated in 2006 after the last auditor, Tristan Bonn, was fired for insubordination.
The budget anticipated a 17 percent ($6.4 million) increase in healthcare costs for city employees. City officials said the jump is due to the increased cost in health coverage and expensive surgeries covered last year.
Gas was also a big ticket item for the city. The budget predicts a $2 million increase in fuel costs. Currently, the city is locked into a contract, paying $2.53 for regular unleaded; a contract Fahey said the city will keep until the very last minute.
The council is scheduled to vote on the budget on Aug. 26.
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Nazis March in South Omaha - |
Rally/protest raises awareness, not level of racial discourse
by Andrew Norman
Omaha Police helicopter Able-1 circled Saturday, chop, chop, chopping the otherwise silent air high above the neighborhood that newly arriving immigrants — first Eastern European, now predominately Latino — have traditionally made home. At the southwest corner of 24th and P, a diverse crowd slowly gathered to protest a rally by the nation’s largest neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Movement.
A Latina girl of about 10 ate small pastries out of a white paper bag, purchased from inadvertent event caterer International Bakery. A teenage Latino man shoved a hot dog into his mouth, joining friends who joked with each other about adjacent yellow police tape that cordoned the street, blocking foot and vehicle traffic from P to Q streets.
The party-like atmosphere contrasted with the scene in front of the Sinclair filling station across 24th Street, where 14 SWAT members stood stone-faced, single file in two lines, holding wooden clubs and dressed in riot gear that looked like post-apocalyptic catchers’ uniforms. About a dozen more SWAT members waited in a nearby Metro Area Transit bus.
The immense police presence included Douglas County Sheriff’s officials who ran the metal detectors for entrance into the protester’s “free speech zone.” A few mounted police watched from the sidewalks. About a dozen Omaha police officers paced and scouted with binoculars on store rooftops to the east and west. |
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Obermeyer - |
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News of the Norm - |
Nebraska troopers nab 345 pounds
of marijuana
The Nebraska State Patrol seized 345 pounds of marijuana in three traffic stops over the July 4 weekend.
The fist bust occurred on July 3, when a trooper stopped a 1998 Honda Accord with Illinois license plates for tailgating on I-80 in Sarpy County. The trooper’s dog indicated the odor of drugs, leading to the discovery of 220 pounds of marijuana.
On July 4 and 5, troopers pulled over two other cars along I-80 in routine stops, one near Kearney and the other near Grand Island. Police dogs found marijuana in both vehicles.
Jail time proposed for pregnant drug users
State Sen. Gwen Howard of Omaha wants state child abuse laws changed to include jail time for prenatal drug abuse. The mother would go to jail after giving birth. Howard announced her plan after charges were dropped against a 26-year-old Grand Island woman who gave birth to a baby with traces of methamphetamine. The child was taken into custody by state welfare officials.
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News of the Norm - |
Douglas County budget approved
The Douglas County Board approved a $7 million spending increase with the adoption of a new budget. Much of that is dedicated to the Douglas County Correctional Center, county personnel benefits and raises. The county will receive and estimated $2.1 million increase in property taxes from an overall raise in property valuations.
Pit bull attacked four in Omaha
Two mothers and their children were hospitalized when a pit bull slipped out of its cloth collar and attacked near 14th and Pine St. A 15-month-old girl, Charlotte Blevins, was the most severely injured after the dog pulled her out of a wagon by her head.
After the attack, Humane Society officials detained the pit bull, which still had blood stains on his light coat. The dog was euthanized on July 1.
Mayor Mike Fahey is creating a committee to look at pit bull attacks in Omaha and the possibility of a ban on the breed. In Council Bluffs it is illegal to own a pit bull. Denver recently reinstated a pit bull ban.
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A Controversial Race - |
by Bryan Cohen
A proposed constitutional amendment to ban all affirmative action practices by the state must gather around 118,000 verifiable signatures from registered Nebraska voters by July 4 for the measure to make the November ballot.
The initiative would outlaw public education scholarships based on race, preferential contracts for diverse business owners and considering gender in state hiring. The campaign recently stirred controversy over out-of-state funded petitioners allegedly not obeying petition laws.
“Nebraskans United has gathered video, audio, photographic and affidavit evidence which we believe establishes that the paid petition circulators have not been following Nebraska law,” said campaign director David Kramer.
For residents who signed the petition and wish to remove their name, a notarized affidavit must be post-marked to the secretary of state’s office by July 4. A printable copy of the form is available at www.nebraskansunited.org/signature.htm. |
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News of the Norm - |
Anti-affirmative action campaign in Nebraska
Petitioners for a state initiative to end all public affirmative action practices are accused of misleading residents to sign-on, saying the measure “prohibits discrimination.”
The measure would amend the state constitution to prevent race, gender and ethnicity from being used in hiring, awarding scholarships or granting public contracts.
The California based American Civil Rights Institute, who have successfully implemented similar reforms in other states, is spearheading the campaign. The initiative would be on the ballot this November if it can garner enough signatories.
Two teens arrested in Millard slaying
An Omaha teen has been taken into custody over the killing of an 18-year-old Millard South High School student.
Daniel C. Miller, 18, was apprehended in Lincoln three days after the June 15 murder of Julius Robinson, who was shot four times in the chest near 128th and Q streets. Miller, who is being held at the Douglas County jail, was denied from posting bail on June 23.
A second 18-year-old, Austin “Munchies” Fry, was arrested on charges that he was an accomplice to the shooting. Fry allegedly drove the tan Chrysler Sebringfrom which Miller is accused of firing the shots.
According to Omaha Police gang unit officials, Miller had been associating with members of a gang called the Omaha Mafia Bloods. The gang is predominantly white and recruits its members largely from northwest Omaha and Millard.
While police have not determined an official motive, friends of Robinson said he used to associate with members of OMB until a recent falling out, which some gang-members took as a sign of disrespect. Robinson was also part of a recently formed group called LOC 228. Although LOC 228 graffiti was found in various locations around Millard, members who have come forward since the killing maintain it is not a gang. |
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Obermeyer - |
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News of the Norm - |
Fatal tornado strikes Boy Scout camp
Four young men were killed and 48 people injured when a tornado struck the Little Sioux Boy Scout Camp around 6:35 p.m. June 11. Most campers and staff took shelter in the camp’s few buildings, none of which had basements. The tornado tossed a pickup into a stone chimney, which collapsed onto some campers.
Three of the boys killed are from Omaha — Sam Thomsen and Josh Fennen, both 13, and Ben Petrzilka, 14. Aaron Eilerts, 14, is from Eagle Grove, Ia. The injured were taken to several hospitals in the region, some as far away as Sioux City, for injuries ranging from cuts and bruises to head trauma. All 94 Boy Scouts and 25 staff members were accounted for, but search and rescue operations continued for visitors who may have been at the park.
The tornado was classified as an EF-3, which means winds were from 136 to 165 miles per hour. Though two tornado warnings were issued for Douglas County in less than three hours, and the National Weather Service reported seven tornadoes in the storm, most damage in Omaha was due to lightning and flooding. Heavy rain trapped several vehicles in floodwater across the city. |
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News of the Norm - |
New College World Series deals signed
On the morning of June 10, College World Series Inc. president Jack Diesing and NCAA president Myles Brand signed the agreement between the NCAA and CWS Inc. that will keep the College World Series in Omaha through 2035. Later in the day, the City Council approved the city’s ballpark agreement with MECA, authorized the Donors’ Trust fundraising efforts, and passed the new hotel and car rental taxes.
Questions about new stadium taxes
The Metropolitan Hotel Association supports the new hospitality tax increase for stadium construction, but industry response to the increase in car rental taxes has not been as favorable.
Joe Gudenrath, spokesman for Mayor Mike Fahey, said the idea of using hotel tax and car rental tax increases came about for several reasons. Property tax increases were never considered, and a two percent entertainment tax was quickly ruled out, so the stadium oversight committee worked to find other funding options that would capitalize on people coming into the city, he said. A car rental tax appeared to relieve Omaha taxpayers of paying for the stadium. The $2 tax increase is expected to generate $600,000 per year.
At the June 3 City Council meeting, T.J. Jackson with Enterprise Rental Car said 75 percent of rental car customers are local. He also pointed out federal legislation is pending that seeks to end local rental car taxes. HR 2453 would prohibit state and local governments from imposing car rental excise taxes, though it would grandfather in any existing taxes.
According to the National Business Travelers Association, rental car taxes have been used to pay for 35 stadium and sports venue constructions across the United States. A study by the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan tax research organization, found that car rental taxes are unpredictable and vulnerable to economic cycles.
Carol Ebdon, finance director for the City of Omaha, said the city is comfortable with the projections, as consultants with Barrett Sports Group spent a lot of time looking at historical trends, including economic downturns. The study assumed an annual car rental tax growth rate of 2.0 percent; since 1996, the percent change has ranged from 38.7 percent down to –5.6 percent. The new tax rate would place Omaha second only to Kansas City in the study’s list of comparable tax rates.
A 2006 study by members of The Brookings Institution and Urban Institute entitled “Taken for a Ride: Economic Effects of Car Rental Excise Taxes” found that Kansas City’s increased rental car taxes resulted in fewer people renting cars, and those who did rented across the river in Kansas, where taxes were lower. According to the Barrett report, Omaha’s total car rental tax after the increase will be 41.7 percent; the rate in Council Bluffs is 12 percent.
If public revenue projections are not met, Omaha taxpayers would probably cover the bill. Qwest Center revenues have not met expectations, and the city’s property tax rate will likely increase in 2013 to cover Qwest Center construction debt, Ebdon said.
Ebdon said the situations were different in an important way. With the Qwest Center, projections were based on assumptions made long before the facility opened, whereas Omaha has 50 years of experience hosting the College World Series. “We’re pretty certain based on the last 50 years that we’re going to be able to sell those tickets every year and get the revenues that are anticipated,” she said. “That, I think, is the major difference.”
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News of the Norm - |
Court rules for total smoking ban
The Nebraska Supreme Court struck down exemptions to Omaha’s smoking ban, saying they unfairly benefited some businesses. The exemptions, which were set to expire in May 2011, allowed smoking at bars that don’t serve food and keno parlors.
The Omaha city attorney’s office told The Reader that the court’s decision should go into effect in approximately 30 days. The statewide smoking ban, passed in February, would have eliminated the local exemptions in June 2009.
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News of the Norm - |
USDA spending questioned
A new Senate study details the lavish and wasteful conference spending by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under former Secretary and current Republican Senate candidate Mike Johanns.
The Federal Financial Management Subcommittee report, “For the Farmers or For Fun,” details the tens of millions of dollars the USDA spent on conferences. In 2006, the Department nearly tripled its 2000 conference expenses. Orlando, Fla., Las Vegas and Hawaii were the most popular vacation convention spots for USDA employees in 2006. One USDA employee attended a presentation on Mississippi crayfish — at the Surfer’s Paradise Resort in Australia.
“It became apparent that there were limited financial or managerial controls in place to track or restrict the travel of government employees to conferences domestically and around the world,” concluded Sen. Tom Coburn, author of the report.
The Nebraska Democratic Party noted Johanns closed 10 Farm Service Agency offices in Nebraska due to budget concerns, saving the department $100,000. Steve Achelpol, NDP chairman, said Johanns can’t be trusted to provide oversight of government agencies in the Senate.
“We need to elect leaders who value taxpayer dollars and don’t treat them as a vacation fund,” Achelpol said. “Closing important offices in our state while employees travel around the world shows a lack of judgment and an inability to set the right priorities for Nebraska.”
Although the Johanns campaign slammed the response to the study as “old-style partisan politics,” it failed to note it was authored by Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma.
Johanns’ campaign said he established clear guidelines when he took over at the USDA, but that critics “have even attempted to blame Secretary Johanns for actions that occurred five years before he arrived at the USDA.” The study focused exclusively on trips taken in 2006, when Johanns was secretary. Johanns’ office had not responded to a Reader email requesting comment as of press time. |
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News of the Norm - |
Exploring Hal
Republican Hal Daub wants to be mayor, again. On May 15 he became the first declared challenger to Mayor Mike Fahey, a Democrat. Fahey is expected to seek a third term. State Sen. Brad Ashford was another candidate rumored to enter the race, but he announced May 16 he plans to stay in the Legislature. The mayoral election will be held May 12, 2009.
Echoing the 2007 strategy for his brief Senate campaign, Daub announced he will walk the neighborhoods of Omaha, seeking suggestions and comment from residents. Daub was Omaha’s mayor from 1995 to 2001, when he lost to Fahey. He had previously served in the House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989.
Modern medicine and his legendary tenacity will likely allow Daub to break the Curse of the Returning Mayor if re-elected. Each of the three previous Omaha mayors who served non-consecutive terms failed to complete his final term in office. George Armstrong resigned from his second stint in 1862. Champion Chase was removed from office in his third run in 1884. James Dahlman’s second span in the mayor’s office ended with his death in 1930. |
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News of the Norm - |
We have a new favorite number, and it is 5
Omaha’s College World Series deal turned out to be for five years more than initially expected, but it also came with a previously unmentioned $5 million annual guarantee to the NCAA.
The Omaha World-Herald quoted Mayor Mike Fahey as saying “Nobody takes money out until the debt payments are made.” However, the NCAA receives its “championship fee” regardless of the city’s ability to pay its debt.
“The key to the guarantee is that it’s guaranteed by CWS, Inc., not the city,” Fahey spokesman Joe Gudenrath told The Reader. Although any revenue shortfall would have to be covered by CWS Inc. and not the city, that payment is part of the annual distribution of $16 million of public funds, stadium revenues and ticket sales. The NCAA also would receive a portion of stadium revenues once debt payments are made.
“So really Fahey should have said: ‘Nobody takes money out until 26 percent of the debt is paid,’ said Neil deMause, co-author of Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit.
As annual cost projections have increased, so have revenue projections. Public funding, initially projected at $5.8 million for 2011, is now projected at $6.4 million; stadium revenue projections have risen from $3.1 to $3.7 million.
City finance director Carol Ebden said part of the difference is due to a reclassification of the seat tax — a fee the city places on ticket purchases for event facilities like the Qwest Center and the Orpheum. The current figures also relate only to College World Series-related revenues and expenditures, Ebden said.
The deal doesn’t impress deMause.
“If we’re talking about the public paying off almost half the cost out of general tax revenues, that’s not that great a deal as these things go,” deMause said.
He said new Major League Baseball stadiums for the Yankees, Mets and Cardinals have teams matching or doubling public contributions. “For smaller stadiums, though, you often see better deals — the [Major League Soccer] stadium in Bridgeview, Ill., for example, will mostly be paid off with stadium revenues,” he said.
The stadium, initially priced at $50 million by Fahey in May 2007, now has an estimated cost near $130 million. The city still owes nearly $12 million on previous Rosenblatt improvements. In May 2007, Fahey said the cost to renovate Rosenblatt would be $25 million. That cost is now estimated at more than $70 million. The public contribution for either plan would be around $60 million. |
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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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