Nebraska

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen visits North Omaha, speaks to community leaders

Published

1 year ago

May 13, 2023

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen visits North Omaha, speaks to community leaders

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen paid a visit to North Omaha Friday.

Some community leaders in North Omaha labeled Friday’s visit from Pillen as groundbreaking. They’re hoping to open communications between North Omaha and members of state government.

But there are people in the community who say they have heard this song before.

Political, business and community leaders made their way to Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church on North 24th Street. Close to 50 members of the North Omaha community met with the governor.

The meeting was closed to the media but the governor did answer questions after. He talked about this first step in opening the lines of communication.

“The biggest step first thing is building relationships. It’s really really important that we have eyeball-to-eyeball communication, be able to trust each other and get to know who we are and where each other comes from. This morning that was a big step, I got to shake hands with almost everybody here.”

There were many topics of discussion in the meeting, from housing, to education, to economic development.

State senators Justin Wayne and Terrell McKinney say they have worked many hours with the governor on issues concerning North Omaha.

“We might not agree on everything but at least having an open line of communication is the best thing for us going forward,” McKinney said.

“I would tell you I think this is one of the most accessible governors that I’ve been able to deal with,” Wayne said. “This isn’t his first time in North Omaha and won’t be his last time. And he did say he wanted to commit to regular meetings with people in there.”

There are many people in North Omaha who say they have heard this kind of talk before, then the conversation failed to turn into action.

“Come into the community and show us,” said North Omaha business owner Don McPherson. “Don’t come in for a photo op to give a speech. We’ve heard it all before and you can really kind of see where we still are at.”

“He talked about a lot of things and talked about our children and economic development, but what are we actually going to do?” said Pastor Cavitt with Clair Memorial United Methodist Church. “You can just continue to talk but when are we going to put some timeline and some action in place, because we’re not getting any younger.”

Others say this is different and North Omaha has not had this kind of relationship with a governor before.

“I think this is a different feel, again I think he’s open, he really takes seriously of being the governor of all the citizens,” said Pastor Michael T. Williams, the President of the Omaha NAACP.

“I am hoping for a new day with North Omaha and the governor of our state but this was potentially a great beginning,” said Preston Love Jr. with the Omaha NAACP.

Gov. Pillen accepted the invitation of the Omaha NAACP to meet with North Omaha leadership.

Source link

Click to comment

Nebraska

Northwestern College quarterback Jalyn Gramstad transferring to Nebraska

Published

2 hours ago

June 22, 2024

Press Room

Northwestern College quarterback Jalyn Gramstad transferring to Nebraska

ORANGE CITY, IA (Dakota News Now) – One of the top NAIA college football players in the country will take his shot at playing in one of the top FBC conferences in the country this upcoming season.

West Lyon alum and Northwestern College quarterback Jalyn Gramstad is transferring to the University of Nebraska to use his final season of eligibility.

The 2023 NAIA Player of the year led the Red Raiders to the national title game in 2022 and 23, winning the championship in 2022. He leaves with more than 1800 yards rushing, 6200 yards passing and 91 total touchdowns.

He’ll serve as a backup for the Huskers while also getting starting a coaching career.

Source link

Nebraska

Better Know a B1G: Adv. Stat Comparison Nebraska Cornhuskers

Published

9 hours ago

June 21, 2024

Press Room

Better Know a B1G: Adv. Stat Comparison Nebraska Cornhuskers

This is the next in the series comparing some statistical rankings between BigTen opponents and UW. This week’s comparison is with the Nebraska Cornhuskers-a team that UW has had a history with. You can find the comparisons with Indiana here, Illinois here, Iowa here, Maryland here, Michigan here, Michigan State here, and Minnesota here.

Composite Ranking Comparison

We again start by looking at the final rankings in the Massey Composite (https://masseyratings.com/ranks) over the last 9 years between the teams.

For decades, Nebraska had one of the best football teams in the country. But as the graph about shows, they have not had much success recently. Only twice have they finished in the top 50-and one of those was when they finished #50.

SRS

Here is the picture in the Simple Rating System, SRS, (https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/years/2023-ratings.html).

In this view, Nebraska finished slightly ahead of UW (0.14 vs 0.11) in 2020. Otherwise you see that UW has been consistently much better than Nebraska, even in 2016 which was when Nebraska had its last winning season (finishing 9-4) in Mike Riley’s (remember him? He previously coached at Oregon State) second season. I wonder if Cornhusker fans miss the days of Bo Pelini.

F+

Here’s a look at the F+ ratings for both teams. As a reminder, F+ is a combination of two advanced stats: FEI and SP+. This should be representative of most of the advanced stats.

This comparison looks similar to the Composite ranking. The question for Nebraska is whether the improvement in 2023 can continue in Matt Rhule’s second season.

If you didn’t follow Nebraska closely last season, you might not realize that they were similar to Iowa in that they had a terrible offense (#119) and a very good defense (#8).

Talent Comparison

Here is the talent comparison using the average rating by 247Sports for all of the scholarship players. (https://247sports.com/Season/2023-Football/CollegeTeamTalentComposite/)

Nebraska has improved their talent consistently over the years, and now they surpass UW in that area. But, as we know from above, that improvement in talent hasn’t led to a significant improvement in performance on the field-at least not yet. And that improvement in talent for Nebraska looks to continue since they added a 5-star recruit (QB Dylan Raiola) and seven 4-star recruits in the 2024 class.

Final Thoughts

Many people are projecting that 2024 is when Nebraska finally turns the corner with their football program. Some early pre-season rankings even have Nebraska in their top-25. That would be a huge improvement from their #71 finish last season. But, if their defense stays at a similar level and Dylan Raiola can get the offense to be half-way decent, they have a chance to make a big jump.

UW will not face Nebraska until 2026 when UW travels to Lincoln; Nebraska comes to Husky Stadium the following season. If Matt Rhule can get Nebraska back as a contender in the BigTen by then, and Jedd Fisch gets UW back too, it could be a couple of very good games between the programs-reminiscent of games of the past. Of course, those are a couple of big “ifs”.

Source link

Nebraska

Nebraska DHHS warns residents about dangerous heat in the coming weeks

Published

16 hours ago

June 21, 2024

Press Room

Nebraska DHHS warns residents about dangerous heat in the coming weeks

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) – The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is asking the public to prepare for dangerous heat over the summer.

In a press release issued Friday morning, DHHS said that temperatures in Nebraska can get up into the 100s from June until even September.

The press release provided tips for staying safe and cool like staying inside, wearing light and loose fitting clothes, limit outdoor activities, and hydrate if you do have to go outside.

The release also had warnings, like not to leave children or pets inside the car during the heat, and to make sure that pets were hydrated during hot days as well.

Anyone who has to work outside should use the buddy system where you check on a co-worker and a co-worker checks on you in order to make sure that everyone is safe.

The release also had important information on terms that meteorologists might use during heat, and what they mean.

Heat Index: is a measure of how hot it feels when relative humidity is added to the air temperature.
Excessive Heat Outlooks: Issued when the potential exists for an excessive heat event in the next 3-7 days.
Excessive Heat Watches: Issued when conditions are favorable for excessive heat in the next 24 to 72 hours.
Excessive Heat Warning/Advisories: Issued when excessive heat is expected in the next 24 hours.

To help the public identify if temperatures over seven days could harm human health, the National Weather Services recently released the ‘HeatRisk Dashboard’ available at https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/.

You can learn more about extreme heat and how to protect yourself and your loved ones this summer at https://www.cdc.gov/extreme-heat/about/index.html.

Click here to subscribe to our KSNB Local4 daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.

Source link