Nebraska
Rifle Begins 2024 Schedule Saturday at Army, Sunday vs. Nebraska
LEXINGTON, Ky. – As the calendar turns to 2024, the University of Kentucky rifle team begins the second stretch of regular-season competition, traveling to West Point, New York this weekend for dual matches at Army and vs. Nebraska on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
The action starts Saturday as Kentucky takes on Army inside the Tronsrue Marksmanship Center at West Point. Sunday, Kentucky will take on Nebraska in a neutral-site dual match in the same facility. Live targets and a NCAA Scorecard are available both days online at UKathletics.com. Both matches are scheduled to start at 9 a.m. ET.
“Excited to get the 2024 portion of the schedule underway,” UK head coach Harry Mullins said. “I was very proud of how we ended the season up in Alaska with some good performances and look forward to seeing how we can continue that momentum into 2024. We know the regular season is all about getting better and perfecting our craft as we head into the GARC Championships and NCAAs. It will be great to be back in the range with the team this weekend.”
Kentucky is coming off its best performance of the season in its last match, posting a season-high team score of 4745 in a tri-match with both Alaska-Fairbanks and Akron in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was a career day from fifth-year senior Emmie Sellers, who set career highs in both smallbore and air rifle for a new career-high aggregate. Kentucky scored a season high score in both disciplines, posting a 2357 in smallbore and 2388 in air rifle for the high aggregate. The season-high mark surpasses the previous season high of 4727 secured in the season opener vs. Morehead State.
Kentucky’s 2357 smallbore was the sixth-highest smallbore score in the nation this season as the Wildcats are one of only two teams in the nation to score a 2357 or higher in smallbore this year. UK’s 2388 in air rifle tied the third highest team score in the discipline this season and UK is one of only three teams with an air rifle team score of 2388 or higher. The 4745 aggregate tied the fifth-highest team score in the nation this season as only UK, TCU, Alaska-Fairbanks and WVU have hit 4745 or higher.
Sellers was the star in the second relay for Kentucky, scoring career-high marks in both smallbore and air rifle. She scored an impressive 588 in smallbore thanks to a perfect 200 in prone, marking the third-straight match that she has upped her career-high smallbore score. In air rifle, Sellers scored a 598, which also was a career best and was just two shots off a perfect 600. The two strong scores earned her a 1186 aggregate, which also is a career high and placed her fourth individually at the match.
Sophomore Sofia Ceccarello was fantastic in both disciplines, scoring a 591 in smallbore and 599 in air rifle. This was the fifth 599 of the year in air rifle for Ceccarello, who is the only athlete in the nation to have five or more 599s in air rifle. Her two high scores total a 1190 aggregate, which tied for the highest individual score of the match. Freshman Braden Peiser and sophomore Martin Voss also excelled in smallbore in the first relay, scoring high marks. Peiser posted a 589, including a 199 standing, which is an outstanding score in the hardest of the smallbore positions. Peiser ended his day with a 595 air rifle for a 1184 aggregate, which was good for sixth overall at the match. Voss tied a career high and set a new season high in smallbore with a 589 and followed with a 583 air rifle for a 1172 aggregate.
Ceccarello leads Kentucky this season in both smallbore average and air rifle average. She is averaging a 588 in smallbore and 598.571 in air rifle for an aggregate average of 1186.571. Sellers is right behind her averaging 584.714 in smallbore, 593 in air rifle and a 1177.714 aggregate, while fellow fifth-year senior Jaden Thompson is third on the squad in aggregate average at 1175.428 with a 581.714 in smallbore and 593.714 in air rifle. Peiser is earning a 582 in smallbore and 592.714 in air rifle for a 1174.714 aggregate, while Voss is posting a 584.143 in smallbore and 587.143 in air rifle for a 1171.286 aggregate. Buesseler is earning a 580.286 in smallbore and 590.286 in air rifle for a 1170.572 aggregate average. Junior Kayla Kalenza, sophomore AJ Hotko and freshman Emily Marne are all having good seasons. Kalenza is averaging 570.5 in smallbore and 588 in air rifle, while Hotko is earning a 567 in smallbore and 586.5 in air rifle and Marne a 556.25 in smallbore and 566.5 in air rifle.
As a team, Kentucky is averaging a 2342.86 in smallbore and 2379.29 in air rifle for an aggregate average of 4722.14.
Army is averaging 2323.67 in smallbore and 2355.67 in air rifle for an aggregate average of 4679.33. Anusha Pakkam is leading the team with a 582.5 in smallbore and 592.667 in air rifle. Fellow UK national champion and All-American Richard Clark is now an assistant coach for Army.
Nebraska is averaging a 2333.33 in smallbore and 2375.17 in air rifle for an aggregate average of 4708.50. Cecelia Ossi leads the team with a 585.667 smallbore average and 594.833 air rifle average.
For more information on the Kentucky rifle team, visit UKathletics.com or follow UKRifle on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Nebraska
Nebraska’s governor doesn’t carry a state-issued phone. Critics call it an abuse of state disclosure laws. – Flatwater Free Press
For more than two years, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen did not make or take a single call on his cellphone while on the clock as the state’s chief executive — at least none that there is any record of, according to his office’s top attorney.
After the Flatwater Free Press filed a public records request for call logs from Pillen’s cellphone dating back to September 2023, the governor’s general counsel said no such records exist.
“Governor Pillen does not have a state-issued mobile phone,” the lawyer, Michael J. Donley, said in an email earlier this month — more than four months after Flatwater filed the request.
The revelation marks Pillen’s latest step to shield his communications from public view. He broke with more than 30 years of gubernatorial practice by not releasing a public schedule in March 2023, just two months into his first term. And in August of that year, his office refused to release four of his emails in response to a public records request, citing “executive privilege” — a justification that does not exist in Nebraska’s public records laws.
“I don’t email, I don’t text,” the first-term Republican governor said in response to criticism from Democratic lawmakers over his refusal to release the emails. “Texting when it’s for anything other than logistics, I don’t do.”
His decision not to carry a state-owned cellphone makes him the first governor in at least 20 years not to do so — and, advocates say, amounts to an attempt to circumvent state law.
“It’s absurd to think that simply moving his business to a private cellphone means that none of those records are available to the public,” said Gavin Geis, the director of Common Cause Nebraska, a transparency-in-government watchdog group. “That’s just an abuse of the whole public records process.”
Flatwater sought the records after the online news outlet the Nebraska Examiner reported in January that Pillen had steered the Nebraska Department of Economic Development to award a $2.5 million no-bid emergency contract to a lobbyist who had joined Pillen on state trips to South Korea and Japan.
Flatwater also requested emails between Pillen’s chief of staff, Dave Lopez, and former state economic development officials, including one who told the Examiner that Lopez had provided input on the state’s contract with Julie Bushell, the lobbyist. That portion of Flatwater’s request, which covered an 11-day period last July, also yielded no records, according to the Governor’s Office.
Under Nebraska law, “all records and documents, regardless of physical form, of or belonging to this state” or local governments are a matter of public record — meaning Nebraskans have the right to examine them, with exceptions allowed for investigative police records, personal information, trade secrets and a host of other sensitive documents. The law does not explicitly say whether records from public officials’ personal devices or private email accounts are subject to the law, but prior attorneys general have held for decades that they are.
Pillen’s office repeatedly claimed that Flatwater’s request sought “a record which does not exist” but declined to elaborate. Laura Strimple, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Pillen’s office “is transparent, follows the law, and has diligently responded to the countless public records requests we receive, including several from your outlet.”
“If you choose to publish this non-story, your outlet will have demonstrated once again that it is more interested in political hits and sensationalism than news that matters to hardworking Nebraskans,” Strimple said in an email.
She did not respond to follow-up questions about whether the governor has ever used his phone for state business and whether his office would consider those calls a matter of public record.
Full statement from Gov. Pillen’s spokesperson
After Pillen’s general counsel said records of the governor’s cellphone calls don’t exist, Flatwater sought to understand whether Pillen’s office believes that records of public business stored on private devices are not a matter of public record, an interpretation breaking with decades of precedence. The attorney, Michael J. Donley, said his initial claim “was more limited than how (Flatwater) characterized it,” but did not respond to follow-up questions seeking clarification.
In response to more emails seeking clarity, Pillen’s spokeswoman, Laura Strimple, said:
“If you want a response beyond what we have already told you, then you’ll print in full that:
- Governor Pillen’s administration is transparent, follows the law, and has diligently responded to the countless public records requests we receive, including several from your outlet.
- As we have repeatedly informed you, your public records request asked for a record which does not exist. We have fulfilled the parameters of your request with that answer.
- If you choose to publish this non-story, your outlet will have demonstrated once again that it is more interested in political hits and sensationalism than news that matters to hardworking Nebraskans.”
State law also requires Pillen’s office to maintain a file of all letters it sends denying records requests, and for that file to be made available to any person on request. Donley did not respond to multiple Flatwater requests to review the file, in conflict with the law.
Reporters often use the state’s public records law to find out who government officials are communicating with via phone, email and text.
In 2013, the Omaha World-Herald used call logs obtained under the law to reveal Nebraska’s then-lieutenant governor, Rick Sheehy, had made 2,300 phone calls on his state-issued phone to four women other than his wife, one of whom told the paper she had a four-year affair with Sheehy. He resigned a day after The World-Herald contacted him about its findings.
Such probes have historically not been limited to communications stored on state-owned devices.
In 1997, then-Attorney General Don Stenberg issued an opinion declaring that “public records need not be in the physical possession of an agency to be subject to disclosure under state records acts.”
Lawyers in then-Attorney General Jon Bruning’s office cited Stenberg’s opinion in 2012 when the office determined that members of the Gage County Board of Supervisors were obliged to turn over emails from their private accounts in response to a request from the Beatrice Daily Sun, which sought emails between the board and the county’s medical director, who had resigned.
In 2015, lawyers in then-Attorney General Doug Peterson’s office directed Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, a Republican, to turn over texts she had sent on her personal phone to City Council members. “It seems to us that the records at issue here are those pertaining solely to the City’s business,” Peterson’s office wrote. “There is no right of privacy for matters that are not private.”
The Nebraska Association of County Officials, a nonprofit that serves and lobbies for all 93 of the state’s counties, tells its members the same. A presentation from the organization’s 2025 annual conference warned that text messages dealing with the public’s business “will be considered a public record.”
A spokeswoman for Mike Hilgers, Nebraska’s current attorney general, declined to say how he advises state agencies on public records stored on private devices. Neither Bruning nor Peterson, both Republicans, returned phone calls seeking comment.
Max Kautsch, a Kansas-based First Amendment rights and open government attorney who also practices law in Nebraska, said Pillen “is gambling that there will be no political consequence from narrowly construing the law.”
“In Nebraska, there is a collective hunch that public officials cannot conduct the public’s business on private devices,” he said. “But the governor wants to push back on what the consensus is on the law. The Legislature should make his obligation clear.”
Courts and attorneys general in other states have largely agreed. A 2014 study from Oklahoma State University found that courts and attorneys general in 18 states had addressed access to public records on private devices. In 15 of those states, authorities held that such records were open to public inspection.
That interpretation isn’t universal. Kentucky’s Supreme Court recently zagged, ruling 4-2 in April that public officials don’t have to disclose records of government business conducted on their private phones.
David Cuillier, director of the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida, called the Kentucky case “an outlier,” not the start of a trend. “At least I hope not — because it’s ludicrous to say that government employees and officials can do government business secretly just by using their own laptop or cellphone or Gmail or Yahoo account,” he said. “That defeats the whole purpose of public records laws.”
In Nebraska, Pillen’s decision to eschew a state-issued phone marks a break with at least two decades of precedent.
Former Republican Govs. Pete Ricketts, who preceded Pillen, and Dave Heineman, who served from 2005 to 2015, confirmed to Flatwater that they had state-owned mobile phones that they used for state business. Heineman, who served as lieutenant governor under Gov. Mike Johanns, said he believed Johanns had one, too.
Johanns, who was governor from 1999 until 2005, did not return emails seeking confirmation. Nor did former Gov. Kay Orr, who served one term as governor starting in 1987.
Former Gov. Ben Nelson said he may have been Nebraska’s first governor to carry a mobile phone after his election in 1990. The technology was in its infancy, and mobile phones were so big that a state trooper carried it for him, he recalled.
The Democrat couldn’t remember ever receiving a public records request for his call logs, he said. He took more heat from reporters over his public appearance schedule — something for which Pillen was criticized in 2023 for not making available to the press, breaking with more than three decades of practice.
Nelson faced a different kind of criticism, he said. He recalled a reporter asking about the frequent weekend hunting trips detailed on his calendar.
“The people of Nebraska — they’re telling me they want less government, so I’ve been trying to give it to them,” Nelson recalled saying.
The room filled with laughter, and the reporter who had asked about the trips looked sheepish, Nelson said.
“But the point is,” he said, “she knew my whereabouts.”
Nebraska
Nebraska Dept. of Agriculture proposes ban on food and beverages containing any amount of THC
LINCOLN, Neb. — A public hearing Thursday drew strong opposition to proposed rules that would label food adulterated and illegal if it contains any amount of THC and its derivatives, potentially decimating Nebraska’s hemp and CBD industry.
The regulations would affect products like gummies, beverages and oral tinctures. Over 490 people wrote in opposition to the new regulations, while only three supported them.
The rule changes stem from an executive order issued by Gov. Jim Pillen in January requiring state agencies to review laws regarding the use of synthetic THC in food and beverages. The order was made to align with federal law coming in November 2026, which bans synthetic THC products and limits total THC concentrations in hemp products to not exceed 0.4 milligrams per container.
The proposed Nebraska rule goes beyond that federal standard.
“I would say it’d be similar other than it does say no THC. It is zero THC,” said Andrew Bish, chief operating officer of Bish Enterprises. “It’s not we are deferring to the federal government standard and aligning with the federal government standard. It is, in fact, a different standard.”
Fifteen speakers testified during the hearing, with many calling for the Department of Agriculture to regulate the industry rather than enforce outright bans.
“I respectfully urge the department to pursue a balanced science-based approach that protects public safety, targets specific problems, strengths and standards where necessary and holds bad actors accountable without unnecessarily eliminating access to products that may Nebraskans find valuable and beneficial,” said Dr. Andrea Holmes, a professor of chemistry at Doane University.
Many who testified were shop owners who said the regulations would result in major business losses and reduced state revenue.
“In 2025, we pay over $1 million in sales tax. We expect to be over $1.3 million in 2026,” one speaker from The Cannabis Factory said. “We’re not opposed to regulation, or oversight, or even additional taxation.”
The Department of Agriculture will review comments and decide if any changes need to be made. If not, the regulations go to the attorney general and the governor for approval.
The regulations include a carve out for the medical cannabis acts, meaning people with medical cannabis cards could get prescriptions that would not be affected by this proposed regulation change.
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Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said Thursday that he has asked President Donald Trump to issue a major disaster declaration for damage caused by storms that hit the state May 15-18.
The storms spawned tornadoes and flash flooding across Buffalo, Fillmore, Gage, Howard, Jefferson, Nemaha, Thayer and Thurston counties. There were numerous downed power poles and lines as well as extensive damage to schools, building and roadways. Damage just to public infrastructure is estimated at nearly $5 million.
In addition to the disaster declaration request, Pillen said he also has requested access to the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which provides funding to governments to allow them to rebuild in ways that will reduce or mitigate future disaster losses. Approval would allow the state to apply for such grants.
Thursday’s disaster declaration request is the second in two months. Back in May, Pillen requested one for historic wildfires in March that impacted Arthur, Garden, Grant, Lincoln and Morill counties. At the time of the request, it was estimated there was at least $9.7 million in damage from the fires, which were the worst in Nebraska’s history.
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