Oakland Swedish Festival King and Queen
June 20, 2015 Leave a comment
Ed and Betty Hanna are Oakland Swedish Festival’s King and Queen. Photo Credit/Denise Gilliland, Editor and Chief, Kat Country Hub.
Opening Ceremony of Swedish Festival Held at Methodist Church
June 20, 2015 Leave a comment
Karl Lundquist, Oakland Swedish Festival Chairman, opened the Swedish Festival at the Methodist Church Friday Evening. Seated behind him is Patty Miller. Photo Credit/Denise Gilliland, Editor and Chief, Kat Country Hub.
Delores J. Danielson, 86, of Oakland NE
June 18, 2015 Leave a comment
DELORES J. DANIELSON, 86 years, of Oakland, Nebraska, passed away Wednesday, June 17, 2015 at Oakland Heights Nursing Home, in Oakland.
FUNERAL SERVICE: Monday, June 22, 2015, 10:30 am, at Salem Covenant Church, rural Oakland
VISITATION: Monday 9-10:30 am at the church.
BURIAL: Salem Cemetery, rural Oakland
MEMORIALS: To the family for designation at a later time.
Please feel free to send your condolences to the family.
Each condolence will be printed and given to the family after the service.
pelan@pelanfuneralservices.com
Perry Michael “Mike” Martin, 75, of Lincoln NE Formerly of Emerson NE and Granville IA
June 17, 2015 Leave a comment
Perry Michael “Mike” Martin, 75, of Lincoln, NE, formerly of Emerson, NE and Granville, IA, passed away Monday, June 15, 2015 at Lancaster Manor in Lincoln. Funeral services will be Friday, June 19, 2015 at 10:30 a.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Emerson, NE; Father Gerald Leise is officiating. A visitation will be held Thursday, June 18, 2015 from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at Sacred Heart Catholic Church with a rosary service at 7:00 p.m. A visitation will also be from 3:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Granville, IA, with burial at 4:00 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery in Granville, IA. Memorials may be directed to the family for future designation. Munderloh-Smith Funeral Home in Emerson, NE are in charge of arrangements. Mike was born on May 7, 1940 to Floyd and Clare (McTaggert) Martin on a farm near Emerson, NE. In 1959, he graduated from Sacred Heart Catholic School, and from a trade school in Omaha in 1961. Mike enlisted into the United States Army serving during the Korean War from 1962 thru 1964. On November 12, 1966, he was united in marriage to Patricia McCarthy in Alton, Iowa. They made their home in Emerson, NE where he worked on the farm until 1994, when they moved to Granville. On April 26, 2009, Patricia died. Soon after her death, Mike moved to Lincoln to be closer to his family. He was a member of the American Legion and the Knights of Columbus and former member of the Sacred Heart Parish Council, the Emerson Rural Fire Department and in the mid 1980’s was a Farm Crisis Representative.
Mike is survived by his four sons, a daughter, their spouses, and sixteen grandchildren; James and Leona Martin and their children, Matt and Brittany Michelson, Cassandra, Danielle, and Breanna Martin, of LeMars, IA, Melissa and Mike Oehm and their children, Tyler, Josh and Daniel Oehm of Lincoln, NE, Dean and Teri Martin and their children, Taylor and Ethan Martin of Lincoln, NE, Jon and Dora Martin and their children, Waylon and his wife Amanda, Barak Holt and Bridgette Martin of El Paso, TX, Eric and Nikke Martin and their children, Jacob Helsel, Owen and Brady Martin of Waverly, NE, two great-grandchildren, Raenell and Leilani Holt of El Paso, TX; a brother Jack Martin of Emerson, NE brother-in-laws and their wives, Duane and Mary Ann McCarthy of Lafayette, IN, Jim and Reina McCarthy of Tyrone, NM, Terry and Nit McCarthy of Fort Worth, TX, Michael and Rizza McCarthy of Hayward, CA, and Brad McCarthy of Davenport, IA, three sister-in-laws, Carol Holles of Sheldon, IA, Kay and Paul Reimer of Danbury, IA, and Mary and Jerel Schomer of Lee’s Summit, MO.
He is preceded in death by his parents, brother, Tim Martin, and a sister-in-law, Marcy Martin.
Perry Martin
Working With Constituent Issues and Preparing for 2016 Legislation
June 17, 2015 Leave a comment
As we move further into the interim, we continue working with constituent issues and research to prepare legislation for the 2016 session. We also want to continue reflecting on this past session and further discuss key issues our legislature addressed. As promised, this week’s column will cover legislation from criminal justice, health and human services, business, general affairs, education and revenue.
Regarding criminal justice issues, the Legislature made significant progress through amending and passing LB605 and LB598. Both bills address the issue of prison overcrowding and cost inefficiencies by establishing stronger alternatives to incarceration with tools such as drug courts, more robust probation system, and reduced use of solitary confinement. However, the Legislature did a disservice to the justice system by repealing the death penalty. As well, it came very close to further undermining our strong stance on serious crime by attempting to reduce the penalties for habitual criminals.
In the area of health care, the Legislature passed a law allowing nurse practitioners to treat patients independently from doctors which will help alleviate the problem of access to healthcare in rural communities. Additionally, while the Legislature did not outright establish a medical marijuana industry, the Legislature did create a pilot study for hemp oil to address the issue of uncontrollable seizures in children and adults.
With regard to businesses, the Legislature passed a number of pro-business bills. One of those bills enhances rural economic development by providing limited liability for landowners in agri-tourism. We also passed a bill allowing private employees to voluntarily adopt a hiring preference program for military veterans. Further, the Legislature updated the Nebraska Fair Employment Practices Act to clarify workplace protections for pregnant workers. However, the Legislature failed to gain the needed support to reduce the minimum wage for high school workers as a response to the negative effects the new minimum wage law has had on small, rural businesses.
In the area of general affairs, the Legislature reinstated the cigar bar exemption to the state smoking ban after being struck down by the Supreme Court last year. While the Legislature did good work to oppose measures that might expand gambling in our state, there is another bill that will be debated when we return to legalize certain forms of poker as games of skill, rather than games of chance which are banned under our state Constitution.
As for revenue and education, the Legislature did not address one of the key concerns of many Nebraskans: rethinking our sources of funding for education. Throughout the State, there has been a demand to lower our skyrocketing agricultural property taxes, among a desire for lower taxes in general. While the Legislature did not tackle this issue, both the Revenue and Education Committees adopted legislative resolutions to study the issue more closely over the interim period. Hopefully this will prove to be a fruitful endeavor so we can provide the much needed relief desired by Nebraskans.
As always, please contact me, administrative aide, Katie Wattermann, or legislative aide, Tom Venzor, with questions or thoughts at (402) 471-2728 or e-mail at lbrasch@leg.ne.gov.
Keeping the Good Life Growing in Nebraska,
Senator Lydia Brasch, District 16
Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See
June 17, 2015 Leave a comment
By Rosa Schmidt, Oakland Public Library Director
Anthony Doerr’s winner of the 2015 Pulitzer for Fiction, “All the light we cannot see”, deftly weaves the story of Marie-Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig during World War II. Marie-Laure, valiant and inquisitive, lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When Marie-Laure is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.
In a mining town in Germany, tow-headed German orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s collide.
I know, I know….there are so many stories set during WW2. However, the stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors make “All the light we cannot see” one that deserves to be read. Much more than a war story, Doerr’s novel illuminates the miraculous impact that seminal events have on the rest of our lives.
Rosa Schmidt, Oakland Public Library Director. Photo Credit/Denise Gilliland, Editor and Chief, Kat Country Hub.
Kat Country Hub 
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