Nebraska
Meet Miss Rodeo Nebraska Judges
North Platte, Neb. – The Miss Rodeo Nebraska Association is gearing up to kick off the 2024 Miss Rodeo Nebraska pageant which begins Sunday, May 9th and runs through Tuesday, May 12th. This year’s competition will feature three teens, three misses and three judges. This year Miss Rodeo Nebraska is JoSee Saults of Big Springs, Nebraska and Miss Teen Rodeo is Maci Cox of North Platte.
Follow along with the POST throughout the next couple of days to learn more about the competitors and judges. This year judges welcomes Kristina Sigaty of Aberdeen, South Dakota, Codi Miller from southwestern North Dakota and Joni Heinisch of Nebraska. Too learn more about this year’s judges, check out their bios below.
Kristina Sigaty
Kristina Sigaty is from Aberdeen, SD. She has been involved in the rodeo queen world since entering her first contest in 2003. Since then, she has been honored to represent South Dakota as the 2006 and 2007 SDHSRA Queen, Jr. Miss Rodeo South Dakota 2008, 2009 South Dakota 4-H Rodeo Ambassador, and Miss Rodeo South Dakota 2013, finishing in the Top 10 at Miss Rodeo America and earning the Wrangler Jacket Award and High Ticket Sales.
Serving as Miss Rodeo South Dakota had a massive impact on her life and career trajectory, and she has remained involved as a board member for Miss Rodeo South Dakota, Inc. to continue to offer those opportunities to today’s cowgirls. Growing up on a family farm, Kristina has also remained heavily involved with agriculture as the merchandising/origination manager at Frederick Farmers Elevator and market analyst with Fiebiger Consulting.
She also serves as a board member for the Bear Creek Roughriders Saddle Club, producing their barrel racing series and coordinating a variety of clinics and programs for club members. In her spare time, she enjoys trail riding, knitting, embroidering, crocheting, reading, and spending time on the lake with her husband Brandon and daughter Kimber.
Codi Miller
Codi Miller was born and raised on a small grain and cattle ranch in southwestern North Dakota. As a child, she attended a one-room schoolhouse and participated in 4-H for 10 years. Her pageant and modeling career started when she was 15 when she competed in the Bahamas at Miss Teen USA as the youngest contestant. She also competed in San Antonio, TX at Miss Collegiate America, plus 6 years in the Miss USA System.
In between beauty pageants, Codi followed in her mother’s footsteps in the rodeo and rodeo queen world. She was the ND High School Rodeo Queen, 2-time State Champion in Pole Bending, and is now the State Director of the high school queens’ contest. Codi was Miss Rodeo North Dakota 2014, and placed Top 10 at Miss Rodeo America. She is currently the National Director of Miss Rodeo North Dakota Pageant Organization, where she has founded a new scholarship program.
Codi enjoys spending her time helping young women in their personal and professional goals. She is a new homeowner and enjoys decorating and remodeling her little home, as well as owning and operating a western upholstery business. Codi believes her time in pageants and rodeo has helped her achieve career goals and building relationships all over the country. She hopes each woman her can see the benefits, win or lose!
Joni Heinisch
Joni, originally from Nebraska, and now making her home in Florida, and former Miss Rodeo Nebraska 2015. Her early years were spent on her family’s working ranch in the Sandhills of Ericson, Nebraska, where she played an active role in raising Angus cattle and American Quarter Horses. In her free time, she loved being outdoors, engaging in activities like 4H, hunting, fishing and traveling to rodeos & pageants.
Shortly after obtaining her nursing degree and working as a full-time nurse she met her husband, Ian Heinisch, a UCF Middleweight, and former All-American Wrestler. shortly after marriage, her life journey took her to the Sunshine State, Florida. Today, Joni co owns a functional medicine practice, treating patients all across the county. Her true passion lies in promoting health and wellness among individuals.
Even though she’s currently immersed in the south Florida lifestyle, Joni’s heart remains rooted in the charm of small-town agriculture, and the outdoor way of living, remaining as active as she can in her family’s ranch in Nebraska. Together with her husband, she cherishes the beauty of Florida’s outdoors, spending quality time exploring its natural wonders.
Joni’s genuine interests include agriculture, preserving the traditions of family ranches, rodeo queen pageants, and advocating for the conversation of the outdoors. Through their ministry, she and Ian share the gospel message on a global scale, a testament to the significant impact of faith in their lives.
Shes wishes good luck too all the contestants in the Miss Rodeo Nebraska pageant
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Nebraska
Data centers take center stage at North Omaha townhall
The future of data centers in Nebraska took center stage at a North Omaha town hall Thursday evening.
The event was hosted by State Sens. Terrell McKinney and Ashlei Spivey, who alongside Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh sponsored a bill in the Nebraska Legislature that looked to help regulate data centers.
Parts of their bill were adopted and passed in LB1010, which requires reports on annual power usage, water usage and ownership.
“Having this passed in a package showed a lot of bipartisan work,” Spivey told a crowd of attendees at Nelson Mandela Elementary School.
The proposed regulations were shaped in part by Bold Nebraska, an advocacy group focused on eminent domain and clean energy. Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and founder of Bold Nebraska, said before the bill passed there were “zero laws on the books” to address a boom in data centers.
“If one is coming into the community, we wanted to make sure that there were some basic transparency things in place,” Kleeb said.
Political discussions around data centers heated up in recent months following reporting by the Flatwater Free Press that showed Google is considering a data center in Nebraska that could require more than three times the amount of power the entire city of Lincoln uses at peak demand in the summer.
The Nebraska Legislature recently passed another bill, LB1261, that allows private developers to build and own power plants to serve a large industrial customer, including data centers. That bill was proposed by the governor’s office and celebrated by Gov. Jim Pillen.
“Our state is once again taking a bold and strategic step – one that will create an environment that attracts business and multibillion dollar investment, while legally preserving Nebraska’s unique and consumer-friendly public power model,” Pillen said at the time.
At Thursday’s town hall, McKinney called LB1261 “the bogeyman bill.”
“It’s a bill that the governor pushed through the legislature to allow for data centers to create their own power,” McKinney said. “It’s a bill that I stood on the floor and said this is going to harm our communities.”
Nebraska
Hundreds lose power across southeast Nebraska after Thursday morning storm
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Hundreds of people are without power in southeast Nebraska after a severe storm passed through Thursday morning.
The Lincoln Electric System outage map showed 115 customers without power across the city at 11:36 a.m.
Norris Public Power District’s outage map also shows 45 customers affected by the storm. As of 11:36 a.m., there were nine active outages.
According to the Nebraska Public Power District outage map, 657 customers were affected by the storm. Most of the affected customers were near Plattsmouth in southeast Nebraska. As of 11:37 a.m., 27 customers remain without power.
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Nebraska
Mandatory evacuation orders for area near Crawford, Fort Robinson
Mandatory evacuations have been ordered near Crawford, including Fort Robinson State Park, as the South Fork Fire continues to spread in western Nebraska.
According to the City of Crawford, evacuations are currently underway for an area north of Crawford that includes the area south of Dodd Road, west of Dodd Road, and FF Street.
Fort Robinson has also been evacuated.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission said Fort Robinson State Park and Peterson Wildlife Management Area have been temporarily closed due to the fire.
The fire has burned approximately 9,000 acres and is currently 0% contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Nebraska Game and Parks said the park and the WMA will remain closed until further notice to support firefighting operations and protect public safety.
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