Nebraska
Who is Steve Halloran? Nebraska Senator faces ire for dragging colleague’s name into rape scene
Senator Steve Halloran stirred a storm on Monday after he invoked a colleague’s name while reading a book passage about an explicit rape scene.
The incident occurred during a Nebraska legislative debate over keeping profanity and pornography out of K-12 classrooms. However, the session ended abruptly after Halloran’s statement sparked outrage.
When lawmakers were debating on Legislative Bill 441, Halloran warned his colleagues that he would be quoting the bill’s hearing testimony, according to Nebraska Examiner.
The bill introduced by Sen. Joni Albrecht aims to eliminate a prosecution exemption for schools that give pornographic materials to students in K-12 schools.
Before concluding his arguments during the debate, Halloran read an excerpt from Alice Seabold’s “Lucky,” which he claimed was available in at least 16 Nebraska school libraries. The book recounts Sebold’s pain of being raped in college and highlights the importance of discussion on trauma and victimisation.
During the 83-second reading, Halloran repeatedly invoked female Senator Machaela Cavanaugh’s name into the text as the victim.
At least two of Halloran’s colleagues — Sens. Julie Slama and Megan Hunt — have called for his resignation.
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Machaela Cavanaugh reacts: ‘It was harassing’
Calling out Halloran, Cavanaugh termed the “incident out of line, harassing and disgusting” as she was left tearful on the floor.
“That was about a book about sexual violence. I have done nothing but try to have a respectful debate with Sen. Albrecht about her bill that impacts my children,” she stated, hoping that other coworkers and Republicans will defend her.
Albrecht, who left the floor immediately, said she was “mortified” after Cavanaugh’s name was mentioned.
Meanwhile, Julie Slama of Dunbar, a conservative, responded to Cavanaugh’s tweet and slammed Halloran, stating that “no context makes this appropriate.”
Also Read: A mower sparked a Nebraska wildfire that has burned an area roughly the size of Omaha, officials say
Halloran defends self, says ‘I was addressing her lawyer brother’
In an email to a Nebraska teacher on Monday evening, Halloran claimed that he was referring to Cavanaugh’s lawyer brother, John, reported Nebraska Examiner.
“If you would have listened closely, I was addressing her lawyer brother … John!”
Meanwhile, Cavanaugh rejected Halloran’s claims that he was talking about her brother rather than her as “dismissive”.
“Context matters — which was the crux of the bill being debated. Inserting my or my brother or both of our names into the reading of an explicit excerpt from a story about rape is the context of this video,” she wrote.
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.”
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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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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