Each year, the Postal Service designates the third full week of May as Mailbox Improvement Week to encourage customers on city and rural routes to examine and, where necessary, improve the appearance of their mailboxes. Neat, attractive mailboxes make a significant contribution to the appearance of the countryside and to streets in suburban areas. Mailbox Improvement Week calls attention to the need for providing mailboxes that are: 1. Approved by the postmaster general.

Spring is really here and one of my favorite spring activities is planting and improving my flower beds, obviously. If these flower beds are not planted or cared for correctly, they will not survive. One of the most disappointing things to any gardener is when their plants die!

The southeast Nebraska Community Band is beginning their 30th season in a flurry of performances. This coming Saturday, May 18, they will be performing in Stella from 10:00 am to 11:00 am for the Stella Fun Day. The following weekend they will be performing at Van Horne Park in Pawnee City for the grand opening of the amphitheater in the park. That performance will be Sunday May 26 at 7:00 pm in conjunction with an ice cream social. The next Saturday, June 1, will the Sterling Firemen’s Picnic at 6:00 pm. There will be break until the next performance in Johnson for the Barbecue on June 15 at 5:30 pm.

10 Years Ago – May 15, 2014 25 Years Ago – May 13, 1999 50 Years Ago – May 16, 1974 101 Years Ago – May 10, 1923 The Pawnee City City Council voted 4-0 to put in speed bumps around North Park in its Monday night meeting. The controversial mosquito spraying was also ap proved 4-0.

Don’t you just love a good story? Better yet, one set in Pawnee County. Sharla Sitzman of Table Rock collects stories from yesteryear and yesterday.

Biliary disease is a term that most have heard, but by a different name, gallbladder disease. When we think about gallbladder disease we usually think about gallstones. However, there is much more that can cause problems with gallbladder bladder in the biliary system. Today I will review what this system is and where the complications can arise. We will also review ways to help prevent these complications from happening.

Before they adjourned last month, state lawmakers passed two of their biggest proposals to address the lack of affordable child care in Nebraska. But they steered $0 to those new efforts, casting doubt on whether either law will have a meaningful impact on a growing crisis.

In 2014, President Obama famously said, “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” telling the American people he didn’t care whether Congress had provided legislative authority for his favored policies—he would go it alone whenever he felt like it. Ten years later, Obama’s then-Vice President, now-President Joe Biden has been ruling in the same fashion daily. President Biden’s executive actions don’t just ignore congressional intent; they are expensive, unwise, and unworkable. A recent report by the House Budget Committee showed President Biden’s executive actions have totaled over $2 trillion in added cost to taxpayers, all without congressional approval. From backwards economic policies to rules restricting consumer choice on everything down to gas stoves and dishwashers, the Biden administration seems intent on trading commonsense for a pricey, overbearing agenda. Among the most shortsighted are crushing energy industry mandates, another scheme to “forgive” student loans on the backs of taxpayers, and an effort which would increase pressure on nursing homes struggling to fill staffing vacancies.

One of my top priorities is making government work better. A major way to do that is blocking burdensome regulations that don’t work for Nebraska. One recent example is the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) rule mandating new minimum staffing standards for long-term care facilities. While the intention behind this rule may be well-meaning, it would have terrible consequences for longterm care facilities in our rural communities. On the Special Committee on Aging I’m fighting against those consequences.

Antisemitism is reaching fever pitch across the country, a level I never thought possible in the United States of America. Mere months after Hamas’s October 7th assault on Israel, anti-Israel protests have overtaken one of our most influential cultural institutions: the university.