Nebraska
Nebraska Supreme Court rules state agencies can charge 'special' fees to review document requests • Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday that state agencies can impose a “special services charge” to review public records requests.
The 23-page ruling tends to affirm a $44,103 charge to a nonprofit news site, The Flatwater Free Press, to fulfill its request for public documents related to nitrate contamination of the state’s groundwater.
Flatwater maintained that the charge was excessive and not allowed by state public records law, an argument that Lancaster County District Judge Ryan Post agreed with.
‘Voluminous requests could be disruptive’
But the state appealed, and the Supreme Court ruled Friday that state public records laws recognized that “voluminous (records) requests could be disruptive to the public body.”
A “special service charge,” the court ruled, is allowed to cover the “existing salary or pay obligation” of state agencies’ employees after the first four hours of “searching, identifying, physically redacting, or copying.”
“However sympathetic we might be to (Flatwater’s) policy arguments,” the ruling stated, state law allows such fees to be charged.
Case ordered back to lower court
The court ordered the case back to Lancaster County District Court to determine whether the $44,103 fee conforms with the “special” fee allowance.
In a post Friday morning, Flatwater’s executive editor, Matthew Hansen, called the ruling “a blow to Nebraska’s public records law, a law written to protect media outlets like ours and Nebraskans like yourselves from the secrecy of those who hold power.”
“This clears the way for the State of Nebraska to charge us an ungodly amount of money to gain access to public records related to the state’s growing nitrate-in-groundwater problem,” Hansen wrote.
The case grew out of a public records request by Flatwater to the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy for emails and other documents containing the words “nitrate,” “fertilizer” and “nutrient.”
Series on nitrate contamination
The news site has produced a series of stories on nitrate contamination of the state’s groundwater — and the adverse health effects — based on public records it has been able to obtain.
Included was a story concerning contamination near hog barns operated by the family of Gov. Jim Pillen, a story the governor said should be discounted because the author was from “communist China” — a comment that sparked a firestorm of calls for an apology.
Other news media, including the Nebraska Examiner, also use information gleaned from record requests for reporting.
Initially, NDEE told Flatwater that fulfilling its records request would cost $2,000.
That led Flatwater to narrow its request, but also generated a new estimate from NDEE that it would require 927 hours of staff time at a cost of $44,103 to provide the records. Flatwater sued, calling the fee excessive and not allowed.
A key argument was whether a state agency, under the law, had a right to “review” records before they are released to determine if they are indeed public records and whether any portion needed to be redacted as not public.
The Supreme Court, in its ruling, said that such a “review” is allowed.
Hansen, the Flatwater editor, said he expects the fight over this issue will continue at the Nebraska Legislature, which has the power to change state law.
Overall, he called it “a blow to the 10 words” that are etched into the north face of the State Capitol: “The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness in the Citizen.”
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At first, Nebraska playing in a bowl in late December in New York City sounded like a form of punishment rather than a reward for a successful season.
It’s true, playing in a balmy Florida, Arizona or California might be more appealing. But consider this: NU is playing at noon this Saturday. That’s great day and time for a college football game.
As a result, I believe a lot of people are going to be able to watch the game. TV viewers aren’t going to care a rip about the cold. Most football fans think forty degrees is ideal football weather.
Playing in Florida does have some advantages, but three early bowl games that were played in Florida weren’t seen by many people. Why?
Bad dates and times.
Boca Raton Bowl (Boca Raton, FL)
Wednesday, December 18th 5:30pm (EST)
Western Kentucky vs James Madison
Staffdna Cure Bowl (Orlando, FL)
Friday, December 20th 12:00pm (EST)
Ohio vs Jackson State
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa, FL)
Friday December 20th 3:30 pm (EST)
Tulane vs Florida
Raise your hands if you watched any of those games.
I didn’t think so.
My point is, playing in a cold clime in late December is not necessarily a bad thing. The Pinstripe Bowl matchup between Nebraska and Boston College should be a TV ratings success.
The Pinstripe Bowl Matchup
To win the game, NU is going to have to:
1.) Stop the Eagles’ running game and make them one dimensional,
2.) Move the chains consistently on offense.
3.) Be able to pass on BC’s defense (BC is 111th pass defense)
4.) Win the turnover battle (NU ranks 66th while BC is 21st)
If the Huskers are able to do those things, they will come back to Lincoln with another bowl trophy to add to its collection.
What’s a stake: Win the game and NU ends the season with a winning record-its first since 2016. Lose the game and NU limps into ’25 with a 6-7 record.
You may contact me at: HuskerDan@cox.net
MORE: Analytics Preview: Nebraska Football vs. Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl
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MORE: Nebrasketball Beats Oregon State, Wins Diamond Head Classic
MORE: Idaho Transfer Defensive Back Andrew Marshall Commits to Nebraska
MORE: Former NFL Running Back Leonard Fournette Shares Praise for Nebraska Quarterback Dylan Raiola
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) will undergo a rib fixation procedure on Thursday after a horse bucked him off on Sunday.
Pillen, 68, will need to be under anesthesia while doctors install metal plates to stabilize his seven broken ribs. Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly will take on the role of acting governor during the surgery.
“Based on the Governor’s health profile and active lifestyle, his doctors consider him an ideal candidate for this procedure. Nebraska Medicine has emerged as a national leader in rib fixation operations,” the governor’s office wrote in a statement.
The governor was riding a new horse with his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter when he fell. In addition to his rib fractures, he suffered a partially collapsed lung, lacerations on his spleen and kidney, and a minor vertebrae fracture.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Gov. Pillen remains grateful for the exceptional care he is receiving by the team at Nebraska Medicine and thanks Nebraskans for their outpouring of support to him and his family during this time,” Pillen’s office wrote.
This surgery will result in Pillen remaining in the hospital for a few days following his surgery. He is prepared to continue to work from his hospital bed.
Merry Christmas: Nebraska wins Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii
For the first time since the San Juan Shootout in 2000, the Nebraska men’s basketball program has an in-season tournament championship.
Led by Brice Williams’ 25 points (6-of-6 at the free-throw line), seven rebounds, four assists and two steals, the Huskers picked up a 78-66 win over the Oregon State Beavers on Christmas Day.
NU (10-2, 1-1 in Big Ten) now gets to leave Honolulu with the 2024 Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic title.
“As we said to our guys, we just don’t get a whole lot of opportunities in your life to play for championships, and this was a big tournament for us,” head coach Fred Hoiberg told Huskers Radio Network after the game.
Notable perks to a tournament win like this includes picking up a true road win over host Hawaii and a Quad 1 victory (for now) on a neutral site over Oregon State, which came into the game with a NET rating of 43 (Nebraska’s was 52).
“Just really proud of the guys for finding a way to muster up the energy and play, I thought, our best stretch of basketball those last five minutes,” Hoiberg said.
That five minutes Hoiberg reference had a lot to do with strong defense and Williams.
NU’s defense held OSU to just 40% shooting overall for the game, and the Huskers out-rebounded OSU 31-24 to become only the second team to out-rebound the Beavers this season. But OSU did connect on nine 3s that helped them hang around. Four different OSU players each made two triples.
But from the 5:32 mark of the second half when nursing a 61-56 lead, Williams took over and showed everyone he was the best player on the court. The 6-7 guard scored 11 points in the stretch, including five game-sealing free throws. He outscored OSU 11-10.
Williams has scored 57 points the last two games, with tonight’s 25 and Monday’s 32. He averaged 22 points per game in three games and earned tournament MVP honors.
“I was just aggressive, I wanted to let my defense lead to offense,” Williams said after the game. “I came out hot and my team kind of took it from there.”
The game was a low-scoring, back-and-forth affair that featured scoring runs and scoring droughts for both sides. Neither team ever took control until Williams did his thing.
NU never trailed by more than four points in the first half and took a 34-32 lead into the break. There were 13 lead changes in the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
Multiple Huskers stepped up late to help NU take command. Sam Hoiberg made his third 3 of the season to put NU up 48-47. Andrew Morgan was another bench player who made an impact as his and-1 paint bucket extended the Husker lead to 51-49.
One player who had maybe his best night as a Husker was Berke Buyuktuncel. The 6-10 big who’s been playing through minor injuries showed off a variety of skill sets that made him one of the top international prospects coming out in his signing class.
Buyuktuncel finished with a career-high 16 points and made three 3s, also a new career mark. He played defense and rebounded too, collecting six with one offensive board which turned into an and-1 putback.
Buyuktuncel scored eight points in both the first and second half.
“Both ends. I thought two days ago, versus Hawaii, we finished off the game with him at the five, and he battles those fives as well as anybody on our team,” Hoiberg said of Buyuktuncel. “Him knocking down those shots in the first half, that’s a game changer for us. Hopefully he can get it going and it’ll give him confidence. When Berke can knock down threes, that’s just opens up a whole other new opportunities for us to run different plays to get him going.”
Buyuktuncel had success bullying his way into the paint and finishing. His and-1 where he grabbed an offensive board and sank the putback while being fouled pushed NU to a 54-51 lead. Not long after, he was running the court with Williams and hit a transition layup to put NU up by six points, 57-51.
Those plays helped a 10-2 run that extended the Husker lead to 61-53. But the Beavers never went away and NU’s offense went cold. During one stretch, it missed six of seven shots. That allowed OSU to cut its 8-point deficit in half.
But then Williams put the Beavers away. NU went on an 11-3 run to end the game.
Williams, along with Buyuktuncel, were named to the all-tournament team. Williams averaged 22 points on 56% shooting along with 3.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists in NU’s three games.
Hoiberg becomes the second head coach to win the Diamond Head Classic twice. His first win came while he was coaching Iowa State in 2013.
UP NEXT
Nebraska has one non-conference game left before diving into Big Ten play the rest of the season. The Huskers host Southern on Monday night with a late tip of 8 p.m.
Southern is currently 5-7 and riding a three-game losing streak. Earlier this season, Southern led Texas A&M at halftime, 39-25, before losing 71-54.
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